On September 28, all three candidates on the ballot for Governor of Connecticut debated each other. See this story. The three nominees are Tom Foley (Republican), Dan Malloy (Democratic-Working Families) and Thomas E. Marsh (Independent Party.)
Natasha Pettigrew, the Maryland Green Party’s original nominee for U.S. Senate this year, died on September 20 from a bicycle accident. She was only 30 years old. The party has substituted Kenniss Henry as its nominee. See this story. Kenniss Henry is the mother of Natasha Pettigrew.
According to Election Data Services, preliminary 2010 census data suggests that 18 states will either gain or lose U.S. House seats in 2011.
The eight states that will gain are: Texas (4), Florida (2), and one each for Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington. The ten states that will lose are: New York (2), Ohio (2), and one each for Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Thanks to Sam Harley for this information.
The three candidates on the ballot in Utah’s U.S. Senate election debated each other on September 17. See this story. They are Republican Mike Lee, Democrat Sam Granato, and Constitution Party nominee Scott Bradley. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for the link.
On September 24, the 7th circuit upheld the order of a U.S. District Court, limiting the names of candidates in the special U.S. Senate election in Illinois to the same candidates who had qualified for the regular 6-year U.S. Senate election. The 16-page decision is Judge v Quinn, 10-2836.
The 7th circuit opinion says, “Nothing in the permanent injunction excludes a particular class or group of candidates in a manner that suggests that an identifiable group of voters will be left out of the special election…The District Court’s remedy, which relies on candidates selected pursuant to the Illinois Election Code, was designed to be, and probably is, the most democratic and constitutionally sound approach the district court could have devised.”
As to the argument that Article One of the U.S. Constitution requires state legislatures to pass laws governing congressional elections (except when Congress supercedes them), the 7th circuit decision says that U.S. Senator Roland Burris didn’t make that argument in the U.S. District Court, so it is too late for him to raise that argument in the 7th circuit. The decision is signed by the same three judges who had this same case earlier.
