On December 8, the Republican national committeewoman for Nebraska, Joyce Simmons, resigned from the committee. She did so to protest the national committee’s support for Roy Moore in the Alabama U.S. Senate election of December 12, 2017.
3
NYU Law Professor Rick Pildes, an expert on election law, here predicts that the U.S. Supreme Court this term will act against extreme partisan gerrymandering. He bases his prediction on last week’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a second such case, from Maryland.
George Skelton, who has been the senior Los Angeles Times politics columnist for many decades, here refers to California’s general election in November as the “run-off.” The reference is near the top of his column.
By federal law since 1872, states must hold their congressional elections in November. If states want a general election run-off, they must hold it after November. Only two states, Louisiana and Georgia, have general election run-offs in congressional elections. All of this was clarified by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1997, Foster v Love.
Skelton has been a vociferous supporter of California’s top-two system since it was first proposed in 2004.
On December 10, the Libertarian Party national committee met in New Orleans and decided that the party’s 2020 presidential convention will be in Austin, Texas, over Memorial Day weekend. As far as is known, no other political party, major or minor, has yet chosen a location for its 2020 presidential convention.
In 2016, the party held its presidential convention in Orlando, Florida, May 26-30. Thanks to Independent Political Report for the news about the 2020 convention.
The Arizona Capitol Times has this story, explaining that Arizona will hold a special U.S. House election in 2018 to fill the vacant 8th district seat, but that state legislators can’t file to run for that seat unless they resign their legislative positions. This is because of Arizona’s “resign to run” law.