The Nation has this article by Russell Mokhiber. The article advocates that Nation readers think seriously about running for state legislative seats. To encourage this, the article tells the story of Jonathan Kreiss-Tompkins, a 24-year-old Democrat who was elected to the Alaska legislature in 2012, in a district in which the incumbent had been perceived by observers as someone who could not be defeated. The larger point of Mokhiber’s piece is to emphasize how many legislative districts there are with those characteristics around the U.S., and to encourage activists to run to win. A few of the facts in the article originated with data first published in Ballot Access News.

On April 4, U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain struck down one provision of New York city’s public funding program. Here is the 23-page opinion in Ognibene v Parkes, southern district, 08-cv-1335.

The unconstitutional provision provided that when a publicly funded candidate has an opponent who spends a great deal, then the amount of matching funding that the publicly funding candidate is potentially eligible to receive is four times greater than it would have been otherwise. The lawsuit had been filed in 2008 by a Republican Party candidate for city office. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

Alabama has always had open primaries. Alabama voter registration forms have never asked voters to choose a party. On April 4, three Republican State Senators introduced SB 405, which would provide that the voter registration form should ask voters if they wish to join any particular party. The Senators are Scott Beason of Gardendale, Phil Williams of Gadsden, and Rusty Glover of Semmes.

The bill says that primaries will then be closed; only registered party members will be allowed to vote in any particular primary. The authors seem not to be aware that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1986 that the decision on whether independent voters should be allowed to vote in a partisan primary is a decision for the party, not for state government. The bill is very short and omits any details about whether voters will be allowed to register into an unqualified party. The bill also contains no detail as to how the transition from no registration by party, to registration by party, would occur. When other states have instituted registration by party, the law authorizing this always contained rules for the transition period.

As far as is known, this is the first bill ever introduced in Alabama to establish registration by party. Thanks to Joshua Cassity for the news.