On September 17, the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island, Heidi Rogers, withdrew from the race, and she also endorsed independent candidate Robert J. Healey.  Healey has been running, either as the nominee of the Cool Moose Party for Lieutenant Governor, or as an independent candidate for Lieutenant Governor, for years, on a platform of abolishing the office to save the state money.  Rogers says she agrees with Healey about abolishing the office.

Therefore, there will be three nominees on the November ballot for Lieutenant Governor:  Democratic nominee Elizabeth Roberts; Healey; and another independent candidate, Robert Venturini.

The Republican primary for Lieutenant Governor had been contested.  Rogers had defeated Kara Russo in that primary.  Russo, on learning that Rogers had withdrawn, sought to persuade the State Board of Elections that she should be listed on the November ballot as the Republican nominee.  Unfortunately for her, though, Republican Party officers don’t want any nominee for Lieutenant Governor, so they refused to nominate Russo as a substitute nominee.  There is no provision in the law to place the loser of a primary on the general election ballot, if the candidate’s own party doesn’t wish to nominate her.  Russo says it is unconstitutional to leave the Republican Party with no nominee, and that she will bring a lawsuit.  Thanks to Brandon Henderson for this news.

Carl Romanelli, the Pennsylvania Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate in 2006, has been under court order to pay his Democratic Party challengers approximately $80,000 in court costs, for almost four years now.  This is because Romanelli’s petition was found not to have enough valid signatures, and Pennsylvania procedure says when a petition is found to lack enough valid signatures, the candidate must pay court costs.  However, the 2006 Democratic Party challengers used state resources and state employees (on government time) to challenge the 2006 petition, something that was not known until 2007.

On July 14, 2010, Romanelli had filed a federal lawsuit in Harrisburg, against the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and some of the people who challenged his petition.  The defendant Pennsylvania Democratic Party did not answer the complaint, and the legal deadline for the party’s answer has now passed.  On September 22, Romanelli asked for a default judgment against the party.  The case is Romanelli v DeWeese, 3:10-cv-1434, middle district.  UPDATE:  on September 23, the Clerk of the U.S. District Court formally declared the Democratic Party to be in default.

According to this story, the New York Republican Party will go to court to remove Jim Russell from the November 2, 2010 ballot.  He won the Republican Party primary for U.S. House, 18th district, by default.  No one else qualified to run for the Republican nomination for that seat.  The Republican Party is opposed to Russell because he seems to have publicly advocated that people only marry members of their same ethnic group.  Thanks to Eric Garris for the link.

In 2008, Russell was the Republican nominee for the same seat.  He was the Conservative Party nominee for the same seat as well.