The Tap: New district maps and the Buffalo Cannabis Act

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3/7/2016Issue No. 6

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What happened last week: February 29 - March 6
What's happening this week: March 7 - March 13

Navigate The Tap by clicking the tabs below:

Federal

What's on tap?

After the Puerto Rico and Maine primary and caucus on Sunday night, 28.51 percent of the pledged Democratic delegates will be allocated once the final counts are complete and 38.34 percent of the Republican pledged delegates have been allocated.

Democratic nomination

Republican nomination

Updated numbers for Democratic delegates will be available late Monday morning after Maine's count is finalized.

 

Federal

Last week

February 29

  • Several Republican U.S. senators stated that they or other members of the Republican Party will likely disassociate themselves from Donald Trump if he receives the Republican nomination. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reportedly said he would drop Trump “like a hot rock.” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said, “We can't have a nominee be an albatross around the down-ballot races. That's a concern of mine.” In an open letter posted to Facebook on Sunday night, U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) detailed his opposition to Donald Trump’s candidacy. He announced, “If Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee, my expectation is that I will look for some third candidate – a conservative option, a Constitutionalist.”
  • The State Department released the final batch of approximately 3,800 pages of emails from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. According to ABC News, “The State Department said that although there were no additional ‘top secret’ upgrades in today's release, two emails had to be withheld. One was an exchange with President Obama, which is sealed until a later date under rules governing presidential records, and the other was an unclassified message that was withheld at the request of a law enforcement agency.”
  • U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) endorsed Bernie Sanders. “Bernie Sanders and I share a goal of building a grassroots movement of people who want to take back our country from the billionaires and the multinational corporations. We want to make elections into something different: Not the lesser of two evils, but the greater good,” he wrote in an online post announcing his endorsement.
  • U.S. Rep Tulsi Gabbard (R-Hawaii) endorsed Bernie Sanders. “With this clear choice in mind, on Sunday I resigned my position with the DNC so I can wholeheartedly support Sanders as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States,” Gabbard wrote in her endorsement.
  • Brian France, the CEO of NASCAR, endorsed Donald Trump at a rally in Georgia. NASCAR's vice president called it a "private personal decision," clarifying that President France was not speaking for NASCAR, which, according to Politico, declined to host several banquets "at Trump’s National Doral resort in Miami after his comments about Mexican immigrants drew widespread public condemnation."
  • Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was featured in a campaign video supporting Illinois Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth's plan to admit Syrian refugees to the United States.

