Michael Eisner, chief executive of the Walt Disney Corporation between 1984 and 2005, has this op-ed in the Los Angeles Times of March 21. Eisner argues that Americans Elect is worthy of support. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
Reply
On March 21, Bob Kerrey won his ballot access lawsuit. He will be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Nebraska this year. The Nebraska Republican Party had challenged his spot on the Democratic primary ballot on the grounds that he doesn’t actually live where he is registered to vote. See this story. Apparently the judge depended on the U.S. Constitution’s list of qualifications for anyone to run for Congress, and ruled that states cannot require candidates to be registered voters.
The 9th and 10th circuits had also previously ruled that states cannot require candidates for Congress to be registered voters, but Nebraska is in the 8th Circuit.
Jack Cunningham, a Republican, has been County Clerk of Kane County, Illinois, since 2002. Kane County is one of the larger Illinois counties, and includes Aurora, Elgin, and Geneva. He tried to win the Republican nomination for U.S. House in this month’s primary, but a State Appeals Court ruled on March 15 (only five days before the primary) that his petition was invalid. Although his name was still on the ballot, votes for him were not counted.
Now he says he may run as an independent candidate. The Republican who challenged him, incumbent Judy Biggert, is also a Republican. The Democratic nominee, Bill Foster, is a former member of Congress who was defeated for re-election in 2010. See this story.
On March 21, a Nebraska state court heard arguments in a lawsuit filed by the Republican Party, arguing that Bob Kerrey should not have his name on the Democratic primary ballot for U.S. Senate this year. See this story. The Republican Party says Kerrey is not validly registered to vote in Nebraska.
Montana’s primary in 2012 is on June 5. Parties entitled to nominate by primary are the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Americans Elect Parties. When filing closed for this year’s primary, two Libertarians had filed to run for U.S. Senate in the Libertarian Party.
On March 20, Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch ruled that the Libertarian Party may not have a primary this year, and that she will print the names of both Libertarians on the November ballot. She made this decision, based on section 13-10-209(2). Before 2005, that section said, “It is not necessary to print a primary ballot for a political party which does not have candidates for more than half of the offices on the ballot in even-year elections if no more than one candidate files for nomination by that party for any of the offices on the ballot.”
In 2005, that section was amended to say, “An election administrator does not need to prepare a primary ballot for a political party if: (a) the party does not have candidates for more than half of the offices to appear on the ballot; or (b) no more than one candidate files for nomination by that party for any of the offices to appear on the ballot.”
Some Montana Libertarians have suggested that the Secretary of State allow the party to nominate a candidate for U.S. Senate by convention, but the Secretary of State rejected that idea. This year the Libertarian Party does have candidates for five of the nine statewide partisan races on the ballot, but it does not have candidates for a majority of legislative races. Montana does permit write-ins in primaries. The Secretary of State says it would cost $380,000 to print Libertarian primary ballots. Because Montana doesn’t have registration by party, election officials can’t know how many voters would request a Libertarian primary ballot, so election officials say they would need to print as many Libertarian primary ballots as are printed for the major parties. See this story.