The Associated Press is now reporting that Don Blankenship will seek the Constitution Party presidential nomination. See this story.
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The U.S. Supreme Court has docketed Colorado Department of State v Baca, one of the two pending lawsuits over whether presidential electors are free to vote for anyone who meets the constitutional qualifications. It is case 19-518. The cert petition was filed by the state last week. The response of the Colorado Democratic presidential electors who filed the original case is due November 20, 2019. It is likely that the electors’ response will also urge the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. The Tenth Circuit had ruled against the state, and in favor of freedom for presidential electors. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the news about the docketing.
On October 21, the California Secretary of State issued this press release, confirming that the Republican, Green, and Peace & Freedom Parties will not let independents vote in their 2020 primaries. The same three parties made the same decision in 2016.
The California Republican Party did let independents vote in its 2004 presidential primary, but in that primary, President George W. Bush was the only name on the Republican presidential primary ballot.
Canada holds a parliamentary election on October 21, 2019, Monday. There are 338 seats in the House of Commons. There are a total of 2,146 candidates on the ballot for that office, so the average district has 6.3 candidates.
Four parties have candidates in all districts: Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic, and Green. Also the People’s Party has candidates in 315 districts.
The Constitution Party’s national committee held a meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 18-19, 2019. One of the speakers was Don Blankenship, former CEO of Massey Energy Company, the sixth largest coal company in the nation. Blankenship told the group that he will seek the party’s presidential nomination next year. He was the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate in West Virginia in 2018, but he was unable to get on the ballot because of the “sore loser” law. UPDATE: this post has been revised since it was first posted.
Blankenship is currently suing Donald Trump, Jr., for libel. Trump Jr. had tweeted that Blankenship is an ex-felon, but Blankenship was never convicted of a felony. He was convicted of a misdemeanor in 2016 involving mine safety rules. The libel case is in U.S. District Court in West Virginia, Blankenship v Trump, Jr., s.d., 2:19cv-549. His lawsuit recently survived a motion to dismiss. A trial is set for October 6, 2020.
The Constitution Party’s national convention is set for late April 2020 in Charlotte, but the site may be shifted to Atlanta.