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The State and Local Tap: Kentucky to hold gubernatorial, state executive primaries

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May 18, 2019Issue No. 161

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Week in review
On tap next week

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

Here's what happened in State and local politics last week.

State Politics: The Week in Review

Ballot Measures Update

2019:

  • Six statewide measures are certified for the 2019 ballot so far in Colorado, Kansas, Texas, and Washington.
    • One new measure was certified for the 2019 ballot last week: an amendment in Texas that would allow the legislature to increase the maximum amount of bonds for the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas from $3 billion to $6 billion.
    • In Colorado, two measures were approved by the legislature for the 2019 ballot but require the governor's signature for official certification.
    • One transportation bond issue measure in Colorado was initially certified for the 2019 ballot, but a bill moving the measure to the 2020 ballot was approved by the legislature and only the governor's signature is required to make the move official.
  • Four of the 26 states with a process for citizen-initiated measures allow for ballot initiatives or veto referendums on ballots for elections in any odd-numbered years: Colorado, Maine, Ohio, and Washington.
    • Other states that frequently feature statewide measures referred to the ballot by the legislature in odd-numbered years include Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, and Texas.
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2020:

  • Twenty-five statewide measures have been certified for the 2020 ballot in 13 states so far: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
    • One new measure was certified for the ballot last week: a Marsy's Law crime victims bill of rights amendment referred to the April 2020 ballot by the Wisconsin State Legislature.
    • Four of the 25 certified 2020 measures are citizen-initiated measures, 20 are legislative referrals, and one is an automatic constitutional revision commission question.

Wednesday, May 15

Mississippi gubernatorial candidates report initial 2019 fundraising totals

  • Candidates running in the Democratic and Republican primaries for governor of Mississippi submitted their initial campaign finance reports for 2019, covering the period from January 1 through April 30.
  • On the GOP side, Lieutenant Gov. Tate Reeves raised $1 million during this period, the most of any Republican candidate. Reeves also reported $6.7 million in cash on hand. Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. raised $583,000 and reported $513,000 in cash on hand. State Rep. Robert Foster raised $73,000 and had $18,900 in cash on hand.
  • Attorney General Jim Hood was the only Democratic candidate to raise more than $20,000. He brought in $755,000 and reported $1.2 million in cash on hand. The other Democratic candidates who reported contributions were Hinds County DA Robert Shuler Smith ($11,000), Velesha Williams ($18,000), and William Bond Compton ($1,000). Only Smith reported cash on hand of $300.
  • Primaries for governor, lieutenant governor, and seven other state executive offices will be held August 6 with possible runoffs on August 27. The general election will be held on November 5.

Alabama governor signs abortion-related legislation

  • Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed a bill into law prohibiting all abortions in the state except those necessary to prevent a serious health risk to the woman. House Bill 134, called the Human Life Protection Act, reclassifies performing an abortion as a felony punishable with up to 99 years in prison for doctors performing it. It also reclassifies attempted abortions as Class C felonies.

Special Elections

  • As of this week, 55 state legislative special elections have been scheduled in 22 states in 2019. Elections have been held for 26 Democratic seats and 14 Republican seats. Four seats have flipped from Democratic control to Republican control. One seat has flipped from Republican control to Democratic control. One seat has flipped from Republican control to an independent officeholder.
    • In special elections between 2011 and 2018, one party (either Republicans or Democrats) saw an average net gain of four seats across the country each year.
    • An average of 91 seats were filled through special elections in each of the past four odd years (2011: 94, 2013: 84, 2015: 88, 2017: 98).
    • An average of 55 seats were filled through special elections in each of the past five even years (2010: 26, 2012: 45, 2014: 40, 2016: 65, 2018: 99).

