On the evening of April 3, Tom DeLay let it become known that he will resign from Congress. He had already won the March 2006 primary for the 22nd U.S. House seat. Although Texas permits candidates to withdraw, it does not let parties replace nominees unless they die, become ill, or become ineligible. In order to let the Republican Party replace him with a new nominee, DeLay plans to establish domicile in Virginia. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this.

There may be a special election to fill the vacancy. Texas special elections are conducted as non-partisan elections, although a new law permits party labels on the ballot.

Posted by Eric Garris

John Haag, co-founder and long-time leader of the California Peace and Freedom Party, died March 29 after a brief illness. He was 76.

John was my mentor in my early days of politics. He taught me the basic skills of political organizing and strategy that have been essential to me over the last 35 years. John was a good friend who taught me a lot about life.

He was also a poet, proprietor of the Beat generation Venice West Cafe and a founder of the Free Venice (California) movement. He was an early state chairperson of P&F and a candidate for office, including controller and lieutenant governor, a number of times. He was the California campaign chair for Dr. Benjamin Spock’s president candidacy on the Peoples Party in 1972, in which P&F participated.

Here is an article he wrote about the history of P&F.

No date has yet been set for a memorial service. Please send letters – and photos – to the Free Venice Beachhead about John for the next issue. Contact: 310-399-2215 or Beachhead@freevenice.org. Thanks to Irv Sutley for letting me know this sad news.

Clifton DeBerry died on March 24, 2006, at the age of 82. He was the Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate in 1964. He was the first non-caucasian presidential candidate to ever appear on a government-printed ballot anywhere in the United States. Although Clennon King, another African-American, was the presidential candidate of the Independent Afro-American Party in 1960, and although that party appeared on the ballot in one state (Alabama), King’s name did not actually appear on the ballot. At the time, Alabama did not print the names of any presidential candidates on its ballot, just the party label and the names of the candidates for presidential elector.