Trevor Lyman, the person who organized the Ron Paul money bombs, has launched an effort to create a six-person presidential debate in New York city in October. The six candidates would be the six individuals who are on the ballot in states containing a majority of the electoral college: Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, John McCain, Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, and Barack Obama. Lyman will go ahead if he gets financial contributions (in any amount) from at least 10,000 individuals. He already has pledges from 702 individuals. The pledges would go toward the cost of holding the event, not to the candidates’ campaigns.

It is most unlikely that either Barack Obama or John McCain would participate, since they have presumably already signed a contract with the Commission on Presidential Debates, promising that they would not participate in any other general election presidential debates.

For more information, go here, to Lyman’s webpage, thirdpartyticket.com.

On September 24, Tennessee State Senator Rosalind Kurita, a Democrat, sued her own party, as well as the Secretary of State, in order to be placed on the November ballot. Kurita v The State Primary Board of the Tennessee Democratic Party, 3:08cv-948.

Kurita had won the August Democratic primary by 19 votes, but the Democratic Party had overturned the results of the primary because of evidence that Republicans had voted in the Democratic primary. Tennessee does not have registration by party, and it is legal for any person to choose any party’s primary ballot. This lawsuit may be judged to have been filed too late. But if that procedural problem is overcome, the lawsuit may set a very important precedent about the rights of political parties to control their own nominations process. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s electionlawblog for this news. The lawsuit was a massive undertaking because Kurita sued all 66 members of the State Primary Board of the Democratic Party, which is very costly, because each individual had to be served. See the complaint and the brief by going to this webpage (the webpage of the James Madison Center) and scrolling down the left side to the link that starts with “Kurita”.

On September 27, the Louisiana Libertarian Party filed this strong brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking that Bob Barr be put back on the ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court docket number is 08A269. It is 17 pages, and is well worth reading. Note that this is a microsoft “doc” file, not the usual “pdf” file.