On August 14, the Nebraska Secretary of State accepted the Green Party as a ballot-qualified party for the entire state. The party will have two statewide nominees on the ballot this year, and since one of them has no Democrat in the race, it is extremely likely the Greens will poll over 5% and also be ballot-qualified in 2008. The other ballot-qualified minor party this year in Nebraska is the Constitution Party.
On August 14, Congressman Bob Ney withdrew as a candidate for re-election, in Ohio’s 18th U.S. House district. He had been re-nominated in the March 2006 primary, but later decided he didn’t want to run for another term. In accordance with Ohio law, the Republican Party will be given its own primary sometime in mid-September, to choose a new nominee.
On August 14, Tony Snow, press secretary to President George W. Bush, said that the president will not endorse Alan Schlesinger for U.S. Senate in Connecticut. Schlesinger is the Republican Party nominee for U.S. Senate. Presumably the President does not wish to seem to be calling for a vote against Senator Joseph Lieberman.
On August 14, Tony Snow, press secretary to President George W. Bush, said that the president will not endorse Alan Schlesinger for U.S. Senate in Connecticut. Schlesinger is the Republican Party nominee for U.S. Senate. Presumably the President does not wish to seem to be calling for a vote against Senator Joseph Lieberman.
Florida has closed primaries in general. But Florida has a blanket primary, for races in which only members of one party are running for that particular office. In other words, if a state legislative race has three Republicans in the primary, and there are no other candidates for that seat in any other party’s primary nor in the general election, then all voters (not just registered Republicans) get to vote in the primary for that one office.
Florida has many such races. Over half of this year’s legislative elections fit this pattern.
On August 9, a group of five Sarasota Democratic voters filed a lawsuit to expand the use of Florida’s blanket primary. They want to vote in the Republican primary for a particular County Commission race, because no Democrats are running, and no minor party or independent candidates are running, so the race will effectively be settled in the Republican primary. The reason this particular race is not open to all voters, however, is because someone filed to be a write-in candidate in the general election. The voters who filed the lawsuit say the race should be open because the write-in candidate has no hope of being elected.
However, two days after filing the lawsuit, all the plaintiffs dropped the case.