March 1

  • 2016 Super Tuesday presidential primaries and caucuses
  • All congressional incumbents who sought re-election won their primaries. Congressional primaries were held in Alabama, Arkansas and Texas. The closest race involving an incumbent was in Texas’ 8th Congressional District, where incumbent Kevin Brady (R) narrowly avoided a runoff election by taking in 53.4 percent of the vote. He defeated Steve Toth, Craig McMichael and Andre Dean in the Republican primary and will face no opposition in the general election.
  • Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R) discussed the controversy surrounding Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke’s endorsement of Donald Trump. Ryan said, "This is the kind of moment where we should be having a serious debate about the policies needed to restore the American idea. Instead, the conversation over the last few days has been over white supremacy groups. I try to stay out of the ups and downs of the primary, but I've also said when I see something that runs counter to who we are as a party and a country, I will speak up. If a person wants to be the nominee of the party, there can be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry.”
  • Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.), who is not seeking re-election in 2016, joined a growing list of elected officials who have said that they will not vote for Trump if he is the Republican nominee. In a letter, Rigell wrote, “Never before have I grabbed a word like catastrophic to make a political point. It’s like pulling a fire alarm; if you do it, there had better be a fire. There is a fire and it’s raging within our Republican party. I am convinced that if Donald Trump becomes our nominee, the harm done to our party would be nothing short of catastrophic. I reject Trump as our nominee based on his judgement, temperament and character, all of which point to a reckless, embarrassing and ultimately dangerous presidency.”
  • According to the New York Daily News, “a four-judge panel of the state Appellate Division said the [New York] state attorney general’s office is ‘authorized to bring a cause of action for fraud’” against Trump and his now-defunct Trump University. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman called the ruling “a clear victory in our effort to hold Donald Trump and Trump University accountable for defrauding thousands of students.”
  • State Department spokesman John Kirby said that the department will not rush the review of Clinton’s emails ordered by Secretary of State John Kerry. According to The Washington Times, almost all of Clinton’s emails have been released, “with more than 2,000 having portions redacted because they contain information now deemed ‘confidential’ or ‘secret.’ Another 22 messages deemed ‘top secret’ have been withheld entirely.” Kirby said, “I’m not going to commit to a specific timeline. The secretary wants this review done thoroughly and accurately and efficiently, and he’s not going to allow himself or the process or the department to be driven by the political calendar on this.”
  • Christie Todd Whitman, former Republican governor of New Jersey, told Bloomberg Politics that she would vote for Hillary Clinton rather than Donald Trump if Trump were the nominee.
  • Comedian and Family Feud television host Steve Harvey announced he was endorsing Hillary Clinton for president during an interview with Clinton on his radio show. Harvey said Clinton "is the best candidate to build on President Barack Obama's legacy."
  • Former pro wrestler and Minnesota Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura announced that he would run for president if Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race but did not say which, if any, party’s nomination he would seek. He has recently contemplated running on the Libertarian Party ticket.
  • The anti-Donald Trump super PAC Our Principles PAC, which was founded by a former aide to Mitt Romney, hired former Jeb Bush presidential campaign spokesperson Tim Miller to be a communications advisor. Before working for Bush, Miller worked for another super PAC, America Rising.
  • The conservative advocacy group Club for Growth, Politico reported, warned congressional candidates against endorsing Donald Trump at the risk of losing the Club for Growth’s support. According to the piece, the group put about “$1 million in Arkansas and Oklahoma in the hopes of hurting Trump in a couple of states where his rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are within striking distance.”
  • The United States Supreme Court ruled that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) takes precedence over a Vermont law requiring health insurers to submit claims information to the state for inclusion in a database. ERISA is a federal law that requires self-funded employee health benefit plans to report financial data to the United States Department of Labor so the department can monitor the financial solvency of the plans. The Supreme Court held that under ERISA, self-funded employee health plans are exempt from Vermont’s reporting requirements. The ruling could affect similar data-collection efforts in 17 other states.
  • Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the House Natural Resource Committee, claimed that the Obama administration intentionally spilled toxic wastewater from a mine in Colorado last August. On August 5, 2015, the EPA was cleaning up the Gold King Mine when approximately three million gallons of toxic mine wastewater was spilled into the Animas River. This wastewater reached the water systems of three states—Colorado, Utah and New Mexico—and has become the center of several congressional investigations. According to Rep. Bishop, "There was nothing unintentional about the EPA's actions with regard to breaching the mine. They fully intended to dig out the plug and breach it."

March 2

  • Ben Carson announced that he did “not see a political path forward in light of last evening’s Super Tuesday primary results” and would not attend the week’s Republican presidential debate. Carson did not formally suspend his campaign, however, and he said in a statement that he would provide more details about its future during a speech on Friday. During his speech given at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Carson did suspend his campaign.
  • A spokesperson for the Koch Brothers' nonprofit political advocacy group, Freedom Partners, said, "We have no plans to get involved in the primary." According to a Reuters story, "Three sources close to the Kochs said the brothers made the decision because they were concerned that spending millions of dollars attacking Trump would be money wasted, since they had not yet seen any attack on Trump stick." According to the piece, there was no further indication given as to how the Kochs would be involved in the general election.
  • According to the Wall Street Journal, the conservative Club for Growth began “a $1.5 million campaign in Florida to diminish Mr. Trump’s numbers there. The advocacy group was the first third-party group to spend significant sums against Mr. Trump, when it invested $1 million in an anti-Trump campaign in Iowa last fall.”
  • David Brock, the founder of pro-Clinton super PACs American Bridge and Correct the Record, announced that he has been conducting opposition research on Donald Trump for months. “We’re going to go out and make the case to the American people against Donald Trump in a way that the Republican Party, frankly, has failed and has failed to do. They haven’t vetted him. We’ll do that vet,” said Brock.
  • Hillary Clinton’s campaign announced that it had raised $30 million in February. Bernie Sanders raised $42 million over the same period.
  • The Justice Department granted immunity to Bryan Pagliano, the State Department staffer who set up Clinton’s private email server, as part of the FBI’s investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information.
  • U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that he would consider supporting Ted Cruz if it were necessary to prevent Donald Trump from winning the Republican nomination. Graham, who has frequently criticized Cruz, said, “You know Ted Cruz is not my favorite, by any means. But we may be in a position where we have to rally around Ted Cruz as the only way to stop Donald Trump, and I'm not so sure that would work."
  • FILING DEADLINE: Nebraska’s congressional filing deadline. In District 3, incumbent Adrian Smith (R) is completely unchallenged in both the primary and general elections. In District 1 and District 2 the incumbents are unchallenged in the 2016 primaries, but face challengers in the general election. District 2 is considered a battleground district in 2016, with incumbent Brad Ashford (D) facing two Republican and three Libertarian challengers in 2016.
  • President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden endorsed Ted Strickland (D), a candidate in the U.S. Senate race in Ohio. Strickland has also been endorsed by Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as the Ohio Democratic Party. His main opponent, P.G. Sittenfeld, has out fundraised him by a significant portion, ending 2015 with over $9 million in total contributions compared to Strickland’s approximate $3 million. The current incumbent for this seat is Rob Portman (R). The Senate Democratic primary in Ohio is considered a primary “race to watch” by Ballotpedia, because of the high-level endorsements and fundraising, among other factors.

