The Tap: Thursday, March 31, 2016

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

Review of the day

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #10 of The Tap, which was published on April 4, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

• John Kasich held a press conference where he discussed why he believes that Donald Trump is “clearly not prepared” to be president of the United States. He primarily criticized Trump’s foreign policy positions, including his discussion of using nuclear weapons in the Middle East and Europe, abolishing the Geneva Convention, and rejecting NATO. “As a commander in chief and leader of the free world, you don't get do-overs. You need to be able to get it right the first time,” Kasich said.
• Donald Trump met with Reince Priebus, the chair of the Republican National Committee, on Thursday afternoon to discuss convention rules. “The Chairman and Mr. Trump had a productive conversation about the state of the race. The Chairman is in constant communication with all of the candidates and their campaigns about the primaries, general election, and the convention. Meeting and phone conversations with candidates and their campaigns are common and will increase as we get closer to November,” said an RNC spokesperson.
  • See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
• FILING DEADLINE: Virginia’s congressional filing deadline. Virginia has 11 U.S. House seats up for election in 2016. Eight of those seats are currently held by Republicans, and the remaining three seats are held by Democrats. Ballotpedia currently rates all races as safe for the party that currently holds the seat with the exception of District 4. Due to court-ordered redistricting, District 4, which is currently held by Republican Randy Forbes, is rated as safely Democratic. The Virginia Secretary of State has not yet released a list of candidates. More details on the primary will be posted once a candidate list is made available.

State

• Two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier (both from California), have released an open letter urging CalPERS, the largest public pension system in the country, to divest its funds from ExxonMobil. The oil company is currently under scrutiny after allegations that Exxon had evidence that its business practices and operations were contributing to climate change. CalPERS, which is based in California, currently holds about 13 million shares in ExxonMobil, worth about $1.1 billion. The letter read, in part, as follows: “We have seen no discernable evidence that CalPERS' efforts to engage ExxonMobil have resulted in any significant change in the way the company operates when it comes to taking action on climate change.” Exxon has not acknowledged any wrongdoing and is reportedly looking into “legal options” regarding the accusations.

• California’s state government is on the path to raising the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour. SB3 raises the hourly minimum wage to $11 in January 2018 and incrementally raises it to $15 by January 2022, though the governor could delay the increase in an economic downturn. The bill passed through the Assembly with a 48 to 26 vote and the Senate with a 26 to 12 vote. No Republican lawmakers in either chamber voted for the bill. Governor Jerry Brown is expected to sign the bill into law. The approval of SB3 will likely lead proponents of the “Fair Wage Act” Initiative (backed by SEIU-UHW West) and the “Raise California’s Wage and Paid Sick Days” Initiative (backed by the state council of SEIU) to withdraw their $15 per hour minimum wage initiatives. The “Fair Wage Act” qualified for the November ballot on March 22, while the SEIU state council has been collecting signatures for its initiative.

• Incarcerated Michigan Sen. Virgil Smith (D) has submitted his resignation, avoiding a showdown with majority leadership after a judge rejected part of Smith’s plea deal in which he would have been obligated to resign. Amber McCann, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R), commented, “That took a little longer than expected, but this was the resolution the majority leader expected in the end, and he’s glad to see that Senator Smith delivered that to put this issue to rest.” McCann previously noted that expulsion was a possibility had Smith continued to serve. Smith is serving 10 months in jail and five years probation thereafter for assaulting his ex-wife and shooting up her car. Smith’s resignation will go into effect on April 12; the vacancy is due to be filled by a special election, the date of which has yet to be announced by Gov. Rick Snyder (R).

• U.S. District Court Judge Judith Levy ruled that a recall petition filed against Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R) should not have been rejected by the Board of State Canvassers. Activist Robert Davis, who filed the petition, had sued the board last month over its February 2016 decision. The petition seeks to recall Snyder over the Flint water crisis; the exact petition language was not available. The board has approved three other recall petitions against Snyder this year, one of which began circulating on March 27.

Preview of the day

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #9 of The Tap, which was published on March 28, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

• FILING DEADLINE: Virginia congressional filing deadline
  • There are 11 U.S. House seats in Virginia. Currently, eight are held by Republicans and three are held by Democrats.
  • Virginia does not have a U.S. Senate election in 2016.
  • There are no battleground districts in Virginia in 2016. However, as a result of redistricting, Virginia’s 4th Congressional District is expected to flip from being a safely Republican district to a safely Democratic district. Redistricting was mandated by a June 2015 order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which found that Virginia’s original map constituted a racial gerrymander.