The Idaho Statesman, the state’s largest newspaper, has scrapped its old policy of only covering Democratic and Republican candidates (for office other than president) in advance of the Idaho primary. This year’s primary is on May 23. The paper is now covering minor party and independent candidates equally. This result was achieved after Andy Hedden-Nicely (United Party candidate for US House) had called for a boycott of the newspaper.

The United Party of Idaho has ballot status through the Natural Law Party. The Secretary of State has still not ruled on whether he will let the Natural Law Party change its name to the United Party. He says he is too busy to decide until after the primary. Idaho has permitted party name changes in the past.

On May 11, Congressman Thomas Davis (R-Virginia) and Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC’s Democratic Delegate to the US House) held a press conference to announce their co-sponsorship of a new bill. The bill, which doesn’t have a number yet, would give D.C. a voting member of the U.S. House. It would also give a new member to Utah (the state that was closest to deserving an additional seat after the 2000 census). It would also permanently enlarge the size of the U.S. House from 435 to 437 members. The new Utah seat would be at-large for the remainder of this decade.

The reason for giving Utah a new seat is that it is the only way to persuade Republicans to vote for the bill. Since it is considered virtually certain that the new D.C. seat would be a Democratic seat, giving Utah another seat balances the partisan change, since it is assumed the new at-large Utah seat would be Republican. The reason for making the new Utah seat at-large is that it avoids a messy fight in the Utah legislature over drawing new districts.

Congressman Davis had introduced a somewhat similar bill last year, but this bill is considered likely to pass, since it has the support of Eleanor Holmes Norton, whereas the first bill didn’t have her support.

On May 10, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee passed HR 9, which extends the life of the federal Voting Rights Act. As passed by the Committee, the bill merely keeps the Act in existence, but does not amend it. The Voting Rights Act, passed in 1965, has been extraordinarily effective in protecting the rights of racial and ethnic minorities to register to vote. It has also helped racial and ethnic minorities to win elections, by making redistricting more favorable. Unfortunately, though, the Voting Rights Act has never been interpreted to help voters who would like to vote for independent candidates and small political parties.