Tag Archives: Topic: Elections

News4jax.com: To hear supporters and opponents of Amendment 6 talk, what’s at stake is whether taxpayer money should fund abortions for public employees — and whether minors should get parental consent to end a pregnancy. The amendment would prohibit the use of state tax money for abortions except as required by federal law if it’s passed by voters Nov. 6 — something the state doesn’t do, anyway.

NewsObserver: Both men have to spend a lot of time driving these days because, as candidates for judicial office, it’s hard getting anyone to pay attention. A large number of voters simply skip the judges section of the ballot each year.

KAALTV.com: On election day, Iowa Supreme Court Justice, David Wiggins future on the bench will be decided by Iowa voters. It’s known as retention and it’s leaving many voters with questions. Sunday, Wiggins spoke with a small crowd in Mason City.

Tampa Bay Times: Another Florida Supreme Court justice targeted by the Republican Party in this year’s merit retention election pleaded with Tampa attorneys Friday to help keep partisan politics out of the judiciary.

SCOTUS Blog: The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to rule on the constitutionality of a state requirement that voters must prove they are U.S. citizens before they register to vote and cast their ballots . . .  (The case is Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., docket 11-71.)

Portland Press Herald: A poll released Wednesday shows that 55 percent of Mainers plan to vote in support of same-sex marriage on Nov. 6, and another 1.3 percent are leaning in favor of voting for it, according to Pan Atlantic SMS Group of Portland.

Detroit Free Press: A federal judge put a merciful end to Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s inane war on voters last week, when he ruled that the citizenship checkoff box that Johnson put on ballots was confusing and unnecessary.

KSTP.com: Dating back to 1998, 32 states have held votes on same-sex marriage, and all 32 have opposed it. Maryland is one of four states with Nov. 6 referendums on the issue – and gay-marriage advocates believe there’s a strong chance the streak will be broken.

Weekly Standard (video embedded): A GOP source sends along this video, shot by a Republican tracker, of a union member supporting Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren outside of a debate Wednesday night in Springfield, Massachusetts. The cameraman asks the union member if he was at an earlier debate between Warren and her Republican opponent, Senator Scott Brown

Fox News: A panel of three federal judges upheld a South Carolina law requiring voters to show photo identification, but delayed enforcement until next year, in a decision announced Wednesday, less than a month before this year’s presidential election. | South Carolina v. U.S., (D.C. Cir.)

The Gazette: Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins’ 63 percent favorability rating from fellow attorneys is the lowest score earned by a member of the court in 50 years of judicial retention elections, according to a group calling for his ouster.

Boston Globe: The high court, in its 3-2 decision, said the state did not prove the lower court erred in leaving the old law in effect pending resolution of the case. Two justices dissented, arguing new laws are presumed constitutional until found otherwise and thus the law should be allowed to be implemented.

Washington Post: Secretary of State Jon Husted asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the state Legislature or federal courts should set Ohio election laws.

ABC: A conservative political watchdog group is raising the prospect of an “illegal-donor loophole” in the nation’s campaign finance system, and suggesting the grassroots-donor-heavy Obama Campaign may stand to benefit. In a 109-page report published at a new website CampaignFundingRisks.com, the Government Accountability Institute alleges the current online campaign contribution system lacks accountability and transparency, making it highly susceptible to foreign and fraudulent gifts.

Daily Caller: Unhappy with President Barack Obama‘s support of same-sex marriage, a group of African-American faith leaders have announced a campaign aimed at stripping 25 percent of the black vote that went to Obama in 2008 (95 percent).

Washington Post: The ad features Julian Bond, chairman emeritus of the national NAACP, who argues that voting for Question 6 is “the right thing to do.” “I know a little something about fighting for what’s right and just,” Bond says in the ad, which the NAACP said will air in both the Washington and Baltimore markets. “Maryland’s gay and lesbian families share the same values, and they should share in the right to marry.”

Christian Newswire: Austin R. Nimocks, Senior Counsel, Interim V.P. Center for Marriage & Family, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in conjunction with Senator Rick Santorum, speaking against Referendum 74 which would impose same-sex marriage on Washington state. [more details]

Seattle Post Intelligencer: Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins isn’t well known outside the legal community of his state, and even inside that group, isn’t particularly popular. But the question of whether he should keep his job has become one of the most fiercely contested judicial issues on the Nov. 6 ballot because of what he symbolizes in the debate over gay marriage and the role of courts.

