Kevin Knauss, a blogger who is a Democrat and who lives near Folsom, California, predicts here that many Democrats in the 6th Assembly District will simply not vote for anyone in November, for Assembly. The two candidates on the ballot in that race are both conservative Republicans. Knauss says that neither one of the two Republicans has made any appeal for centrist or Democratic votes.

His observation contradicts the opinions of top-two supporters, who say they like general election races in which only one party has any candidates on the ballot, because these top-two supporters believe this causes candidates to move toward the center. Actually, if either Republican did that, the other Republican would pounce and say the opponent is just a “Republican-in-name-only” (“RINO”) and probably the perceived “RINO” would lose the general election.

Here is a recent column by California journalist Thomas D. Elias, who promotes the idea that having two candidates from the same party on the November ballot, and no other candidate, is a good idea.

Michigan holds primaries on August 7. In the U.S. House race in the Eleventh District, the two names on the Democratic primary ballot are Dr. Syed Taj, and William Roberts. Taj is a physician, born in India; Roberts is a supporter of Lyndon LaRouche. Here is a story about that primary race.

Although the Eleventh district generally supports Republicans, this year Democrats feel they have a chance in the district, because the Republican incumbent, Thad McCotter, dropped out of the primary after it was too late for anyone else to get on the Republican primary ballot. The lone Republican who had filed against McCotter does not have the credentials or support that McCotter would have had. There are also some Republicans hoping to win the Republican primary by write-ins.

Voters often are not fully-informed about their choices in major party primaries for Congress. LaRouche supporters have won many Democratic primaries during the last 32 years. Most notably, in 1986, LaRouche supporter Mark J. Fairchild won the Illinois Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor against mainstream Democrat George Sangmeister; and in that same primary, LaRouche supporter Janice A. Hart won for Secretary of State against mainstream Democrat Aurelia Pucinski.

Michigan has open primaries. Any voter is free to choose any party’s primary ballot. Michigan’s ballot-qualified minor parties nominate by convention, not by primary, so only the Democrats and Republicans have primaries this year and most years.

On July 20, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and some voters filed a lawsuit in state court to disqualify one of the party’s own legislative nominees, Bill DeWeese. He won the Democratic primary in April this year, but on primary day he was sentenced to between 30 months and 60 months in prison. If elected in November, he will not be able to serve, unless his conviction is reversed on appeal. See this story. If he is removed from the November ballot, the party is free to choose a new nominee. He could withdraw but he refuses to do that.