On April 9, the Alabama Senate unanimously passed HB 67. It lowers the cost of the registered voters list from approximately $37,000, to exactly $1,000. This is good news for future petition drives in Alabama. Groups and candidates face severe petition requirements in Alabama, but at least they will now be far more likely to be able to check the validity of their petitions before submitting them.
The Senate vote was unanimous.
Hugh Lytle, a candidate for the gubernatorial nomination of the Arizona Independent Party, is facing a challenge to his primary ballot position because he showed his business address on his petition instead of his home address. See this story.
The challenge is somewhat similar to the New York challenge in 2024 to the ballot position of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., while he was running as an independent candidate for president.
On April 6, the Sixth Circuit agreed with the lower court that Samuel Ronan should not be on the Ohio Republican Party primary ballot for U.S. House, 15th district. Ronan v LaRose, 26-3272. He had enough valid signatures, but he was challenged on the basis that he was not a sincere Republican. Comments has made about the Republican Party in the past were used against him.
On April 6, Ronan asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put him on the ballot, but on April 8 it refused. 25A1096.
The three judges on the Sixth Circuit panel were Joan Larsen and Chad Readler (Trump appointees) and Alice Batchelder, a Bush Sr. appointee. Here is their opinion denying injunctive relief.
Assuming the decision is not overturned later when the constitutional issues are settled, Ohio is now similar to Alabama and Tennessee. All three are states with no partisan registration. And now, in all three, candidates can be blocked from primary ballots on the basis of very personal statements and actions of candidates that are displeasing to party leaders.
I put Liberal in quotes, because it does not mean Classical Liberal here, but it is further repudiation of Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
Here is the story from NBC News.
In another sign of the upcoming “weenies and beans” time for the Republican Party, the voters of Waukesha, Wisconsin, an affluent suburb of Milwaukee elected Alicia Halvensleben, the Democratic president of the city’s Common Council, as Mayort. She defeated State Representative Scott Allen, a Republican, which continues a succession of Trump-era mayoral wins for Democrats.
In your correspondent’s opinion, it is time to retire the saying “All politics is local.” If anything, the reverse is true. Another example: in November 2017, Virginia House of Delegates elections in Northern Virginia were nearly entirely swept by Democrats. Was that due to the incumbent delegates’ voting records in the Virginia House of Delegates? No, it was due to Donald Trump.
