On April 5, the Connecticut Joint Government Administration and Election Committee passed SB 1146, the bill that makes it illegal for a party to nominate a non-member. However, the bill has not yet been voted on in either House. The intent of the bill is to ban fusion, but the bill goes beyond that.

The Joint Committee has three Senators and eleven House members. Two of the three Senators, a Republican and a Democrat, voted against the bill, which suggests that the bill may have a difficult time passing the Senate. Also, the bill still hasn’t been amended to correct a flaw that would cause it to be held unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court said in 1986 in Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut that parties have a First Amendment freedom of association right to nominate non-members if they wish. States that wish to ban fusion can do so, but states can’t make it illegal for parties to nominate any candidate just because that candidate isn’t a member of that party.

Maine Representative Deane Rykerson (D-Kittery) has introduced LD 1422, to establish a presidential primary in Maine. If it passes, it would allow the Green Party to have its own presidential primary in 2016. Maine has never held a presidential primary for any party, except that it had one for the Democratic and Republican Parties in 1996 and 2000. For more about the bill, see this article at Frontloading HQ.

On April 26, a state court in Illinois ruled that Steven Wailand received a majority in the Macomb February election for Alderman. See this news release from the Liberty Justice Center, which represented Wailand. He received 17 votes and his only opponent received 16. The issue was whether he had received a majority. Local election officials had said that “majority” means at least one more than half the votes cast, but the judge disagreed. Here is the opinion. The case is Wailand v City of Macomb, circuit court, 9th district, 13-MR-46.