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.
On December 9 the Democratic Party’s Unity Reform Commission released some recommendations for changing future Democratic presidential selection procedures. The number of superdelegates would be reduced by 60%. Furthermore, most of the remaining superdelegates would be required to vote for the candidate who had won the popular vote in that superdelegate’s jurisdiction. Only Democratic members of Congress, Governors, former Presidents, and a handful of others would retain the power to vote for any candidate.
The Commission also made recommendations about caucuses: the number of votes received by each presidential candidate must be tallied; and absentee voters must be allowed.
Finally, the Commission recommended that the Democratic Party work to persuade all presidential primary states with partisan registration to let voters change their party affiliation as late as primary election day. However, the Commission did not recommend letting independent voters vote in Democratic presidential primaries. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news that the recommendations have been released. The Commission’s web page doesn’t yet have the text of the recommendations; the information in this post was gathered from various news stories.
On December 4, Gallup Polls released a new poll asking U.S. voters about their partisan affiliation. Gallup periodically does this poll. When respondents answer that they are “independent”, they are asked if they lean toward either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, and leaners are then classified with that party.
The latest figures: Democratic 44%; Republican 37%; other 19%. See here. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
This Mother Jones article on the current Pennsylvania partisan gerrymandering lawsuit says that the State Supreme Court has ordered the lower state court to issue a decision by December 31, 2017. The issue is whether the Pennsylvania Constitution prohibits extreme partisan gerrymandering.
On December 8, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Benisek v Lamone, 17-333. This case had been considered for the first time at the December 1 conference, but no action was taken until today. The case challenges the boundaries of Maryland’s Sixth U.S. House district as a Democratic partisan gerrymander. The incumbent Democrat is John Delaney, elected in 2012 when this district first came into existence. The district goes from the Washington, D.C. suburbs, westerly all the way to the West Virginia state line.
John Delaney is the author of the bill to require all states to use top-two systems in congressional elections, HR 2981. In 2014, the vote in the Sixth District was: Delaney, Democrat, 94,704; Dan Bongino, Republican, 91,930; George Gluck, Green Party, 3,762.
Here is the brief of the voters who brought the lawsuit. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
