The South Carolina legislature has now gone home for the year, and the bill to outlaw fusion failed to pass. H4331 had passed overwhelmingly in the House, but it never made any headway in the Senate.
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Connecticut Democratic U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman and his primary opponent, Ned Lamont, will hold a televised debate the evening of July 6 in West Hartford. The Connecticut Democratic primary will be on August 8. This is the most interesting major party U.S. Senate primary in the nation this year, since there is a chance that an incumbent U.S. Senator may lose his own party’s primary.
Senator Lieberman refuses to rule out the possibility that he will run as an independent. He would need 7,500 valid signatures by August 9 to run as an independent. The fact that he is a registered Democrat, and that he is running in a Democratic primary, does not bar him from qualifying as an independent. The former Democratic state chair, John F. Droney, a close associate of Lieberman’s, advocates that Lieberman drop out of the Democratic race now and begin circulating a petition. Clearly, the reaction to this first Lieberman-Lamont debate on July 6 will powerfully affect what the Democratic primary voters are likely to do, and what path Lieberman will choose.
On June 13, Congress finalized a pay raise for itself, to $168,500. The annual increase is $3,300. Every time Congress raises its own pay, filing fees also rise in many states. Many states set the filing fee at 1%, or 2%, of the annual salary.
On June 15, the Idaho Republican Party state convention voted to work for a closed primary for Idaho. The vote was 221-66. Idaho has had primary elections since 1909, and they have always been open (i.e., any voter showing up at the polls on primary day has been free to choose any party’s primary ballot).
On June 14, a collection of Albert Einstein’s personal papers were sold at auction. The proceeds, $42,000, were donated to the Working Families Party by the individual who sold them.