On April 14, the Egyptian Election Commission barred ten presidential candidates from the ballot, including three who had been considered possible winners. See this New York Times story. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
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The Bar Area Reporter, northern California’s largest gay publication, has this story on Stephen Durham, presidential candidate of the Freedom Socialist Party. The Bay Area Reporter always gives extensive coverage to major party stories, but seldom runs articles of this length about minor party candidates. Durham is gay and is apparently the only self-identified gay person running for President in the general election this year.
On April 13, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled 3-1 that State Representative Dianne Hamilton (R-Silver City) should remain on the June 5 Republican primary ballot, as a candidate for re-election. The Court did not explain its reasoning. The case is Fortenberry v Hamilton, no. 33,563.
See this story, which explains why Hamilton’s petition was challenged. Besides omitting the district number on some of her petition sheets, it is alleged that she didn’t really have the needed 70 valid signatures. The challenger asserted that some of the signers were not registered Republicans, or else did not register to vote until after they signed her petition.
Alan Woodruff, an attorney in northeastern Tennessee, will be the Democratic nominee for U.S. House this year in Tennessee’s First District. He is the only person who filed for the Democratic nomination. The First District is considered a stronghold for the Republican Party. In 2010 the Democratic nominee in this district polled 17.1% and the Republican nominee, Phil Roe, polled 80.8%.
Woodruff is the attorney for the pending lawsuit Green Party of Tennessee v Hargett, which won in U.S. District Court on February 3, 2012. The decision of the U.S. District Court not only struck down the Tennessee ballot access law for newly-qualifying parties, it resulted in the Green Party and the Constitution Party being placed on the 2012 ballot. Woodruff is defending this decision in the 6th circuit, where the state has asked for a stay of the order that put those two parties on the ballot.
Woodruff had also won parts of a ballot access decision against three New Mexico laws earlier, including striking down the law that forbids parties from nominating someone who has not been a member for the preceding several months, if the party in question does not desire that restriction on itself. Woodruff also was instrumental in lobbying the 2011 session of the New Mexico legislature for some favorable ballot access changes, including a later petition deadline for independent candidates, and a reduction in the number of signatures needed for newly-qualifying parties in midterm years.
An initiative to convert Arizona elections to the top-two primary system now used by Louisiana, Washington state and California is expected to qualify this year. Assuming the initiative has enough valid signatures, it will be on the November 2012 ballot. The petition deadline is July 1 and only another 50,000 signatures are needed.
On May 9, sponsors of the Arizona initiative and the similar California initiative will defend their idea, in a debate sponsored by the O’Connor House Public Policy Committee. Former State Senator Steve Peace of California, a backer of California’s Proposition 62 in 2004 (which lost at the polls) and Proposition 14 in June 2010 (which won at the polls) will team with Grady Gammage, Jr., a sponsor of the Arizona initiative. Gammage is an attorney and a Senior Fellow at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute.
On the other side will be Alan Maguire, a former high-ranking employee of the Arizona legislature, and currently President of the Arizona Economic Forum, and President of the Maguire Company, a public policy consulting firm. He will be teamed with Richard Winger. The event is at Phoenix’s main public library, the Burton Barr Library, at 1221 N. Central Avenue. It runs from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The event is free, and the room is large. But the O’Connor House still recommends that people who wish to be in the audience register in advance, to guarantee a seat. Here is the O’Connor House web page. The O’Connor House is associated with former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. The moderator will be Michael M. Grant, an attorney who has also served as host for 25 years for the local PBS station’s public affairs show “Horizon.”