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 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.

The Peace & Freedom Party is carrying on an active campaign to persuade California Secretary of State Debra Bowen to list all four presidential candidates that the party suggested for its presidential primary ballot. See this story in the Sacramento Bee, which says the party has a press conference at 10 a.m. in Sacramento on Thursday, February 9. The story starts with another topic at the top; just continue reading beyond the first-listed item.

The story implies that the reason the Secretary of State left one of the four candidates off the party’s presidential ballot, Peta Lindsay, is that she is under age 35. However, the reporter seems unaware that the California State Court of Appeals already determined that parties, not the Secretary of State, should make their own determinations of eligibility. In Keyes v Bowen, C062321, decided on October 25, 2010, the Appeals Court wrote, “Any investigation of eligibility is best left to each party, which presumably will conduct the appropriate background check or risk that its nominee’s election will be derailed by an objection in Congress.” See this wiki page for Lindsay.

Furthermore, if the basis for the Secretary of State’s action is that Lindsay is under age, that still doesn’t explain why she omitted the name of Stephen Durham from the ballot. Durham only recently announced his presidential candidacy, so he hasn’t had much time to publicize it, but he is the subject of a lengthy, full-page article in the Freedom Socialist, issue of February-March 2012.

An internet petition is circulating, asking the Secretary of State to list the two omitted candidates. The two candidates who are not omitted are Rocky Anderson and Stewart Alexander. However, it is somewhat likely that Rocky Anderson will withdraw from the PFP primary, and if he does, and if the Secretary of State’s action is not reversed, the presidential primary will carry only one name. UPDATE: here is a story from indybay.