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The Tap: Tuesday, September 20, 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 #35 of The Tap, which was published on September 24, 2015. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

  • The Washington Post reported that Donald Trump spent more than $250,000 from his charity, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, to settle lawsuits related to his for-profit businesses. “Those cases, which together used $258,000 from Trump’s charity, were among four newly documented expenditures in which Trump may have violated laws against ‘self-dealing’ — which prohibit nonprofit leaders from using charity money to benefit themselves or their businesses,” wrote David Fahrenthold. The Trump campaign responded in an official statement, saying, “In typical Washington Post fashion, they’ve gotten their facts wrong. It is the Clinton Foundation that is set up to make sure the Clintons personally enrich themselves by selling access and trading political favors. … There was not, and could not be, any intent or motive for the Trump Foundation to make improper payments. All contributions are reported to the IRS, and all Foundation donations are publicly disclosed. Mr. Trump is generous both with his money and with his time. He has provided millions of dollars to fund his Foundation and a multitude of other charitable causes.”
  • Donald Trump released a statement in support of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, following news that federal prosecutors accused Christie of having been aware of the lane-closings on the George Washington Bridge in 2013, which prosecutors argue was done as an act of political retribution. Trump said to The New York Times, “I have known and liked Chris for 15 years. After his recent run for president, he called me to say that he would like to endorse me in that he sees a movement like he has never seen before. I was greatly honored, accepted his endorsement, and he has been a spectacular advocate ever since.” In December 2015, while Christie was still a candidate for president, Trump said that Christie “totally knew about” the lane closures while they were happening. “They’re with him all the time, the people that did it,” said Trump. Christie endorsed Trump for president in February 2016 and is in charge of Trump’s White House transition efforts.
  • At a campaign event in North Carolina, Trump discussed African American communities and inner-city crime, saying, “African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape they've ever been in before. Ever, ever, ever.” He added, “You take a look at the inner cities, you get no education, you get no jobs, you get shot walking down the street. They're worse, I mean honestly, places like Afghanistan are safer than some of our inner cities. And I say to the African-American communities, and I think it's resonating, because you see what's happening with my poll numbers with African Americans. They're going, like, high. With the inner cities I say to the African American people who have to suffer in these inner cities, I'm going to fix it, I'm going to fix it. We're going to fix it.” President Obama responded to Trump’s comments in an interview with ABC News. He said, “You know, I think even most 8-year-olds will tell you that whole slavery thing wasn't very good for black people. Jim Crow wasn't very good for black people. What we have to do is use our history to propel us to make even more progress in the future.”
  • Gary Johnson failed to qualify for public funds to begin planning for a White House transition process. In order to receive public funds for transition planning, federal law requires candidates to appear on enough ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning the electoral college and to be able to demonstrate “significant” support in public polling. The General Services Administration, which oversees transition processes, gave government office space and technical support to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in August. A spokesperson for the GSA said that GSA staff “continues to closely monitor the situation, including ballot access, polling numbers and his eligibility for inclusion in the presidential debate. If Gov. Johnson qualifies in the future, GSA will offer him the space and services detailed in the law.” Ron Nielson, Johnson’s campaign manager, said in response to the news, “Even the federal government is in the business of attempting to pre-select voters’ choices for president and vice president.”
  • Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D) said that former President George H.W. Bush plans to vote for Hillary Clinton in November. A spokesman for Bush declined to confirm or deny the story, saying, "The vote President Bush will cast as a private citizen in some 50 days will be just that: a private vote cast in some 50 days. He is not commenting on the presidential race in the interim." Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, told CNN that she respects “the 92-year-old former president very much and his decision … It is ironic that he would vote for the wife of the man who knocked him out of the race. But look, this was a bruising primary ... so I know there are a lot of hurt feelings there.”
  • Hillary Clinton is only visiting two battleground states this week in order to focus on her debate preparation. "Clinton has spent hours watching a highlight reel of Trump's Republican primary debates, according to several people familiar with her debate preparation. She took notes on what agitated him, particularly in his exchanges with rival Ted Cruz, and studied his style," CNN reported. Clinton also told entertainer Steve Harvey in a radio interview that she understood the debates to be “a contact sport.” She said, "I am going to do my very best to communicate as clearly and fearlessly as I can in the face of the insults and the attacks and the bullying and the bigotry that we have seen coming from my opponent."
  • In an open letter to customers of Wells Fargo, Hillary Clinton condemned the bank for opening 2 million accounts in customers’ names, including checking and savings accounts and credit cards, without their knowledge or consent. As a result, some customers were charged insufficient fund fees and annual fees for accounts they never authorized. Clinton wrote that to address "this kind of outrageous behavior," the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau must be preserved. She continued, "Executives should be held individually accountable when rampant illegal activity happens on their watch. Their compensation should take a hit if their companies pay major fines. And they must face appropriate legal consequences if they break the law."
  • Billionaire Republican donor Mike Fernandez pledged $2 million to support Hillary Clinton's campaign with a “focus on Latino outreach and registration in Florida." Fernandez backed former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) in the Republican primary.
  • According to ABC News, the Clinton campaign is spending $143.2 million on television ads from now until November 8, encompassing 95 percent of all spending on television campaign ads. The Trump campaign is set to spend only $6.8 million.


