Political Vanguard, a California blog by Tom Del Beccaro, has this column pointing out the logical inconsistencies, and the errors, in recent California newspaper editorials endorsing Proposition 14, the “top-two” measure.
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Illinois held its 2010 primary in February, and the Democratic Party primary for Lieutenant Governor was won by Scott Lee Cohen. Party leaders did not like Cohen and after the primary was over, they successfully persuaded him to resign from the ticket. The party then chose Sheila Simon as its replacement Lieutenant Governor nominee.
Now, two independent gubernatorial candidates are aiming to qualify for the November ballot. One is Cohen himself, who now appears to regret that he resigned the Lieutenant Governor’s nomination. The other is William “Dock” Walls, who had tried to appear on the Democratic primary ballot as a gubernatorial candidate, but party officials didn’t like his candidacy and threatened to challenge his primary petition, causing him to withdraw. Walls is gaining support from black voters, because many black political activists had expected the party to choose a black to replace Cohen as the party’s Lieutenant Governor candidate, but the party did not do so. See this story about the Cohen independent race.
North Carolina First, a new party that exists only in North Carolina, has 20,000 signatures in its drive to get on the November 2010, according to news reports. The party’s web page, http://ncfirstparty.org, is here.
The party needs 85,379 signature by May 14. It is possible the party could win a lawsuit against the relatively early deadline. New parties in North Carolina nominate by convention, so there seems to be little state interest in requiring the petitions to be completed so early.
See this poll, from the May 6 British election for House of Commons. It shows the race is still a 3-way election. Two of the three debates have already been held; one more is coming.
HR 4918, the bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to require the states to draw the boundaries of U.S. House districts entirely in public hearings, with mandatory input from the public, and to put all proposals on a state internet site, has gained 35 co-sponsors in the last week. The bill now has 36 co-sponsors.
Other election law bills that have gained co-sponsors in the last week are HR 1826, which gained 3 (so that now it has 147); and HR 3335, which gained 2 (so that now it has 32). HR 1826 is public funding for candidates for Congress. HR 3335 requires the states to let ex-felons vote in federal elections.