On March 20, the Maine budget-writing joint legislative committee held hearings on whether to continue to fund campaigns for state office. Many groups and individuals testified in favor of the program. See this story. Governor Paul LePage wants to defund the program.
Alabama representative Mike Ball (R-Madison) has introduced HB 488, to end run-off primary elections, except in cases in which no one got as much as 35% in the primary. See this story.
On March 18, SB 668 moved to the House Judiciary Committee. It lowers the number of signatures for newly-qualifying parties in midterm years somewhat, but does not reduce the number in presidential years. SB 668 had passed the Senate in February.
The Connecticut Joint Government Administration and Election Law Committee will hear SB 1146 on Monday, March 25. This is the bill that tells parties that cannot nominate a non-member.
On March 12, the Washington State Senate passed SB 5518, which changes the definition of a qualified party from one that polled 5% for any statewide nominee at the last election, to one that polled 5% for President at the last presidential election. Washington state’s term for a qualified party is a “major party.” “Major parties” do not need to petition to place their presidential nominee on the ballot, but “minor parties” do. Also the state holds elections for political party office for “major parties”, but not for “minor parties.”
One problem with the new definition is that sometimes parties exist, and even have considerable support, yet they don’t run a presidential nominee. Such one-state parties exist in many other states currently. Qualified parties that didn’t have a presidential nominee in 2012 include the Alaskan Independence Party; the Connecticut, Oregon, and South Carolina Working Families Parties; the Independence Parties of Minnesota, New York, and South Carolina; the Delaware and Oregon Independent Parties; the Moderate Party of Rhode Island; the Labor Party of South Carolina; and the Progressive Party of Vermont.
