Public Policy Polling released this poll on June 14, for the U.S. Senate race in Illinois.
The poll unwisely listed only the nominees of the Democratic, Republican, and Green Parties. Chances are, there were be several other minor party and/or independent candidates on the ballot for U.S. Senate. The poll shows these results: Alexi Giannoulias, Democrat, 31%; Mark Kirk, Republican, 30%; LeAlan Jones, Green, 14%; undecided 24%.
The Associated Press has this story about the Constitution Party’s lawsuit against South Dakota election laws that make it extremely difficult for small ballot-qualified parties to place nominees on their own primary ballots.
The South Dakota law is peculiar. It requires the Constitution Party to obtain 250 signatures of party members on petitions to place members of the party on its own primary ballot. But, if the Constitution Party had polled 2.5% of the vote for Governor in November 2006, then the Constitution Party candidates this year would only need 84 signatures of party members.
The article does not mention the other issue in the case, the state’s ban on out-of-state circulators.
Filing has now closed for Washington state’s primary. The only statewide race up this year is U.S. Senator. All the other federal and state offices are district races, including 9 U.S. House races, 25 State Senate races, and 98 State House races. See the list of candidates here.
The Constitution Party has two candidates for U.S. House, and one for the legislature. The Green Party has one candidate for U.S. House, and one for the legislature. The Reform Party has one candidate for U.S. Senate. No Libertarians are running for any federal or state office. No one from the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, or the Freedom Socialist Party, is running, even though all four of those parties have an organization in Washington state. Nor is anyone from the Progressive Party running.
Independent candidates in Washington cannot just have “Independent” on the ballot next to their names. They must either choose “No party preference” or “Prefers Independent Party.” Most independent candidates went with the latter choice.
There are also candidates who have chosen labels that include a preference for parties that do not actually exist as organizations, such as the Bull Moose Party, the Centrist Party, and the G.O.P. Party. An “organization” is a group that has officers and bylaws and, generally, a method to determine who is a member, whether that be formal or informal. One candidate for U.S. House says he prefers the Tea Party.
Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed will not be publishing a Voters Pamphlet this year for the primary, due to budgetary constraints. There will, as usual, be a pamphlet for the general election.
Southern Political Report has this article, analyzing the interplay of the two strong independent candidates in Florida this year, Charlie Crist for U.S. Senate, and Bud Chiles for Governor.
On June 11, Ralph Nader sued the Federal Election Commission in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. His case is Nader v FEC, 1:10-cv-989. The case was assigned to Judge Henry H. Kennedy, a Clinton appointee. Nader’s complaint is that the FEC never investigated the failure of the Democratic National Committee and its allies to report their expenses when they spent millions of dollars to keep him off the ballot in 2004. Also, certain legal corporations appear to have illegally made large contributions to the Democratic Party, by their legal services to the Democratic Party, in violation of federal campaign law. Here is the 31-page Complaint.
The FEC has broad discretion on whether to investigate a complaint. Nevertheless, the normal FEC procedure when a complaint is filed is to ask the other side to respond. When Nader complained to the FEC, the FEC didn’t even require a response from the Democratic Party or some of the other organizations complained about.
The FEC did nothing about Nader’s complaint for two years, and then dismissed it on the grounds that it had no information before it. Of course, its failure to have any information was due to its own failure to gather any information, or even to attempt to gather such information.
