On February 26, Chicago held non-partisan elections for Mayor and Alderman. Two members of Democratic Socialists of America were elected to the Board of Aldermen, and three more are in run-offs.
Even before the election, DSA had one member on the Board, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa. He was re-elected. Also winning outright was DSA member Daniel La Spata.
Qualifying for the April 2 runoff are Rosanna Rodriguez-Sanchez, Byron Sigcho-Lopez, and Andre Vazquez. See this story.
According to Michael Drucker, the New York State Democratic Committee will meet on Monday, March 4. On the agenda is a resolution that would ask the New York legislature to ban fusion, the practice of letting two parties jointly nominate the same candidate.
On February 26, the Arizona House defeated HB 2127 by 23-36. The bill would have moved the deadline for a candidate to file for the primary from 90 days before the primary, to 120 days. The bill would have had the indirect effect of moving the petition deadline for a non-presidential independent candidate from May to April.
The California bill to require presidential candidates to reveal their income tax returns will be heard in the Senate Elections Committee on March 19, Tuesday. Here is the text of the bill. It has an urgency clause, so it needs two-thirds in each house. However Democrats have more than two-thirds in each house of the legislature.
Ten Maine legislators have introduced LD 1083, which would use ranked choice voting for president in the general election. Although Maine already uses ranked choice voting for congress, it has never permitted it for president.
The bill would also provide for ranked choice voting in Maine’s presidential primary, if Maine has a presidential primary. A bill introduced in January 2019 to provide for a 2020 presidential primary, LD 245, is still in committee.
