John Nichols of The Nation has this July 6 opinion piece, calling for a general election presidential debate that includes all the candidates who will be on the ballot in enough states to theoretically win the election. Unfortunately Nichols doesn’t know about Chuck Baldwin, but his commentary advocates a Barr-McCain-McKinney-Nader-Obama debate. Thanks to David McReynolds for the link.
The Arizona Supreme Court will decide on July 7 whether petition signatures are valid if the signer only lists a Post Office box, not a physical residence address. The case is Jenkins v Hale, cv 08-0208-AP-EL. The issue must be decided in time for the September 2 primary, so it is being rushed. The Court will decide based on the written briefs (the last of which is being submitted this morning). There will be no oral argument. The case arose because the petitions of three Democratic candidates for the legislature in the northeastern corner of Arizona were challenged. The lower court ruled in favor of the validity of the signatures. The three candidates whose ballot position is at stake are Senator Albert Hale, and House candidates Albert Tom and Chris Descheeny. UPDATE: The Arizona Supreme Court upheld the lower court decision, so that candidates Albert Hale and Chris Descheeny will be on the September 2 primary ballot. The Court said it will explain its reasoning later. Candidate Albert Tom, who is an incumbant, will not be on the primary ballot. Even counting signatures with post office boxes instead of physical addresses, he needed 522 valid signatures and only had 495 valid.
The faction of the American Independent Party lead by Ed Noonan held a state convention in Sacramento on July 5. According to one person who was there, 19 people attended, including one or two people who did not support the legitimacy of that meeting. The July 5 meeting nominated Alan Keyes for president and Wiley Drake for vice-president. It is not known if Drake attended the meeting or if he will accept the nomination. He is pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, California, and he had also attended a campaign event for Chuck Baldwin, held in southern California, the preceding week.
The faction loyal to the national Constitution Party had held a state convention in Los Angeles on June 28-29, with 35 members of the state central committee in attendance, and a total attendance of 55.
Zogby Polls released these results on July 6: Obama 44%, McCain 38%, Barr 6%, other and undecided 12%.
Recent Rasmussen Polls only list Obama and McCain, but the latest Rasmussen Poll showed a 5% lead for Obama over McCain. It is unfortunate that the presidential polls don’t list all 6 candidates who will be on the ballot in states containing a majority of electoral votes.
The last poll that seems to have asked voters to choose from four candidates was this CNN poll, released July 2. It shows Nader at 6% and Barr at 3%.
The Massachusetts House will take up H678, the National Popular Vote Plan bill, on Wednesday, July 9. This Boston Herald article says the Speaker of the House supports the bill. The article mentions only 3 states in which the bill has become law, but the article erroneously omits Hawaii.