Upcoming special elections include:

May 21

June 4


Local Politics: The Week in Review

Elections Update

  • In 2019, Ballotpedia is providing comprehensive coverage of elections in America's 100 largest cities by population. This encompasses every office on the ballot in these cities, which includes their municipal elections, trial court elections, school board elections, and local ballot measures. Ballotpedia is also covering all local recall elections as well as all local ballot measures in California. Recent and upcoming local ballot measure elections are listed below:
    • May 7 - Local ballot measures in California, Colorado, and Ohio.
      • California - 11 local measures in jurisdictions across nine counties.
      • Colorado - Two citizen initiatives in Denver.
        • Initiative 300 was defeated. It would have overturned Denver’s unauthorized camping ban and established certain rights, such as sheltering oneself or occupying a legally parked vehicle, in public outdoor areas.
        • Initiative 301, the first-of-its-kind psilocybin mushroom decriminalization initiative, was approved 50.6% to 49.4%. The measure took effect on May 16 when official results were certified.
      • Ohio - Five bond issues in Columbus.
        • Voters approved all five measures, which amounted to a total of $1.03 billion in new bond issue debt.
    • May 21 - Four local ballot measures in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. All four measures are charter amendments referred to the ballot by the city council.
      • Question 1 would change gender-specific references, such as councilman, to gender-neutral references, such as councilmember, in the city's charter
      • Question 2 would add the Office of Immigrant Affairs to the city's charter, thereby making the office a permanent city office.
      • Question 3 would call on the legislature to increase the minimum wage or repeal the law preempting cities, like Philadelphia, from increasing their own minimum wage.
      • Question 4 was designed to create a new class of law enforcement offices who would assist with traffic and code enforcement but could not carry firearms or to detain or arrest persons.

Tuesday, May 14

Former board member wins special runoff election for seat on Los Angeles school board

  • Former Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board member Jackie Goldberg defeated former vice president of the Board of Public Works Commissioners Heather Repenning in a runoff election for the District 5 seat on the LAUSD Board of Education. Goldberg received 72% of the vote to Repenning's 28%, according to unofficial results. The seat was up for special election to fill the vacancy caused by Ref Rodriguez's resignation, who left the board in July 2018.
  • The district’s elections in 2017 flipped the LAUSD board from a 4-3 majority of members supported by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) to a 4-3 majority of members supported by the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). Rodriguez was a member of the latter group. In this election, UTLA endorsed Goldberg, and the CCSA did not endorse a candidate. Goldberg's election returns the board to a majority of members backed by UTLA.
  • LAUSD is the second-largest school district in the United States and had 224 independently operated charter schools in 2017, more than any other school district in the nation.
  • Both Goldberg and Repenning said they supported holding charter schools to the same standards as public schools, but they differed in the degree of emphasis they placed on charter school policy and other issues in their campaigns.

Wednesday, May 15

Judge overturns 2018 ballot measure requiring pay equity for Houston firefighters

  • Texas district court judge Tanya Garrison ruled that Houston’s Proposition B—a 2018 charter amendment granting city firefighters pay parity with police—is unconstitutional.
  • Houston voters approved Proposition B in the November 2018 general election, 59% to 41%. The Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association led a citizen initiative campaign to place the measure on the ballot and it was designed to match city firefighters’ compensation to that of the Houston Police Department.
  • After Proposition B was approved, the Houston Police Officers’ Union (HPOU) filed a lawsuit against the amendment. The suit argued that the measure was unconstitutional because it conflicted with rules concerning collective bargaining and also a state law that directs that firefighters be paid comparably to similar employees in the private sector.
  • The city determined that Proposition B would require 29% pay increases to firefighters initially and that its implementation would cost between $80 and $100 million per year. Last month the city council approved laying off 220 firefighters and 110 municipal employees since Houston can’t increase taxes due to its annual revenue cap. Mayor Sylvester Turner, who opposed Proposition B, had argued that the city did not have a funding mechanism for it.
  • Judge Garrison ruled that Proposition B is preempted by state code regarding fire and police employee relations and that it violates Article XI, Section 5 of the state constitution. That section states, “no charter or any ordinance passed under said charter shall contain any provision inconsistent with the Constitution of the State, or of the general laws enacted by the Legislature of this State.”
  • Following the ruling, the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association released a statement stating, “Two courts have ruled on the constitutionality of Prop B – one for, one against. We certainly will appeal this ruling. We will continue to strive to force Sylvester Turner to respect the will of 298,000 Prop B voters who sent a strong message that Houston should equally value its police and fire personnel."
WHAT'S ON TAP NEXT WEEK

Here's what is happening in State and local politics this week.

