On December 13, the Texas primary filing deadline was moved from December 15 to December 19. No one yet knows when the primary will be, and in the case of the U.S. House and state legislative races, no one knows what the district boundaries will be. Anyone who files will be permitted to withdraw later and obtain a refund of the filing fee. See this story.
According to this story, Bob Barr will not run for Congress in 2012. He had apparently been considering running in the Republican primary for a U.S. House seat in Georgia, but now says he won’t do that. Barr was the Libertarian Party nominee for President in 2008.
The 3-judge U.S. District Court hearing that concerns the 2012 Texas primary dates, and the dates for candidates to file for the primary, appears to be lasting throughout the day on Tuesday, September 13. See this story, which says that the judges heard from election officials, who asked for a single primary date; and also that the judges heard from Republican Party officials, who want a March presidential primary and a May primary for U.S. House and legislative seats. When the news story was filed, the hearing was not yet over.
On December 12, the Massachusetts Secretary of State said he will put these seven Republicans on the presidential primary ballot: Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum. He also said he would put President Obama on the Democratic ballot.
The Secretary of State did not name anyone for the Green Party presidential primary. The state chair of that party is expected to submit a list of names by January 6, 2012, and they will also be on the ballot automatically.
The law says anyone discussed in the news media is on the ballot automatically. Anyone else can qualify with a petition of 2,500 signatures. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.
On December 12, both sides in Perez v State of Texas, 5:11-cv-00360, the case over redistricting for Congress and state legislature, asked the U.S. District Court in San Antonio to delay filing deadlines for candidates for U.S. House and state legislature. However, the two sides took opposing positions on whether there should be any delay for other partisan offices. Texas boundaries for U.S. House and state legislature cannot be known until next year, because the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing the case over the district boundaries on January 9, so it is obvious to everyone that filing for primaries for U.S. House and state legislature must be postponed.
The League of United Latin American Citizens filed a four-page brief, arguing that it would be very undesirable for Texas to hold a March 6 primary for statewide office and local office, and then another primary later on for U.S. House and legislative offices. The League points out that if Texas holds separate primaries, then Texans would be asked to go to the polls six times in 2012: (1) a March 6 primary for statewide and local office; (2) an April 13 run-off primary for those offices; (3) a May 12 election for non-partisan city and town office, which by law cannot be combined with any partisan primary; (4) a primary on an undetermined date for U.S. House and state legislature; (5) a run-off primary for those offices; (6) the general election in November 2012. The brief argues that this would be very expensive for election administration, would cause voter fatigue, and would be especially damaging to low income and working voters.
The state’s brief merely asks the court to provide a later filing period for candidates for U.S. House and state legislature, but not to tamper with the normal schedule for statewide office and local partisan office. The state’s brief implicitly seems to support the idea of separate primaries, because it does not ask that filing for statewide office and local partisan office be postponed.
The 3 judges will hold a status conference on December 13 at 10 a.m., and presumably will shortly afterwards issue a ruling on filing deadlines, and probably also a ruling on whether the March primary should be moved to a later date for all office, or just for U.S. House and legislature.
No one in this lawsuit seems to have mentioned anything about the effects of all this uncertainty on independent candidates and on political parties that expect to petition for a place on the ballot. Such petitioning is not permitted until after the partisan primaries are over.
