On August 4, Mississippi held primaries for the statewide executive offices. The state elects its Governor and other statewide offices, and its legislators, on November 3, 2015. The Democratic primary was won by Robert Gray, who didn’t campaign, nor spend any money. He didn’t even vote in the primary. He defeated two other candidates who had campaigned. See this story.
The vote isn’t official, but so far Gray has 51%, enough to avoid a runoff primary. Thanks to Mike Fellows for the link.
On August 5, the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion in Veasey v Abbott, 14-41127. The voting rights organizations that filed the case had argued that the 2011 Texas law that requires voters at the polls to show certain kinds of government photo-ID violates the Voting Rights Act, section two. In 2014 the U.S. District Court had agreed with the plaintiffs and invalidated the law. The Fifth Circuit agrees with the U.S. District Court that the Texas law has the effect of discriminating against Hispanic and African-American voters.
But the Fifth Circuit said that just because the law has a discriminatory effect does not resolve the case. The Fifth Circuit remanded the case back to the U.S. District Court to determine if the Texas law was enacted with a discriminatory purpose. If it doesn’t, then section two of the Voting Rights Act cannot be used to overturn the law. The Fifth Circuit expresses no opinion about whether the Texas photo ID law violates the Fourteenth Amendment. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On August 4, a New Jersey trial court in Bergen County ruled that Thomas Madigan’s petition to be on the November 3, 2015 ballot is valid. He is running for Township Committee, Wyckoff Township. He needed 100 signatures and submitted 194. Two seats are up. One of the Republican candidates for the same office challenged his petition on several grounds: (1) that he signed as the circulator but didn’t actually witness some of the signatures; (2) that he can’t sign his own petition because he also signed a primary petition for someone who was running for the same office; (3) that some of his signatures are forged.
The judge ruled in favor of Madigan on all points. See this story.
On August 4, Pennsylvania held a special election to fill the vacant State House seat, 161st district. The only two candidates on the ballot were Republican Paul A. Mullen and Democrat Leanne Krueger-Braneky. However, there was another Republican running a strong write-in campaign. Her name is Lisa Esler.
The unofficial results are: Krueger-Braneky 4,791; Mullen 4,268; Esler and other write-ins 988. When this district voted in November 2014, the vote had been: Republican 12,916; Democratic 10,176.
In Pennsylvania special elections, there are no primaries; party meetings chose the nominees. For this special election, the Republican Party had picked a candidate who is friendly to labor unions, but many Republican activists were unhappy with that choice and organized a write-in campaign for another Republican.
On August 3, the Louisiana Republican Party filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleging that the part of the McCain-Feingold Law of 2002 that limits individual campaign contributions to political parties is unconstitutional. The lawsuit only pertains to independent expenditures made by political parties.
Here is the Complaint. The case is Republican Party of Louisiana v Federal Election Commission, 1:15cv-1241.
Generally, all groups can receive unlimited donations if the money is used for independent expenditures. The only type of group for which that statement is not true is a political party. Before 2002, anyone could give as much money to a political party as he or she desired, whether the money was going for independent expenditures or coordinated expenditures.
