On February 9, the Wyoming House defeated HB 54. It would have raised the petition requirement for independent candidates from 2% of the last vote for U.S. House, to 5%. The bill needed a two-thirds vote to advance, because this year’s session is a budget session. It received 32 “yes” votes and 30 “no” votes. Secretary of State Chuck Gray, a Republican, had backed the bill. Here is the roll call.
Alabama State Representative Chip Brown (R-Hollinger’s Island) has introduced HB 392. It would end elections for Public Service Commissioner. Currently these are statewide partisan races. The last time any third party was on the Alabama ballot was November 2022, when the Libertarian Party qualified. There were two seats up in 2022. Libertarians polled 16.19% for one seat, and 15.61% for the other seat. Libertarians did better for those two PSC races than they did in any other statewide races. In each case, they were two-candidate races; no Democrats ran.
On February 7, U.S. District Court Judge J. P. Boulee, a Trump appointee, ordered the FBI to unseal the affidavit that resulted in issuance of the search warrant for the November 2020 ballots from Fulton County,Georgia. The lawsuit had been filed by officials of Fulton County. Pitts v USA, n.d., 1:26mc-177.
Rhode Island Representative Joseph McNamara (D-Warwick) has introduced HB 7090. It would move the presidential primary from late April to early March. If enacted, the new date would have no impact on petition deadlines for minor party or independent candidates.
On February 3, former San Francisco Mayor Willie l. Brown, Jr. spoke at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. He took questions from the audience, and one question was about the current California gubernatorial election. Brown discussed some of the leading Democratic candidates. Then, when he was asked who is likely to win, he answered that if the primary were being held now, the primary winners would be the two prominent Republicans, Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton. He then said this is because of the top-two system, which he said “is a screwed-up system.”
Here is the video of the hour-long event. The part about the various Democratic candidates starts at the 48-minute mark, and the description of top-two is at the 53 minute mark.
Before Brown was Mayor, he was Speaker of the California Assembly.
