On July 5, a motion for reconsideration was filed in Wasson v Bradbury. The U.S. District Court on June 20 had upheld Oregon’s law, making it illegal for primary voters to sign for an independent candidate.
Reply
On July 5, Connecticut SB 1311 was signed into law. It makes many election law changes. Among them, it expands fusion (“fusion” is the ability of two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate). Fusion has always been legal in Connecticut.
However, since 1981, fusion has only been legal between two qualified parties. Connecticut has two types of qualified parties, major parties and minor parties. Major parties are those which polled 20% for Governor in the last election, or which have registration equal to 20% of the last gubernatorial vote. Qualified minor parties are those that polled 1% for any particular office in the last election. “Qualified status” in Connecticut is office by office, so most minor parties, like the Green and Libertarian Parties, are qualified for some offices but not others.
SB 1311 says that an unqualified party can also participate in fusion, if it is already qualified for at least one office that is on the ballot that year. Thus, since the Libertarian and Green Parties are qualified for some statewide state offices, they can engage in fusion in 2010 (when those offices will next be on the ballot) for every office in the state.
The Working Families Party did the difficult work of getting this expansion of fusion into law. This is the first time in at least 70 years that any state has expanded fusion. Fusion was once legal in all states, but it has been shrinking over the years. It was partially restricted in New York in 1947, virtually banned in California in 1959, substantially restricted by Pennsylvania in 1985, and wiped out in Arkansas and South Dakota in 1997.
According to the Chief Clerk of the Hawaii House of Representatives, the National Popular Vote Plan bill cannot be enacted this year. The legislature had passed it in April (SB 1956), but Governor Linda Lingle had vetoed it. The Senate overrode her veto, but the House adjourned before getting to the bill. It had been thought that the House had another chance to override the veto in a special session in July, but that is not true.
Ron Paul reports that he has $2,400,000 in his campaign bank account. Data for all presidential candidates will be known officially on July 15, when reports for the last calendar quarter must be filed with the Federal Election Commission. The other Republicans who have already released their figures are the front-runners: Rudy Giuliani $15,000,000 for the primary season (plus another $3,000,000 that can only be spent on the general election and must be returned if he isn’t nominated); Mitt Romney $12,000,000; John McCain $2,000,000. Data for the other contenders will be reported on this blog when it is available. However, it is believed that Paul is in 3rd place in the “cash on hand” category among Republicans.
The Illinois legislature has extended the deadline to July 31 for two bills of interest. HB 1752 is the meek ballot access improvement bill, and HB 1685 is the National Popular Vote Plan.