The first televised debate for Democrats seeking the presidency will be held on the evening of April 26, at South Carolina State University. Eight candidates will participate. Their names, followed by their showings in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll taken April 20-23, are below:

Hillary Clinton 36%, Barack Obama 31%, John Edwards 20%, Joe Biden 3%, Bill Richardson 2%, Dennis Kucinich 1%, Chris Dodd 0%, Mike Gravel 0%.

For general election presidential debates, the Commission on Presidential Debates applies a 15% polling standard. If that standard were applied to the April 26 Democratic debate, the field would be trimmed from 8 candidates to 3.

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.