On January 13, Virginia held a special election to fill the vacant State House seat, district 74. The independent candidate won the election with 42.3% of the vote. Here is a link to the State Board of Elections’ web page, showing the election returns. The winner, Joseph D. Morrissey, had been elected in 2013 as a Democrat, but he had resigned late last year. The Democratic Party was not interested in renominating him, so he ran as an independent. The Democratic nominee placed second; the Republican nominee placed third.

UPDATE: this story explains why Morrissey resigned and also says some legislators will try to expel him from the legislature.

The Stop Common Core Party, which is a ballot-qualified party in New York state, is in the process of changing its name to “Reform Party.” See this story. This is the first time a ballot-qualified party named “Reform Party” has ever existed in New York. In September 1995, Ross Perot launched the Reform Party nationally. But because there was already a ballot-qualified party in New York called the Independence Party (which had been formed in 1994), the Independence Party became the New York state affiliate of the Reform Party, and the “Reform Party” name did not appear on New York ballots.

The new Reform Party of New York will have state officers who are loyal to the Republican Party. The new state chair of the Reform Party is Michael Lawler, who was the campaign manager for Rob Astorino last year. Astorino was the Republican Party nominee for Governor. His campaign organized the “Stop Common Core Party” to give Astorino yet another line on the ballot; he also was the Conservative Party nominee. Thanks to Michael Drucker for this news.

UPDATE: the original Reform Party has an organized affiliate in New York state, and it objects to the name change and will agitate to prevent the Common Core Party from re-naming itself the Reform Party. The original Reform Party in New York has a web page, reformpartyny.org.

Connecticut Representative Devin Carney (R-Old Saybrook) has introduced proposed House Bill 5303, to ease the definition of a qualified minor party. Current law says that if a group polls 1% for any particular race, then it is ballot-qualified just for that one race in the next election. The bill would say that if a group gets 1% for a statewide race, it is then ballot-qualified for all the statewide races.

The bill is just a proposed bill so far, so the exact language hasn’t been drafted. If the eventual draft says that the status lasts for the next two elections, then the Libertarian Party would be on the 2016 statewide ballot automatically, because it got over 1% for U.S. Senate in 2012 (and there was no U.S. Senate election in 2014). Under existing law, the Libertarian Party is on automatically in 2016 for U.S. Senate but not for President.

Even if the bill, when drafted, says the 1% vote test only applies to the next election (instead of the next two elections), if it were enacted, it would put the Green Party on the 2016 ballot for President and U.S. Senate, because Greens received over 1% in 2014 for Secretary of State, Attorney General, and Comptroller. Also, if enacted, it would put the Working Families Party and the Independent Party on the 2016 ballot for President, because each of them polled over 1% for all the statewide races in 2014, but neither got 1% for President in 2012. The Working Families Party has never been on for President in Connecticut, and the Independent Party in 2012 ran Rocky Anderson for President and he got less than 1%.

Representative Carney also introduced proposed House Bill 5304, which would put the names of the qualified minor parties on the voter registration form. Currently the form only mentions parties that got 20% for Governor in the last election. Parties that got 20% for Governor in the last election are the only parties entitled to a primary, and they are on the ballot automatically for all partisan offices, even those that they didn’t contest in the previous election. Thanks to Joshua Katz for this news.