New Jersey has procedures for recall of elected officials. Those procedures do not exclude members of Congress. On May 25, the New Jersey Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the U.S. Constitution blocks New Jersey from permitting recall of members of Congress. See this story. The case is Committee to Recall Robert Menendez v Wells, A86-09.

The lower court had ducked the issue. It failed to decide that big issue, but said at least the state should let the circulators have blank petition forms. The procedure is so difficult, requiring approximately 1,300,000 valid signatures for U.S. Senate or any statewide race, that it is fundamentally unfair for the judicial system to not say whether such a petition would be honored if it were completed.

No other court has ever ruled on this interesting question, except for a lower state court in Idaho in 1967 that said the U.S. Constitution does not permit the states to have procedures for recall of members of Congress.

The prestigious blog www.fivethirtyeight.com, has this article, “Might this be a good time for Instant Runoff Voting?” The article is a reaction to the May 22 special congressional election in Hawaii, at which a Republican was elected with less than 40% of the total vote cast. Thanks to Peter Gemma for the link.

On May 24, twelve minor party and independent activists demonstrated in front a Sacramento restaurant. Inside, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared. Guests paid $5,000 each to be at the event, and the money went toward the campaign for Proposition 14, the top-two measure on the June 8 ballot.

The event seemed to attract approximately twenty guests. About half of them accepted an anti-Proposition 14 flyer before entering the restaurant. Two of the guests added that they have no idea what Proposition 14 does. One guest acknowledged that the measure is unfair to minor party members.

The Governor himself seems to have entered the restaurant from a side door that opens into an alley, so he avoided seeing any of the protestors, the signs, and the fliers. Channel 10 TV filmed interviews with some of the protesters.