The Louisiana Senate and Government Affairs Committee will hear SB 235 on Wednesday, May 5, at 9 a.m. This is the bill to again provide that political parties have nominees (other than just presidential nominees). Currently, Louisiana is one of three states in which parties do not have nominees, and candidates run as individuals, with a party label. Thanks to Mike Wolf for this news.
On May 3, Georgia filed this brief in U.S. District Court in The New Georgia Project v Raffensperger, n.d., 1:21cv-1229. This is the case (along with similar cases combined with this one) over SB 202, the 2021 omnibus election law bill.
The state defends the law prohibiting anyone from giving free food or water to someone waiting in line. The state claims this law is necessary to “protect electors from improper interference, political pressure, or intimidation”. Also Georgia claims New York has the same law.
On May 1, the League of Women Voters sponsored an in-person debate for the candidates for State Senate, 22nd district. Four parties have nominees on the ballot for the May 18 special election, and all four were invited to the debate. But the Republican nominee, Chris Chermak, chose not to attend. The debate participants were Democrat Marty Flynn, Libertarian Nathan Covington, and Green Party nominee Marlene Sebatianelli.
See this story. The district has been represented by Democrats for several decades.
In Pennsylvania, party meetings choose nominees in special elections; there are no primaries. The Libertarian and Green Parties were able to place a nominee on the ballot with no petition. In special elections, unlike regular elections, parties that polled a certain share of the vote in the last statewide election are on the ballot automatically. Both the Libertarian and Green Parties met that vote test in November 2020. They each needed to have a statewide nominee who polled more than 2% of the highest vote-getting statewide winner’s vote. Although the Green Party wasn’t on the Pennsylvania ballot in November 2020 for president, it was on for the other statewide offices.
This newspaper article says that New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu expressed his opposition to moving the non-presidential primary from September to June. The bill to do that, HB 98, has passed the House but not the Senate.
The bill would make deadlines for minor party and independent candidates earlier. Currently independents, and the nominees of unqualified parties, must submit a declaration of candidacy in June, and petitions are due in August. The bill to move the primary, HB 98, would move them to earlier dates.
Jeff Hewitt, the Libertarian Party member who is a member of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, will enter the California gubernatorial recall election that will be held in November 2021. See this Reason story.
