Public Policy Polling’s latest Iowa Republican poll shows Ron Paul leading for the first time. See this story. Public Policy Polling polls for the Iowa Republican caucus have now shown six different leaders during the period from August through this latest poll. The Iowa caucus is in two weeks and one day.
Ohio recognizes five parties besides the Democratic and Republican Parties. The only minor party member who filed in any primary for U.S. Senate is Joseph R. DeMare, who submitted 622 signatures to be listed on the Ohio Green Party primary. He will be the Green Party nominee if his petition has at least 500 valid signatures. The petition will be checked by mid-January 2012. The current U.S. Senator for that seat is Sherrod Brown, a Democrat.
Although the primary filing deadline for U.S. Senate has passed, the filing period for presidential primary candidates still has not passed. That deadline is December 30. It is somewhat likely that the Greens will be the only minor party with any nominees listed on their presidential primary ballot as well. Jill Stein and a delegation pledged to her are circulating a presidential primary petition. If the Stein petition succeeds, she will be the first person ever to run in a minor party presidential primary in Ohio.
The other qualified minor parties in Ohio are Americans Elect, Constitution, Libertarian, and Socialist. Primary petitions are difficult in Ohio, because no one can sign if that person voted in a Democratic or Republican primary in 2008, unless that voter had gone to the trouble of filling out a form changing affiliation during 2009.
Jill Stein, a leading contender for the Green Party presidential nomination, says she has been talking to founders of the Justice Party, including Rocky Anderson himself, about possibly joining forces. See this post from Irregular Times.
The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) has now raised virtually enough money to pay for preparation of the transcript in Trudell v Markowitz, the case challenging the Vermont June petition deadline for independent candidates. The appeal to the State Supreme Court can now proceed. Thanks to all who donated, especially the generous individual who gave $500, and also the half-dozen of you who gave $100.
June petition deadlines have been declared unconstitutionally early in Alaska, Nevada, Arizona, South Dakota, Massachusetts, and Kansas. In the Trudell case, the lower state court ignored all such precedents. Incredibly, the lower court even ignored the holding in Anderson v Celebrezze, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1983 that said early petition deadlines for independent candidates for President are unconstitutional. Instead, the lower court judge based his decision on Storer v Brown, a 1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision that did not even deal with the issue of early petition deadlines. The Storer decision has language saying there is no constitutional right for a candidate to enter a race late. The lower court opinion said that Storer v Brown had been issued in 1987, which of course makes it appear that Storer supercedes Anderson. Actually Storer v Brown came out in 1974.
In 2010, the Texas Democratic Party sued the Texas Green Party, charging that the party’s petition to get on the ballot had been financed improperly. A lower state court then removed the Green Party from the ballot, but the Texas Supreme Court countermanded that order, and the party appeared on the 2010 ballot. It polled enough votes to qualify for the 2012 ballot.
During 2011, the Democratic Party had pursued its lawsuit, seeking money damages. The other side had then filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that the state campaign finance laws the Democrats were depending on, if construed the way the Democratic Party argued, violates the U.S. Constitution. But on December 16, documents were filed in both state and federal court dismissing both lawsuits. Neither court ever got as far as settling any of the issues.
