The Independent American Party will submit its petition for qualified party status to Utah election officials on February 14. The petition has approximately 3,000 signatures, and only 2,000 valid signatures are required.
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Last year the Ninth Circuit struck down Montana’s law making it a crime for a qualified political party to endorse or oppose a candidate in a judicial election. In November 2013, Montana asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse that decision. The case is Fox v Sanders County Republican Party, 13-839.
On January 15, the Republican Party, which had won the case in the lower court, waived its right to respond to Montana’s cert petition. On January 29 the U.S. Supreme Court set a conference date of February 21 for this case, to decide whether to hear it or not.
It has now been almost a month since the Republican Party waived its right to respond. Normally, when the side that won in the lower court waives its right to respond to a cert petition, if the U.S. Supreme Court is seriously thinking about taking the case, it asks for a response. Because it has been so long since the Republican Party waived its right to respond, and because the Court hasn’t asked the Republican Party to respond, that is a signal that the Court isn’t interested in hearing the case.
Here is a news story describing the oral argument held February 11 in Kobach v U.S. Election Assistance Commission, 5:13cv-4095. The issue is whether Kansas and Arizona may alter the federal voter registration form, to require that proof of citizenship be attached when the form is submitted.
On February 12, a Tampa Bay Times/WUSF Public Media poll for the March 11 special election in Florida’s 13th district was released. See this story. After “leaners” are included, the results are: Democratic Alex Sink 42%, Republican David Jolly 35%, Libertarian Lucas Overby 4%, other or undecided 19%. There is also a declared write-in candidate in the race, Michael Levinson, and the story mentions him but does not list any poll result for him.
The poll shows that Overby gets support from 9% of voters who describe themselves as independents. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
On February 12, California Congressman Gary Miller announced he will not run for re-election this year. He is a Republican elected in the 31st district in 2012. The 31st district is predominantly Democratic, but Miller only won because in the top-two primary, four Democrats split the Democratic vote and allowed the two Republicans to place first and second. See this story. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.