In 2006, New Jersey voters elected Robert Menendez, a Democrat, to the U.S. Senate. His term ends in 2012. A group of New Jersey Tea Party activists want to start to circulate a recall petition against Menendez. The Secretary of State has ruled that recall cannot be used for federal office-holders, but the Tea Party group is suing in state court to overturn that decision. See this story.

In 1967 an Idaho state court ruled that Idaho’s recall procedures cannot be used against members of Congress. The 1995 U.S. Supreme Court ruling U.S. Term Limits v Thornton also suggests strongly that states cannot recall members of Congress.

On February 5, the California Secretary of State released new registration data, as of January 5, 2010.

The new figures are: Democratic 44.623%, Republican 30.752%, American Independent 2.261%, Green .659%, Libertarian .499%, Peace & Freedom .326%, Reform .140%, independent and miscellaneous 20.740%.

The last figures released were from May 2009. At the time, those percentages were: Democratic 44.553%, Republican 31.047%, American Independent 2.194%, Green .664%, Libertarian .486%, Peace & Freedom .324%, Reform .146%, independent and miscellaneous 20.587%.

To see the numbers, see here. The Reform Party is not ballot-qualified but the state keeps track of its registrations. However, Sacramento County doesn’t report the number of registrants in the Reform Party, so the Reform Party actually has about 900 more registrants than the official figures show.

The number of registered voters declined since May 2009, due to election officials purging the rolls. The only two parties that actually have more registered voters than they did in May 2009 are the American Independent Party and the Libertarian Party.

The Illinois primary of February 2 featured a 6-candidate race for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor. The race included four Democratic state legislators and a political newcomer, Scott Lee Cohen. To the surprise of almost everyone, Cohen won the primary with 26.0% of the vote.

Cohen has personal foibles, as described in this Chicago Sun-Times article. In Illinois, candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor run as a team in the general election, even though at the primary, the offices are voted on separately. The article also mentions that reporters asked Governor Pat Quinn if he might consider resigning from the Democratic ticket, and run as an independent candidate, so as to free himself from being on a joint ticket with Cohen. The Governor replied, “Let’s take a look at how the situation evolves.” Obviously the Governor is hoping that Cohen will resign from being the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor.

In 1986, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Adlai Stevenson resigned from the Democratic ticket after the primary had produced a situation in which his Lieutenant Governor running mate was otherwise going to be a follower of Lyndon LaRouche. Back then, Stevenson was not permitted to run as an independent candidate because he had already missed the filing deadline, so Stevenson qualified as the nominee of a new party, with an entirely different Lieutenant Governor running mate. The new party was the Illinois Solidarity Party. The Illinois Solidarity Party, with Stevenson as its gubernatorial running mate, polled 40% for Governor. The Democratic party slate that year had no one for Governor and the LaRouche follower for Lieutenant Governor, and that joint slate polled 7%. If the Democratic Party combination of no one for Governor and the LaRouche follower for Lieutenant Governor had polled under 5%, the Democratic Party would have lost its standing as a qualified party for all partisan office in the state. It would have retained its status as a qualified party for most district offices and all statewide offices, but it would have been off the ballot in those districts in which it had not run any nominee, which would have included a large number of legislative districts and partisan county offices.

Nowadays, the independent petition deadline is much later, and Quinn, if he wished, could run as an independent candidate with a new Lieutenant Governor candidate.