On Saturday evening, May 31, the New York Working Families Party endorsed Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic candidate, for Governor. Although technically all ballot-qualified parties in New York nominate by primary, the endorsement means Cuomo has qualified for the WFP primary, and it is virtually certain that no other candidate will be on the party’s primary ballot for Governor. See this New York Times story. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
On May 23, The Tarrance Group released a poll for U.S. House, 2nd district of West Virginia. The results: Republican Alex Mooney 39%, Democrat Nick Casey 29%, independent Ed Rabel 10%, Libertarian Davy Jones 3%, undecided 19%.
Rabel is a well-known native of West Virginia who was a television network reporter for overseas news for 34 years. He appeared on CBS 1965-1985 and NBC 1985-1998. His autobiography, “Lies, Wars and Other Misadventures” was published in 2012. If he gets 10% in the November 2012 election, that will be the best showing for a non-major party candidate for U.S. House in West Virginia, who had opponents from both major parties, since 1976. In 1976 independent candidate Ken Hechler had placed a close second, with 36.7% for U.S. House in West Virginia’s 4th district. Here is Rabel’s campaign web page.
Rabel had intended to run in 2014 as a Mountain Party candidate, but then early this year he had decided to run as an independent instead. He would probably do better if West Virginia did not have a straight-ticket device. Thanks to Michael for the link to the poll.
Ballotpedia is a web page that began in 2006. At first it had information solely about ballot measures in each state. The founders of the page have expanded the contents to many more fields, including details on the existing ballot access laws for candidates for federal and state office. See here.
On May 30, the Louisiana Senate amended HB 431 so that the bill, in addition to making campaign finance changes, moves the presidential primary from mid-March to early March. If the bill is signed into law, the 2016 presidential primary will be March 5 instead of March 19. Thanks to Frontloading HQ for this news.
In the meantime, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon still hasn’t signed or vetoed SB 892, which would move the Missouri presidential primary from February to March.
On May 30, filing closed for major party primaries in Wyoming. The only person who filed for U.S. House in the Democratic primary is Richard Grayson, who lives in Apache Junction, Arizona. He is one of only two individuals in the U.S. who has ever been an Americans Elect nominee for Congress; he won the Arizona Americans Elect primary in 2012 for U.S. House, 5th district. Here is a story about the primary field in Wyoming, with a fair amount about Grayson.
No Democrat is running for Secretary of State. The two ballot-qualified minor parties in Wyoming, the Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party, need not nominate until August, and independent candidates file in August.
It seems that there are at least four individuals who have run for Congress in major party primaries this year, or who are about to, who do not live in the state in which they are running. There were a few instances in 2012 as well.
