On April 19, U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis, a Bush Jr. appointee, ordered that a candidate for city council be placed on the ballot in a special election, even though that candidate, Wellington Sharpe, had not completed the mandatory petition. The election was a special election, and the law required all candidates to submit 1,002 valid signatures in just 13 days. The case is Sharpe v Como, 07-cv-1521, eastern district.

The basis for the decision was that Sharpe’s main opponent in the April 24 special election, Mathieu Eugene, had advance knowledge of the special election, whereas his opponents did not. Therefore, Eugene had the benefit of all 13 days to collect signatures, but Sharpe did not. Furthermore, during the 9 days available to Sharpe, the weather was very bad. The key element in the decision is the judge’s conclusion that denying a candidate a spot on the ballot is an “injury of great magnitude.” Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.

On April 24, Florida held a special election to fill the vacant State House seat, 49th district. The vote was Democratic 51.9%, Republican 48.1%. In November 2006 in the same seat, the vote had been Republican 53.5%, Democratic 46.5%. The district is centered on Kissimmee.

On April 25, the Montana legislature forwarded SB 270 to the desk of Governor Brian D. Schweitzer. It moves the petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates, and petitions for the nominees of unqualified parties, from June to March.

Please ask Governor Schweitzer to veto SB 270. His fax is 406-444-5529. His e-mail is governor@mt.gov. His postal address is State Capitol, Helena Mt 59620. He must act by May 5.

The only argument in favor of this bill is that since Democrats and Republicans must file declarations of candidacy in March to run in the June primary, therefore all others ought to act in March as well. But the “equal treatment” argument is fallacious. Candidates running in primaries don’t need petitions. Statewide independent candidates in Montana need 5,000 signatures. Forcing them to submit these petitions in March requires them to petition in winter. Furthermore, non-presidential independent candidate petitions deadlines are unconstitutional, if they are that early. Similar deadlines, for office other than president, have been invalidated in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. Even Montana’s old March deadline was invalidated in a Montana lower state court in 1990, which is why the legislature moved it to June in 1991. The Montana Supreme Court then ruled that the plaintiff who filed the 1990 lawsuit didn’t have standing to complain about the deadline, so there was no final judicial opinion in a higher court in Montana.