Joe Mathews has this commentary on Fox & Hounds, pointing out that the California bill on presidential tax returns violates the California Constitution.
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The Ohio legislature has amended the budget bill to move the primary for all office, in presidential years, from the second Tuesday in March, to the third Tuesday in March. Thanks to Political Wire for this news. If the bill becomes law, there will be no change in the petition deadline for independent presidential candidates, or new parties. But the bill would have the effect of moving the non-presidential independent candidate petition deadline from March 9 to March 16, 2020.
On June 8, the California Assembly passed SB 27 by 57-17. It prevents presidential candidates from appearing on a presidential primary ballot unless they reveal the last five years of their income tax returns. The bill now returns to the Senate, because the Assembly and Senate versions are not the same. Here is the roll-call.
The bill seems to run afoul of the California Constitution, which directs the Secretary of State to put all “recognized” presidential candidates on presidential primary ballots. The purpose of that part of the California Constitution, which was passed in 1972, was to make sure that presidential primary voters were able to vote for all significant candidates. Before the amendment passed, sometimes leading presidential candidates did not file for the California presidential primary, because their own party’s leader wanted to be a “favorite son”. For example, California Democrats only saw Governor Pat Brown on their 1960 presidential primary ballot; John F. Kennedy and his competitors did not want to offend Governor Brown by filing for the Democratic presidential primary.
Six analyses of the bill were prepared by staff for the California legislature, but none of them mentioned the California Constitution.
On July 9, Ross Perot died at the age of 89. He is the only person running for president outside the major parties who was ever leading in the polls. That happened in early June 1992, when all the nation’s leading pollsters reported that if the election had been held then, Perot would have won.
He is also the only person who got on the ballot in all 51 jurisdictions, who didn’t need to file a single lawsuit to achieve that. In 1992, not only did he not need any ballot access lawsuits; two states immediately eased their ballot access laws, just to make sure that he got on the ballot. New York lowered the petition from 20,000 to 15,000 signatures, effective immediately (but the change was not effective immediately for office other than president). North Carolina discovered in early 1992 that it had no procedure for an independent presidential candidate to get on the ballot, and passed one, effective immediately. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.
On July 8, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed S5072. This is the bill that says if the Chair of the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee asks to see the state income tax return of a resident of New York who is a public official, the state will send a copy. However, months ago, the Chair of the Ways & Means Committee had said that he doesn’t intend to ask for the return, even if the bill becomes law.