This UPI story explains the lawsuit Cao v Federal Election Commission, which the U.S. Supreme Court may or may not decide to hear. The case, filed jointly by former Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao and the Republican National Committee, challenges the part of the McCain-Feingold law that limits how much money parties can spend on their own speech, if that speech is coordinated with one of the party’s candidates and appears to help that candidate. Thanks to HowAppealing for the link.
This story in an English-language newspaper in Ankara, Turkey, explains how political parties are financed in Turkey, and the same article gives the same information for many countries in Europe as well.
The Right to Life Party of New York state ceased to be a qualified party in November 2002. However, since then, it has placed a few candidates on the November ballot, in State Supreme Court races, which are partisan elections in New York. These candidates have only appeared on the ballot in Westchester County and its smaller neighboring counties in the Hudson River Valley.
In November 2010, the party ran two candidates, James Alexander Burke, who was not the nominee of any other party; and Matthew J. Byrne, who was also a Republican nominee. Burke received 9,409 votes, or 1.88%. Byrne received 5,572 votes on the Right to Life line, or 1.11%.
These results are low, relative to what that party received in judicial and other partisan races in the past. The party first ran judicial candidates in 1979, and averaged 6.09% of the vote across the state. The only year in which the party polled a lower percentage than in 2010 was 2004, when its sole judicial candidate received 1.39%.
On the evening of January 1, the Guam Supreme Court upheld the certification of the November 2, 2010 election results, even though it seems likely that most, if not all, members of the Guam Election Commission are technically not properly members of the Commission. The case is Gutierrez v Guam Election Commission, WRM 10-003.
The 2010 election returns show that Republican gubernatorial nominee Edward Calvo received 19,875 votes, whereas Democratic nominee Carl T. C. Gutierrez received 19,292. No one disputes the validity of the count. However, Gutierrez sued for a new election, on the grounds that the results are illegitimate because most, if not all, members of the Commission were not properly serving. It is uncontested that two of the members of the Commission’s terms had expired before the certification, and contested as to whether a third member’s term had expired. Separate from that issue, three other members of the Commission may not have been appointed according to procedure. The Guam law says that each qualified party may appoint three members of the 7-member Commission, but the Republican members may have been appointed with an improper procedure. The Supreme Court ruled that even if all the members of the Commission have flaws in their appointment, the certification of the election returns appears to be honestly and competently done, and therefore the election will stand. Here is the decision. Thanks to How Appealing for the link.
This is not the first time that Carl Gutierrez has involved high-level courts in a dispute over who won the gubernatorial election in Guam. In 1998, Gutierrez had the most votes, in a very close election, but his Republican opponent sued in federal court to get a run-off. Even though only two candidates had appeared on the ballot, the lower courts ruled that there must be a run-off because no one had a majority if one counts the people who put a ballot in the box, but left the ballot blank for Governor. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the 9th circuit and said blank votes for an office should not be counted, when determining if anyone got a majority of the vote, so Gutierrez had won that case and had served as Governor 1995-2003. In 2010 he had been trying for a third term.
The December 29 edition of Philadelphia Weekly has this story about the extent to which unions are beginning to start supporting Green Party nominees.
Former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun had submitted over 90,000 signatures to get on the Chicago ballot for Mayor, but her petitions had been challenged. However, on December 30, the challenge to her petition was rejected by the Chicago Board of Elections.
She has also gained politically over the weekend, because Congressman Danny K. Davis dropped out and endorsed her. See this story.