On June 7, the National Popular Vote Plan made a big leap forward. The New York State Senate passed it by a vote of 51-7. A majority of Republicans voted for it, as well as a majority of Democrats. Generally in other states Republican state legislators have tended to vote against it.
The bill in New York is S2286. It had been introduced on February 17, 2009, and had passed the Senate Elections Committee on February 8, 2010. Thank to Barry Fadem for this news.
Ralph Nader will be interviewed on KGO radio (810 on the am dial) in San Francisco at 9:35 a.m., on the Ronn Owens show, about California’s Proposition 14, on Monday (today), June 7. Nader opposes Proposition 14, the top-two election measure that makes it impossible for voters to vote for anyone but a Democrat and/or a Republican in Congressional elections in November. This statement is based on what actually happened in Washington state when that state used a top-two system for the first time in 2008.
Christina Tobin, founder of Free and Equal, will be on KPFK radio (90.7 FM) in Los Angeles on Proposition 14, on Monday (today), June 7, at 4:30 p.m.
All times are Pacific time.
On June 7, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear two ballot access cases, one from Alabama and one from Louisiana. The Alabama case, Shugart v Chapman, 09-1221, challenged the number of signatures needed to put an independent candidate for U.S. House on the ballot, given that the state required more signatures for him than for an independent presidential candidate.
The Louisiana case involved whether Bob Barr should have been on the ballot in Louisiana. The Governor of Louisiana had set a later deadline, which Barr met, but the Secretary of State had set an earlier deadline than the Governor’s deadline, which Barr did not meet. The changes in deadlines were because of hurricanes. That case was called Libertarian Party v Dardenne, 09-1223.
The U.S. Supreme Court also refused to hear Rodearmel v Clinton, 09-797, which is not an election law case. It concerned whether Article I of the U.S. Constitution was violated when Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State. Article I, section 6, says no member of Congress is eligible to an appointed position if that person had been in Congress when the salary of that position had been raised. Congress had raised the salary of Secretary of State while Clinton had been a U.S. Senator. But when Clinton was appointed, Congress had lowered the salary back to what it had been before that raise.
Gary Bryant, Libertarian Party candidate for California Assembly, 3rd district, has produced his own radio ad against Proposition 14, the top-two ballot measure on the June 8 ballot. He uses his own voice, and the ad lasts one minute. It cost him $205 to have it air four times on Monday, June 7, on KNCO, 830 on the dial, in Grass Valley, California.
Socialist Action has nominated a candidate for U.S. House in Connecticut’s First District, and is petitioning to place him on the ballot. He is Christopher Hutchinson. He needs almost 3,000 valid signatures by August 4.
If he gets on the ballot, he will be the first Connecticut congressional candidate of a party that holds itself out as advocating socialism, since the Communist Party had a candidate on the Connecticut ballot for U.S. House in 1982.
Socialist Action was formed decades ago by people who had been members of the Socialist Workers Party, but who left that party. It has never run a presidential candidate of its own, and it has almost never had any candidates for any partisan office. It is headquartered in San Francisco.
