The California Assembly Elections Committee will hear SB 568 on Wednesday, June 14. This is the bill that moves the primary for all office (in presidential years) from June to the third Tuesday in March. The bill also gives the Governor authority to move the primary date to an even earlier date.

Meanwhile, AB 84, the other bill that moves the primary from June to March, has had its hearing in the Senate Elections Committee cancelled by the bill’s author. This suggests that the leadership of the legislature has decided that SB 568, rather than AB 84, is the bill that will probably pass. Each bill has passed its house of origin. The difference in the two bills is that AB 84 sets the primary in the first week of March, but does not give the Governor the authority to move the primary to an even earlier date. Governor Jerry Brown has yet to indicate which bill he prefers (if any) and if he later indicates he prefers the AB 84 approach, then probably that bill would move ahead.

Moving the primary for Congress and partisan state office to March will have profound consequences for the top-two system. The Ninth Circuit, in a Washington state case, already ruled that forcing minor parties to run only in August instead of November is only a “slight” burden, because, the Ninth Circuit said, August is near the peak of voter interest. The Ninth Circuit said it would be a far different matter if minor party candidates for Congress and partisan state office were confined to running in March, which is far from November.