The Executive Intelligence Review is the premier voice of the Lyndon LaRouche movement. See this commentary in its May 23 issue, rejoicing over Hillary Clinton’s victory in the West Virginia presidential primary.

Lyndon LaRouche became a Democrat in 1979, the year he dissolved the U.S. Labor Party. He ran in Democratic presidential primaries in all presidential election years, 1980 through 2004.

On May 16, Vermont Governor Jim Douglas vetoed SB 270, the bill for the National Popular Vote Plan. There is no chance his veto can be overridden, since the legislature decided not to return to consider overriding any veto. If the bill had not been vetoed, Vermont would have become the 5th state to approve the plan.

On May 16, the Missouri passed SB 797, the bill to fix the technical glitch in the ballot access procedures for new parties. The existing law says a petition to qualify a new party doesn’t need to list any candidates, except that if the party intends to run for president, the petition needs to list the presidential and vice-presidential candidates and the candidates for presidential elector. SB 797 fixes that problem. The intent of the law (created in 1993) was to let parties qualify before they had chosen any candidates. Thanks to Ken Bush for his persistent attempts over the years to solve this problem.

HB 1310, the bill to move the independent candidate deadline from July to March, failed to pass, and the legislature has now adjourned for the year.

SB 797 is a somewhat modest improvement, but it is the only bill that has passed any state legislature this year, to help minor party and independent candidate ballot access. It would be a grim year indeed that saw no legislative improvements whatsoever.

On May 16, a controversial Republican choice for the Federal Election Commission, Hans von Spakovsky, withdrew his name from consideration for one of the 4 vacant seats on the Federal Election Commission. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

As a result, the U.S. Senate is likely to fill all the vacancies on the FEC by the end of May. The new Commission will almost certainly consist of these individuals:

Democrats: holdover appointee Ellen L. Weintraub; Cynthia L. Bauerly; and Steven T. Walther. Bauerly is from Minnesota and is a former Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Walther is from Nevada.

Republicans: Donald F. McGahn; Caroline C. Hunter; and a third name still to be determined. McGahn formerly represented Tom DeLay in election law court cases. Hunter was an attorney for the Republican National Committee in 2003; she oversaw the Republican lobbying effort to persuade states to relax their deadlines for parties to certify their presidential candidates. The 2004 Republican National Convention was so late in the year, 7 states had to be persuaded to relax their certification deadlines.

Two bills pending in the Illinois House would injure minor parties and/or independent candidates. HB 5263 makes it more difficult for ballot-qualified parties to nominate candidates. It must pass the House Elections & Campaign Reform Committee by May 22, or it will die. That committee did hold a hearing on the bill last week. Witnesses from the Green Party believe they at least persuaded the committee to amend the bill, so it does less damage. Currently, ballot-qualified parties are permitted to nominate by party meeting, if the March primary resulted in no nominee. The bill would force candidates nominated by party meeting to submit a petition.

HB 2673, which would restore the straight-ticket device to Illinois ballots, must pass the House Committee by May 23. Illinois used the straight-ticket device until 1997. A straight-ticket device makes it possible for the voter to vote on all partisan races without even looking to see who is running for each office.

This newspaper story from Clarion County, Pennsylvania, discusses write-ins at the April 22, 2008 primary. It says 4% of Republicans wrote in someone for president, and 2.2% of Democrats did so. The newspaper story does not mention the fact that Pennsylvania has no write-in declaration of candidacy law, so all write-ins must be counted. The story does point out that local offices are frequently filled by write-in votes.

On May 15, the California Senate passed SB 1322 by 24-16. It deletes some California laws (long ago held unconstitutional) that discriminate against Communist Party members. SB 1322 does not repeal any election laws that discriminate against Communists, but if SB 1322 is eventually signed into law, it may make it easier to delete such election laws in the near future. California is one of only six states that has laws that discriminate against Communists in elections. The other states are Illinois, Kansas, Arizona, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania. None of the states enforce these laws; they were implicitly held unconstitutional in 1974 by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court. The California election laws (1) do not permit anyone to run for any office, partisan or non-partisan, if that person is a member of the Communist Party or has been in the last 5 years; (2) bar subversive parties from the ballot.

Independent Vermont State Representative Daryl L. Pillsbury had been running for the State Senate as an independent this year. But on May 14, he dropped out of the Senate race and endorsed Progressive Party nominee Molly S. Burke. See this story.

Pillsbury has represented Brattleboro as an independent since 2000. He is currently one of the two independents in the Vermont House.

Although the Vermont House has had dozens of minor party and independent members in the last few decades, the Vermont Senate has been composed only of Democrats and Republicans, ever since the 1867 election. The Senate is much smaller than the House; the Senate has 30 members but the House has 150.

This Vermont Public Radio interview with Anthony Pollina centers on Pollina’s reaction to the news that Gaye Symington, speaker of the Vermont House, will be the Democratic gubernatorial candidate. Pollina, chair of the Progressive Party, had been hoping that Democrats would abstain from the race and support him.

The North Carolina Libertarian Party turned in 108,646 raw signatures on May 15, to the State Board of Elections. The counties have already checked them, and 72,935 are valid. The legal requirement is 69,734.

The drive cost the party $134,000, of which $50,000 was from the national party and $84,000 from the state party. The party invited the press to the turn-in, and some press attended. The party points out that the verification process cost elections administrators 4,000 person-hours of labor, at taxpayer expense.

The drive was so expensive for the national Libertarian Party, that the party was unable to pay for the party petition in South Dakota and Oklahoma, and has not started the West Virginia candidate petition, and perhaps may not do any petitioning in West Virginia this year.

A decision on the constitutionality of the North Carolina ballot access law for parties is expected by May 24.

No petition hurdle as great as 69,734 signatures has been met by any new or minor party, or any independent candidate, since Ross Perot overcame a petition requirement of 134,781 signatures in California in 1992, to qualify as an independent. It should be noted that in 1995, two new parties also qualified in California, but that was not by petition. Instead, they each obtained 89,007 registrants. The two parties that did that in 1995 were the Reform and Natural Law Parties.