This story concerns the pending request by the New York Libertarian Party and the New York Green Party to the U.S. Supreme Court, that the Court hear their ballot access case. The lawsuit challenges the restrictive changes made to the New York ballot access laws in 2020.
The Court probably won’t decide whether to hear the case or not until late September, or possibly even later than that.
Professor William A. Galston, who is a scholar with the Brookings Institution, recently wrote that the 1948 presidential election is an instance at which minor parties injured the Democratic Party presidential campaign. President Harry Truman was running for re-election as the Democratic nominee, and former Vice-President Henry Wallace was the Progressive Party presidential nominee. Galston says the Wallace campaign hurt Truman, although Truman still won the election.
Pollster Samuel Lubell, who later became a political scientist, intensely studied the 1948 election, and determined that the presence of Henry Wallace in the race not only helped Truman, but that Truman would have lost without Wallace’s campaign.
Professor Galston kindly spoke with me after his piece was published, and he said he was not familar with the Lubell book “The Future of American Politics” that contained the research (published 1950), but that he certainly is aware of Samuel Lubell and that he would obtain the book and read it with interest, although he said he is very skeptical.
Last month, two other commentators wrote about the 1948 election and also did not seem familiar with the Lubell research. See this blog post from last month.
The recent Bookings Institution analysis can’t be linked, but anyone can find it by googling “William Galston” with “Cornel West”.
On July 13, the Appeallate Division of the New York Supreme Court issued a 3-2 ruling in Hoffman v New York State Independent Redistricting Commission, 3rd Div., cv-22-2265. The majority said the districting map imposed by the highest state court in 2022 was only intended to be used for the 2022 election, and now it is appropriate for the redistricting commission (which ordinarly draws the boundaries) to be given a chance to draw new boundaries. The minority opinion says the State Court of Appeals map of 2022 was meant to be good for the remainder of the decade.
The case will be appealed to the highest state court, the State Court of Appeals.
See this story for information about a preliminary step the U.S. House has taken to raise congressional pay. Every time congressional pay rises, filing fees rise in many states that set the amount of the fee as a percentage of the office’s salary.
Here is an article from Axios:
https://www.axios.com/2023/07/12/no-labels-poll-third-party-manchin
