On January 24, 2007, the Congressional Research Service issued a report saying HR 328, if enacted, would be unconstitutional. HR 328 is Eleanor Holmes Norton’s bill to give DC a voting member of the US House, plus another seat for Utah. The report can be seen here.
February 13 editions of major newspapers are reporting that legislative leaders in Alabama expect to move the Alabama presidential primary from February 5 to February 2. Also, New York legislative leaders are apparently in agreement on a plan to move New York’s primary from early March to February 5.
On February 22, the Nebraska Senate Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee will hear LB 460. This bill eliminates Nebraska’s presidential primary, which has always been held in May. Instead it would direct political parties to hold precinct caucuses in early February for the ultimate purpose of choosing the state’s delegates to national conventions. Thanks to The Green Papers for this news.
The Green Party national committee has voted down a plan to revise the formula of how many national committeemembers each state should have. The plan, written by a special committee to wrestle with that issue, can be seen here. It is somewhat complicated, and tries to amalgamate data on rank-and-file membership, how many Green Party members hold elective office in that state, how many votes the party polled in that state for all partisan office, and how well the party’s presidential candidate did.
On February 13, the Idaho House State Affairs Committee voted to introduce a committee bill that would permit parties to close their primaries. Currently, Idaho has no registration by party. On primary election day, under current law, Idaho voters decide in secret which party’s primary to vote in.
The proposed bill will set up registration into political parties. However, parties would be free to either require that only registered members vote in their primaries, or to ignore the registration records and continue to let all voters vote in their primaries. If the bill passes, it is likely that the Republican Party will close its primary, but the other qualified parties in the state are likely to leave their primaries open.
