On March 13, U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Aspen, a Carter appointee, enjoined an Illinois campaign finance law that prohibits contributions above $10,000 to a PAC that makes independent expenditures in an election campaign for state or local office. Here is the 13-page opinion.
On March 12, a U.S. District Court in Oklahoma held a hearing in Libertarian Party of Oklahoma v Ziriax to determine whether an injunction should be granted to put the Libertarian Party on the ballot, or to extend the deadline, or to lower the number of signatures. At the end of the hearing, Judge Timothy DeGiusti asked each side to submit a five-page brief by the end of March 13. Here is the Libertarian Party brief. UPDATE: here is the state’s brief.
Maine Democrats may choose not to run anyone for U.S. Senate this year. See this story, which says that the petition deadline (for candidates to get on the June 2012 primary) is in two days, and so far petitions have not been submitted for any Democrat, even though such petitions have been gathered. Maine Democrats must decide whether to abstain from this race, because former independent Governor Angus King will run as an independent this year, and has the potential to win.
Democrats don’t want a repeat of the 2010 Maine gubernatorial race, when an independent, Eliot Cutler, placed second, almost defeating the Republican nominee. The Democratic nominee received 19.1%, placing third. Many people believe that a large majority of people who voted for the Democrat in 2010 would have voted for Cutler if no Democrat had been running.
The repetition of two elections in a row with three November nominees strong enough to win ought to cause Maine voters to think seriously about using Instant Runoff Voting, or perhaps Approval Voting, for federal and state office. The idea is not foreign to Maine, because Portland, the largest city in the state, uses IRV for Mayor.
The regular session of the West Virginia legislature ended the evening of Saturday, March 10. None of the interesting election law bills passed. Bills that failed to pass included: (1) imposing filing fees on write-in candidates; (2) easing the requirements for a party to remain ballot-qualified; (3) changing the order of parties on the ballot so that the party with the most registered voters would be listed first (this would help the Democratic Party); (4) the National Popular Vote Plan bill.
One bill that did passes moves the filing deadline for write-in candidates from six weeks before the primary or election, to seven weeks.
According to this story, Sky Adams, a petitioner for Americans Elect in Hayden, Idaho, was told by police that he may not petition in the parking lot of the public library. The threatened arrest has resulted in several days worth of publicity, with local Democrats apparently coming to the defense of the petitioner.
