Paul Mitchell has this insightful column in Capitol Weekly, a Sacramento, California politics periodical. The Mitchell column analyzes how Proposition 14 is going to work, with an emphasis on the stark difference between its effects on Democrats, versus Republicans.
The Miami Herald has this lengthy news story about Gary Johnson, based on Johnson’s recent visit to Florida and based on the reporter’s interview with him.
On the afternoon and evening of December 14, the Ohio legislature passed HB 369, which moves both the presidential primary and the primary for other office to March 6, 2012.
Just the day before, the legislature had held hearings on HB 391, a bill to set all primaries on May 22.
HB 369, which will probably be signed by the Governor soon, sets a December 30, 2011 deadline for candidates seeking a place on that March 6 primary. It passed each house with more than a two-thirds margin, so it can go into effect immediately. The bill has no effect on the independent presidential candidate petition deadline, which remains in August 2012. However, it is not good news for independent candidates for office other than president. They now need 5,000 signatures for U.S. Senate, and approximately 2,000 signatures for U.S. House, and they must gather them all during the next eleven weeks, in winter weather. The petition deadline for independent non-presidential candidates is primary day. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.
On December 14, San Francisco Supervisors David Campos and John Avalos introduced a proposed charter amendment, which would change the Ranked Choice Voting system so that voters could list as many choices as they wish. Currently San Francisco’s version of Ranked Choice Voting only lets voters mark their First, Second and Third Choices. Generally, other jurisdictions that use Ranked Choice Voting let voters have as many choices as they wish.
According to this story, Donald Trump says if the Republicans don’t nominate the “right” person, he would consider seeking the Americans Elect presidential nomination. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
