On August 27, leaders of the Socialist Party of France agreed that the party should use a presidential primary in the future to choose its presidential nominee. The party has not decided yet which voters will be allowed to participate in that proposed primary. See this story.
A group of individuals who care about treatment of animals has decided to build a new political party, to be called the Humane Party. Here is the party’s webpage. The founders appear to be Californians.
On August 27, the Arkansas Green Party filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the state’s definition of “political party”, which is a group that polled 3% for the office at the top of the ticket in the last election (President in presidential election years, Governor in midterm years). UPDATE: here is a TV station’s news story about the lawsuit. In 2008, the Green Party polled over 20% for U.S. Senate in Arkansas, averaged over 19% for its candidates for U.S. House, elected a state legislator, but it was still removed from the ballot because it hadn’t polled 3% for President.
The case is Green Party of Arkansas v Daniels, 4:09-cv-695. It was assigned to Judge J. Leon Holmes, a Bush, Jr. appointee. Here is the complaint. This is an ACLU case.
Washington State Senator Ed Murray is considering whether to enter the race for Seattle Mayor as a write-in candidate. The election is November 3. See this story.
Last week, the non-partisan primary resulted in the defeat of the incumbent Mayor, Greg Nickels. The names printed on the run-off ballot will be Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn. The third-place finish by the Mayor was somewhat surprising, and apparently there is support for someone new to enter the race.
Ever since 2004, Massachusetts law has provided that Governors may not fill a vacancy in a U.S. Senate seat. Instead, the seat must remain empty until a special election is held. That election must be approximately five months after the vacancy had been created.
In January 2009, Massachusetts State House member Robert Koczera introduced HB 656, to permit the Governor to fill the vacancy immediately, although the state would still hold a special election approximately five months later. The bill had been set for a legislative hearing in October 2009, but the legislature may expedite that hearing, given the recent vacancy created by the death of Senator Ted Kennedy.
