Lyle Denniston of Scotusblog has this clear, impartial, and lengthy analysis of the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court oral argument in the Arizona public funding case, which is actually two cases, McComish v Brewer, and Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s PAC v Bennett. The oral argument is Monday, March 28. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Canada will almost certainly hold a national parliamentary election on May 2. See this story. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
The Boston Herald has this editorial, criticizing bills in the Massachusetts legislature to increase the number of signatures needed to put a statewide initiative on the ballot. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
The Kentucky Libertarian Party has never been on the ballot for a statewide office, except in presidential years. Kentucky elects its state statewide officers in the odd years just before presidential election years. This year, the party plans to collect 5,000 signatures to run for at least one of the statewide races. Ken Moellman will run for State Treasurer. See this story. The party may nominate other statewide candidates.
The Secretary of State says that the party must submit a separate petition for each of its statewide nominees. However, in 2008, a different Secretary of State permitted the Libertarians to list both a presidential candidate and a U.S. Senate candidate on the same petition. The current Secretary of State says the difference is that in 2008, both offices were federal offices, which is a meaningless distinction. In 1971, the Kentucky Secretary of State allowed the American Party to list a full slate of statewide nominees on a single petition. That 1971 petition listed American Party nominees for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Auditor, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Agriculture Commissioner, and Clerk of the Supreme Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court is holding a conference on Friday, March 25, to decide whether to hear various cases. One of those cases is Green Party of Connecticut v Lenge, 10-795. This case challenges the Connecticut public funding law which says that all candidates for state office who wish to receive public funding must receive a certain number of small contributions; however that is all that Republicans and Democrats need to do, but in addition, independent candidates and the nominees of new parties must submit a petition of 20% of the last vote cast to receive equal public funding. They must submit a petition of 10% of the last vote cast to receive any public funding.
Scotusblog has included Green Party of Connecticut v Lenge in its list of eleven cases that it feels are somewhat likely to be accepted by the Court. See this Scotusblog description of each of the eleven cases that are on the agenda at the March 25 conference. The Court won’t release the news of what it has decided until Monday, March 28. Sometimes the Court considers a case at its conference but doesn’t decide whether to hear it, and re-schedules it for a later conference.
Irregular Times has this story, revealing that Americans Elect has begun its petition to qualify as a party in California. The petition requires 1,030,040 signatures. California has two methods to create a new party, either that it persuade a number of voters equal to 1% of the last gubernatorial vote to register into that group on voter registration forms, or to submit a petition signed by 10% of the last gubernatorial vote.
If the 10% petition were the only alternative, the law would have been declared unconstitutional long ago. The U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts have struck down all petition requirements for minor and new parties, and independent candidates, that are in excess of 5% of the number of registered voters. Such lawsuits were won in Arkansas, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Dakota. But the 10% California law has survived because it is not mandatory. The 1% registration method can always be used instead.