Five Greens have filed petitions to be on the party’s primary ballot for U.S. House of Representatives, Illinois 5th district. The primary is on March 3. Each Green needed 30 valid signatures to qualify for the Green primary ballot. The five candidates are Alan Auguston, Mark Fredrickson, Deb Gordils, Matt Reichel, and Simm Ribeiro. The 5th district seat is vacant because Rahm Emanuel resigned his Congressional seat to become Chief of Staff to President-Elect Barack Obama.
Several proposed state constitutional amendments have been introduced in the Arizona legislature, dealing with how legislators are elected. Currently, Arizona has 30 legislative districts. Each district elects one State Senator. Also, each district elects two State Representatives. The ballot for State Representative says “Vote for Two Candidates” and each party is permitted to run two candidates.
HCR 2006 would provide that the state will have 60 State Representative districts in the future, with each district electing one member.
HCR 2007 would provide that the State Constitution should no longer specify that the House has 60 members. Instead, the Constitution would say that there must be a state House district for each 100,000 population. Therefore, as Arizona gains population, the size of the House would grow.
HCR 2003, a rival idea, also pertains to State House elections. It would simply provide that candidates for State House would file either for Position “A” or Position “B”. Although each district would continue to elect two House members, each district would have separate elections for the two members. First the voters would choose a candidate for Position “A”; then they would vote for Position “B”.
If the legislature passes any of these changes, the voters would then vote on the proposal.
Separate from that, SB 1006 would move the Arizona primary from early September, back to mid-September. If that bill passed, it would automatically improve the petition deadline for independent candidates by a week, although even then, Arizona would still have the nation’s 2nd earliest independent presidential petition deadline.
Arizona State Senator Jack W. Harper (R-Surprise) has introduced SB 1053. It would require all candidates to submit an affidavit of citizenship, and also to append documents that provide proof of citizenship.
Alaska State Representatives Kyle Johansen (R-Ketchikan) and Charisse Millett (R-Anchorage) have introduced HB 36. It would make it illegal for initiative circulators to be paid on a per-signature basis. Also it would make it illegal for initiative circulators to circulate more than one initiative at once.
The only nationally-organized minor parties that had state legislative candidates on the ballot in more than a single state (with their party label on the ballot) are the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties.
At the November 2008 election, the Green Party elected one state legislator in Arkansas, Richard Carroll. Other impressive showings by Green Party legislative candidates occurred in Maine and Minnesota. In Maine, four Greens outpolled their Republican opponents. They are William S. Linnell, who polled 22.27% in the 8th State Senate district; Michael Hiltz, who polled 30.09% in the 115th House district; Daniel Jenkins, who polled 25.47% in the 119th district; and Sandy Amborn, who polled 30.20% in the 120th district. In Minnesota, Farheen Hakeem also outpolled her Republican opponent. She got 30.4% in House district 61B.
The Constitution Party had no state legislative candidates with both a Republican and a Democratic opponent who polled as much as 10%. The highest showing for that type of race was made by Benton Petersen in Utah’s 24th State Senate district, with 9.45%. However, the Constitution Party had two candidates with impressive percentages in races with only a single major party opponent. They were both in Nevada. Janine Hansen polled 34.75% in the Rural Nevada State Senate district (that is the official name of that particular Senate district; it has no number). Also Zachery Triggs polled 30.47% in the 33rd Assembly district.
The Libertarian Party’s best legislative showings were in New Hampshire and Indiana. Rex Bell, in Indiana’s 54th State House district, polled 33.49% in a race with only a single major party opponent. In New Hampshire, exact percentages are not available today because the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s webpage has been down for the last two days. But it appears that Lisa Wilber, in the Hillsborough 7th State House district, polled approximately 28% in a race with a full slate of Democratic and Republican opponents. Check back later for the exact percentage. Other New Hampshire Libertarian state house candidates with a full set of opponents from both major parties who surpassed 10% include Morey Straus in the Hillsboro 11th district, Richard Tomasso in the Hillsboro 17th district, Matthew Kahn in the Hillsboro 27th district, and Brendan Kelly in the Rockingham 14th district. Outside of New Hampshire, Libertarian legislative candidates in races with both a Democrat and a Republican who surpassed 10% are Sheri Stearns in the Kansas 43rd House district, with 12.35%; and Pamela J. Brown in California’s 40th Assembly district, with 14.76%.
