On November 18, a federal jury awarded $67,000 to Denise Carey, who had unsuccessfully tried to place a local initiative on the ballot in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 2004. After her petition had been rejected, the city had sued Carey for $11,056 to recover the costs of checking the signatures. Carey had then sued the city in federal court, arguing against a system that requires petition circulators to pay for the costs of checking petitions. The case is Carey v City of Wilkes-Barre, U.S. District Court, middle district, Scranton, no. 05-cv-2534. It was handled by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Vanaskie, a Clinton appointee.

See this newspaper story about the jury verdict. The case is being appealed to the 3rd circuit. If the decision is upheld, it may be a very important precedent to help Ralph Nader, and also the Green Party of Pennsylvania, fight state court orders requiring each of them to pay approximately $80,000 for the costs of checking their signatures in 2004 and 2006.

Rick Jore, the Constitution Party’s only state legislator, must leave the Montana legislature in a few weeks because of term limits. Voters in his district replaced him with a Democrat. The November 2008 election in the 12th House district was between Republican nominee Ron Marquardt, and Democratic nominee John Fleming. Fleming won with 63% of the vote. Marquardt had been a member of the Constitution Party, and had been its 2006 nominee for Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court. But for the 2008 legislative race, Marquardt had switched to the Republicans.

On November 4, Montana voters in the 22nd State Senate district defeated Senator Lane Larson for re-election. Larson had authored the 2007 bill (which was signed into law) moving the non-presidential independent candidate petition deadline from June to March. He has also been President of the Greater Yellowstone Labor Council, and was the Democrats majority whip in the Senate.

The margin was 4,990 for Republican Taylor Brown, to 4,122 for Larson. The Senate had previously had a Democratic majority, but the new Senate has a Republican majority.

The ACLU has a lawsuit pending against the March petition deadline.