Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff will seek the Americans Elect presidential nomination, according to this story. He has been a professor of economics for 38 years, and was on President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors.
His economic views can be ascertained from this August 2011 interview he gave on National Public Radio.
On February 21, the California Appeals Court, 3rd district, will hear oral arguments in Fuller v Bowen, in Sacramento. This is the case over whether the California Constitutional provision, requiring candidates for legislature to have lived in their district for a year before running, should be enforced. The one-year residency requirement has been in the California Constitution since 1879. However, in 1975, the Attorney General and the Secretary of State decided not to enforce it, because, as they said, they believed that provision violates the U.S. Constitution.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1975 summarily affirmed a decision of a 3-judge court, upholding a 7-year residency within the state of New Hampshire for candidates for State Senate. Also, last year, the Third Circuit removed Carl Lewis, the Democratic nominee for State Senate in New Jersey, from the general election ballot because he had not lived in New Jersey for four years. And in 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that candidacy is not a fundamental right, in a Texas case called Clements v Fashing.
Fuller v Bowen was filed by a Republican legislative candidate, Heidi Fuller. She met the residency requirement and she had filed the lawsuit to force the Secretary of State to remove one of her opponents, who, everyone agreed, had not met the residency requirement. Although the 2010 election is over, lawsuits like this are not moot.
Howard Hawk, an incumbent Circuit Judge in Marshall County, Alabama, wanted to run for re-election this year as a Republican. But his name has been removed from the Republican primary ballot. The primary is on March 6. See this story. Alabama lets political parties bar candidates from their primaries if the party deems the candidate is not sufficiently loyal to the party. The Marshall County Republican Party Committee removed Hawk because he had been elected in 2008 as a Democrat. He had switched parties in 2010. Alabama does not have registration by party, so party membership for public officials is defined by public statements made by the individual who is switching.
Others in Hawk’s position have responded by running as independent candidates, but Hawk says he will not do that.
On January 18, the 10th circuit heard arguments in Constitution Party of Kansas v Biggs, 11-3152. The issue is whether Kansas must let voters register into parties that are not ballot-qualified. The Kansas Secretary of State himself, Kris Kobach, is an attorney, so he went to Denver to represent himself. See this story.
In 1984, the 10th circuit ruled in a Colorado case that states must let voters register into unqualified parties, if those unqualified parties have been politically active in the state. That case was called Baer v Meyer. Since then, other courts have agreed, including the 2nd circuit in a New York case, the New Jersey state courts, and U.S. District Courts in Iowa and Oklahoma.
However, the argument seemed to go badly for the Constitution Party. Two of the three judges seemed to believe that Baer was wrongly decided, and they may overrule it.
On January 18, Pew Research Center released a poll asking how voters would vote in November if the candidates for President were Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul. The results: Obama 44%, Romney 32%, Paul 18%, other or don’t know 6%. See here.
