Given the intense politics within Puerto Rico over statehood v. commonwealth status, it is rare to find journalistic stories that capture well the positions in this debate. This long essay from Ben Jacobs at the DC Examiner is one of… Continue reading

That’s an arresting line from this Matt Bai piece on the Republican Party. I consider changing the structure of primaries one of the more important political reform agenda items. See this good report from Unite America on the topic also.… Continue reading

From the Washington Post: The contest is quickly becoming a free-for-all. Following Cheney’s impeachment vote, the state party censured her, and several Wyoming politicians filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to challenge her. The most credible among them… Continue reading

This story caught my eye: “NY AG finds nearly 82% of net neutrality comments to the FCC were fake”: “The OAG found that millions of fake comments were submitted through a secret campaign, funded by the country’s largest broadband companies,… Continue reading

In my recent Real Clear Politics essay, I argued that putting more weight on competitive districts in the redistricting process would be one means of mitigating the forces of political extremism. As I said when I first put forward… Continue reading

In Real Clear Politics, I published a longish essay arguing that one direction political reform should take to limit the forces of extremism in our politics is the creation of more competitive election districts. I will blog about the analysis… Continue reading

For its special election to fill a vacant House seat, Texas used the top-two primary structure currently used more generally in CA and WA. There were 23 candidates who ran, and since no one is going to win an outright… Continue reading

From the Washington Post: The race for second place is on.The seven Republicans running for Virginia governor are making their final appeals to the record 53,000 delegates who’ve signed up to vote in their party’s May 8 nominating convention.Because… Continue reading

From The Economist, subtitle: “The Mormon right has not followed white evangelicals’ descent into grievance politics” ONE OF THE few uplifting notes of last year’s election season was struck by the candidates for Utah’s governorship. “Win or lose, in… Continue reading

Polling questions about the minimum wage perform better when using language similar to the Florida minimum wage ballot measureFraming the Raise The Wage Act as a $9.50 an hour wage that increases by $1.50 each year, as opposed to simply… Continue reading

In the state of Washington, the legislature just passed a capital-gains tax, which the Governor is expected to sign. Washington also has a voter referendum process. But according to this story, the legislation includes a provision that prevents a… Continue reading

There’s an intriguing, underappreciated aspect to the constitutional issues before the Supreme Court in this case, which involves California’s requirement that certain charitable organizations which fundraise in the state file non-public forms with the Attorney General’s office that include disclosure… Continue reading

As part of my identification of four political reforms that might help mitigate the most extreme forces in our current politics, I have argued that redistricters (whether independent commissions or legislatures) should strive to create competitive districts, rather than safe… Continue reading