U.S. Court of Appeals Says Ralph Nader Doesn’t Have Standing to Complain About FEC Failure to Enforce Campaign Laws in 2004

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On August 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Nader v Federal Election Commission, 12-5134. The opinion says Nader doesn’t have standing to complain that the FEC did not enforce the campaign finance laws in 2004. Specifically, Nader demonstrated that the people who challenged his ballot access in 2004 spent millions of dollars on that effort, and none of the people who spent that money ever reported it as a donation to the Democratic Party or the John Kerry presidential campaign. Although everyone agrees with Nader’s accusation, the FEC did nothing about the Nader complaint (although the FEC took several years to make the determination that it would do nothing) and now the D.C. Circuit says Nader lacks standing.

The D.C. Circuit implied that if Nader were running for president in the next election, then he would have standing. The opinion is only six pages long.

Colorado Eliminates Americans Elect Party Status, Even Though it Has 3,412 Registered Members and Law Says 1,000 Registered Members Should be Sufficient

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The Colorado Secretary of State has removed Americans Elect from the list of qualified parties, even though it had 3,412 registered members as of May 2013. Colorado election law section 1-4-1303(b) says a party remains qualified if it has at least 1,000 registered members.

Employees of the Secretary of State’s office say the only person who can explain the rationale for the party’s loss of status is one particular employee, and she has not responded to phone messages for a period of almost eight hours ago, on August 2. I wanted to hold off blogging this news until I had talked to someone in the Secretary of State’s office, but because it doesn’t appear anyone in the office is willing to talk about it until Monday, August 5, at the earliest, I decided to post about this now.

Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray signs B20-0245

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On July 30, Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray signed B20-0245.  This is the bill that repeals the restriction on out-of-district petitioners.  Now Congress has 30 days to either do nothing on this matter, or conceivably veto the measure.  The 30 days only runs while Congress is in session.  Assuming Congress makes no objection, the restriction will finally be removed.

Bill Walker will Run for Alaska Governor as an Independent in 2014

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On August 1, Bill Walker announced that he will be an independent candidate for Governor of Alaska in 2014. He is a former Mayor of Valdez, a registered Republican, and an Anchorage attorney who specializes in oil and natural gas law. He has been a leader of the effort to place a referendum on the ballot, to ask the voters if they wish to repeal a tax cut for oil producers that the legislature passed this year. See Walker’s opinion piece here explaining why he supports repealing the measure.

New Louisiana Registration Data

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The Louisiana Secretary has provided a tally of the number of registered voters in all parties as of August 1, 2013. The number of registered voters now is lower than it was in November 2012, and the only qualified party that has gained registrations in the last nine months is the Libertarian Party. However, the Republican Party and the Green Party now have a slightly larger percentage of the voters than they did in November 2012. The number of independent voters is lower, but their percentage is now higher.

The new tally shows: Democratic 47.73%, Republican 27.72%, independents 24.00%, Libertarian .28%, Green .062%, Reform .048%.

The November 2012 tally was: Democratic 48.23%, Republican 27.53%, independents 23.87%, Libertarian .23%, Green .058%, Reform .049%.

The new numbers are: Democratic 1,388,516; Republican 806,557; independents 698,075; Libertarian 8,172; Green 1,793; Reform 1,398; unqualified parties 4,641.

The November 2012 numbers were: Democratic 1,429,073; Republican 815,769; independents and unqualified parties 708,120; Libertarian 6,889; Green 1,707; Reform 1,441.

For the current tally, the two largest unqualified parties are Americans Elect with 714, and Conservative with 606. Thanks to Randall Hayes for this data.