On September 21, Harper Polling released a poll for U.S. House, New York 21st district. The results: Republican incumbent Elise Stefanik 51%; Democrat Mike Derrick 17%; Green Party nominee Matt Funiciello 13%; undecided 19%.
Funiciello ran a strong campaign for the same seat in 2012, and got 11.0% even though the race was very close between the Democratic and Republican nominees. The 21st district is the northern most part of New York state. Thanks to Green Party Watch for the link.
All sides in the lawsuit Utah Republican Party v Herbert have agreed that Greg Bell should be the mediator, to try to settle the lawsuit. One issue in the lawsuit is whether the state can force the Republican and Constitution Parties to let people onto their primary ballots even if those candidates have not shown any support at a party endorsements convention. The other issue is whether the state can force those two parties to let independent voters vote in their primaries.
It is unusual for a political party freedom of association lawsuit to go to arbitration. See this story.
Greg Sargent writes in the Washington Post about the unhappiness many Democratic Party activists feel toward the party’s debate rules.
On September 22, the independent candidates who are challenging the Arkansas March petition deadline asked for reconsideration. Last month a U.S. District Court in Arkansas had said that early petition deadlines are constitutional if the number of signatures is small. That Court upheld the deadline. The case is Moore v Martin, e.d., 4:14cv-65.
The case has no effect on presidential independent deadlines. Independent presidential candidates in Arkansas have an August deadline.
The request for reconsideration points out that early petition deadlines are unconstitutional all by themselves, regardless of how many signatures are required. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 struck down the Ohio March petition deadline even though Ohio only required 5,000 signatures, which at the time was only one-tenth of 1% of the electorate. Furthermore, the Arkansas non-presidential independent candidate petition requirements are not easy. Arkansas requires 10,000 signatures for statewide office, which is about 1% of the normal vote cast in presidential years, and 1.5% of the normal vote in midterm years. Independent candidates for district office need petitions of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote within that district. Arkansas independent petition requirements are considerably more difficult than the median requirements of the 50 states.
Independent U.S. Senate candidate Greg Dorsey is currently challenging the Maryland law that requires him to get almost four times as many signatures as are needed for a new party in Maryland. The state is trying to get his case dismissed before a trial is held. Here is Dorsey’s response to that. The case is Dorsey v Lamone, 1:15cv-2170.
