Mississippi is one of the four states in which the Reform Party is still ballot-qualified. There are two factions of the Reform Party in Mississippi, and each faction is running some candidates for statewide office in the November 8, 2011 election. On September 9, Mississippi election officials will hear from both sides, and decide which faction’s nominees to list on the general election ballot.
On August 21, the Libertarian Party national committee voted to donate $50,000 to the campaign of Ed Coleman, who is running for re-election to the Indianapolis city council in a partisan election on November 8, 2011. Coleman was last elected as a Republican in 2007, but shortly afterwards he switched to the Libertarian Party. Although he was elected to one of the four at-large seats in 2007, in 2011 he is running to represent the 24th district, in the southeast corner of the city. Indianapolis has 25 city council districts plus its four at-large members.
The 24th district race will be between Coleman and a Republican. Democrats are not running anyone for that seat.
On July 25, the Montana Attorney General ruled that the Secretary of State is free to accept electronic signatures on petitions if she wishes, or she is free not to accept them. The Attorney General says the state law gives her that discretion. The Secretary of State, Linda McCulloch, had sought a ruling from the Attorney General on February 7 on whether electronic signatures on petitions for inititives and candidates are valid. She is a Democrat. If she decides in favor of allowing electronic signatures, Montana will be the first state to have taken this step. Thanks to Steve Kelly for this news.
Lewis duPont Smith died on August 12, 2011, at the age of 54, of pancreatic cancer. See this obituary. He had made headlines in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. He was the heir to two fortunes, and had been declared mentally incompetent by Pennsylvania state courts, after he had donated $212,000 to the Lyndon LaRouche political organization and then had told that organization that he was forgiving the loan and that he was about to donate another $75,000. Even though Smith’s wife was also a supporter of LaRouche, Smith’s parents and other family members succeeded in persuading a court that he could not be trusted with his own finances. Further controversy came about after Smith’s relatives allegedly plotted to have him physically kidnapped to get him away from various other supporters of LaRouche. Here is a lengthy background story, published in 2008 in Vanity Fair.
Next month, Tucson holds partisan primaries for city office. This year, no one’s name is on the Republican primary ballot, and only one candidate is on the Democratic primary ballot. Yet there are two Greens running in the Green Party primary, Mary DeCamp and Dave Croteau. This story says that the Green Party deliberately set up a primary contest to attract more attention for the party, and that the two candidates are supportive of each other.
The Republican Party may yet have a nominee, if any Republican write-in candidate in that party’s primary can poll enough votes to get the Republican nomination.
Tucson is the only city in Arizona with partisan city elections. In 2009 the legislature passed a bill, requiring all cities to use non-partisan elections. However, the State Court of Appeals then ruled that the law violates the Arizona constitution, and that Tucson may retain partisan elections if it wishes. The state government has appealed that ruling to the State Supreme Court, which will probably say next month whether it will hear the state’s appeal.
