Here is a San Francisco Chronicle article about how the top-two system is affecting the California gubernatorial race.
And here is a Los Angeles Times column by George Skelton about the same subject.
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On February 20, both sides in Peace & Freedom Party v Weber informed the U.S. District Court Judge that they suggest a postponement of the status conference, which had been set for February 27. They said there seems little point in holding a status conference until after the Judge has ruled on the state’s motion to dismiss the case. See here.
On February 20, California Assemblymember Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara) introduced AB 2681, a one-sentence bill that changes the punctuation in the part of the Election Code that deals with write-in voting, but does not actually change anything. This type of bill is referred to as a “spot bill.” The deadline for bills to be introduced was February 20. Frequently California legislators who are thinking of introducing a bill on a particular subject, but who haven’t made up their minds by the bill introduction deadline, introduce “spot bills.” It seems likely that Hart is thinking about introducing a bill to restore write-in space on general election ballots for top-two offices. Write-ins for those offices were eliminated in 2012 with AB 1413. Bringing them back would possibly be useful to Democratic chances for retaining the governorship, just in case two Republicans place first and second on June 2.
Spot bills must be amended by late March to include the actual substance of the proposed bill. AB 2681 will not be heard in the Assembly Elections Committee until after the real contents of the bill have been revealed in late March. Of course the bill cold be amended sooner than late March if the bill’s author desires.
The California Democratic Party held its state convention in San Francisco on February 23-25. No gubernatorial candidate received enough support from delegates to gain the party’s endorsement, which takes 60%. Eric Swalwell received 24%; Betty Yee received 17.3%; Xavier Beccera received 14%; Tom Steyer received 8.5%, according to this article. The other five cndidates’ totals aren’t mentioned in the article.
Filing has closed for Ohio primaries. See this news story, which mentions the statewide candidates of the three qualified parties (Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian).