The Tap: Justice Scalia's passing overshadows a busy week in political events

February 15, 2016Issue No. 3

Ballotpedia wants to keep you in the know. In this weekly newsletter, we let you know the important things that happened last week in the federal, state and local levels of government, as well as what you should look for this week.

What happened last week: February 8 - February 14
What's happening this week: February 15 - February 21

What's on tap? Welcome to this week's edition of "The Tap." Below, you will find political stories from federal, state, and local governments. Don't have time to read every note? Each section starts with a recap of the important events of the past week then moves on to what's on tap for the week ahead. Scroll through and click on what's important to you.

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Special Coverage

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away Saturday at the age of 79. He was attending a party in West Texas over the weekend and was found dead in his room when he did not appear for breakfast in the morning. Scalia was appointed by President Ronald Reagan (R) in 1986. Scalia was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on September 17, 1986, on the same day William Rehnquist was confirmed to the position of Chief Justice. Scalia was the first Italian-American justice to sit on the bench. He was considered "a champion of originalism" and the dominant conservative voice of the Court. Scalia and his wife, Maureen, have nine children. He was a close friend of fellow Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with whom he had many differences when it came to legal decisions. Ballotpedia sends our condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

In the coming weeks, we will be tracking what happens with the vacancy left by Scalia's unexpected passing. Here is a collection of some early coverage on Ballotpedia.

• Process to fill the vacated seat of Justice Antonin Scalia
• 2016 presidential candidates respond to his death
  • Before and after President Obama told the American public that he plans to fulfill his "constitutional responsibilities to appoint a successor," presidential candidates were weighing in. We are tracking their comments.
• Members of Congress respond
  • Congressional leadership and members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary have been publicly commenting on the upcoming nomination. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Judiciary Committee commented:
  • "The fact of the matter is that it's been standard practice over the last 80 years to not confirm Supreme Court nominees during a presidential election year. Given the huge divide in the country, and the fact that this president, above all others, has made no bones about his goal to use the courts to circumvent Congress and push through his own agenda, it only makes sense that we defer to the American people who will elect a new president to select the next Supreme Court Justice."
• Some historic facts about SCOTUS nominations:
  • The last president to nominate justices in the last twelve months of his presidency was Lyndon Johnson (D) in 1968. Neither nominee was confirmed.
  • Andrew Jackson nominated two justices on his last full day in office in 1837. Only one was confirmed.
  • The most recent justice to be confirmed in the last year of a presidency was current justice Anthony Kennedy by Ronald Reagan (R) in February of 1988. However, he was nominated in November 1987, 15 months before Reagan left office.
  • The last president to use recess appointments for SCOTUS justices was Dwight Eisenhower. Three justices were appointed in that manner during his administration. There have been 12 justices appointed during a Senate recess.

    Highlights

Federal

• New Hampshire held the "nation's first primary" on February 9.
  • Bernie Sanders finished as the top Democrat in the New Hampshire primary, winning 60 percent of the vote. Sanders, who had been favored in polls leading up to the primary, won over 70 percent of the state's independent voters, according to exit polling.
  • Hillary Clinton won 38 percent of the vote. With Sanders expected to win, her campaign worked to downplay the loss and focused on the next contests in South Carolina, Nevada and beyond.
  • For Republicans, Donald Trump won the primary with 35 percent of the vote, spurred by the support of 61 percent of voters who want the president come from outside the establishment, according to exit polling.
  • John Kasich came in second with 16 percent of the vote, followed by Ted Cruz who had 12 percent. Jeb Bush finished fourth with 11 percent, and Marco Rubio followed close behind in the vote count. Chris Christie had seven percent, Carly Fiorina finished with four percent, and Ben Carson won two percent.

State

• Nevada state Senator Greg Brower (R) announced his resignation, effective February 20. He has accepted a position with the U.S. Department of Justice. Brower announced in September that he would not seek re-election, and four candidates have already announced their candidacy for his seat, including Dennis Hof (L), owner of the Moonlight Bunny Ranch. The candidate filing deadline is March 18, 2016. Bower's seat is crucial for Democrats: it is one of two they will need to win in the November election to gain control of the chamber and break the Republican trifecta.

