The Bottom Line Party, which exists only to contest town elections in Windham, Connecticut, is fighting in court to place its nominees back on the ballot in the November 5, 2013 election. See this story. The hearing was October 28 and a decision will surely be reached very soon.
On October 27, Steve Collett, 58, of Hermosa Beach, California, died unexpectedly, apparently of bacterial pneumonia. In 2012 he had been the Libertarian Party’s best-funded congressional candidate. He raised $212,989 and spent $187,077, according to the FEC records, in his campaign for California’s 33rd district. He had been planning to make another run in 2014 for the same office.
Here is a news story about him; there will probably be others soon.
Collett’s 2012 race was against incumbent Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, and Republican-turned-independent Bill Bloomfield, and several other candidates. Waxman and Bloomfield placed first and second in the June 2012 primary. Bloomfield spent $1,214,976 in the race. Under California’s top-two system, Collett was barred from the November election and couldn’t even be a write-in candidate because the 2012 session of the legislature had abolished write-in space in general elections for Congress and partisan state office. Thanks to Independent Political Report for the link.
The Federal Election Commission has now published “Federal Elections 2012”, a book of election returns for primaries and the general election in 2012, for all federal office. The FEC personnel who prepare this book do an excellent job. The book has 183 pages. It is free and can be ordered by telephoning 800-424-9530.
Jonathan T. Soros has this interesting analysis of the causes of partisanship in the United States. He discusses gerrymandering, top-two primaries, and Instant-Runoff voting. Soros is a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and a co-founder of Friends of Democracy, a PAC that attempts to counter the influence of large amounts of money in campaigns. He is a son of George Soros. Here is a piece he and Mark Schmitt wrote earlier this year about the idea that the right to vote should be explicitly mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On October 28, a status conference was held in Hall v Bennett, the federal lawsuit over ballot access in the upcoming December 17 special election for U.S. House, in Alabama’s First District. The issue is whether the independent candidate procedures must be relaxed in special elections, given that the petitioning period is so much shorter. The case is being expedited and a decision is likely no later than November 8. The independent candidate, James Hall, submitted 2,835 signatures on the September 17 deadline. The normal requirement in this district is 5,938 signatures. The Republican Party still hasn’t chosen its nominee, but will do so in a run-off primary on November 5.
