On July 10, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu signed HB 588. The bill ends the requirement that presidential primary candidates must be registered members of the party whose nomination they are seeking. The bill had never been enforced, because 19 states don’t have registration by party. For example, George W. Bush hadn’t been a registered Republican when he ran for President because Texas doesn’t have registration by party.
Here is the text of the bill.
On July 13, five Libertarians seeking the party’s presidential nomination debated each other in Massachusetts: Max Abramson of New Hampshire, Dan Behrman of Texas, Adam Kokesh of Arizona, Kim Ruff of Arizona, and Arvin Vohra of Maryland. See this story, written by Matt Welch of Reason magazine, who moderated the debate.
The next Libertarian presidential debate will be in South Carolina on November 2, 2019.
On July 2, the U.S. House Committee on Ways & Means sued the U.S. Treasury Department to obtain a copy of President Trump’s tax returns. The case is filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and is assigned to Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee. The case is Committee on Ways & Means v U.S. Department of the Treasury, 1:19cv-1974. Here is the Complaint. So far, the only thing that has happened is that the proof of service has been filed. Experts disagree on how fast the case can move. Thanks to Law.Com for the link.
Many states permit general election candidates to run for either President or Vice-President, and some other public office, simultaneously. But Michigan is not one of those states. Justin Amash cannot appear on the November ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. House, and also run in the general election for president. Thanks to David Belmont for this news.
The Florida federal trial in Jacobson v Lee opened on July 15, Monday. Here is a newspaper story about the testimony. This is the case in which the Democratic Party is trying to overturn the law that has allowed the Republican nominee to be listed first on the November ballot in all elections for over twenty years.
