The Center for American Progress has this analysis of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United v Federal Election Commission. The analysis, written by Alex DeMots, shows that as a result of the decision, Congress may enact public funding for candidates, and may also loosen the parts of the McCain-Feingold law that make it impossible for political parties to coordinate large-scale spending on behalf of their own nominees. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link, and also for this interesting account of Justice Clarence Thomas’s comments about the ruling.

This article says the Maine Green Party’s gubernatorial candidate, Lynne Williams, will not seek public funding this year. Of course, Green Party candidates for the Maine legislature can be expected to seek and obtain public funding this year.

As the article points out, due to a good change in the election law last year, qualified parties in Maine no longer need to poll 5% of the vote for either Governor or President. Instead, they remain ballot-qualified if they have at least 10,000 registered members who cast a vote in November. The Green Party has over 34,000 registered members so it probably will retain its spot on the ballot, whether it polls 5% for Governor this year or not.

On February 2, Anthony W. Williams, pastor of the Good Shepard Lutheran Church in south Chicago, won the Green Party congressional primary, 2nd district. Williams had an opponent in the Green Party primary who was backed by the party leadership.

In each of the three preceding elections, Williams ran against incumbent Jesse Jackson, Jr. He has now run under four different party labels. In 2004 he ran in the Democratic primary, but in a 4-person race polled only 4.3% of the vote. In 2006 he entered the Libertarian Party primary and won it without opposition (in 2006, the Libertarian Party wasn’t ballot-qualified in the entire state, but it was ballot-qualified in the 2nd U.S. House district). As the Libertarian nominee in a 3-way race in November 2006, he polled 3.33%.

In 2008, he was the Republican nominee, and polled 10.6% in a two-way race. Here is Williams’ campaign web page for 2010.

In the 2010 election, the Republican nominee is Isaac Hayes, youth pastor of the Apostolic Church of God.