On December 28, Colorado State House of Representatives member Kathleen Curry changed her registration from “Democratic” to “Independent.” See this story. She would like to run for re-election in 2010 as an independent. Under existing Colorado law, she switched too late. She is about to introduce a bill that would ease the prior affiliation restriction for independent candidates, and also there is a lawsuit pending against that law in federal court. Curry also mentioned the possibility that if neither of those plans works, she could be a write-in candidate in November 2010. Thanks to Gene Berkman for the link.

Curry is the first Colorado legislator to be neither a Republican or a Democrat since the legislative session of 1901-1902, when there were 13 Peoples Party members in the House, 8 Silver Republicans in the House, 7 Peoples Party State Senators, 6 Silver Republican Senators, and one Single Tax Party Senator.

According to this news story, the Rhode Island Republican Party’s state executive committee will meet during the first week in January, and will consider the idea of excluding independent voters from the party’s primaries.

Rhode Island didn’t even have registration by party until about ten years ago. Thus, the state has a tradition of open primaries, and the idea, if implemented, would be a sharp break from the past. Because registration by party is relatively new in Rhode Island, only 10.95% of the state’s voters are registered Republicans, as of the November 2008 tally, which is the last available tally. If the Republican committee does close the party’s primary, this would probably cause a big increase in support for the Moderate Party, which is the only ballot-qualified party in the state other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. The Moderate Party became a qualified party in 2009 with a petition drive.

The December 29 issue of the New York Times contains this letter, advocating that President Barack Obama appoint one or more Federal Election Commissioners who are not members of either the Democratic or Republican Parties.

As the letter explains, the law does not require three Democratic commissioners and three Republican commissioners. It only says no party may have more than three commissioners.