Group questions Louisiana's influence


By GERARD SHIELDS
Published November 14th 2005 in The Louisiana Advocate
Louisiana finished 29th in the states that played a critical role in picking the president last year, a voting advocacy group said. The report by FairVote tallied advertisements and candidate visits for the last five weeks of the presidential campaign.

"Louisiana is completely ignored," FairVote chairman and former U.S. Rep. John B. Anderson of Illinois said in a statement. "Long gone are the days when the Pelican State mattered in presidential races."

Seeing that the state was leaning toward incumbent President Bush, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., pulled his advertisements and campaign resources out of the state early.
IRV Soars in Twin Cities, FairVote Corrects the Pundits on Meaning of Election Night '09
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers.  Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections;  the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.

And as pundits try to make hay out of the national implications of Tuesday’s gubernatorial elections, Rob Richie in the Huffington Post concludes that the gubernatorial elections have little bearing on federal elections.

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