On June 1, California Governor Jerry Brown announced 21 Superior Court judicial appointments. His press release contains the party affiliation of each of his appointees. See the list here. If one scrolls down to Inyo County (the counties are in alphabetical order), one sees that one of the appointees, Stephen M. Place, is a Green Party member.
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver here advocates that New Mexico switch to a semi-closed primary. Currently New Mexico has closed primaries. Her piece does not use the term “semi-closed”, but if one reads her op-ed, that is what she is advocating. New Mexico’s neighbors Colorado and Arizona also provide for semi-closed primaries. Voters who are registered members of a qualified party can only vote on their own party’s primary ballot, but independent voters can choose any primary ballot.
Dan Balz has been a politics analyst and reporter for the Washington Post since 1978. He has also written several best-selling books about U.S. politics and campaigns, and he has received an award from the American Political Science Association for his work. Here he analyzes the California top-two system.
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.
On June 1, filing closed for candidates running in any Alaska primaries. Former Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Begich filed to run for Governor in the Democratic primary. As a result, incumbent Governor Bill Walker, an independent, did not file in the Democratic primary. Presumably he will petition as an independent candidate again, as he did in 2014. Here is the entire Alaska primary candidate filing list for all federal and state office.
Lynette Clark filed to run for Governor in the Alaskan Independence Party primary. No one else filed for that party’s nomination for Governor, so she will be on the November ballot as the Alaskan Independence nominee.
Billy Toien filed to run for Governor in the Libertarian primary.
