Last year, both houses of the Oklahoma legislature passed HB 1072, the bill to reduce the number of signatures for a minor party to get on the ballot. But because both houses passed different versions, the bill was sent to Conference Committee. Oklahoma has two-year legislative sessions. The conference committee for the bill has just been appointed. It includes 21 House members and 22 Senate members. OBAR (Oklahoma Ballot Access Reform) will be mobilizing all its forces to persuade the members of the conference committee to approve a good version of the bill. The existing requirement is 5% of the last vote cast. For 2010, that is 73,134 signatures.

The Philadelphia Inquirer of February 21 has this column by Michael Smerconish, a regular writer for the paper. He explains why he changed his registration to “independent”, after having been a registered Republican for 30 years. He had been a Republican delegate to the 1984 national convention. Thanks to Larry Otter for the link.

The San Luis Obispo Tribune has this column, by Bob Cuddy, about California’s Top-two Open Primary ballot measure. In the opinion of this blog, the Cuddy column is the best commentary yet written about Proposition 14. It makes a point that other commentary has not made. Why don’t politicians like Senator Abel Maldonado (author of the bill that put Prop. 14 on the ballot) and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have the courage to become independent candidates, if they are so dissatisfied with their own parties? The column does not mention those two particular politicians specifically, but that is the implication.