The August 31 issue of Targum, daily newspaper of Rutgers University in New Jersey, has this interview with Chris Daggett, the independent gubernatorial candidate who has received public funding and an invitation into this year’s gubernatorial debates.
On August 31, the office of Washington’s Secretary of State said that Referendum-71 had at least 1,000 more valid signatures than were needed. UPDATE: the state court weighing the challenge to this petition will issue its ruling on Wednesday morning, Sep. 2. See this story. The Referendum was filed to block a law passed by the legislature, to let same-sex couples have the same legal rights that married couples have. The referendum petition campaign has created two different lawsuits. One, in federal court, is over whether the names of petition signers should be public. The other, in lower state court, questions whether certain signatures should have been disallowed.
According to this story, the 3-candidate gubernatorial debates in New Jersey will occur on the original schedule. The first one will be attended by all three candidates, and will be October 1.
On August 31, Carl Romanelli, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania in 2006, filed his own pro se Petition for Reconsideration with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The case concerns the $80,000 that Romanelli’s challengers were awarded some years ago. The petition is here, and it is heartfelt and gets directly into details that the Pennsylvania state courts have overlooked in their previous actions in this case.
Massachusetts will hold a special election to fill its vacant U.S. Senate seat on January 19, 2010. The three qualified parties (Democratic, Republican and Libertarian) nominate by primary, and that primary will be on December 8, 2009.
