Great Britain held local elections on May 2. Here is an interesting article about the results. The UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) made such substantial gains, it is becoming less and less meaningful to say that Britain just has two major parties. Thanks to Nathan Hetzel for the link.
As noted earlier, on March 19, a U.S. District Court in Arizona had upheld the state’s voter registration forms. Even though Arizona provides mandatory primaries to five political parties, the state’s voter registration forms only have three checkboxes, labeled “Democratic”, “Republican” and “other.” There is a short blank line next to the “other” checkbox, so that voters can either write in “independent” or the name of some other party, qualified or not. The case is Arizona Libertarian Party v Bennett, 4:11cv-856.
The Libertarian and Green Parties had asked for reconsideration on April 15. On April 22, the judge asked the state to respond to the request for reconsideration. On May 3, the state courteously responded that it had no objection to the request for rehearing and the additional evidence that had been submitted with the reconsideration request. The fact that the judge asked the state to respond is encouraging; most requests for reconsideration are simply denied.
In 2012, the Columbus Metropolitan Club, a corporation, invited the chair of the Ohio Republican Party, and the Ohio Democratic Party, to a forum, to discuss “Presidential Politics in Ohio.” The Club refused to invite the chairs of the other ballot-qualified parties in Ohio to participate in the forum.
On April 30, the FEC, responding to a complaint, issued this analysis. The FEC seems to be saying that the Club broke the law by making a contribution to the Ohio Democratic Party and the Ohio Republican Party. But it says the ticket sales were less than $3,000, so the amount at issue is so small, the FEC is exercising its discretion not to prosecute the club. See this news story.
John L. Mealer, of Lakeside, Arizona, has filed campaign finance documents with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office, indicating he is raising money for a campaign for Governor and that he will run in the Americans Elect Party primary. See this link. Thanks to Richard Grayson for the news.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is being mentioned as a possible Republican nominee for President in 2016 or some later year. According to this story, Political Scientist Larry Sabato says there ought to be a court ruling on the meaning of the presidential qualification “natural-born citizen.” Senator Cruz was born in Canada. At the time of his birth, his father was a Cuban citizen and his mother was a U.S. citizen. Cruz’ father did not become a U.S. citizen until Ted Cruz himself was an adult.
One possibility not discussed in the article is that the U.S. could just repeal the qualification and trust the voters to elect any U.S. Citizen who had attained the existing age and duration of residency requirements already in the Constitution. One wonders what good the “natural-born” qualification does, since its meaning is so obscure. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
