The 2012 Green Party presidential convention will be in Baltimore. Thanks to Brian Bittner for this news. The dates, which had already been established, are July 13-15, 2012.
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After the 2010 census, the Illinois legislature drew new boundaries for U.S. House and legislative districts. The Democratic Party controls both houses of the legislature and holds the Governor’s chair, so the plan, not surprisingly, was drawn to maximize advantages for Democrats. The Illinois League of Women Voters then filed a lawsuit, alleging that the First Amendment bars using partisan considerations when redistricting is carried out. The case, League of Women Voters v Quinn, lost on October 28 in a 3-judge U.S. District Court. Here is the 9-page opinion. The case only deals with legislative redistricting, not U.S. House redistricting.
Now the League is considering whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court several times has rejected challenges to gerrymandering, but those past decisions were based on the 14th amendment. The League’s case instead is based on the First Amendment. Here is the League’s brief in U.S. District Court, which tried to persuade the U.S. District Court to focus on Justice Anthony Kennedy’s concurrence in Vieth v Jubelirer, in which Kennedy hinted that while he would not invalidate Pennsylvania’s gerrymander in that case, that the First Amendment might someday compel a finding that partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional.
The 3-judge U.S. District Court in Illinois did not even discuss Vieth, except in the second-to-last paragraph of the opinion.
According to this story, Minnesota Independence Party leaders would rather not run anyone for U.S. Senate in 2012, and instead concentrate on recruiting strong candidates for the state legislature. Fortunately for the party, it successfully lobbied a few years ago for a change in the definition of “political party”. If a qualified party polls 5% for any statewide race, then it gets the next two elections, not just one election. Therefore, the party won’t jeopardize its status in 2014, even if it skips the statewide races in 2012.
The only statewide races in Minnesota in 2012 are President and U.S. Senate. Ever since the Minnesota Independence Party disaffiliated from the national Reform Party, it has never had a presidential nominee. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
On November 10, the Arkansas Secretary of State said that the Americans Elect ballot access petition has enough valid signatures. Americans Elect used the easy petition in Arkansas, the one that only requires 1,000 valid signatures and which only puts a party on the ballot for President. Americans Elect is now ballot-qualified, at least for President, in eight states.
When the Reform Party was doing the same qualification work in late 1995, at this point (mid-November) it was only on the ballot in one state, California.
On October 24, independent legislative candidate Michael Osborne filed a lawsuit against the Virginia Republican Party, arguing that the Virginia Constitution requires that if independent candidate petitions must be checked, then petitions to place someone on a party primary ballot must also be checked. On November 7, the Bristol County Circuit Court said the case had been filed too close to the November 8 legislative election to expect injunctive relief. But the case will continue, to determine if the existing policy is unconstitutional.
Virginia requires 125 signatures to put a candidate on the ballot for State House, whether the candidate is running in a partisan primary or is petitioning as a minor party or independent candidate directly to the November ballot. But in practice, the petitions for independents and minor parties are checked to see if there enough valid signatures, whereas the petitions for the primary are not checked. If a primary petition appears on its face to have as many signatures as are required, it is assumed to be valid. The case is Osborne v Boyles, cl 11-520-00. See this story.
If this case gets a decision in the next few months, it could impact Virginia’s presidential primary, which will be held on March 6. Virginia requires more signatures for a mainstream presidential candidate to get on a presidential primary ballot than any other state, 10,000. In the past, even candidates with considerable support have had trouble completing the Virginia petition requirement. If the signatures must be checked for validity, they will have even more trouble, because they will probably need to collect approximately 16,000 to obtain enough valid signatures. The Virginia legislature considered a bill this year to reduce the presidential primary petition, but the bill did not pass. No other state requires more than 5,000 signatures for presidential primary ballot access, for candidates who are discussed in the news media.
The plaintiff, Michael Osborne, running in the Fifth State House district, received 30.4% of the vote in his race against his lone opponent, Republican nominee Israel O’Quinn.