Local

• School board elections were held in Oklahoma. Ballotpedia covers the 13 largest school districts by enrollment in Oklahoma, which had a combined total of 15 seats up for election. However, only three of those seats appeared on the ballot, since elections for the other 12 seats were canceled due to only one candidate filing to run per seat. In 2014, 32.59 percent of school board elections in America's 1,000 largest districts featured only one candidate per seat. This year, the largest Oklahoma districts with contested elections were in Lawton, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. In 2016, 641 of America's 1,000 largest school districts by enrollment are holding elections.

  Federal

Last week

February 8

• The Hillary Clinton presidential campaign began to seriously weigh staffing and strategy changes as the New Hampshire primary approached. Although they had originally planned to assess staff and strategy after the first four primary states, they began to consider hiring more staff and changing the campaign's messaging to be what one Democratic official called "more forward-looking."
• Spencer Zwick, national finance chair for Mitt Romney's 2008 and 2012 campaigns and head of the super PAC America Rising, initially pledged a maximum contribution to Chris Christie's campaign. However, Zwick failed to cut the check after deciding to remain neutral in the presidential election.
• Jeb Bush, whose super PAC, Right to Rise, raised over $100 million in the first half of 2015, said he would overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC. Bush told CNN, "This is a ridiculous system we have now where you have campaigns that struggle to raise money directly and they can't be held accountable for the spending of the super PAC that's their affiliate."
• Top Republicans asked that Loretta Lynch consider appointing an independent prosecutor to the FBI's criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information. Later that same day, James Baker, the FBI's general counsel, confirmed that it was "working on matters related to former Secretary Clinton's use of a private email server."
• Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger was confirmed as a federal judge to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa by a vote of 83 to 0. Ebinger was nominated on September 15, 2015, and confirmed just under four months later, an unusually quick confirmation considering the recent clashes over and delays regarding judicial confirmations. Her confirmation filled the only vacancy on the court, which has a total of three posts.

February 9

• Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump saw decisive wins in the nation's first primary in New Hampshire. Ballotpedia's senior writer, James A. Barnes, broke down each race:
  • Democratic: "Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, further loosening the grip that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once had on her party's nomination. While the Granite State had been seen as a Sanders' stronghold, his success was nonetheless impressive."
  • "Younger voters and campus towns fueled his large margin over Clinton, but his victory extended into working class communities—ones that had been a bulwark of Clinton's candidacy in New Hampshire and other primaries eight years ago when she battled Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination," Barnes wrote.
  • Republican: "The billionaire celebrity trumped the Republican establishment in New Hampshire. After a disappointing second-place finish eight days prior in the Iowa GOP caucuses where he underperformed his ratings in the pre-caucus polls, developer and reality TV star Donald Trump stormed back in the snows of the Granite State to capture the first-in-the-nation presidential primary and further scramble the 2016 Republican presidential nominating contest."
  • "Now that Christie has departed the race, it gives a bit better opportunity for one of the remaining establishment hopefuls—Bush, Kasich or Rubio—to consolidate upper income and better-educated GOP voters and challenge Trump. But the GOP's working class voters in New Hampshire were heard loud and clear on Tuesday night, when they gave their shout-out to the billionaire Trump," Barnes concluded.
  • In only about an hour, online donors gave more than $550,000 to Democratic groups after Bernie Sanders' win in the New Hampshire primary. According to the Politico story, nearly half of that amount was donated during Sanders' victory speech.
• American Bridge 21st Century, a progressive super PAC and opposition research group, sent two "robots" to trail Marco Rubio's campaign. Two men dressed in cardboard box robot costumes were dubbed "Marco Roboto" and "The Rubio Talking Point 3000." They were sent after Chris Christie critiqued Rubio for delivering and repeating a "memorized 25-second speech" in the February 6 debate.
• President Obama released his $4.15 trillion final budget proposal. (WhiteHouse.gov, The Washington Post)
• The Pentagon released its $582.7 billion budget request, which includes "$523.9 billion in discretionary funding for the Defense Department's base budget" and "a request for $58.8 billion in funding for overseas contingency operations" to fund military operations in Afghanistan and the operations against ISIS. Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Gen. Paul Selva said, "Make no mistake, today's strategic security environment is more unpredictable than I have seen in my 35 years of service. The pervasive threat posed by violent extremist organizations has been and remains an immediate threat." The budget focuses on strategies to fight ISIS and to combat against potential future threats from Russia, North Korea, China and Iran.
  • Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized the budget for not allotting enough funding for readiness and training. He said, "It's not enough funding, and they're cutting necessary programs, and they still don't have a strategy. Other than that, it's fine."
• President Obama released his Cybersecurity National Action Plan to help protect the government and Americans from cyberterrorism. The plan includes the following: establishing the "Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity;" modernizing the government's information technology and cybersecurity programs "through the proposal of a $3.1 billion Information Technology Modernization Fund;" helping Americans protect their identities online through multi-factor authentication measures; and investing "over $19 billion for cybersecurity as part of the President's Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Budget."
• Director of National Intelligence James Clapper announced that North Korea restarted its production of plutonium and is making progress toward having an intercontinental ballistic missile system. Clapper said, "We assess that North Korea has followed through on its announcement by expanding its Yongbyon enrichment facility and restarting the plutonium production reactor. We further assess that North Korea has been operating the reactor long enough so that it could begin to recover plutonium from the reactor's spent fuel within a matter of weeks to months." He added that North Korean leaders are developing a long-range, nuclear-armed missile "capable of posing a direct threat to the United States."
• North Carolina state officials asked the United States Supreme Court to delay a lower court's order to draw a new congressional district map, arguing that it would cause "election chaos," given the proximity of the March primary. On February 5, 2016, a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina ruled that two of the state's 13 congressional districts (District 1 and District 12) had been subject to an illegal racial gerrymander. The court determined that state lawmakers had placed disproportionately large numbers of black voters in these two districts, thereby diluting the impact of their votes. The court ordered state lawmakers to draft a new map within two weeks of the ruling. The state's primary is scheduled to proceed as planned on March 15. Chief Justice John Roberts asked the challengers of the original map to file a response to the request for a stay by February 16.
• The U.S. Supreme Court halted the implementation of the EPA's Clean Power Plan until legal challenges against the plan are resolved. The main legal question is whether the EPA has the legal authority to enact sweeping greenhouse gas regulations for power plants under the Clean Air Act. Twenty-nine states and state agencies have joined legal challenges against the plan, arguing that the plan is unlawful and burdensome to the states. The legal challenges are currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which will hear oral arguments on June 2, 2016.
• The Improving Health Information Technology Act (S. 2511) passed unanimously in the Senate health committee.[1] The bill, the work of a bipartisan, full committee, aims to reduce the documentation burden on doctors and improve the usability of healthcare information technology. Its "goal is to make our country's electronic health record system something that helps patients rather than something that doctors and hospitals dread so much that patients are not helped. We have worked for months—with input from those who actually use the system—to help improve health information technology and I'm glad to see this legislation move forward as part of a successful first meeting on our committee's bipartisan biomedical innovation agenda," said Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who announced the passage of the bill along with Patty Murray (D-Wash).

