For several months, Florida prison officials have banned The Militant from being delivered to prisoners who subscribe. Recently the Florida Press Association asked the prison officials to relent. See this story in The Militant.
The Socialist Workers Party is the only party in the United States that still publishes a print weekly newspaper.
California State Senator Scott Wiener has a bill, SB 288, to allow the Democratic Party to allow non-citizens to serve on its committees. The Peace & Freedom Party has asked that the bill be amended to include PFP as well, and that amendment will be made when the legislature reconvenes.
In California, as in about half the states, some party officers are elected at the party’s primary. Members of county central committees are elected by primary voters, and for some California parties, those county central committees comprise the state central committee. The bill originally said that non-citizens can be elected, but it has been amended to say non-citizens can be appointed, and that it is the intent of the legislature to later also allow them to be elected, if the party agrees. Thanks to several people for this news.
On August 9, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, a Republican, vetoed HB 706. It would have set up an independent redistricting commission. There would be ten members of the party with the most seats in the legislature, ten members of the party with the second-most seats in the legislature, and five members who were members of neither of those two parties. Here is the text of the bill. Thanks to Mike Drucker for this news.
A member of the Vigo County Democratic Party committee, Debrah Kirk-Peters, says that seven of her fellow committee members signed a petition to get an independent candidate for Mayor of Terre Haute. Kirk-Peters says she thinks they should resign from the committee. See this story. At least one of the other signers says he won’t resign and that he merely helped a friend get on the ballot.
The Federal Election Commission has compiled primary dates for 2020. The chart shows the presidential primary date and also the congressional primary date. The FEC notes that these dates could still change.
Footnote 2, concerning Louisiana congressional elections, says, “In Louisiana, a Congressional primary is not held.” This shows that the FEC agrees with my commentaries about election systems. I have written many times that Louisiana does not hold primaries (except presidential primaries) and if a state wants to dispense with party nominees, then it is free to imitate Louisiana and simply abolish primaries. Supporters of top-two systems should take note of the Louisiana model. Certain supporters of top-two, when they do acknowledge that point, sometimes insist that Louisiana does hold primaries in November; but in reality, Louisiana elects people in November (to Congress), and thus there is no primary.
Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
