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Tennessee Ballot Access Case to be Decided October 14

Posted on October 10, 2008 by Richard WingerOctober 10, 2008

On October 10, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Echols held a hearing in Kurita v The State Primary Board of the Tennessee Democratic Party, no. 3:08-cv-948. The issue is whether the Tennessee Democratic Party had the authority to set aside the August 2008 primary election results in a particular State Senate race. Senator Rosalind Kurita won the Democratic primary, but the Democratic Party certified the candidate she defeated, because it said too many Republicans had voted in the primary. Here is a story about the hearing. This case gets to the heart of the extent to which political parties have a First Amendment Freedom of Association to truly control their own nominations process or not.

Alternate Debate Gets Closer to Fund-Raising Goal

Posted on October 10, 2008 by Richard WingerOctober 10, 2008

The site www.thirdpartyticket.com, as of the morning of October 10, says 9,309 individuals have pledged to donate some amount of money on October 16. As soon as 10,000 individuals have pledged, the plan will swing into operation. The money will be used to pay the expenses of hosting a presidential debate at which every candidate who is on the ballot in states with a majority of the electoral vote will be invited.

Associated Press Story on Bob Barr, Ralph Nader, and Bailout

Posted on October 10, 2008 by Richard WingerOctober 10, 2008

On October 9, the Associated Press released this interesting story on whether Bob Barr and/or Ralph Nader will get a boost because of Senator McCain’s vote in favor of the bailout for banks, and also because of McCain’s advocacy of government bailout for home mortgages. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for the link.

Attacks on Obama for Association with New Party Display Massive Ignorance

Posted on October 9, 2008 by Richard WingerOctober 9, 2008

On October 9, many news sources that are hostile to Barack Obama announced that Barack Obama was a member of the New Party in the 1990’s. These news sources then say that the New Party was “socialist” and sometimes they even say the New Party was “Marxist”. Here is a sample.

The New Party changed its name to the Working Families Party in 1998, the same year it set out to run candidates. The Working Families Party is so mainstream, it mostly supports Democratic nominees, but this year it has also cross-endorsed Republican candidates for state legislature in every state in which it is running legislative candidates. The party has legislative candidates in New York, Delaware, and Connecticut. All three of these states permit fusion. The following statistics refer to state legislative races. In Delaware, the party has cross-endorsed three Republicans; in Connecticut it has cross-endorsed two Republicans; in New York it has cross-endorsed eleven Republicans.

The cross-endorsed Republican legislative nominees in Delaware are: Terry Spence, William Oberle, and Vincent Lofink. In Connecticut the Republican nominees are John Kissel and Leonard Fasano. In New York the Republican nominees are Thomas Morahan, George Maziarz, Fred Thiele, James Conte, Joseph Seledino, Robert Barra, David McDonough, Thomas Alfano, Anthony Nunziato, Dede Scozzafava, and John Kaczorowski.

Most of the Working Families Party nominations go to Democrats. The Working Families Party stands for the same political goals that the AFL-CIO stands for. Some Republicans in state legislatures are friendly to labor’s goals, so the Working Families Party is generally willing to cross-endorse such Republicans.

The Working Families Party cross-endorsed Al Gore in New York in 2000, John Kerry in 2004, and Barack Obama this year.

U.S. District Court in Montana Denies Injunctive Relief to Independent Senate Candidate Because He Didn't Pay Filing Fee

Posted on October 9, 2008 by adminOctober 9, 2008

On October 9, U.S. District Court Judge Sam Haddon denied injunctive relief to Steve Kelly (independent candidate for U.S. Senate) on the grounds that since Kelly didn’t pay the filing fee, he has no standing to challenge the other ballot access laws that kept Kelly off the ballot. Kelly v Johnson, cv-08-25.

Judge Haddon appears to have overlooked a 9th circuit opinion that has a different opinion about standing. Erum v Cayetano, 881 F 2d 689 (1989) says that even voters have standing to challenge ballot access laws. The Kelly case includes a plaintiff-voter, and also, of course, Kelly himself is a voter as well as a candidate.

Kelly had filed his lawsuit in April, alleging that the new March petition deadline is unconstitutional, and also that the number of signatures needed (slightly over 10,000) is unconstitutional because the state only requires 5,000 signatures for an entire new party.