The political column for the Des Moines Register of April 22 features Eric Cooper, Libertarian Party nominee for Iowa Governor. See it here. The columnist, Kathie Obradovich, seems impressed that the candidate is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience, and that he performed very well in a recent public appearance. But she seems most impressed with his recent dieting achievement. Thanks to Peter Gemma for the link.
The Alabama legislature adjourns at the end of April 22. This year’s session did not pass any ballot access reform. Nor did it pass the bill to apportion the state’s presidential electors proportionately. And it did not pass any bill to set up a write-in filing procedure for declared write-in candidates.
The only pending activism to improve Alabama ballot access just now is the ballot access case appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court, Shugart v Chapman. The U.S. Supreme Court will probably say whether it will hear this case in June 2010.
The Republican Party of Riverside County, California, has posted Independent Political Report’s Proposition 14 editorial on the party’s website. See the Republican Party’s blog here. Congratulations to IPR!
The Green Party will hold its national committee meeting June 24-27, 2010, in Detroit, Michigan. See here for more details. Thanks to GreenPartyWatch for the link.
On April 21, the Arizona House passed SB 1024 by the narrow margin of 31-29. Every member of the House cast a vote. This is the bill which started out in the Senate as a bill to remove the names of presidential electors from the November ballot. Earlier this week, the bill was amended in the House to add on a provision that presidential nominees of established political parties must attach documents proving that they meet the Constitutional qualifications.
The bill says such documents are due 10 days after the national parties certify the names of the presidential nominees. But because the 2012 Democratic convention will not choose a presidential nominee until September 3, and because the federal government now requires states to mail foreign absentee ballots at least 45 days before the general election, the bill’s provisions cannot be enforced. The bill says presidential nominees who don’t submit satisfactory documents must be left off the ballot. But the ballots, at least in 2012, will already have been printed before the documents are due. The bill is now getting press attention; see this story.
The bill now returns to the Senate, to see if the Senate will accept the presidential qualifications amendment.
