Arizona State Appeals Court Will Release Decision on Tucson Partisan Elections on Wednesday, April 20

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The Arizona State Court of Appeals says it will release an opinion in City of Tucson v State of Arizona, 2ca-cv-2010-0083, on Wednesday, April 20. This is the case over whether the Arizona’s Constitution protects a city’s right to use partisan city elections if it wishes, or whether the state legislature can require all cities to use non-partisan elections. The voters of Tucson have voted in favor of partisan city elections, but in 2009 the legislature passed a bill requiring all cities to use non-partisan elections. The Superior Court had upheld the state law.

U.S. Justice Department Still Hasn't Pre-Cleared California's Top-Two System

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Although it has been more than ten months since California voters passed Proposition 14, the “top-two open primary”, with 53.73% of the vote, the U.S. Justice Department still hasn’t approved the measure. On April 15, the Department of Justice requested more information from California.

Many years ago, the Mississippi legislature passed a bill to establish a top-two system, but the Justice Department never pre-cleared it, so it never went into practice in Mississippi. However, the Justice Department did approve Louisiana’s system in 1975.

California laws must be pre-cleared under section five of the Voting Rights Act, because four particular California counties had very lower voter participation many decades ago, when the benchmarks were set for determining which areas are covered by section five. The four counties are Monterey, Kings, Yuba and Merced. None of the special elections held under California’s top-two laws have included any part of those counties, but obviously the 2012 election will include them.

Arizona Legislature Puts Measure on 2012 Ballot to Repeal Public Funding

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On April 18, the Arizona legislature passed SCR 1025, which puts the “Stop Public Money for Political Candidates’ Campaigns Act” ballot measure on the November 2012 ballot. If passed, the Arizona Constitution would be changed to say that no public money could be used for public funding, which, of course, would end the program. Currently, money for campaigns for state office is raised from surcharges on traffic violations and other fines.

The bill had passed the Senate on February 28, and the House on April 14, but the House had amended it, so it had to return to the Senate, which approved the amendments on April 18. Thanks to ElectionLaw@moritz for this news.

Charlie Cook Suggests 2012 Election Could be Bad for Both Major Parties

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Political pundit Charlie Cook has this article in National Journal. He first summarizes recent past elections. Each of the three last congressional elections saw large swings in the partisan lineup of the U.S. House. These are called “wave elections”, and 2010, 2008, and 2006 stand in sharp contrast to the preceding elections, when the national vote for U.S. House had been almost tied between the two major parties.

Cook also suggests that 2012 may be different from each of the last three elections, and that 2012 will be very bad for incumbents of both parties. He doesn’t quite say that perhaps 2012 will see a surge in support for candidates running outside the two major parties, but that seems to be his message. Thanks to Nancy Hanks for the link.