The Tap: Friday, December 2, 2016

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The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022. The excerpts below were compiled from issue #44 of The Tap, which was published on December 3, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

• Trump returned to transition work on Friday. He met with the following individuals at Trump Tower in New York:
  • Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) - Perdue was first elected in 2014 and sits on the agriculture, budget, foreign relations, and judiciary committees. Prior to Trump’s selection of Wilbur Ross for commerce secretary, Perdue was rumoured to be in the running for that position.
  • Retired Admiral Jay Cohen - Cohen was chief of naval research for the Navy from 2000 to 2006 and worked for the Department of Homeland Security from 2006 to 2009. He is now a principal at the Chertoff Group, a security consulting firm founded by former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff (2005 to 2009). Nothing is known about what, if any, position Cohen might be under consideration for.
  • Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi - Bondi has been Florida’s attorney general since 2011 and is a member of Trump’s transition team. She’s close with Trump, and their relationship attracted criticism during the 2016 campaign after some in the media alleged that a donation from Trump’s foundation to her 2014 re-election effort influenced her decision not to pursue an investigation into accusations of fraud against Trump University. Rumours about a possible position for her in Trump’s administration have included a potential appointment to head the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy.
  • Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton - Bolton was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006 and is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he has written articles criticizing American foreign policy under the Obama administration. Bolton’s name has been floated as a potential nominee for secretary of state—as have Mitt Romney’s and Rudy Giuliani’s—but Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has voiced opposition to a Bolton nomination. Last month, Paul said, “I’ll do whatever it takes to stop someone like John Bolton being secretary of state.”
  • Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) - First elected in 2012, Heitkamp, a Democrat in a very red state, is up for re-election in 2018. It’s not known why Heitkamp visited Trump Tower, but she’s not the first Democrat to do so. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard have both made visits as well. In a statement, Heitkamp said, “Every single day, my work is motivated first and foremost by how I can be most helpful to the people of North Dakota. They are my driving force and have been throughout my career in public service. Whatever job I do, I hope to work with the president-elect and all of my colleagues in Congress on both sides of the aisle to best support my state.”
  • Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates - Gates was at the Pentagon from 2006 to 2011. Gates told reporters that he will not be taking a position in Trump’s administration, adding, “We had a very wide ranging conversation. I told him I thought his selection of General Mattis to be secretary of defense was terrific, very supportive.”

State

• Signatures for an initiative to enact an automatic voter registration system in Nevada were certified. A signature count was not yet available, according to the secretary of state’s office, but proponents of the measure exceeded the requirement of 55,234 valid signatures. As an indirect initiative, the measure will be submitted to the Nevada Legislature at the start of its next legislative session, scheduled for February 6, 2017. Legislators will have 40 days from the start date to approve the measure—thus keeping the initiative off the ballot—or ignore or defeat the measure—thus putting the initiative on the November 6, 2018, ballot. Voting down an initiative would give the legislature the ability to offer a competing measure alongside the initiative. At the 2016 general election, both the Nevada State Assembly and the Nevada Senate flipped from Republican- to Democratic-controlled.