On October 3, the U.S. Supreme Court said it will meet as usual during the week of October 7-11, despite the federal government’s partial shutdown. The Court hears McCutcheon v Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, October 8. It will announce some orders on October 7.
On October 3, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 1419, which moves the deadline for new parties to get on the ballot for President from January to July.
New Hampshire Representative Joel Winters (D-Manchester) has introduced HB 2523, to change the definition of “political party” from a group that polled 4% for either Governor or U.S. Senator, to a group that polled 3% for either of those offices. The New Hampshire legislature won’t meet until 2014, but New Hampshire legislators introduce bills in advance of the beginning of the session. Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.
From 1891 until 1997, New Hampshire defined a party as a group that had polled 3% for Governor. In 1997 the percentage was changed to 4%, and U.S. Senate was added to Governor as a race in which the vote test applies. Ever since the November 1996 election, only the Democratic and Republican Parties have been recognized. Although New Hampshire has a party petition procedure, if a group completes the party petition, it still doesn’t have the status of a “party” and if people register as members of such a group, election officials consider them independent voters. That is why there has been no tally of the number of registered Libertarians, Greens, or other minor parties, in many years. The New Hampshire party petition procedure requires a petition of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, which is so difficult, it has never been used, except by the Libertarian Party in 2000 and 2012.
On September 30, U.S. District Court Judge James Teilborg, a Clinton appointee, ruled that Arizona’s definition of “political committee” is too restrictive. A political committee must file before it carries out any campaign activity, and it must provide the name, address, telephone number, occupation and employer of its chairman and its treasurer, who must be two different individuals. It must list all its banks and other depositories, and its statement must be notarized. Later, it must report all its contributions and expenditures.
The 53-page order explains that the plaintiff in this case, Dina Gaiassini, sent an e-mail in 2011 to some friends who lived in her town of Fountain Hills, advocating that they oppose an upcoming bond measure. One of the e-mails was forwarded to some town officials, who wrote her a letter saying she is breaking the law if she doesn’t register as a political committee. She then filed the lawsuit. The state legislature later amended the law. The amendment appeared to exempt groups from filing as a political committee if they spend less than $250, but the new law is drafted badly and the judge ruled that Gaiassini still has standing to challenge the new law, because it still would have had an effect on her. The opinion says, “The definition of political committee in Arizona Revised Statutes 16-901(19) is overbroad because it sweeps in a substantial amount of protected speech that the State does not have an important interest in regulating.” Thanks to the Center for Competitive Politics for the link.
The Green Party recently learned that it is the recipient of a bequest of $50,000. The bequester, who had lived in Minnesota, had not told the party about the bequest while he was alive. The Green Party is now in a somewhat analogous situation to the Libertarian Party, because the FEC will not let the either party receive all of its bequest in a single calendar year. That policy is under court attack in an ongoing Libertarian Party lawsuit.
