On August 29, the Connecticut Working Families Party held a meeting to hear from all the contenders from the Democratic Party for governor next year. See this story, which says that 158 WFP members attended.

The Connecticut Working Families Party has been on the ballot for some offices in Connecticut since 2002, but so far it hasn’t been on the ballot for any statewide race. But, the party expects to run a full slate for statewide office in 2010. It is free to either cross-endorse the Democratic nominees, or conceivably a Republican nominee (although that is unlikely) or to run its own members.

On August 30, Japan held an election for all 480 seats in the lower legislative body. The winning party, the Democratic Party of Japan, has won at least 270 seats and may have won 300, ousting the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Ironically, the winning party would have won even more seats, except that it didn’t run a full slate of candidates. See this story. Thanks to Rick Kissell for the link.

According to this story, the planned 3-candidate New Jersey gubernatorial debates are on shaky ground. The law requires candidates who receive public funding to participate, but Democratic nominee Jon Corzine, the incumbent, has not asked for public funding. Corzine has not said he won’t participate. However, the director of the state agency that sponsors the debates has asked that the first debate be postponed from October 1 to October 22. Republican nominee Christopher Christie, and the independent who has been invited into the debates, Chris Daggett, believe that the Governor is behind the request to postpone the debate, and they are opposed to postponement.