Hutchinson

This is an original proceeding by mandamus to compel the secretary oí state to file a certificate of nomination presented by E. L. Hutchinson, and F. L. Gregory, claiming to be chairman and secretary of the People’s Party state convention, and to compel him to strike from the files of his office another certificate of nomination presented by D. T. Fowler as chairman, and Carlton H. Johnson as secretary of a People’s Party convention, which is alleged to have been an illegal and pretended assemblage, not entitled to assume the name or exercise the powers of the People’s Party.

There is no dispute as to the facts of the case, and those which we deem material may be very briefly stated.

The People’s Party is a regular political organization, which at the general election of 1896 polled more than three per cent of the vote of the state. For more than two years it has had regularly chosen and organized state, and county, central committees and a state executive committee which exercises full powers when the state central committee is not in session. In May, 1898, the executive committee regularly issued a call for a state convention, to be held at Sacramento on the 12th of July, and…