Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party’s 2008 presidential nominee, explains here why he is running for Montana Lieutenant Governor as a Republican. Although he mentions that the Constitution Party is not now ballot-qualified in Montana, he does not mention that the Constitution Party is currently petitioning to regain its place on the ballot.
On November 16, a Louisiana state court ordered that the Republican Party’s election of state party committeemembers use legislative districts, instead of the party’s old districts drawn specifically for the purpose of electing party officers. The party drew those districts in 2003, and has not redrawn them to take account of 2010 census data. See this story. The party may appeal. Using legislative districts has the advantage that the legislative districts have been updated to use 2010 census data. But because there are substantially fewer legislative districts than Republican Party committee districts, the order means that the Republican state committee will only have two-thirds as many members, compared to the recent past.
The election of party committee members is set for March 24, and is simultaneous with the presidential primaries.
On November 16, the Ninth Circuit refused to block any further release of the names and addresses of people who signed the 2009 Washington state referendum petition on civil unions for same-sex couples. The vote was 2-1, with the dissent explaining that even though the Secretary of State has already released the names and addresses to at least one opponent of the referendum petition, the case is not moot because releases to other individuals could still be blocked. The individual who requested the names has not yet posted them on any internet web page. See the order here. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On November 16, the federal government refused New York state’s request for a 2012 waiver from the 2009 federal law that requires states to mail overseas absentee ballots at least 45 days before any federal primary or federal election. See this story. As a result, it seems very likely that a U.S. District Court will soon order New York state to move its non-presidential primary from September to August.
Massachusetts has released the official returns from the October 18, 2011 special election for State House in the Berkshire Third District. This is the race in which the Green Party nominee came close to winning. The final returns are: Democrat Tricia Farley-Bouvier 1,940; Green Mark Miller 1,748; independent Pam Malumphy 1,325; Republican Mark Jester 899. The winner won with only 32.81% of the vote.