February 10

• After placing seventh in the New Hampshire primary, Carly Fiorina suspended her campaign. She released the following statement, in part, on her campaign website: "While I suspend my candidacy today, I will continue to travel this country and fight for those Americans who refuse to settle for the way things are and a status quo that no longer works for them."
• Chris Christie also suspended his presidential campaign after finishing outside of the top five in New Hampshire. He said in a statement, "I'm so proud of the campaign we ran, the people that ran it with me and all those who gave us their support and confidence along the way."
• In a unanimous vote, the Senate passed H.R.757 - the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2016. The legislation requires the president to investigate and place sanctions on any person who supports North Korea's nuclear weapons program; engages in helping North Korea procure arms or related material and luxury goods; engages in censorship by the government of North Korea; participates in human rights abuses; or engages in any other illicit activity.
• The Congressional Black Caucus PAC voted to officially endorse Clinton. CBC Chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) announced that more than a dozen CBC members would head to South Carolina ahead of the February 27 primary.
• Retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has held off endorsing Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary in order to help keep his seat in Democratic hands, according to Politico. "He believes that a rowdy face-off between Clinton and [Bernie] Sanders supporters could stoke Democratic registration in his booming home state — and give the retiring senator's preferred replacement for his seat, former state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, a much-needed boost in a tough general-election campaign." Politico continued, "The Nevada Democratic Party allows same-day registration, which, he believes, could pad Democratic voter rolls by the thousands if he plays it right."
• Ta-Nehisi Coates, an influential African American commentator and author of Between the World and Me, said he would cast his vote [2] for Bernie Sanders.Former President George W. Bush appeared in a new South Carolina radio ad for his brother. In the ad, the former president says, "We need a strong leader with experience, ideas and resolve. There's no doubt in my mind that Jeb Bush will be a great commander-in-chief for our military." In recent South Carolina polls, Bush was placing in either fourth or fifth place in the Republican race.
• Bernie Sanders visited with civil rights activist and media personality Rev. Al Sharpton in Harlem one day after his New Hampshire victory.
• Chip Englander, former campaign manager for Rand Paul's presidential run, joined Marco Rubio's campaign as a senior advisor in charge of the campaign's Midwest operations. From now through the November 2016 presidential election, some campaign staffers working on the various presidential campaigns will quit, be fired, or be looking for new campaigns after theirs ends. Campaign staff turnover is sometimes a sign of financial trouble or dysfunction on a campaign team. At other times, it is a sign that a candidate is attempting to upgrade his or her staff.
• David Brock, head of the pro-Hillary Clinton rapid-response organization Correct the Record, released a critical memo on Bernie Sanders and his media coverage. Brock called Sanders' policies "a Potemkin village," and he addressed the media, saying, "Over the course of the coming weeks, it is Senator Sanders' policies that should be evaluated and held to the same scrutiny that has been applied to Secretary Clinton in her public service career.
• "The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Safe Drinking Water Act Improved Compliance Awareness Act by a vote of 416 to 2. The bill would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to notify states and the public about high concentrations of lead or other contaminants in drinking water within 24 hours of their detection. The legislation is a response to the Flint water crisis, where government officials failed for months to notify residents of Flint, Michigan, about lead contamination of drinking water sources. The measure will now go to the U.S. Senate for consideration.

