On August 30, South Carolina held a special election to fill the vacancy in the State House, tenth district. Constitution Party nominee Dave Ballard polled 16.0%; his only opponent, Republican Joshua Putnam, polled 84.0%. See this story.
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On August 30, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Bataillon issued opinions in two closely related cases, Bernbeck v Gale, 4:10cv-3001, and Citizens in Charge v Gale, 4:09cv-3255. In the Citizens in Charge case, the judge struck down the Nebraska law that bans out-of-state circulators, but upheld a state law that says all petitions must carry in red ink and large font, “This petition is circulated by a paid circulator.” Of course, if the circulator is not being paid, the petition need not carry that message. UPDATE: here is the AP story on the decision.
In the Bernbeck case, the Judge upheld the state’s ban on paying circulators on a per-signature basis. However, the state law does not ban paying bonuses to circulators who have high productivity. Also in the Bernbeck case, the Judge struck down a law saying the sponsor of a local initiative must be a resident of that locality. He upheld a law making it illegal for people under age 18 to circulate petitions. Here is the Bernbeck decision. Here is the Citizens in Charge decision, the one that strikes down the ban on out-of-state circulators.
The decision striking down the ban on out-of-state circulators is very significant, because in 2001 the 8th circuit had upheld North Dakota’s ban on out-of-state circulators, and Nebraska is in the 8th circuit. Judge Battaillon said the 8th circuit case is not controlling because in that case, the plaintiffs did not present any evidence about how burdensome the ban is. In the recent Nebraska case, the plaintiffs did present such evidence. Thanks to Kent Bernbeck for this news and for one of the links, and thanks to Paul Jacob for the other link.
On August 23, a California Superior Court Judge in Solano County dismissed the lawsuit King v Robinson, FCS034452. This is the lawsuit over which faction in the California American Independent Party represents the party. The faction that is allied with the national Constitution Party had filed the lawsuit. That faction is now free to appeal, if they wish to do so. The Superior Court had not actually adjudicated the case, but had instead said that it is moot. Thanks to Markham Robinson for this news.
Pennsylvania State Senator Jane Orie has been charged with tampering with evidence, and faces sixteen felony charges. She also still faces a retrial in charges filed last year, in which the prosecutor believes state employees worked on her re-election campaign on state time. See this story. Orie has been a Pennsylvania state legislator since she was first elected in 1996. She is a Republican from Allegheny County and an attorney. One of her sisters is a Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice.
A U.S. District Court in Camden will hold another hearing in Lewis v Guadagno on Thursday, September 1. See this story. The issue is whether Carl Lewis should be on the November 8, 2011 ballot as the Democratic nominee for State Senate, 8th district.