Reboot Illinois is about to launch a petition drive to place an initiative on the November 2016 ballot that would set up a nonpartisan commission to draw legislative district boundaries. See this story. The group tried in 2014 but did not get enough signatures. The Constitution requires approximately 290,000 valid signatures. The group will attempt to collect 600,000. The proposed initiative would only concern legislative districts, not U.S. House districts.
The Republican Party of Puerto Rico and the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico will hold presidential primaries on March 13, 2016. Puerto Rico also had presidential primaries in 2008, 2000, and 1992. March 13, 2016 is a Sunday.
Montana SB 279 has become law. It provides that in November 2016, the voters will vote on whether they want to amend the election law, to require a special election for U.S. Senate, when a seat becomes vacant. Current law lets the Governor appoint someone who holds the office until the next regularly-scheduled election.
The legislature could have simply passed an ordinary law making the same change, as was done this year in North Dakota. But apparently the Republican-majority legislature thought the Governor, who is a Democrat, might veto the bill. So they passed the idea as a referendum, which doesn’t need approval by the Governor. It seems overwhelmingly likely that the voters will approve the idea next year.
A conference will be held in Chicago on the weekend of May 2-3 titled, “Electoral Action Conference: Future of Left & Independent Politics.” It will be at 300 So. Ashland Ave., Chicago, a building that houses several labor union offices. See leftelect.org for a list of the sponsors, and the agenda and the names of speakers and panelists. Thanks to IndependentPolticalReport for this news.
New York is holding a special election for Assembly, 43rd district, on May 5. The Democratic nominee is not on the ballot because the local party committee failed to file the certificate of nomination for him by the deadline. On April 27, the candidate, Guillermo Philpotts, filed a federal lawsuit to get on the ballot. Philpotts v Board of Elections in the City of New York, e.d., 15-cv-2366. However, on April 28, he lost the case.
The judge, Jack B. Weinstein, wrote, “Never having been nominated, plaintiff is not entitled to appear on the ballot. His Complaint is dismissed.” Philpotts had argued that the Board of Elections had a duty to notify him as soon as it was known that the party had missed the deadline, so that the error could be corrected. The decision does not actually address that argument.
Because no Democrat is on the ballot, and because the Republican Party is very weak in that Brooklyn district, it is expected that the winner will be either the Working Families Party nominee, or the Independence Party nominee.
