Katie Merrill, veteran California Democratic political consultant, predicts that if Democrats faile to qualify for the ballot in any U.S. House races in 2018, in any district that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016, there will be a repeal measure on the 2020 ballot for the top-two system. Read all the way to the bottom of this story.
Thanks to California Playbook-Politico for the link.
Gravis Marketing has released a poll for Indiana 2018 general elections. See question eleven, in which the pollsters asked about the nominees of the Green and Libertarian Parties as well as the major party nominees. The poll shows 10% for the Libertarian and 4% for the Green.
There is no assurance that the Green Party will even be on the ballot in 2018. It is petitioning, but it has never before succeeded in getting on the Indiana ballot for statewide office. The requirement this year is 26,700 signatures. Thanks to Michael for the link.
On May 15, the government of Utah filed this 28-page brief, explaining why the Tenth Circuit should not rehear Utah Republican Party v Cox, 16-4091. The Tenth Circuit had asked the Utah government to respond to the request for rehearing.
The issue is whether the Utah Republican Party has a freedom of association right to limit its primary only to candidates who showed substantial support at a party endorsements meeting. The Tenth Circuit had ruled against the party by a 2-1 vote earlier this year.
The state’s brief says toward the end that freedom of association for groups in general is stronger than freedom of association for political parties.
On May 16, one of the candidates for president of Mexico withdrew from the race. Margarita Zavala is an independent candidate. See this story, which says that because millions of ballots have already been printed, probably her name will remain on the ballot, but votes for her probably won’t be counted. The election is July 1.
On May 15, Pennsylvania held special elections to fill three vacant State House seats.
In the 178th district, the results were: Democrat 50.38%; Republican 49.62. When this seat was last up, in November 2016, the results had been: Republican 61.07%; Democratic 38.93%.
In the 68th district: Republican 76.01%; Democrat 23.99%. When this seat was up in November 2016, only one candidate, a Republican, was on the ballot.
In the 48th district: Republican 54.75%; Democrat 43.66%; Libertarian 1.59%. In November 2016 only one candidate, a Democrat, had been on the ballot.
