Daily Brew: March 19, 2019

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March 19, 2019

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Today's Brew highlights three 2019 elections + looks ahead to the Chicago mayoral and Wisconsin Supreme Court elections on April 2

  
The Daily Brew

Welcome to the Tuesday, March 19 Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

  1. Candidate fields were set last week in three key 2019 elections
  2. Two weeks until Chicago mayoral runoff and Wisconsin state Supreme Court election
  3. In 2020, voters in New Mexico will decide whether to make the Public Regulation Commission appointed instead of elected

Candidate fields were set last week in three notable 2019 elections

Last week, candidate filing closed in three prominent elections that have initial voting in May that I’ll be following closely. Here’s a quick roundup of what to look for in the three elections in North Carolina, Philadelphia, and Denver.

North Carolina

In North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, 13 candidates filed to run in the special election that was ordered by the state board of elections in February after it did not certify the results of that district’s 2018 U.S. House race. Ten Republican candidates are running in a primary election which will take place on May 14. Dan McCready, the 2018 Democratic nominee, was the only member of his party to file as a candidate. There is also a single candidate from each of the Green and Libertarian parties.

If no candidate receives more than 30 percent of the vote in the primary, a runoff primary will be held on September 10. In that event, the general election for that seat will take place on November 5. If a Republican primary runoff is not needed, then the special election for this seat will occur on September 10.

Philadelphia

The deadline for candidates to run for this year’s mayoral election in Philadelphia was last Tuesday. Incumbent Mayor James Kenney announced he was running for re-election in February, and he will be joined in the Democratic primary by former city controller and state representative Alan Butkovitz and former state representative Anthony Williams.

Philadelphia’s partisan primary elections will occur on May 21, with the general election taking place on November 5. Williams finished second to Kenney in Philadelphia’s Democratic primary in 2015, receiving 26 percent of the vote as compared with Kenney’s 56 percent as Kenney won his first term as the city’s mayor. William Ciancaglini is the only Republican candidate for the office. Philadelphia last elected a Republican mayor in 1947. The city will also hold elections this year for all 17 seats on the city council, county sheriff, and register of wills.

Denver

Last Thursday was also the deadline for candidates to file to run for mayor of Denver, and incumbent Michael Hancock faces five challengers. Hancock was first elected in a runoff election for what was an open seat in 2011 and was re-elected with 80 percent of the vote in 2015. Elected officials in Denver can serve no more than three consecutive terms. The election will take place on May 7 and a runoff election will occur on June 4 if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote. Municipal elections in Denver are officially nonpartisan.

Denver’s municipal government is considered to have a “strong mayor,” since the mayor is responsible for proposing a budget, signing legislation into law, appointing departmental directors, and overseeing the city’s day-to-day operations. Forty-seven of the country’s 100 largest cities by population have this type of government. In 2019, the city will also hold elections for city auditor, city clerk and recorder, and all 13 city council seats.

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Two weeks until Chicago mayoral runoff and Wisconsin state Supreme Court election

There are just two weeks until a pair of prominent elections in the Midwest that we’ve been following closely at Ballotpedia, and that Sarah and I have been writing about here in the Brew.

Chicago

Chicago voters will cast ballots in the second mayoral runoff election in the city's history, between former Chicago Police Board President Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle. The two advanced from a 14-candidate field—the largest in the city's history—by being the top two vote recipients on February 26. Lightfoot finished first in that race, receiving 17.5 percent of the vote, while Preckwinkle took 16 percent.

Runoffs first became possible in the 1999 election, after a state law changed mayoral elections in Chicago from partisan to nonpartisan. Incumbent Rahm Emanuel, who was first elected in 2011, did not seek re-election this year.

Both Lightfoot and Preckwinkle describe themselves as progressives and no matter who wins, the city will elect its first female African-American mayor.

Voters can vote early in person or by mail. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners website has early voting locations and hours as well as instructions and deadlines for applying to vote by mail. One may also register to vote through election day.

Sign up for our newsletter, The Deep Dish, for weekly email updates until the election, as well as our March 26th webinar previewing the runoff elections in the mayoral and city treasurer races, as well as for 15 city council seats.

Wisconsin

In two weeks, voters in Wisconsin will fill an open seat on the state Supreme Court. Appellate judges Brian Hagedorn and Lisa Neubauer are running in a proxy partisan battle. Although state Supreme Court elections in Wisconsin are nonpartisan, liberal and conservative groups typically coalesce around specific candidates.

Conservatives, who back Hagedorn, hold a 4-3 majority on the court heading into the election. Like Shirley Abrahamson, who is retiring and leaving this seat open, Neubauer has been supported by liberals.

If conservatives win this seat, it will expand their majority on the court to 5-2. If liberals retain Abrahamson’s seat, it will set up a battle for control of the court in 2020, when Dan Kelly, who was appointed to the court in 2016 by Gov. Scott Walker (R), will stand for election for the first time.

In 2020, voters in New Mexico will decide whether to make the Public Regulation Commission appointed instead of elected

In 2020, voters in New Mexico will decide the fate of a constitutional amendment to change the state’s Public Regulation Commission (PRC) from an elected five-member body to a three-member commission whose members would be appointed.

The PRC is responsible for the regulation of public utilities, transportation companies, transmission and pipeline companies, insurance companies, and other public companies. Currently, the PRC's five members include four Democrats and one Republican.

Rather than having voters elect the PRC's members, this constitutional amendment would create a nominating committee which would develop a list of candidates, and the governor would then appoint three members from the list, with the consent of the state Senate, to serve on the commission. If the measure is passed, the PRC would change from an elected to an appointed commission on January 1, 2023.

PRC commissioners Cynthia Hall (D) and Steve Fischmann (D) wrote an article supporting the constitutional amendment, which said, "The public and the utility companies that serve them deserve to have commissioners with meaningful expertise when they begin working on the commission. That means graduate-level education plus significant industry or regulatory experience. Commissioners should be experts at the outset, not rookies."

Fellow PRC commissioners Theresa Becenti-Aguilar (D) and Jeff Byrd (R) wrote an article opposing the amendment, which said that the measure would "make our state’s most powerful regulatory agency less representative, less responsive to the public and more susceptible to the influence of powerful special interests."

The measure was approved with bipartisan support, passing 59-8 in the House and 36-5 in the Senate. It's the first constitutional amendment referred to the 2020 ballot in New Mexico. Between 1995 and 2018, voters approved 85.5 percent of the constitutional amendments on the ballot in the state.


See also

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