On October 13, We Ask America released a poll for the Illinois gubernatorial race. The results: Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn 44%; Republican Bruce Rauner 41%; Libertarian Chad Grimm 7%; undecided 8%. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
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“State Legislatures” magazine for October-November 2014 magazine has this article by Louis Jacobson, on whether there is any correlation between type of primary, and type of politician elected to state legislatures or Congress.
The article is very comprehensive, but it doesn’t mention Professor Todd Donovan’s 2012 article, “The Top Two Primary: What Can California Learn from Washington?” published in the California Journal of Politics & Policy, vol. 4, issue 1. That article concluded “The partisan structure of Washington’s legislature appears unaltered by the new primary system.” It also concludes, “The aggregate of all of this did not add up to a legislature that looked different or functioned differently from the legislature elected under a partisan primary.” Donovan’s article is important, not only because it is based on empirical research, but because Donovan was Washington state’s expert witness in favor of the top-two primary, so clearly he is not biased against the top-two system.
Even though today is Sunday (October 12), briefs were filed today by voting rights groups and by the U.S. Justice Department in the Texas government-photo ID case pending in the Fifth Circuit. Scotusblog has the details. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On October 11, the Bradenton Times endorsed Bill Wohlsifer, the Libertarian nominee for Florida Attorney General. See the editorial here. The Bradenton Times was founded in 2008 and is an on-line news source.
Wohlsifer is the first candidate on the Florida ballot for Attorney General, who is not the Republican or Democratic nominee, since 1916.
On October 10, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that stand-alone stores open to the public must permit petitioning outside the store, even if the place where petitioning is being carried out is private property. Glovsky v Roche Brothers Supermarkets, SJC-11434. The decision isn’t posted yet on the Court’s web page, but when it is, a link will be inserted here.
The plaintiff had been petitioning for himself in 2012 in front of a grocery store. He lost in the trial court but now the Supreme Court has reversed the lower court. Back in 1983, the Massachusetts Supreme Court had ruled that shopping centers must permit petitioning, and that opinion, Batchelder v Allied Stores, has now been expanded. See this story.