Bloomberg: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s re-election and multiple cancer scares give the self-declared socialist momentum to accelerate state intervention in the economy after 14 years in power.

AP: The AFL-CIO says it has registered more than 450,000 new voters from union households over the past 18 months . . .

Washington Post: Breaking from two decades of tradition, this year’s election exit poll is set to include surveys of voters in 31 states, not all 50 as it has for the past five presidential elections, according to multiple people involved in the planning.

Karl Rove at the WSJ: Last week’s CBS/New York Times poll had Obama ahead by nine points in Florida. That’s not very likely.

The Church Report: Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has a narrow advantage in his fight for re-election, according to a Suffolk University/WSVN-TV poll released Tuesday.Nelson leads GOP Rep. Connie Mack, 40 percent to 34 percent.

The Church Report: A recent poll from the Omaha World-Herald had Kerrey trailing state Sen. Deb Fischer (R) by 16 points among likely voters.

Jeffrey Toobin at the New Yorker: The votes will give us the best picture of where the country is on same-sex marriage. The snapshot will be imprecise, of course. All four states are generally Democratic in their orientation, so they are not a true cross-section of country. But given the Court’s history, even the more liberal justices may be reluctant to impose same-sex marriage on the country if the people—the voters—repeatedly say that they do not want it. The polls predict close races in all four states. The results will echo well beyond their borders.

Forbes: It doesn’t matter who is elected president in November, the Federal Reserve effectively runs the economy and surely is in charge of the dollar. With QE3 already in the works and some even asking whether or not a QE4 will be needed, one thing is certain: read my lips, there is more dollar weakness ahead and neither Mitt Romney or President Barack Obama can change that.

Election Law Blog: Wow.  See this 5 page order, striking down Montana Code Annotated 13-37-216 in its entirety. The judge did note that plaintiffs did not challenge the aggregate limits on political party contributions in 13-27-218which remains in effect.

Reuters: A Pennsylvania judge’s decision to block a voter ID law on Tuesday is only the latest in a series of setbacks for new state laws that require voters to show identification before voting. Voter ID laws have also been turned back in Wisconsin and Texas this year and some others may also not go into effect before the U.S. presidential election just five weeks away.

NY Times: In a bid to remake Florida’s judiciary, Republicans are asking voters to oust three state Supreme Court justices and give the legislature greater power over Supreme Court appointments and judicial rules of procedure.

AP: A state Commonwealth Court judge on Tuesday determined that the requirement that Pennsylvania voters show a valid photo ID will not be in place for the Nov. 6 presidential election, a victory for opponents of the law. | Applewhite v. Commonwealth of Penn., No. 330 M.D. 2012 (Pa. Cmwlth. Oct. 2, 2012)

The Hill: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says that he will do anything he can to block the Obama administration from reimbursing defense contractors for severance costs if the firms don’t send layoff notices to employees.

Fox News: The drop in the battleground states of Virginia and Ohio is among the most pronounced. According to statistics released Monday by The Military Voter Protection Project, the number of absentee ballot requests by both military members and other overseas voters in the two states has dropped 70 percent since 2008.

AP: The Supreme Court won’t stop Minnesota from blocking its judicial candidates from endorsing candidates in other elections and soliciting campaign contributions.

AP: The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from a national anti-gay marriage group that tried to thwart Maine’s campaign disclosure law requiring it to release its donor list.

Human Events: Voter assistance programs for the military – specifically targeted for improvement with $75 million after low military turnout in 2008 – have been left to languish by the Obama administration and the result may be depressed military turnout. Again.

CBN: Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition has now begun dropping their presidential voter guide into key battleground states. It has just posted to their site and you can check it out here: They are sending this out to roughly 17 million social conservatives.

