On October 26, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty endorsed Doug Hoffman for U.S. House in the special New York election, 23rd district. Hoffman is the Conservative Party nominee, who is opposing the Republican and Democratic nominees. See this story. Thanks to Tim Brace for this news.
On October 22, the Connecticut legislature’s Government Administration & Elections Committee heard testimony from the Attorney General, and from officials who run the state’s public funding program. See this newspaper story. The Attorney General seemed to hope that the legislature won’t amend the public funding bill, because he believes he can overturn the U.S. District Court ruling of August 27 that invalidated it. The other witnesses seemed to prefer the legislature to revise the system this year, so that it no longer severely discriminates against independent candidates for state office.
Meanwhile, the briefs in the appeal to the 2nd circuit will all be submitted by December 30, 2009.
On October 26, this Ipsos Reid Poll of Canadian voters was released. It shows that if the Parliamentary election were being held now, the decided voters would break down this way: Conservative 40%, Liberal 25%, New Democratic Party 13%, Green 11%, Bloc Quebecois 11%.
The undecided voters amount to 6% of the electorate.
Canada is probably the most similar nation to the United States. Canada does not use proportional representation. Nevertheless, because Canada has equal and lenient ballot access laws, equal campaign finance laws, and somewhat inclusive debates, Canada has vigorous minor parties, some of whom occasionally win control of various Provincial governments. Canada’s example shows that the party system in the United States is not natural, but is a product of discriminatory laws and practices. These discriminatory laws and practices did not exist in the 18th or 19th centuries, and by no means were sanctioned by the founding fathers. These discriminatory practices began in the early twentieth century.
The October 26 issue of Roll Call has an interesting story about bills pending in Congress to alter election law. The article does not discuss bills on Puerto Rico’s status, or gerrymandering, or public funding. Instead it talks about bills to alter voter registration and the voting process itself. The article focuses on a bill to require the states to let people register to vote on-line, and another bill to let overseas voters vote on-line.
The California Board of Common Cause met on October 24 and mulled over whether to make an endorsement either for or against the “top-two” ballot measure that will be on the California ballot in June 2010. But the group decided to postpone that decision until the spring of 2010, when the campaign for and against will be in full swing.