February 11

• Democrats held their sixth debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was hosted by PBS and moderated by Gwen Ifill (managing editor of Washington Week) and Judy Woodruff (managing editor of NewsHour). Ballotpedia surveyed more than 100 Democratic and Republican Party political insiders after the debate. More than 60 percent of the Democratic Insiders (party strategists, pollsters, media consultants, activists, lobbyists and allied interest group operatives) declared Clinton the winner of the evening. Of the Republican Insiders, however, a plurality (49 percent) believed that Sanders won.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee held an Executive Business Meeting, i.e. judicial hearing, which considered the nominations of Elizabeth J. Drake, Jennifer Choe Groves and Gary Stephen Katzmann. All three nominations for the Court of International Trade were held for further review before they are reported to the full Senate.
• It became public that the State Department had issued subpoenas to the Clinton Foundation last fall. The request sought documents about any charity involvement that could have required federal government approval and for items related to Huma Abedin, longtime aide to Hillary Clinton.
• President Obama nominated Abdul Kallon to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Kallon is currently a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
• President Obama nominated John King Jr. to head the Department of Education. Obama believes he could receive bipartisan support in Congress. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R), chair of the Senate's education panel, promised King a "prompt and fair hearing." King currently serves as the acting Secretary of Education and has served in that role since Arne Duncan left the position at the end of December 2015.
• Leonard Terry Stand was confirmed by the Senate to a judgeship on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. He was nominated on July 21, 2015, by President Obama and was confirmed by a vote of 93 to 0.

February 12

• The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced that EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R) will testify in a hearing examining the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. House Oversight chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said in a statement, "We are committed to investigating the failures in Flint. We appreciate Governor Snyder's willingness to appear before the Committee and look forward to hearing from EPA Administrator McCarthy as well. Their perspectives on this issue are important as we seek to ensure a crisis of this magnitude never occurs in another American city. The diverse and insightful panel of witnesses assembled will shed light on many of our remaining questions and help us propose reforms to the authorizing committees."
• Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx will sign an agreement with the government of Cuba allowing commercial airlines to fly in and out of the country. Foxx said, "You know it's usually significant when the President made this announcement of re-establishing diplomatic relations more than a year ago. It really means a great deal to the people of both countries. Leaving aside the political differences, there's so many cultural connections between the two countries, in some cases family connections, the ability to have educational exchanges and things that happen as a result of resumption of this service, is really, really significant." Flights to Cuba have been banned for more than 50 years.

February 13

• Republicans held their ninth debate in Greenville, South Carolina. It was hosted by CBS News and was moderated by John Dickerson (Face the Nation), Major Garrett (CBS News Chief White House Correspondent) and Kimberley Strassel (Wall Street Journal reporter). The first question asked by the moderators revolved around the news of Justice Scalia's passing from earlier that day.

