The regular session of the Washington legislature ended earlier, with no legislation passing that would revive the 2016 presidential primary. But a special session opened on April 29, and on that first day of the session, the Senate again passed SB 5978, which would create a March primary. It is not very likely that the House will pass the bill, but it is possible. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.
Washington has an interesting procedure where bills pending at the end of one session, are returned to the originating house at the furthest stage of progress before the end of the previous session. I assume that this has something to do with the Constitution. The first thing the legislature did was pass a resolution that provided for this reversion in bulk.
The senate then considered a number of bills on 3rd reading, passing them again. On one bill, a motion passed to return it to 2nd reading so that it could be amended.
There was a spirited debate over passage of SB 5978. In closing, the sponsor suggested that she would have been willing to split the bill between the two sections – one that would change the date of the primary, and one that would change the procedural aspects, but that the Senate Majority Coalition has decided against that process.
It is not clear how you can split a bill. I suspect that the if there were a free vote, enough House Democrats would vote for the bill so that it would pass. Perhaps if the House amends the bill, the Senate could refuse to concur, forcing an up or down vote in the House.
In the end, only two Democrats switched to No from the previous passage two months ago.