The CATO Institute, Reason Foundation, and The Center for Competitive Politics have filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court election case called N.Y. State Bd. of Elections v Lopez Torres. This is the first time either CATO or Reason Foundation has ever filed such a brief in a ballot access case. CATO and the Reason Foundation are well-known libertarian think-tanks. The Center for Competitive Politics was founded by former FEC Commissioner Brad Smith and others, which usually focuses on fighting restrictive campaign finance laws.
The brief, authored by First Amendment specialist Erik S. Jaffe, argues the true “political party rights” position in this case. It advocates that the U.S. Supreme Court strike down the New York state law mandating particular procedures that qualified parties must use to nominate candidates for State Supreme Court Justice. It says, “Whether a private political expressive association (i.e., a political party) chooses to reach its decisions by emulating democratic elections and polling its membership or instead adopts a more hierarchical decision-making process, is of concern only to the association and its members, not the government.”
The brief is useful for making a persuasive argument in favor of autonomy for political parties. The brief is even more useful for exposing the muddy thinking of the Republican National Committee amicus brief. The Republican National Committee brief waxes eloquently in favor of autonomy for political parties. But then it comes out in support of a state law that compels parties to use a very flawed method for choosing delegates to nominating conventions, whether they like it or not.
The City of Portland Auditor refused to accept my filing for his very office in the local elections in 2006 because I was not a member of a private Florida/New York association.
Gary Blackmer then ran unopposed, as the incumbent.
The city charter allows, among others, Certified Internal Auditors to run. The city attorney staff construed this to mean certification from the Florida/New York outfit.
This should be a slam dunk case.
I made a demand two weeks ago that Gary Blackmer be removed immediately from the auditor’s position because he does not qualify, and could not qualify, because Oregon does not have a mechanism to “certify” internal auditors for any “city.”
The city has ballot measures on a ballot for a May 15 election that need to be certified by this same sitting Auditor.
I have a letter drafted to the Oregon Secretary of State demanding that he take over, based on state statutory law, for the city so that the current city election results can be certified by an authorized party.
(Is there a link to the brief? I might glean another argument or two from it. Plus, the author might like to get an early look at my case, as Portland has a new publicly funded campaign scheme for which their refusal to place my name on the ballot also led to me being denied the mandatory pre-authorization to collect 1,000 signatures and fives. I will contend also that I need not collect any more signatures than ANY candidate regardless of their assent in writing to limit spending – thus I was eligible to receive nearly 145,000 dollars from the city.)