As courts continue to support the idea that political parties may run their nominations process as they see fit (even when that conflicts with state law), more observers are starting to question why taxpayers pay for party primaries, especially presidential primaries. Here is another such commentary from Laurence Reisman. He writes for a series of newspapers in Florida’s Treasure Coast (the area north of Palm Beach).
Nevada State Senator Dina Titus, leader of her party in the State Senate, says she will soon introduce a bill to give Nevada presidential primaries. She and some other Nevada observers feel the caucus method is not a good idea. See this article.
On January 22, a committee to recall one particular Michigan state legislator filed a lawsuit to strike down a law that says only district residents may circulate that type of petition. The case is in Kent County Circuit Court. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
The number of signatures for statewide minor party and independent candidates in Pennsylvania this year is 24,666. The exact number could not be known until the Pennsylvania November 2007 election returns had been completely tallied.
The 24,666 is somewhat better than the 2004 requirement, which was 25,697. However, the 2000 requirement had been even lower, 21,739.
On January 25, Hillary Clinton said she will work to seat Michigan and Florida delegates to the Democratic National Convention, but shortly afterwards, Barack Obama’s campaign criticized her for that stand. John Edwards’ campaign has not yet commented on the issue.
Florida has 210 delegates, and Michigan has 156 delegates, out of the total of 4,048 delegates. The Democratic National Committee had said those two states may not have any delegates, because they broke national party rules on the timing of their presidential primaries. Clinton said, “I will ask my Democratic convention delegates to support seating the delegations from Florida and Michigan. I know not all of my delegates will do so.”
Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe responded by saying, “It seems like Hillary Clinton will do or say anything to win an election.” See this story about the Obama campaign’s response. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news.
