The Dallas Morning News has this editorial, advocating that Texas give up the practice of electing judges with partisan elections. The editorial also hints that the straight-ticket device (by which voters can vote for all partisan offices without even looking at the list of candidates) is not a good idea.
On November 13, Pennsylvania state house member John Perzel surrendered to law enforcement authorities. He is charged with using taxpayer resources for Republican Party campaign work. See this story. He was the Speaker of the House of Representatives 2003-2007, and is the Speaker Emeritus. He was re-elected in November 2008 in a two-party race, polling 65.7% of the vote against a Democrat. Also surrendering were nine political associates of Perzel, including some employees of the legislature.
The Politico of November 12 has this interesting column about the idea that Ralph Nader could conceivably decide to run for U.S. Senate in Connecticut in 2010. Thanks to Darcy Richardson for the link.
On November 13, President Obama formally announced that Bob Bauer will be the new counsel to the office of the President. Bauer is an expert on election law, especially campaign finance law, and has had a blog, www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com. He has represented the Democratic National Committee in lawsuits involving campaign finance. He has been a force in favor of freeing political parties from campaign finance restrictions, especially the parts of the McCain-Feingold law that make restrict the ability of national political parties to receive large donations and also restrict the ability of national political parties to spend money and to coordinate with state units of that same party.
TheCalifornia Assembly seat, 72nd district, is currently vacant. The district is in northern Orange County and is considered safely Republican. On November 17, 2009, voters will all receive a blanket primary ballot that includes three Republicans, one Democrat, and one Green. The Republican candidates are fiercely attacking each other and it is extremely unlikely that any one candidate will receive as much as 50% of the vote. So, it is virtually certain that there will be a second election on January 12, 2010, with the top vote-getter from each party on that ballot. The Green Party candidate is Jane Rands, a systems engineer. See this story about the campaign.
