(this is not a news item). If anyone who reads this lives in Nebraska, and would like to do something very simple and costfree to help ballot access, please e-mail me privately, richardwinger@yahoo.com.
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On July 10, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1091, one of two omnibus election law bills that passed the legislature this year. Among other things, it moves the independent presidential petition deadline from early June to early September. The new deadline will be 60 days before the November election.
The bill also makes it legal for out-of-state circulators to work on independent presidential petitions, but no other kind of petitions.
Arizona now is tied for having the second latest deadline for independent presidential candidates. Only Vermont has a later deadline, and North Dakota is tied with Arizona. If this bill had been in effect in 2008, it is likely that the Constitution Party’s presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin, could have qualified in Arizona. The only independent presidential candidate who actually qualified in Arizona in 2008 was Ralph Nader (the Green and Libertarian Parties were ballot-qualified, so their presidential candidates had no need to use the independent procedure). The Arizona independent procedure permits use of a party label.
Arizona made this change because Nader won his lawsuit (filed in 2004) in late 2008, in the 9th circuit.
Arizona is the 4th state in which a state has changed its statutory election law because of a ballot access lawsuit won by Ralph Nader.
Wayne Allyn Root’s new book, “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling and Tax Cuts” is now in bookstores and for sale on Amazon. Root was the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2008, and is seeking the presidential nomination in 2012. There are no book reviews on Amazon yet, nor any known published book reviews. Thanks to William Stevenson for this news.
Root’s earlier books are “The King of Vegas’ Guide to Gambling” and “Millionaire Republican.”
On July 10, Gallup released new results on how U.S. citizens self-identify, relative to political party loyalty. See here for more details. The national results:
Democratic 34%
Independents who lean Democratic 15%
Republican 28%
Independents who lean Republican 12%
Independents who don’t lean to either major party 10%
Other: 1%. Thanks to Political Wire.
On July 9, the stalement in the New York Senate was ended when Senator Pedro Espada switched his allegiance back to the Democratic Party. He is now the new Majority Leader. See this New York Times story.