On September 17, the faction of the national Reform Party that lost the earlier jury trial in Tallahassee (the lawsuit called Reform Party of the USA v O’Hara) filed a motion for a new trial. The motion contains an affidavit of Lee Dilworth, saying he did not participate in the 2005 vote of the national executive committee that rescinded the call to the Tampa national convention. Since 6 votes were needed for a quorum, and since only 6 members of the national executive committee (including Dilworth) are recorded as having voted, if the recent Dilworth affidavit is accurate, the party records are in error and the Tampa convention wasn’t properly cancelled. The Tampa convention voted to name Charles Foster as national chair.

Any reporting done about internal Reform Party conflicts is very difficult. Passions run high on all sides. The author of this web page is no expert on internal Reform Party disputes and is not motivated to become an expert on that subject.

Lincoln Chafee, who was elected to the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island as a Republican in 2000 and who was defeated for re-election in 2006, changed his registration from “Republican” to “Independent” back in June or July 2007. No one noticed until a few days ago. Here is one article about the reasons for his action. This year has seen at least three news-worthy Republicans change their registration from “Republican” to either independent voter status, or to a minor party; the others are Mayor Michael Bloomberg and John Frohnmayer.

On September 19, the U.S. Senate Rules Committee will hold a hearing on S1257, the bill to tell the states and the major parties when to hold their presidential primaries and caucuses. The bill only applies to parties that won any electoral votes in the preceding presidential election. It lets Iowa and New Hampshire go first, in perpetuity. The other 48 states would be grouped into 4 regions, and a random procedure would choose which region holds primaries and caucuses in March, which in April, which in May, and which in June.