On April 15, a U.S. District Court heard arguments in Utahns for Ethical Government v Barton. See this story.

The case was filed by the group that is submitting a petition on April 15 to get an initiative on the ballot. The group is afraid that if the names and addresses are made public, opponents of the initiative will contact the signers and ask them to retract their signatures. A new Utah law lets signers retract their names, up to several weeks after the petition is due. Attorneys for the state government apparently argue that the plaintiffs don’t have standing, so the judge apparently will hold a second hearing late in the day on standing. In the parallel case from Washington state, the lead plaintiff was “John Doe”, a signer who doesn’t want his name and address made public. Perhaps the Utah group didn’t realize that to guarantee there is no standing problem, that it should have an actual signer as a co-plaintiff.

The Escondido Democratic Club hosted a discussion of California’s Proposition 14 at its April 10 monthly meeting. The Club’s web page has a You Tube of parts of the discussion, which can be seen at this link.

Former State Senator Steve Peace, a leader in the fight to get Proposition 14 on the ballot, spoke for fifteen minutes in favor. Then Richard Winger spoke for fifteen minutes against. Then both speakers took questions from the audience.

Here is a video with an excerpt of Richard:

Florida Governor Charlie Crist has continued to say he is running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican, but a new poll shows his chances of being elected are better if he instead runs as an independent candidate. A Quinnipac Poll released April 15 shows:

Charlie Crist, Independent: 32%
Marco Rubio, Republican: 30%
Kendrick Meek, Democratic: 24%
other or undecided: 14%

The source of Crist’s strength is that he is very popular among Florida Democrats. All polls of the Republican primary show Crist losing decisively to Rubio. Crist must decide which way he will run no later than April 30. Florida hasn’t elected a minor party or independent candidate to statewide office since 1916, when Prohibition Party gubernatorial nominee Sidney J. Catts was elected over his Democratic, Republican, and Socialist opponents.