On May 3, the Rhode Island Senate passed S740. It moves the presidential primary from March to February 5.
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On May 2, the Illinois House unanimously passed HB 632. Although it does improve ballot access, it is far less favorable than the ballot access bill that had passed the Senate on March 30. HB 632 lowers the number of signatures for an independent candidate for the legislature from 10% of the last vote cast, to 5%. It also moves the petition deadline for all independent candidates from December of the year before the election, to June of the election year. Finally, it removes the primary screen-out (which was never enforceable anyway).
While these are significant improvements, the Senate Bill, SB 733, lowered all district and county office petitions from 5% to approximately one-fourth of 1% of the last vote cast. Since two different bills have passed in each house, no one can be certain which bill will pass, but odds are that the weaker House version will be the new law.
On April 30, a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court against the Oklahoma law that makes it a felony for a non-resident of Oklahoma to circulate an initiative petition. The case is Johnson v Henry, civ-07-500, western district. The case was assigned to Judge Tim Leonard, a Bush Sr. appointee. Most states that prohibit out-of-state circulators merely say that signatures collected by such circulators are void. But Oklahoma provides that such circulators may be sentenced for two years to prison.
The Simi Valley, California Republican presidential debate scheduled for 8 p.m. eastern time (5 p.m. Pacific time) includes 10 candidates, not 9. Tom Tancredo is also participating. It is being broadcast on MSNBC.
Wayne Allyn Root will formally announce his candidacy for the Libertarian presidential nomination on May 4 at 10 a.m. eastern time (7 a.m. Pacific time). At that time he is also expected to talk more about his upcoming book and his upcoming reality TV show, which will feature his adventures seeking the nomination.