California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was the leading proponent of California’s top-two ballot measures, both in 2004 (when the proposal lost) and in June 2010 (when it won). The July 20 Sacramento Bee has this discussion with Rob Stutzman, who was the Governor’s chief of staff for communications and who still supports top-two systems. In the piece, which discusses the failure of a leading independent candidate for Secretary of State this year to qualify for the November ballot, Stutzman says, “I think an independent can win in a general election, but its extremely difficult to advance through the top-two primary.”

The piece also includes comments from Darry Sragow, a former supporter of Americans Elect. Sragow seems to sidestep taking a position on whether top-two systems are good or bad for independent candidates.

Even though both Stutzman and Sragow are experts on political campaigns, neither one of them mentions the subsidiary harm done by California’s top-two law, relative to independent candidates. The California law does not permit an independent candidate to have the ballot label “independent” on the ballot. The candidate is stuck with the unappealing label, “no party preference”. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

On July 21, Sienna College Research Institute released a poll for the New York gubernatorial race, and other statewide races. For Governor, the poll separates respondents by many variables, including region. The poll shows that Howie Hawkins, the Green Party nominee, is receiving 11% in upstate New York, but 2% in New York city and 3% in the New York city suburban counties. See the details here; scroll down to question 36.

The results are somewhat similar to the actual election returns in Illinois in 2006, when Green Party nominee Richard Whitney received 11.6% of the vote in downstate Illinois, but 8.3% in Cook County. In both cases, Greens had less support in the large metropolitan center than in other parts of the state.

The new New York poll shows these statewide results: Democrat Andrew Cuomo 60%, Republican Rob Astorino 23%, Hawkins 6%, undecided 11%. There will probably be a Libertarian gubernatorial nominee on the ballot as well, but the poll did not mention any other candidates. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.

On July 18, a Florida state court ruled that legislative candidates cannot be required to live in any particular district. This is because the State Constitution sets the qualifications for state legislature. Like the U.S. Constitution, the Florida Constitution’s residency requirement only applies to a candidate’s residence on election day. Therefore, because the filing date is several months before the election, there is in effect no residency requirement, because no one knows where any particular candidate will be living on election day, which is in the future. See this story. The headline implies the ruling only applies to write-in candidates, but it actually applies to all candidates, write-in or on the ballot.