On February 12, the Michigan Senate unanimously passed SB 44, which moves the presidential primary from February to the third Tuesday in March, which would be March 15 in 2016.
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According to this story, U.S. Senator Rand Paul has asked the Kentucky Republican State Committee to authorize a March 2016 caucus to choose delegates to the Republican national convention. If the party accepts this idea, then Paul won’t need to worry that his name can’t be on the May 2016 presidential primary, because that primary will become simply a “beauty contest” without power over the selection of delegates.
The party will decide on March 7. Paul can’t have his name on the May 2016 Kentucky presidential primary because he will also be running for re-election to the U.S. Senate.
In at least ten U.S. House races in November 2014, the losing major party nominee spent at least $1,000,000 more than the other major party nominee. Some of the incumbents who lost are on this list. See the list here. Thanks to the Center for Competitive Politics for the link.
Chicago alderman JoAnn Thompson died on February 9. She had been running for re-election in the February 24 non-partisan city election, so naturally her name was already on the ballot. The Board of Elections is removing her name from the electronic ballots, but some votes will have already been cast for her by early voters. Those votes will be tallied, but voters on election day will not find her name on the ballot. See this story. Thanks to Electionline for the link.
On February 12, U.S. District Court Judge Andrea Wood held a status conference in Libertarian Party of Illinois v Illinois State Board of Elections, n.d., 1:12cv-2511. This is the case that challenges the requirement that a newly-qualifying party must run a full slate of candidates. The case had been filed in April 2012. Judge Wood said she will try to put out a decision in the next seven days. The case has been delayed because it has repeatedly been re-assigned from one judge to another. This is something that U.S. District Courts do when a new judge begins to work. The new judge is always given some old cases that had previously belong to another judge, but that has happened twice in this case.