March 3

  • Republicans held their 11th primary debate in Detroit, Michigan. It was sponsored by Fox News and moderated by Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace.
    • “In a brawling and at one point bawdy debate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich finally connected with Republicans who have tended to dismiss his presidential bid. Ballotpedia surveyed more than 110 Republican and Democratic strategists, pollsters, media consultants, activists, lobbyists and allied interest groups operatives on the debate in Detroit hosted by Fox News and a plurality of the 72 GOP Insiders who responded said Kasich was the ‘biggest winner’ of the debate,” wrote senior staff writer Jim Barnes.


  • Mitt Romney delivered a speech about Donald Trump that was characterized as “blistering” and “scorching.” Romney criticized Trump’s businesses, his lack of foreign policy knowledge, his character, his wealth, his lack of morality and his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Romney said, “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing the American public for suckers. He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.”
    • Trump responded to Romney’s attack, saying, “I backed Mitt Romney, you can see how loyal he is. He was begging for my endorsement. I could have said ‘Mitt, drop to your knees.’ He would have dropped to his knees. … He failed horribly. … I’m a much, much better businessman than him. … It was very nasty. I thought he was a better person than that.”
  • New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez endorsed Marco Rubio. In a statement, she said, “Marco Rubio is a compelling leader who can unite the country around conservative principles that will improve the lives of all Americans. The stakes for our great country are too high — and the differences between the candidates too great — for me to remain neutral in this race. I wholeheartedly trust Marco to keep us safe and ensure a better tomorrow.” According to CNN, Martinez is “considered by pundits as a potential vice presidential nominee regardless of who wins the GOP nomination.”
  • The United Farm Workers, “the largest farmworkers union in the country,” endorsed Hillary Clinton. United Farm Workers President Arturo S. Rodriguez said, "Hillary Clinton has the strong resolve needed to make change happen. And she is the best equipped to defeat the nativist, hateful forces of the current Republican front-runner."

March 4

  • Ben Carson formally suspended his campaign while giving a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “There's a lot of people who love me, they just won't vote for me,” Carson said. Carson will serve as the chair of My Faith Votes, a Christian get-out-the-vote vehicle.

March 5

March 6

 

Congress is IN session SCOTUS is NOT in session
The Senate will be in session Monday-Friday. The House will not be in session next week. SCOTUS is not hearing oral arguments this week. It will reconvene on March 21, 2016.

This week

March 8

March 9

March 10

March 11

 

Where was the president last week? Federal judiciary
President Barack Obama remained mostly in Washington, D.C., last week but visited Milwaukee on Thursday, March 3rd.  
  • 81 total federal judicial vacancies and one Supreme Court vacancy
  • 42 pending nominations
  • 14 future vacancies
As of last Friday, one judicial hearing had been scheduled for this week on March 10, 2016.

