Special Election for Alabama Legislature Will be Between a Republican and a Constitution Party Nominee

Posted on by March 6, 2011
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Alabama will hold a special election on June 28 to fill the vacant seat in the State House of Representatives, 105th district. The legislator elected in November 2010, Spencer Collier, resigned in January to take a job in the executive branch of state government. The election will be between Bill Atkinson, the Constitution Party nominee, and whoever wins the special Republican primary on March 22.

The Constitution Party qualified to run in this special election by submitting a petition signed by at least 235 valid signatures (3% of the vote cast in this district in November 2010). No Democrat filed to run, even though a Democrat would not have needed to collect any signatures. Democrats didn’t run for this seat in November 2010 either. The seat is in southern Mobile County. Thanks to Joshua Cassity for this news.

South Carolina U.S. District Court Expedites Republican Party Challenge to Open Primary, and Lets Independent Voting Intervene

Posted on by March 5, 2011
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On March 5, U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, an Obama appointee, agreed to expedite the lawsuit Greenville County Republican Party v State of South Carolina, 6:10-cv-1407. This is the lawsuit in which the Republican Party is seeking to prevent non-Republicans from voting in Republican primaries, especially primaries for municipal partisan office. The basis for expediting the case is that some of these partisan municipal elections are being held this year, and candidate filing for these races closes on March 30.

Judge Childs also agreed to let the intervenors participate in the lawsuit. The intervenors were brought together by Independent Voting. However, the intervenors must submit their evidence by March 8. The Republican Party had argued against letting any intervenors into the case, because the party had argued that they would cause the case to be delayed. The intervenors include some Democratic state legislators, and some officials of the Constitution Party, the Independence Party, and the Labor Party. Thanks to Nancy Hanks for this news.

New Mexico Gains its First Independent State Legislator

Posted on by March 5, 2011
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On January 25, New Mexico Representative Andy Nunez changed his registration from “Democratic” to “independent.” He did so because he had been removed as chair of the Water and Natural Resources Committee. Nunez lost his chairmanship because he opposed Speaker Ben Lujan for another term as speaker. But Lujan was re-elected speaker anyway, and then Lujan used his authority to choose another legislator to head the Water and Natural Resources Committee. Both Lujan and Nunez are 75 years old.

Nunez is the first independent in the New Mexico legislature. No one has been elected to the New Mexico legislature, other than Democratic and Republican nominees, since 1914, when the Socialist Party and the Progressive Party each elected a legislator. New Mexico did not even permit independent candidates to get on the ballot until 1977. The state was forced to provide procedures for independent candidates, because in 1976 independent presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy sued New Mexico over that aspect of its election law, and won the lawsuit. Thanks to Gene Armistead for the news about Nunez.

Washington Senate Passes Bill Moving Primary from Late August to Early August

Posted on by March 5, 2011
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On March 4, the Washington State Senate passed SB 5171, which moves the primary (for office other than President) from late August to early August. The filing deadline moves three weeks earlier, into late April. The bill passed with only one “no” vote.

Washington uses a top-two system. One of the disadvantages of that system is that all avenues to the November ballot are shut off early in the year (except for write-ins). In a traditional system, even if the major parties choose their nominees in the first half of the year, there is usually a method for independent candidates, or new parties, to get on the ballot later. This flexibility is useful if some important and unexpected public event occurs in the middle of the year, to make it possible for voters to support someone entering the race late, in response to that unexpected event.

Michigan Democratic and Republican Legislative Leaders Favor Keeping Presidential Primary in February

Posted on by March 5, 2011
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According to this story in the Detroit News, leaders of both the Republican Party, and the Democratic Party, say they favor keeping Michigan’s presidential primary in February. If the legislature does nothing, the 2012 presidential primaries will be on February 28, 2012. This violates the national party rules, which only allow Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, to choose delegates to national conventions that early.

Michigan is one of the few states in which influential major party politicians, for years, have been saying that it is not fair to allow just four particular states to always go first.