The January 30 issue of the Concordian, student newspaper for Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, has this op-ed in favor of Instant Runoff Voting for Minnesota. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
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The Christian Science Monitor has this op-ed in its January 30 edition. It advocates that the voters of the United States directly elect the Attorney General.
Arkansas Senator Steve Faris (D-Malvern) has introduced SB 253, to move the primary (for president and all other office) to the 2nd Tuesday in August. Currently the presidential primary is in February and the primary for other office is in May, although the House has already passed a bill to put both in May.
It is quite unusual that any state legislator would propose a presidential primary in August. No state has ever held such a late presidential primary.
On January 29, U.S. District Court Judge Morrison England refused to issue an injunction against a California law that requires disclosure of the names and addresses of small donors to initiative campaigns. ProtectMarriage.com v Bowen, no. 2:09-cv-58, e.d. The case had been filed by donors to California’s Proposition 8, the ballot measure last year to eliminate same-sex marriage. A quick appeal is likely; the law requires the disclosure by February 2. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
Congressman Dana Rohrbacher introduced HR 665 on January 23. Read the bill by going to http://thomas.loc.gov and inputting the bill number. It provides that for presidential and congressional elections, the District of Columbia should be treated as though it were part of Maryland. It abolishes the office of Delegate to Congress for the District of Columbia, and says that at first, D.C. would be its own U.S. House district, but the election would be run under Maryland election laws. If, in the future, the population of D.C. is greater than the population of an average House district in Maryland, then the greater part of D.C. would be a district, and the excess would be part of a Maryland U.S. House district.