Columnist Darrell Delamaide’s September 15 column says that the results of recent Republican primaries for important office is creating a political vacuum for centrist voters, and again brings up the idea that Mayor Michael Bloomberg could find success in 2012 as an independent presidential candidate.
The two Colorado voters who had sued the Secretary of State, arguing that Tom Tancredo should not be on the ballot, have decided not to appeal, so it is certain that Tancredo will be on the ballot. Thanks to John Duffy for this news.
The state district court ruling will be a useful precedent for ballot-qualified minor parties in Colorado in the future, giving them flexibility to replace their original nominees with replacement nominees who had not been previously registered members of that party.
On September 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, held oral arguments in Barr v Galvin, the Massachusetts case over whether unqualified parties may use stand-in presidential candidates on their petition, and then substitute the actual presidential candidate later. The three judges were Michael Boudin, Bruce Selya, and Kenneth Ripple. Judge Ripple is a visiting judge from Indiana.
In 2008, the Massachusetts Libertarian Party was not a ballot-qualified party, so it needed to submit a petition to be on the November 2008 ballot for president. The party had asked the Massachusetts Secretary of State if it could use a stand-in presidential candidate on its petition, because the party wouldn’t know who its actual presidential candidate was going to be until the national convention at the end of May 2008. Massachusetts said “Yes”. Later, the state changed its mind and refused to list Bob Barr on the ballot. The party sued and won in U.S. District Court in time for relief. The state then filed its appeal.
All three judges participated in the oral argument and all three seemed very familiar with the facts in the case. They questioned both sides about whether the case is moot, but both sides agreed that the issue is not moot because it will recur in future presidential elections. The panel gave the impression that they believe the Massachusetts policy on whether or not presidential stand-ins are permitted is too vague to survive.
According to this story, Rick Lazio received 11,084 votes in the New York Conservative Party gubernatorial primary, defeating Ralph Lorigo, who had 7,254. That was with 89% of the precincts counted.
Lorigo is an ally of Carl Paladino, who defeated Lazio in the Republican gubernatorial primary. The new few days will determine whether Lazio will continue to be the Conservative Party nominee, or whether he will withdraw. This story says that for now, Lazio will continue to run as the Conservative Party nominee.
As noted earlier, on September 14, Tom Tancredo won his ballot access lawsuit, and will be on the November 2010 ballot as the Constitution Party’s nominee for Governor of Colorado. Here is the 9-page decision. The decision has a surprising twist. It seems to conclude that Tancredo could not have been nominated at the Constitution Party’s state convention earlier this year, because he had been a registered Republican too close to the date of that convention. But, Tancredo wasn’t nominated at the party’s convention. The original nominee for Governor had resigned from the ticket and the party state committee had then replaced the original nominee with Tancredo, a process that has fewer restrictions on who can be chosen.
The decision says nothing about whether the plaintiffs (the people who tried to remove Tancredo from the ballot) filed their lawsuit too late. Thanks to John Duffy for the link to the opinion.
