Independent Political Report has this report, that the special election for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts next month will include a series of debates, and all 3 ballot-listed candidates will participate.
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The Reform Party has set a teleconference national committee meeting for December 19, Saturday. Now that the Texas-based officers have won the federal lawsuit in New York establishing their ownership of the party’s trademark, the party hopes to rebuild. It is still ballot-qualified in Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. That is more states than any other nationally-organized party, except for the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green and Constitution Parties. The Working Families Party is still not a nationally-organized party.
Seven states have laws that say no one can be an independent candidate if, in the past, that person has been a member of a qualified party, as determined by what he or she put on the voter registration form. The most severe prior disaffiliation period is in Colorado, where no one can be an independent candidate if that person was a member of a qualified party, for even one day, in the year preceding the filing period.
A Colorado legislator has decided to introduce a bill in 2010 to ease the prior period.
The second most severe requirement is California’s, where an independent must not have been a member of a qualified party, at any time during the 13 months prior to the general election. The third most severe law is Oregon’s, where the period is 180 days before the filing deadline.
On December 15, the San Francisco Bay Guardian carried this op-ed, pointing out some problems with the “top-two open primary” measure that the legislature put on the June 2010 California ballot.
Also, see this Letter to the Editor in the Marysville, California Appeal-Democrat, which also points out some problems with the measure.
Rich Rubino has an essay, “Yes, Joe Kennedy Can Win the Massachusetts U.S. Senate Race” at PoliticsDMZ at this link.