On July 30, the Public Policy Institute of California released a poll for the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races.  The poll included many other questions as well, and can be seen here.  The election results start on page 32.

For U.S. Senate, the results are:  Barbara Boxer, Democrat, 39%; Carly Fiorina, Republican, 34%; Gail Lightfoot, Libertarian, 2%; Edward Noonan, American Independent, 2%; Duane Roberts, Green, 1%; Marsha Feinland, Peace & Freedom, below 1%; don’t know 22%.

For Governor, the results are:  Jerry Brown, Democrat, 37%; Meg Whitman, Republican, 34%; Carlos Alvarez, Peace & Freedom, 2%; Chelene Nightingale, American Independent, 1%; Dale Ogden, Libertarian, 1%; Laura Wells, Green, 1%; someone else 1%; don’t know 23%.  The poll had 2,502 respondents.

On July 30, the 11th circuit reversed the U.S. District Court and enjoined Florida from paying extra public funding to William McCollum, a candidate for Governor in the Republican primary.  McCollum’s opponent, Richard Scott, had filed the lawsuit, which is Scott v Roberts, 10-13211.  The decision is 44 pages.

The 2nd circuit had made a similar ruling earlier this month, in a Connecticut case.  The 9th circuit had come to the opposite conclusion a few months ago.  The issue is whether states violate the constitution when they give extra public funding to publicly-funded candidates who have very well-funded opponents who are not using public funding.

The 11th circuit says that Florida could achieve its goal of encouraging participation in public funding if it would just eliminate the expenditure ceiling for publicly-funded candidates who have opponents who are not using public funding and who have substantial resources.  The decision is written by Judge William H. Pryor (a Bush Jr. appointee), and co-signed by Judge Joel F. Dubina (a Bush Sr. appointee) and Judge Beverly Martin (an Obama appointee).  Thanks to Nicholas Ruiz for the news.

James Traficant, a former Democratic member of Congress from Ohio, attempted to run this year as an independent candidate for U.S. House in Ohio’s 17th district.  However, he was told that he needed 2,199 valid signatures, and after his petition was checked, he was told that he only had 2092 valid signatures.

Now elections officials have acknowledged that their earlier determination of how many signatures were required was incorrect.  See this story.  Ohio requires independent candidates for district office to submit a petition of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote within that district.  Ohio would make less work for itself if the law said such a candidate needs a petition of 1% of the vote cast for the particular office the candidate is running for.  That would be easier, because anyone could easily know the vote cast for that particular office, just by looking at the official election returns from that past election.  By making the formula 1% of the vote for governor in the last election, that forces elections officials to do a calculation of how many votes for Governor were cast in a particular district, something that is not apparent from the election returns.  Thanks to Carter Momberger for the link.  It appears that even though elections officials acknowledge error, the new calculation is only 29 signatures fewer than than the original calculation, so Traficante probably still doesn’t have enough valid signatures.

The newspaper story in incorrect when it says an independent candidate for district office needs signatures from each county in the district.