Oregon Bill to Let Voters Choose Which Party to Vote For, When Candidate has More Than One Party Nomination

Posted on by March 8, 2015
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Two Oregon Democratic Representatives have introduced HB 3297. It would change Oregon ballots, for candidates who have the nomination of more than one party. Under current law, when a candidate is the nominee of more than one party, that candidate is only listed once on the general election ballot. The candidate’s name is followed by the names of all parties that have nominated him or her.

The bill would provide that when a candidate has the nomination of more than one party, his or her name would be listed separately for each party. This would give general election voters a choice of which party to support. This type of fusion is referred to as “disaggregated fusion.” States that use disaggregated fusion already are New York, Connecticut, and South Carolina.

The bill’s sponsors are Peter Buckley of Ashland, and Barbara Smith Warner of Portland. The Working Families Party asked for this bill.

California Republican Party Files Trademark Lawsuit Over Unauthorized Use of Elephant Logo

Posted on by March 18, 2015
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On March 5, the California Republican Party filed a federal lawsuit against the Asian American Small Business PAC, charging that the PAC sent campaign literature on behalf of a Republican running in the March 17 State Senate special election, district 7. The complaint is that the campaign literature uses the party’s elephant logo, even though the candidate, Michaela Hertle, is not endorsed by the Republican Party. Here is the complaint in the case, which was filed in the eastern district, 2:15cv-505.

The Republican National Committee trademarked its logo in 1969, according to the Complaint.

When the Washington state top-two case, Washington State Republican Party v Washington State Grange, was heard in the Ninth Circuit after being remanded by the U.S. Supreme Court, the lower federal courts said the Lanham Act doesn’t apply to political party names and symbols. The Lanham Act is the federal law concerning trademark infringement.