As noted earlier, on August 2, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell vetoed SB 551.  The Senate overrode her veto on August 5, by a vote of 24-10.  The House will vote on whether to override her veto on Friday, August 13.

The bill adds a severance clause to the state’s public funding law.  The current law says that if any part is unconstitutional, the entire law is void.  If the legislature can add a severance clause, the program survives.  Last month the 2nd circuit ruled parts of it unconstitutional, although it upheld the parts that discriminate against independent candidates and the nominees of new political parties.

The bill also doubles the amount of public funding for gubernatorial candidates who qualify for full public funding, from $3,000,000, to $6,000,000.  The Governor vetoed the bill primarily because of that provision.  Her veto message said the state can’t afford that money.

On August 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th circuit denied a rehearing en banc in Coffield v Handel, 09-13277.  The case challenged the procedures for independent and minor party candidates to get on the ballot for U.S. House.  They are so severe, they have not been used since 1964.  Three times, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that ballot access laws that are seldom used are probably unconstitutional.  The original 11th circuit opinion, released on March 22, 2010, had acknowledged this, but said there is no data in the Coffield case as to how many petitions were attempted and failed.

The petition for rehearing had pointed out that there is no way to know this information, and further that the U.S. Supreme Court had not said that data is relevant.  But, that argument apparently did not sway the 11th circuit.  There had been hopes that the failure of all the independent and minor party petitions in Georgia this year, above the level of state house, might have influenced the 11th circuit to grant a rehearing.  Coffield hopes to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

On August 6, the Republican National Committee changed the party’s bylaws on presidential primaries.  The author of the plan had worked with Democratic Party officials, so that the  two major parties now agree on the timing of presidential primaries and caucuses.  This makes it very likely that state legislatures next year will pass bills, making the changes desired by both major parties.

Both parties agree that four particular states, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, are the only ones that can hold caucuses or primaries earlier than March 1.  State parties that break the rules will lose half their convention delegates and also lose other privileges.  It is now likely that the legislatures of Florida and Michigan will repeal state election laws setting the presidential primaries in January.

The Republican National Committee also voted to hold the 2012 convention in Tampa.  This is the first time any presidential national convention has been held in Florida, other than in Miami, where the Republicans met in 1968 and 1972.

Republicans also passed a rule that only affects the Republican Party.  States that hold caucuses or presidential primaries in March must assign use proportional representation to allocate delegates.  Thus, if a presidential candidate polls 22% of the vote cast in a March presidential primary, he or she will be awarded 22% of the state’s delegates.