The Green Party national convention in Chicago is not getting much press from the large newspapers so far, although that will change on Saturday, July 12, when the party votes for president. The best coverage for July 11 seems to be in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. See it here. The focus of the story is on Rosa Clemente, the vice-presidential choice put forward by Cynthia McKinney. UPDATE: for more information on the convention, see www.greenpartywatch.org.
The 10th Circuit will hear Yes on Term Limits v Savage on September 25, Thursday, in Denver. This is the case on whether the U.S. Constitution protects the ability of out-of-staters to circulate petitions. The case is from Oklahoma. The U.S. District Court had upheld the Oklahoma restriction.
The only 10th circuit precedent in this area of the law is favorable. It is Chandler v City of Arvada, 292 F 3d 1236 (2002). It held that a city could not ban circulators from circulating a city initiative, just because those circulators don’t live in that city. The 10th circuit includes Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming. That case arose from Colorado.
TIME Magazine has this essay on the Libertarian Party’s presidential ticket, which includes interviews with both Bob Barr and Wayne A. Root. Thanks to ThirdPartyWatch for the link.
Friday, July 11, is the Louisiana deadline for filing for Congress, both for candidates running in party primaries, and for independent candidates. The U.S. Senate race will have five candidates on the November ballot: Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu, a Republican (whoever wins the September primary, John Kennedy or Jacques Boudreax), Libertarian Richard Fontanesi, independent Robert Stewart, and independent Jay Patel.
Fontanesi will be the first U.S. Senate candidate (other than Democrats and Republicans) with a party label next to his name on the November ballot, since 1972, when the American Party was a qualified party and ran Hall Lyons. The Louisiana definition of “political party” was substantially eased in 2004, but it didn’t take effect until 2005. There was no U.S. Senate election in Louisiana in 2006. Fontanesi was a Libertarian candidate for U.S. House in 2006, and polled 17.2% in a race with only one major party contender.
On April 3, a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire, alleging that John McCain is not eligible under Article II to be president. See the complaint here. Thank to Dan Tokaji for this news. The case is Hollander v McCain, 1:08-cv-99-JL. It has a hearing on July 24. Here is the Republican National Committee’s brief urging that the case be dismissed.
