On July 31, the Prohibition Party nominated Jim Hedges for President and Bill Bayes for Vice-President. The nomination was made with a two-hour conference call. Hedges lives in Big Tannery Cove, Pennsylvania; Bayes in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Hedges has been the party’s newsletter editor and publisher for many years.
Mayor Shayne Gallo of Kingston, New York, is running for re-election in a partisan election on November 3, 2015. He is a Democrat, but he has a powerful opponent in the Democratic primary in September. In case he loses the Democratic primary, he hoped to be nominated by either or both the Independence Party and the Conservative Party. He did not file to run in the Working Families Party primary.
Due to a judicial decision saying his acceptance form was a day too late for the Independence and Conservative process, he can’t expect to get their nomination. Although he could run as a write-in, it is unlikely he could win because his Republican opponent is on the ballot in the primaries of those two parties.
But, as this story explains, Mayor Gallo might get the Green Party nomination on write-in votes in the Green primary. That would not be very difficult because no one has qualified to be on the Green Party primary ballot for Mayor.
On July 31, Ohio Governor John Kasich spoke in Keene, New Hampshire. He was asked whether he feels general election presidential debates should include more than two candidates. He responded, “I don’t know; I haven’t thought about it.” Then he asked the questioner who the third candidate might be. The reporter who asked the question mentioned the Libertarian and Green Parties.
Kasich then started to make a reference to the 2014 gubernatorial election in Ohio, where three candidates were on the ballot, Kasich, the Democratic nominee, and the Green Party nominee. He started to say that he had some discussions about whether to include the Green, but trailed off, and said, “I don’t know. I’ll see how serious they are.” Actually, the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of Ohio in 2014 was willing to include the Green Party nominee, and it was Governor Kasich who refused to include her.
Use this link to watch the video. Click on the 5th segment (the segments are listed on the right edge). The question about the general election debates starts at 52 seconds in. Thanks to Darryl Perry for the link.
On July 31, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted ruled in favor of two independent candidates seeking a place on the 2015 general election in two cities. See this story. Ohio law is very vague about who can qualify to be an independent candidate. Ohio doesn’t ask about party choice (or independent status) on voter registration forms, yet the law says no one may be an independent candidate who is “affiliated” with a party. This standard forces election administrators and state courts to look into the personal characteristics of candidates, to measure their intent. No other state has this type of ambiguity.
On July 31, Paul Panepinto, independent candidate for Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice, filed approximately 28,000 signatures to be on the November 3, 2015 ballot. He is the first petitioning candidate for that office since 1993. The requirement is slightly more than 16,000 signatures. The requirement would be higher, except the 1993 petitioning candidate, Robert Surrick, won a lawsuit in 1993 to lower the number of signatures for statewide judicial candidates who petition in odd years.
Given the victory against the Pennsylvania system for checking signatures on July 24, it will be interesting to see if anyone challenges Panepinto’s petition. The victory in court on July 24, 2015, only applies to Constitution, Green, and Libertarian petitions.
