The Daily Voice carries this commentary by Lenora Fulani on the 2008 presidential election. Although Fulani does not endorse any presidential candidate, she clearly looks with favor on Barack Obama. Lenora Fulani was the New Alliance Party presidential candidate in 1988 and 1992. In 1988 she was on the ballot in all 50 states. Among general election presidential candidates who polled at least one-fifth of 1%, in the entire history of the U.S., she is the only woman on that list of general election presidential candidates, and also the only non-Caucasian person on that list.

On January 18, 2008, a Minnesota state court ruled that Minnesota elections officials should have furnished declaration of candidacy forms to a man who is currently an inmate in the Faribault State Prison. Leonard J. Richards had begun trying to run for Congress since 2005, but state prisons officials determined, “Offenders are not allowed to run for office.” Also, the Secretary of State, and county elections officials, refused to respond to Richards’ letters asking for the forms. In Minnesota, candidates may obtain a place on a party primary ballot by paying a filing fee; no petition is required.

Richards then sued in federal court, but his lawsuit was transferred to State Court, Rice County district court. The case is Richards v Windschitl, 66-cv-06-1517. The order says, “Mark Ritchie as Secretary of State and his Office, shall provide to the plaintiff the appropriate forms allowing him the ability to file for federal elective office, without interference.” Also, “Mark Ritchie as Secretary of State and his Office, shall provide Plaintiff with the number of write in votes he received in the 2006 election. This information shall be provided within 30 days from the date of this Order.”

Under U.S. Term Limits v Thornton, the U.S. Supreme Court opinion that struck down term limits laws for federal office, neither states nor the federal government can add to the qualifications listed in the U.S. Constitution to run for Congress.

The February 11 issue of the Wall Street Journal has this column by Theodore B. Olson, about an imaginary lawsuit that might conceivably come to exist this year called “Clinton v Obama”. The hypothesis concerns the now widely-discussed possibility that the Democratic presidential nomination will be so close at the Denver national convention in August, that it will all hinge on whether the party should seat delegates from Florida and Michigan.

Olson, of course, is a partisan Republican attorney who represented George W. Bush in Bush v Gore in the U.S. Supreme Court. Olson also won the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision New York State Board of Elections v Lopez Torres.

The Florida delegate count (if that state had any national convention delegates) would be Clinton 105, Obama 67. The Michigan count would be 73 Hillary, unpledged 55.

In 1984 the Democratic National Convention passed a resolution that says, “Be it further resolved that the Democratic Party of the United States recognizes the right to vote as the most fundamental of all rights in our democracy. And no duty of the Party is more important than protecting the sanctity of this right.” Notwithstanding that resolution, in 2004 the Democratic National Committee spent heavily in an attempt to prevent voters from voting for Ralph Nader, and this year the same committee feels that preserving a particular calendar of presidential primaries is more important than the voting rights of rank-and-file Democratic voters in two particular states. Thus the party leaves itself open to charges of hypocrisy. Thanks to Howard Bashman’s “How Appealing” for the link.