Archive for the ‘Secretaries of State’ Category
MI: Secretary of State Candidate Wants to Ask about Organ Donation
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 11:38 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 12 August 2010 01:15
From AnnArbor.com:
The issue of whether Secretary of State employees follow a “just ask” policy has been a point of frustration among organ transplant advocates in the state who say the extra step of asking makes a difference. They say Michigan has a lower rate of drivers on the organ donor registry because there’s no policy to explicitly ask them if they would like to be a donor.
Gift of Life Michigan has been among groups lobbying for a Michigan law that would require the state to explicitly ask drivers at Secretary of State offices whether they want to be on the state’s donor registry.
About 30 other states require the “just ask” policy.
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Alabama Secretary of State Campaigns in Georgia
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 11:41 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 10 August 2010 12:25
From montgomeryadvertiser.com:
Alabama’s secretary of state, Beth Chapman, is trying to help Georgia’s former secretary of state in her race for governor.
Chapman says she took a day of vacation Monday to go to Atlanta to join former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in campaigning for Karen Handel. Handel is in a Republican runoff Tuesday against former U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal. The winner takes on Democrat Roy Barnes in November.
Chapman called Handel “a conservative’s conservative.” Chapman said she and Handel became friends through the National Association of Secretaries of State.
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RSLC in the News: Rust Belt Offers GOP Chance to regain Policy Shine
Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 August 2010 09:39 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 10 August 2010 09:39
From The Wall Street Journal:
In their quest for these prizes, Republicans are bringing significant resources to the table. Ed Gillespie, a former national party chairman, this year is running the Republican State Leadership Committee, an organization devoted to electing state officials. He says the committee has assembled 85,000 individual donors and will bring $18 million to state-level battles, including many in the upper Midwest.
If Republicans succeed in taking most of those targets, they will be re-establishing a beachhead that was crucial to the party and its national policy thinking in the 1990s. So, yes, there are sexy governor and Senate races under way in California, and Tuesday’s primaries in Colorado have big national significance. But ground zero in 2010 may well lie in the decidedly less sexy Rust Belt.
The significance of this battle is partly political. State leaders will redraw congressional districts after the 2010 elections, and, obviously, Republican leaders would make that process more favorable to their party. In addition, the states of the upper Midwest, though their populations have declined, remain crucial in presidential politics, and Republican governors might help deliver those states for a GOP nominee in 2012 (though, as Republicans found when President Bill Clinton won re-election easily in 1996, their ability to do so is limited).
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Lively Races for VT Secretary of State
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 11:42 Written by rslcpol Monday, 9 August 2010 12:53
From BurlingtonFreePress.com:
It has been 12 years since Vermonters elected a new secretary of state, the person who oversees the state’s elections, keeps track of all the state’s archived records, regulates professionals from accountants to veterinarians and is the first place someone has to go when forming a business to incorporate it.
Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, a Democrat who has held the job for six two-year terms, is not seeking re-election. She is running for governor.
After such a long time and for an office with such a broad reach, it should come as no surprise the $95,156-a-year job has attracted a lot of interest and generated a robust debate. Two candidates each from the Democratic and Republican parties are competing in the Aug. 24 primary in hopes of earning a spot on the Nov. 2 general-election ballot.
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WY: Republican Unopposed for Secretary of State
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 11:42 Written by rslcpol Monday, 9 August 2010 12:42
From trib.com:
Republican Max Maxfield is happy to avoid a primary for secretary of state so he can promote his track record in Wyoming’s second most powerful office.
Andrew Simons, the sole Democrat in the Aug. 17 primary, is seizing the chance for a head start to promote his desire to open Wyoming’s ballot initiative process.
“Wyoming citizens don’t really have a check on government the way it is now,” said Simons, who wants to make it easier to put issues before voters.
The secretary of state is essentially a lieutenant governor who would step in should the governor become incapacitated.
