On February 8, the South Dakota State Senate defeated SB 95 by 24-8. This is the bill that would have let candidates in primaries, and also independent candidates, use filing fees instead of petitions. The bill only applied to Congress and state office.
On February 9, the U.S. District Court in North Carolina that had struck down the state’s U.S. House districts last week refused to stay its own opinion. The state is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay. See this story. UPDATE: here is the state’s request to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a stay. Thanks to Rick Hasen for that.
On February 9, a Connecticut state trial court heard arguments in Morris v Giesing, which challenges a state law that says no one can circulate a petition for a candidate to get on a primary ballot unless the circulator has been a member of the same party as the candidate for at least three months. The candidate, a Democrat, circulated his own petition, but all the signatures he collected were invalidated because he has only been a Democrat since December 2015. See this story. A decision is expected by Friday, February 12. The Defendant argued that there would be “chaos” if anyone could circulate a petition.
On February 9, California Assemblymember Rocky Chavez, a Republican, dropped out of the U.S. Senate race. See this report. This is probably because California’s top-two system injures major parties that have multiple candidates in the primary. With only two well-known Democrats running, and three or four Republicans in the same race, the top-two system would probably result in only two Democrats on the general election ballot. The two Democrats would place first and second, shutting out all the Republicans.
There are still three Republicans running, despite the withdrawal of Chavez: Duf Sundheim, Tom Del Beccaro, and Al Ramirez.
On February 9, the plaintiffs in Harris v McCrory filed this twenty-page response in U.S. District Court, setting forth reasons why last week’s redistricting decision should not be stayed. The brief is quite forceful in blaming the state for the fact that the primary election is too close in time to allow for new U.S. House districts. The brief points out that late last year, the legislature moved the congressional primary from May to March, knowing at the time that the U.S. House districts might need to be redrawn. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
