The July 25 New York Post has this story about Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and how he is once again challenging his Republican opponent’s signatures. Silver had no Republican opponent in 2000, 2002, and 2004, although he did in 2006 and 2008.
The July 25 San Antonio Express-News has this lengthy and interesting story about the Texas Green Party and its fight to get on the ballot this year. But what is most revealing about the story is the very last paragraph, which quotes a Democratic Party opponent of the Green Party, Christian Archer. The story describes him as a Democratic Party consultant.
Archer says, “I believe the (ballot access) laws are unconstitutional. If anybody would challenge what it takes to get on the ballot, they would win in court.” It is ignorant for Archer to say that, and it is bad journalism for the reporter to have printed that without challenging Archer. Most of the repressive Texas ballot access laws were upheld in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1974 in American Party of Texas v White. The vote was 8-1 to uphold the number of signatures, the primary screenout, the notarization requirement, and the short period for collecting signatures.
More repressive Texas ballot access laws have been added since. But in 1996, the 5th circuit upheld the requirement that independent candidates (for office other than President) must file a declaration of candidacy in January. And in 2004, the 5th circuit upheld the discriminatory parts of the law that require independent presidential candidates to obtain 40% more signatures than independent candidates for other statewide office, and also upheld the earlier deadline for independent candidates than for new parties. And in 2006, the 5th circuit upheld petition-checking procedures that allow election authorities to take a very long time to tell independent candidates whether their petition is valid or not. Thanks to Kimberly Wilder for the link.
On July 24, the Arkansas Green Party held its state nominating convention. Jim Lendall is the party’s nominee for Governor. If he gets 3% in November 2010, the party will enjoy qualified status automatically for 2012. Lendall will be the only person on the ballot for Governor, other than the Democratic and Republican nominees.
Lendall has served in the state legislature in the past. In 1988 he was elected as an independent, and later he was elected as a Democrat. He was also the Green Party nominee for Governor in 2006. He polled 1.63% that year, but that was a four-candidate race, with independent gubernatorial candidate Rod Bryan polling 2.04%.
The party also nominated John Gray for U.S. Senate. He has been campaigning for that office for several months. Also, it nominated candidates for U.S. House in the 1st, 2nd and 4th districts, for three state legislative races, and for two partisan county offices. One of the partisan county offices is Saline County Collector. The Green nominee, Joy Ballard, will be the only candidate on the November ballot for that office, although four write-in candidates are running.
On July 23, the Rhode Island Secretary of State used a random procedure to determine the order in which parties would appear on the November 2010 ballot. The Moderate Party will appear first, followed by the Democratic Party, then the Republican Party, then the column for independent candidates.
Some Rhode Island towns do not use a party column ballot format. However, even in those towns, the random procedure determines which parties are listed first in the part of the ballot that includes the straight-ticket device, and the Moderate Party will be first there also.
On June 22, Wisconsin Assemblymember Bob Ziegelbauer announced he was leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent. He is running for re-election this year as an independent. He will have a Republican and a Democratic opponent this November.
Ziegelbauer was first elected to the legislature in 1992. He was re-elected unanimously in November 2006. He left the Democratic Party after the Assembly Democratic leadership removed him from being Chair of the Ways and Means Committee.
