California Private Health Insurance PAC Contributes $100,000 to Campaign in Support of “Top-Two Open Primary”

Posted on by January 5, 2010
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The PAC for the California Association of Health Underwriters (CAHU-PAC) recently contributed $100,000 toward the campaign to pass the “top-two open primary” ballot measure on the June 2010 California ballot. The PAC’s blog says, “The Legislature has placed a ballot measure on the June 2010 ballot that will change the law to provide that all primary elections for state legislative office will be NON-PARTISAN (caps in original). This change is terribly important to CAHU because it will result in the election of more moderate anti-single payer Legislators.” See the CAHU blog here (go back to the November 16, 2009 CAHU-PAC blog post for more).

The campaign for the “top-two open primary” ballot measure has already sent a 25 inch by 11 inch brochure to many registered independent voters in California, advocating the measure. The brochure includes an application for a voter to request a mail ballot.

In 2004, when the “top-two open primary” was also on the California ballot, the biggest contributor to the campaign for it was Countrywide Home Lending, which contributed $250,000.

California Private Health Insurance PAC Contributes $100,000 to Campaign in Support of "Top-Two Open Primary"

Posted on by January 5, 2010
Reply

The PAC for the California Association of Health Underwriters (CAHU-PAC) recently contributed $100,000 toward the campaign to pass the “top-two open primary” ballot measure on the June 2010 California ballot. The PAC’s blog says, “The Legislature has placed a ballot measure on the June 2010 ballot that will change the law to provide that all primary elections for state legislative office will be NON-PARTISAN (caps in original). This change is terribly important to CAHU because it will result in the election of more moderate anti-single payer Legislators.” See the CAHU blog here (go back to the November 16, 2009 CAHU-PAC blog post for more).

The campaign for the “top-two open primary” ballot measure has already sent a 25 inch by 11 inch brochure to many registered independent voters in California, advocating the measure. The brochure includes an application for a voter to request a mail ballot.

In 2004, when the “top-two open primary” was also on the California ballot, the biggest contributor to the campaign for it was Countrywide Home Lending, which contributed $250,000.

Los Angeles Times Endorses California Initiatives for a State Constitutional Convention

Posted on by January 5, 2010
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The January 3, 2010 issue of the Los Angeles Times has this enthusiastic, whole-hearted endorsement of two initiatives that will probably be on the November 2010 ballot. One amends the State Constitution to provide that a constitutional convention can be called if an initiative proposing such a convention passes. The other presumes that the first one will pass, and proceeds to call a Constitutional Convention. Both measures are sponsored by Repair California.

Ninth Circuit Rules that Voting Rights Act Protects the Right of Felons to Vote

Posted on by January 5, 2010
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The federal Voting Rights Act says, “No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision in a manner which results in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.”

For decades, ex-felons and felons have been filing constitutional lawsuits, alleging that state laws that deprive felons or ex-felons of the right to vote are in violation of the Voting Rights Act. In order for this claim to succeed, it is necessary that these plaintiffs establish that the criminal justice system disproportionately prosecutes and sentences racial minorities. Much statistical evidence does support that conclusion. Notwithstanding that statistical evidence, courts have not been willing to agree that the Voting Rights Act outlaws state laws that disenfranchise ex-felons or felons.

However, on January 5, the 9th circuit ruled in a Washington state case that the Voting Rights Act does apply. The decision, Farrakhan v Gregoire, is here. The case was first filed in 1996. The 9th circuit decision is 2-1. The dissenter wanted the case sent back to the U.S. District Court again for still more evidence-gathering. But the majority notes that in Washington state, almost 25% of the black male adult citizens are or have been felons.

Although the 1st, 2nd, and 11th circuits have ruled that the Voting Rights Act does not relate to state laws on felon or ex-felon disenfranchisement, in all three of those other circuits, the decisions were not unanimous. One of the 2nd circuit judges who wrote that the Voting Rights Act does pertain to this issue was Sonia Sotomayor, now on the U.S. Supreme Court. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.

Texas Democrats Won’t Run Anyone for Comptroller

Posted on by January 5, 2010
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According to this news story, no Texas Democrat filed by the January 4 deadline to run for Comptroller, a partisan elected statewide office in Texas. Therefore, it is certain that the Libertarian Party nominee for that office will poll more than 5% of the vote cast for that office, and the party’s ballot status will carry through into 2012. The Libertarian Party is the only ballot-qualified party in Texas now, other than the Democrats and Republicans. But it must poll 5% for any statewide partisan race in 2010, or else 2% for Governor in 2010, to keep that status.

It is conceivable that either or both the Green Party and the Constitution Party will be on the Texas ballot in 2010. Someone filed for Comptroller for each of those parties. However, the Constitution Party and the Green Party won’t be on the ballot unless they can obtain 43,991 valid signatures between March and May, 2010, from the ranks of registered voters who didn’t vote in a major party primary in March 2010. The person who filed for Comptroller for the Libertarians is Mary Ruwart; for the Greens, Ed Lindsay; for the Constitution Party, Alan Marsh. The conventions of these parties are free to choose anyone to run for Comptroller, not necessarily the person who filed the declaration of intent. But if no one from those parties had filed a declaration of intent, those parties could not run anyone for that office.

No one filed with either the Reform Party or the Socialist Party for Comptroller, so even if those parties were able to petition in 2010, they couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity to poll a big vote for that office.

In Texas, and in most states, when only one major party runs for a statewide office, any minor party candidate in that race polls a big vote. For example, in 2008, a Libertarian running for a statewide partisan judicial race in which there was no Democrat polled 1,043,642 votes, or 18.10% of the total.