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.
Virginia Delegate Nick Freitas has said he will run for re-election as a write-in candidate in the November 2019 election. He was left off the ballot because he filed his declaration of candidacy with the wrong office. He is a Republican and his district is heavily Republican. The only name on the ballot will be the Democratic nominee, Ann Ridgeway.
The last time anyone was elected as a write-in to the Virginia legislature in a general election was in 1989. Thanks to Daniel Sachs for this news.
The Los Angeles Times has this op-ed by Law Professors Robert Delahunty and John Yoo. It says that California’s new law on presidential primary ballot access and tax returns violates freedom of association for political parties, because it interferes with the Republican Party’s choice of whom to nominate for president.
UPDATE: Dan Schnur makes the same point in this commentary. Schnur was an independent candidate for Secretary of State of California in 2014. Even though he had held many important appointive posts in California government, he only placed fourth in the top-two primary and did not qualify for the general election.
