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California Secretary of State Shirley Weber (D) has announced that Donald Trump's name will appear on the state's primary ballot. The California primary is on March 5 (Super Tuesday). The Maine secretary of state and the Colorado Supreme Court have scratched Trump from the ballot, but in California, he will be there.
This decision is actually very important because California awards 169 delegates to the Republican National Convention. This is the largest amount from any state. If those delegates were to go to one or more other candidates, that could strongly impact the chance that Trump gets the 1215 delegates needed for the nomination.
Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis (D-CA) was one of several state officials that urged Weber to scratch Trump, but Weber ignored all their advice and made her own decision. It is worth noting, however, that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) was more cautious than many of the other state officials. He wants to wait until the Supreme Court tells us what the Fourteenth Amendment actually means. He called Trump a threat to our liberties but said the way to get rid of him is to defeat him at the polls.
Interestingly enough, Weber did ban someone from getting on the ballot: Assemblyman Vince Fong (R), who wants to run for the now-vacant seat of Kevin McCarthy, whose resignation became official yesterday. Her basis for saying "no" to Fong is that he had already filed to run for reelection to the Assembly and California law prohibits anyone from (1) running for two offices at the same time and (2) dropping out after the filing deadline passed, which is what Fong wanted to do. But Fong got some good news from Judge Shelleyanne Chang, who ruled that Fong's switcheroo does not violate state law.
Fong isn't the only one happy with this ruling. So is McCarthy, since he wants Fong to be his successor in CA-20. The district is R+16, so some Republican will surely win it and with McCarthy's help, the winner will probably be Fong. However, Fong will probably have to wait a bit to start his new job. Newsom is very likely to schedule the special election to fill the vacant seat for Nov. 5, 2024, the same day as the election for the next Congress. That would mean that voters in CA-20 will get to vote in two House elections on Nov. 5, one for the remainder of a term that will end on Jan. 3, 2025 and one for a term that will run from Jan. 3, 2025 until Jan. 2, 2027. By not scheduling the election before Nov. 5, Newsom is keeping a Republican seat open for 10 months. Observers say that it is unlikely Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will send Newsom a thank you card for his decision. (V)