• Home
  • National Call
  • Eyes on 2020 Campaign
  • Blog
    • Blog
    • The Elephant and Donkey in the Room: The Future of American Political Parties
    • Gamechangers? Independent Voters May Rewrite the Political Playbook
    • Dick Spotswood: New state law moves up primary elections
    • Kamala Harris gets potentially huge boost!
    • Finding Otherness by Jacqueline Salit
    • TV Interview: CA Government Functional Once Again
    • CA Report: Top Two Dramatically Changes California Politics
    • Bernie Sanders and Independents in a bind
    • Prop 14 Victory Speech by Joyce Dattner
  • Open Our Democracy Act
  • About
  • Donate
Sign In
Facebook Twitter Or sign in with email Don't have an account? Register now

IndependentVoice.Org

Pages tagged "dick spotswood"


Dick Spotswood: New state law moves up primary elections

Posted on Blog by Randall Wilson · October 04, 2017 12:00 PM

Opinion | Marin Independent Journal | October 3, 2017

http://www.marinij.com/article/NO/20171003/LOCAL1/171009942

California voters have long felt excluded from the presidential candidate selection process. Our early June primary is at the tail end of the season, making it meaningless. Each party’s presidential nominee is determined long before California goes to the polls.

In the 1990s an attempt was made for the Golden State to play a more prominent role in the process by scheduling its presidential primaries in March. When other eager states jumped the queue even further by scheduling their voting as early as January, the Golden State change was scrapped as futile.

Hope springs eternal. Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law SB 568, again moving up California’s consolidated primary to early March on “Super Tuesday.”

The new date for primary elections, also known as first-round voting under California’s top-two system, applies to all elections. The word “consolidated” means that races for Marin County supervisor, city councils, judges, special-purpose district directors and school trustees now set for the “primary” are also moved from the first Tuesday (after the first Monday) in June to the first Tuesday (after the first Monday) in March of even-numbered years.

To the relief of those pondering a run for town council or county supervisor in 2018, the law isn’t effective until 2019. That gives potential candidates sufficient time to conduct their due diligence, line up supporters, raise funds and meet voters.

Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley writes about local issues on Wednesdays and Sundays. Email him at spotswood@comcast.net.


  • Sign in with Facebook
  • Sign in with Twitter
  • Sign in with Email


Donate
Powered by people like you
FixUS Andrew Heaton 🎩 Steve Hough Dianna Campbell Andreas Nancy Ross sue davies tia brook Mark Mike Farris E. K Mugo CA Digital Campaign Cooperative David Joyce Christina Patrick Starnes ChangeTheRules.org
FixUS Andrew Heaton 🎩 Steve Hough Dianna Campbell Andreas Nancy Ross sue davies tia brook Mark Mike Farris

Organization of California independent voters working to fix our broken political system. We've made government about what's best for the people - not the political parties.

Sign in with Facebook, Twitter or email. Created with NationBuilder