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State and Local

What's on tap?

Several special elections and many filing deadlines are taking place in states and local districts across the country this week. We'll tell you what to look for, and what you might have missed last week, in this edition of the state and local tap.

 

Highlights

State

  • On March 7, at the request of federal district court Judge William Osteen, state officials are due to respond to the brief filed on February 29 by opponents of North Carolina's newly approved congressional district map. The original district map, which was approved by the state legislature in 2011, was thrown out by a federal court in February 2016. The court determined that the original map constituted an illegal racial gerrymander and ordered state lawmakers to draft a remedial map. State lawmakers approved the remedial map later that month and delayed the state's congressional primary from March 15 to June 7.

Local

 

State

Last week

February 29

  • New Jersey Governor Chris Christie nominated Judge David Bauman to a vacant seat on the New Jersey Supreme Court. This is the second time Christie has nominated Bauman; the first nomination, in 2012, expired after the Democratic-controlled state Senate declined to give him a confirmation hearing. Senate President Steve Sweeney said the next day that Bauman will again “not have a hearing, and the only way I will consider a Christie nominee is if the governor preserves judicial independence by submitting a Democrat for the court.” The seven justices on the court are nominated by the governor and approved by the state Senate; a longstanding but unwritten tradition holds that the court should be nearly equally balanced between Republicans and Democrats. Christie states that Bauman would be the fourth Republican; Sweeney claims he would be the fifth, including unaffiliated Justice Jaynee LaVecchia, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.
  • At the request of federal district court Judge William Osteen, opponents of North Carolina's new congressional district map filed a brief explaining their position. The brief read, in part, as follows: "Told it could not pack African American voters into two districts, [the General Assembly] instead scattered them to the winds. … At the risk of dramatic understatement, the newly adopted plan fails to adequately remedy the original violation." In addition, plaintiffs alleged that the remedial map constituted a "bald partisan gerrymander, unmoored by any legitimate principle whatsoever." The court had determined that the original map constituted an illegal racial gerrymander and ordered state lawmakers to draft the remedial map at issue here. State lawmakers approved the remedial map last month and delayed the state's congressional primary from March 15 to June 7.
  • The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission unanimously re-affirmed state protection for the sage grouse, a ground-dwelling bird that was denied federal protection under the Endangered Species Act in 2015. The sage grouse has been on the state’s protected species list since 1998. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is permitted to acquire land, including cropland, to protect state-listed species. The commission’s goal is to increase Washington’s sage grouse population to 3,200, up from the approximately 1,000 sage grouse that inhabit Douglas and Lincoln counties. The decision received criticism from agriculture groups that call state protection for the species unnecessary and burdensome for ranchers and farmers.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in a billion-dollar pension dispute between New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and New Jersey state government worker unions. In 2011, a bipartisan pension law was passed in the state that was designed to reform the state’s government worker pension system, which is currently about $55 billion short of projections for future benefits. The unions filed a lawsuit, Burgos v. State of New Jersey, against Christie and the state of New Jersey in 2015 after Christie’s proposed budgets for 2014 and 2015 did not adequately address the lack of funds in the pension fund in accordance with the 2011 law. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendants, meaning that Christie and the state government were not required to make additional scheduled payments outside of what was already in place prior to the 2011 law. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to decline reviewing this case leaves the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision intact.

