California State Senator Ron Calderon says he will introduce a bill on January 23 to move the California presidential primary from June to early February. Calderon is chair of the Senate Elections Committee. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he approves of the idea. Secretary of State Debra Bowen, however, fears that the state’s vote-counting equipment must be revised before the next statewide election and she fears that this work might not be done in time to cope with a February 2008 primary.

A similar bill has already been introduced in the Assembly by Assemblyman George Plescia, a Republican. The bill, AB 157, provides that the primary for office other than president would continue to be in June. Therefore, California would have two primaries in presidential election years. Approximately half the states that hold presidential primaries hold two primaries in presidential election years, and early presidential primary and a much later primary for other office.

On January 8, bills were introduced in each house of the Oregon legislature to provide that only the two candidates who received the most votes in the primary could be on the November ballot. The bills would affect all federal and state office except president. They are SB 53 and HB 2061. They appear to be sponsored by the Public Commission on the Oregon Legislature, rather than being sponsored by any particular legislators.

As expected, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Wisconsin Right to Life v Federal Election Commission. The Court set an expedited briefing schedule, so that oral arguments will be in May or June 2007. This is the case in which the lower court had ruled that the McCain-Feingold law is unconstitutional as applied in certain situations. Specifically, the court below had held that the part of the law banning almost all corporations from paying for broadcasts that mention candidates (within 60 days of an election) is unconstitutional as applied to ads that don’t even hint how someone should vote.