Orange County voters, several year ago, voted to make certain county executive positions non-partisan. However, then the Florida State Court of Appeals ruled that counties do not have the authority to make a decision like that. According to this story, Orange County officials will ask the Florida Supreme Court to reverse that decision.
Three federal lawsuits are still pending on the question of whether presidential electors are free to vote for any person who meets the constitutional qualifications, or whether states can dictate whom they must vote for. The Minnesota case is now pending in the Eighth Circuit, and the oral argument will probably be in February 2018. Abdurrahman v Dayton, 16-4551. The plaintiff, a Democratic presidential elector, was expelled from the state’s meeting of presidential electors in December 2016. He lost in U.S. District Court; that court refused to allow a trial or the presentation of any evidence. The real issue now, in the Eighth Circuit, is whether the U.S. District Court should have permitted evidence.
A U.S. District Court will hear North Carolina Democratic Party v Berger on Wednesday, January 24, at 9:30 a.m. in Greensboro. This is the case over whether North Carolina is violating the constitutional rights of the Democratic Party by having abolished judicial primaries for 2018, even though party labels for judicial candidates appear on the ballot. It is conceivable that by January 24, the legislature (which convenes January 10) will have changed the law.
The Working Families Party, which had been a qualified party in Vermont starting in 2009, has let its status lapse. It did not forward anything at tne end of 2017 to show that it still has town committees in at least ten towns.
On January 5, former California Congressmember Doug Ose declared he will run this year for Governor of California as a Republican. He was in Congress from the Sacramento area 1998-2004, and is well-funded. There are now three Republicans running for Governor with substantial financial resources, which makes it even more likely that none of them will poll first or second in June. See this story. The other two are Assemblymember Travis Allen, and John Cox.
