On January 16, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed the 2nd circuit, and upheld New York state’s system by which candidates for Delegate to Party Nominating Conventions get on primary ballots. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the opinion, which can be read here.
The Oregon State Senate Elections & Ethics Committee heard testimony today on legalizing fusion (the practice of letting two political parties jointly nominate the same candidate). There is no specific bill in front of that committee, but there will be soon. Most legislators present seemed in favor of the idea. Both the Working Families Party of Oregon, and the Independent Party of Oregon, testified in favor.
MSNBC just announced that the Nevada State Supreme Court just ruled against Dennis Kucinich and in favor of NBC. Yesterday, a Clark County court judge ruled that NBC should be required to include Kucinich.
An hour before tonight’s debate is to start, Kucinich will now not be allowed to participate.
The U.S. Supreme Court did not issue any election law decisions on Tuesday, January 15. However, the Court is expected to issue more opinions on Wednesday, January 16, so there may be an opinion on January 16 in either the Washington state election law case, or the New York state election law case, or possibly both.
January 15 is the deadline for determining which presidential primary candidates will be on the Mississippi Democratic and Republican presidential primary ballots. The primary is March 11. The Secretary of State had already announced a preliminary list of candidates (those mentioned in the news media), back on December 14. That list remains unchanged. In theory, anyone left off the list could have submitted 500 signatures between December 14 and January 14, but no one did so.
Democrats on the ballot will be Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Gravel, Kucinich, Obama, and Richardson. Even though Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson have withdrawn publicly, none of them sent a letter to the Mississippi Secretary of State, asking to be withdrawn from the Mississippi primary, so their names remain.
Republicans will be Giuliani, Huckabee, Hunter, Keyes, McCain, Romney, Paul, Tancredo and Thompson. Tom Tancredo, like the three Democrats mentioned above, did not withdraw from the Mississippi primary even though he has publicly withdrawn.
