As note earlier, Judy Baar Topinka, who was re-elected Illinois State Comptroller, died after the election but before her new term started. Governor Pat Quinn wants a special election to fill the second half of the term. He has called the legislature into session for January 8, 2015, to pass a bill authorizing such a special election to be held in November 2016.
On December 18, the Michigan legislature passed SB 1167. It repeals laws that ban unregistered circulators, and out-of-state circulators, from working in Michigan. The bill had been introduced on December 4, 2014, and made rapid progress through the legislature. Here is the analysis of all the changes the bill makes. Thanks to John Anthony LaPietra for this news.
On December 18, the Arizona Secretary of State notified the Green Party that its petition for qualified status has enough valid signatures. The Green Party had submitted 30,667 signatures, and 84.6% of them (25,951) are valid. Most of the signatures on this petition had been collected to get the party on the ballot in time for the 2014 election, when the requirement was 23,041. The deadline for the 2014 election was February 28, 2014. The party missed that deadline but submitted its signatures anyway, but the state rejected them. The party then sued to overturn the February 28 deadline. The U.S. District Court upheld the deadline, and the party is appealing to the Ninth Circuit.
The appeal won’t be moot, because in 1969 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that ballot access constitutional challenges don’t become moot just because the election is over; the issue needs to be resolved for future elections.
The U.S. District Court decision said that the signatures could be used to try to get on the 2016 ballot. It’s not clear if the Secretary of State would have permitted those same signatures to be used for 2016 if the Court had not said that, but in any event the party then supplemented the petition, and turned in the petition again. Neither the party, nor anyone else, could have known that the November 2014 turnout would be so low, the requirement declined from 23,041 signatures to 20,086 signatures.
Arizona law, amended in 2011, says a petition is good for the next two elections, so now the Greens will be on not only for 2016, but 2018, and the state will again keep a tally of the number of voters who register Green. However, the state won’t print the name of the Green Party on the voter registration card; state law says only the two largest parties should have their own checkbox on the voter registration form. The constitutionality of that policy will be heard in the Ninth Circuit on January 29 in Tucson. Thanks to Angel Torres for the news about the petition success.
Virginia will hold a special election soon to fill a vacancy in the House of Delegates. The vacancy was caused when Delegate Joseph D. Morrissey, a Democrat, resigned. He resigned because he plea-bargained to a misdemeanor; this article explains more about that. He recently announced that he will run in the special election to return to the legislature. See this story, which suggests that the Democratic Party is not likely to nominate him, but that he is free to run as an independent.
On November 4, 2014, Green Party nominee Matt Funiciello polled 11.02% for U.S. House, New York district 21. This is the highest percentage of the vote any Green Party nominee for U.S. House has ever received, in a regularly-scheduled race with both a Republican and a Democrat. Until 2014, the best regularly-scheduled U.S. House showing for a Green Party nominee in races with both major parties also in the race had been in Alaska in 1994, when Jonni Whitmore polled 10.23%. However, in a special election in New Mexico in 1997, Carole Miller had polled 16.78%, and in another special New Mexico election in the spring of 1998, Robert Anderson had polled 14.72%.
Twice, Green Party nominees for U.S. Senate have polled over 10% in races with a Democrat and Republican also in the race. Those instances were in Hawaii in 1992, when Linda Martin polled 13.73%, and in Alaska in 1996, when Ted Whittaker polled 12.58%.
The Green gubernatorial nominees who have polled as much as 10% are Roberto Mondragon in New Mexico in 1994, who got 10.26%, and Richard Whitney in Illinois in 2006, who got 10.36%.
Here is a story about the Funiciello campaign. The 21st district is in northern New York state, and includes Plattsburgh and Watertown.
In the November 2014 election, three Libertarians running for U.S. House, in races with both major parties, polled between 7% and 8%. They were Kevin Craig in Missouri’s 7th district (7.68%), Jim McDermott in Alaska’s at-large seat (7.65%), and Scott Wise in Indiana’s 3rd district (7.48%). The Constitution Party’s best showing for U.S. House was Janine Hansen’s 6.33% in Nevada’s Second District. Two independents, in races with both major parties for U.S. House, polled over 10%. They were Nick Troiano in Pennsylvania’s 10th district with 12.61%, and Blaine Richardson in Maine’s 2nd district with 11.06%.
