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.
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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.
Mimi Marziani, a fellow with the Brennan Center, has this article saying that programs for public funding for candidates are worthwhile, whether they have extra public funds for publicly-funded candidates with high-spending privately-funded opponents or not.
This topic is relevant because the U.S. Supreme Court recently put a temporary hold on the part of Arizona public funding that furnishes extra public funding in those circumstances. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On June 10, the Delaware House unanimously passed HB 425. The bill says that for 2010 only, the number of registrants for a party to be ballot-qualified should be one-twentieth of 1%, not one-tenth of 1%.
Earlier this year, the legislature had increased the requirement from one-twentieth of 1% to one-tenth of 1%, effective immediately. Most of Delaware’s ballot-qualified minor parties then did a good job of complaining that it is not fair to stiffen the requirements in an election year and make it effective immediately. Both the minor parties injured by the new law, and the minor parties not injured by the new law, worked together. The Independent Party of Delaware was especially helpful. They persuaded the Election Commissioner to ask the legislature to pass HB 425. The bill now goes to the Senate. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.