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AG Finds ‘inappropriate’ use of tax payer funded resources in Democrat Secretary of State Office
Last Updated on Thursday, 5 August 2010 01:21 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 5 August 2010 01:21
From courant.com:
The state attorney general said Thursday that he has found “inappropriate” political use of taxpayer-funded resources in the office of Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz — and has referred the matter to the state’s top prosecutor, Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane, to determine if criminal laws were broken.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal made those findings in an investigative report issued Thursday — saying also that it was “not proper” for his fellow Democrat, Bysiewicz, to include information on the “religion, race and ethnicity” of thousands of citizens in a controversial, taxpayer-funded “constituent database” assembled and maintained by her office.
Bysiewicz’s inclusion in the database of information not essential to the operation of her office “gives the reasonable perception that the state database was developed as a useful tool for political campaign purposes,” Blumenthal said.
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Political Newcomer Leads Democrat Incumbent Secretary of State
Last Updated on Thursday, 5 August 2010 10:49 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 5 August 2010 10:49
From The Iowa Republican:
Political newcomer Matt Schultz leads incumbent Secretary of State Mike Mauro in TheIowaRepublican.com Battleground Poll. Schultz leads Mauro 33% to 30%, but the poll also shows that 35% of those surveyed have not made up their minds about the race.
Schultz told TheIowaRepublican.com, “These numbers are encouraging, but it won’t change what I’m doing. I have always campaigned as if I am 20 points behind, and I won’t stop working hard.”
Schultz’ surprising strength in the poll can be attributed to Mauro’s obscurity across the state. As a first term incumbent, Mauro hasn’t built the name ID that Attorney General Tom Miller and State Treasurer Mike Fitzgerald have during their three decades in office. On top of that, Mauro has done very little since being elected in 2006 to introduce himself to voters outside of Polk County.
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Immigration a top issue in Secretary of State Campaign
Last Updated on Tuesday, 3 August 2010 01:37 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 3 August 2010 01:37
From LJWorld.com:
Kris Kobach’s political future depends on whether voters in Tuesday’s primary election in Kansas see illegal immigration as an issue for the state’s top elections official to tackle.
Kobach, a Kansas City-area law professor, helped write Arizona’s new law on illegal immigration. He’s linked the issue to combatting voter fraud in Kansas as he seeks the Republican nomination for secretary of state.
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Kansas Goes to the Polls
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 11:44 Written by rslcpol Monday, 2 August 2010 02:05
From ktka.com:
Tough battles have emerged in the Republican and Democratic contests for secretary of state. On the Democratic side are Secretary of State Chris Biggs, and Chris Steineger, a state senator from Kansas City. On the Republican side are J.R. Claeys of Salina, Elizabeth “Libby” Ensley of Topeka, and Kris Kobach of Piper.
For attorney general, Ralph J. De Zago of Herington and state Sen. Derek Schmidt of Independence are dueling in the GOP primary to face Attorney General Steve Six, a Democrat, in the general election.
There are no contested primaries for state treasurer. In the Republican Party primary for insurance commissioner, incumbent Sandy Praeger of Lawrence faces David Powell of El Dorado.
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KS: Secretary of State Candidate says state needs Referendum
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 11:49 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 28 July 2010 12:06
From cjonline.com:
Kobach is seeking the GOP nomination against Shawnee County election commissioner Elizabeth Ensley, of Topeka, and former National Association of Government Contractors administrator J.R. Claeys, of Salina. Candidates in the Democratic primary are Secretary of State Chris Biggs, of Junction City, and state Sen. Chris Steineger, of Kansas City, Kan.
Claeys said he supported the capacity of the public to gather signatures and place on ballots proposals for changing state statute or the constitution. He expressed skepticism Kobach had the leadership skill to bring about such a monumental change in Kansas government.
“It’s nice to see professor Kobach is talking about something the secretary of state does,” Claeys said. “It only took a year and a half of campaigning.”
Kobach, a Piper resident on leave from the University of Missouri-Kansas City law school, has focused much of his campaign on illegal immigration.
Biggs, appointed secretary of state by Gov. Mark Parkinson, said the proposal was “just another example of how Kris Kobach will try to use the secretary of state’s office to promote his personal, political agenda.”
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