The California special election to fill the vacant 10th district U.S. House seat on November 3 will be a race between members of five political parties. The Green, American Independent, and Peace & Freedom Parties all will be represented. An earlier blog post was incorrect to say that the only parties represented would be Peace & Freedom, Democratic and Republican. The Green Party member running is Jeremy Cloward; the American Independent Party member running is Jerome Denham.
New York city holds a partisan race for Mayor on November 3, 2009. Probably there will be these six candidates on that ballot:
1. Incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the Republican and Independence lines.
2. William C. Thompson, on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines.
3. Steve Christopher, on the Conservative line.
4. Rev. Billy Talen, Green Party.
5. Dan Fein, Socialist Workers Party.
6. Frances Villar, Party for Socialism and Liberation.
UPDATE: see this article in the San Francisco Bay Guardian about Billy Talen, published July 21.
The last-named two candidates have already finished their petitioning. The Green Party petition is picking up the pace; the deadline is August 16. According to GreenPartyWatch, the San Francisco city government has proclaimed July 21 to be “Rev. Billy Talen Day” in San Francisco. The resolution does not mention that he is running for Mayor of New York, but focuses on his previous activism while he lived in San Francisco.
New York counties have county legislatures, elected on a partisan basis in odd years. Suffolk County, New York, is one of New York’s most populous counties. It contains the eastern half of Long Island.
Jay Schneiderman is has been a member of the Suffolk County legislature since 2003. In July 2008 he changed his registration from “Republican” to “Independence”. However, according to this story, he has won the support not only of his own party for re-election this year, but the support of the Republican Party, the Working Families Party, and the Conservative Party. Furthermore he is a good chance of winning the Democratic Party nomination.
The U.S. Census Bureau released “Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2008” on July 20. The Census Bureau’s press release is here. The press release contains a link to the report itself, and the previous reports. The Census study depends on survey data, not election returns or voter registration data.
In 2008, the Census reports that 206,072,000 people could have registered and voted. However, of those, only 146,311,000 were registered. And of those who were registered, only 131,144,000 voted. So, 89.6% of the registered voters cast a ballot. But because only 71.0% were registered, the final turnout (voters divided by the number of people who could have registered and voted) was only 63.6%.
By contrast, in 2004, there were 197,005,000 people who could have registered and voted. 142,070,000 were registered. 125,736,000 voted. So, the November 2004 turnout was 63.8%, slightly higher than the 2008 turnout.
On July 20, Unity08 filed this rebuttal brief in its lawsuit to overturn an FEC ruling that said individuals could only contribute $5,000 to Unity08.
The brief argues that Unity08 intends to carry out its mission in the presidential election of 2012, although it acknowledges the name would change to Unity12. The brief also points out that Unity08 never had any intention of financially supporting the presidential candidate that would have been chosen, if it had held its on-line convention in 2008. The candidate would have been expected to raise his or her own money and plan his or her own campaign.
