A new web page, www.savevoterchoice.com, has been set up to publicize some arguments against the measure, which will be voted on by the voters on June 8, 2010. See it here.

The web page does not mention some of the arguments against the measure. It does not mention that the measure says write-in votes must not be counted in November, for Congress and state office. It does not mention that the measure makes it far more difficult for ballot-qualified minor parties to retain their recognized status. It does not mention that some candidates who desire a party label would not be able to have a label.

Perhaps the people who set up the web page felt these points are too complicated to explain.

Free and Equal is hosting an Illinois gubernatorial debate at 7 p.m. on January 27. The event is at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, 5807 S. Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago.

The primaries for the Democratic, Republican, and Green Parties are less than a week away, February 2. Six candidates are competing for the Republican nomination. Two of them, Adam Andrzejewski and Dan Proft, will participate in the Free & Equal debate. Neither of the two Democrats running will appear. Richard Whitney, the only candidate seeking the Green Party nomination, will appear.

Also attending are four candidates who are either the nominees of unqualified parties, or independent candidates. Each of them will be on the November ballot if the required 25,000 signatures can be collected. The deadline for that is in June. They are: Libertarian Lex Green, Constitution Party nominee Randall Stufflebeam, independent Dock Walls, and independent Michael White.

The Free & Equal debate is also co-hosted by 5 University of Chicago student organizations: Students for a Free Society, Students for a Democratic Society, College Republicans, College Democrats, and the student chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the event is free.

A recent poll for the Republican debate reports these results: Andy McKenna 20%, Jim Ryan 16%, Kirk Dillard 13%, Adam Andrzejewski 11%, Bill Brady 11%, Dan Proft 8%. Also on the Republican ballot is Bob Schillerstrom, but he dropped out of the race last week.

USA Today has this article about pending lawsuits on the constitutionality of campaign finance laws. However, the article does not mention Unity08 v Federal Election Commission, which could have an opinion any day now. The issue in that case is whether the FEC was correct or incorrect to tell Unity08 that no one may contribute more than $5,000. Unity08 was formed in 2006, for the purpose of qualifying itself as a party in as many states as possible by 2008. Then, it would have chosen a presidential candidate via an on-line presidential primary. Anyone could sign up to participate in that on-line presidential primary.

The McCain-Feingold law says that national committees (of political parties) can only receive contributions of $30,400 per year. There are 8 national committees recognized by the FEC: Democratic, Republican, Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Natural Law, Reform, Socialist. Before the Unity08 ruling, the assumption was that a new party, which didn’t yet have national committee status, could receive unlimited contributions as long as it didn’t have any connection with any particular federal candidate. But, the FEC ruled that Unity08 is a political committee (even though political committees are defined as groups to help one particular candidate) and that therefore no one could give more than $5,000. The Unity08 pending decision is of the greatest importance to anyone who cares about the ability of a new party to get started. If the FEC decision on Unity08 had been in effect in 1995, Ross Perot could not have launched the Reform Party.