On December 10, two important campaign finance cert petitions were filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.  Louisiana Republican Congressman Joseph Cao, along with the Republican National Committee, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Cao v Federal Election Commission.  And the Connecticut Green Party asked that Court to hear Green Party of Connecticut v Lenge, the case against Connecticut’s discriminatory law on public funding of candidates for state office.

See here for the Cao cert petition, which challenges part of the McCain-Feingold law which does not permit a political party to spend more than $5,000 to help the campaign of one its nominees, unless the party spending is completely uncoordinated with the nominee.  Cao and the Republican Party argue that the limit is unconstitutional, as to campaign speech in which the party is speaking its own message.  Cao argues there is a difference between party spending that advocates the party’s message (but which is coordinated with the nominee), versus a party simply paying campaign bills for its nominee.  The full 5th circuit had rejected Cao’s argument by a vote of 11-5.

Here is the Green Party cert petition.  The Appendix is very long, but the text of the petition itself only occupies the first 34 pages.

North Carolina used Instant Runoff Voting to elect a State Court of Appeals judge last month.  The final tally is close, with the winner only 6,000 votes ahead of the second-place finisher.  The second-place finisher has asked for a recount, which will take place during the week of December 13-17.  See this story.  The race is non-partisan.

On December 9, U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Dearie granted New York state’s request for more time to respond to the lawsuit Credico v New York State Board of Elections, eastern district, 10cv-4555.  The state must now file its answer by January 28, 2011.  This is the lawsuit that challenges New York state discrimination in matters relating to fusion.  The law permits a candidate who is nominated by two qualified parties to be listed twice on the ballot.  It also permits a candidate who is nominated by one qualified party, and one unqualified party, to be listed twice.  But someone who is nominated by two unqualified parties can only be listed once.