On December 19, President George W. Bush signed Senate Joint Resolution 46, which lowers the salary of the Secretary of State from $191,300 to $186,600. SJR 46 had been introduced in the U.S. Senate on December 10, and it passed unanimously that same day. The House passed it unanimously on December 12. The reason for the bill is that Article I, section 6, says that no member of Congress may take an office if the salary for that office had been increased while that individual was in Congress. Senator Hillary Clinton was in Congress when the Secretary of State’s salary was increased in 2007.

SJR 46 acknowledges that some do not believe that lowering the salary is sufficient to make Hillary Clinton eligible to be Secretary of State. It says that if anyone sues, a 3-judge U.S. District Court should handle the case, and that any appeal should go immediately to the U.S. Supreme Court. To read the bill, go to http://thomas.loc.gov and enter SJR 46. That website does not seem to permit links from sites such as this.

In 2004, the Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate, Roger Calero, or his stand-in, James Harris, appeared on the ballot in jurisdictions containing 27.2% of the presidential vote cast that year. The party received .03% of the vote in the places in which it appeared on the ballot.

In 2008, the Socialist Workers Party had the same presidential candidate, as well as the same stand-in (the party needs a stand-in when Calero runs, since he is not eligible to be president and therefore some states won’t print his name on the ballot). The 2008 SWP ticket appeared in places that cast 24.7% of the national presidential vote. The 2008 ticket polled .02% of the vote cast in the places where it was on the ballot. The vote total, 7,561, is the second lowest presidential total in the party’s history; only 2000 was lower.

In 2004, Constitution Party presidential nominee Michael Peroutka was on the ballot in states containing 66.4% of the national presidential vote. Where he was on the ballot, he polled .173% of the total presidential vote in those places.

In 2008, Constitution Party presidential nominee Chuck Baldwin was on the ballot in states containing 59.0% of the national presidential vote this year. Where he was on the ballot, he polled .238% of the total presidential vote in those places.

Thus, the Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party experienced a similar pattern in these two presidential election years. Each party did a worse job of getting its presidential candidate on the ballot in 2008 than it had in 2004. But, in the places where each party’s presidential candidate was on the ballot, each party polled a markedly higher share of the vote in 2008 than it had in 2004.