Republican National Committee Meets January 22-25, Will Make Important Decisions About Primary and National Convention Dates

The Republican National Committee meets in Washington, D.C., January 22-25. The committee will decide whether to change the rules for presidential primary dates. If the full committee agrees with a subcommittee, all presidential caucuses and primaries will be no earlier than March 1 (except for the four states that have permission to go earlier…Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida).

The Committee may also choose a national convention date, which could be in June or, if not, probably in July. The major parties never want to have their national conventions during the Olympics, and the 2016 Olympics will be August 5-21. For each of the last three presidential elections, both major parties held their conventions after the Olympics.

The tradition is that the party holding the White House holds its national convention after the other major party. If Republicans choose early July, Democrats will undoubtedly choose late July. If both national conventions are in July, or if one is in July and the other is in June, there will probably be activity in state legislatures to move the June presidential primaries to an earlier date. States with June presidential primaries are California, New Jersey, Montana, South Dakota, and New Mexico.

California Referendum Proponents Tentatively Win Court Case over Deadline for Submitting Petitions

On January 2, a California Superior Court Judge in Sacramento tentatively ruled that California election officials were wrong to reject referendum petitions submitted to Tulare and Mono Counties late last year. The California Constitution requires state referendum petitions to be submitted within 90 days after the bill was signed. It happened that the deadline for a recent statewide referendum petition was on a Sunday, November 10. Proponents tried to file their signatures on the afternoon of November 8 in one county, and on November 9 in another county, but county officials rejected them because they weren’t open for business. The Secretary of State also ruled that the petitions should be rejected.

The tentative ruling says that when petition deadlines fall on a weekend, the true deadline is the next business day. Thanks to AroundtheCapitol for this news.

The referendum proponents want to repeal a law passed by the California legislature on transgender public school students and their ability to use certain bathrooms. The lawsuit is Gleason v Bowen, 34-2013-80001714.

Joe T. May Qualifies for Ballot in Special Virginia State Senate Election; Three-Way Race Set

Joe T. May has qualified for the special Virginia State Senate election, 33rd district, in Loudoun County. He is running as an independent, even though he was elected to the House in 2011 as a Republican. May needed 250 valid signatures and submitted 843. This special election will determine which major party controls the State Senate. See this story. The election is on January 21.