Neither the Senate nor the House will be in session next week, February 15-19. Both chambers will reconvene the following week	SCOTUS is not hearing oral arguments this week. It will reconvene on February 22. [3]

This week

February 15

• Rand Paul (R), whose Senate seat is up for re-election in November, will hold town hall meetings across Kentucky next week. "I get to hear directly from the constituents. They ask me questions. People will show up with a particular problem," Paul told reporters.

February 16

• Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will stump with Hillary Clinton at a $2,700-a-head fundraiser on February 16, 2016, in New York City. The Democratic governor is a Clinton supporter and was housing secretary under President Bill Clinton. "I'm doing a fundraising event for her coming up," Cuomo told reporters on February 9, 2016. "I'll do whatever I can to help her."

February 18

• FILING DEADLINE: Pennsylvania Presidential and congressional filing deadline

Pennsylvania currently has five Democratic representatives and 13 Republican representatives. PA-08 has been identified by Ballotpedia as a battleground district in 2016. It is currently held by Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R), but he is retiring at the end of the term.The 2016 Senate race in Pennsylvania is also a battleground race as identified by Ballotpedia. Currently held by Pat Toomey (R), the race is expected to be hotly contested. Former Rep. Joe Sestak (D), who ran against Toomey for the seat in 2010 and lost by a margin of victory of less than 2 percent, is seeking a rematch in 2016.

• FILING DEADLINE: Hawaii Presidential Republican caucus filing deadline

February 20

• Nevada will hold its Democratic Caucus. The state is expected to have 43 delegates at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. There have not been any polls run in Nevada in 2016. The last poll for the race, taken December 22-25, 2015, had Clinton ahead with a commanding 23-point lead over Sanders.
• South Carolina will hold its Republican Caucus. The state is expected to have 59 delegates at the Republican National Convention in 2016. Trump has been leading the recent South Carolina polls. Cruz and Rubio have been following in second and third place, respectively.

Where was the president last week?

Federal judiciary

President Obama made numerous stops across the country last week, including making a speech in Springfield, Illinois, about the divisive nature of politics to the Illinois State Assembly. He said, "It's been noted often by pundits that the tone of our politics hasn't gotten better since I was inaugurated; it's gotten worse. That pushes people away from participating in our public life. It turns folks off. It discourages them. It makes them cynical. And when that happens, more powerful and extreme voices fill the void. And when that happens, progress stalls." Obama served as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004 and announced his bid for the presidency in Springfield. On February 11, Obama taped an appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in Los Angeles, California.

82 total federal judicial vacancies 39 pending nominations 9 future vacancies No nominees are pending for these vacancies. As of last Friday, no judicial hearings had been scheduled for this week.

State

Last week

February 8

• Of the 10 petitions submitted to recall Gov. Rick Snyder (R) from office, all but one were rejected by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers. All six petitions related to the Flint water crisis were rejected. The approved petition, which received unanimous consent from the board, addresses an executive order giving Snyder's office control of the state's office to reform schools, which was previously under the Michigan Department of Education. Michigan recalls have become significantly harder after Snyder himself approved changes to the state laws governing recalls, requiring stronger charges against officials and faster signature collection. No state officials have been recalled since the laws were passed.
• Signatures for citizen initiatives on Wyoming's November 2016 ballot were due. No initiatives were certified. Currently, only one legislatively referred constitutional amendment has been approved for the ballot, a measure to allow the Wyoming Legislature to invest specified state funds in equities. In recent years, Wyoming voters have seen only legislatively referred measures on their ballot.
• A statewide initiative designed to eliminate all of the 1,230 charter schools in California was cleared for signature gathering by Attorney General Kamala D. Harris (D). Due to low voter turnout in the 2014 gubernatorial election, the group behind this initiative has to collect 365,880 signatures, compared to the 504,760 required in the last four years. In fact, the signature requirements for citizen initiatives in California will be lower in the next four years than they have been since 1982, which will likely lead to a deluge of propositions in 2016 and 2018. (Read more of Ballotpedia's exhaustive coverage of 2016 ballot measures.)

