At the November 4, 2014 election, the Conservative Party of New York polled the highest percentages for Congress and state legislature since 1990. In the 2014 election, for U.S. House, 8.46% of the voters who were able to vote “Conservative”, did so. For State Senate, 9.43% of the voters who were able to vote for the party did so. For Assembly, the percentage was 10.05%.

For all three categories of office, these were the highest percentages for the Conservative Party since 1990. The Conservatives did very well in 1990 for all levels of office, because the party had its own nominee (who was not the Republican nominee) for Governor, Herb London, who ran a strong campaign and almost outpolled the Republican nominee. London received 20.40% of the vote.

For Governor in 2014, the Conservative Party polled 6.57%, its best showing for Governor since 1998, when it polled 7.36%. By contrast, in 2010 the Conservative Party had polled 4.99% for Governor, and in 2006 only 3.80%.

In 2014, the party’s best showing for state legislature was in the Assembly race in the 115th district. The Conservative nominee, Karen M. Bisso, was the only opponent of the Republican nominee, and Bisso polled 34.65%. The 115th district includes Clinton and Franklin Counties, in the northeast corner of the state. Here is a news story about the race, from before the election.

Also in 2014, in the 143rd Assembly district in Erie County, the joint Republican-Conservative nominee, Angela Wozniak, is an enrolled Conservative Party member, and she won the election, although only 12.29% of the vote cast in that race was on the Conservative line. Wozniak lives in Cheektowaga and is 27 years old. In 2012, the 143rd Assembly district had elected a Democrat, but he didn’t run for re-election.

Here is an article about the challenge to Willie Wilson’s petitions to be on the ballot for Mayor of Chicago. Incumbent Rahm Emanuel has challenged approximately three-fourths of Wilson’s petitions. According to this story, Emanuel even challenged Wilson’s own signature on his own petition.

Everyone needs at least 12,500 signatures to be on a Chicago ballot for citywide office.

On December 19, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the 2011 redistricting plan for both U.S. House and state legislature. See this story. The voting rights advocates who brought the case say they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the State Supreme Court. A similar case is before the U.S. Supreme Court now, concerning Alabama legislative districts. Both sets of plaintiffs argue that the districts pack too many African-American voters into certain districts, which prevents them from having an impact on most other districts. There were other issues in the North Carolina case as well, concerning splitting precincts.

The North Carolina case is Dickson v Rucho, 201PA12. Here is a link to the 51-page decision. The vote was 4-2, with one justice not voting.