On January 25, former Republican legislator Andrew Halcro announced that he will run for Governr of Alaska as an independent this year.
Reply
The Labor Party hope to finish its first-ever petition drive to qualify the party for a state ballot by February 1. The party is working on collecting 10,000 valid signatures in South Carolina. It made heavy progress on the three-day weekend January 14-16, and is pushing for another big weekend January 28-29. The Labor Party was formed nationally in 1990, but it has never before tried to qualify itself for the ballot in any state.
For some time, the Alaska Green Party has been in state court over the state’s definition of “party”. Recently, the state said it will remove the Green Party check-box from the new voter registration form. This has given the Green Party an excuse to ask for quick injunctive relief from the judge who has the lawsuit before him. He has indicated he will rule on whether to order the state to leave the Green Party on the form by February 8 or so.
To see the national vote total for each party in Canada’s January 23 election, see http://enr.elections.ca/National_e.aspx.
On January 23, U.S. District Court Judge Frank Polozola ruled from the bench that Louisiana cannot hold its congressional elections in late September or early October. Love v Edwards, 95-cv-788. The state hasn’t decided whether to appeal. The decision was no surprise, since the US Supreme Court had ruled the same way in this same case back in 1997. In 2005 the legislature had passed a new variation of the old law. The new variation said that the election was “deemed” to be in November.
Louisiana is the only state in which political parties do not nominate candidates for congress. Instead, all candidates run in the election on a single ballot. Usually someone gets over 50%, and the election is over. When no one gets 50%, Louisiana holds a run-off between the top two. Louisiana would like to hold its election in September, and if a run-off is needed, hold that in November. But a federal law, passed in 1872, orders the states to hold congressional elections in November, and says if the state wants a run-off to ensure the winner gets 50%, that run-off must be after the November election.
The decision will put pressure on Louisiana to either use Instant-Runoff Voting for its congressional elections, or else reinstate the system used in all other states, in which parties nominate candidates.