According to this story, Caleb Coulter, a former member of the Roanoke, Virginia Republican Committee, has left the Republican Party and will be the campaign manager for Rob Sarvis, Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate in Virginia.
Reply
On August 5, an NBC 4 NY/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll was released for the New York gubernatorial race. The results: Democratic incumbent Andrew Cuomo 54%; Republican Rob Astorino 23%; Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins 7%; other 1%; undecided 16%. See here for more detail, including a breakdown by party affiliation.
The last time the nominee of a nationally-organized party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, received as much as 7% for New York Governor was 1998, when the Reform Party (which was the Independence Party within New York at the time) polled 7.69% for Thomas Golisano. Although the Independence Party did even better in 2002, by then it wasn’t part of a nationally-organized party.
As far as is known, the only other candidate who is petitioning for a place on the November 2014 ballot is Michael McDermott, the Libertarian nominee. Thanks to Michael for the link.
This interesting story describes the North Carolina legislature’s problems trying to go home for the year, something that seems unlikely to happen for some weeks, if not months. There is a pending ballot access bill in the North Carolina legislature, HB 185. It has already passed the House and simply provides that the legislature would study the ballot access laws.
The California Senate is likely to vote on AB 2351 during the week of August 18-22. This is the bill that eases the definition of “political party”, from a group that has registration of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, to one that has registration of .33% of the state total. Thanks to C. T. Weber for this news.
On August 4, the California Supreme Court asked for briefs in Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association v Bowen, S220289. The is the case on whether the legislature has the power to put advisory measures on the statewide ballot. The legislature passed a bill earlier this year, saying California November ballots should ask voters if they want Congress and the legislature to work for a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United v FEC. Last week, the State Court of Appeals had voted 2-1 to leave it on the ballot. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news.