Effective December 31, 2007, Charles Foster resigned as national chair of what might be called the “Texas-Florida” faction of the Reform Party. That group will now choose a new national chair.
In the meantime, the lawsuit filed by the Rodney Martin faction in federal court in San Francisco has a hearing on January 23. The Texas-Florida faction of the party has filed a motion to dismiss that lawsuit. The Martin faction of the party is trying to get that hearing postponed.
Mike Huckabee is quoted in this newspaper story about a possible Mayor Bloomberg independent candidacy. Huckabee says, “I welcome him into the race” and speculates that a Bloomberg candidacy would help the Republican nominee to win.
On December 31, Alan Keyes paid his $2,500 filing fee to be on the Texas Republican presidential primary ballot. That ballot now has 9 candidates on it. Fred Thompson still hasn’t filed, but he is free to do so on January 2, the deadline.
On December 28, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court construed one particular state law favorably to ballot access, in the case titled In re: Nomination Petition of Paulmier, no. 172 EAL 2007.
The issue was a provision in the Pennsylvania Ethics Act that requires candidates for state and local office to reveal the sources of their income. The act does not apply to federal candidates. The Court ruled that if a candidate files the financial disclosure on time, and the form has an omission or error, the candidate may correct the error later. By contrast, the lower court had tried to keep the candidate off the ballot (the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had ordered him back on to the ballot, but until December 28, had not explained its reasoning).
The particular candidate in this case was Greg Paulmier, a Democrat who was running for Philadelphia city council.
The Court also ruled that in the case of a self-employed candidate, the law doesn’t require him or her to list all the people whom he does business with. It is sufficient for the candidate to reveal the name of his or her business, without trying to list all the customers of that business.
On December 31, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, a Republican, appointed fellow Republican Roger Wicker to the vacant U.S. Senate seat. Wicker is the current Congressman from the 1st district (the northeast part of the state).
Mississippi election law is not clear. Jim Hood, Attorney General, says since the vacancy occurred in 2007, there must be a special election in the spring of 2008. The Governor doesn’t agree and says the special election should be in November 2008. Hood had previously said that if the Governor stuck to that position, he would bring a lawsuit to resolve the matter. In any event, there must be a special election in the spring to fill the new vacancy in the U.S. House seat.
Eight states have had vacancies in the U.S. House this year: Georgia, California, Massachusetts, Ohio, Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, and now Mississippi. Thanks to Steve Rankin for the news.
