Daily Brew: Giddy up for tomorrow’s gubernatorial primary in Wyoming

August 20, 2018

Horse race in the cowboy state + Renewable energy standards initiative qualifies for Arizona ballot & Friday’s Union Station newsletter   Welcome to the Monday, August 20 Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day: Horse race in the cowboy state Renewable energy standards initiative qualifies for Arizona ballot Sample from Friday’s Union Station newsletter  Race to watch: Wyoming Republican gubernatorial primary Tomorrow, six candidates face off in the Republican primary for a chance to replace term-limited Gov. Matt Mead (R). Four candidates have separated into the top of the pack:  state Treasurer Mark Gordon, longtime Republican donor Foster Friess, attorney Harriet Hageman, and businessman Sam Galeotos. Haven’t been following this race? We’ll catch you up on the recent events: Polls indicate a photo finish:  A poll released on August 15 found Friess and Gordon about even, with 21 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Hageman stood at 16.2 percent, with businessman Sam Galeotos receiving 9.5 percent. About 20 percent of respondents were undecided. Money in the race is driven by self-funding: Pre-primary contribution reports were due on August 14. Friess led the field with $2.5 million; of that, he self-funded $2.2 million. Gordon was second with $2.1 million in contributions; he and his wife loaned $1.5 million to his campaign. Galeotos reported $1.8 million, including $1.5 million he loaned to his campaign. Hageman raised $1 million, $615,000 of which came from the PAC Right for Wyoming. Trump family involvement: On August 3, Donald Trump Jr. weighed in on the race, endorsing Friess. I spoke with the Casper Star-Tribune last week about what a Trump endorsement could mean for tomorrow’s results. “‘The state’s he’s played in have been very Trump favorable. If you look at the Republican primary in Michigan this past week, the voters clearly liked the guy Trump endorsed, and they took those endorsements to heart. In the races he’s weighed in on, [Trump] picked the right candidates and similarly, a lot of voters came out. In Wyoming, if his family comes out to play, that will carry a lot of weight.’” Get a full overview of the race here - and join us on Tuesday night for results.         Renewable energy standards initiative qualifies for Arizona ballot Nevada and Washington to consider similar measures. An initiative to increase renewable energy standards to 50 percent by 2030 qualified to go before Arizona voters in the November 2018 election. The initiative would require electric utilities that sell electricity in Arizona to acquire electricity from a certain percentage of renewable resources each year, with the percentage increasing by about 4 percentage points annually from 12 percent in 2020 to 50 percent in 2030. Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona is leading the campaign in support of the initiative. As of the most recent reports covering through June 30, the committee had raised $4.46 million and had spent $4.17 million. NextGen Climate Action, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization founded by Tom Steyer, had provided 99.99 percent of the committee's funds. Arizonans for Affordable Energy is opposing the initiative. The campaign had received $7.5 million in contributions and had spent $6.8 million as of June 30. Nevada and Washington will consider similar measures in November. Nevada voters will decide —Question 6—also backed by NextGen Climate Action, and Question 3, which would require the deregulation of energy and the elimination of energy monopolies. In Washington, voters will decide Initiative 1631, a measure to enact a carbon emissions fee of $15 per metric ton of carbon beginning on January 1, 2020. Learn more→ Just published: Friday’s Union Station 2018 isn’t just about midterms. It’s also the year of labor lawsuits. I thought you might be interested in an excerpt from last week’s edition of our Union Station newsletter, the one-stop-shop for staying on top of public sector union policy news throughout the country.   Here’s just a sampling of what I learned from our team: Below is a complete list of legislative actions on relevant bills in the past week. Bills are listed in alphabetical order, first by state and then by bill number. Because some state bill tracking systems are not updated in real time, some actions may have occurred more than a week ago. Noteworthy legislation: Illinois HB4742: This bill would prohibit a school district from using a recruiting firm to hire substitute teachers in the event of a teachers' strike. This bill would also permit a substitute teacher recruiting firm to enter into an agreement with a labor organization that has a collective bargaining agreement with a school district. On Aug. 13, Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) signed this bill into law. Noteworthy court cases: On June 27, the National Right to Work Foundation attached a new court filing to an existing class-action lawsuit, Hamidi et al. v. SEIU Local 1000, which asked that a federal appeals court order SEIU Local 1000 to refund approximately $100 million paid to the union in agency fees. Read the full newsletter here and sign up to get it delivered for free straight to your inbox each Friday→