Thad McCotter, the incumbent Republican congressman in Michigan’s 11th district, won’t run for re-election in the Republican primary as a write-in candidate. His petition to appear on the primary ballot was earlier ruled insufficient. However, according to this story, other prominent Republicans will now enter the race as write-in candidates. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
The Weekly Standard has this fairly long description of the Libertarian Party, its national convention last month, the Gary Johnson presidential campaign, and the libertarian movement. The Weekly Standard general editorial stance is normally not very sympathetic to libertarian ideas, so given that, the article is reasonably fair. The author, Mark Hemingway, attended the national convention.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has this article, pointing out that this year, approximately 60% of incumbents running for re-election have no one running against them. Yet, the state continues to defend its ballot access laws on the grounds that they are needed to prevent the general election ballot from being too crowded. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
On June 1, attorneys for Steve Kelly asked U.S. District Court Judge Sam Haddon to extend the non-presidential independent candidate petition deadline for 2012 only. As noted previously, late on Friday, May 25, Judge Haddon had declared the March deadline unconstitutional. Then the Secretary of State said the new deadline, for this year, will be May 29, which was the very day that the press and the public first became aware of the decision. The new brief, filed by the ACLU (attorneys for Kelly) asks the Judge to set an August 15 deadline for this year, on the grounds that it denies due process to set a new deadline which, in practical terms, couldn’t be met.
August 15 is the deadline for independent presidential candidate petitions to be submitted to Montana county elections officials. Therefore, it is obvious that August 15 is administratively feasible.
The San Jose Mercury News has this fairly long analysis of how top-two “open primary” systems injure minor parties, especially in California. Thanks to Rob Richie for the link.
