The February 15 New York Daily News has this “gossip” column, mentioning that Tom Golisano has been suggested as a possible Americans Elect presidential nominee. Golisano was the Independence Party’s nominee for Governor of New York in 1994, 1998, and 2002. Each time he ran, he polled a higher share of the vote. In 2002 he polled 14.28%.
On February 14, the New Mexico Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 218, after amending it to make it worse for minor parties. The bill says general election ballots will carry straight-ticket devices. As amended, only parties with at least two statewide nominees could have a straight-ticket device.
The problem with this is that New Mexico requires a very difficult petition for a qualified minor party to place its own nominees on the November ballot, other than its presidential nominee. For example, in 2012, New Mexico has two statewide races, President and U.S. Senate. New Mexico will probably have five parties, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, who are on the ballot for President. But chances are, none of them will have a nominee for U.S. Senate, because that takes a separate petition of 6,018 signatures, due in late June.
According to this article, the Federal Communications Commission recently ruled that broadcast stations are not required to sell advertising time to candidates for office in any particular broadcast. Randall Terry, an opponent of legal abortion who is running for President in some Democratic Party primaries, had tried to buy TV time in Chicago during the Super Bowl. The television station refused and the FCC upheld the decision of the station.
The FCC also upheld the decision because Terry wasn’t on the ballot in the Illinois Democratic primary, nor could he show that his write-in campaign in Illinois was vigorous. The FCC didn’t express any opinion about another argument against letting Terry buy time, the argument that he isn’t a bona fide Democrat.
See this article for a description of the first day of the status conference in Perez v State of Texas. Although the state and the plaintiffs appear fairly close to settling the boundaries for state legislative districts, the article says no settlement is even close for U.S. House district boundaries. The status conference will continue on February 15. It seems somewhat likely that the Texas presidential primary cannot be held on a day other than the primary for every other office, because the state won’t pay for it and the counties can’t afford separate primaries.
It now seems inevitable that Texas will be required to substantially alter its ballot access procedures for independent candidates and unqualified parties. Texas is the only state that won’t let any minor party or independent candidate petitions be circulated until after the primary is over. As the primary day appears to get later and later, the Texas primary screen-out becomes increasingly impractical. The statute says the independent presidential petition deadline is May 14, 2012, but if that petition can’t be circulated until after the primary, the procedure is a nullity. The best guess for the date of the Texas primary now seems to be May 29.
On February 13, the 6th circuit issued an opinion in Bays v City of Fairborn, Ohio, 10-4059. The issue was whether the city could turn over one of its public parks to two private organizations for one day, for a Sweet Corn Festival, and then let the festival organizers ban an individual from passing out leaflets, wearing a sign, and attempting to engage in conversation. The city said the First Amendment doesn’t apply because the sponsors of the Sweet Corn Festival (the Fairborn Lions Club and the Fairborn Arts Association) are private entities. But the decision says that the city was enforcing the ban with its own police, and so state action is involved.
The city also argued that the plaintiffs (who wanted to talk about religion) were free to rent a booth, but that argument did not persuade the court. Here is the 14-page opinion.
