This poll, released February 23, shows that the race for Michigan Governor is a virtual three-way tie. See this story.
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On February 23, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Utah declined to stop the U.S. House redistricting plan that had been imposed by a state court. Two of the plaintiffs are Republican members of the U.S. House, Celeste Maloy and Burgess Owens. Gardner v Henderson, 2:26cv-84. Here is the decision.
The plaintiffs had argued that Article One of the U.S. Constitution does not permit any government body except the legislature to write election laws for congressional elections. The Court did not agree that that theory fits this case, and furthermore said the federal case had been filed too close to the Utah primary. It agreed that the plaintiffs do have standing. The decision is unsigned. The three judges are Tenth Circuit Judge Timothy Tymkovich, a Bush Jr. appointee; Holly Teeter, a Trump appointee; and Robert J. Shelby, an Obama appointee.
Judge Tymkovich wrote separately to say he does not think the case was filed too late. But he agreed that Article One does not bar the state court from having acted, because, as he said, the state court’s authority derived from the state legislature’s pre-existing laws.
On February 20, both sides in Peace & Freedom Party v Weber informed the U.S. District Court Judge that they suggest a postponement of the status conference, which had been set for February 27. They said there seems little point in holding a status conference until after the Judge has ruled on the state’s motion to dismiss the case. See here.
On February 20, California Assemblymember Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara) introduced AB 2681, a one-sentence bill that changes the punctuation in the part of the Election Code that deals with write-in voting, but does not actually change anything. This type of bill is referred to as a “spot bill.” The deadline for bills to be introduced was February 20. Frequently California legislators who are thinking of introducing a bill on a particular subject, but who haven’t made up their minds by the bill introduction deadline, introduce “spot bills.” It seems likely that Hart is thinking about introducing a bill to restore write-in space on general election ballots for top-two offices. Write-ins for those offices were eliminated in 2012 with AB 1413. Bringing them back would possibly be useful to Democratic chances for retaining the governorship, just in case two Republicans place first and second on June 2.
Spot bills must be amended by late March to include the actual substance of the proposed bill. AB 2681 will not be heard in the Assembly Elections Committee until after the real contents of the bill have been revealed in late March. Of course the bill cold be amended sooner than late March if the bill’s author desires.