State Politics: What's On Tap Next Week

Tuesday, May 21

Kentucky to hold gubernatorial, state executive primaries

  • Kentucky holds Democratic and Republican gubernatorial primaries, featuring four candidates from each party. In early May, Secretary of State Alison Grimes (D) announced that a record total of 3,421,796 Kentuckians were registered to vote in the state's gubernatorial primary. In 2015, 214,187 votes were cast in the Republican primary and 178,514 votes were cast in the Democratic primary.
  • On the Democratic side, Kentucky House Minority Leader Rocky Adkins, state Attorney General Andy Beshear, former state Auditor Adam Edelen, and retired engineer Geoff Young are competing for the nomination. Beshear has led public and internal polling since the filing deadline, while Edelen has led the field in fundraising.
  • On the Republican side, Gov. Matt Bevin faces challengers state Rep. Robert Goforth, Ike Lawrence, and William E. Woods. A poll released this week showed Bevin with a 56-18 advantage over Goforth, and Bevin has outraised Goforth $1 million to $750,000. Bevin is the third consecutive sitting governor of Kentucky to choose a different running mate in his re-election campaign, opting to run this year with Sen. Ralph Alvarado over incumbent Lt. Gov. Jenean M. Hampton.
  • Kentucky is also holding partisan primaries for five other state executive offices—attorney general, secretary of state, agriculture commissioner, state auditor, and state treasurer. The elections for attorney general and secretary of state are open-seat races as Beshear is running for governor and secretary of state Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) is term-limited and unable to run for re-election. The other three offices are currently held by Republican incumbents.

States in session

Twenty-four states are in regular session and five states are in recess. Alaska and Virginia are in special session. Nineteen states—Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming—have adjourned their 2019 legislative sessions.

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Local Politics: What's On Tap Next Week

Tuesday, May 21

Phoenix to hold special runoff elections for two city council seats

  • Phoenix is holding special general runoff elections for Districts 5 and 8 of its city council. The nonpartisan runoffs are being held because no candidate received at least 50% of the vote in special elections held on March 12, 2019. In the District 5 race, incumbent Vania Guevara faces challenger Betty Guardado, while newcomers Carlos Garcia and Michael Johnson are competing in District 8.
  • The special elections became necessary after former District 5 representative Daniel Valenzuela and former District 8 representative Kate Gallego both resigned to run for mayor of Phoenix in a special election on November 6, 2018. Gallego defeated Valenzuela in a runoff election on March 12.
  • Phoenix is the largest city in Arizona and the sixth-largest city in the U.S. by population.

Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney (D) faces two challengers in Democratic primary

  • Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney (D) faces challengers Alan Butkovitz (D) and Anthony Williams (D) in the Democratic mayoral primary election. Since Philadelphia adopted its current charter in 1951, every incumbent mayor seeking re-election has won a second term.
  • A prominent issue in the primary is the 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on soda adopted by the Kenney administration in 2016. While Kenney says revenues from the tax have let the city spend more on infrastructure and education, Butkovitz and Williams say that the revenue could come from other sources and promised to repeal it.
  • Supporters and opponents of soda taxes from outside Philadelphia have each weighed in, with the American Beverage Association spending over $600,000 on an ad campaign opposing Kenney and soda tax proponent Michael Bloomberg (D) donating $1,000,000 to a committee which is spending in support of Kenney.
    • Kenney first won election as mayor in 2015 after serving on the city council for 23 years. He has been endorsed by Gov. Tom Wolf (D), U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D), the Philadelphia Inquirer, and all three of Philadelphia's representatives in the U.S. House. As of May 12, Kenney led the field in fundraising with just over $1.1 million raised since the beginning of 2018.
    • Butkovitz was first elected as city controller in 2005 and served until he was defeated by former Kenney administration official Rebecca Rhynhart (D) in 2017. He previously served seven terms in the state House of Representatives. Butkovitz raised $150,000 through May 12.
    • Williams was first elected to the state senate in 1998 and previously served five terms in the state house. He finished second in the 2015 Democratic mayoral primary, receiving 26% of the vote to Kenney's 56%. Williams has been endorsed by Philadelphia Magazine, former Mayor John Street (D), and the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity. As of May 12, Williams had raised $150,000.
  • The winner of the Democratic primary will face attorney Billy Ciancaglini (R), who is unopposed for the Republican nomination, and any declared independent candidates in the November 5 general election. The last Republican to win a Philadelphia mayoral election was Bernard Samuel (R) in 1947.


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The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022.

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