On March 18, John Mirisch sued the California Secretary of State for rejecting his declaration of candidacy. He is running for State Senate, 26th district. His paperwork was rejected because he had faxed it, although a few days later he supplemented the filing with an original document. Mirisch is a Republican and the Mayor of Beverly Hills. If he doesn’t get on the ballot, there will be no Republican in that race. The case is Mirisch v Bowen, 34-2014-80001790, Sacramento Superior Court. See this story.

As previously noted, on March 14, a U.S. District Court ruled that Tennessee’s law that disqualifies a party from the ballot after just one election, if it fails the 5% vote test, is unconstitutional. The basis is Equal Protection, because parties that meet the vote test are then ballot-qualified for the next two elections.

Here is a newspaper story about the decision, in the Johnson City Press.

Meanwhile, committees in both houses of the Tennessee legislature had been expected to hold hearings on the bill lowering the statewide petition for newly-qualifying parties from 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote (slightly over 40,000 signatures) to exactly 2,500 signatures. But both committees have put over the hearing until March 25.

On March 18, the Louisiana Senate & Governmental Affairs Committee defeated SB 60. The bill would let independent candidates appear on the ballot as “independent”, instead of “no party.” The vote was tied at 4-4, but bills can’t pass unless they obtain more “yes” votes than “no” votes. Current law puts independent candidates on the ballot as “no party”, except that independent presidential candidates may have “independent.” See this story.