In June 2010, California voters will have the chance to fundamentally alter the state’s primary election system. Currently, California operates under a modified closed primary system. Under this system, political parties nominate candidates for the November General Election through a June Primary Election. The primary is “closed” because voters may select only their own party’s candidates, [...]
Professor John J. Pitney Jr. was recently quoted in a New York Times article on the upcoming California election for Barbara Boxer’s US Senate seat. GOP challengers are gearing up for what may be a fairly competitive race, according to the article. The NYT reports that Pitney “said [Senator Barbara] Boxer’s previous easy victories in [...]
Florida redistricting after the 2010 census is likely to be a partisan struggle. The state is likely to gain an additional Congressional seat (for a total of 26). Despite having more registered Democrats than Republicans in Florida, the state government is dominated by Republicans. The state Senate has twenty-six Republicans to fourteen Democrats and the [...]
Northern Florida contains seven districts: the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 24th. The 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th are currently held by Republicans and all but the 3rd are over the ideal population for a district.
The 3rd lies in the center of the area. It was drawn in 1992 to be North Florida’s black-majority [...]
The number of redistricting commission applications is now over 21,000!
Clearly, Californians are eager to tackle the challenge of drawing legislative districts in public for the benefit of the people and voters, not for the incumbents and political insiders.
Acknowledging the surge in interest, the California State Auditor (who is in charge of the application process) extended [...]
All congressional campaigns in California recently had to submit end of year fundraising reports to the Federal Election Commission. Election 2010 is now less than a year away, and these most recent fundraising numbers help show which challenger candidates are serious competitors and which ones simply are not. Following up our previous post on third [...]
The California State Auditor has posted a draft Commission application form online. Proposition 11, which created the Redistricting Commission to handle redistricting the state’s Legislative and Board of Equalization districts in 2011, assigned the application and initial selection process to the State Auditor’s office.
The Auditor is encouraging feedback on the form and a public hearing will [...]
The California Voter Foundation posted a much-needed, easy-to-read version of Proposition 11 online. As the State moves forward with choosing the independent redistricting commission created by Prop 11, and with the actual redistricting of the state in 2011, this will be a valuable resource.
Our thanks to them, with a “why didn’t we think of that?”
North Carolina continues its two-decade streak of having lawsuits and late re-redistrictings. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bartlett v. Strickland, the state legislature is nearing the completion of its re-redistricting for the 2010 elections.
Doug Johnson was recently quoted in the Whittier Daily News on the subject of how the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority allocated the county’s share of transportation stimulus funds. Johnson believes the money could be much better used by the MTA:
The MTA should not have allocated $500,000 in stimulus money to small cities in [...]
The survey contains a vast amount of data about fees, taxes, costs, and incentives that affect business in more than 400 communities nationwide. Updated annually, it is a valuable resource for cities, businesses, and developers.