February 9

• Governor Mike Pence announced his intention to nominate Eric Holcomb as the lieutenant governor [4] of Indiana after incumbent Sue Ellspermann announced her resignation to pursue the position of president at a community college. Pence will become Indiana's first incumbent governor to run for re-election with a new running mate. In Indiana, the governor and lieutenant governor are elected on the same ticket. Indiana is one of 21 states that elects its executive leadership in this manner. Holcomb, former chief of staff to U.S. Senator Dan Coats, withdrew his candidacy for the U.S. Senate the day before Pence's announcement. Pence won election in 2012 by 3 percent over John Gregg. Although the two are facing off once again this fall, early race predictions peg Pence as the favorite to win re-election.
• Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf (D) announced his proposed state fiscal year 2017 budget. Some highlights of the proposal include raising the state's personal income tax from 3.07 percent to 3.40 percent, adding the state's sales tax to some previously untaxed items and services such as cable television and movie theater tickets, an increase in the state's minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.25 an hour, and increased spending on education throughout the state. Wolf's budget also proposed adding a severance tax of 6.5 percent to the state's natural gas extraction industry. These proposals have been met with severe criticism from Republicans in the Pennsylvania legislature, with State Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R) calling some of the governor's remarks the " most absurd" he has heard in his time in office. Democrats in the state's legislature rallied behind the governor's latest budget proposal, continuing the budget stalemate that has been ongoing since July of 2015. Illinois is the only other state to be without an enacted state budget.

February 10

• As part of a pending plea agreement, Michigan state Senator Virgil Smith (D) will resign his position and serve 10 months in jail. He is accused of assaulting his ex-wife and destroying her car. Wayne County Circuit Judge Lawrence Talon said he will decide on the plea agreement at Smith's March 14 sentence hearing. If the plea is not accepted, then Smith will have to stand trial. Smith still has to formally resign—either with a letter to the state Senate or in person. Governor Rick Snyder will not announce a special election until Smith officially resigns. With Smith's departure, there are now five vacancies in the state's legislature. Michigan is a Republican state government trifecta.
• The Pennsylvania state Senate voted not to remove Attorney General Kathleen Kane from office. The vote of 29-14 did not meet the two-thirds required to remove executive officials. On the same day, the state House voted 170-12 to have the House Judiciary Committee make a recommendation on impeaching Kane. If the House chooses to remove her from office, the trial proceedings will take place in the state Senate. Kane was charged in 2015 with five criminal offenses, including perjury and obstruction, and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. A trial is scheduled for later this year. Kane is not allowed to practice law while her license is suspended, though she continues her administrative duties as attorney general. Kane's current term expires in mid-January 2017, and she has not yet made a final decision on running for reelection. Governor Tom Wolf has called for Kane to step down from her position. Kane said she has no intention of resigning. (Read Ballotpedia's comprehensive coverage of the Kane allegations.)

February 11

• Former Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear (D) announced the launch of an organization called Save Kentucky Healthcare, which aims to halt changes to his healthcare policies by current Governor Matt Bevin (R). While in office, Beshear expanded Medicaid and established a state-based health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act, both via executive order. However, Bevin has stated that these programs are too expensive, and he seeks both to obtain federal permission to charge premiums for certain Medicaid enrollees and to dissolve the state exchange, transitioning its customers to the federal exchange. The organization's " effort will begin with online advertising and organizing," and its website currently links to a petition asking for 5,000 signatures from individuals who are opposed to a switch from a state-based health insurance exchange to a federally-facilitated one. Kentucky's House is a battleground chamber in this year's election; the chamber is currently controlled by Democrats, 50 seats to 46 with four vacancies to be filled through special elections in March. Regaining the chamber would give Republicans trifecta control over state government.
• The Kansas Supreme Court struck down the state legislature's method of funding public schools, finding that appropriations were inequitably distributed between districts. For more information on this story, see the additional details under the Local heading further down.
• In Oregon, FBI agents arrested Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy for his participation in an armed standoff with federal agents that took place in April 2014. At that time, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said that Bundy owed the federal government over $1 million in penalties and fees for grazing his cattle on federal land for more than 20 years without a permit. As part of federal land policy, the BLM levies fees on livestock producers who use federal land. In 2013, the BLM spent $48.2 million on livestock-grazing administration, including permits and land evaluations; the agency also collected $12.2 million in grazing fees in that year.

February 14

• A special legislative session began in Louisiana [5] to fix the state's struggling budget, after Governor John Bel Edwards (D) called for the chambers to convene to review what he described as "a broad call allowing flexibility to consider both cuts and raising money for the state." Both the Louisiana House and Senate are controlled by Republicans. Bel Edwards won election in November 2015, ending a Republican trifecta.

