On December 21, the San Diego County Republican Party, and other plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit in federal court against a San Diego city law that makes it illegal for political parties to contribute to campaigns of candidates running for city office. Here is the 29-page complaint, which also includes 39 pages of exhibits. The case is Thalheimer v City of San Diego, 09-cv-2862, southern district.

All city and county elections in California are non-partisan. However, in 1996 a U.S. District Court in California struck down a state law that made it illegal for political parties to endorse or support candidates in non-partisan elections. The 1996 case was California Democratic Party v Lundgren, 919 F.Supp. 1397.

The new San Diego lawsuit also challenges a ban on a candidate spending or raising money more than a year before the election. The individual candidate-plaintiff, Phil Thalheimer, points out that it is even illegal for him to spend his own money on his own potential campaign for city council in 2012.

For some years, the National Conference of State Legislatures has been keeping a very useful database of bills in state legislatures that amend election laws. Here is a link to that database. One can choose to look at all the election law bills introduced in any single state, in any recent year. Or one can choose to see bills in all states on particular election law subjects, or any combination.

The hard work of finding these bills is mostly handled by Jennie Drage Bowser, with help from Tom Intorcio and Tim Storey, all members of the staff of NCSL. The headquarters of NCSL is in Denver.

The database does not include pre-filed bills. Bills don’t appear on the database until any particular state legislature has convened. Almost all state legislatures will meet in regular session during 2010. Most of them convene the second week of January.

On December 22, Parker Griffith, a Democratic member of the U.S. House from Alabama, said that he is changing parties, and is now a Republican. He had been elected in 2008 for the first time, receiving 158,324 votes. His only opponent in 2008, a Republican, received 147,314 votes. His district, the 5th, is in the north end of Alabama, and includes Huntsville and Florence.

If Parker Griffith lived in California, his party switch would mean that he could not run for re-election. California law, unique among the 50 states, says that no one can get on a primary ballot if he or she had been a registered member of some other party at any time in the year before filing. Filing for the California primary opens in March 2010.