On May 30, the Sixth Circuit asked the Michigan Secretary of State to respond to the Libertarian Party’s request for a rehearing, in Libertarian Party of Michigan v Ruth Johnson. This shows that the court is somewhat interested in the party’s petition for rehearing. The issue is whether the Michigan sore loser law applies to presidential primaries.
Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, elected as an independent in 2010, recently changed his voter registration to “Democratic” and is expected to run for re-election next year in the Democratic primary. See this story, which speculates that Chafee made the switch to make it easier to win re-election.
This is good news for Ken Block, founder of the Moderate Party and the party’s nominee for Governor in 2010. He polled 6.47% in 2010, even though he was running against Chafee, and the Democratic nominee and the Republican nominee. With no strong independent candidate in the 2014 race, Block will probably do even better in 2014 than he had done in 2010. A few weeks ago Block said he would again seek the Moderate Party gubernatorial nomination in 2014.
According to this story, on May 30, hundreds of people rallied at the New York state capitol in Albany in support of public funding for candidates for state office. The Assembly passed A4980 to implement public funding back on May 7, but the State Senate has not acted. The measure does not discriminate for or against any candidate based on the candidate’s partisan affiliation or independent status.
On May 29, the Oregon Senate unanimously passed SB 146. It is an omnibus election law bill. One of its provisions makes it easier for a party to remain ballot-qualified, by saying if a party meets the vote test, that lasts for four years, not just two years.
According to this story, it is likely the Arizona legislature will soon approve Arizona’s medicaid expansion. But opponents of Obamacare say they will do a petition drive to then put that idea on the 2014 ballot for the voters.
