The June 7 Los Angeles Times has this story, headlined, “Few centrists advance in California’s new primary system.” The story also says, “Experts predict that the new primary rules will result in perhaps the costliest legislative campaigns in state history, increasing the power of the special interests that fund them.”
The Los Angeles Times had strongly backed Proposition 14, the “top two open primary” ballot measure, in June 2010.
On June 7, the Arizona legislature filed a lawsuit in federal court, arguing that the U.S. Constitution’s Article One requires that only state legislatures can draw U.S. House district boundaries. In Arizona, an independent redistricting commission draws the boundaries.
The Arizona legislature has a large Republican majority. A few months ago, Republicans were so displeased with the 2011 U.S. House district boundaries that Republican Governor Jan Brewer and the State Senate removed the chair of the redistricting commission. However, the State Supreme Court then reinstated the Chair.
The case is Arizona State Legislature v Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, 2:12cv-1211. The Complaint asks for a three-judge court.
Sometime in 2010, at an event in St. Louis, the Objectivist Party nominated Thomas Stevens for President for the 2012 election. The 2012 vice-presidential nominee is Alden Link. The same pair ran in 2008, and received 755 votes in the entire nation. For the 2012 election, the ticket is already on the ballot in Colorado, and expects to be on in Florida.
Rhode Island will not pass the National Popular Vote Plan bill this year. See this story.
A new political party, which exists only in New Jersey so far, has filed petitions to place its nominees for U.S. Senate, U.S. House in two districts, and County Freeholder in two counties on the November 2012 ballot. However, New Jersey election officials have rejected the petitions because the name of the party is the Democratic-Republican Party. It is somewhat likely the group will sue.
The party doesn’t yet have a web page, but is associated with the web page boldtruth.com. That web page presents the case that in the early 1790’s, a constitutional amendment did actually get ratified. That amendment requires a member of the U.S. House for each 50,000 inhabitants.
The party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison was the Democratic-Republican Party. It was one of the two major parties during the period 1792 through 1820. The state won’t permit the name because the state says the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have exclusive title to those two words.
