California will hold a 5-way special U.S. House election on November 3, 2009, to fill the vacant seat in the 10th district in the eastern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The candidates will be: Democratic, John Garamendi; Republican, David Harmer; Green, Jeremy Cloward; American Independent, Jerry Denham; Peace & Freedom, Mary McIlroy.

The results of the special primary on September 1 were: Democrats: Garamendi 26.15%; DeSaulnier 17.55%; Buchanan 12.00%; Woods 8.48%; Hampton .36%; total 64.54%.
Republicans: Harmer 20.58%; Bunch 4.59%; Clift 3.99%; Toth 3.22%; Peterson 1.59%; Loos .39%; total 34.36%. The lone Green got .52%; the lone American Independent member got .29%; the lone Peace & Freedom member got .27%.

The September 7 issue of The Militant (weekly newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party) has this editorial, supporting privacy for people who signed Referendum 71 in Washington state this year. Referendum 71 was put on the ballot by groups who want to repeal the protections for same-sex couples that the legislature passed earlier this year. A federal court is considering whether the names and addresses of the people who signed the petition should be made public.

On August 31, Free & Equal posted a specific condemnation of how New York state petition challenge procedures are keeping an unusually large number of Libertarian, Green, and independent candidates off the ballot in city and county elections this year.

On September 1, Free & Equal sent the contents of that post, in the form of a press release, to over 1,000 media outlets in New York state.