On April 10, Maine’s Governor Janet Mills extended the petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates from May 26 to June 26. She did not change the independent presidential petition deadline, which continues to be August 3.
This change was included in the same order that changed the date of the non-presidential primary from June 9 to July 14. Here is the order.
See this blog post from Political Wire, which says that Congressman Justin Amash is thinking seriously about running for president.
On April 13, U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Berg permitted another candidate to file an amicus in the pending lawsuit over primary petitioning during the health crisis. Esshaki v Whitmer, e.d., 2:20cv-10831.
The candidate who will submit an amicus must do so by close of business, April 14. He is Daniel Finley, who is running in a non-partisan judicial race in Washtenaw County. The law requires him to submit 1,000 signatures by late April.
The Salem News has this editorial, urging a cut in the number of signatures needed to get on primary ballots in Massachusetts.
The most important office on the ballot in Wisconsin on April 7 was the State Supreme Court race run-off. Even though it is technically non-partisan, it is in reality intensely partisan, with a Republican incumbent running for another term against a Democratic candidate. Here are the New York Times results, which shows the Democrat is leading, with 50% of the precincts reporting..
The Republican is Dan Kelly; the Democrat is Jill Karofsky.
No state seems to have such a partisan State Supreme Court as Wisconsin. The Wisconsin judicial election system is a textbook example of why making elections technically non-partisan does not actually remove partisanship from that election.
