On March 11, Christina Tobin, founder of Free & Equal, launched a web page to oppose California’s Proposition 14, the “top-two open primary.” See it here.
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On March 10, the Virginia House tabled SB 624 until 2011. This is the bill on who can see the list of which voters voted in the most recent election. This probably means that the Know Campaign will reactivate its lawsuit in state court to obtain the list. The Know Campaign is a non-partisan group that encourages higher voter turnout by the device of mailing postal letters to voters to let them know which of their neighbors voted in the last election. The idea is that if people know their neighbors will find out if they voted, they will be more likely to vote. Existing state law gives the list of which voters voted to candidates, parties, and PAC’s, but not to other groups.
SB 624 had been introduced to clarify that groups like the Know Campaign may also see the list. Then the bill had been amended to say that no one may see the list. But, that idea doesn’t seem acceptable to the legislators either.
On March 11, California Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley issued this 6-page opinion in Fuller v Bowen, 34-2010-80000452. He explains why he ruled from the bench yesterday that Tom Berryhill should be on this year’s Republican primary ballot for State Senate, 14th district.
This is a very thoughtful and useful opinion. Judge Frawley agrees that he has jurisdiction to decide the issue of whether someone should be on the ballot as a candidate for the legislature, even though the candidate has not been a resident of the district for a year and even though the state Constitution says such candidates are not eligible. Attorneys for the candidate had tried to argue that the court didn’t have jurisdiction to decide the case, that only the legislature can judge the qualifications of its members.
According to this decision, the strict scrutiny test still apples to whether anyone has a right, under the U.S. Constitution, to be a candidate. The decision acknowledges that the U.S. Supreme Court said in Clements v Fashing, in 1982, that there is no federal constitutional right to be a candidate. But he said that decision was just a plurality decision. Justice Rehnquist’s decision only commanded four votes, Justice Brennan’s dissent commanded four votes, and the Justice John Paul Stevens wrote his own opinion. Clements v Fashing was a harmful decision, and it is good to see a lower court finding that it is not binding. Thanks to Erin Peth for the link to the decision.
On March 11, Ross Mirkarimi told the press that he has changed his voter registration from “Green” to “Democratic”. See this story from the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Mirkarimi had been the Green Party’s only county supervisor in California, although the party still has some California city councilmembers, and has Mayor of Richmond, California, is a registered Green. Thanks to Irv Sutley for this news.
On March 11, Ross Mirkarimi told the press that he has changed his voter registration from “Green” to “Democratic”. See this story from the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Mirkarimi had been the Green Party’s only county supervisor in California, although the party still has some California city councilmembers, and has Mayor of Richmond, California, is a registered Green. Thanks to Irv Sutley for this news.