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Archive for the ‘Secretaries of State’ Category


VT: Secretary of State Candidates Air Differences

From BurlingtonFreePress.com:

The two candidates talked loftily about transparency and technological advances, but it was a listener from Barton who posed the kind of question one of them might have to answer routinely as secretary of state.

The listener said a town clerk had charged him 10 cents a page for a public record, citing town regulations, even though state law specified 5 cents. What should he have been charged, 5 cents or 10 cents?

Neither Jim Condos, the Democratic candidate, nor Jason Gibbs, the Republican, was willing to hazard a guess. Each said he was unsure which law took precedence. But the question, toward the end of their 45-minute debate on Vermont Public Radio’s “Vermont Edition,” provided a springboard for each to discuss his public-records platform.

Condos said he would establish a public-records advisory office, with an ombudsman who would hear public-records disputes. Gibbs said he would create a public-records accountability commission that would help consolidate disparate laws and render them in plain English.

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CT: Democrat Secretary of State in middle of WWE Shirt Controversy

From CNNPolitics:

The controversy began last week when reports surfaced that Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz had told poll workers they could ask voters wearing clothing bearing the WWE logo to cover it when at the polling place because Linda McMahon is so closely associated with the company.

She left the CEO’s post to cast her lot in the Senate race.

State Republicans and McMahon reacted as if Bysiewicz had ordered a complete ban on such clothing and decreed that poll workers could turn voters away if they wore clothing with WWE-logos.

“On what grounds does Bysiewicz base this ridiculous act of voter intimidation?” asked Republican State Party Chairman Chris Healy last week.

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NM: Republican Leads Secretary of State Race

From nmpolitics.net:

The first publicly released poll of the secretary of state race – an internal poll conducted for the campaign of Republican Dianna Duran – has Duran leading Democratic incumbent Mary Herrera by 12 points.

Duran leads 46 percent to 34 percent, with 20 percent undecided. The poll, conducted by the GOP firm Public Opinion Strategies for the Duran campaign, surveyed 800 likely voters between Oct. 14 and 18 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points.

There’s been a lot said lately about the potential inaccuracy of polls that don’t survey those who only have cell phones. Duran’s poll includes 100 cell-phone interviews, according to the poll memo.

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SD: Secretary of State Candidates Differ on Campaign Finance Reports

From ArgusLeader.com:

The candidates for South Dakota secretary of state both want more transparency when it comes to campaign finance reports, but they differ on whether there needs to be more openness in how the money from a particular group of Republican donors is spent.

Democratic state Sen. Ben Nesselhuf said that if he’s elected secretary of state, he will crack down on what he calls “political slush funds” and push to disclose how the Governor’s Club spends its money. The Governor’s Club is a Republican Party marketing effort that has been used to pay some nonbusiness expenses for GOP governors.

“The law is pretty clear, that every dollar into the political world is reported, and every dollar out needs to be reported,” Nesselhuf said.

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SD: Republicans Lead Secretary of State and Attorney General Races

From Rapid City Journal:

Although many South Dakotans remain undecided in races for constitutional races, the Republican candidate has a lead over their Democratic rivals in every contest, according to the most recent Dakota Wesleyan University Tiger Poll.

According to a news release from the university, more Democrats than Republicans planned to vote across party lines.

Of all the constitutional office races, the closest appears to be the race between two Black Hills residents, according to the poll. Results for the match-up between Rich Sattgast, the Republican, and Tom Katus, the Democrat, in the race for the office of state treasurer seem to indicate that Sattgast, with 31 percent, and Katus, with 26 percent, are within the sample’s margin of error and in a virtual statistical dead heat, with a whopping 40 percent of respondents still undecided. Six percent of self-identified Democrats indicated they would support Sattgast, the Republican, with 4 percent of self-identified Republicans indicated that they would support Katus, the Democrat.

