This article describes the Puerto Rican vote on statehood. Even though 61% of the voters voted for statehood, the article explains, Congress is not likely to pass any bill in 2013 to make Puerto Rico a state. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
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The Arizona Secretary of State’s web page has campaign finance reports for committees that either supported, or opposed, Proposition 121, this year’s top-two initiative. Donations and spending that occurred up until October 25, 2012 are now known. Donations and spending for the period later than October 25 will not be known until December 6, 2012.
The only committee that raised and spent money to defeat the initiative, Save Our Vote, raised $458,851 and spent $380,985, in the period July through October 25.
Two committees raised money in support of the initiative. The Open Government committee raised $1,330,582 prior to October 26, 2012, and Arizonans for a Top Two Primary raised $12,958. One of the biggest individual donors to the Open Government Committee is Rob Walton, chair of Walmart. On September 19, 2012, he contributed $50,000 to the campaign in favor of the top-two primary.
Proponents of the initiative, of course, spent a great deal of their money on paying petition circulators, and the campaign finance reports don’t make it possible to know how much the supporters spent on petitioning, versus how much they spent on advertising. Proponents spent most of their advertising budget on television. Proponents also arranged for robocalls to registered Republicans, saying that Republicans support Prop. 121; see here for more about that.
Opponents of the initiative had television ads, but seem to have relied more on direct postal mail. Opponents appeared at a panel discussion on October 14. Here is a link to the hour-long event, which included these five panelists: Luis Heredia, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party; Barry Hess, spokesperson for the Arizona Libertarian Party; Mike Liburdi, a Republican and the attorney who challenged the placement of Prop. 121 on the ballot; Christina Tobin of Free & Equal; and Angel Torres, co-chair of the Arizona Green Party. Barbara Klein, president of the state League of Women Voters, moderated. The comments of Heredia are especially interesting; to hear him, go to the 15 minute mark and also the 31 minute mark.
Proponents are charging that the initiative lost overwhelmingly because of large contributions against the initiative from Americans for Responsible Leadership, which has ties to Charles and David Koch. That contribution came in after many Arizona had already voted.
On November 6, six independent candidates were elected to the South Carolina legislature. However, in only one of these six races did the independent candidate beat major party nominees who were running. That was in the State Senate 23rd district. The results in that race are: independent Katrina Shealy 16,662; Republican Jake Knotts 14,271; Constitution Party nominee David Whetsell 1,587.
In the other five races, the independent who won had no major party opponents. These unusual races included four in which the only candidates on the ballot were independents; and one race in which the only two candidates on the ballot were an independent and a Libertarian. That race, for State House in the 26th district, had these results: independent Raye Felder 5,894; Libertarian Jeremy C. Walters 5,239. Walters notes that the State Election Commission webpage, on election night, omitted one of the sixteen precincts in his district, and says that happens to have been his strongest precinct. On November 8 he visited the county election commission and asked to see the full returns, but was not allowed to see them.
The races in which only independents were on the ballot were State House races, in districts 15, 56, 64, and 105. The winners were, respectively, Samuel Rivers, Mike Ryhal, Robert Ridgeway, and Kevin Hardee.
Ian Millhiser, a Senior Policy Analyst for the Center for American Progress, says that based on preliminary election returns, approximately 500,000 more voters cast a vote for a Democrat than for a Republican, for U.S. House, in this year’s election. But, of course, Republicans won more seats. Millhiser says that gerrymandering is responsible for the Republican House majority. See here.
Millhiser says he omitted all races in which one of the major party candidates didn’t run anyone. That is almost one-eighth of the seats, so that may represent a flaw in Millhiser’s approach. Millhiser does not seem to have added up the U.S. House vote for candidates other than Republicans or Democrats, but it is clear already that neither major party polled a majority of the U.S. House vote. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
On November 6, Frank Gilbert, Libertarian Party nominee for Constable of DeKalb Township in Grant County, was elected. He ran unopposed, but the office is a partisan office. Gilbert is a former Mayor of Tull, and has been active in the Libertarian Party for many decades.