This column in the Spokane Spokesman-Review suggests that there is anecdotal evidence that some Idaho Democrats are registering as Republicans just before the primary, so as to influence the outcome of Republican primaries.
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The Alaska Democratic Party had its state convention May 14-15. It did not change its bylaws to say that independent candidates may file to run in Democratic primaries. Earlier the party had been so keen to make this change, it had filed a lawsuit against the state, to strike down the law that says only party members may run in Democratic primaries. But the state court ruled that the party didn’t have standing, since technically it still didn’t have any bylaws approving the idea.
It had been thought that the recent state convention might remedy that flaw in the lawsuit, so that the lawsuit could be re-filed. But instead, the convention took no action.
Fox News Polls released a presidential general election poll on May 18. Scroll down to question 4. The results: Donald Trump 42%, Hillary Clinton 39%, Gary Johnson 10%, other 2%, won’t vote 5%, don’t know 3%.
On May 17, Public Policy Polling released this 4-candidate general election presidential poll for Arizona. Go to the second half of the poll and scroll down to Question 5 for the results: Donald Trump 40%, Hillary Clinton 38%, Gary Johnson 6%, Jill Stein 2%, not sure 13%.
Federal election law requires that debate sponsors, for candidates for federal office, must have objective criteria when they decide whom to invite. Generally debate sponsors rely on polls.
California’s U.S. Senate race on June 7, 2016, has 34 candidates on the ballot. Broadcast stations and newspapers have sponsored two U.S. Senate debates, on at the University of the Pacific in Stockton on April 25, and one at San Diego State University on May 10. Both debates invited only five particular candidates: Kamala Harris, Loretta Sanchez, Ron Unz, Duf Sundheim, and Tom Del Beccaro. The debate sponsors relied on a poll. However, that poll, the California Poll, only asked about those five particular candidates. Nothing was said to respondents about any of the other candidates.
But, since then, Political Data Incorporated has released a poll that lists all 34 candidates. The results are contained in an article by Paul Mitchell in the May 13, 2016 issue of Political Pulse. The poll was on-line. It is almost impossible to have a poll conducted by telephone that mentions as many as 34 candidates.
The results are shocking, because the top five candidates in the poll that mentioned all the candidates are not the same five candidates who were invited into the media debates. The results: Harris 24.4%; Sanchez 7.1%; Phil Wyman 3.2%; Greg Conlon 2.6%; Unz 2.1%; Sundheim 1.2%; Lightfoot 1.2%; Del Beccaro 1.1%; George Yang 1.0%; Massie Munroe .8%; Karen Roseberry .8%; Tom Palzer .7%; Pamela Elizondo .7%; Von Hougo .6%; Jerry Laws .6%; Herb Peters .4%; Don Krampe .4%; Mark Matthew Herd .4%; Emory Rodgers .3%; Steve Stokes .3%; Clive Gray .3%; Ling Ling Shi .3%; President Cristina Grappo .1%; Jarrell Williamson .1%; Mike Beitiks .1%; Tim Gildersleeve .1%; Jason Hanania .1%; Jason Kraus .1%; Paul Merritt .1%; Gar Myers .1%; John T. Parker .0%; Eleanor Garcia .0%; Don Grundmann .0%; Scott A. Vineberg .0%.