Thomas Rudd is the Lake County, Illinois Coroner. He is trying to run for re-election this year as an independent candidate. No one argues that he lacks enough valid signatures, but he is not on the ballot because he first submitted a petition to run in the Democratic primary late last year. But later he withdrew that petition and did not actually run in the Democratic primary. He has a court hearing on July 21 to try to get back on the ballot. See this story.
The Connecticut Secretary of State now acknowledges that there is nothing illegal or unconstitutional about Rocky De La Fuente’s independent candidate petition. It lists De La Fuente for President and Michael Steinberg for Vice-President. They both live in Florida. Originally the Secretary of State had rejected it, but now the Secretary of State acknowledges that the 12th amendment does not prohibit Connecticut candidates for presidential elector from voting for someone for both offices who live in Florida. The 12th amendment would only apply to Connecticut presidential electors if they were pledged to Connecticut residents for both offices.
The Connecticut petition will now be checked for signature validity. Meanwhile election officials in Utah and Idaho have verified that De La Fuente has enough valid signatures in those states.
On July 19, proponents of a Washington state public funding initiative submitted signatures to the Secretary of State. It seems likely the initiative has enough valid signatures to qualify for the November 2016 ballot. Here is the text of the proposal, I-1464. The public funding only applies to legislative candidates, at least for the years 2018, 2020, and 2022. Later, if there is enough money, the program can be expanded to include statewide state offices.
Candidates qualify for public funding by raising at least $10 from at least 75 residents of their district. Qualified candidates can then receive public funding. Every registered voter will have the ability to ask the public funding office to send $50 to each of three candidates. Thus, unlike many other public financing systems, voters who want to help a candidate receive public funding do not themselves contribute any money (except for the initial group of 75 people who each contribute $10).
The office that runs the program would notify each registered voter in the state of his or her personal PIN, which must be used to direct the state office to forward the $50 amounts to the chosen candidates. The initiative makes other changes to campaign finance. The backers of the initiative seem eager to publicize those other changes, and the group’s webpage downplays the public funding part of the initiative. See their web page here. Thanks to the Center for Competitive Politics for the news.
In 2013, Jane Miller, a Republican in Brookfield, Connecticut, accepted a Democratic nomination for a special local election. She did not win. In April 2015, long after that election, the town Republican Party expelled her, under a little-used state law that lets parties expel members who are believed to be disloyal to the party.
Miller brought lawsuits in both state and federal court. Her state lawsuit alleged that the state law is unconstitutional, and her federal lawsuit charged that she had been denied equal protection because other Republicans who had also accepted the nomination of other parties had not been treated the same. On July 19, the town Republican Party reinstated her as a member, but both lawsuits continue, and the Republican Party still stands by its past action. Miller was not able to vote in the Connecticut April 2016 Republican presidential primary, so she does have a concrete injury. See this story.
Gordon Humphrey, who was a Republican U.S. Senator from New Hampshire from 1978 to 1990, says in this story that he will change his registration from “Republian” to “independent.”
