May 29 election date and re-filing period officially set

Here’s the court order, and here’s the revised election calendar. The main things you need to know are that candidates who had filed for office in the prior period are automatically in unless they withdraw. The new filing period runs from tomorrow, March 2, through 6 PM next Friday, March 9. Candidates also have until April 9 to move into their district of choice if they were drawn out of it, as Joe Moody was in HD78. I presume the Harris County Republicans who filed for HD136 are not planning to move to Williamson County, so at the very least expect them to un-file. Also un-filing, per an email to Carl Whitmarsh’s list yesterday, was CD22 candidate Doug Blatt, who withdrew and endorsed KP George in what is now a straight up race against LaRouchie wingnut Kesha Rogers. I’ll update my primary pages as we go. Robert Miller promises there will be a few surprises between now and the 9th. We’ll see.

If there’s one possible wrench in the works, it’s that the non-MALDEF plaintiffs have filed an advisory with the DC Court saying that the interim Congressional and Legislative maps still contain many Section 5 violations for which evidence, including evidence of discrimination, were “established by the evidentiary record before the Court”. They ask the DC Court to make its preclearance ruling ASAP in the hope that something could still be done for this year, in a June primary. I wish them well, and I think they will ultimately get the rulings they seek, but I seriously doubt anything will change before 2014, assuming there is still a Voting Rights Act to speak of. Still, if nothing else a ringing denial of preclearance could invite another appeal for a stay from SCOTUS. If you think things were screwy before, that would be off the charts. Keep an eye on it in any event.

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