On April 28, the 2nd circuit released this 53-page decision, agreeing with the U.S. District Court that nothing in the U.S. Constitution prevented the New York city council from repealing the city term limits law. Here is the AP story about the decision. Thanks to Eric Garris for this link. The case is Molinari v Bloomberg, 09-331.
According to this news story, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter is about to change his registration from “Republican” to “Democrat.” Thanks to Jack Ross for this news.
If Senator Specter represented California, he could not have switched parties this month and run for re-election in 2010. California law on prior party affiliation is so restrictive, if someone switches parties in April of an odd year, he or she can not run in the following year’s primary, in any party. The 2010 June primary filing deadline is in March 2010, and candidates who switch parties less than a full year before the primary filing deadline are barred from all primary ballots. One would think the California law runs afoul of the U.S. Supreme Court decision U.S. Term Limits v Thornton, which said that states cannot keep people off the ballot for Congress if they meet the constitutional qualifications to hold the office.
On April 27, the Texas House Elections Committee listened to 40 minutes of testimony in favor of HB 820, the bill to improve ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates.
The hearing started 4 hours later than scheduled, so most of the potential witnesses had to go home before the hearing started. But the committee listened to testimony from representatives of the Constitution Party, the Reform Party, and Public Citizen. Most of the legislators on the committee sat through the testimony, even though it ended after 10 p.m. HB 820 would drastically lower the number of signatures needed for ballot access.
Free & Equal has organized a press conference at the Illinois State Capitol Press Room, for 3 p.m, Tuesday, April 28. The purpose of the press conference is to criticize HB 723, which makes it virtually impossible for qualified parties to nominate candidates after the primary has been held.
The Senate Local Government Committee hears the bill today at 1 p.m.
According to this news story, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire will sign SB5599 on April 28 (Tuesday). That is the National Popular Vote bill. Washington will make the 5th state to pass the bill. However, the compact won’t go into effect until states comprising a majority of the electoral college have passed it. UPDATE: the Governor sign the bill on the afternoon of April 28.
