“The Daily Caller” is an on-line news service about U.S. politics. It was founded last year by Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel, both of whom are Republicans. The November 2 has two stories about minor party potential to alter the 2012 presidential election: (1) this one, in which Roger Stone says that the Republican Party is threatened by such outside candidates; (2) this one, about Americans Elect.
On November 1, the Republican majority in the Arizona Senate voted to support removing the Chair of the Arizona Redistricting Commission, an independent. The Commission has five members, two Democrats, two Republicans, and an independent. The legality of the removal is contested. See this story, which explains both the Republican slant on this story (that the Chair was guilty of “gross misconduct”) and the Democratic slant on the story (that the Chairman, Linda Mathis, did nothing wrong, and Republicans are only removing her because they don’t like the boundaries of the new districts).
If the removal is upheld by Arizona state courts, Democrats may launch recall drives against some of the Republican State Senators who voted to remove Mathis.
On November 1, the Arizona Secretary of State released new registration data for each party. See this story. This is the first Arizona tally to include Americans Elect, which has 69 registered members.
On November 1, the Florida Republican Party announced that these nine candidates will be listed on the Republican presidential primary ballot: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum. In Florida, the party has complete control over who appears on its presidential primary ballot. There is no fee, no petition alternative, no reference to the news media, and no reference to primary season matching funds. Instead, the state chair of the party, the party leader in the State Senate, and the party leader in the State House, together decide which names will appear, using whatever standards they wish.
Buddy Roemer, who is not only a former Louisiana Governor, but a former member of Congress, is also seeking the Republican presidential nomination, and he had tried to persuade the Florida Republican leaders to include him, but they refused to do so. The Florida ballot access rule for presidential primaries has already been upheld in federal court, after David Duke tried and failed to get on the Florida Republican presidential primary in 1992. The only other state with a similar restriction for getting on presidential primary ballots is Georgia.
On November 1, Americans Elect submitted its petition to be on the Arkansas ballot in 2012, for President only. Arkansas requires 1,000 signatures for parties that only want to be on the ballot for President, and 10,000 for parties that want ballot status for all office. Americans Elect turned in 2,900 signatures.
