Early in morning of April 3, during the last few hours of the 2015 Arizona legislative session, the State Senate again defeated SCR 1001, the bill to ask voters in November 2016 if they wish to end the campaign funding program. See this story. The bill had almost passed on March 11, and another vote had been called for. The April 3 vote was 29 in favor and 27 opposed, but it failed because bills in the Senate need at least 31 votes.
On the evening of April 2, the leaders of seven political parties in Great Britain debated each other. All seven party leaders appear to have performed without making any obvious gaffes. See this story. Also, here is another story. For another, see this story. Each of these three articles is quite different from the others.
According to this story, the Greenville, South Carolina, city council will vote on April 6 whether to convert the city’s elections back from non-partisan to partisan elections.
If the city council does reinstate partisan city elections, the Greenville County Republican Party will once more be able to sue over state law that says parties must pay for open primaries in municipal partisan elections. The 4th circuit last month rejected the party’s lawsuit because Greenville had switched to non-partisan city elections last year. The 4th circuit said it was unlikely that the city would reinstate partisan elections. But, that might have been an error.
On April 1, the Nevada Senate Legislative Operations & Elections Committee heard testimony on SB 421 and SB 499. SB 421 would establish presidential primaries, to replace the caucuses. SB 499 would establish a top-two primary, although the name of the bill suggests it is a blanket primary. The committee did not vote on either bill; the hearing was just for the purpose of taking testimony.
The Nevada Republican Party sent an officer who said that the party does not support either bill. The only witness who testified in favor of the top-two bill was Doug Goodman. This particular top-two bill is unusual because it says that if the top two vote-getters in the June primary are from the same party, but there are candidates from other parties (or an independent), then the person who placed second would not advance to the general election. Instead, the next candidate in order of votes polled who was not from that same party would advance. Janine Hansen and Thomas Jefferson, both from the Independent American Party, testified against SB 499. The committee also kindly permitted Richard Winger to testify by telephone, and I also testified against it.
The Alabama bill that improves ballot access for newly-qualifying parties and non-presidential independent candidates has cleared the Senate Rules Committee and is on the calendar for the Senate floor for Tuesday, April 7. Thanks to Joshua Cassity for this news.