  • In an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, billionaire hedge fund manager and progressive donor George Soros announced that he would invest $500 million in startups, established companies, social-impact initiatives, and businesses founded by migrants and refugees. In the piece, Soros explained his decision to invest, writing, “All of the investments we make will be owned by my nonprofit organization. They are intended to be successful—because I want to show how private capital can play a constructive role helping migrants—and any profits will go to fund programs at the Open Society Foundations, including programs that benefit migrants and refugees.”
  • Two former aides to Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign were sentenced in relation to a campaign finance violation. John Tate and Jesse Benton, who were convicted in May of covering up payments to former Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson for Sorenson’s endorsement in 2012, were sentenced to two years probation and six months of home confinement. Both men worked to support Rand Paul’s presidential campaign earlier in the 2016 cycle, and Benton has also been involved with the pro-Trump super PAC Great America PAC.
  • Jill Stein has received four payments totaling $456,000 from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. The Washington Post noted that since President Barack Obama declined to use public financing for his presidential campaign in 2008, the fund has diminished in importance. It currently holds $315 million in cash reserves.
  • Gary Johnson raised a total of $5 million in August, more than three times the $1.6 million he raised in July. The Wall Street Journal wrote, “No Libertarian presidential candidate had raised more than $1 million in a single month dating back to at least 1996, before which digital campaign finance records aren’t available.” More than three-quarters of Johnson’s $5 million came from donations of $200 or less.
  • In his final address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Barack Obama reflected on his major foreign policy initiatives and warned about forces that are pushing back against a globalized world. He said that as problems associated with globalization have been ignored, “alternative visions of the world have pressed forward both in the wealthiest countries and in the poorest: Religious fundamentalism; the politics of ethnicity, or tribe, or sect; aggressive nationalism; a crude populism -- sometimes from the far left, but more often from the far right -- which seeks to restore what they believe was a better, simpler age free of outside contamination. … I do not believe those visions can deliver security or prosperity over the long term, but I do believe that these visions fail to recognize, at a very basic level, our common humanity. Moreover, I believe that the acceleration of travel and technology and telecommunications -- together with a global economy that depends on a global supply chain -- makes it self-defeating ultimately for those who seek to reverse this progress. Today, a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself.” He then proposed fighting the forces that oppose globalization by creating a more equitable global economy, promoting the value of democracy, rejecting “any forms of fundamentalism, or racism, or a belief in ethnic superiority,” and increasing the “commitment to international cooperation rooted in the rights and responsibilities of nations.”
  • Two separate coalitions, one comprised of a group of states and the other by a consortium of business groups, filed lawsuits in federal court seeking to prevent implementation of a U.S. Department of Labor rule establishing new thresholds for overtime pay. The rule is scheduled to go into effect on December 1, 2016. The Labor Department finalized the rule in May 2016, after a period of open comment. Under the new rule, anyone earning up to $47,476 a year would qualify for overtime pay. The previous cutoff for overtime pay was $23,660 per year. The rule will also automatically update the salary threshold for eligibility every three years based on wage growth over time. The lawsuits allege that the rule unconstitutionally forces state, local, and private employers to pay overtime to all employees in violation of what Nevada Attorney General Adam Lexalt (R) called the “longstanding federal law” requiring “an overtime exemption for ‘bona fide executive, administrative or professional’ employees.” Regarding the lawsuits, Labor Secretary Tom Perez said, “We are confident in the legality of all aspects of our final overtime rule. It is the result of a comprehensive, inclusive rule-making process” and that the Department looked forward to “vigorously defending” the rule.

