Capital and Main, a non-partisan news source about government and politics, recently ran a two-part series by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Gary Cohn that concludes that the top-two system in California has injured labor and boosted big business. Here is the first installment, called “In plain sight: the rise of corporate Democrats in California.” Here is the second installment, “Backroom Fix: How Eight Democrats Denied Health Plans to Hundreds of Thousands of Californians.

Also, on May 20, the East Bay Express, a free weekly newspaper in Alameda County, makes the same point in this editorial.

Arkansas held primaries for the Democratic and Republican Parties on May 20. Incumbent state representative Fred Smith was defeated in the Democratic primary in the 50th district. The vote was: Smith 539; Milton Nicks 1,096.

Smith had been nominated by the Green Party in 2012 and had been elected. Although his name was on the only name on the November 2012 ballot, he had two write-in opponents in November. Earlier this year, Smith announced he would seek re-election, not as a Green, but as a Democrat.

This is the second time a Green Party legislator in Arkansas sought to run for re-election in the Democratic primary. Each time, the incumbent lost the Democratic primary. The first instance was in 2010, when Richard Carroll, who had been elected as a Green in 2008, tried to win re-election as a Democrat.

Here is a newspaper story about the oral argument on May 21 in the Michigan case that challenges the law that circulators must be registered voters. Here is another story.