The May 29 Washington Post has this op-ed, advocating public financing of campaigns for Congress and other office. The author is Phil Andrews, who is a former member of the Montgomery County, Maryland County Council. Last year the county instituted its own public funding system for elections to county office. Montgomery County adjoins Washington, D.C., and happens to be the residence of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
A new web page, presidentialdebatenews.com, has come into existence. It is sponsored by Level the Playing Field, and exists to post news about efforts to persuade the Commission on Presidential Debates to expand entry into the general election debates. Thanks to Independent Voters Network for this news. Here is a link to the web page that shows each of the last six entries. The first entry was on May 20.
According to this story, Inez Brown, city clerk of Flint, Michigan, says she would rather conduct this year’s city election as an all write-in election, rather than have SB329 or HB 4589 pass. Those bills say she and other employees of her office would be required to undergo hours of special training, but the bills also put the candidates for Mayor and City Council on this year’s ballot.
Under current law, there are no candidates for those offices on the city ballot because all candidates submitted late or inadequate petitions. Most petitions were late because the City Clerk’s office misinformed the candidates of the actual deadline.
In 2013, the winner of Detroit’s Mayoral election was a write-in candidate. Some years ago, the winner of the Democratic primary for Mayor of Washington, D.C., won with write-in votes.
On June 1, Nevada SB 421 failed to pass the Assembly. It was repeatedly delayed, because the bill’s supporters knew it would lose if they did bring it up. See this Politico story, which says that most political observers Rand Paul will do better in a caucus than in a primary. Also see this Frontloading HQ story, which says that the bill might have passed anyway except that U.S. Senator Harry Reid used his influence to persuade Democrats in the Assembly to oppose the bill.
As of 10:40 pm, the Nevada Assembly still has not taken up SB 421, the bill to switch from presidential caucuses to primaries. The legislature is not permitted to meet past midnight.
