On September 24, New York Republican Party attempts to place Vito Fossella on the November ballot as their nominee for U.S. House, 13th district, came to nothing. The Republican primary earlier this month had been won by Robert A. Straniere. Fossella had not run for re-election. But Republicans fear that Straniere will lose, so they nominated Straniere (without his knowledge) for Justice of the New York Supreme Court in Manhatten. If Straniere had accepted that nomination, the law would have permitted the Republicans to replace him with anyone they wished, and they would have chosen Fossella.

But Straniere wants to run for Congress, so he declined the Judicial race nomination. He withdrew in person at the Board of Elections, so there would be no confusion. See this story.

On September 23, Washington state Democrats filed a lawsuit in state court against the Secretary of State, who plans to print “Prefers GOP” on the November ballot next to the name of Dino Rossi, one of the two ballot-listed candidates for Governor. The lawsuit alleges that the Secretary of State should print “Prefers Republican” instead. It is common knowledge that Rossi is a Republican. Here is the complaint.

The law says candidates are free to say which political party they prefer, and furthermore the law says any group is a political party. A major party is one that polled 5% in the last election, but a minor party is any organization that is not a major party. The lawsuit also faces procedural hurdles. The Secretary of State says it should have been filed back in June, when the list of candidates and their preferences was made public. The case is Smith v Reed, in King County Superior Court, 08-2-33009-5. It has a hearing Friday, September 26, at 9 a.m., before Judge Eadie.

A poll (which is hard to believe) shows that when Rossi is listed as a Republican, he trails by 10%; but when he is listed as “GOP”, he is ahead by 4%.

On September 24, attorneys for Ralph Nader sent a letter to the U.S. attorney in Scranton, Pennsylvania, asking him to open an investigation into likely illegal acts committed by the people who challenged his 2004 Pennsylvania petition, and similar acts committed in 2006 against the Green Party’s petition. Although this matter is active in Pennsylvania state court, the Nader letter details the federal election laws that may also have been violated.

In addition, Nader supplemented his Federal Election Commission complaint (which he had filed in May 2008) with information about Pennsylvania that has been publicly revealed since then.