On July 7, the Texas Democratic Party abandoned its legal efforts to keep the Green Party off the Texas ballot this year. However, the party will keep the part of the lawsuit alive that seeks civil penalties, if a violation of any Texas campaign finance law is determined to have occurred. See this story. Thanks to Professor Mark P. Jones for the link.
The Public Policy Institute of California says that there will be a neutral poll in the California gubernatorial election this month that asks voters about all six ballot-listed candidates. This promise was made because PPIC is co-sponsoring a future California gubernatorial debate, and limiting invitations to only candidates who are at 10% in a neutral poll. The 10% criteria is meaningless if no poll exists that asks about each candidate.
Besides Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman, candidates on the November ballot will be Chelene Nightingale of the American Independent Party, Laura Wells of the Green Party, Dale Ogden of the Libertarian Party, and Carlos Alvarez of the Peace & Freedom Party.
The 10th Circuit has agreed to an expedited briefing schedule in Curry v Daley,10-1265. This is the case over whether Colorado’s one year disaffiliation for independent candidates is constitutional. The legislature passed a bill this year relaxing it but the new relaxed law isn’t effective until 2011. The reason for the court hearing is to determine if the old law should be declared unconstitutional this year, in time for independent legislator Kathleen Curry to be on the ballot as an independent candidate, for re-election.
Curry’s brief has already been filed, and the state’s brief is due August 9. The court will issue an opinion no later than September 2.
The New York legislature and the Pennsylvania legislature have just adjourned until September. Neither legislature passed any of the ballot access improvement bills that had been introduced in 2009 or 2010.
A debate among most Illinois gubernatorial candidates will be held on July 8, between 7 pm and 9 pm, at the Cordell Reed Student Union Building at Chicago State University, 9501 S. King Drive, Chicago. The debate sponsors are the African American Male Resource Center, the Latino Resource Center, and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. Free & Equal initiated the idea for the debate.
Participating are Richard Whitney of the Green Party; Scott Lee Cohen, independent gubernatorial candidate who had earlier this year won the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor but who had then withdrawn from that race; Libertarian nominee Lex Green; Constitution Party nominee Michael White; and independent gubernatorial candidate William Walls III. Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn and Republican nominee Bill Brady are invited but have not said they will attend.
The debate is limited to candidates who are guaranteed to be on the November ballot, and also to candidates who submitted at least 5,000 signatures. Two gubernatorial candidates who submitted a handful of signatures, Christopher Pedersen of the Independent Conservative Party, and independent Stephen Estill, are certain to be removed from the ballot and are not invited. Every petitioning candidate this year has been challenged.
