This Texas story says that an IVR poll has found that 17% of the voters who say they plan to vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary on March 4, also say they expect to vote for the Republican presidential nominee in November. The same poll finds 22% of the voters who say they will vote for Barack Obama on March 4 expect to vote for the Republican nominee in November.

This is evidence that “raiding” does occur. “Raiding” is the intrusion of voters into party primaries who are not, in their hearts, loyal to the party holding that primary. For years, political scientists have fought over whether “raiding” really occurs in open primaries.

The February 25 New York Times has this op-ed by Geraldine Ferraro, supporting the idea that superdelegates ought to settle the identity of the Democratic presidential nominee. Ferraro’s justification is that Democratic presidential primaries get raided anyway, and therefore the presidential primaries should not be the determining factor in whom the party nominates.

The Missouri Senate Financial, Government Operations & Elections Committee will hold a hearing February 25 (Monday) at 2 pm, on SB 797. This is the bill that fixes the technical glitch in the state’s petition for new parties. The existing law was written in 1993. It said that a party could circulate a petition to qualify itself, before it has chosen its nominees. Unfortunately, due to a typographical error, the 1993 bill contradicted its own purpose by also saying that the petition must list the party’s presidential candidate and presidential elector candidates. SB 797 fixes that typo.

Sally Soriano, Ralph Nader’s 2008 Campaign Manager, has posted this statement on www.votenader.org: “Ralph told the media today after ‘Meet the Press’ that he will decide within the coming days how he is going to run for President in terms of ballot access. On ‘Meet the Press’ he mentioned the Green Party positively multiple times thus helping put the Green Party out to “Meet the Press’s” five million plus viewers. Ralph also said that he will announce his Vice-Presidential selection sometime in the next week. If people with the Green philosophy want him to seek their nomination, they could show their support by going to and by donating and signing up on the email list. No matter what he decides he will be communicating the Green Party agenda over the coming months.” Thanks to Dean Myerson for this news. The Nader campaign webpage is here.