Roll Call newsletter of June 11 says that it is somewhat likely that the U.S. Senate will approve new Federal Election Commissioners during the week of June 16-20. That would give the FEC the ability to act, something it has lacked for many months. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog.
In November 2008, 33 states hold regularly-scheduled U.S. Senate elections. There will be at least one minor party or independent candidate for U.S. Senate on the ballot in at least 22 states.
States in which there definitely will be no minor party or independent candidates for U.S. Senate on the ballot are Alabama, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming. There are ballot-qualified minor parties in all those states except Alabama, but those parties all chose not to run anyone for U.S. Senate. In New Mexico, though, even a ballot-qualified minor party would have needed a substantial petition.
It is uncertain if there will be a minor party or independent candidate for U.S. Senate this year in Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, and Rhode Island. In Montana, the only possibility is for independent candidate Steve Kelly to win his pending ballot access lawsuit.
Last time this set of Senate seats was up was in 2002. In 2002, there was at least one minor party or independent candidate on the ballot for U.S. Senate in all states except Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
On June 10, the North Carolina Libertarian and Green Parties asked the State Court of Appeals to reverse the lower court, and strike down the state laws on how new and previously unqualified parties get on the ballot. The appeal also asks that the law on how voters are treated when their party goes off the ballot be declared unconstitutional. Although this issue was emphasized at the trial, the lower court judge failed to issue a ruling on that issue.
The South Carolina primary (for office other than president) was held on June 10. In the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, the results are: Bob Conley 73,773; Michael Cone 72,790. All of the votes have been counted except some absentee and provisional ballots.
In May, Cone had been nominated by the Working Families Party as its US Senate candidate. The WFP had been hoping that Cone would also get the Democratic nomination. Now Cone will need to decide whether to remain on the general election race as the WFP nominee, even though he didn’t get the Democratic nomination.
An earliest post said that the Oregon Republican primary on May 20 had no candidate listed on the ballot for Attorney General, and that write-in votes would determine the Republican nominee. It appears now that the person who got the most write-ins in that primary was the Democratic nominee, John Kroger. Kroger will accept the Republican nomination, and thus block the Republican Party state committee from choosing someone to fill the vacancy.
