On October 1, Ohio Governor John Kasich said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that there may come a time when he leaves the Republican Party. See this story.
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On October 13, a debate will be held for the special U.S. House election, 3rd district. Participating are the nominees of the Republican, Democratiac, Libertarian, and United Utah Parties. The debate will be in a school auditorium in Sandy and will be televised. See here for more details. The four invited debates are John Curtis, Kathie Allen, Joe Buchman, and Jim Bennett.
“Count my vote”, a group that opposes convention nominations, will start to circulate an initiative petition very soon. The initiative would change the election law, to provide that party conventions would have no role in choosing party nominees. Instead, all qualified parties would nominate by primary. Currently Utah has a hybrid system in which candidates who have substantial support at party meetings become the nominee, unless someone else files a petition for the same office. Then, there is a primary. But most of the time, no such petitions are filed, and persons with support at party meetings never face a primary. See this story.
Roland McLean, a columnist for two newspapers in northwest Colorado, writes here that the U.S. needs more political parties.
The National Popular Vote Plan association has announced that it will make independent expenditures to defeat Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney, who has blocked bills to pass the plan for two sessions of the legislature. See this story. He is a Democrat, and he is running for re-election next year.