According to this Washington Post article, President Obama is expected to choose a new nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court before he leaves on an overseas trip on June 3. Thanks to “How Appealing” for the link.
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The Louisiana House Committee on the House and Government Affairs holds a hearing on HB 776 on Tuesday, May 26. This is the bill that eliminates the ability of a small qualified party to nominate a candidate for Congress. Currently, all qualified parties in Louisiana nominate by primary for Congress. The bill would eliminate the primary for small qualified parties and replace it with nothing. Therefore, although members of small qualified parties could continue to run for Congress by paying the filing fee, if two members of the same party both ran for the same seat, both would appear on the general election ballot in November. The party itself would be unable to choose one of them. Thanks to Sam Gallo for this news.
The last time the Whig Party appeared on the ballot in any state was in Alabama in 1974, when its nominee John Watts ran for Lieutenant Governor. Watts and the Whig Party had also appeared on the Alabama ballot in 1970, when Watts ran for Governor.
But in 2009, it appears likely that a Whig Party candidate for New Jersey legislature will qualify. And in Florida, the ballot-qualified Florida Whig Party is already campaigning for its nominee in 2010 for U.S. House, 2nd district (Tallahassee area). He is Paul McKain. For more about the platform of the Florida Whig Party, see http://floridawhig.com. The party has been ballot-qualified since January 2007, but has never before run any candidates.
Although some news reports said that the Whig Party ran a candidate for Constable in Alabama in 2008, that candidate actually ran as a Democrat.
Political Science Professor Marshall Derosa has declared his candidacy for U.S. Senate from Florida in 2010, on the Constitution Party ticket. Assuming he is nominated for that office in 2010, he will be the first Constitution Party nominee on the Florida ballot for statewide office (besides president). Derosa teaches at Florida Atlantic University and is the author of a book on the 9th amendment, “The Ninth Amendment and the Politics of Creative Jurisprudence.”
Two leading blogs that cover minor parties just had their one-year anniversaries. Independent Political Report had its first post on May 20, 2008, and Green Party Watch had its first post on May 21, 2008.
Before those blogs existed, Third Party Watch covered minor party and independent candidate news. Third Party Watch was founded by Austin Cassidy. After some years, Stephen Gordon bought the site. Then, he sold it to Richard Viguerie, who seemed to lose interest in it, and it is now dormant.