On October 26, Charles Wheelan, a professor of Economics and Public Policy, spoke at Dartmouth about his proposal that a new Centrist Party be established. See this article in The Dartmouth, the campus daily newspaper.
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On October 28, Ken Block, founder of the Moderate Party of Rhode Island, re-registered as a Republican. He will seek the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2014. In 2010, Block was the Moderate Party’s gubernatorial nominee, and he polled 6.47%, giving the party ballot status through 2014. Although the Moderate Party will still be on the ballot in 2014, without Block, it probably won’t survive beyond 2014.
The party’s biggest achievement was probably winning a ballot access lawsuit that struck down a Rhode Island law that made it illegal for anyone to circulate the party petition during an odd year. The party also tried very hard to persuade the 2013 session of the legislature to abolish the straight-ticket device. Even though the party persuaded a majority of Rhode Island state legislators to support that bill, the bill didn’t pass because the Speaker of the House blocked it.
On October 11, the Florida Department of Corrections reversed course, and decided that prisoners who subscribe to The Militant can receive the paper. The Militant is the weekly newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party. The paper had initially been blocked because of its coverage of the hunger strike in certain prisons in California. See this story.
On October 23, the Arizona Secretary of State determined that the referendum petition concerning HB 2305 has enough valid signatures to be on the November 2014 ballot. See this story. HB 2305 is an omnibus election law bill. Among other things, it makes it virtually impossible for a member of a small ballot-qualified party to get on his or her own party’s primary ballot. And it makes it literally impossible for a small ballot-qualified party to nominate candidates by write-in at its own primary.
As a result of the success of the petition drive, HB 2305 can’t go into effect in 2014. Voters will vote in 2014 on whether to repeal the law. Even if voters vote to keep the law, it can’t affect the 2014 election.
Collecting over 100,000 signatures was only possible because other parts of HB 2305 are considered damaging to voters who are inclined to vote for Democratic Party nominees. Therefore, the Arizona Democratic Party and its allies are responsible for collecting most of the signatures. Arizona and Ohio are two states in which the Democratic Party has been a force for fair ballot access laws, during 2013. In Ohio, Senate Democrats were united in opposing SB 193 this month, and for supporting an amendment to lower the petition for newly-qualifying parties from 56,000 signatures to 2,000 signatures. Of course, in both Arizona and Ohio, Democrats are in the minority in both houses of the legislature. The fate of Ohio’s SB 193 will be determined in the coming week, when the Ohio House takes up the bill.
On October 26, all three candidates for Governor of Virginia shared the same stage in Richmond. See this story.