The November 23 edition of the New York Times has a lengthy and respectful obituary for David Nolan. The obituary is also notable for seeming to suggest that minor parties have an important influence on the free circulation of ideas, even when they are not numerically strong.
UPDATE: the Washington Post obituary also has some of the characteristics of the Times obituary.
The Washington Post has this summary of the crowded field for the Chicago Mayoral election, including coverage of the legal controversy over whether Rahm Emanuel meets the residency requirement. Twenty candidates filed petitions by the November 22 deadline. The election is set for February 22. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link. One of the candidates is outgoing U.S. Senator Roland Burris. Another is the man who lives in the Chicago home owned by Emanuel.
In 2008, the Independent American Party elected the County Clerk of Eureka County, Nevada, Jackie Berg. She was up for re-election this month. On election night she seemed to have defeated her Republican opponent by 376-373. But a recount was held, and the new results are 373-373. The tie will be settled on Friday, November 26, by a card drawing. See this story. UPDATE: the drawing is Friday, December 3.
The Independent American Party definitely won three other partisan county elections in Nevada this month.
Alabama elects all its state legislators to four-year terms, in midterm years. At the November 2010 election Republicans won majorities in both houses of the Alabama legislature for the first time since the 19th century. Now, four more Democrats have switched parties, even though they had been elected as Democrats just three weeks ago. See this story.
November 22 was the deadline for candidates for Mayor of Chicago to file petitions. The city requires 12,500 valid signatures. The race is non-partisan. Because no incumbent is running, there are far more candidates than normal. It appears that eleven candidates submitted petitions, although it is too early to know how many of them have at least 12,500 signatures. Under Illinois law, a petition is deemed to be valid, even if it has only one signature, if no one challenges it.
The Chicago election is on February 22, 2011. Chicago requires far more signatures to run for Mayor than any other city in the United States. The new, lower petition requirement to run for Mayor of New York city is 3,750, whether the candidate is running in a party primary or petitioning directly for the general election.
On November 22, the Utah Elections office posted the official canvass of votes to its web page. The figures show that the Libertarian Party did receive enough votes to remain ballot-qualified. On election night, it appeared that the party had failed to re-qualify by about 100 votes. But the official figures are more favorable.
The party needed to receive 12,810 votes for one of its nominees. Its gubernatorial nominee polled 12,871 votes. This means the Libertarian Party is now ballot-qualified for president in 2012 in 27 states. A petition drive is underway in Maryland which should be finished by early January, which will increase the number to 28. If the New York official canvass shows that the party polled at least 50,000 votes for Governor, that will increase the number to 29. That canvass won’t be finished until mid-December.
It was already obvious, on election night, that the Constitution Party had received enough votes to remain on the ballot in Utah. Its nominee for U.S. Senate polled 35,937 votes, almost 6%. The Constitution Party is on the ballot for president already in 12 states. The Green Party is now on for president in 2012 in 14 states, and that will increase to 15 when it submits its Maryland petition by the end of the year.