On Friday, several Republican county central
committees in the north bay, and a candidate, filed a
lawsuit alleging that sec. 8605 of the Cal. election
code is unconstitutional.  Sonoma County Republican
Central Committee & Raylene Wiesner v McPherson,
06-cs-01078.  It has oral argument in state court in
Sacramento on August 9 at 9 a.m, dept. 11.

Sec. 8605 says no one may receive a nomination at a
partisan primary by write-ins, unless the candidate
received a number of write-ins equal to 1% of the vote
for that office at the last general election.  Raylene
Wiesner was the only Republican running for Assembly,
7th district, in the June 2006 primary.  She was a
declared write-in.  She got 687 write-ins, and no one
else got any votes.  But the law says she needed 1,683
write-ins to be nominated.  But the California
Constitution, amended in 2004, 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."

The lawsuit depends on that provision of the
California Constitution.

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