National Journal Carries Story on How U.S. Senator Richard Lugar Could Run for Re-Election Without Winning Republican Primary

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National Journal has this story, detailing Indiana election laws and how they would operate if U.S. Senator Richard Lugar were to run for re-election next year as an independent or as the Libertarian Party nominee. As the story explains, Lugar has not said he has any intent to do either of those things. But some polls have suggested that Lugar will have trouble winning the 2012 Republican primary.

Lugar will be 79 years old in a few weeks, and he has been in the Senate since 1976. No independent candidate for either Governor or U.S. Senator has ever appeared on a government-printed Indiana ballot. Indiana has a tradition of disinterest in independent candidates. No independent has been elected to the Indiana legislature since 1880. Indiana has a straight-ticket device, which injures independent candidates.

Nebraska Seems Likely to Continue Letting Each U.S. House District Choose its Own Presidential Elector

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On March 9, the Nebraska Senate Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee discussed LB 21, the bill to eliminate Nebraska’s system of electing presidential electors. Nebraska and Maine let the voters of each U.S. House district choose their own presidential elector. See this story, which says that only four Senators on the Committee said they support the bill. The bill cannot pass the committee unless it gets support from five members, so the story predicts that the bill is dead. The committee majority also seemed unwilling to pass LB 583, the National Popular Vote Plan bill.

Missouri Ballot Access Bill Introduced

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Missouri Representative Jill Schupp (D-Creve Coeur) has introduced HB 796, to correct a wording error in the state’s ballot access reform bill of 1993. The intent of the 1993 reform was to let groups circulate a petition to become recognized as a political party before that group had chosen its candidates. But due to a drafting error, the 1993 bill continued to require such groups to list candidates for presidential elector on their petition, and also to list candidates for president and vice-president on the petition, even though the group didn’t need to list any of its nominees for other office.

HB 796 corrects that error. Similar bills have been introduced in many past sessions of the legislature, but didn’t pass. No legislator ever expressed opposition to the idea of correcting the error, but many bills die in Missouri because the legislature doesn’t take the time to pay attention to them. Also, sometimes an innocuous election law bill like this one gets amended to include other, more controversial, election law bills, and then the entire bill gets defeated. Thanks to Ken Bush, who is responsible for getting this bill introduced. Bush is the talented volunteer lobbyist who got the 1993 bill passed. HB 796 has five co-sponsors.

Third Circuit Upholds Jury Award to Pennsylvania Petition Organizer

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On February 8, the 3rd circuit upheld the action of a federal jury, in Carey v Wilkes-Barre, 07-2226. The eight-page decision is here.

In 2004, Denise Carey had organized a referendum petition, asking the voters to reverse a decision of the city to close a neighborhood fire station. Her petition seemed not to have enough valid signatures, so Carey had withdrawn it. Nevertheless, the city had then won an order in state court, ordering Carey to pay $11,056 for the costs of checking her petition.

Carey had then counter-sued the city in federal court, arguing that the $11,056 in fees against her was an illegal punishment for exercising free speech and petition rights. She had won her counter-suit before the federal jury, which awarded $67,000 to her. The city had then appealed that to the 3rd circuit, but the 3rd circuit has now upheld the jury verdict in her favor. This outcome may indirectly help to win the case now pending in the 3rd circuit against the unique Pennsylvania system that awards fees to people who challenge petition validity. The name of that case is Constitution Party v Cortes. Thanks to Oliver Hall for this news.

Census Data Reveals that U.S. Has 10 State Senate Districts with More than 1,000,000 Population

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For the first time in history, there are now state legislative districts in the United States with population of over 1,000,000. The 2010 census figures find eight such districts in California, and two in Texas. Those are the two most populous states, and yet each of them has a surprisingly low number of State Senators. California has 40, and Texas has 31. See this story. Thanks to Michael Warnken for the link.