A poll released on June 29 by Survey USA shows these figures for the Texas gubernatorial race: Republican Rick Perry 35%, Independent Kinky Friedman 21%, Democrat Chris Bell 20%, independent Carole Strayhorn 19%, other (including the Libertarian, James Werner) and undecided 5%.
On June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court said nothing in the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from redrawing congressional and legislative district boundaries in the middle of a decade. League of United Latin American Citizens v Perry, 05-204. The Court did say that one Texas district, the 23rd, must have its boundaries redrawn, because the redistricting violated the Voting Rights Act as to that one district. The 23rd district borders 5 other districts, so some of them will also have new boundaries. It seems the Texas legislature will be forced to return in a special session to redraw these lines, or perhaps the U.S. District Court in Austin will draw new lines. In that event, the March 2006 primary as to the changed districts is void. All of the districts with changed boundaries are in southwestern Texas. The only large city affected is San Antonio.
On June 27, the Massachusetts Secretary of State said that the “fusion” initiative now has enough signatures and will be on the November 2006 ballot. The initiative would legalize fusion (the ability of two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate). It would also make it far easier for a party to remain on the ballot. The Working Families Party sponsored this initiative.
On June 23, Governor Kathleen Blanco signed SB 18, to restore closed primaries in Louisiana for congressional elections. The bill takes effect next year. This year’s congressional elections will still use the “top-two” system, with the first round in November, and any needed run-off in December.
On June 27, the national Voting Rights office of the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Arkansas, over the number of signatures needed for a new or minor party to get on the ballot. Green Party of Arkansas v Daniels, 4:06-cv-758. The statutory law says a new party needs a petition of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, which would be 24,171 signatures. However, in 1996, a federal court ruled that since Arkansas only requires 10,000 signatures for statewide independent candidates (for office other than president), there is no rational reason for Arkansas to require more than 10,000 signatures for new parties. The state filed an appeal in the 1996 case, but then dropped the appeal, yet refuses to recognize the existence of the 1996 ruling. The new lawsuit will request a court order, forcing the state to obey the 1996 ruling.
