A new party in California called the Common Sense Party is attempting to qualify for the ballot. It needs about 70,000 registered voters. The deadline is in October 2019 if it wants to be involved in congressional and legislative races in 2020. If it only wants to be qualified for the presidential election, the deadline is July 2020. Here is the party’s web page.
On August 26, Helen Gym, a Democratic member of the Philadelphia city council, endorsed one of the Working Families nominees for that same office. The election is November 5, 2019. Philadelphia uses limited voting, so that even though seven seats are being filled, no party may run more than five nominees. Everyone expects that the five Democrats will all win, so the only real suspense is whether a Republican or a Working Families Party wins one of the remaining seats. Nevertheless, not all Democratic peers of Councilmember Gym are pleased with her action. See this story.
According to this article, Jason Gonzales will ask a U.S. District Court Judge for a rehearing in his lawsuit, alleging that Illinois Speaker Michael Madigan recruited sham candidates in the 2016 Democratic primary in which the two men were competitors for the Democratic nomination for State House.
UPDATE: see this commentary by Elie Mystal, on “Above the Law”, criticizing the decision.
According to this story on Independent Political Report, the Prohibition Party national committee met on August 24 and chose Phil Collins for president and Billy Joe Parker for vice-president.
Late on August 26, the Maine Senate passed LD 1083, which says the state will use ranked choice voting for president, both in presidential primaries and in the general election. The bill now goes to the Governor. Thanks to Rob Richie for this news.
