The Huffington Post has this article, advocating that the United States use proportional representation. The piece is by Joschka Tryba, a founder of LoveGov. LoveGov makes it easier for individuals to participate in politics and educate themselves about candidates and political events.
Bill Fraser will run as an independent candidate in 2016 for U.S. House in the Illinois 8th district. See this story. The 8th district in in the Chicago suburbs and now is represented by Democrat Tammy Duckworth.
Earlier this year, independent David Gill announced he would petition for U.S. House in the Illinois 13th district.
No independent candidates for U.S. House qualified in Illinois in 2014. The state has the third most difficult petition requirement for independent candidates for U.S. House in the nation, after Georgia and North Carolina. Fraser will benefit from the fact that turnout in 2014 in Illinois was quite low; he will need 7,705 valid signatures.
On October 15, the Field Poll released a 2018 gubernatorial poll. See this story. The story suggests that it is likely that only two Democrats will be on the November 2018 ballot, assuming that the election system remains in place.
Charles T. Munger, Jr., and Sam Blakeslee will soon be collecting signatures on their California initiative called the “California Legislature Transparency Act.” It would require that bills be in print for three days before either house of the legislature votes on them.
Ironically, if this had been in effect in 2009, the top-two measure promoted by Munger might never have been created. The bill for the top-two system was introduced and passed between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on the morning of February 19, 2009. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed it into law minutes after it was put on his desk. No legislative hearings were held on it, and the public had zero input and zero chance to weigh in.
The proposed initiative also requires that all legislative committee hearings be filmed (currently, some of them are filmed), and gives public access to these recordings. The initiative permits these recordings to be broadcast by anyone, and specifically permits it for campaign ads.
This CNN article gives details about the Equal Time rule, as applied to Saturday Night Live and the recent appearance by Hillary Clinton, and tue upcoming appearance by Donald Trump. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
