What’s in a (party) name?

Filing week is behind us, but a few questions remain about those petitions the candidates filed.

Among them: Is there a difference between candidates who filed their party preference as “Republican” and those who filed “GOP” or “R”? Could there be some secret signal to the Republican faithful, that “GOP” after the name is indicates support of Ron Paul or “R” is a member of the McCain camp?

And what’s with some people filing as prefering the Democrat Party, and others saying they prefer the Democratic Party?