The new Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, was sworn in on January 2, 2021. His inaugural speech included a vow to work for statehood. He is a Democrat. See this story.
The Puerto Rico representative to the U.S. House, Jenniffer Gonzalez, is a Republican, and she also will work for statehood. As noted earlier, on November 3 the ballot question on statehood passed by four percentage points.
On November 3, 2020, the Conservative Party won the vote for New York Assemblymember, 48th district. There was only one candidate listed on the ballot, Simcha Eichenstein. He was the nominee of the Democratic Party and the Conservative Party. It is very common in New York for minor party candidates to jointly nominate major party nominees. Eicnehstein is a Democrat.
But, the Conservative Party vote was higher in this race than the Democratic vote. Eichenstein polled 13,411 votes on the Conservative line and 12,570 on the Democratic line. This is the first time in the Conservative Party’s history that it had polled a larger vote than any other party in the same race (in any election for federal or state office), except in 1970, when its vote in the U.S. Senate race for James Buckley was higher than the vote for any other party. Buckley was a registered Republican and he won the race. Generally, the 1970 U.S. Senate election is considered a win for the Conservative Party, because its vote was higher than that for any other party. So, by the same logic, it seems that the 2020 race for Assembly, 48th district, was also a Conservative Party win.
There have been members of the U.S. House who were enrolled Conservative Party members, but no one ever listed those instances as “wins” for the Conservative Party, because in all those races, the Republican vote was substantially higher than the Conservative Party vote.
No news outlet seems to have reported that the Conservative Party vote in the 48th district was the highest of any party’s vote.
On December 31, 2020, proponents of the initiative process filed a federal lawsuit against the Maine law that requires initiative petitioners to be registered voters in Maine. We the People PAC v Dunlap, 1:20cv-489.
Plaintiffs ask for injunctive relief, so a hearing has been set for January 6, 2021.
On January 1, U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle, a Trump appointee, dismissed the lawsuit Gohmert v Pence, e.d. of Texas, 6:20cv-660. This is the lawsuit filed on December 27 by a Republican Congressman from Texas, Louie Gohmert, and the Arizona Republican candidates for presidential elector. They argued that the federal 1887 “Electoral Count Law” is unconstitutional, and that the Vice-President, as presiding officer of the U.S. Senate when the electoral votes are counted, has the authority to reject any state’s electoral votes.
Here is the 13-page opinion. It says that neither Congressman Gohmert, nor the Republican Arizona candidates for presidential elector, have standing. It also says that if the Republican candidates for presidential elector did have standing, their lawsuit would still fail, because to the extent they are complaining about not being seated in the electoral college, Vice-President Pence doesn’t have the power to seat them. Even under the theory of the lawsuit, all Vice-President Pence could do is reject electoral votes, not add any new ones. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the news.
On January 2, in the middle of the night, the plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal.
On January 1, former U.S. Senator William Cohen was interviewed on CNN. He said, “Maybe it’s time for a new party.” He was in both houses of Congress, representing Maine as a Republican, from 1972 thru 1996. He was also Secretary of Defense during President Bill Clinton’s second term. See this link. Thanks to Political Wire for that link.
