IndependentPoliticalReport has posted Cynthia McKinney’s acceptance speech, delivered in Chicago on July 12. See this link. C-SPAN broadcast it twice on Sunday, July 13.
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IndependentPoliticalReport has posted Cynthia McKinney’s acceptance speech, delivered in Chicago on July 12. See this link. C-SPAN broadcast it twice on Sunday, July 13.
On July 10, the Connecticut Working Families nominated candidates in all five of the state’s U.S. House districts. In each case, the WFP nominated the person who is expected to also be the Democratic nominee. The party is already ballot-qualified in one of the U.S. House districts, and is petitioning in the other four districts.
This will be the first time the Working Families Party will have been on the ballot throughout the entire state of Connecticut. Starting in 2004, the party started running in certain legislative districts and in a single U.S. House district. Due to a change in the law made in 2007, it is now generally possible for a new party to participate in fusion. Legally speaking, the Working Families Party is “new” in some parts of Connecticut, whereas it is already established in other parts.
It is possible that the WFP of Connecticut will also nominate Barack Obama for president. If that happens, the party would immediately begin to circulate a petition for itself for presidential ballot status, which takes 7,500 valid signatures. The WFP will not act until Obama agrees to accept the nomination. President is the only statewide office on the Connecticut ballot in 2006; there is no U.S. Senate race this year.
The New York Independence Party has a tradition of choosing its presidential nominee at the last possible moment. In 2000, it chose John Hagelin on September 24. In 2004, it chose Ralph Nader on September 26.
State chair Frank MacKay says this tradition will continue this year. The most likely date for the party to choose its presidential candidate is September 21, a Sunday.
New York state is able to cope with late decisions because it uses mechanical voting machines. One advantage of mechanical voting machines is that they can be easily and quickly set up. Elections officials don’t need to print entire ballots; they merely must print up narrow strips of paper which are inserted into the right slots on the face of the machines. However, New York will be giving up its mechanical voting machines after the November 2008 election, since the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) outlawed them.
Larry King Live on July 14 (Monday evening) will feature Jesse Ventura, who will say whether he will seek the Independence Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate in Minnesota this year. The show is on at 9 pm Eastern time, 6 pm Pacific time. Here is the show’s website. Scroll down to find mention of the Ventura interview.