The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published this story on December 16. The newspaper obtained e-mails from top aides in the Pennsylvania Democratic legislative caucus. The e-mails show that employees of the Democratic caucus, who were government employees, got bonuses for doing campaign work. That political work included helping with the challenge to Ralph Nader’s 2004 petition.
Pennsylvania State Representative Kerry A. Benninghoff, a Republican from Bellefonte, has sent a short written letter to Ballot Access News. It says he has introduced a bill to abolish mandatory ballot access petitions, and use filing fees instead. The letter says, “Petitions are an insider’s ‘ball game’ used to throw candidates off the ballot.”
The bill doesn’t seem to have a bill number yet. The Pennsylvania legislature has 2-year sessions, so any bills introduced this month can be taken up in 2008.
On December 14, Mississippi’s Secretary of State announced that he has placed the following 8 candidates on the Democratic presidential primary ballot: Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Gravel, Kucinich, Obama, Richardson.
He announced he has placed these 9 candidates on the Republican ballot: Giuliani, Huckabee, Hunter, Keyes, McCain, Paul, Romney, Tancredo, and Thompson.
Like most states, Mississippi law provides that candidates who are mentioned in the news media should automatically be put on the ballot. They need not even file. Anyone who is left off is free to also qualify by petition.
Only six Democrats filed to be on the Virginia Democratic presidential primary, even though the state party assisted 8 Democrats with the mandatory 10,000 signature petition. The six who filed are Biden, Clinton, Edwards, Kucinich, Obama, and Richardson. The state party circulated a joint petition for those Democrats as well as for Dodd and Gravel. One signature counted for all 8 Democrats. The party petition gathered 7,000 signatures. Despite that help, Dodd and Gravel did not file.
Only six Republicans filed in Virginia. Unlike the Democrats, each Republican was on his own, with no help from the state Republican Party. They are Giuliani, Huckabee, McCain, Paul, Romney and Thompson.
According to the Associated Press, this is the number of signatures filed by each Republican: Giuliani 17,041; Huckabee 19,329; McCain 15,024; Paul 21,142; Romney 15,443; Thompson 15,549. The number filed by each Democrat is: Biden 12,074; Clinton 15,075; Edwards 10,081; Kucinich 10,000; Obama 18,900; Richardson 10,000. It turns out that the paperwork asks each candidate to specify how many signatures he or she is turning in. There was confusion on the part of some of the Democratic candidates as to how to fill in this blank. The candidates were all aware that the Democratic Party was turning in a joint petition for all 8 of them, with 7,300 signatures for each. So, some of the Democrats collected as few as 4,000 signatures by themselves, but they still wrote in “10,000” on the form, knowing they really each had more than that when the party-collected signatures were added in.
Louisiana holds presidential primaries for the Democratic and Republican Parties. Ballot access is by paying a filing fee of $1,125.
Eleven Republicans have filed: Jerry Curry of Haymarket, Virginia; Dan Gilbert of Arden, North Carolina; and the expected Giuliani, Huckabee, Hunter, Keyes, McCain, Paul, Romney, Tancredo, and Thompson.
Seven Democrats have filed: Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Kucinich, Obama, and Richardson. The filing deadline is at 5 pm on November 14, so it is conceivable, but not likely, that other names will appear, if they file in the next two hours.
