On April 15, Maine Governor Paul LePage signed LD 1673, which provides for a presidential primary in the future. For 2016 and recent past presidential elections, Maine has used caucuses instead of presidential primaries.
The bill also requires a study of the expenses of having a presidential primary. The new law will be automatically repealed in 2018, so even though it is the law, it won’t take effect without further affirmative action in 2017 or 2018. The law says that presidential primaries will be closed. If any party wants to let independent voters vote in its presidential primary, it will apparently need to sue the state.
The presidential primary would be in March. Presidential candidates need 2,000 signatures of party members. The bill does not say the signers must be party members, but existing law says only party members may sign other types of primary petitions, and the bill leaves that intact for the presidential primary as well.
The new United Coalition features a new twist. James Ogle, Republican candidate for Monterey County Republican Party District 5 Central Committee is picking Mark Herd [Libertarian] for US Senate as his choice, a press event in Monterey California on May 14th is planned and the United Coalition will be organizing a Senate candidate forum too. This is part of James Ogle’s plan to win the seat on the Central Committee and to launch a bigger project.