At California's June 2006 primary election, there were
2 US House races, and 3 state legislative races, at
which one of the major parties had no candidates
listed on their own primary ballot...but in these 5
particular districts, the major parties did appear to
back a write-in candidate in their own primary, in
hopes of nominating that person for the November
ballot.

The 3 races involving Democratic write-in candidates
in the primary were:  US House 42, Mark Hull-Pickens,
got 273 write-ins.  State Senate 38, Barbara Mead, got
534 write-ins.  Assembly 73, Judith Jones, got 619
write-ins.

Republicans were:  US House 20, Jim Lopez, 472
write-ins.  Raylene Wiesner, 687 write-ins.

None of these 5 candidates got enough write-in votes
to be deemed nominated, even though all were unopposed
in their own party's primary.

If there are any attorneys or activists for either the
Democratic or Republican Party on this list, can you
tell me if your major party might consider taking
legal action to help any of these 5 candidates?

It seems to me that it is a virtue to have Democratic
and Republicans on the November ballot for all
congressional and legislative elections.  It is in the
interests of the voters that both major parties have
nominees for all important policy-setting offices.

This year, Democrats in Ohio and Pennsylvania have
nominated candidates for US House via write-ins at
their own primaries.  Democrats and Republicans were
unable to do it in California this year because of the
very strict write-in threshold in California for
write-in nominees, found in sec. 8605.  Yet Prop. 60
is now in the California Constitution, and it says, "A
political party that participated in a primary
election for a partisan office has the right to
participate in the general election for that office
and shall not be denied the ability to place on the
general election ballot the candidate who received, at
the primary election, the highest vote among that
party's candidates."

It seems to me that if either major party wanted to
join with one of this year's write-in candidates (all
of whom made a serious effort to maximize their
write-in total and try to qualify), to sue, the
lawsuit would be likely to win.

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