A Superior Court in Maine will hold a hearing in Ralph Nader v The Maine Democratic Party, et al, on August 6.  The issue is whether the national Democratic Party and some other groups violated Nader’s right to run for office in 2004, when it coordinated challenges to his 2004 petition efforts in some two dozen states.

Nader had filed a similar case in 2007 in Virginia and also in the District of Columbia, but the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, ruled that statutes of limitations in those places prevented them from being heard.  The D.C. Circuit said Nader filed those cases a few months too late.

However, Maine has a six-year statute of limitations for cases like this, so Nader essentially re-filed in Maine state court.  The case is in Washington County, macsc-cv-2009-57.  It was filed November 30, 2009.  Maine is one of the states in which the Democrats challenged Nader’s petition in 2004.  That Democratic challenge in Maine in 2004 did not succeed, and Nader did appear on the Maine ballot in 2004.

According to this story, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin now favors a special election for U.S. Senate in November 2010, to fill the vacancy created when Senator Robert Byrd died last month.  Manchin will ask the Attorney General to issue an opinion on whether the existing law requires such a special election.  If the opinion says the existing law does not require a special election, Manchin will probably ask the special session of the legislature to amend the law to provide for a special election.

Chances are, though, that the Attorney General will say the existing law does require a special election.  The existing law explicitly says a special election for U.S. Senate should be held if an incumbent U.S. Senator dies or otherwise leaves the Senate more than six months before the start of the next session of Congress.  The only reason the Secretary of State expressed an opinion against a special election is that the law doesn’t explain how major parties can choose a nominee, because this year’s primary has already been held.

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.