Although access to the Arizona presidential primaries is extremely easy, Joe Biden didn’t file to run in the Arizona Democratic presidential primary. All he would have needed to do is file a declaration of candiday. No fee and no petition is required.
On December 24, the California Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that its 1980 Pruneyard decision is still good law. That decision had said that because shopping center walkways are the social equivalent of the old traditional town square, therefore distributing leaflets, petitioning, and related free speech activity must be allowed, even though the shopping center is private property.
The new decision is Fashion Valley Mall v National Labor Relations Board, S144753. The particular kind of free speech activity concerned union activists passing out leaflets, suggesting a boycott of one particular store in that shopping center. The case had been in the courts since 1998.
The majority consisted of Chief Justice Ronald George and Justices Carlos Moreno, Joyce Kennard, and Kathryn Werdegar. The dissent was written by Justice Ming Chin and signed by Justices Marvin Baxter and Carol Corrigan. The dissent is fierce. It says, “Pruneyard was wrong when decided. In the nearly three decades that have since elapsed, jurisdictions throughout the nation have overwhelmingly rejected it (this is a reference the fact that most other State Supreme Courts have interpreted their state’s free speech provisions to not apply to any private property).” The dissent also says, “The time has come to recognize that we are virtually alone, and that Pruneyard was ill-conceived…Even if we stubbornly maintain our position of ‘magnificent isolation’ in the face of this tide of history, we should not carry Pruneyard to the extreme of forbidding private property owners from controlling expressive activity on their property – urging a boycott of its tenants – that is inimical to the purpose for which the property is being used…Assuming free speech rights exist in shopping centers, the fact remains that they are not Hyde Park in London, Central Park in New York, or the National Mall in Washington, D.C.”
Texas law, since 1993, has required parties that plan to petition to give advance notice no later than January 2 of the election year. The Texas Independence Party recently notified the Secretary of State that it will attempt to qualify next year.
The California Secretary of State recently released the tally of how many voters are registered in each political party, as of December 4, 2007. The previous tally had been as of September 4, 2007.
The only three parties in the state that gained are the American Independent (Constitution), Peace & Freedom, and Reform Parties. The Reform Party is not qualified but is attempting to qualify, although it has not gained enough to have a chance to qualify for 2008, because the deadline is December 31, 2007, and it needs 88,991 registrations to do that (old parties don’t need nearly that many registrations to remain qualified).
The number of independents also increased.
The new totals are: Democratic 6,598,773; Republican 5,190,179; American Independent 320,435; Green 132,501; Libertarian 81,906; Peace & Freedom 57,013; Reform 29,477; other 68,124; declines to state (California’s peculiar term for “independent”) 2,990,143.
The old totals had been: Democratic 6,599,660; Republican 5,254,795; American Independent 316,811; Green 136,018; Libertarian 82,669; Peace & Freedom 56,957; Reform 28,735; other 70,809; declines to state 2,980,622.
The Reform Party gain was almost entirely in Sacramento County. The party in that county went from 998 to 2,521.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s legal counsel recently determined that the Reform, Gun Owners’ Rights, and Pro Life Parties, are no longer qualified parties in that state.
None of the three parties has as many as 1,000 registrants, and none of them polled as much as 1% for a statewide race in either of the last two elections. The Reform Party did have a strong nominee for one U.S. House race last year, but that isn’t a statewide race.
The Gun Owners’ Rights Party, and the Pro Life Party, became qualified in 2004, when they each submitted 10,000 valid signatures on a petition. However, neither of them ever had any candidates for any public office whatsoever. The two parties were formed by a wealthy Democratic Party activist, who had the notion that if he qualified those parties, he would later find candidates and the presence of those candidates on the ballot would injure Republican nominees. However, he appears to have thought better of the idea later, and they were completely dormant during their lifetime.
The Colorado voter registration form will be reprinted next month to delete those three parties. Remaining qualified in Colorado are the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties (which nominate by convention for the most part) and the Republican and Democratic Parties.
