Sixth Circuit Finally Sets Hearing Date for Tennessee Political Party Rights Case

Posted on by November 4, 2011
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The Sixth Circuit will hold oral arguments on January 17, 2012, in Kurita v State Primary Board of Tennessee Democratic Party. The hearing will be at 1:30 p.m. in Cincinnati. This is the fascinating case, filed in 2008, over whether a party has a constitutional right to set aside the results of its primary and designate the primary loser as the party’s nominee. In 2008, State Senator Rosalind Kurita, a Democrat, had won the Democratic primary for another term in the Senate. But the Democratic Party rejected her as its nominee and instead designated the person who had polled the second-most number of votes in its primary.

The U.S. District Court had then upheld the action of the Democratic Party. Kurita had angered her party by her vote in favor of a Republican to head the Tennessee Senate. Also, the party charged that many Republicans had voted in the Democratic primary to help Kurita win her primary. Tennessee has open primaries and no registration by party.

Wisconsin Legislature Passes Bill for an Earlier Non-Presidential Primary

Posted on by November 4, 2011
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On November 3, the Wisconsin legislature passed SB 116, which moves the non-presidential primary from September to August, and which also moves various deadlines for ballot access to earlier dates.

The independent presidential petition is now due in early August instead of early September; the petition deadline for a full party is now May 1 instead of June 1; and the independent non-presidential candidate petitions are now due in June instead of July. It is considered certain that the Governor will sign the bill.

Nebraska Legislative Maneuvering over Electoral College

Posted on by November 4, 2011
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Nebraska and Maine are the only states in which each U.S. House district elects its own presidential elector. In November 2008, Barack Obama won one electoral vote from Nebraska, because he carried the 2nd district, centered on Omaha. Ever since, bills have been introduced in the Nebraska legislature to reimpose the old winner-take-all system for presidential electors, but they have not yet passed. Currently, LB 21 is stuck in the Government Committee.

This story shows that a Democratic member of the legislature had recently applied for a seat on the Revenue Committee, but then he realized, if he got it, he would be leaving the Government Committee (Nebraska Senators can only serve on one committee). The Government Committee is currently tied between members who support the current district system for presidential electors, and those who support LB 21, the bill to create winner-take-all. When the Democratic Senator realized that if he shifted committees, that would allow appointment of a new member who might support LB 21, the Democratic Senator withdrew his request to transfer committees. So, for the moment, LB 21 still can’t pass.

Nebraska’s legislature is officially non-partisan, but this incident shows that in reality, the behavior of Nebraska legislators is just as partisan as if the law provided for partisan elections for the legislature. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

Last-Ditch Effort to Avoid Two Primaries in Ohio Fails

Posted on by November 3, 2011
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On November 3, the Ohio House was called back into session to vote on HB 369, a new set of U.S. House district boundaries. Ohio Republican House members, who have a majority but less than two-thirds of the membership of the House, had hoped the new plan would attract a two-thirds “aye” vote. The new maps were designed to increase the number of districts with a substantial majority of black voters. Republicans hoped enough black state house Democrats would vote for the bill. If HB 369 could pass with a two-thirds majority in each house, it would go into effect immediately and would not be subject to referendum.

However, HB 369 did not pass. See this story. The story does not specifically say that the bill didn’t pass, but, in reality, it didn’t pass. If it were to pass, then Ohio could have its presidential primary and its U.S. House primary in March instead of on June 12. But as it stands now, the presidential primary and U.S. House primary will be in June, even though the primary for U.S. Senate and state legislature will be in March. The reason the presidential primary must be in June is that Ohio presidential primaries elect delegates to national conventions from each U.S. House district, and so if the U.S. House district boundaries aren’t known, the presidential primary can’t go forward.