Ralph Nader recently filed this brief in support of his claim against the Maine Democratic Party, and the national Democratic Party, over its actions to prevent voters from voting for him in the 2004 presidential election. The case is pending in local state court in Washington County, Maine. The brief is interesting because it gives some specific details of some of the actions taken by the Democratic Party.
Kevin Knauss, a blogger who is a Democrat and who lives near Folsom, California, predicts here that many Democrats in the 6th Assembly District will simply not vote for anyone in November, for Assembly. The two candidates on the ballot in that race are both conservative Republicans. Knauss says that neither one of the two Republicans has made any appeal for centrist or Democratic votes.
His observation contradicts the opinions of top-two supporters, who say they like general election races in which only one party has any candidates on the ballot, because these top-two supporters believe this causes candidates to move toward the center. Actually, if either Republican did that, the other Republican would pounce and say the opponent is just a “Republican-in-name-only” (“RINO”) and probably the perceived “RINO” would lose the general election.
Here is a recent column by California journalist Thomas D. Elias, who promotes the idea that having two candidates from the same party on the November ballot, and no other candidate, is a good idea.
Electoral-vote and Frontloading are two blogs that have recently posted summaries of all state-based presidential polls. Frontloading has a 2012 Electoral College map, based on a weighted average of state polls, posted on July 20 that shows President Obama with 332 likely electoral votes and Mitt Romney with 206 electoral votes. Scroll down here within the July 20 entry until the map is reached.
Electoral vote blog, which constantly updates its state polls, as of July 21 is showing President Obama with 342 likely electoral votes and Mitt Romney with 196 electoral votes. See here.
Michigan holds primaries on August 7. In the U.S. House race in the Eleventh District, the two names on the Democratic primary ballot are Dr. Syed Taj, and William Roberts. Taj is a physician, born in India; Roberts is a supporter of Lyndon LaRouche. Here is a story about that primary race.
Although the Eleventh district generally supports Republicans, this year Democrats feel they have a chance in the district, because the Republican incumbent, Thad McCotter, dropped out of the primary after it was too late for anyone else to get on the Republican primary ballot. The lone Republican who had filed against McCotter does not have the credentials or support that McCotter would have had. There are also some Republicans hoping to win the Republican primary by write-ins.
Voters often are not fully-informed about their choices in major party primaries for Congress. LaRouche supporters have won many Democratic primaries during the last 32 years. Most notably, in 1986, LaRouche supporter Mark J. Fairchild won the Illinois Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor against mainstream Democrat George Sangmeister; and in that same primary, LaRouche supporter Janice A. Hart won for Secretary of State against mainstream Democrat Aurelia Pucinski.
Michigan has open primaries. Any voter is free to choose any party’s primary ballot. Michigan’s ballot-qualified minor parties nominate by convention, not by primary, so only the Democrats and Republicans have primaries this year and most years.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee web page lists “races to watch” here. If one scrolls down to the entry for Maine, one sees that the web page discusses independent candidate Angus King in a positive manner, but does not discuss the Democratic nominee, Cynthia Dill. This story about that race says that Dill is unhappy with the Committee.
