James Ogle is sponsoring a U.S. Senate California debate on May 15 in Monterey. So far, 16 of the 34 candidates who are on the June 7, 2016 ballot have said they will attend.

Seven Democrats are running and these three say they will attend: Herbert Peters, Emory Rodgers, and Steve Stokes.

Twelve Republicans are running and these six say they will attend: Greg Conlon, Von Hougo, Jerry Laws, Karen Roseberry, Phil Wyman, and George Yang.

Two Libertarians are running and both say they will attend: Gail Lightfoot and Mark Matthew Herd.

Pamela Elizondo, the only Green, says she will attend.

Don Grundmann of the Constitution Party will attend.

These independent candidates say they will attend: Tim Gildersleeve, Clive Grey, and Paul Merritt.

The debate starts at 2 p.m. and is at 777 Pearl Street, Monterey.

On May 6, the Maine Secretary of State filed this ten-page brief, explaining why a U.S. District Court should not order the Secretary of State to recognize the Libertarian Party for the 2016 general election. The case is Libertarian Party of Maine v Dunlap, 2:16v-2.

The brief is internally contradictory. One of the issues is whether the party’s registrants should be restored to being Libertarians. After the Secretary of State had determined in December 2015 that the Libertarian Party did not have the needed 5,000 registered members to qualify, he revoked all those registrations and converted the voters into independents, without even telling them. Yet on page four the state says, “Voters have a right to make their own enrollment decisions.” The Secretary of State says it would be wrong to restore the voters to being Libertarians without telling them. And to the party’s request that election officials contact those voters and ask them for a new decision, the Secretary says that would be too much work.

The Secretary also says that it would be too much work to let other voters register into the Libertarian Party (see page five).

The Secretary also says that letting the Libertarian Party nominate by convention would be to require that the court re-write Maine election law. However, many other courts have ordered newly-qualifying parties onto the general election ballot, after it was too late for a primary, even though the states in those other cases required newly-qualifying parties to nominate by primary. Those courts include the U.S. Supreme Court, which put the American Independent Party on the ballot in Ohio in 1968 after the primary was over. They also include U.S. District Courts in Arkansas in 1996, Hawaii in 1986, Nebraska in 1976, Nevada in 1986, Ohio in 1976 and 2008, Oklahoma in 1984, and Tennessee in 2012.

On Saturday, May 7, Texas held a special election to fill the vacant 120th State House seat. Here are the returns. An independent candidate, Laura Thompson, received more votes than any other candidate, but no one got 50%, so there will be a runoff this summer. Four candidates were on the ballot, Thompson and three Democrats. Texas has not had anyone but a Democrat or a Republican elected to the legislature since 1936, when an independent was elected to the House.

Normally the Texas straight-ticket device makes it very difficult for independents to win, but there is no such device in Texas special elections. Parties don’t have nominees in Texas special elections, which is why there were three Democrats running. Thanks to Michael for this news.