Alabama is one of the states that fills vacant legislative seats with a special election. However, it turns out that, in Alabama, when only one party nominates anyone for that special election, and no independent files, the party nominee is deemed to be the winner. See this story, which explains that Priscilla Dunn will be seated as the new State Senator from the 19th District because no other party nominated anyone.
On July 20, Gene Amondson died at the age of 65. He had been the Prohibition Party candidate for president in 2008, and had also been one of two competing Prohibition Party presidential candidates in 2004. He was 65. He had suffered a stroke the day before he died, which put him in a coma. Thanks to John Killian for this news.
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.