March 1

  • The United States Supreme Court ruled that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) takes precedence over a Vermont law requiring health insurers to submit claims information to the state for inclusion in a database. ERISA is a federal law that requires self-funded employee health benefit plans to report financial data to the United States Department of Labor so the department can monitor the financial solvency of the plans. The Supreme Court held that under ERISA, self-funded employee health plans are exempt from Vermont’s reporting requirements. The ruling could affect similar data-collection efforts in 17 other states.
  • A bill regulating fracking and prohibiting local governments from banning fracking died in the Florida State Senate Appropriations Committee. A similar bill (HB 191) had previously been passed by the Florida House of Representatives on January 27, 2016. Provisions in that bill would have prohibited local governments from banning fracking in their jurisdictions and required the state Department of Environmental Protection to review the potential costs and benefits of the oil and gas extraction technique. Upon completion of the study, the Department of Environmental Protection would have created new rules for fracking that would have to be approved by the state legislature. The bill passed 73-45, with mostly Republicans supporting the measure. The Florida State Senate received the measure on February 9, 2016, though it never made it to the full Senate for a vote. Apparently there was a lot of local opposition to the bill, and 57 communities in Florida have already banned fracking. The committee was comprised of senators from counties that opposed the bill.
  • Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the House Natural Resource Committee, claimed that the Obama administration intentionally spilled toxic wastewater from a mine in Colorado last August. On August 5, 2015, the EPA was cleaning up the Gold King Mine when approximately three million gallons of toxic mine wastewater was spilled into the Animas River. This wastewater reached the water systems of three states—Colorado, Utah and New Mexico—and has become the center of several Congressional investigations. According to Rep. Bishop, "There was nothing unintentional about the EPA's actions with regard to breaching the mine. They fully intended to dig out the plug and breach it."
  • Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D) asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to add the Gold King Mine to the agency’s Superfund program, which covers uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites. The Superfund program is implemented through the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980. If the mine becomes a Superfund site, the EPA would oversee the cleanup and potentially hold private companies or their successors responsible for the mine’s contamination. Hickenlooper’s request also included the designation of an area with 47 other abandoned mines that could potentially leak arsenic, lead and zinc.
  • Former pro wrestler and Minnesota Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura announced that he would run for president if Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race but did not say which, if any, party’s nomination he would seek. He has recently contemplated running on the Libertarian Party ticket.

Super Tuesday Results

State courts elections

State legislatures

State executives

Statewide ballot measures

  • Alabama’s Amendment 1, the sole statewide ballot measure on Tuesday’s ballot, was approved. District attorneys and clerks will now be included in the state’s public pension program, and some judges will be required to increase the amount they contribute to their pensions.

March 2

  • Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely (D-District 35) was arraigned and charged with "three felony counts of corrupt organizations and dealing in the proceeds of illegal activity, and three misdemeanor counts involving conspiracy, gambling and an election law violation." He pleaded not guilty to the charges. According to the indictment, Gergely allegedly used his political influence to help Ronald "Porky" Melocchi to get illegal video poker machines into restaurants, bars and other locations. Authorities working on the investigation, known as “Operation Pork Chop,” raided the operation in 2013 and collected more than $1 million and 335 machines at 70 locations. Melocchi pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to 10 years probation. Gergely was first elected to the chamber in 2002.
  • The Maine secretary of state had a deadline to complete signature verification for three initiatives on March 2.
  • A hearing was held in a state district court in Clark County, Nevada, about a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Nevada against the state’s school choice program. The program provides public funds to students, amounting to “the majority of their … per-pupil” funding figure, to attend a private school of their choice, including religious schools. The ACLU argues the program violates the state constitution, which prohibits public funding for religious institutions. The program is currently on hold via an order from a judge in Carson City who is reviewing another against the program.
  • The Oregon State Senate passed a bill (SB 1547) with the goal of eliminating coal from the state's energy supply by January 1, 2030. In December 2014, 9.2 percent of the electricity generated in the state came from coal, the 14th-lowest amount of the 50 states. The bill also requires the state to have half of its electricity coming from renewable sources by 2040. Renewable energy accounted for 11.3 percent of the state's electricity generation in December 2014, while hydroelectric energy accounted for 47.7 percent. This bill, similar to the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard, excludes hydroelectricity from counting toward the state's goal. Gov. Kate Brown indicated she would sign the measure. Oregon is one of seven Democratic trifectas.
  • Two bills were introduced in the Kentucky State Legislature, one in the House and one in the Senate, that would establish a system of charter schools in the state. Both of the bills “would allow pilot programs in Fayette and Jefferson counties.” The legislation would restrict the number of charter schools established to two per year per school district through school year 2021-2022. The legislation is expected to have a better chance of passing than previous attempts due to a lower number of Democrats in the House and a governor supportive of charters. Kentucky is one of eight states without a law authorizing charter schools. Kentucky’s state government is divided; Republicans control the state Senate and governorship while Democrats narrowly control the state House.
  • In Alabama, a bill that would raise the amount spent on public education in the state from $6 billion to $6.3 billion was approved by the House Ways and Means Education Committee and could be voted on by the House of Representatives next week. The bill includes a two-tiered system of raises, with most teachers getting a 4 percent increase. It also allows for the hiring of 475 additional teachers, increases funding for pre-kindergarten by $14 million, and increases spending on transportation, other school expenses and funding of the teacher pension systems. Alabama is one of 24 Republican trifectas.

