Several newspapers have stories on February 19 about New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s attempts to woo the Republican Party, and the Independence Party, so that he may get their permission to run in their primaries, in the 2009 Mayoral election. Here is the Village Voice article, which focuses especially on the wooing of leaders of the New York City Independence Party, Fred Newman and Jackie Salit. Thanks to Blair Bobier for the news.
Very early in the morning of February 19, California legislators promised to pass ACA 6, by Assemblymember Charles Calderon. In return, Senator Abel Maldonado promised to vote for the state budget. As a result, ACA 6 will appear on a special election in May 2009.
ACA 6 converts elections for state office so that the election itself will be in June of even-numbered years. All voters will get the same ballot, and that ballot will contain the names of all candidates. The ballot will contain the party membership of each candidate. Based on past experience with the blanket primary, in 85% of all California state elections, one person gets a majority of the vote in such elections. When no one gets 50%, there will be a run-off in November between the top two vote-getters.
It seems likely the voters will vote “Yes”, because popular opinion in California is extremely negative toward state government just now, because of the longstanding dispute over the state budget.
Note that the ACA 6 system is not the same as the “top-two” system used in Washington state. In Washington state, the first round is not an election, because no one can be elected in the first round. In Washington, the first round is merely a ballot access barrier. All elections in Washington are in November.
UPDATE: it turns out that the California legislature has not explicitly promised to pass ACA 6, and the final details are not settled yet. It is possible the deal will involve putting a “top-two” system on the May 2009 ballot instead. FURTHER UPDATE: the New York Times says the measure would go on the ballot in June 2010, not May 2009, which contradicts other news reports. Check back.
Florida Representative Kevin Rader (D-Delray Beach) has introduced H759, to move the presidential primary from January to the 2nd Tuesday in March.
Maine State Senator Peter Bowman (D-Kittery) has introduced LD 547, which improves the write-in process. It requires that the list of declared write-in candidates be posted at each polling place. It deletes the requirement that the voter write-in not only the name of the candidate, but the name of the town that the candidate lives in. It also directs the Secretary of State to include the list of declared write-in candidates on the webpage of the state Elections Division.
This bill was initiated by Herb Hoffman, independent candidate for U.S. Senate in 2008 who was unjustly kept off the ballot and who then had to contend with poor government policies for write-in campaigns.
On February 18, the Wyoming Senate passed HB 76. It had already passed the House. It says that if the Secretary of State has not received the certification of any qualified party as to whom it nominated for president and vice-president by 60 days before the November election, the state will not print the name of that party’s national nominees on the November ballot. Instead it will just say, for example, “Republican nominees for president and vice-president” without naming them.
