On April 4, the first special congressional election of 2017 was held in Los Angeles County, California. Two Democrats each polled about 25% of the vote. Because no one got 50%, these two Democrats will face off in a run-off in June. They are Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, and Robert Lee Ahn, a former Los Angeles planning Commissioner who raised more money than any other candidate in this race.
Here are the preliminary election results.
On April 4, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris held a 3-hour trial in Breck v Stapleton, 9:17cv-36. The issue is the Montana ballot access law for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, in the 2017 special election for U.S. House. The election was called on March 1, and the Secretary of State said anyone who wanted to run in that election, who was not the nominee of a qualified party, needs 14,268 signatures by March 3. Later he changed the deadline to March 6. Such candidates also must pay a filing fee of $1,740. The plaintiffs argue that it is not reasonable to expect anyone to collect so many signatures in such a short time.
Here is a brief newspaper article about the hearing. The decision will come out very soon, perhaps on Wednesday, April 5. The plaintiffs include one independent candidate, and the nominee of the Green Party, which is not ballot-qualified in Montana. The only three qualified parties are Republican, Democratic and Libertarian, and they all have nominees, none of whom needed any signatures.
On April 5, the Oklahoma House Elections Committee will hear SB 145. This bill makes it easier for independent presidential candidate, and the presidential nominees of unqualified parties, to get on the ballot. It has already passed the State Senate.
The committee won’t hear the other Oklahoma ballot access bill, SB 350, on April 5. That is the bill to make it easier for a party to remain on the ballot. It had also passed the Senate, but later than SB 145, so perhaps it will have a hearing in the House Committee on April 12.
On April 4, the Tennessee House Local Government Committee passed HB 662. It had previously passed a subcommittee on March 28. It lowers the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party from 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote (33,816 signatures) to exactly 5,000. The vote was 9-3. Thanks to Paul Frankel for this news.
UPDATE: the Tennessee Senate State and Local Government Committee has decided not to act on this bill until next year, because the committee wants to see how the pending Green-Constitution lawsuit turns out in the Sixth Circuit. Thanks to Ken Moellman for that update.
The Connecticut House Government Administration & Election Committee has introduced HB 7163. It repeals the restriction on out-of-state petitioners. The restriction was declared unconstitutional last year in a Libertarian Party lawsuit in federal court.
