Brad Haynes reports:

Clinton, Daschle, Geithner… The big-name speculation over President-elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet appointments can wait while Obama watchers focus on another critical name that surfaced on Friday: Sidwell.

The Associated Press is reporting that the Obamas have chosen the Sidwell Friends School in Washington for daughters Sasha, seven years old, and Malia, 10. The private Quaker school’s alumni include former presidential offspring Chelsea Clinton and Tricia Nixon Cox, as well as House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and a former princess of Japan.

Sidwell Friends beat out another elite school, Georgetown Day School. Michelle Obama and her daughters reportedly visited both schools on Tuesday. Sidwell, with campuses in Northwest Washington and Bethesda, Md., is home to nearly 1,100 students from pre-Kindergarten to 12th grade. Tuition at the lower school is $28,442 and $29,442 at the middle and upper schools.

A spokeswoman for Michelle Obama was quoted by AP as saying the Obamas feel Sidwell provides “the best fit for what their daughters need now,” including being able to accommodate security and privacy concerns. The Obama girls have also become good friends with Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s grandchildren, who attend the school.

The Obama family also discussed public school options for the girls, according to Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty. The girls currently attend the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools located in Chicago’s South Side.

Sen. Chuck Grassley issued the comment below about the report that Timothy Geithner will be named Treasury Secretary by President-elect Barack Obama:

“As the Ranking Member of the Senate committee that must approve this nomination, I look forward to reviewing the nominee’s background and having a dialogue with him about the Trouble Asset Relief Program, tax policy, expanding America’s access to foreign markets, and bringing the country’s fiscal house in order. The Treasury Secretary has enormous powers in ordinary times and even greater powers in these troubled times, so the Finance Committee owes the American people all due care and diligence in considering this nomination. The relationship between the Treasury Department and the Finance Committee is also important because of the fiscal policy roles played by both, and the responsibility needs to be taken seriously.”

The voters of Alpine, Wyoming, are being asked to return to the polls on November 25, to vote again in a State House race. On November 4, the race in the 22nd district between Democrat Jim Roscoe and Charles Stough was very close. The results were: Roscoe 2,891; Stough 2,887.

Then it was discovered that eleven voters had voted in Alpine Precinct, the northernmost corner of Lincoln County, even though they don’t live in Alpine Precinct. They live in the adjoining precinct to the south. That was a problem, because Alpine is in the 22nd district but the precinct to the south is in the 21 district. Since there was no way to retrieve the eleven ballots that should not have been counted, the State Canvassing Board on November 12 ruled that Alpine Precinct must vote all over again. The candidates are actively campaigning there, somewhat as in this year’s Disney movie “Swing Vote.” Here is a newspaper story about the re-vote.

After a school search that inspired weeks of frenzied speculation among parents in the nation's capital, the Obamas announced they will send their two daughters to Sidwell Friends School.

Posted at Ballot Access News

Thomas J. Kelly, founder of the British Reformed Sectarian Party of Florida, ran for Florida State House earlier this month, and polled 33.0% of the vote in a two-person race. His only opponent was Republican Dean Cannon. The unofficial vote totals are: Cannon 38,454; Kelly 18,957. The district is centered in Winter Park, near Orlando. See this article (scroll down a bit). According to the article, Cannon spent $500,000 on his re-election campaign.

When this same seat was up in 2004, Cannon had polled 57.1% of the vote against his only opponent, a Democrat.

The British Reformed Sectarian Party was formed to protest a court decision issued in 2003, that upheld the ability of the Florida major parties to require loyalty oaths to run in their primaries. The 11th circuit panel that upheld the oaths consisted of Judges Susan Black, Paul Roney, and Walter Stapleton. Kelly, who had lost the lawsuit, was so irritated with these three judges, he resolved to form a political party and call it the Black, Roney, Stapleton Party. However, he thought better of it, and called it by three words whose first letters match the first initials of the surnames of each of these three judges.

The only other minor party candidate in a 2008 Florida 2-way state legislative race was Constitution Party nominee Louis Tart. Running for the State Senate, 1st district, against a Democrat, Tart polled 18.8%.

Posted on the BTP website

Dear Freedom Fighters,

I would like to thank those who have expressed concern over the illness in my family. Trust me, it does help. I also want to thank everyone who in this brief period of serving as chairman, supported my efforts. However, sometimes in life, there are more important battles and I’m at that stage right now. When I decided to run for the Chair seat, I could not foresee the issues that have popped up in my life personally over the past two weeks.

The Boston Tea Party deserves a Chairman who can dedicate 100% towards the cause. I’m simply unable to do that at this time. Family comes first and politics will always take a back seat to that. It is for this reason that I must officially resign as Chairman of the Boston Tea Party. I need to tend to family & more importantly, my pregnant wife. There is nothing more important to me than her health and I want to make sure that I can be there to hold her hand during this stressful period. She is very close to her family, but they live an ocean away, so hearing about someone she was close to dying of cancer is just a bit much right now. I’m all she has and I must be there for her.

I’m sure there will be those who will rip me for this decision and that is within your right to do so. However, I will never put politics a head of my family.

It was a honor to be elected your Chairman and I’m confident Douglass Gaking will be a fantastic Chairman, as he takes over my duties on a full time basis. The timing is just bad. I wish I could stick around and help this party grow and perhaps I can in the future in some capacity, but right now just isn’t that time.

Thank you all so very much. Take care and keep fighting the good fight.

Jason Gatties

One person who is expected to play a prominent role on the inaugural committee is William Daley, according to people close to the process.

On November 18, Ohio held a special U.S. House election in the 11th district to fill a vacant seat. Marcia Fudge was the only candidate on the ballot. She won the election with only 8,450 votes reported so far. The final total will be perhaps 5% higher. There were several declared write-in candidates, but their votes haven’t been tallied yet.

The term is to last only from now until January 3, 2009. Marcia Fudge was elected to the full two-year term two weeks earlier. A technicality forced Ohio to hold a special election on November 18 just to fill this seat that would otherwise be vacant, since the former member, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, had died this year. Independent candidate James Germalic had tried very hard to get on the November 18 ballot. He needed 750 signatures. Although he submitted more than twice as many, he was told he didn’t have enough valid.