On December 11, Virginia held a special election to fill the empty U.S. House seat, First District. The results are almost exactly what they were in November 2006. Tonight’s results are: Republican Rob Wittman 63%, Democrat Philip Forgit 35%, independent Lucky Narain 2%.
In November 2006 the results had been: Republican 63.0%, Democratic 35.5%, independent 1.4%.
If all goes as planned, the lawsuit challenging the Tennessee ballot access law for new and previously unqualified parties will be filed in federal court on December 21. The law is so restrictive, no third party has been qualified since 1972. Tennessee is one of only two states in which no party (other than the Democrats and Republicans) has been ballot-qualified in the last 25 years, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. The other such state is New Jersey (also, Georgia has only had qualified minor parties for statewide office, not district office).
This lawsuit should have been filed seven months ago, but the attorney who was going to do it became ill, and a new attorney had to be found.
The Illinois legislature returns to its special session on Monday, December 17, which means the National Popular Vote plan, HB 1685, could still pass this year. It has passed both houses but the versions were not the same, so further action is needed.
Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut did not file to be on the New York Democratic presidential primary. 5,000 signatures are required for Democrats in New York. The six Democrats who did file in New York are Biden, Clinton, Edwards, Kucinich, Obama and Richardson.
On November 30, the 6th circuit heard oral argument in Citizens for Tax Reform v Deters, 07-3031. The issue is Ohio’s law, banning paying initiative and candidate petitioners on a per signature basis. The hearing seemed to go well. The three judges were Julia Gibbons and David McKeague (Bush Jr. appointees) and Eugene Siler (a Bush Sr. appointee).
Judge McKeague was especially interested in the aspect of the Ohio law that even seems to make it impossible to pay high producers a bonus. The law is somewhat ambiguous, and the attorney for the state didn’t seem willing to help the judges resolve the ambiguity.
The law had been declared unconstitutional in the U.S. District Court. The state says if it loses again, it will ask for U.S. Supreme Court review. A decision will probably come out in the first half of 2008, although occasionally these decisions take as long as a year from the hearing date.
