The Washington Post has this article about the high cost to the government of Virginia, to defend its redistricting plan in federal court. The challengers argue that the redistricting plan packs too many African-Americans into a minority of districts in which they are in the majority, thus diminishing their clout in many other districts.
According to this post at FrontloadingHQ, Nevada SB 421 may be amended to provide for a February primary for president and yet retain the June primary for all other office. Currently, Nevada doesn’t have a presidential primary, and its primary for all other office is in June.
The drawback for this idea is that it costs the government more money to hold both a February and a June primary.
According to this story, Joseph D. Morrissey will be an independent candidate for Virginia State Senate this year. Virginia holds regular elections for the legislature in November of odd years. See the fourth paragraph.
Morrissey was elected to the House as an independent on January 13, 2015, in a special election. He defeated both his major party opponents, winning with a plurality of 42.3%.
He intended to run for State Senate this November as a Democrat, but even though he submitted three times as many signatures as were required to get on the Democratic primary ballot, he was told he didn’t have enough signatures. Even though he submitted affidavits from people who had signed his petition, but whose signature had been invalidated, he still wasn’t put on the primary ballot.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, a Democrat, has nominated Timothy Reese to be the new state treasurer. Reese is a registered independent. Treasurer is an elected partisan office in Pennsylvania, and if Reese wishes to run for re-election, he will do so in 2016. See this story. Thanks to Michael for the link.
Greg Orman, who ran a strong independent campaign for U.S. Senate from Kansas last year, has this comprehensive essay on how state ballot access laws, federal campaign finance laws, and the restrictive policy of the Commission on Presidential Debates, all handicap candidates for president and other important office if they choose to run outside the two major parties.
