Kathleen Curry, Colorado’s only independent legislator, has conceded the election. She appears to have received 9,368 write-ins, but her Democratic opponent (who was, of course, listed on the ballot) received 9,660. See this story.
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On November 18, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled 4-2 that the U.S. Constitution prevents states from providing for the recall of members of Congress. See the opinion here. The majority decision and the dissent, together, are 142 pages.
Texas legislators are already introducing bills for the 2011 legislative session. Representative Leo Berman recently introduced HB 295, which says that no presidential or vice-presidential candidate may be listed on the November ballot unless he or she has presented an “original birth certificate indicating that the person is a natural-born United States citizen.”
The bill has no effect on presidential primaries, or on write-in candidates. The bill seems not to acknowledge that not every person born in the United States has a birth certificate. Nor does the bill define “original birth certificate.” The new language proposed by the bill is only one sentence long. Thanks to Political Wire for this news.
On November 12, the national committee of the Constitution Party chose Nashville, Tennessee, as the site for its 2012 presidential nominating convention. The exact dates haven’t been set yet, but they will be either in late April or early May.
The November 18 issue of the Sacramento Bee has this editorial, criticizing the California Independent Voters Project for treating some California legislators to a free trip to a Hawaii resort. The California Independent Voters Project was the original sponsor of the “top-two” idea in California. It had planned to qualify the idea through the initiative process. In the end, the California legislature put the idea on the June 2010 ballot, so no initiative petition was needed.
California Independent Voters Project is a non-profit organization, so it is not required to reveal the source of the money that was used to pay for the legislators’ trips. But it appears that the money came from for-profit corporations. Also, because CAIVP is a non-profit organization, it was able to send campaign literature in support of the top-two measure (Proposition 14) at the least expensive postal rates.
The Sacramento Bee editorial does not mention that California Independent Voters Project was the original author of Proposition 14. The Fresno Bee had a story about CAIVP and the Hawaii matter on November 16, and that story does mention the connection between Proposition 14 and CAIVP. Also see this commentary.