On November 4, the National Republican Senatorial Committee filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the federal campaign law that limits how much money parties can contribute to their nominees. Parties can already contribute an unlimited amount if the money is not coordinated with the candidate’s campaign, but there are limits if the party coordinates with the candidate.

The case is filed in Ohio. National Republican Senatorial Committee v FEC, 1:22cv-639. In order for this lawsuit to win, it will be necessary to persuade the courts that the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong when it upheld limits in 2001 in FEC v Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee. That was a 5-4 decision. It is likely that the Republican Party will lose this lawsuit in the lower federal courts, and that the U.S. Supreme Court will then hear the case. Scholars generally deplore the status quo, in which political parties have fewer rights to contribute money than virtually any other non-corporate groups. Thanks to the Institute for Free Speech for this news.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Douglas R. Cole, a Trump appointee. J.D. Vance is a co-plaintiff, along with Steven Chabot.

On November 29, the Ninth Circuit upheld California’s rules for recalls for state office. The California law says recalls shall simultaneously first ask the voters if they want to recall the officer. Then, on the same ballot, voters are asked to choose a replacement, in case the recall succeeds. But the person being recalled is not permitted to be listed as a candidate on that second half of the ballot.

A voter had sued, arguing that he ought to have a right to vote for the person being recalled on the second half of the ballot. Specifically, he had argued that he should be permitted to vote for Gavin Newsom in the California gubernatorial recall of 2021. But the court did not find any constitutional flaw in the California recall system. Thanks to Steve Kamp for this news. Here is the decision in Clark v Weber, 21-56337.

Georgia is well-known for requiring candidates in general elections to receive a majority of the vote. If not, there is a December run-off. Georgia now has a group working for traditional Ranked Choice Voting. It is not a group that combines support for ranked choice voting with ending the ability of parties to have nominees.

The group is Better Ballot Georgia. If it were to succeed in persuading the Georgia legislature to use ranked choice voting instead of general election runoffs, that would probably make it easier to also persuade the legislature to ease the terribly strict ballot access laws for minor parties and independent candidates. UPDATE: here is a news story about attempts to persuade the legislature.

Here is the group’s website.

In other related news, David Ralston died on November 16, 2022. He had been a State Senator 1992-1998, and a member of the House starting in 2002. He had been re-elected earlier this month. He had served as Speaker of the House starting in 2010, although he had indicated he would resign as speaker due to health problems. He was a powerful opponent of ballot access reform.