On March 20, U.S. Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Richard Durbin (D-Il.) said they will soon introduce a bill to provide public funding for congressional candidates. They say their model is the “Clean Elections” system now used for state legislative candidates in Maine and Arizona. Both states do not discriminate for or against any candidate on the basis of political affiliation. Anyone who raises a certain number of small contributions is entitled to public funding. The Specter-Durbin statement implies that their bill will follow this principle. It would be difficult for them to introduce a discriminatory bill, since two independent U.S. Senators were elected last year. A similar bill will be introduced in the House by Congressman John Tierney (D-Ma.).

On March 17, the Mississippi Democratic Party Executive Committee voted to bar George Dale from the party’s primary this year, for State Insurance Commissioner. He is the incumbent and he has always been elected as a Democrat (for eight full 4-year terms). The party took the action because Dale endorsed President Bush for re-election in 2004. He will probably file a lawsuit to get on the Democratic primary ballot, which is bound to make interesting law about the rights of political parties versus the rights of candidates. Similar lawsuits in Alabama have always resulted in wins for the political parties. A somewhat similar lawsuit in Missouri last year failed to settle the issue in that state.

On Friday, the Arkansas House approved HB2353, a bill to lower the requirements for third parties to 10,000 signatures. The bill passed 66-23.

State law currently requires signatures equal to three percent of the total number of voters in the last election, which was 24,171 last year.

However, the bill adds hurdles to the process, most notably, reducing the signature gathering time from 150 days to 60. It also removes a 15-day period new parties have to gather additional signatures if petitions are rejected by the secretary of state.

The bill was introduced in response to a successful lawsuit by the Green Party. U.S. District Judge George Howard Jr. ordered the state to place the Green Party on the ballot, ruling that the signature requirements violated the party’s candidate for governor’s rights.