On September 23, 2014, University of California political scientists published a 54-page study of “moderate” voters. Extensive survey research, covering 134 issues, reveals that “moderate” voters are typically people who have a mixture of “extreme left” and “extreme right” views. They end up looking like moderates because of the eclectic mixture of views from both sides of the spectrum.
Here is an article about the study. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On October 24, the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, ruled that Gigi Bowman should be on the ballot as the Libertarian nominee for State Senate, 5th district, on Long Island. The case is Wilson v Bowman, 519828. Unqualified parties need 3,000 valid signatures to place a nominee on the ballot for State Senate in New York. The Libertarian petition had been challenged by Republican Party officials, and the lower court had removed Bowman from the ballot. The 4-page decision says that the challengers failed to serve Bowman in a timely fashion. Bowman also believes that she had enough valid signatures, but the court did not need to resolve that issue, since in any event the challenge to her petition is defective.
Bowman is the only Libertarian on the ballot for New York State Senate this year. The party also has two candidates for the Assembly.
Delaware’s member of the U.S. House, John Carney, will debate two of his three opponents on Monday, October 27. See this story. The Republican nominee is unwilling to participate.
On October 23, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate from Tennessee, Gordon Ball, debated five of his opponents. However, the Republican nominee, incumbent Senator Lamar Alexander, did not participate. The U.S. Senate race has nominees from the Green Party, the Constitution Party, and eight independents. Of all the partisan statewide races in the nation, the Tennessee U.S. Senate race has the most candidates on the ballot. See this story about the debate.
On October 23, a University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll was released for several statewide races in Texas. See the details here. For U.S. Senate, the results are: Republican 57%; Democratic 31%; Libertarian 7%; Green 5%. For Governor they are: Republican 54%; Democratic 38%; Libertarian 6%; Green 2%.