March 3

  • Following the expected resignation on Wednesday of Indiana Lieutenant Governor Sue Ellspermann, the Indiana Legislature approved Eric Holcomb as her successor. Holcomb was sworn in the same day. Holcomb, former chief of staff to U.S. Senator Dan Coats, withdrew his candidacy for the U.S. Senate the day before Pence announced he would nominate Holcomb. Ellspermann’s resignation makes Governor Mike Pence Indiana’s first incumbent governor to run for re-election with a new running mate. Indiana is one of 21 states where the governor and lieutenant governor are elected on the same ticket. Pence faces a rematch in November: he beat John Gregg (D) in his 2012 bid for the office, and early race predictions peg Pence to win re-election.
  • The early voting period for North Carolina's March 15 primary began. This marks the first time the state's voter identification requirement is being enforced during a primary election. North Carolina's voter ID law, which was adopted in 2013, was the first in the nation to be adopted in the wake of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which struck down portions of the federal Voting Rights Act. Since its passage, the law has been subject to ongoing litigation. In June 2015, the General Assembly of North Carolina voted to relax portions of the requirement, enabling a voter without a valid photo ID to cast a ballot by providing poll workers with his or her birthdate, the last four digits of his or her Social Security number, and an affidavit stating that he or she is unable to present a valid ID. North Carolina is one of 24 Republican trifectas.
  • The Oregon Legislature adjourned its regular session after 32 days and became the second state to adjourn its 2016 regular session. In even-numbered years, the legislature is scheduled to be in session for 35 calendar days, and for 160 calendar days in odd-numbered years. Currently, three states have adjourned their legislative sessions.

March 4

  • The Wyoming Legislature adjourned its budget session after 20 days. In even-numbered years, the legislature holds a budget session for approximately 20 days, while in odd-numbered years the legislature is in session for 40 days. Oregon, New Mexico and Wyoming have all adjourned their 2016 legislative sessions, while 37 states are still in regular session.

 

This week

March 8

Oregon is one of seven states with Democratic trifecta control of state government.

March 10

March 11

March 12

March 13

 

State government in session

Thirty-seven states are in regular session; California and Louisiana are in special session.

AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MS, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, RI, SC, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV.

Convening this week:

  • MN convenes on 3/8/2016.

Recesses:

  • WI until 3/8/2016
  • NH House until 03/09/2016
  • PA until 03/14/2016

Adjourned sessions:

  • NM, WY, OR
  • UT and WA on 3/10/2016
  • FL on 3/11/2016
  • VA and WV on 3/12/2016
  • IN on 3/13/2016

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.

State government special elections

As of this week, 12 legislative special elections have been held in 2016. Four involved party changes: two from Republican to Democratic (Oklahoma, SD 34, and Massachusetts HD Twelfth Essex), and two from Democratic to Republican (Texas, HD 118, and Minnesota, HD 50B). Another 28 (not including runoff elections) have been scheduled in 18 states. An average of 37 special elections were held in each of the past three even years (2010, 2012 and 2014).

Local

Last week

February 29

  • In Oregon, Glendale School District board member William Boal lost a recall election. More than 65 percent of voters cast ballots in favor of recalling Boal. Two other board members, Henry Perry and Judith Dickerson, were also initially targeted by the recall advocates, but both resigned from office instead. A five-member committee chaired by Pete Ney initiated the recall effort on the grounds that the board had failed to follow its own policies and district procedures, as well as to keep district administrators accountable. In response to the recall effort, Boal had pointed to rising student test scores, higher graduation rates and other accomplishments and asked for "a vote of confidence" in the district's leadership from voters.
  • FILING DEADLINE: The deadline passed to run for three seats each on the Edison Township, Newark and Passaic school boards in New Jersey. The general election will be held on April 19, 2016.

