Professor Josh Putnam, whose website Frontloading.com, here writes that the North Carolina legislature is likely to move its presidential primary from February to a later month. The 2013 session of the North Carolina legislature moved the state’s presidential primary from May to February, but that move definitely violates national Republican Party rules.
On December 12, the Eleventh Circuit refused to order Alabama to put James Hall on the ballot for the special U.S. House election, First District, that is being held December 17. The order is only a single sentence: “We affirm the District Court’s denial of appellants’ motion for a preliminary injunction on the grounds that the injury to the public from the issuance of an injunction would far outweigh any injury appellants might suffer.”
The order is signed by Judges Gerald Tjoflat, Charles R. Wilson, and R. Lanier Anderson.
The Eleventh Circuit has set a briefing schedule for Stein v Secretary of State of Alabama, 13-15556. This is the case in which the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties challenge the March petition deadline for new parties to submit approximately 44,000 valid signatures, in presidential election years. The parties’ opening brief is due January 14.
The Eleventh Circuit has three ballot access cases. Besides the Stein case, it has the challenge to Alabama’s special election petition requirements, and the Georgia case filed by the Green and Constitution Parties over the number of signatures required for President. The Eleventh Circuit includes Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.
The only other circuit with that many cases of interest to minor parties and independents is the Ninth Circuit. It has the Peace & Freedom Party case over whether Peta Lindsay should have been allowed on the party’s presidential primary ballot; the Libertarian-Green case over Arizona’s voter registration form that lists only the Democratic and Republican Parties; and a challenge to Alaska’s ban on out-of-state petitioners.
Scott Conroy, a national politics reporter for Real Clear Politics, has this article about why it is so difficult for a new political party in the United States to take root, even when there is widespread antipathy for each of the two older major parties. Conroy was a network TV reporter in 2012 who covered the Mitt Romney presidential campaign full-time.
The analysis says that given the U.S. winner-take-all system, combined with a separate election for president (as opposed to a parliamentary system), it is virtually impossible for a new party to arise. But this ignores the fact that in the 19th century, when the United States had the same election structure, three times one major party died off and was replaced by another. The Federalist Party died after 1820, to be replaced in 1825 by the National Republican Party (which ran John Quincy Adams for president in 1828, and Henry Clay in 1832). The National Republican Party died off and was replaced by the Whig Party in 1835. It died off during the Civil War, having already been replaced as a major party by the Republican Party.
The article has interesting information about Americans Elect.
The December 11 New York Times carries a letter to the editor from Peter Bartelmus of New York. The letter advocates a multi-party system for the United States. An editors’ note underneath the letter says, “We invite readers to respond briefly by Thursday for the Sunday Dialogue. We plan to publish responses and a rejoinder in the Sunday Review. Email: letters@nytimes.com.
