According to this article in The Hill, these cities have decided they don’t want to bid on the Republican presidential convention for 2020: Philadelphia, Nashville, San Antonio, and Las Vegas. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
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The California top-two system started in 2011. Ever since, no third party candidate for Congress has been on the ballot in November, except in 2014 a Peace & Freedom Party member, Adam Shebeita, qualified in the 44th district. He achieved that because only one person filed to be on the primary ballot in that district and Shebeita placed second as a write-in in the primary.
But in 2018, there are two U.S. House races in which minor party candidates will appear on the November ballot, because the only person who filed, other than the minor party candidates, was the Democratic incumbent. One of these districts is the 40th, in which the only two candidates on the primary ballot are the incumbent Democrat and a Green, Rodolfo Cortes Barragan. Thus Cortes Barragan will be the first Green to be listed in November for U.S. House, since California started using top-two.
The other district is the 34th, in which three candidates filed to be on the June ballot, the Democratic incumbent, a Green, and a Libertarian.
Cortes Barragan has an article about these two races at the Independent Voters Network.
There are also two races in which only the incumbent Democrat filed to be on the primary ballot, so it is possible a minor party write-in candidate might place second. Those are the 13th and 32nd districts.
The Green Party has two state legislators in Maine, Ralph Chapman and Henry John Bear. Bear doesn’t have the same power that most Maine legislators have, because he is a tribal representative, but Chapman is a full-fledged state house member.
The Maine legislature has adjourned but much business was not completed, and many legislators want to reconvene. Whether the legislature reconvenes depends on whether a majority of the three party caucuses wish to reconvene. So if the Democratic and Republican caucuses do not agree, Chapman can break the tie, because the Maine legislature recognizes the Green Party caucus. See this story.
Rex Rammell, a Wyoming veterinarian who has run for office several times as a Republican, and who had been seeking the Republican nomination for Governor, announced on May 10 that he would instead join the Constitution Party and seek its nomination for Governor. Here is his campaign web page, which doesn’t yet mention his party switch.
Here is a newspaper story about his party switch.
Louisiana easily has the nation’s most severe petition requirement to recall an elected official. On May 9, the Louisiana legislature passed HB 54, which eases the requirement, although even if the Governor signs the bill, Louisiana will still have the most difficult recall petition requirement.
Existing law requires the signatures of 33.3% of the registered voters. The bill lowers it to 20% of the registered voters, if the jurisdiction is 100,000 or more voters. If it is smaller, then the petition would need 25% of the registered voters.