On June 27, a group of four Michigan Republican State Senators, including the Majority Leader of the Senate, introduced SB624. It provides for a January 29 presidential primary in 2008. It also says that if the parties that are qualified to hold a presidential primary jointly desire a different date, their wishes shall prevail. It also says that if all the parties that are entitled to a presidential primary agree to cancel the primary, it will be cancelled.

The same four Senators also introduced SB 625, which is virtually identical, except it sets the 2008 primary on February 5. Both bills also amend the existing law so that it becomes more difficult for a party to qualify for its own presidential primary. Existing law says that any party that got 5% for president in the last election (in the entire USA) is entitled to a presidential primary. The bill changes that to 25% for president in the last election, within Michigan.

Both bills provide that voters who wish to vote in a presidential primary must choose one party’s ballot, and the names and addresses of voters who choose any particular party’s ballot are provided to that political party. Currently, Michigan has an open primary in which voters decide which primary to vote in, in the secrecy of the voting booth. Thanks to Tom Jones for this news.

As earlier noted, a federal court jury in Tallahassee, Florida, ruled on June 25 that the O’Hara/Martin faction of the national Reform Party is the true Reform Party. The O’Hara/Martin faction’s National Treasurer was Lee Dilworth in the recent past, and is now Barbara Del Washer.

But in the lawsuit Federal Election Commission v Reform Party, which determined that the Reform Party owes the FEC $333,000, the Reform Party’s national treasurer was assumed to be Beverly Kennedy. When Barbara Del Washer had tried to intervene in that lawsuit, on the grounds that she, not Beverly Kennedy, is Treasurer, the court had denied her intervention. UPDATE: Rodney Martin, recognized by the Tallahassee court as the Reform Party national chair, e-mails me that the FEC only let Beverly Kennedy intervene as an individual, not in her capacity as national chair. He also says that the FEC has recognized Barbara Del Washer as Treasurer. However, he does not deny that she was not permitted to intevene in the FEC lawsuit. FURTHER UPDATE: The reason Barbara Del Washer wasn’t permitted to intervene in the lawsuit FEC v Reform Party was merely that she tried to intervene too late; the court did not actually try to resolve who the Reform Party Treasurer was. Ballot Access News regrets that this original post was somewhat misleading.

On June 14, a new lawsuit was filed in federal court to strike down Oklahoma’s apparent ban on out-of-state petition circulators. It is Term Limits Group, et al v Savage, no. 5:07-cv-680.

The plaintiff wants to circulate an initiative petition expanding term limits to cover the state offices that are not already covered by Oklahoma’s term limits law. Although Governor and state legislators are already subject to term limits, there are no term limits on the other elected statewide executive posts, such as Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, etc.