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Daily Brew: April 4, 2019

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April 4, 2019

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Today's Brew highlights Ballotpedia’s analysis of legislative changes to voter-approved state statutes since 2010 + an update to Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election

  
The Daily Brew

Welcome to the Thursday, April 4 Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

  1. Since 2016, 32 percent of citizen initiatives approved by voters have been amended or repealed
  2. What happens next in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race?
  3. Other noteworthy election results from Tuesday

Since 2016, 32 percent of citizen initiatives approved by voters have been amended or repealed

Eighteen citizen initiatives approved by voters in 2016 and 2018 have been amended or repealed by lawmakers - a process known as legislative alteration - in seven states and the District of Columbia. In at least seven other instances, legislative alteration was considered by state legislators but ultimately failed or is still pending.

Legislative alteration refers to when legislators repeal or amend citizen initiatives after voters have approved them. It applies only to ballot initiatives that change state statutes. State legislatures cannot amend or repeal initiated constitutional amendments without voter approval. There are 21 states with a process for initiated state statutes. In California and Arizona, however, changes to initiated state statutes must be referred to the voters and cannot be passed directly by state legislators.

Ballotpedia analyzed legislative alteration activity in these 21 states and D.C. for initiatives approved since 2010 to see how recent years compare to the last decade. Overall, we found that from 2010 through 2018:

  • 99 initiated state statutes (initiated ordinances in D.C.) were approved by voters
  • Fifty-six of them were approved in 2016, 2017, or 2018, with 18 of them having been altered by lawmakers. This results in a legislative alteration rate of 32 percent
  • Forty-three initiated state statutes were approved from 2010 through 2015, with nine of them altered by legislators, which produces a legislative alteration rate of 21 percent

In some cases, legislative alterations take place contrary to the intentions of the initiative proponents, but in other cases, they are supported by proponents.

An average of just over one initiated state statute approved since 2010 has been legislatively altered. The states with the most total instances of legislative alterations of initiatives approved since 2010 were Maine with four initiatives altered out of eight and Colorado and Oregon each with three initiatives altered out of five. Nine states did not alter any initiatives approved since 2010, including the two states in which voters did not approve any initiated state statutes.

The states with the highest rates of legislative alteration were

  • Utah (66.7 percent)
  • Colorado (60 percent)
  • Oregon (60 percent)
  • Maine (50 percent)
  • Montana (50 percent)

Click here to view all legislatively altered initiatives approved since 2010, as well as some additional initiatives from before 2010 for select states.

See the rules governing legislative alteration in each state

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What happens next in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race?

Appeals Judge Brian Hagedorn leads Appeals Chief Judge Lisa Neubauer by 5,960 votes or 0.5 percent in the race for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court with all precincts reporting.

Hagedorn declared victory early Wednesday morning, while Neubauer has neither conceded nor requested a recount. She said in a video statement, “We need to make sure that every last vote is counted and that’s going to take a little time.”

Under Wisconsin state law, a losing candidate may request a recount if the margin of victory is 1 percent or less of the total votes cast. If Neubauer pursues a recount, she will have to pay the cost of it since the margin is greater than 0.25 percent.

According to an analysis by Craig Gilbert of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Hagedorn’s vote margin in the Green Bay media market was approximately 20 percentage points greater than that received by Circuit Judge Michael Screnock, who was the state Supreme Court justice backed by conservatives in 2018. Gilbert also observed that Neubauer’s vote margin in Milwaukee County was 4,000 votes less than that received by Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet in that same 2018 race. Dallet defeated Screnock, 56 percent to 44 percent, to win a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court last year.

The partisan balance of the court for the next four years could be determined by the result of this election. Although state Supreme Court elections in Wisconsin are officially nonpartisan, liberal and conservative groups typically coalesce around specific candidates. Conservatives, who currently have a 4-3 majority on the court, back Hagedorn. Liberals support Neubauer.

A Hagedorn victory means that conservatives will expand their majority on the court to 5-2 and would likely maintain that majority until at least 2023.

Other noteworthy election results from Tuesday

If you're a Tap subscriber, you know that it was very busy Election Day on Tuesday. I wrote about the Chicago mayoral race yesterday and the Wisconsin Supreme Court election both yesterday and today. Here are four additional election stories from Tuesday. For more in-depth coverage visit Ballotpedia.org or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, the Tap.

Chicago

In addition to the mayor’s race, Chicago also held runoff elections for city treasurer and 15 city council seats. Four of those runoffs were for open seats, and 11 featured incumbents seeking re-election.

At least three incumbent aldermen lost their re-election bids on Tuesday, in addition to the three who lost outright in the general election on February 26. As of yesterday, the races for the 5th, 33rd, and 46th wards were too close to call. All three feature incumbents running for re-election.

One incumbent who lost Tuesday night was 40th Ward Ald. Pat O'Connor, the second longest-serving member on the Chicago City Council. He was first elected in 1983 and was defeated by André Vasquez.

Ald. Toni Foulkes (16th) lost to Stephanie Coleman and Ald. Milagros Santiago (31st) was defeated by Felix Cardona Jr.

In 2015, 44 incumbents sought re-election and seven were defeated—an 84 percent re-election rate.

Forty-five city council members sought re-election in 2019.

Las Vegas

Incumbent Mayor Carolyn Goodman won re-election as mayor of Las Vegas in the city’s primary election on Tuesday. In Nevada, candidates who receive a majority of the vote in the primary win election outright.

Goodman, who faced six challengers, received 83.5 percent. The next-highest vote recipient, Phil Collins, received 5.3 percent of the vote.

Goodman was first elected in 2011 and won re-election in 2015, also by receiving a majority of the vote in the primary. This will be her third and final term as mayor due to term limits. Goodman is married to Oscar Goodman, who was elected mayor of Las Vegas three times and served as the mayor from 1999-2011.

Las Vegas is the largest city in Nevada and the 29th-largest city in the U.S. by population.

Kansas City

City council members Jolie Justus and Quinton Lucas advanced from the primary election for mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. Each received about 25 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results. They were among a field of 11 candidates seeking to succeed term-limited Mayor Sly James. The general election is June 18. Justus and Lucas have both been on the city council since 2015.

Kansas City uses a council-manager system. In this form of municipal government, an elected city council—which includes the mayor and serves as the city's primary legislative body—appoints a chief executive called a city manager to oversee day-to-day municipal operations and implement the council's policy and legislative initiatives.

The mayor's primary responsibilities are to preside over city council meetings and official city ceremonies, and to represent the city on the state, national, and international levels.

Kansas City voters will also elect all 12 members of the city council on June 18.

Madison

In Madison, Wisconsin, Satya Rhodes-Conway defeated incumbent Mayor Paul Soglin in Tuesday’s general election. With all precincts reporting, unofficial results showed Rhodes-Conway received 61.9 percent of the vote to Soglin’s 37.7 percent.

Rhodes-Conway and Soglin advanced from a five-candidate primary election on February 19. In that contest, Soglin finished in first place with 28.6 percent of the vote and Rhodes-Conway was second with 27.7 percent.

Rhodes-Conway will be the second woman to serve as mayor of Madison. She previously served on the city council from 2007 to 2013.

Soglin first served as mayor of Madison from 1973 to 1979. He was re-elected in 1989 and served until 1997. He was elected again in 2011 and re-elected in 2015. In all, he has served as mayor of the city for a combined 22 years.

All 20 seats on the Madison Common Council were also up for election. Of the 11 incumbents seeking re-election, nine were unopposed and the two incumbents who faced challengers were re-elected. Nine new members will join the council.


See also

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