On February 3, former San Francisco Mayor Willie l. Brown, Jr. spoke at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. He took questions from the audience, and one question was about the current California gubernatorial election. Brown discussed some of the leading Democratic candidates. Then, when he was asked who is likely to win, he answered that if the primary were being held now, the primary winners would be the two prominent Republicans, Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton. He then said this is because of the top-two system, which he said “is a screwed-up system.”

Here is the video of the hour-long event. The part about the various Democratic candidates starts at the 48-minute mark, and the description of top-two is at the 53 minute mark.

Before Brown was Mayor, he was Speaker of the California Assembly.

On February 6, Larry Sharpe, the Libertarian nominee for Governor of New York, said he will also run in the Republican primary. New York law allows such activity. He will need 15,000 signatures to get on the Republican primary ballot, and 45,000 to get on the general election ballot as the Libertarian. See this story.

On February 3, the Mississippi Senate Elections Committee passed SC 518. It would bring back the statewide initiative.