This week

February 15

• The North Carolina legislature will begin meeting to discuss drawing new congressional district boundaries, a week after North Carolina state officials asked the United States Supreme Court to delay a lower court's order to draw a new district map, arguing that it would cause "election chaos," given the proximity of the March primary.
• On February 5, 2016, a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina ruled that two of the state's 13 congressional districts (District 1 and District 12) had been subject to an illegal racial gerrymander. The court determined that state lawmakers had placed disproportionately large numbers of black voters in these two districts, thereby diluting the impact of their votes. The court ordered state lawmakers to draft a new map within two weeks of the ruling. The state's primary is scheduled to proceed as planned on March 15. Chief Justice John Roberts asked the challengers of the original map to file a response to the request for a stay by February 16.

February 16

• Wisconsin holds a primary election for the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice N. Patrick Crooks in September 2015. Rebecca Bradley, the replacement justice appointed by Governor Scott Walker in October 2015, is running to retain her seat and start a 10-year term; she will face JoAnne Kloppenburg and Martin Joseph Donald in the primary. The two candidates who receive the most votes will advance to the general election on April 5. Judges in Wisconsin participate in nonpartisan elections. Analysts find a 5-2 conservative majority on the court, which Bradley would maintain. Recent Wisconsin Supreme Court elections have seen significant partisan battles, in part relating to Governor Scott Walker's collective bargaining bill and his subsequent recalls. Kloppenburg narrowly lost her bid for a seat on the court in 2011, by less than 0.05 percent of the vote. While Bradley is considered the conservative candidate of choice, Kloppenburg and Donald have each received support from liberal or progressive organizations.
• FILING DEADLINE: Pennsylvania filing deadline: Candidates must file for the offices of Attorney General, Treasurer, Auditor. The Attorney General and Auditor elections are partisan; both positions are currently held by Democrats. Treasurer elections are nonpartisan.
• FILING DEADLINE: Pennsylvania filing deadline: Candidates must file for seats in the state legislature. Pennsylvania has divided partisan control: both legislative chambers are held by Republicans, while Governor Tom Wolf is a Democrat.
• FILING DEADLINE: Nebraska filing deadline: Incumbent candidates must file for the state Senate; challengers file separately on March 1. Nebraska's unicameralism makes it the only state legislature in the United States with a single chamber. Though senators are officially nonpartisan, their party affiliation is known in most cases; the chamber is currently controlled by Republicans.

State government in session

State government special elections

Forty-one states are in regular session; California and Louisiana are in special session. No regular sessions are scheduled to convene this week. AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MS, NE, NJ, NH, NM, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY. All states whose initials appear in red or blue in the above list have unified Republican or Democratic Party control across the state house, the state senate and the office of the governor. Ballotpedia identifies these as "trifectas." There are seven Democratic and 24 Republican trifectas.

As of this week, seven legislative special elections have been held. Three involved party changes: one from Republican to Democrat (Oklahoma, SD 34), and two from Democrat to Republican (Texas, HD 118, Minnesota HD 50B). Another 28 (not including runoff elections) have been scheduled in 16 states. Two special elections will be held this week. Both will take place on February 16, 2016: Alabama House of Representatives District 5 and Georgia House of Representatives District 58 (runoff) Jim Abeler (R) defeated Roger Johnson (DFL) and Zachary Phelps (Legal Marijuana Now) in a special election for Minnesota State Senate District 35. The seat was vacant due to Branden Petersen's (R) resignation on October 31, 2015. Chad Anderson (R) defeated Andrew Carlson (DFL) in a special election for Minnesota House of Representatives District 50B. The seat was vacant following Ann Lenczewski's] (D) resignation on December 15, 2015.

Local

Last week

February 8

• The February 2 recall results in Flaxton, North Dakota, were certified. Gary Cron and Casey Ragle each survived the recall vote. The city council members were targeted for their votes to allow construction of a commercial water depot.
• The New York City Board of Elections heard petition challenges, resulting in five of the 11 candidates for New York's 17th Council District being kicked off the ballot. Two were removed for failing to meet the required number of signatures, while three others were disqualified for turning their paperwork in late. The special election is scheduled for February 23, 2016.
• Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton (D) announced an initiative to equip all of the city's police with body cameras. The city received a federal grant in 2015 to double the number of cameras available to the police department from 150 to 300. In America's 100 largest cities, 67 mayoral offices are held by Democrats and 27 are held by Republicans. The remaining six offices are held by independent mayors or those with unknown partisan affiliations.
• The Oregon Fuels Association filed a challenge to a temporary 10-cent fuel tax referendum in Portland, Oregon. The referendum is currently slated to appear on the May 17 primary election ballot. The group vowed to campaign against the measure should their challenge fail.
• Cleveland's city council voted [6] 13-3 to raise the campaign contribution limits for mayoral candidates. Previously, candidates for the city's top office could receive up to $1,000 from an individual and up to $2,000 from a political action group. The new limits will be $5,000 and $7,500, respectively.

