Monthly Archives: September 2004

The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that Nader should be on the ballot. Its decision basically ignores the factual findings by the trial court — findings that I thought were dispositive — on the theory that the statute at issue is vague as to what constitutes a “national party” and in particular failed to give potential candidates the guidance they were entitled to as to their ballot entitlement.

In light of this vagueness, and Florida's strong policy in favor of ballot access, the court said it was unwilling to conclude that the legislative intent was to have candidates like him thrown him off the ballot. This is a plausible argument, but I don't think it imposes the excessive legislative clear statement requirement that the court found. Even if it's not exactly clear where the line is, there are some things that clearly don't qualify as a “national party” and today's Reform Party is I think one them. But what I think doesn't matter, and that's that.

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Take a look at this picture in which it looks as though Tropical Storm Jeanne, which was going to miss Florida may instead take a sharp left and attack the state from the one direction we haven't been hit yet.


It does seem consistent with the idea that Someone is either warning or punishing Florida, doesn't it?

I used to do a lot of retail politics. One of my very unscientific tests for how a campaign is doing is how they handle phone calls: Campaigns that don’t answer before the third ring will lose. Campaigns that don’t give great phone will lose. Alas, the reverse is not inevitably true—quick pickup and great phone alone are not enough to ensure a win, especially if no one ever calls.

But let me tell you, I’ve never seen or heard such great phone as I just got from calling Betty Castor’s HQ. (Castor is the Democratic nominee for Senate, running against the unscrupulous hate-peddling Mel Martinez.) Earlier today I tried to make a donation on the web page, and got an ‘internal server error’ so I called up the campaign HQ (I got the number from Google's cache of the front page) to tell them about it. The phone was answered just as the second ring began. I told the perky lady on the phone why I was calling, and she gave me her name (Rebecca), thanked me for reporting it, said she’d look into it, and then added that meanwhile she could take credit cards over the phone. So I made my not particularly munificent donation (we are rebuilding our house, there are many good causes, cash flow isn’t all it could be), only to be thanked as if I just pledged several thousand dollars. Another couple of minutes of pleasant chit-chat, and I was dispatched.

Impressive.

PS. My email to tech support also got a quick emailed reply saying that they were investigating.