March 1

  • Arkansas held a general election for local judgeships on the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th,12th, 13th and 16th circuit court districts. In 2016, Ballotpedia is covering local judicial elections across the United States.
  • Both Tennessee and Texas held primary elections for local judgeships. In Tennessee, no Democratic candidates filed to run for any of the partisan offices. This means that only a Republican primary election was held. The general election will be held on August 4, 2016. In Texas, 259 district court judgeships and 36 county court judgeships are up for general election on November 8, 2016. The primary election featured only those seats where two candidates from the same political party filed for the same judgeship. Of the 295 judgeships up for election, only 136 featured races with more than one candidate. Incumbents are running for re-election to 182 seats.
  • In the Texas judicial primary election, husband-and-wife pair Richard Leach (D) and Gloria Cantu Minnick (R) were defeated in their efforts to win the Democratic and Republican nominations for the Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 1 judgeship, respectively. They lost to incumbent Clyde Leuchtag (R) and fellow challenger George Barnstone (D). Barnstone won about 62 percent of the vote against Leach in the Democratic primary, and Leuchtag won nearly 70 percent of the vote against Minnick in the Republican primary.
  • One seat with an unexpired eight-month term on the Orange Unified School District’s Board of Education was up for special election and won by Andrea Yamasaki (D). Both the school board and the election were officially nonpartisan. The Trustee Area 1 seat was vacated when incumbent Diane Singer (D) moved out of the area. The board initially appointed Gregory Salas (R) to the position in September 2015, but Singer led a successful petition drive that required Salas to leave the position after 38 days and the board to create a special election to fill the vacancy. California law allows citizens to petition for a special election within 30 days of a board appointment. Salas faced Yamasaki for the position in a contest that pitted the board’s Republican appointee against a Democratic candidate supported by the special election petitioners. The special election had an estimated cost of $326,000 to $385,000. Orange Unified served 29,750 students and was the 36th-largest school district by student enrollment in California in the 2013-2014 school year. The district will hold its regular election for four of seven seats on the board, including the Trustee Area 1 seat, in the general election on November 8, 2016.
  • School board primary elections were held in Alabama’s and Tennessee’s largest school districts. In Alabama, the general election for most districts will be November 8, 2016, although some districts may have elections on August 23, 2016. Overall, 12 of the state’s largest school districts will hold elections for 26 seats in 2016. Four incumbents were defeated in the state’s school board primaries; only one county board seat out of 24 up for election in November will feature more than one candidate. In Tennessee, Knox County Schools was the only district of the state’s largest by student enrollment to hold a primary election. All 19 of those districts will hold general elections for a total of 73 seats on August 4, 2016. In 2016, 641 of America's 1,000 largest school districts by student enrollment are holding elections.
  • FILING DEADLINE: The deadline passed to run for city office in both Chesapeake and Norfolk in Virginia. The Chesapeake race features the mayor’s office and three of the seven seats on the city council up for general election on May 3, 2016. The Norfolk race also features the mayor’s office up for election as well as two of the eight seats on the city council. Norfolk’s general election will also take place on May 3, 2016. Chesapeake and Norfolk are the 92nd- and 79th-largest cities by population in the United States, respectively.
  • FILING DEADLINE: The deadline passed to run for a total of 18 seats across six of Nebraska’s largest school districts and 11 seats across three of Virginia’s largest districts. In Nebraska, primary elections will be held in districts where more than two candidates file for each seat up for election. The primary election will be on May 10, 2016, and the general election will be on November 8, 2016. In Virginia, the three districts with upcoming elections are Chesapeake, Hampton and Newport News. The general election will be held on May 3, 2016.

March 2

  • In Arizona, the Phoenix City Council voted 7-2 to reinstate a spoken prayer at the beginning of council meetings. The council had switched to a "moment of silent prayer" earlier this year after a group of Satanists planned to do a spoken prayer in February. Mayor Greg Stanton (D) and Councilwoman Kate Gallego voted against the measure, with Stanton’s vote stemming from his concerns about potential legal implications. The council’s vote requires that the spoken prayer must be given only by police and fire department chaplains. Phoenix is the sixth-largest city by population in the United States.

