This story says that the Maryland legislature is about to adjourn for the year, without passing a bill to redraw U.S. House district boundaries. If the legislature did redraw the boundaries of the Sixth District, that might cause the U.S. Supreme Court to then rule that the pending lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court, Benisek v Lamone, is moot.
Michael Diederich, a strong contender for District Attorney of Rockland County, has left the Democratic Party and enrolled in the SAM Party, according to this story. The SAM Party became ballot-qualified last year. “SAM” stands for “Serve America Movement” but the ballot says “SAM”. See this story.
A bill is being introduced in the New York legislature on April 8 to enable the state to make President Trump’s state income tax returns public. The state would seek the permission of three chairmen of three congressional committees in order to do this. See this New York Times story.
This bill does injure voting rights. Many states are threatening to pass bills that keep presidential candidates off the ballot if they don’t reveal income tax returns. Those bills injure the voters who want to vote for such candidates. Thanks to Howard Bashman for the link.
The Prohibition Party will hold a telephone national convention on April 14 and choose a new presidential and vice-presidential nominee for 2020.
On April 2, Maine Representative Janice Cooper (D-Yarmouth) introduced LD 1477. It extends ranked choice voting to general elections for state office. It begins the process of amending the Maine Constitution. Although Maine now has ranked choice voting for congress, and for state office primaries, the state constitution stands in the way of permitting it for state office general elections.
LD 1477 has a hearing in the Joint Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee on April 10. It needs two-thirds approval in each house.
