For the recent past period, Germany has been governed by a coalition of the nation’s two largest parties, the Christian Democratic Union and the Socialist Party. However, that coalition appeared to lose its majority in the Bundesrat (the German “Senate”), after the January 18 election for state office in Hesse. Hesse is one of Germany’s most important states, and contains Frankfurt. German state governments have input into the Bundesrat.

At the January 18 state election in Hesse, the Free Democratic Party made such strong gains, and the Socialist Party did so poorly, that the new Hesse government will be composed of a Free Democratic-Christian Democratic coalition. That automatically eliminated the majority in the federal Bundesrat for the national governing coalition of the Christian Democrats and Socialist Party. But, then the Green Party elected to support the federal coalition in the Bundesrat in order to keep it from being dependent on the Free Democratic Party, as this article in the Financial Times explains.

On January 21, Free and Equal held a press conference in the Capital Press Room in the Illinois legislature in Springfield. Here is the news coverage from the Springfield daily newspaper. Free and Equal will have several arms. One will be a lobbying group. Already, Free & Equal has identified an Illinois State Senator who is likely to introduce a bill soon to improve ballot access in that state.

Another arm of Free and Equal will be to provide paid petitioning teams for independent and minor party candidates.

Christina Tobin conceived of Free and Equal. She is well-positioned for that work. She is the daughter of James Tobin, the Libertarian Party nominee for Governor of Illinois in 1998. Tobin was kept off the ballot by a challenge to the Libertarian statewide petition, even though the petition-checking process showed that he had enough valid signatures and was otherwise qualified. One could say that the experience radicalized Tobin. Tobin gained valuable experience in managing petition drives, by doing that work nationwide for Ralph Nader in 2008.

On January 21, the Arkansas House Stage Agencies & Governmental Affairs Committee passed HB 1021 unanimously. The bill moves the presidential primary from February to May.

Arkansas law provides that newly qualifying parties may have a presidential primary, although not a primary for other office. Moving the presidential primary to May increases the likelihood that most newly-qualifying parties will qualify in time to have their own presidential primary. However, there aren’t usually many newly-qualifying parties in Arkansas. The only ones that have qualified for full party status in the last 35 years have been the Reform Party and the Green Party.