New York city elects three citywide officers, including Public Advocate. Before 1994, the office was “President of the City Council.” The office is fundamentally like Vice-Mayor; in other words, if the Mayor position becomes vacant, the Public Advocate becomes Mayor.

Public advocate is a partisan office in regular elections, but it is non-partisan in special elections. The previous elected Public Advocate was elected New York State Attorney General last year, so the Public Advocate position is being filled with a special election. Candidates needed 3,750 signatures to get on the February 2019 ballot. Seventeen qualified. Here is the list.

Candidates may have a label on the ballot next to their names, but the label can’t be the name of a political party.

On February 4, the Wyoming House Corporations defeated HB 225 by 2-6. It would have eased the petition requirements for independent candidates and newly-qualifying parties, from 2% of the last US House vote, to 1%. It would also have lowered the vote test for a party to remain on from 2% to 1%. The bill’s sponsor was Representative Dan Zwonitzer (R-Cheyenne).

New Hampshire Representative David Huot (D-Laconia) has introduced HB 588. It expands eligibility for candidates to run in a presidential primary. Currently the law says no one may file to run in a presidential primary unless the candidate is a member of that party. The bill allows non-members of a party to run in its primary if the party recognizes that the candidate is seeking its nomination.

In 2016, the New Hampshire Secretary of State threatened to keep Bernie Sanders off the Democratic presidential primary ballot because Sanders was not a Democrat. In the end the state allowed Sanders to file, but this bill would conform the law to actual practice. In any event, in 1986 the U.S. Supreme Court said in Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut that the First Amendment protects a party’s right to nominate a non-member if that is what the party wants to do.