March 4

  • A recall effort against Ann Kitchen, a member of the Austin City Council in Texas, failed to get on the ballot. The city clerk rejected signatures collected by a group called Austin4All due to a lack of notary stamps for each page of the petition. Petitioners cited her efforts to regulate ride-sharing companies such as Lyft and Uber as the reason for her recall. Kitchen has advocated for the use of additional background checks on drivers working for these companies. Austin Mayor Stephen Adler criticized the recall effort and argued that targeting public officials for their policy positions is an improper use of the recall.
  • FILING DEADLINE: The deadline passed to run for a total of eight seats across six of Delaware’s largest school districts. The general election will be held on May 10, 2016.

March 5

 

This week

March 8

  • In California’s San Luis Obispo County, both a district formation measure and a parcel tax measure will be on the ballot. The district formation measure would create the Paso Robles Basin Water District, while the parcel tax measure would institute a tax to fund the operations of the new water district. Both measures must be approved by residents in order for either to be authorized. The district formation measure requires simple majority approval, but the parcel tax measure requires a two-thirds supermajority of voters in favor. Ballotpedia is covering all local ballot measure elections in California and all notable local ballot measures across the United States in 2016.
  • City officials in two different Arizona cities will face recall elections:
    • In Camp Verde, city council member Bruce George is facing a recall due to his vote for a 0.65 percent sales tax increase. George was not the only city official targeted for recall; Mayor Charlie German and fellow council members Robin Whatley and Jessie Jones were also targeted, but recall advocates were unable to gather enough petition signatures against them. George resigned from the city council on November 9, 2015, but Yavapai County Superior Court Judge David L. Mackey ordered that the recall election still be held because George's resignation occurred after the deadline for cancellation. George rescinded his resignation on November 15, 2015, and decided to stand for the recall election.
    • In Guadalupe, Mayor Rebecca Jimenez is facing a recall due to her September 2015 conviction for use of a forgery device. The conviction, restitution to the Arizona Department of Economic Security and unsupervised probation were part of a plea deal after Jimenez was indicted on four charges of welfare fraud for failure to count the salary of her children's father on food stamp documentation. In her response to the recall effort, Jimenez noted several of the city’s recent accomplishments, such as a budget surplus, and stated, “I have worked hard and tirelessly for all the good people of Guadalupe. I ran for council because I knew then like I know now that I am the type of leader that can work and achieve the type of change OUR town needs to move forward.” She will face city council member Angie Perez in the recall election.
  • FILING DEADLINE: Deadline to run for the mayor’s office and two of the five seats on the Portland City Commission in Oregon. The mayor is also a member of the city commission. The primary election will be on May 17, 2016. The primary election is functionally a general election; a second election (called the general election) on November 8, 2016, will only be held if no candidate receives a majority of votes cast in the primary election.

March 10

  • FILING DEADLINE: Deadline to run for the mayor’s office and five of the nine seats on the San Diego City Council in California. The primary election will be on June 7, 2016, and the general election will be on November 8, 2016. Although the city holds nonpartisan elections, the local Democratic and Republican parties often endorse candidates. Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who is running for re-election, was endorsed by the San Diego County Republican Party in his previous campaign. San Diego is the eighth-largest city by population in the United States.

March 11

  • FILING DEADLINE: Deadline to run for city offices in Anaheim, Fresno, Irvine, Riverside, Sacramento, San Jose, Santa Ana and Stockton in California. In 2016, 43 of America's 100 largest cities by population are holding elections.
  • FILING DEADLINE: Deadline to run for a total of 132 seats across 38 of Georgia’s largest school districts by student enrollment. Districts with nonpartisan school boards will hold their general elections on May 24, 2016. In races where no candidate wins a majority of votes cast, runoffs will be held on July 26, 2016. Districts with partisan school boards will hold primary elections on May 24, 2016. In primary elections where no candidate wins a majority of votes cast, a primary runoff will be held between the top two vote recipients on July 26, 2016. The general election for partisan school boards will be on November 8, 2016. Similar to the others, if no candidate receives a majority of the vote in that election, a runoff election will be held on December 6, 2016.
  • FILING DEADLINE: Deadline to run for four of the seven seats on the Twin Rivers Unified School District school board in California. The general election will be on June 7, 2016.
  • FILING DEADLINE: Deadline for local measures to be added to the ballot for the general election on June 7, 2016, in California.

 

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