The Lake Wales News has this story about Randy Wilkinson, the Tea Party candidate for U.S. House in the 12th district. Thanks to Doug Guetzloe for the link. Lake Wales is between Orlando and Tampa.
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The Jacksonville Observer, a year-old publication that has been an on-line/radio medium only, has just issued its first print edition, dated May 2010. It includes a front-page story by Darcy Richardson, “The Tea Party: A Third Party in the Making?” Unfortunately, this very lengthy and news-filled article is not available on-line.
On May 12, New York Governor David Paterson called a special election to fill the vacancy in the U.S. House, district 29. However, it won’t be until November 2, 2010. The winner will get a two month term in November and December 2010. For much of that time, Congress won’t even be in session.
It is not clear if the people who recently filed a lawsuit to force a special election will be satisfied with the Governor’s decision. The seat has been vacant since March 2010, when incumbent Eric Massa resigned.
Political science professor Michael McDonald has this short article posted at pollster.com. He finds a relationship between periods when the major parties are ideologically cohesive, and periods of relative minor party success. Then he notes that we are in a period when the Democratic and Republican Parties are quite cohesive. Ergo, he predicts a good year for minor parties (and, presumably, independent candidates, although he doesn’t mention them specifically).
The Missouri legislature adjourns for the year later today. No interesting election law bills will have passed this year.
The bills to eliminate the typographical error in the 1993 ballot access reform bill, SB 796 and HB 2210, failed to make any headway. As a result, Missouri petitions to recognize a new ballot-qualified party continue to require the names of presidential candidates, and presidential elector candidates, if the group intends to run anyone for President. Otherwise, the petition to create a new party does not require the names of candidates.
Restrictive bills also failed to pass, including a bill to require voters at the polls to show government photo-ID, and a bill to double the number of signatures for an initiative, and a bill to ban paying circulators on a per-signature basis, and a bill to require petitioners to live in Missouri.