The Star News here editorializes against the existing Minnesota ballot access for presidential primaries. It allows the party to be the sole judge of which candidates may be on the ballot.
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Three Republican candidates filed to be on the Illinois Republican presidential primary, but one of them, John Schiess, has been challenged off the ballot. He only submitted ten signatures, and 3,000 were required, so it was easy to challenge his petition. Therefore, the only names on the ballot will be President Donald Trump and Rocky De La Fuente.
The Arizona Libertarian Party last month asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its ballot access case, Libertarian Party of Arizona v Hobbs, 19-757. The U.S. Supreme Court then set a January 13 for the state to respond, if it wishes to.
Normally, when an appellee in the U.S. Supreme Court is notified that the other side has filed a cert petition, the appellee either responds by the deadline, or send a letter saying it doesn’t wish to respond. But the deadline for Arizona’s response has now passed, and the state has not even bothered to respond at all. It has not notified the court that it doesn’t wish to respond; it has simply done nothing.
The next step will be for the U.S. Supreme Court to set a date to consider the case at conference. It is possible the Court will also ask Arizona to respond. If the Court doesn’t ask for a response, there is almost no chance that it will accept the case.
David Zuckerman, a prominent member of the Progressive Party of Vermont, recently said he will run for Governor in 2020. He will be the first Progressive Party nominee for Governor since 2000. The party has existed since 1999. Zuckerman will announce formally on Monday, January 20. See this story.
In 2008, Anthony Pollina, who was and is a member of the Progressive Party, did run for Governor, but he ran as an independent, not as a Progressive.
Zuckerman was elected Lieutenant Governor in 2016 and re-elected in 2018. He was also the nominee of the Democratic Party, but his ballot label has always been “Progressive/Democratic”. In Vermont, the party listed first indicates the party of membership. Vermont doesn’t have registration by party. It does have aggregated fusion (this means fusion is permitted, but there is only one square on the ballot for each candidate).
Currently, the Governor of Vermont is a Republican, Phil Scott. Scott is running for re-election. Thanks to Gene Berkman for the link.
The New York 27th district U.S. House seat has been vacant since last year. On January 13, attorneys for New York state told a court that Governor Andrew Cuomo will call a special election for that seat, to be held April 28. See this story. Thanks to Joe Burns for the link.