On September 1, Michael Cohen, Executive Vice President at the Trump Organization and a close associate of Donald Trump, established a non-profit 527 organization, which will be useful if Trump himself does decide eventually to be an independent presidential candidate. See this story. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
According to this story, Ohio Republican and Democratic state legislators agree on the need to soon introduce a stand-alone bill that moves the 2012 primary from March to May. The legislature already passed a bill to do this, but it was part of the omnibus election law bill that may be suspended if opponents of the omnibus election law bill get enough signatures by the end of September.
If the proposed bill really does nothing but move the 2012 primary from March to May, then the law would require 2012 petitions for newly qualifying parties to be due in the first week in January. By contrast, if nothing is done and the referendum petition fails, the deadline will be early February. And if the referendum petition succeeds and the proposed new bill does not pass, then the petition deadline would be November of the year before the election. Thus, without court action, that deadline is utterly unpredicatable. Of course, a court decision is expected very soon on the constitutionality of the deadline. Thanks to Frontloading HQ for the link.
On September 1, a lower state court judge in Cumberland County, New Jersey, ordered a new election for local Democratic Party committee members, after evidence revealed that the vote count on the county’s Sequoia AVC Advantage vote-counting machine was wildly erroneous. See this story.
As noted earlier, on August 8, 2011, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., upheld federal campaign laws that make it illegal for aliens who lawfully reside in the U.S., but who do not have permanent residency status, to make contributions to candidates. The case, Bluman v Federal Election Commission, has already been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here is the jurisdictional statement. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
The “question presented” is: “Whether Congress violates the First Amendment by making it a crime for individuals who lawfully reside in the United States, but are neither U.S. citizens nor ‘permanent residents’ under the immigration laws, to make independent expenditures or campaign contributions in connection with any federal, state, or local election; or whether, as the district court held, the ban satisfies strict scrutiny as a ‘piecemeal’ attempt to reduce the ‘influence’ on ‘how voters will cast their ballots’ of aliens whom Congress may suspect of lacking ‘primary loyalty’ to the nation.” One of the plaintiffs is a citizen of Canada and wants to contribute to Democrats; another is a citizen of Israel and wants to contribute to Republicans.”
B.A.N. will go out on a limb here, and predict that the U.S. Supreme Court will not hear this case.
On September 1, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted issued a directive, telling county elections officials to print the ballot label “Libertarian” next to the names of Libertarian Party nominees for partisan city office in the November 8, 2011 elections. The directive also tells county election officials to treat the Libertarian Party as a qualified party for purposes of having observers at the polls. However, the directive says nothing about whether the Libertarian Party should be treated as a qualified party in 2011 for campaign finance purposes.
