Fred Karger, a Republican candidate for President, has been excluded from the South Carolina Republican Party’s upcoming presidential debate, even though he is willing to pay the $25,000 and even though he has filed as a candidate with the Federal Election Commission. Apparently the party has refused to permit him into the debate because of the rule that all candidates must be at 1% in a poll. However, Karger has submitted evidence of polls in which he does have at least 1%. See this story.

Rochester, New York, held a special partisan election for Mayor on March 29, 2011. The official results have been released. They are: Thomas S. Richards, Democrat, 49.05%; William A. Johnson, 32.03% on the Working Families line and another 10.18% on the Independence Party line; and Alexander J. White, Green Party, 8.74%.

On April 27, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Nevada Commission on Ethics v Carrigan, 10-568. Here is a summary of that argument by Lyle Denniston of Scotusblog. The case explores whether the First Amendment free speech provision has any protection for government officials when they vote on official business. The case arose in Sparks, when a city councilmember voted in favor of a casino project. He was then censured by the Ethics Commission, because a friend of his, who had once been his campaign manager, was involved with that casino. The Nevada Supreme Court then said the Ethics Commission’s action violated the councilmember’s free speech.

UPDATE: here is the 67-page transcript.