On March 6, the San Jose Mercury-News carried this story, asking if California is likely to change its top-two system to something else.
The story erroneously says California had a closed primary before top-two started in 2011. This is not true. For 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008, California had a semi-closed primary for congress and partisan state office. In all those elections, both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party let independent voters vote in its non-presidential primaries.
On March 5, supporters of a Missouri referendum concerning U.S. House districts said data from the various county election offices shows they have enough valid signatures statewide and also in five of the eight U.S. House districts. They need enough valid signatures in any six U.S. House districts. See this story.
If the Secretary of State would acknowledge this data, then the old districts would be in effect in the 2026 election. However, he does not.
On March 5, the Hawaii Judiciary Committee amended SB 2480 so as to make it effective March 22, 2075 (in other words, fifty years in the future). SB 2480 sets up a top-two system. Here is the Report of the committee.
U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-Montana) in this article responds to criticism that he didn’t tell anyone that he was retiring until minutes before the primary filing deadline closed. See this story.
Fortunately, in 2012, an independent candidate in Montana won a federal lawsuit against the old petition deadline for independent candidates. Kelly v McCulloch, cv-08-25, struck down the old independent candidate petition deadline, which had been the same day that primary candidates file. The legislature then changed the independent deadline to one week before the primary. That gives a chance for an independent candidate to enter this year’s Senate race.
March 6 is the deadline for California primary candidates to file. Ian Calderon, one of the nine prominent Democrats who have been campaigning for Governor, did not file. The other eight leading Democrats did file.
