The California Peace & Freedom Party will host a presidential candidate debate. All seven candidates in the party’s presidential primary are invited. It will be in San Francisco, Saturday, January 12, between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., at the Brava Theater, 2781 24th St., upstairs.

The seven presidential candidates on the PFP primary ballot are: Stewart Alexander, John Crockford, Stanley Hetz, Gloria LaRiva, Cynthia McKinney, Brian Moore, and Ralph Nader. Since Nader has not declared yet that he is running for president, it seems unlikely that he will attend.

An anomaly in Arkansas election law will require a special election to be held on January 1, 2008. It is virtually unheard of for any jurisdiction to ever hold a public election on a holiday. However, Arkansas law requires an election “run-off” (of this type) to be held exactly three weeks from the first election.

In this particular case, the two cities of Farmington and Prairie Grove, in northwest Arkansas, each voted to annex a particular subdivision. Since it is obvious that both cities can’t annex the particular area, the law provides that the voters in the area to be annexed should vote on which city to join. That type of election must be held exactly three weeks after the original election. Since the previous election was held on December 11, there is no escaping that the new election must be on January 1.

The Utah Personal Choice Party has hired a paid petition circulator to get itself back on the Utah ballot. The party has a platform somewhat similar to the Libertarian platform, but is not associated with the state or national Libertarian Party in any way. Although its presidential candidate only polled 946 votes in 2004, the party often polls large votes for less important office. Its ballot logo is the familiar round smiley-face. The party always receives a large number of state income tax donations, but it won’t be listed on the 2007 state income tax forms because it is submitting its petition so late in the season. It received $6,668 from 2005 state income tax donations, but it refused the money.