The November 2014 election in Rhode Island will include statewide nominees from four political parties. The Moderate Party will have James B. Spooner for Governor, and William Gilbert for Lieutenant Governor. The Libertarian Party will have Tony Jones on the ballot for Lieutenant Governor. Rhode Island voters elect Lieutenant Governor separately from Governor.

The Moderate Party is ballot-qualified, and also has one legislative nominee this year. However, it will go off the ballot unless it polls 5% for Governor. The party’s founder, Ken Block, is seeking the Republican nomination for Governor. Primaries are September 9.

This is the first time the Rhode Island Libertarian Party has had a statewide nominee on the ballot in a midterm year.

There are several independents running for Governor. Independent Ernest Almonte is running for Treasurer, and is considered to have a chance to win.

On July 17, the Mississippi Supreme Court voted 4-3 that Chris McDaniel’s campaign is not entitled to immediately see the Poll Books from the June 2014 primaries and run-off primaries. McDaniel’s campaign wanted to see them to see how many voters cast a vote in the Democratic primary of June 3, and then voted in the Republican run-off primary of June 24. However, the law says that before the Poll Books can be made public, each voter’s Social Security Number, birthdate, and telephone number must be redacted, which takes time.

Three justices feel the denial order is premature without further proceedings. Two justices did not participate. The Mississippi Supreme Court has nine members. See this story. The case is In Re: Chris McDaniel, 2014-M-967. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.

Several years ago, Professor Charles Wheelan launched a project to elect several independents to the U.S. Senate, with the hopes that they might hold the balance of power in the Senate. This year his Centrist Project has endorsed three such candidates. They are Larry Pressler in South Dakota, Greg Orman in Kansas, and Jill Bossi in South Carolina. In addition, the Project endorsed Democrat Michelle Nunn in Georgia and Republican incumbent Susan Collins in Maine. See the Centrist Project’s web page here.

Jill Bossi is technically a minor party nominee; the American Party of South Carolina, a new centrist party, nominated her. She has raised $11,470 so far this year.

Larry Pressler, the independent candidate in South Dakota, was in the Senate previously as a Republican, so he has high name recognition in his home state. He has raised $72,656 so far this year.

Greg Orman, the independent in Kansas, has raised $597,163 in donations this year. He declared his candidacy in June and is currently collecting his needed 5,000 signatures, which are due August 4. He is a businessman who announced for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in January 2008, and raised $568,838 in contributions for the 2008 race, but then he withdrew in February 2008 and returned those contributions.