The results from Louisiana’s state run-off elections on November 17 produced these results in the State House: 53 Democrats, 50 Republicans, 2 independents. This is the largest number of Republicans in the Louisiana State House since the 1870’s. Note that if one more Republican had been elected and one more Democrat defeated, the two independents would have held the balance of power.
The November 19 edition of the Wall Street Journal has an excellent editorial about Oklahoma’s policy of making it a crime for somone not domiciled in Oklahoma to ask voters in Oklahoma if they wish to sign an initiative petition. See this link.
On November 19, the Michigan Attorney General asked the State Supreme Court to hear Grebner v State, the case over whether the government may give a list of presidential primary voters in each major party’s primary to the two major parties, and otherwise keep the list secret. The lower courts had ruled the law unconstitutional. The Attorney General not only wants the Supreme Court to hear the case, but to decide it by Wednesday, November 21.
The Ohio Libertarian Party media director is about to mail a letter to all 132 state legislators, asking each one to help reform Ohio’s ballot access laws. The letter points out that the Ohio procedure to get a new party on the ballot was declared unconstitutional in September 2006, and that no one has even introduced a bill to replace the old law. The letter notes that Illinois and Arkansas also had their ballot access laws declared unconstitutional in 2006, but both of those states passed better laws in 2007.
Similar activism ought to be taking place in many states besides Ohio. Especially in need of better laws for new and minor parties are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
The Arkansas Republican Party requires presidential primary candidates to pay a filing fee of $15,000. So far six have done so: Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson. The deadline is Monday at noon, November 19.
