The Socialist Workers Party has nominated John Hawkins for U.S. House, in the Illinois 2nd district, which is having a special election in April 2013. Hawkins’ announcement did not say if he will attempt to obtain a place on the ballot. The law requires a petition signed by 5% of the last vote cast.
Humboldt County, California, gave Jill Stein her highest percentage of the vote of any county in the United States. She received 4.36% in that county, which is on California’s northern coast. Humboldt County was also Cynthia McKinney’s best county in California in 2008, and David Cobb’s best county in California in 2004. McKinney received 1.01% in Humboldt County, and Cobb received 1.26%.
Humboldt County was also the Green Party’s strongest county in the 2010 gubernatorial race, when Laura Wells received 4.01% in that county.
Just prior to the 2012 general election, 3.82% of Humboldt County’s registered voters were registered Greens. Within Humboldt County, the Green Party’s center of strength is Arcata, home to one of the California State University campuses. Within the city limits of Arcata in October 2012, 908 voters were registered Greens, out of a total of 12,540 voters in that city. The Green registration percentage in Arcata was 7.24%.
Indiana State Senator Michael Delph (R-Carmel) has introduced a bill to abolish the straight-ticket device. Senator Delph has been in the State Senate since 2005 and is the Assistant Majority Floor Leader. The bill number is not known yet.
David Wasserman not only has been tracking the presidential vote totals, he also has been tracking the vote for U.S. House by party. See this chart, which shows the vote for each district by party. His chart shows that Democratic nominees for U.S. House received more popular votes than Republican nominees did, yet, as is well known, Republicans won more seats.
His chart lumps in votes received on minor party labels into the major party columns, in instances in which a congressional candidate is nominated by both a major party and a minor party. But if he separated out the minor party votes for fusion nominees, the chart would still show more popular votes for Democrats than for Republicans. The January 1, 2013 Ballot Access News paper edition will also have a chart showing the vote by party for U.S. House, by state, but the BAN chart will not merge the minor party vote into the major party columns in cases of fusion.
On Decembere 14, South Carolina Representative Rick Quinn (R-Lexington) said he will introduce a bill soon to require a special election for U.S. Senate vacancies. Current law in South Carolina and in most states says that when U.S. Senate seats become vacant, the Governor appoints a replacement, who serves until the next regularly-scheduled election.
The bill was prompted by the recent announcement that U.S. Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina is about to resign.