February 9

• A recall election was held for Mayor Dee Collins in Midwest City, Oklahoma. Mayor Collins and a challenger, former police officer Matthew Dukes, will appear in a runoff election on April 5, 2016. Dukes received more than 55 percent of the vote, and Collins received about 35 percent of the vote. The recall effort has been driven by a backlash over public safety funding levels in the city's budget. Collins faced three challengers in the mayoral primary race.
• In Adams County, Colorado, the Board of Commissioners approved a six-week moratorium on new permits for oil and gas wells or well pads within 1,500 feet of schools, homes or public buildings. The suspension was passed in a 3-2 vote. The purpose of the moratorium is to allow the county time to write up another memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the oil and gas industry in the county. MOU are agreements between drillers and local governments in Colorado where the drilling companies agree to follow additional rules in exchange for a more streamlined permitting process.

February 10

• While still in the middle of judicial misconduct proceedings over her 2013 DUI charge, Cynthia Imperato announced her resignation. The Florida judge was appointed to the 17th Judicial Circuit Court by then-Gov. Jeb Bush (R) in January 2003.

February 11

• The Kansas Supreme Court issued a ruling requiring the state legislature to make certain adjustments to school funding in the state by June 30, 2016. If the requisite changes do not take place, the court's ruling could result in "shutting down school districts statewide," according to The Wichita Eagle. The ruling challenged the state's existing "block grant" funding approach for school districts, with the court requiring a more equitable funding distribution. The block grants, which were enacted by the legislature after it scrapped the previous funding formula last year, were meant to freeze funding while a new formula is developed over the next two years. The case stemmed from a lawsuit initiated by four school districts, including Kansas City and Wichita. Gov. Sam Brownback (R) criticized the ruling and stated, "Kansas has among the best schools in the nation and an activist Kansas Supreme court is threatening to shut them down." The plaintiff's attorney, Alan Rupe, stated that the ruling was "a win for every kid in Kansas that attends public schools, particularly those kids that are disadvantaged in high poverty areas."

February 13

• A special election was held in Laredo, Texas, for the District 2 seat on the city council. The seat became vacant when incumbent Esteban Rangel resigned in order to run for the Webb County Commission. Vidal Rodriguez and Jose Perez III were the top vote recipients out of the five-candidate field. Since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election featuring the two will be held. The date of the runoff election has not yet been determined. Laredo is the 81st-largest city in the United States, and it will hold regular city council elections for four of seven seats later this year. The general election date for the regular election has also not yet been determined.

This week

February 16

• The mayor's office and seven of 15 common council seats in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will be up for primary election. Mayor Tom Barrett is facing the following three challengers in his re-election bid: Joe Davis Sr.., Robert G. Donovan and James Methu. Both Davis and Donovan are current Milwaukee Common Council members.
• Eight of the top 50 school districts by enrollment in Wisconsin will hold primary elections. Nineteen total seats are up for grabs in the primary elections across those eight districts. The school districts with primary elections are Holmen, Kenosha Unified, Marshfield, Neenah Joint, Oak Creek-Franklin Joint, Oconomowoc Area, Racine Unified and West Bend. Incumbents are running for re-election in 12 of the 19 races.
• A court hearing is scheduled for the revaluation cancellation lawsuit in Jersey City, New Jersey. State officials have said that the city's assessed value is nearly $16 billion below its actual value.

February 19

• FILING DEADLINE: Mayor's office and three of the six seats on the city council in Lubbock, Texas.

  Fact Check by Ballotpedia

• Is Citizens United responsible for outside money in North Carolina’s 2014 Senate race?
  Just how much outside money was spent on the 2014 Senate race? Did it exceed all other Senate races that year? And was it a result of Citizens United?
• Do deaths from vaccination outnumber deaths caused by measles?
  Michigan state Representative Thomas Hooker (R) claimed that "some statistics indicated more children had died from immunizations than died from measles," according to a Gongwer News article published in early December. Is there more to the story?

Find out.