Mexico held a Congressional election on July 5, to fill all 500 seats. Although not all of the votes have been counted, it appears that the Green Party will have 25 seats in the new Congress, which takes office on September 1.

No party won a majority. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has the most seats, 235. According to this article, it is possible the Greens will cooperate with the PRI to give that party a working majority (235 plus 25 equals 260, which is over half of 500). The National Action Party (PAN), the president’s party, has 153 seats. The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) has 75 seats. That still leaves 12 seats to be accounted for. Mexico uses Proportional Representation.

The July 6 issue of the Daily Emerald has this editorial, endorsing SB 326. The bill eases ballot access for independent candidates, and also legalizes fusion. The Daily Emerald is the daily newspaper for the University of Oregon at Eugene.

SB 326 was sent to the Governor on July 1. He has two months to sign or veto it.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal recently interviewed Nevada State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford about his work on the national Democratic Change Commission, the body that is thinking about the party’s 2012 presidential selection process. See here (scroll down one item). Horsford is an enthusiastic proponent of presidential caucuses, rather than presidential primaries, at least for his own state. He said, about the 2008 Nevada Democratic caucus, “It was the best party-building effort in the party’s history. We registered 40,000 new Democrats in 90 minutes…The neighborhood interaction that takes place through a caucus helps to connect communities and individuals.”

The Nevada Democratic caucus in 2008 was in January, and Horsford said he will fight to maintain Nevada’s position in the schedule as one of the 4 states permitted to go first. The others are South Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire.