The Florida legislature will reconvene this week to work on new U.S. House districts. See this story. The story does not say how the legislature will deal with the problem that candidate qualification has already closed for this year’s primaries, which are on August 26. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On August 4, Gravis Polls released Wisconsin poll results. The only minor party or independent candidate included in any of the Wisconsin polls is the State Treasurer’s race. The results: Republican Randy Melchert 39%, Democrat Dave Leeper 31%, Green Party nominee Ron Hardy 12%, undecided or other 18%. See here.
There are also Libertarian and Constitution Party nominees for that office. The pollsters probably decided to include Hardy because he is a Winnebago County Supervisor. He was elected in 2012 and has already been re-elected in 2014. The office is non-partisan. Thanks to Michael for the link.
On July 23, Political Scientists Boris Shor and Nolan McCarty released an updated study of polarization in state legislatures. They find that California still has the nation’s most polarized legislature, just as it did in 2011, before California has used the top-two system. See here. Washington state has the nation’s fourth most polarized legislature, following California, Colorado, and Arizona.
The data for the updated study can be found here. Shor and McCarty had published their original research in 2011, so the comparison between the new data and the 2011 data is useful for seeing changes.
On July 30, the Tennessee Libertarian Party filed a federal lawsuit, seeking to require that its gubernatorial nominee, Daniel Lewis, be listed on the ballot as “Libertarian” instead of “independent.” Lewis v Goins, 3:14cv-1565, middle district.
Here is a link by which the order in Romo v Detzner, 2012-ca-412, can be read. This is the Florida state court’s ruling in the U.S. House redistricting lawsuit. The document says, “It is ordered as follows: the legislature shall submit a remedial or revised map no later than noone on August 15, 2014.”
