On February 2, the Maine House defeated LD 56 by a vote of 50-95. It would have implemented the National Popular Vote Plan. The plan has passed in five states, none of them in New England. It won’t go into effect in any state until it has passed in states containing a majority of the electoral college.
On February 2, a subcommittee of the Virginia House Committee on Privileges and Elections tabled HB 78. Current Virginia law lets an incumbent dictate to his or her political party how the party should nominate, in his or her upcoming race. Incumbents can determine whether their own party uses a convention or a primary, in that incumbent’s own upcoming election. The bill would have removed the power of incumbents to determine the nomination method.
Colorado Representative Max Tyler (D-Lakewood) has introduced HB 1077, which would make it possible for two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate. If a candidate had the nomination of two parties in the general election, he or she would be listed twice, so that a voter could choose which party line to support. This is called “disaggregated fusion”, and is in use currently only in New York, Connecticut, Delaware, and South Carolina.
The American Independent Party of California primary ballot in 2010 will probably list two candidates for Governor, Chelene Nightingale and Markham Robinson. The AIP has not had a contested gubernatorial primary in California since 1990, when Jerome McCready and Chuck Morsa each ran. McCready won the 1990 primary, 54%-46%.
Nightingale is part of the faction that is associated with the Constitution Party nationally. Robinson is part of the faction that supported Alan Keyes for president in 2008, even after Keyes failed to get the Constitution Party’s presidential nomination and then set up his own party, called America’s Independent Party.
Proposition 15 on the June 2010 California ballot is a measure to establish public funding for candidates for Secretary of State. The backers of this measure have launched their campaign. See this story.
