C. T. Weber Email and Phone Number

As the Peace and Freedom Party State Chair, I proposed several ideas to lessen the negative effects of Top Two on the smaller parties. As Peace and Freedom Party Legislative Committee Chair, I have been working with Green Party and Libertarian Party leaders to implement a couple of those ideas. AB 2351 (Gordon) moves the vote test to maintain ballot qualification from the statewide general election ballot to the primary because alternative party candidates will no longer be on the much larger, much more important general election ballot. AB 2351 also reduces the number of registered voters required for ballot status. Neither reform was exactly as I proposed but as passed and signed by the Governor the alternative parties will be able to remain ballot qualified, at least untill we are able to get rid of Proposition 14, the law that created the candidate reducing Top Two elections. AB 2351 passed the Assembly Elections Committee on a 5-0 vote and was passed by the full Assembly with a 77-0 vote. It also passed the Senate Elections Committee by a 4-0 vote and passed the Senate on a 33-0 vote. The Governor signed it into law on September 30, 2014. My second bill, AB 2233 (Donnelly) reduces the number of signatures in lieu of filing fees in special elections in proportion to the reduction in the number of days to collect them. It passed the Assembly on a 70-3 vote, the Senate on a 30-3 vote and was signed into law by the Governor in the middle of September. I will now try to find a legislator to carry a bill to lessen the negative impacts of the signatures in lieu of filing fees which has increased for the alternative parties from 150 maximum for a statewide candidate to 10,000 signatures in lieu to qualify for the primary. This has resulted in a 85% drop in the number of candidates from the smaller parties. This so called reasonable alternative to filing fees is more costly in time and money than the filing fees themselves, and probably unconstitutional.