Bob Bauer’s More Soft Money Hard Law blog has this interesting commentary about the state of federal campaign finance law, in which political parties are uniquely disadvantaged, compared to almost every other kind of organization. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On January 30, the South Carolina State Election Commission determined that the petition submitted by the American Party has enough valid signatures. The American Party was founded a year ago by Jim Rex, a former Democratic elected Education Superintendent, and Dr. Oscar Lovelace, who had run for Governor in the Republican primary in 2006. In a two-person race against Mark Sanford, Lovelace had polled 35.2%. The new party held a press conference at the State Capitol on January 31 to announce the news.
The party was originally called the Free Citizens Party. It wants to concentrate on local races this year, and its founders will now tour the state, seeking to recruit good candidates. The party says it wants to expand across the nation in 2016.
This is the first party to successfully petition in South Carolina since 2012, when Americans Elect qualified. It never ran any candidates, but is still on the ballot. It will be removed from the ballot if it fails to run any candidates in 2014.
The American Party submitted 16,000 valid signatures in order to qualify, and gathered signatures in each of the 46 counties. Thanks to Andy for the news.
On January 31, New York State Senator Thomas O’Mara (R-Elmira) introduced S6519, which would give New York an August primary for congress, state, and local office. The bill leaves the independent petition deadline in early August. The bill is supported by all the New York Senate Republicans so is likely to pass the Senate.
The bill is in competition with A8198, backed by Assembly Democrats. It sets the primary in June, and moves the independent candidate petition to May. If that bill passed, New York’s petition deadline for presidential candidates would be the earliest in the nation (no other state’s independent presidential deadline is earlier than June), and would probably be held unconstitutional under Anderson v Celebrezze.
Florida will hold a special U.S. House election to fill the vacant 19th district seat on June 24. This special election is needed because Congressman Trey Radel resigned on January 27. The 19th district is a strongly Republican seat on the southwest coast of Florida, including Fort Myers and Naples.
This will be the second special U.S. House election in Florida in the winter or spring of 2014. The special election in the 13th district is March 11.
The Florida vacancy stands in stark contrast with the vacant U.S. House seat in North Carolina. North Carolina Congressman Mel Watt resigned on January 6, 2014, but North Carolina voters won’t fill that vacancy until November 4, 2014. North Carolina says holding a special election before November would be too expensive and complicated.
This USA Today article says that vote-counting machines across the U.S. are aging, obsolete, and that the U.S. Election Assistance Commission has been unable to develop standards for new technology. The article also explains that Los Angeles County is spending $42,000,000 to build its own vote-counting technology. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
