On September 4, a We Ask America poll was released for the Illinois gubernatorial race. The results: Republican Bruce Rauner 46%; Democrat Pat Quinn 37%; Libertarian Chad Grimm 7%; undecided 10%. If the Libertarian Party gets 5%, it will be ballot-qualified for all office. Since the vote test was set at 5% in 1931, only two parties other than the Democratic and Republican Parties have held that status: Illinois Solidarity 1986-1990 and Green 2006-2010.
According to this story, an attorney associated with the Illinois Republican Party has filed a lawsuit in state court, seeking to remove the statewide Libertarian Party slate from the November ballot.
Congressman John K. Delaney (D-Maryland) has introduced HR 5334, to require all elections for U.S. House to use the top-two system. The bill also mandates that election day in November would be a federal holiday, but the bill does not require primary voting day in each state to be a holiday, nor does the bill set up a national primary day.
According to this story in The Oregonian, supporters of Oregon’s top-two primary initiative have set up a phony opposition webpage, which features the slogan, “Keep the riff-raff out of our elections.” Supporters have also submitted arguments ostensibly opposed to the measure for the state Voters’ Pamphlet. The so-called opposition arguments are weak and not sincere.
On September 3, the Kansas Democratic Party’s nominee for U.S. Senate, Chad Taylor, withdrew his name from the November ballot. The Democratic Party will now support the independent candidate in the race, Greg Orman. See this story. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
This is the second instance this year in which a state Democratic Party has withdrawn a nominee for an important office; the first was the Alaska gubernatorial race.
