Colorado held primaries for the Republican and Democratic Parties on June 26. For the first time, independent voters were allowed to vote in either party’s primary. Ernest Luning, an expert on Colorado politics and electoral behavior, here discusses whether the independent voters changed any primary outcomes.
Jacobin Magazine has this article by English Professor John Patrick Leary, critiquing the Centrism Movement. He writes, “American centrism is a strange political ideology that does not ask, much less answer, the old and urgent political question, What is to be Done? Instead, it announces in a carefully modulated tone of voice: whatever should be done should be done. That’s weak-kneed stuff for a perilous time like ours.”
On June 12, South Carolina state representative James Smith won the South Carolina Democratic nomination for Governor. He won a 3-person race with 61.8% of the vote, so no runoff was needed.
South Carolina permits fusion, but unlike other fusion states, South Carolina has perils for candidates who file for the nomination of more than one party. Section 7-11-10 says, “No person who was defeated as a candidate for nomination to an office in a party primary or party convention shall have his name placed on the ballot for the ensuing general or special election.” In 2008, when a Green Party member, Eugene Platt, filed for the Green and Democratic nomination for State Representative, he had lost the Democratic primary for that office when the Green Party then nominated him in convention. The State Election Commission kept him off the November ballot as a Green nominee, because he had lost the Democratic primary. The Green Party sued but lost. South Carolina Green Party v South Carolina State Election Commission, 612 F 3d 752 (4th circuit 2010). UPDATE: Eugene Platt says that he was nominated by the Green Party before he lost the Democratic primary. FURTHER UPDATE: reportedly, Smith has withdrawn his quest for the nomination of any of the three minor parties that he had originally been interested in.
This year, James Smith filed for the nomination of the Working Families, Green, and Libertarian Parties. He will have no trouble getting the Working Families nomination in convention, and he withdrew his Libertarian application on August 3. As to the Green Party nomination, the Green Party was not notified of the paperwork, and already held its nominating convention in May and didn’t nominate anyone for Governor. However, the party will have another state committee meeting on August 5, and could nominate him then. It is unclear whether Smith’s Democratic nomination is in peril if the Green Party doesn’t nominate him for Governor.
It is possible to interpret the law so that Smith is not in peril. The Fourth Circuit opinion said, “Because the Election Commission applied the sore-loser statute after Platt’s loss in the Democratic primary, thereby preventing him from appearing on the general election ballot as the Green Party’s nominee, he was ‘disqualified’ as a ‘party nominee’ after his ‘nomination.'” But in Smith’s case, he had won the Democratic nomination before the Green Party will have considered whether to also nominate him, and even if the Green Party declines to nominate him, that is a different sequence of events from the 2008 Platt example. Thanks to Dave Gillespie and Scott West for this news.
As already noted, on August 3, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled in favor of Libertarian Roland Riemers, so that a recount of the June 12 primary vote for Secretary of State will occur. Here is the Opinion in Riemers v Jaeger, 2018 ND 192.
An irony is that bills have been introduced in two recent sessions of the legislature to eliminate the minimum vote test in primaries. Both times the bill failed to pass. Both times Secretary of State Al Jaegers testified against the bill. If the bill had passed, North Dakota would not need this recount. The author of the bills, both times, was Representative Cory Mock, a Democrat.
August 2 was primary day in Tennessee for federal and state office, and it was also general election day for county office. Some Tennessee counties use partisan elections for their own elections, and some use non-partisan election. Montgomery County uses partisan elections for county office. A Libertarian, Joshua Beale, was elected County Commissioner in Montgomery County district 14. He defeated his only opponent, a Republican, by 54.8%-45.2%. This is believed to be the first partisan election in Tennessee in which a minor party member was elected since 1974, when American Party State Senator William J. Davis was re-elected. Both Beale (in 2018) and Davis (in 1974) were on the ballot with the label “independent”, because in both cases their party was not a ballot-qualified party, and Tennessee won’t permit party labels for unqualified parties.
Also on August 2, two Libertarians won county office in non-partisan races. Stephen Chambers was elected Trousdale County Mayor in a two-person race, defeating the incumbent, by 54.4%-45.6%. Erika Ebel, wife of the state chair of the Tennessee Libertarian Party, was elected County Commissioner in Smith County, district four. Four candidates were on the ballot, with the top three to be elected. Ebel placed third with 211 votes. The other candidates received 296, 232, and 194 votes.
