The U.S. Supreme Court order list for the morning of June 28 does not have any order for Republican National Committee v Federal Election Commission, 09-1287. On the afternoon of June 28, the Court will again consider again whether to take this case. It is fairly likely there will be an order on Tuesday, June 29, about the Court’s action on this case.
On June 28, U.S. Senator Robert Byrd died. He had been first elected to that seat in 1958, and was 92 years old. West Virginia law says a special election must be held if the vacancy occurred more than two and one-half years before the end of the term. The next regular election for this seat would have been in 2012. Byrd died more than two and one-half years before end of his term. So, one would think there will be a special election in 2010 to fill the last two years of his seat.
On the other hand, there is no provision for a special election that occurs too late for a primary, and no provision for a special primary. West Virginia’s primary this year was May 11. See this Washington Post story.
The Washington Post story does not mention that the deadline for independent candidates, and for the nominees of unqualified parties, is August 1. In theory, candidates could get on the ballot for a special election by petition, if they act fairly quickly, but how this impacts on the state’s decision on whether to hold a special election is undetermined. UPDATE: the deadline is July 30, not August 1. Thanks to Jeff Becker for that correction.
On June 27, the North Carolina First Party said it would try to qualify for the 2012 election in North Carolina. The North Carolina Party is the party formed by the Service Employees International Union. It tried and failed to qualify as a party for 2010. See this story.
Kristin Davis, who sought the New York Libertarian Party gubernatorial nomination earlier this year, but failed to obtain it, now says that she will petition onto the November ballot this year as the gubernatorial nominee of the Reform Party. The Reform Party name has not appeared on the New York ballot before. The New York state affiliate of the national Reform Party between 1995 and 2000 was the Independence Party. Thanks to Tom Stevens for this news.
The Reform Party is still ballot-qualified in Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The New York Independence Party is also still ballot-qualified, but it cut its ties with the national Reform Party in 2000.
Kristin Davis is somewhat well-known in New York state, as the ex-madam who gained fame when Eliot Spitzer, who was elected Governor of New York in 2006, resigned after a sex scandal.
On June 23, seven candidates for Governor of Rhode Island debated each other. See this story. Participating were two Democrats, two Republicans, two independents, and the only candidate running in the Moderate Party primary. The Rhode Island primary is not until September 14.
The news story is notable for giving a fair amount of space to describe what each candidate said. Sometimes press stories about multi-party debates say virtually nothing about the non-major party candidates.