Alan Keyes at Renew America: Whatever it says in the GOP platform (which agrees with Akin on this point), the GOP’s elitist-faction leaders are determined to make it plain that they mean to tag principled pro-life politicians like Todd Akin as “far right” extremists. To pander to those who push the oxymoronic notion of “abortion rights,” they will purge from the GOP’s leadership ranks anyone who adheres consistently to the doctrine of God-endowed unalienable rights (including first of all, the right to life) on which America’s constitutional republic is founded.

Speak Up Movement Church Blog: Admittedly, it can be confusing for churches and pastors to know what is allowed during an election season.  Much of this confusion stems from the vagueness of the tax code and the accompanying IRS regulations. To help, Alliance Defending Freedom has created many resources for you to utilize this election season.

MPR: Minnesota for Marriage, a group working to pass the constitutional amendment which would effectively ban same-sex marriage, reported raising $1.195 million between Jan. 1 and Sept. 25. The group has raised a total of $2 million this election cycle.

NBC: There are still 42 days and four debates left before the presidential election and many signs point to a close outcome, but recent polling both nationally and in key battleground states like Ohio has conservatives concerned about the impact President Obama could have on the judiciary in a second term.

NPR: “I hope I’m wrong,” says former Iowa Supreme Court Justice Michael Streit. He says he and his fellow justices made a conscious decision not to campaign for their own retention two years ago. But now? “If these forces keep …

Politico: The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which vowed not to spend a dime on Todd Akin if he stayed in the race, is striking a more conciliatory tone with the controversial Missouri Senate candidate.

OpenSecrets.org: If Todd and the people of Missouri prove it’s a close race, what’s the moral case for not backing the Republican nominee picked by the people of Missouri who is in a close race with an incumbent liberal Democrat?” Gingrich told Politico.

National Journal: The Missouri Democratic Party is filing complaints with the House Ethics Committee and Federal Election Commission charging that Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., broke House rules and campaign finance laws by altering his position on an earmark ban in exchange for fundraising from a conservative political action committee.

Reuters: A regional elections court in Brazil has ordered the arrest of the head of Google’s operations in the country after the company failed to take down YouTube videos attacking a local mayoral candidate.

Business Week: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld West Virginia’s congressional voting boundaries, saying the population among districts can vary to protect incumbents and keep counties and cities intact. In an unsigned opinion with no dissents . . . | SCOTUS Blog report and link to the opinion.

Catholic Culture: Among Catholics who attend Mass at least weekly, Romney holds a 51%-42% lead.

NY Times: One of the four Republican state senators who voted for same-sex marriage claimed victory Monday in a close primary against an opponent critical of his vote, while another of the four appeared increasingly certain to lose his party’s nomination over the issue.

Miami Herald: After months of speculation, Republicans and conservative groups have come forward with their plans to try to defeat three of Florida’s Supreme Court justices but their supporters warn of politicizing the judiciary . . .

AP: Thus far, foes of gay marriage have prevailed in all 32 states where the issue reached the ballot. If that streak is broken in the four states that are addressing it in November, it could provide momentum for supporters, and perhaps even influence the Supreme Court if – as expected – it takes up cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act.

AP: Kuwait’s highest civilian court Tuesday rejected a government bid to rewrite the Gulf nation’s election rules, giving an apparent boost to the rising power of opposition groups led by Islamists.

Des Moines Register: Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum and former gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats, among others, urged voters to vote “no” on November’s ballot on whether to retain Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins. Nearby, activists with the Iowa Bar Association shadowed the group to urge exactly the opposite.

Chicago Tribune: If anyone in the Republican Party harbors illusions that Todd Akin will bow out of the Missouri U.S. Senate race by a September 25 deadline, he is quite happy to disabuse them.

The Independent Record: While a federal court says political parties can now endorse nonpartisan judicial candidates in Montana, the two candidates for an open state Supreme Court seat said this week they won’t accept the endorsements — because a state judicial ethics code forbids it.

Buzzfeed reports and links to the complaint. (Warning: site may contain objectionable ads or other content) “Johnson is asking the courts to force the CPD to allow for all candidates who are on the ballot in enough states to reach 270 electoral votes to have a spot on the debate state.”

Breitbart News is doubling its reward–to $100,000–for one of the missing pieces of Barack Obama’s past, which may be the key to understanding his collapsing Middle East policy: the “Khalidi tape,” a video kept under wraps by the Los Angeles Times since April 2008.

