Activists in New York state have found a state legislator willing to introduce a bill in early 2022 to restore the old, more tolerant petition requirement and old definition of a qualified political party. Of course efforts will now be made to find more sponsors.
This is the season for activists to ask legislators for ballot access improvement bills. There are many states that badly need improvements in these laws.
On November 23, a Pennsylvania state court judge acquitted Jake Towne of charges related to a forged sheet of ballot access petitions from the 2018 election. Towne was a Libertarian nominee for state legislature in 2018. Leaders of both major parties in the area had sought his conviction because one of the sheets on his petition had forged signatures. Towne did not commit the forgeries. Thanks to Richard Schwarz for this news.
See his statement of what happened to him from his facebook page: “I was found not guilty yesterday in my criminal case. I was maliciously targeted for my efforts to combat government corruption. This was a politically-motivated attack by both the Democrats and Republicans against the free speech of third parties. The state GOP Executive Director, and local Republicans began a “fishing expedition,” hoping to find me guilty of something. Attorney General Joshua Shapiro, a Democrat, enabled the GOP to escalate a single sheet of bad signatures into a Grand Jury investigation.
I believe three of my own lawyers were working against my best interests. Collectively, they used fear tactics to try to influence my decisions, failed to disclose conflicts of interest, and provided incorrect information about my legal rights. But by far the most glaring acts of malice were those who attempted to destroy my marriage by making false allegations about my wife, Jane Horvath, and urged me to take their unsolicited advice regarding matters unrelated to my case, while advising me to take a plea deal knowing I had not committed a crime. If not for Jane’s enduring support, I would have collapsed under the pressure. Jane did the legal precedent research and fought for me because she knew admitting guilt and being portrayed as a fraud in the public eye would destroy me. I don’t deserve any accolades as Jane was the one keeping me together.
Over the past 3 years, I incurred debts totaling over $50,000 to defend my reputation. I was subjected to a 16-month grand jury investigation and was under arrest for 2 years. Politicians and lawyers arbitrarily interpreted vague laws as a way to manufacture criminal charges. When it became glaringly obvious that there was no basis for this case, instead of backing down the AG scrambled to justify their allegations. They submitted a supplemental brief containing misleading information which compelled Judge Dally to proceed to trial.
The AG repeatedly urged me to plead “no contest” to lesser crimes, although I hadn’t committed any. Unscrupulous former attorneys encouraged me to take the “sweet” plea deals. Fortunately, I found an ethical lawyer, Eric Winter, who did an excellent job defending me.
What made me an easy target was my level 1 autism, something I was unaware of my whole life until I finally obtained and accepted a diagnosis last year. Last week I filed a bar complaint against my first attorney on this case, Jeremy Clark, Easton’s City Solicitor, and plan to cooperate with the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court for justice.
Besides Jane, I would like to thank members of the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania and friends for their support. Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania Kevin Gaughen Jennifer Moore LPPA Chairwoman Steve Scheetz Rob Pepe Michael Chastain Spike Cohen Larry Frey Daniel Fishman Dan Wassmer Joseph P. Soloski Joseph Van Wagner Lloyd Schafer Jennifer Economides Adams Eric Adams Andrew Hatstat Robert Dandi Matthew Schutter Kyle Burton, Libertarian Terry S. Ellis Svend la Rose Ginny Creyer Joe Pitsko and many many others.”
The new German government has a majority in parliament, after the Social Democratic, Green, and Free Democratic Parties agreed to a coalition. The Free Democratic Party is sometimes referred to as Germany’s version of the Libertarian Party. Thanks to Political Wire for this news.
Virginia elected its House of Delegates earlier this month, using districts based on the 2010 census instead of the 2020 census. A lawsuit is currently pending on whether the winners elected this month will serve one year or two year terms. This story explains the status of the case.
Many lawsuits are pending against the new Texas district boundaries for U.S. House and state legislative districts. Most of the challenges are in federal court in the western district, and have been consolidated under League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) v Abbott, 3:21cv-259. The state has already filed a brief to dismiss the cases, which are based on arguments that the districts injure racial and ethnic minorities. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.
The Texas primary is still scheduled for March 2022. Texas is the only state that is still planning a primary that early in 2022. However if these lawsuits result in changes, the primary will probably be postponed.
