California Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who is running in the Republican primary this year for U.S. Senate, has come out in opposition to the “top-two open primary” measure that will be on the June 2010 ballot in California. In a letter dated January 25, he says the measure “would stifle competition in elections, as neither of the two major parties would spend much time or money in the bastions of the other party.”

As far as is known, DeVore is the first major party candidate for a California statewide office to have taken a position on the “top-two open primary.”

In 2006, New Jersey voters elected Robert Menendez, a Democrat, to the U.S. Senate. His term ends in 2012. A group of New Jersey Tea Party activists want to start to circulate a recall petition against Menendez. The Secretary of State has ruled that recall cannot be used for federal office-holders, but the Tea Party group is suing in state court to overturn that decision. See this story.

In 1967 an Idaho state court ruled that Idaho’s recall procedures cannot be used against members of Congress. The 1995 U.S. Supreme Court ruling U.S. Term Limits v Thornton also suggests strongly that states cannot recall members of Congress.

On February 5, the California Secretary of State released new registration data, as of January 5, 2010.

The new figures are: Democratic 44.623%, Republican 30.752%, American Independent 2.261%, Green .659%, Libertarian .499%, Peace & Freedom .326%, Reform .140%, independent and miscellaneous 20.740%.

The last figures released were from May 2009. At the time, those percentages were: Democratic 44.553%, Republican 31.047%, American Independent 2.194%, Green .664%, Libertarian .486%, Peace & Freedom .324%, Reform .146%, independent and miscellaneous 20.587%.

To see the numbers, see here. The Reform Party is not ballot-qualified but the state keeps track of its registrations. However, Sacramento County doesn’t report the number of registrants in the Reform Party, so the Reform Party actually has about 900 more registrants than the official figures show.

The number of registered voters declined since May 2009, due to election officials purging the rolls. The only two parties that actually have more registered voters than they did in May 2009 are the American Independent Party and the Libertarian Party.