New York will fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 23rd district, on November 3, 2009. The race seems likely to be a 3-way contest, because the Conservative Party has its own nominee, and is not cross-endorsing the Republican nominee.
3
Georgia has an election law that says absentee ballots can only be mailed to the voter’s permanent address, or to a temporary address that is outside the voter’s home county or municipality. On September 29, two voters filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that that law is unconstitutional as applied to registered voters who happen to be in jail (in their home town or city) because of a misdemeanor. Ironically, if either of them had been in jail in a city other than their home city, they could have received an absentee ballot.
The case is based on a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision from New York, which struck down a virtually identical New York law. The ACLU National Voting Rights Office is representing the two voters. The case is Swann v Handel, 1:09-cv-2674, northern district. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news.
New Jersey holds a gubernatorial election on November 3, 2009. Four debates, each featuring three candidates, will occur during October. Jon Corzine, the Democratic nominee, Chris Christie, the Republican nominee, and independent candidate Chris Daggett will debate each other on October 1, October 16, and October 22 (although the October 16 debate will not be broadcast until October 18). Their Lieutenant Governor running mates will debate each other on October 8. See this story.
The June 2009 issue of the Journal of Marketing Research has an article, “Could Ralph Nader’s Entrance and Exit Have Helped Al Gore?”. The three authors are University of Iowa Professor William Hedgcock, Professor Akshay Rao of the University of Minnesota, and Professor Haipeng Chen of Texas A&M University. On September 29, the University of Iowa News Service sent out this press release, publicizing the article.
The article is in Volume 46, pages 330-343, of the Journal of Marketing Research. It depends on experimental research conducted by the authors. The thesis is that when undecided people make a decision about something, whether it’s a political candidate or a brand of soda, and identify with that decision, that when their original choice becomes unavailable, they select an alternative option with the most similar attributes. UPDATE: here is a link to a preliminary draft of the article.
David Zuckerman, a Vermont state legislator who was elected only as a Progressive, is considering running for Lieutenant Governor in 2010 and seeking both the Progressive Party nomination and the Democratic Party nomination. In 2008, the vote for Lieutenant Governor in the general election had been Republican 55.0%, Democratic 39.1%, Progressive 4.5%, Liberty Union 1.2%. Zuckerman ponders aloud in the Progressive Party’s blog at this link.