On October 12, a trial will begin in U.S. District Court in Idaho Republican Party v Ysursa, 08-cv-165.  The issue is whether the party has a right to a primary process that excludes voters who are not in sympathy with the Republican Party.

The state recently presented an expert report by two political scientists.  The synopsis is:  (1) an original analysis of roll call voting data in the Idaho legislature suggests that political parties are extremely ideologically cohesive and quite strong.  There is little overlap – if any – between the most liberal Republican and the most conservative Democrat in the legislature; (2) there is no evidence of a Trojan Horse candidate winning an election and serving as a Republican-in-name-only in the Idaho legislature; (3) the Idaho legislature is already extremely polarized; this could be exacerbated if the state moved to a closed primary system.”

It will be interesting to see if the Idaho Republican Party uses the data of political scientist Boris Shor to rebut the state’s conclusion from the state’s own evidence.  Shor studied polarization in all 50 state legislatures, over the last 15 years.  Although he did not draw many conclusions about his own data, another political scientist, Seth Masket, did review the Shor data.  Masket concluded that there is virtually no correlation between openness of primary system and polarization.  For example, the Shor data shows that Washington state has had the nation’s 2nd-most polarized legislature, and Washington has used either a blanket primary, or a top-two primary, for most of the last 15 years.

The state’s expert report does not explain why the Idaho legislature would become more polarized if the state had a closed Republican primary.  If the answer is that different types of people would be chosen in the Republican primary if that primary were closed, that would contradict the state’s legal argument that the Republican Party is not injured by the open primary because the same people get nominated with either type of primary.  UPDATE:  this story describes the evidence presented so far by the Idaho Republican Party.

The North Carolina Bar Association sponsored a U.S. Senate debate held on June 26, and all three ballot-listed candidates participated.  See this story.  Michael Beitler, the Libertarian nominee, is apparently the first Libertarian Senate nominee in North Carolina to have debated both his or her major party opponents.  He is a teacher at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Every U.S. Senate election in North Carolina starting in 1992 has had three candidates on the ballot, a Democrat, a Republican, and a Libertarian.

On June 25, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed HB 292.  It ends partisan primaries for Congressional elections.  All candidates for Congress will run on a single primary ballot in November.  Usually someone gets over 50%, and there is no other election.  But if no one gets 50%, there will be a runoff in mid-December.