According to this Reuters story, New York city Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spent more of his own money on his own election campaigns than anyone else in U.S. history. His three campaigns for Mayor, it is estimated, will have cost him $250,000,000. Thanks to Jack Dean for the link.
On October 23, a U.S. District Court in Trenton, New Jersey, granted an injunction against a state law that forbids exit pollsters from working closer than 100 feet from the entrance to polling places. See this story. The case is American Broadcasting Company v Wells, 09-cv-5275.
According to this article, a task force of the New Hampshire legislature has just started working on drafting a plan for public funding of state election campaigns.
The Arizona Secretary of State posts new registration data every three months. The October 1, 2009 tally has just been released. It shows Republicans with 36.33%, Democrats with 33.39%, independents and unqualified parties 29.37%, Libertarians .77%, Greens .14%.
Three months ago, the percentages were: Republican 36.58%, Democratic 33.67%, independents and unqualified parties 28.93%, Libertarians .69%, Green .14%.
The Libertarian percentage is now the highest it has been for that party since 1998 in Arizona. The independent percentage is the highest in Arizona history.
Back in January 2008, the Tennessee Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that the requirements to get a previously unqualified party on the ballot are so onerous, they are unconstitutional. No party has successfully petitioned in Tennessee since George Wallace’s American Party did so in 1968. A petition signed by 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote is needed, due four months before the primary. The petition must say that the signers are members of the party whose petition they are signing. Over the decades, various minor parties have tried to complete this petition, but they have all failed. Tennessee is the only state in which the Reform Party, during the period 1995-2000, ever made a substantial attempt to complete a petition for party recognition and failed.
The lawsuit has taken longer than expected, because last year the Tennessee Attorney General, who is defending the law, asked the political party plaintiffs to answer extensive interrogatories. Now the Attorney General plans to take depositions from the three state party chairs. This is unusual behavior in a constitutional ballot access lawsuit. It is the law that is on trial, not the parties.
