Kentucky Holds a Televised Gubernatorial Debate and Includes the Independent Candidate

On September 15, a gubernatorial debate was held that included all three Kentucky gubernatorial candidates, including independent Drew Curtis. See this story. In the 2014 general election campaign season, Kentucky had been one of a minority of states without any inclusive debates for any of the statewide offices (in 2014, Kentucky had a U.S. Senate race with three candidates on the ballot). Two lawsuits are still pending from the 2014 exclusion of the Libertarian nominee from all the 2014 U.S. Senate debates.

This story says the debate has boosted Curtis.

Rick Hasen Article on the Three Redistricting Cases the U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear This Term

The U.S. Supreme Court in the past few weeks and months has agreed to hear three redistricting cases in the coming term. One is from Maryland, one from Texas, and one from Arizona. Here is an article by Rick Hasen in the Orange County Lawyer magazine, describing each of them.

The Maryland case will be argued November 4. The other two cases don’t have argument dates set yet.

Newspaper of the Populist Party Will Suspend Publication

The Populist Party existed from 1984 through 1994. Although the party ceased to exist in 1994, it continued to publish its monthly newspaper, the Nationalist Times, for another twenty-one years. However, on September 10 the paper announced that it will no longer be published.

The Populist Party’s strongest presidential run was in 1992, when it ran Bo Gritz for President. The Populist Party actually polled a higher share of the vote in the states where it was on the ballot than any other party other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. Gritz polled .31% in the states where he was on the ballot. But because he was only on the ballot in states containing 30% of the electorate that year, he only received 107,014, for fifth place behind Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, Ross Perot, and Andre Marrou.