Late on December 13, twenty-eight U.S. House members from Texas filed a document with the 3-judge U.S. District Court in San Antonio that is hearing one of the Texas redistricting cases. The letter asks the judges to set a unified primary election for all office in 2012. The letter says, “We believe that a unified primary is a common sense approach to the United States Supreme Court’s stay of Congressional and Legislative plans. A single primary election would reduce voter confusion, reduce the cost to taxpayers of two primaries, and minimize voter fatigue due to multiple elections in a small period of time. We therefore ask this honorable Court to enter orders adopting a single primary date for 2012 at the earliest practicable date.”
The letter appears to have been initiated by the Republican members of the U.S. House from Texas. The first two pages contain the signatures of all 23 Republican members of the U.S. House from Texas, except for Ron Paul. Chances are that Paul would have signed it also, but he is probably away from Congress, campaigning. On the third page are the signatures of six of the nine Democratic members from Texas. The only Democrats who didn’t sign the letter are Silvestre Reyes, Charles Gonzalez, and Lloyd Doggett.
The Republican members of Congress from Texas appear to be in defiance of the Texas Republican Party, which favors keeping the presidential primary in March. See this story about the wishes of the Republican Party.
Assuming the court agrees with the 28 members of Congress who signed the letter, that primary will almost certainly be in April or May, not March. That would automatically extend petitioning deadlines for minor parties and for non-presidential independents, and would almost certainly result in a later deadline for independent presidential petitions as well, although that would take a tweak in the law.