On March 16, the very last day for candidates to file for Congress in California’s June primary, Ron Unz filed for U.S. Senate. See this story. There are now three well-known California Republicans running for U.S. Senate: Unz, past state Republican Party chair Duf Sundheim, and past state Republican Party chair Tom Del Beccaro.

Because there are only two well-known Democrats running in the same top-two primary, the entry of Unz makes it even more likely that the only two candidates on the November ballot will be those two Democrats, Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez.

Unz received 34% of the vote when he ran for Governor in the Republican primary of 1994, against the incumbent, Governor Pete Wilson. Unz is best known for sponsoring a winning initiative that limited bilingual education in California public schools. Here is the wikipedia article about Unz.

On March 16, the Minnesota House Government Operations & Elections Policy Committee heard HB 2735, which would set up a presidential primary in Minnesota. The bill provides that it would be the first Tuesday of March. The bill would not change the existing August primary for other office. Currently Minnesota and Washington are the most populous states that use caucuses instead of presidential primaries. See this story.

Oregon election officials are sending a letter to all registered independent voters, explaining that if such voters wish to vote in the May 2016 primary (which includes a presidential primary), they have three choices: (1) do nothing, in which case that voter can only have a non-partisan primary ballot for non-partisan offices and ballot questions; (2) join either the Republican or Democratic Party; (3) request an Independent Party primary ballot. Of the three parties entitled to their own primary, only the Independent Party lets independents vote in its primary.

This article shows the text of the letter, toward the bottom.

The qualified parties not mentioned in the letter nominate by convention, not primary. They are the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Working Families, and Progressive Parties.