Dan Hamburg placed first in a four-person race for Mendocino County Supervisor, 5th district, on June 8. But because he didn’t get as much as 50%, he faces a run-off in November. See this story.
Hamburg is a member of the Green Party and was its gubernatorial candidate in 1998. He is also a former Democratic member of Congress. Mendocino County is on the northern California coast, and formerly had a District Attorney who was a registered Libertarian.
New York city councilmember Charles Barron says he will run for Governor as the nominee of a new political party this year. See this story. Barron, who is black, says he is unhappy that his party, the Democratic Party, is about to nominate a full slate of five statewide nominees who are not people of color.
Barron hasn’t come up with a name for the new party. The new party’s statewide slate will need 15,000 signatures, not 50,000. Barron represents the 42nd district, in Brooklyn.
The intense media interest in the South Carolina U.S. Senate race has started to garner publicity for the only candidate in the race who is not a major party nominee. He is Tom Clements, the Green Party nominee. See this story.
According to this story, leaders of the New York state Independence Party may soon be compelled to answer questions about a donation to the party in 2009 amounting to over $1,000,000. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
On June 11, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he could not have won a semi-closed Republican gubernatorial primary. See this story. Actually, according to exit polls in the special gubernatorial election of October 2003, 74% of registered Republicans voted for him in that special election.
In a related vein, supporters of Proposition 14 said during the campaign, over and over, that Republican primaries in California always result in victories for extreme conservatives. However, in all the contested Republican statewide primaries this year, with a semi-closed system, the more conservative candidate (among those who had big campaigns) lost in each instance. Steve Poizner lost for Governor, Sam Aanestad lost for Lieutenant Governor, Orly Taitz lost for Secretary of State, Tom Harman lost for Attorney General, and Chuck Devore lost for U.S. Senator.
