Salon has this interesting article about Michigan’s U.S. House race, 11th district. That district went from being a safe seat for the Republican incumbent, Thad McCotter, into a district that is wildly unpredictable. McCotter failed to get 1,000 valid signatures on his petition to be on the Republican primary ballot, and then decided not to be a write-in candidate in the primary.
On June 11, Scotusblog listed the Washington state lawsuit over the constitutionality of top-two election systems in its “cert petitions to watch.” See this link. Scroll down to the heading “Petitions of the day.” Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
The Texas ballot-qualified minor parties held their nominating conventions on the weekend of June 9-10. Here is a story about the Libertarian Party convention and the Green Party convention. Both parties are ballot-qualified, based on their votes in 2010.
Americans Elect has suspended its petition in Texas, and the Constitution Party and other unqualified parties don’t seem to be trying to get on in Texas this year, so the November Texas ballot is expected to have only four presidential candidates on the ballot. The petition deadline for all unqualified parties and independent candidates is June 29.
South Carolina holds its Republican and Democratic primaries (for office other than President) on Tuesday, June 12. According to this story, there is still no decision on whether Paul Thurmond, a Republican running for State Senate, 41st district, is eligible. Presumably the decision will come down very soon.
If Thurmond is found ineligible by a state court, then the Republican Party will have no nominee for the 41st district seat, because all of Thurmond’s Republican opponents have already been disqualified.
On Tuesday, June 19, at 1:30 p.m., the California Senate Elections Committee will hear AB 2058, which makes it illegal to pay registration drive workers on a per-registration card basis. The author is Assemblyman Richard Pan (D-Sacramento). The hearing is in Room 3191.
Under current law, the only method for a party to remain ballot-qualified is for it to increase its registration to over 100,000 members. AB 2058 would make it significantly more difficult for parties to increase their registration. In 2011, an identical bill, SB 205, passed the legislature but was vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown.
The same Committee will hear AB 2410, which would bar anyone from running for any elective office if that person, during the past twenty years, has been convicted of a felony involving bribery, embezzlement, or theft of public money. The bill makes no exception for federal office, and therefore violates the U.S. Constitution. States are not permitted to add to the qualifications for federal office.
