The leader of the Republican Party in the Maryland House, Anthony O’Donnell, has introduced HB 472, to repeal the National Popular Vote Plan bill passed in the last session. Maryland was the first state to pass the plan. HB 472 has 34 co-sponsors, all Republicans. See this story.
Three bills are pending in the Maryland legislature to provide for a special election when a U.S. Senate seat becomes vacant. They are HB 278, SB 325, and SB 326.
Texas State Senator Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock) has filed a proposed State Constitutional Amendment, and enabling legislation, to end partisan elections for Texas State Court Judges. They are SJR 23 and SB 782.
If the bills pass, the voters would vote on the idea in November 2009. Ending partisan elections for statewide judges would arguably be a very good idea from a public policy standpoint, but it would clearly make it more difficult for minor parties to remain ballot-qualified. Generally, when a minor party polls enough votes to remain on the Texas ballot, it is in a statewide partisan judicial race.
On February 13, the South Dakota House State Affairs Committee voted 7-5 to pass HB 1234. It moves the independent candidate petition deadline (for office other than president) from June to April.
South Dakota already was one of only six states in 2008 that had no independent or minor party candidates for either house of Congress.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Mark Kirkeby (R-Rapid City) and co-sponsored by 12 Republicans in the House, 4 Democrats in the House, 5 Republican Senators, 2 Democratic Senators, and the only Independent Senator, Tom Dempster (he is a registered Republican, but ran in 2008 as an independent because his paperwork to run in the Republican primary had been defective and he was kept off the primary ballot).
The bill would probably be held unconstitutional, since it sets a deadline substantially earlier than the June primary. The First, Third, Fourth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits have all struck down non-presidential independent deadlines that were earlier than primary day or the day before primary day. Also US District Courts have struck down such deadlines in certain states not in the above-named circuits, such as Ohio and Kentucky in the Sixth, and Arkansas in the Eighth. The Arkansas decision, in 1976, by a 3-judge U.S. District Court, was summarily affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the House Committee, the 5 “No” votes were cast by 3 Republicans (Timothy Rave, Kristi Noem, and Manny Steele), and 2 Democrats (Marc Feinstein and Larry Lucas). The Secretary of State, Chris Nelson, is opposed to the bill and predicts that if passed, it will be held unconstitutional.
C-SPAN will broadcast the national meeting sponsored by the Committee for a Unified Independent Party. It will air on Friday evening, February 13, at 8:25 pm eastern standard time. It lasts almost 90 minutes.
The Committee for a Unified Independent Party holds itself out as the defender of independent voters. One of the speakers at its January 25 national meeting was Phil Keisling, former Oregon Secretary of State, and the prime mover behind the initiative in Oregon last year to impose a “top-two” system. The voters defeated that initiative. CUIP is also intervening in federal court in Idaho to represent the interests of independent voters, and against the Republican Party lawsuit to win a closed primary for itself.
