Foster’s Daily Democrat, in this article, suggests that Eliot Cutler may win the gubernatorial election in Maine this year. Cutler is an independent candidate who formerly worked for Senator Edmund Muskie as well as President Jimmy Carter.
Foster’s Daily Democrat is actually a New Hampshire newspaper, but it also covers southern Maine. It is considered a conservative-leaning newspaper.
On June 1, the New York State Senate passed S3584B by a vote of 32-29. It lets municipalities use Instant Runoff Voting for their own elections if they wish, in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Here is the bill.
On June 4, the California Secretary of State released new registration data. This is the first tally since the April 9, 2010 tally.
Since the April tally, the Republican, American Independent, Libertarian, and Peace & Freedom Parties increased their share of the registration. Independents also increased their share, as did the Reform Party and the cumulative total of other unqualified parties. The Democratic and Green Parties declined slightly.
Below are each of the parties, with the April percentage first, followed by their May percentage:
Democratic 44.57%, 44.49%
Republican 30.79%, 30.80%
Amer. Indp. 2.31%, 2.34%
Green .66362%, .66357%
Libertarian .506%, .511%
Peace & Freedom .3325%, .3333%
Reform .132%, .140%
other unqualified parties besides Reform .559%, .560%
independents 20.14%, 20.17%
On June 4, the New Hampshire Secretary of State agreed to accept 276 signatures on petitions for the 2010 Libertarian Party statewide candidate petition that had been collected in 2009.
In 2009, the legislature had set a start date of January 1 of any election year, for candidate petitions. However, the Libertarian Party had already collected 276 signatures in 2009 when the bill was signed. For months now, the party has been trying to persuade the Secretary of State that it violates due process to refuse to accept signatures that, when they were collected, were legal. Thanks to Ken Blevens for this news. Blevens has been tireless, working for this outcome. The statewide petition needs 3,000 signatures and is due on August 4.
Norman Solomon is a well-known journalist who lives in Marin County, California. He helped establish the group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) and he founded the Institute for Public Accuracy. His commentary about California’s Proposition 14, the top-two measure on the June 8 ballot, is in the June 4 Marin Independent-Journal. It is also posted at CommonDreams.org. Thanks to Roy Ulrich for this news.