State

  • Economic forecasters told Colorado lawmakers to expect a deficit in this fiscal year’s budget. Legislative economists forecast a $330 million deficit, while the governor’s office predicts $227 million. Governor John Hickenlooper (D) must submit a budget to the General Assembly by November 1. The governor’s office expects “$117 million in additional revenue for the next budget year, which is short of what is needed to fund necessary obligations.” According to budget director Henry Sobanet, Hickenlooper has not decided if he will propose spending cuts or a reduction of the state’s required reserve, which is currently 6.5 percent.
  • The Connecticut Supreme Court agreed to hear the state’s appeal of a ruling from Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher that ordered an overhaul of the public education system. The Connecticut Supreme Court also issued a stay of Moukawsher’s order, which called for changes to school funding, graduation requirements, special education, and teacher evaluations. Moukawsher gave the state six months to make the changes; with the stay, that timeline no longer applies. The court did not set a date for the hearing.
    • The lawsuit was originally filed 11 years ago by the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, which argued that, in violation of the state constitution, the state was funding schools inequitably and students were not receiving an adequate education. A lower court had dismissed the claim that the constitution guaranteed an adequate public education to children. The coalition appealed the dismissal to the Connecticut Supreme Court, which overturned the decision and sent the case back through the lower courts for consideration. After multiple delays, the trial began on January 12, 2016, leading to Moukawsher’s September 7 decision.
  • West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Michael Martirano announced his resignation, to take effect on June 30, 2017. "With the prolonged illness of my wife and her eventual death, I now find myself being both a dad and mom to my three children who reside in Maryland," he wrote in the announcement. His wife, Silvana, was found in the water off the coast of Maryland in May 2016; her death was later ruled a suicide. Martirano was appointed to the nonpartisan position by the West Virginia Board of Education in July 2014; he was sworn into office on September 15, 2014. The superintendent said his notice was intended to give the Board of Education sufficient time to conduct a search for a permanent replacement. West Virginia currently has a divided government: Democrats hold the governorship while Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature.

Local

  • Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (D) is pursuing police oversight reforms after footage of the deadly shooting of Joseph Mann was made public. Mann, a mentally ill black man, was killed while running from police officers on July 11, 2016. Witnesses reported that Mann was armed, but no weapons have been found. The Sacramento Police Department released footage of the incident immediately following the release of surveillance footage obtained by the The Sacramento Bee. City council members reviewed the tapes during a closed session, and Johnson vowed to pursue a set of police oversight reforms during the public portion of the meeting. The Mann family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, charging that officers “confronted and aggressively pursued” Mann when they should have worked to calm and subdue him. Phil McPhail, spokesman for the police department, said the department’s use of force policy is in line with state law. Sacramento is the sixth-largest city in California and the 35th-largest city in the U.S. by population.
  • Arkansas held general elections for 10 school board seats in six of the state’s largest school districts. A runoff election would have been held on October 11, 2016, if a candidate in any district did not receive a majority of the vote. The winners of all 10 seats were determined outright in the general election, and no districts will hold runoff elections. The six districts served 85,040 K-12 students during the 2012-2013 school year, which was 14.79 percent of all public school students in the state.
  • The Texas Tribune reported that the Travis County district attorney’s office would not file charges against Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller (R) for using state and campaign funds to pay for two personal trips. Miller had been the subject of a criminal investigation since April 2016 for misusing funds for a trip to a Mississippi rodeo and a trip to Oklahoma to obtain a rare injection called the “Jesus shot,” which reportedly alleviates chronic pain. The district attorney’s office stated that it would be difficult to prove criminal intent and that Miller had reimbursed the state for the two trips.

Preview of the day

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #34 of The Tap, which was published on September 17, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.


Local

  • Arkansas will hold general elections for 10 seats in six of the state’s largest school districts. Any race in which a candidate does not receive a majority of the vote will have a runoff election on October 11, 2016. The six districts served 85,040 K-12 students during the 2012-2013 school year, which was 14.79 percent of all public school students in the state.



The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022.
March: 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31
April: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30
May: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31
June: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30
July: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31
August: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31
September: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30
October: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7• 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31
November: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30
December: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 31
January: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31
February: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17
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