The Socialist Equality Party has announced that it is running D’Artagnan Collier for Mayor of Detroit. The election is August 4, 2009, with any needed run-off set for November 3, 2009.

The Socialist Equality Party seemed to have lost interest in competing in elections after 2006. It had not named any candidates since 2006, except that in September 2008, it announced a write-in ticket for president and vice-president, Jerome White and Bill Van Auken. That ticket didn’t get on the ballot in any state, but filed for write-in status in New York and was credited with 18 votes.

The Socialist Equality Party first appeared on ballots in 1996, but then did not run candidates for public office again until 2003. Under its old name, the Workers League, it ran for public office in 1974 through 1994.

There will be at least four political parties with “socialism” or “socialist” in their party names this year, in the U.S. The other three are the Socialist Workers Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Socialist Party.

Virginia elects all 100 members of its State House on November 3, 2009. The petition deadline for independent candidates, and for the nominees of unqualified parties, was June 9. It appears that the Independent Green Party will have about a dozen candidates, and the Libertarian Party will have one, and the Green Party will have one or two, and the Constitution Party will have one. As far as is known, no other minor parties are running any candidates. The exact list of candidates won’t be available from the State Board of Elections until July 1. Candidates file in their home city or county so the State Board still doesn’t know who has filed.

On June 11, the Florida Supreme Court agreed to expedite its decision in Florida Hometown Democracy v Browning. The case had been argued in January 2009. The issue is the constitutionality of a 2007 law that makes it possible for voters to delete their signatures after they have signed an initiative petition. The State Court of Appeals had ruled that the law violates the State Constitution, which gives the legislature the authority to pass laws to help implement the initiative process. The State Court of Appeals had said that means the legislature doesn’t have the authority to pass laws that hinder the initiative process.

Florida Hometown Democracy has been working for four years to collect enough signatures to qualify its initiative, which would require a popular vote in a locality before a new housing development can be approved. Florida law requires initiative petitions to be completed within 4 years. The 4 years runs out on June 22, 2009.