The Republican Party has tentatively chosen Cleveland, Ohio as the host for its 2016 presidential convention. See this story. This makes it very likely that the convention will start July 18. Cleveland can’t accomodate a Republican convention in June.
The story says Democrats won’t choose their city until late 2014 or early 2015.
The District of Columbia will elect an Attorney General in November 2014 for the first time. Even though the law setting up the election says the post is a partisan office, this year the election for that office will be non-partisan. No party names will be shown next to the names of candidates. This is because the District didn’t realize it would be electing this office until June, when the D.C. Appeals Court ruled the election must be held. By then the partisan primaries had already been held.
Three candidates are circulating petitions to be on the ballot for Attorney General. They need 3,000 signatures. The election law doesn’t actually specify how many signatures are needed for this type of election, but the Board decided to apply the independent candidate petition requirement to candidates for this office.
On July 7, four voters who wish to contribute more than $1,500 to an independent candidate for Governor filed a federal lawsuit, challenging the Maine campaign finance law that lets individuals give $3,000 to a candidate who runs in both a partisan primary and a general election, but only $1,500 to a petitioning candidate. See this story. The case is Woodhouse v Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, 1:14-266. Thanks to Thomas MacMillan for the link. This case is very similar to one filed recently by the Constitution Party in Wyoming.
The Albuquerque Journal has this mention of the lawsuit Parker v Duran, which challenges the need for independent candidates to submit a petition of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, when the nominees of minor parties need 1%, and members of major parties need an even smaller number of signatures to get on a primary ballot. The lawsuit was filed July 3.
New Mexico is tied with Montana and Alabama for having the nation’s highest percentage of signatures needed for independent candidates for non-presidential statewide office. New Mexico and Alabama are at 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, and Montana is at 5% of the winning candidate’s vote, which is approximately the same.
UPDATE: here is a more comprehensive story from the Associated Press.
Independent candidate Mark Bray, running for the U.S. House in Alabama’s 5th district, has qualified for the November ballot. See this story. He is the first independent candidate for Congress to appear on the Alabama ballot since 2006. The 5th district is the northern-most part of Alabama. If Bray had not qualified, the incumbent member of Congress would have been unopposed.
