Jose Nunez-Melo, who was elected to the Canadian Parliament at the last national election in 2011, has left the New Democratic Party and joined the Green Party. See this story. He represents a district in Quebec. The Green Party now has three members in the House.
The Florida legislature is meeting in special session August 10-21 to draw new U.S. House district boundaries. According to this story, the legislature is having a difficult time. Representative Evan Jenne (D-Dania Beach) has introduced HB 21 to establish a non-partisan redistricting commission. It would have 9 members, including three who are not members of either the Democratic or Republican Party.
Philadelphia elects city offices on November 3, 2015, including City Commissioner (not the same office as City Councilmember). The only petitioning candidate this year for City Commissioner is Glenn C. Davis, chair of the Green Party of Philadelphia. His petition has been challenged, even though on July 24, 2015, a U.S. District Court struck down Pennsylvania’s challenge procedures as applied to the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties.
The U.S. District Court order in Constitution Party of Pennsylvania, et al, v Cortes, says, “It is hereby ordered that 25 P.S. 2911(b) and 25 P.S. 2937 are hereby declared unconstitutional as applied to plaintiffs.” There will be state court proceedings this week on the Davis matter.
Canada holds a parliamentary election on October 19. On August 15, a Leger Poll was released showing that the New Democratic Party is leading. This party has never before formed a national government in Canada. Leger is the largest Canadian polling company. See this story.
On August 14, a unanimous decision of the Washington State Supreme Court fined the state $100,000 per day until the legislature expands state financing for public schools. Ever since 2012 the Court had been warning the executive and legislative branches that the State Constitution requires government to fund education. Because most education spending in Washington state is from local taxes and local government, not from the state, inevitably public schools in poor communities are underfunded compared to wealthy communities.
This New York Times story says the problem has been prolonged because the two houses of the legislature are controlled by different parties. The story says, “Washington’s House of Representatives is controlled by Democrats, while the Senate has a coalition majority caucus led by Republicans.”
Washington already needed three special sessions of the legislature this year to pass a budget, along with the regular session. Washington also needed three special legislative sessions in 2013. It is somewhat likely that 2015 will now see a fourth special session.
Washington and California are the two states that use a top-two system. Independent Voting, a group composed primarily of former activists of the New Alliance Party, is well-funded and has an extensive advertising campaign which teaches that top-two systems promote harmony and good government in state legislatures. In truth, whether a state uses top-two, open primaries, semi-closed primaries, blanket primaries, or closed primaries, makes little difference. State legislatures, and Congress, generally run smoothly when one party controls all branches of the government, and generally suffer gridlock under divided government. Independent Voting literature does not mention Washington state’s experience with top-two. Washington has been using top-two starting in 2008. In California, the Democratic Party controls all branches of state government, and the budget no longer needs a two-thirds vote in each house of the legislature, so there is no gridlock. Independent Voting talks a great deal about California, but never mentions that California’s gridlock was solved in November 2010 when the voters passed Proposition 25, ending the two-thirds rule for the budget.
