This Salt Lake Tribune story says, in theory, under existing Utah law, the Republican Party’s nominees in the November 2018 might not have their party label on the ballot. Existing law says parties that promised to let candidates get on the primary ballot by petition are the only ones that are permitted to have the party label on the November ballot. Republican Party leaders recently changed their bylaws to disallow petitioning candidates. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
Illinois State Senator Sam McCann, who has been in the Senate since 2010, may run for re-election this year as an independent. See this story. In his previous elections he was the Republican nominee. However, this year, he did not file for re-election in the Republican primary, which is being held March 20.
If he does petition as an independent, his only opponent will be only person who did file in the Republican primary. No Democrat is running. Thanks to Sam Cahnman for the link.
New Mexico requires independent candidates to obtain signatures of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote. The only state with a higher percentage is Nebraska, and Nebraska’s requirement is under court attack. Also Alabama is tied with New Mexico, at 3%. The Santa Fe New Mexican has this article about the severity of the New Mexico laws. Thanks to Rick Lass for the link.
On March 9, a 3-judge U.S. District Court heard oral arguments on which U.S. House districts should be used this year. See this story. One judge suggested that the panel will wait to see what the U.S. Supreme Court does. The proponents of the new districts mentioned that if the new districts were invalidated now, federal law would require Pennsylvania to elect all its U.S. House members in at-large elections.
The Bylaws and Rules Committee of the Democratic National Committee is considering a proposal to abolish super-delegates to national presidential conventions. See this BuzzFeed story. Thanks to Michael Drucker for the link.
