On April 26, the California Senate confirmed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s nomination of State Senator Abel Maldonado to be the state’s new Lieutenant Governor. Senator Maldonado is the author of Proposition 14, the “top-two” primary measure on the June 8, 2010 ballot. UPDATE: Governor Schwarzenegger says the special election to fill the vacant Senate seat will be in the summer of 2010. See this story.

The Assembly had already confirmed him. The confirmation will probably help the campaign against Proposition 14. Proponents of the measure repeat over and over that the California legislature is polarized and partisan. The fact that the California legislature, with strong majorities for the Democratic Party in both houses, was willing to vote for a Republican, will blunt that charge.

According to this story, the Massachusetts Republican Party won’t have any nominee on the November 2010 ballot for Attorney General. Any minor party that manages to get on the statewide ballot and to run a candidate for Attorney General is virtually guaranteed to poll at least 3%, under those circumstances. Groups that poll 3% for any statewide race become qualified parties.

Raymond O. Boyd is one of eight candidates seeking the Republican Party’s gubernatorial nomination. The primary is July 20. Boyd is a newcomer to politics and he has already put $2,000,000 into his campaign account. Under Georgia campaign finance laws, even if he should drop out of the race, he could only recover $250,000 of his own money back.

The Georgia Republican Party requires candidates in its primaries to sign an oath that says, “I do hereby swear or affirm my allegiance to the Republican Party.” Boyd says he won’t sign the oath. The party says he can’t run if he doesn’t sign the oath. See this story. UPDATE: on Monday, April 26, Boyd made a personal appeal to the Republican Party to let him run in its primary without signing the oath, but the party refused. See this story.

It is conceivable that Boyd will choose to run as an independent candidate for Governor. He would need 44,089 valid signatures by July 13. This earlier story about Boyd suggests that running as an independent has crossed his mind. Georgia hasn’t had an independent candidate on the ballot for Governor since 1942. Back in 1942, any independent could get on the general election ballot just by filing a declaration of candidacy and a filing fee. In 1943, Georgia started requiring petitions of 5% of the number of registered voters for independent candidates, and no independent for Governor has ever met that test. Thanks to Kyle Bennett for these links.