Every even-numbered year, voters in Michigan choose eight statewide candidates for various educational offices, in partisan elections. There are always two seats for State Board of Education, and six seats for the governing bodies of state universities. Several bills are pending to either eliminate these elections, or restrict them to only mid-term year elections.

The bills will be heard on Thursday, Feb. 15, in committee. They are HB 5515, HB 5516, and HB 5533. If the legislature passes them, they would not go into effect unless the voters approve a constitutional amendment.

If those elections were entirely eliminated, that would make it somewhat more difficult for qualified parties to remain on the ballot. In 2016, without those educational offices, the only statewide office on the ballot would have been President. All parties had to poll at least 16,491 votes for a statewide office in order to remain on. In 2016 the Constitution Party (which in Michigan is the US Taxpayers Party) only got 16,139 votes for President, so it would have gone off the ballot. The Natural Law Party would also have gone off the ballot. Thanks to John Anthony LaPietra for this news.

Pennsylvania currently has no valid U.S. House district boundaries. Last week the legislature prepared a redistricting plan, but on February 13 Governor Tom Wolf said he will not submit the legislature’s plan to the State Supreme Court. The plan is just a plan, not a bill. Presumably this means the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania will prepare its own plan. See this story.

The filing deadline for candidates running in a primary is March 20, 2018.

The New York Times print edition for February 13 carries David Brooks’ column, which is titled “The End of the Two-Party System.” The column itself does not directly address that subject, but is instead a commentary about the state of the Republican Party and what it now appears to stand for. Thanks to Taegan Goddard for the link.