The League of Women Voters has invited all four ballot-listed candidates for California State Senate, district 15, to a debate.  This is a special election, to be held August 17.  The debate invitation has already been accepted by Democratic nominee Jim Fitzgerald, Libertarian nominee Mark Hinkle, and independent candidate Jim Fitzgerald.  The Republican nominee, Sam Blakeslee, has not yet accepted.  The League says the debate will go on even if Blakeslee does not accept.

The debate is July 26, at the Cuesta College Student Center in San Luis Obispo, at 7 p.m.  It will be broadcast on Channel 19 (on replay) and perhaps also on KSBY-TV.  Thanks to the California Majority Report for this news.

This Las Vegas Sun article, published July 18, is about Sharron Angle, the Republican Party nominee for U.S. Senate who was once active in the Independent American Party of Nevada, that state’s affiliate of the Constitution Party.  The second half of that article also reports on the Constitution Party’s views about religion.  It quotes people on both sides as to whether the Constitution Party supports the ideas of R. J. Rushdoony, who advocated that Old Testament Law be enacted as U.S. civil law.

This newspaper story explains that on November 2, 2010, Arizona voters will vote on a ballot question to create a Lieutenant Governor in that state.  Currently, there is no Lieutenant Governor, and if the Governor dies or resigns, the Secretary of State becomes Governor.  If the measure passes, the candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor would run as a team in the general election, though not in the primary.

The article mentions a flaw in the ballot question.  It makes no provision for independent teams of Governor and Lieutenant Governor.  Here is the text of the measure, which was SJR 1013 while it was a bill in the legislature.

The last state to add the post of Lieutenant Governor was New Jersey, which elected one for the first time in 2009.