According to this news story, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf says he supports SB 495, the bill pending in the legislature to ease ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates. Thanks to Larry Otter for the link.
Reply
According to this CNN story, the likely new Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, is expected to be more confrontational and partisan than outgoing speaker John Boehner.
McCarthy is from California, which has been using a top-two system starting in 2011. The big business interests who most strongly support California’s top-two system always seem to have sincerely believed that a top-two system produces more moderate politicians. If McCarthy behaves as CNN predicts, that will be one more data point that primary systems do not affect the kind of politicians who get elected, or their behavior. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
This newspaper story says there are more than a dozen state court lawsuits around New York over whether particular Women’s Equality Party candidates should be removed from the November 3, 2015 ballot. In the meantime, election officials are worried about the schedule for printing ballots.
As of April 1, 2015 (the last tally available), the Women’s Equality Party only had 12 registered members. The other party that was created in the November 2014 election, the Reform Party (which is completely controlled by Republicans) only has 10 registered members. See the state tally here. Thanks to Reginald Neale for that link.
Ohio will hold both a special primary and a special election to choose a new member of the U.S. House, 8th district. This article says the special primary will probably be in December 2015 or January 2016.
Canada holds its parliamentary election on October 19. The mainstream press has paid little attention to the election. Here is a comprehensive Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about the election, emphasizing that any one of three parties could win.