The 11th circuit says it will hear oral arguments in Coffield v Handel during the period March 1-5. The court will set the exact date in a few weeks. This is the case in which Faye Coffield tried to get on the ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. House in 2008. Although no one has completed the Georgia petition requirement for that office since 1964, it has always been tough to get the issue into court, because generally the petition is so difficult, no one even tries.
City Hall’s November 29 issue has this very lengthy and detailed report on how the Working Families Party raises money in New York state, and how it is part of a network of organizations that enhance the effectiveness of each part of that network. Thanks to Rick Hasen of ElectionLawBlog for the link.
The newspaper that covers Litchfield County, Connecticut, has this November 29 story about Ralph Nader’s appearance in Norfolk, Connecticut, for his book tour. Apparently as Nader traverses that state, he is always asked if he will run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. He continues being noncommital.
According to this story, outgoing Annapolis, Maryland city councilmember Julie Stankivic says she may change her voter registration from “Republican” to “Libertarian.” She was elected in a partisan election in 2005 as an independent, but later had become a Republican. She didn’t run for re-election this year and leaves the council on December 7.
Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell has asked the legislature to amend the state’s public funding law so that it does not discriminate for or against any candidate on the basis of the candidate’s partisan affiliation. See this story. Thanks to Joshua Van Vranken for the link.
On August 27, 2009, a U.S. District Court had invalidated the law because it massively favors Democrats and Republicans over independent candidates, in the matter of qualifying for public funding. The law requires all candidates, whatever their partisan affiliation, to qualify by receiving $5 contributions from an equal number of contributors. But, independent candidates would also need a petition of 20% of the last vote cast to receive equal public funding with Democrats and Republicans. For a statewide office in 2010, an independent would need 224,694 valid signatures. No candidate petition for ballot access in any state, in U.S. history, has ever been overcome if it required more than 134,781 signatures. The printed December 1, 2009 Ballot Access News has a chart that shows the highest candidate petition ever overcome in each of the 50 states. It is absurd for Connecticut, a relatively small state, to expect any candidate to submit 224,694 valid signatures for any purpose.
