On March 26, the South Carolina Democratic Party agreed to put Brian Doyle on its primary ballot as a candidate for U.S. House, 3rd district. Doyle, in the past, was convicted of a felony. On January 13, the party had said it would not let him file. Doyle had then sued the party, arguing that the U.S. Constitution does not permit the party to bar any candidate who is a member of the party and who meets the U.S. Constitutional requirements to be a member of Congress. The lawsuit had not yet reached any conclusion.

The party still hasn’t listed Doyle as a candidate on the party’s web page, but that may change.

On March 22, the New York Times printed this op-ed, in favor of “top-two” primary systems, written by former Oregon Secretary of State Phil Keisling.

On March 27, the Times published three letters opposing “top-two”, which can be seen at this link. The three letters that are critical of the idea are from (1) Eric S. Maskin, a Nobel Laureate in Economics; (2) Linda Williams, chair of the Oregon Independent Party; (3) Rob Richie, chair of Fairvote. The Times, on the same day, carries two letters commenting on Thomas Friedman’s March 24 column in favor of Instant Runoff voting. Those two letters are from David A. Holtzman and Theresa Amato. The Amato letter mentions the need for ballot access reform.

Seth Masket is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Denver. He has studied partisanship and polarization in state legislatures, and he understands the harm that extreme partisanship can do. He is the author of a 2009 book, “No Middle Ground: How Informal Party Organizations Control Nominations and Polarize Legislatures.” See this description of the book.

However, he doubts that California’s Proposition 14 will cure polarization in the California legislature. His blog, http://enikrising.blogspot.com, discusses the issue. Here is a link to his blog post about polarization.