Bills have been introduced in both houses of the Maryland legislature to move the primary in presidential election years from March, to the 2nd Tuesday of February. They are SB 1025 and HB 1434. They were introduced at the request of the Governor.
On March 14, Congressman Sander Levin (D-Mich.) introduced H.R. 1523. It divides the U.S. into six regions for purposes of determing the dates of presidential primaries and caucuses. It also sets up six dates (from March through June of presidential election years). It provides for a lottery to determine which region would vote on which of the six permitted dates.
The bill does not define “political party”, so it is unclear whether it would include parties other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. Also, the bill does not seem to consider that parties probably have a Freedom of Association to set their own caucus dates (for those states that use caucuses, not primaries). Party caucuses are not paid for by state governments, and consequently it is difficult to imagine that a court would let congress tell any party when to hold caucuses. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news.
On March 9, the Governor of Arkansas signed HB 1509, just one day after it was sent to him by the legislature. It expands Instant-Runoff voting in primaries. Current law uses IRV for overseas military voters, and the bill expands that to civilians overseas.
The California Secretary of State has released new registration data. There won’t be any further California registration tallies until the late autumn of 2007. The new data shows some slip in Republican registration, and continuing gains for independent voters, compared to October 2006.
Republicans slipped from 34.33% of the state total, to 34.19%. Democrats gained slightly, from 42.48% to 42.52%. Independents went from 18.74% to 18.83%. All other parties went from 4.45% to 4.46%.
On March 12, the New York Supreme Court in Brooklyn invalidated an Independence Party state bylaw. That bylaw, passed on January 28, 2007, authorizes the state party to remove any party committee member (state or county) for any reason. The Court noted that state election law already provides that state parties may remove committee members for cause. The decision interprets that law to mean that political parties cannot remove committee members without cause.
The January 28, 2007 bylaw had been passed by those individuals in the Independence Party who have been trying for almost two years to expel allies of Lenora Fulani from the party. The New York city party officers are mostly allied with Fulani, and they are generally able to win elections to party office throughout New York city. The party faction that is opposed to Fulani is weak in New York city.
