In 2015, the Washington, D.C. city council amended election regulation 3-1600 to provide that if a qualified party doesn’t nominate anyone for a particular partisan office in its primary, that party is still free to nominate someone after the primary is over. The party must certify the candidate’s name up until 54 days before the general election.

This year, no Republican filed for any district wide partisan office in the June 2018 primary. But, because of the 2015 amendment, the Republican Party can still nominate, as long as it does so by September 13. Presumably the party will nominate for at least one district wide race, or it will lose its qualified party status after November 2018.

To see the regulation, use this link and for section 3-1600, choose the “view text” button. Thanks to Pat McConnell for this news. D.C. now joins Alabama, South Carolina, and Virginia, as places in which all qualified parties are free to use either primaries or party meetings to nominate.

Amy Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report, here makes an original point…the more election laws, including campaign finance laws and laws about primaries, are altered to reduce the influence of the Republican and Democratic Parties, the more partisanship among the electorate seems to increase.

This Stanford poll, released a few days ago, shows the huge difference in results, depending on whether pollsters list only a handful of candidates for a particular office, or whether they list all the candidates. Questions 53 and 54 ask about the U.S. Senate race. Question 53 listed only five candidates who will be on the ballot, but Question 54 listed all 32 candidates on the ballot.

When only five candidates were listed, Rocky De La Fuente, a Republican, easily placed second. That question showed Dianne Feinstein at 35%, Rocky De La Fuente at 21%, and Kevin De Leon at 9%.

But when all 32 candidates were listed, Feinstein had 36%, De Leon had 11%, and De La Fuente had 4%.

Question 14 asks about the top-two system. Support was 41%; opposition was 22%; undecided was at 37%.

Questions 50 and 51 are both about the gubernatorial race. Question 50 only lists a few candidates; question 51 lists all candidates.

Question 52 has some candidates for Lieutenant Governor, and appears to be the first publicly-available poll for that office. The poll was taken by the Bill Lane Center for the American West, part of Stanford University.