The California State Senate Elections Committee will hear AB 1200 on Tuesday, February 21. This is a bill to revise procedures for elections for County Central Committee. It has an urgency clause, and will take effect immediately if signed into law. The bill is of some concern to the Green Party, the Peace & Freedom Party, and the American Independent Party, all of which hold elections for party office. The Libertarian Party, and Americans Elect, do not hold such elections in government-administered elections.
On February 8, the Idaho House passed HB 391 by a vote of 56-12. It abolishes the state’s presidential primary, and takes effect this year. The primary is set for May 15.
Assuming the bill passes the Senate and is signed into law, 2012 will be the first year since 1972 that Idaho has not had a presidential primary. The rationale for abolishing it this year is that the Democratic and Republican Parties are holding caucuses to choose the delegates, and therefore the presidential primary is not binding. But, of course, presidential primaries do have influence on public opinion, even when they aren’t being used to select delegates. The Missouri presidential primary of February 7 is evidence of that.
On February 9, the Virginia House unanimously passed HB 736, which moves the 2012 non-presidential primary from June to August 7. The bill only takes effect if the state’s U.S. House district boundaries aren’t settled by April 3, 2012. The bill also moves the petition deadline for non-presidential independent and minor party candidates from June to August.
Virginia doesn’t have state legislative elections this year. Legislators are elected in odd years. The non-presidential primary in even years is for Congress and local office.
On February 9, the Virginia Senate defeated SB 62 by a vote of 24-16. The bill would have provided that voter registration forms ask voters to choose a party, or to choose independent status. Then, any qualified party would have been free to decide for itself whether to continue to let all registered voters vote in its primary, or to limit its primary only to party members, or to limit its primary to members and independents, but not members of other parties.
The Virginia Senate has 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats. All the Democrats voted “No”, and four Republican State Senators also voted no: Harry Blevins, Walter Stosch, Frank W. Wagner, and John C. Watkins.