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CT: GOP Best for Attorney General

From Republican-American:

The incumbents, those departing as well as the one remaining, served too long. Each, in his or her own way, grew bored with the routine duties of the office and acquired what Republican secretary of the state candidate Jerry Farrell calls “wanderlust”: they drifted into issues outside their proper purview. Mr. Blumenthal, legendary for suing anything that moved, actually earned a rebuke from a federal judge for exceeding his authority. Ms. Bysiewicz drifted into environmentalism, assuming an active role in opposing construction of a liquefied-natural-gas platform in the safest possible place for such a facility, in Long Island Sound, 10 miles from the nearest land. Mrs. Wyman became a social activist, blocking state employees from making charitable donations to the Boy Scouts because she opposed the organization’s ban against open homosexuals serving as scoutmasters. As Republican treasurer candidate Jeff Wright has documented, Ms. Nappier has allowed her social conscience to influence some of her investment decisions, contributing to massive deficits in state pension funds.

The Republican candidates — Martha Dean for attorney general, Mr. Wright, Mr. Farrell and Jack Orchulli for comptroller — promise a competent, transparent, no-nonsense approach to these important jobs. All are well-qualified. Mrs. Dean is an environmental attorney who has practiced law in the state for 22 years. She ran on the Republican ticket against Mr. Blumenthal in 2002. Both she and Mr. Farrell have extensive private-sector business experience, having run law firms. Mr. Farrell’s experience in state government includes service as commissioner of consumer protection, a position he has held since 2006. Mr. Wright, currently mayor of Newington, is a former Metropolitan District commissioner, a certified financial planner and a former Marine reservist. Mr. Orchulli, who has a master’s degree in finance, challenged Sen. Christopher Dodd in 2004, has management experience in the pharmaceutical and fashion industries. He also served on the Connecticut Development Authority board.

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MA: Secretary of State’s Voter Guide a Campaign Piece?

From the Metrowest Daily News:

Jim Henderson, independent candidate for secretary of state, said a mailing from Galvin’s office, intended to inform voters across Massachusetts about ballot questions and election procedures, included additional information intended to boost the secretary’s candidacy.

The mailing, Henderson said, is “clearly designed to be a campaign piece without it being officially a campaign piece … Let’s call a spade a spade here.”

Henderson compared the mailing to Lottery ads run by the treasury that have become enmeshed in legal controversy surrounding Treasurer Tim Cahill’s independent campaign for governor. Critics allege the Lottery ads were intended to boost Cahill’s candidacy on the taxpayers’ dime. Attorney General Martha Coakley is investigating the matter and the ads have been suspended.

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Republicans Say New Faces will Change Mass. Government

From Townhall.com:

Republicans atop next month’s ballot in Massachusetts say voters will only get change if they elect different people.

Gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker, secretary of state candidate William Campbell and attorney general candidate James McKenna held a news conference in front of the Statehouse on Tuesday to dramatize their call.

Campbell says the state “can’t keep electing the same people and expect different results.” McKenna says voters will stand at a crossroads on Election Day.

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OH: Secretary of State Candidates Focus on Business

From The-Daily-Record.com:

Republican Sen. Jon Husted has been a state lawmaker for a decade, including a stint as the leader of the Ohio House.

“As Speaker of the House, I couldn’t hide from making decisions,” he said. “I’ve had to make a lot of them in my life. I’m not afraid to make them. But I also know that there’s a way to make them in which you can minimize the fallout for whatever it is you do.”

Democrat Maryellen O’Shaughnessy is the clerk of common pleas court in Franklin County and a former Columbus City councilwoman.

“There’s no one else who sits before you as a candidate for Secretary of State who understands as fully as I do the obstacles, the challenges and the successes of local government,” O’Shaughnessy said.

Both believe their backgrounds in public office help to make them a better choice to be Ohio’s next Secretary of State, the individual responsible for administering the elections and the office where businesses make official their presence in the state.

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CA Secretary of State Candidate Named in Time’s 40 Under 40

From Time Magazine:

Reared by a teenage mom in an overcrowded Texas trailer, Dunn, 34, went to Stanford and played in the NFL before building a suc-cessful real estate business. The Baptist minister is a rising Repub-lican in a normally blue state.

Who is your political hero/inspiration?
Abraham Lincoln

What’s your go-to political blog?
Wall Street Journal Blog

If you weren’t working in politics, what would you be doing?
Real Estate Investment

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