On November 12, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle (of Tallahassee, Florida) denied a request for a new trial, in Reform Party v O’Hara. Back in August 2007, a jury had found that the most recent Reform Party national convention was invalid. That had the effect of reinstating Rodney Martin of Arizona as national chair, instead of Charles Foster of Texas. That jury decision has now been reaffirmed.
On November 14, Rasmussen Reports released an interesting poll for the general election, listing Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Ron Paul and Ralph Nader. The results are: Clinton 42%, Giuliani 39%, Paul 8%, Nader 4%, undecided or other 7%. See here for the details.
All the briefs in opposition to Indiana’s law requiring voters at the polls to show government photo-ID have now been filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. See this link (courtesy of the Brennan Center for Justice) to read these briefs. The case is actually two combined cases, Crawford v Marion County Election Board, and Indiana Democratic Party v Rokita. There are 23 briefs. This is almost surely a record number of amicus curiae briefs in any U.S. Supreme Court election law case, at least in the past 20 years. It will be interesting to see how many organizations file amici briefs on the side of Indiana’s law.
The briefs in defense of the Indiana law are due next month. Then, there will be a set of rebuttal briefs. The oral argument will probably be in late winter or early spring 2008.
Until 2007, there had never been a party-imposed fee for running in a presidential primary in any state, higher than $5,000. However, the South Carolina Republican Party broke that pattern by setting its filing fee at $25,000 for candidates who filed before May 2007, and $35,000 for candidates who filed later.
Now the Arkansas Republican Party has copied this idea, to a certain extent, and is charging $15,000. The Arkansas Republican Party does not pay for the presidential primary; the fee is just a way for the party to make money.
So far, the only Republicans who have paid the Arkansas $15,000 fee are John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson. However, filing doesn’t end until Monday, November 19.
The Democratic National Committee has set a ceiling of $2,500 that any state Democratic Party may charge presidential candidates. Of course, in most states, filing fees don’t go to the parties anyway. In most states they go to election administrators.
On November 13, the Michigan Attorney General asked the State Court of Appeals to hold a hearing no later than November 16, on whether it is unconstitutional for the state to give a list of presidential primary participants to each of the two major parties, and to otherwise withhold the list. The case is called Grebner v State. The lower court had ruled that policy unconstitutional.
Also on November 13, the Michigan Republican Party intervened in the case, on the side of the state. The state party chair affirmed that the party still prefers to choose its delegates to the national convention by primary.
