When the Arizona legislature adjourned on July 1, it had failed to pass two bills concerning the state’s public funding program for candidates for state office. A post here on July 1 noted that the bill to ask the voters if they want to repeal the program had failed. However, the July 1 post failed to note that another bill, to fix the system, had also failed to pass.

SB 1087 would have repaired the constitutional flaws in the “Clean Elections” law. Although it had passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 19, it never made any further headway. A federal lawsuit, McComish v Brewer, filed last year, charges that the additional public funding given to participating candidates whose non-participating opponents have raised a great deal of campaign contributions, is unconstitutional. That lawsuit is expected to prevail.

SB 1087 would have deleted the extra contributions given to participating candidates whose non-participating opponents raise a great deal of money (or, who are the beneficiaries of a great deal of independent expenditures). If SB 1087 had passed, the lawsuit would have been moot, but now it will continue. See this article.

On July 3, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin surprised the nation by announcing she will resign as Governor on July 25. Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell will become Governor. Palin announced this without taking questions, and without explaining why she is resigning.

Although the Green Party of Canada is much stronger in elections than the Green Party of the U.S., the Canadian Greens have never elected a representative to the federal Parliament in Ottawa. The party’s leader, Elizabeth May, has recently decided to move from Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to campaign in the Saanich-Gulf Islands district. See this article. The Saanich-Gulf Islands district includes the towns of Saanich and Sidney.

Canada, like Great Britain, is accustomed to candidates for Parliament that have no long residential roots in the district that elects them. The Green Party came in 3rd in the 2008 Canadian election in the Saanich-Gulf Islands district, with 10.45%. The district is now represented by a Conservative Party member, who won with 43.43% in the last federal election in 2008.

No one knows when the next Canadian federal election will be held. Canadian parliamentary districts usually have a population of about 100,000 people.