On March 7, the New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn dismissed a lawsuit brought by Lenora Fulani and her allies, over whether the state Independence Party had a right to dissolve three county organizations of the party. Judge Joseph Levine ruled that the lawsuit has procedural flaws, and dismissed it without prejudice, so that it can be refiled under different procedures. The three counties are Brooklyn (Kings), Queens and Bronx, where Fulani and her allies were in charge.
On March 3, a Washington State Superior Court Judge ruled against Ruth Bennett in her case involving televised debates. Bennett ran for Governor in 2004 as a Libertarian. She has asked for a rehearing. Bennett v Belo Corp., 05-2-27309-7 Seattle.
On March 8, the California Supreme Court heard arguments in Californians for an Open Primary v McPherson. The issue is whether Prop. 60 (passed overwhelmingly by the voters in November 2004) is validly part of the California Constitution. The legislature put it on the ballot. It says that political parties have a right to have the person who receives the most votes in their primary, placed on the November ballot. The problem is that the legislature put it on the ballot with an unrelated subject, providing that if the state sells surplus property, the proceeds should be used to reduce state debt. Before the November 2004 election, the State Court of Appeals cut the proposal into two ballot questions, one on political party rights, and one on the sale of surplus property.
The attorney for foes of Prop. 60 asked the Court to invalidate it. The State Constitution does not require that legislative constitutional amendments only deal with a single subject. But the Constitution does require the legislature to write a separate ballot measure for every section of the Constitution that is being amended, a provision that has been ignored for decades.
At the hearing, most members of the California Supreme Court seemed inclined to disagree with the State Court of Appeals. However, it is far from clear that the California Supreme Court will invalidate Prop. 60, even if the Supreme Court finds that it was a mistake to have put it on the ballot in the first place.
Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, the only member of Congress who has been willing to introduce legislation outlawing restrictive ballot access laws in the past 10 years, was easily re-nominated in the Republican primary on March 7. He polled 77.7% of the vote; his opponent, Cynthia Sinatra (daughter-in-law of the famous singer) got 22.3%. Sinatra based her campaign on support for President Bush’s Iraq policy, which Paul opposes. Paul is 70 and was the Libertarian Party nominee for president in 1988.
Bob Kiss, Progressive Party nominee for Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, was elected on March 7. The election is partisan. The outgoing Mayor was a Democrat, but he didn’t run for re-election. Kiss is now a Progressive Party state legislator. The election was conducted using Instant-Runoff Voting. The first choice votes were Kiss 39%, Democrat 31%, Republican 26%, two independents together, 4%. After factoring in the 2nd choice votes from the voters who had made the Republican and one of the independents their first choices, the final tally was Kiss 54%, the Democrat 46%. This was the first partisan election conducted in the U.S. with Instant-Runoff Voting since the 1970’s.