AP: With four justices in their seventies, odds are good that whoever is elected president in November will have a chance to fill at least one Supreme Court seat. The next justice could dramatically alter the direction of a court closely divided between conservatives and liberals.

The Hill: Large chunks of voters who don’t have an income tax liability vote for Democrats, recent studies and figures suggest, but the issue isn’t as clear-cut as Mitt Romney made it seem in remarks at a private fundraiser this spring.

Detroit News: One day after being sued over a controversial ballot box citizenship question, Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said Tuesday there are an estimated 4,000 noncitizens on Michigan’s voter rolls.

FoxNews: Pennsylvania’s highest court on Tuesday told a lower court judge to stop a tough new law requiring voters to show photo identification from taking effect in this year’s presidential election if he finds voters cannot get easy access to ID cards or if he thinks voters will be disenfranchised.

The Republic: The courts have struck down another Montana election law as unconstitutional. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion Monday that tosses out the state’s ban on political party endorsements of nonpartisan judicial candidates. | Sanders County Republican Cent. Comm. v. Bullock

AP: An appeals court on Tuesday reversed a lower court ruling that likely would have led to greater disclosure of who is paying for certain election ads.

Ammon Simon at National Review Bench Memos: The New York Times last week denounced the West Virginia supreme court’s decision to deny Allen Loughry, a candidate for their court, supplemental public campaign financing; the financing would have violated the political speech rights of his opponent, Justice Davis.

Wall Street Journal: Two of the four veteran — and long-secure — Republican senators in New York who voted for same-sex marriage a year ago await counts of absentee ballots as they sweat out the political fight of their lives. A third announced his retirement this year in the face of strong opposition to his gay marriage vote. A fourth won his primary Thursday but only after a fierce and nasty campaign that included homophobic images and phrases.

NY Daily News: In a worrisome sign for President Obama, these black clergy say there is no good presidential choice between a Mormon candidate and one who supports gay marriage.

CJOnline: Three of the state’s top elected Republicans on Thursday determined they lacked sufficient evidence of President Barack Obama’s birth records to decide whether to remove the Democratic nominee from the November ballot in Kansas.

NY Times: Two Republican state senators who provided pivotal votes to legalize same-sex marriage last year fought opponents to a standstill on Thursday in primary races so close that they will be decided only after absentee ballots are counted.

Radio Iowa: New poll: 48% of Iowans support court’s same-sex marriage decision
The poll found 48% of those surveyed agreed with the court’s decision on that same-sex marriage case, a dramatic shift compared to a 2009 survey which found 58% disagreed with the decision. The poll was commissioned by the “Justice, Not Politics” group and released to The Cedar Rapids Gazette . . .

Business Week: Pennsylvania’s new voter-ID law “impermissibly” violates a fundamental right, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and 10 citizen-plaintiffs told the state’s Supreme Court.

Charlotte Observer: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated federal law when she made “extemporaneous political remarks” during a February speech to the Human Rights Campaign Gala in Charlotte, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel ruled Wednesday.

Blog of the Legal Times: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) had just one reaction to the colorful testimony Wednesday on Capitol Hill from Jones Day partner Michael Carvin: “We should probably give you the award for saying the highest level of sarcasm we’ve heard before this committee in a long time.”

Gregg Nunziata at USA Today: The stakes are high in this presidential election, and one of the most consequential questions before the voters concerns the branch of government that is not officially on the ballot. In November, Americans will set the direction of the U.S. Supreme Court for decades to come.

WPRI.com: Gay-marriage supporters tried and failed to make a breakthrough in the Rhode Island Senate during Tuesday’s primaries, winning just two of seven targeted races and coming up short in their marquee effort to knock off Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Michael McCaffrey.

Capital Gazette: Gay rights activists, religious leaders and politicians are gearing up for two months of campaigning on the Maryland referendum to strike down the same-sex marriage legislation that passed in March.

One News Now: A civil rights advocate suggests that a California commission should investigate harassment against marriage proponents on top of its crackdown on campaign finance laws. Three groups that fought against Proposition 8 will pay the state of California $80,000 in fines after admitting that they failed to report campaign contributions.