According to this story, British Prime Minister David Cameron says he won’t debate in April 2015 (in advance of the Parliamentary election of May 2015) unless the Green Party leader is included in the first debate. That would mean five candidates instead of four in the first debate. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
Here is a link to the Chicago Board of Elections web page, showing candidates in the non-partisan February 24 election. For Mayor, five candidates are on the ballot: incumbent Rahm Emanuel, Willie Wilson,Robert Fioretti, Jesus Garcia, and William Walls.
For Treasurer and City Clerk, only one candidate is on the ballot.
According to this story, the Republican national convention is likely to be July 18-21, 2016. This is a drastic change from the 2012 convention, which was the August 28-30. The 2016 date will be known for sure later this month. The consequences of the date will resonate for election law, but it is difficult to know the full consequences until the Democratic Party chooses its 2016 convention dates.
South Carolina Senator Vincent Sheheen (D-Camden) has introduced SB 204, concerning presidential primaries. Currently, the government pays most of the expenses of presidential primaries for parties that polled at least 5% of the presidential vote in the last election. The bill would require such parties to confer and agree on a common date for their presidential primaries. If they can’t come to an agreement, the presidential primaries would either be held in June, or else the parties would be required to pay all the administrative expenses.
In 2012, the Republican primary was January 21 and Democrats didn’t have a presidential primary. In 2008, Republicans had a presidential primary on January 19 and Democrats had theirs on January 26. Obviously it costs much more when the two primaries are held on different days. Thanks to FrontloadingHQ for this news.
The National Conference of State Legislatures has this useful chart, showing when each state’s 2015 legislative session starts and when each is expected to end.
