Utah Representative Patrice Arent (D-Millcreek) has introduced HB 119 to eliminate the Utah straight-ticket device. It has a Republican co-sponsor, but the Republican Party opposes the bill. See this story.
Reply
On January 7, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Virginia redrew some of the boundaries of U.S. House districts in Virginia. See this story. The uncertainty as to whether the action will be permanent or not will make it difficult for minor party and independent candidates to begin petitioning. Such petitions must carry the names of candidates for presidential elector, with one elector candidate being required to live in each district. The fact that the U.S. Supreme Court might change the boundaries again will make it difficult for petitioning to begin. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On January 7, the Field Poll, California’s most venerable and trusted polling company, released a U.S. Senate poll for the June 2016 primary. It shows that if the June primary were held now, Democrats Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez would place first and second. Therefore, they would be the only candidates in November, with no write-in space on the November ballot. This would be the first time in the history of popular elections for U.S. Senate that California voters could not vote for a Republican in the general election.
The poll shows: Harris 27%, Sanchez 15%, and these three Republicans: Rocky Chavez 7%, Tom Del Beccaro 3%, Duf Sundheim 3%. See here. 44% are undecided or favor someone else.
Louis J. Marinelli of San Diego, California, wants California to become a independent nation. He recently filed paperwork to make the California National Party a qualified party. The Secretary of State of California will now ask county election officials to keep track of how many people register into it. If it has at least 60,000 registered members by January 2018, it will become ballot-qualified.
Marinelli is also circulating an initiative to change California’s status. Here is a Los Angeles Times article about his initiative, from several months ago. However, when that story was written, Marinelli favored semi-independence for California; since then he has changed to favoring full independence.
On January 7, former U.S. Senator Jim Webb sent out a press release, saying his campaign has hired Sam Jones as a fundraiser for his potential independent presidential campaign. Jones was formerly Finance Director for the committee to draft Joe Biden to run for president in 2016. The Hill has this story.