The Tap: Wednesday, June 29, 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 #23 of The Tap, which was published on July 2, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

• Nate Silver, the founder and editor in chief of FiveThirtyEight, predicted that Hillary Clinton has a 79 percent chance of winning the presidential election, while Donald Trump has a 20 percent chance. Silver said, "We're at halftime of the election right now. She's taking a 7-point, maybe a 10-point lead into halftime. There's a lot of football left to be played. She's ahead in almost every poll, every swing state, every national poll. … Trump has never been ahead of Clinton in the general election campaign. He did a great job of appealing to the 40 percent of the GOP he had to win the election, the primary — a lot different than winning 51 percent of 100 percent.”

• Michael Biundo, a New Hampshire-based political strategist, joined Donald Trump’s campaign as a senior advisor. According to WMUR, Biundo “will be working with Trump national political director Jim Murphy to build campaign teams and organize grassroots efforts in states across the country, with special emphasis on New Hampshire.” Previously in the 2016 election cycle, Biundo was a strategist for Rand Paul and spent time as a delegate selection advisor for John Kasich.

• Citing Ballotpedia’s battleground poll, John Weaver—chief strategist for John Kasich’s presidential campaign—sent a fundraising email highlighting the poll’s finding about Kasich. His email read, in part, “This data is just further proof that Gov. Kasich is the most popular Republican politician in the nation today, and it underlines why his efforts to help our U.S. Senate and House candidates are so very important.”

• The Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 filed a joint complaint to the FEC against Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The complaint focuses on emails that the Trump campaign sent to foreign nationals, alleging that Trump violated federal finance laws “by emailing solicitations to foreign nationals in Iceland, Scotland, Britain and Australia requesting that they make contributions to the Trump presidential campaign.”

• In an op-ed for The Concord Monitor, Hillary Clinton argued that New Hampshire’s Executive Council should vote to fund Planned Parenthood and promised that as president she would “make sure that a woman’s right to make her own health decisions remains as permanent as all of the other values we hold dear.” She wrote that she will always fund and support Planned Parenthood, “fight to protect access to safe and legal abortion,” and “support comprehensive, inclusive sex education.” She also criticized Donald Trump’s stance on women’s healthcare, writing, “Donald Trump doesn’t think much about women’s health at all. But when pressed, he’s said that women ought to face ‘some form of punishment’ for having an abortion. He’s already released a list of the right-wing judges he’d consider for the Supreme Court – many of whom are committed to overturning Roe v. Wade. And he’s pledged to defund Planned Parenthood – an effort that would effectively try to spread the Executive Council’s actions to all 50 states.”

• President Obama nominated Jason D. Tulley to be an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. This nomination would fill the seat vacated by Judge Judith Macaluso, who retired from judicial service. The court hears criminal and civil trials in Washington, D.C. Judges on the court are appointed to 15-year terms. Tulley’s nomination will proceed to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which has jurisdiction over municipal affairs in the District of Columbia.

• A group of Bernie Sanders’ supporters filed a lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) “for fraud, negligence, misrepresentation, and other claims,” according to The New Times Broward-Palm Beach. The plaintiffs wrote that an alleged internal DNC document released this month by a hacker demonstrated that the DNC’s goals in 2015 were “to frame the Republican field and the eventual nominee early and to provide a contrast between the GOP field and [Hillary Clinton]. … Despite there being every indication that the 2016 Democratic primary would be contested by multiple candidates, including Sanders, the DNC Memo makes no mention of any Democratic candidate except Clinton, and builds the DNC's election strategy on the assumption that Clinton will be the nominee, with no doubts attached.”

• During the 2016 North American Leaders’ Summit, also known as the "Three Amigos" summit, President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced initiatives that will help the United States, Canada, and Mexico increase economic competitiveness, protect the environment, enhance cooperation between the three nations, and strengthen security and defense. Regarding energy and the environment, the three presidents pledged to have 50 percent of their countries’ electricity come from clean power sources by 2025. Clean power sources include nuclear power, hydroelectric power, solar power, and wind power. Mexico will have the most difficult time meeting this goal, as it had the lowest percentage of electricity generated by renewable sources of these countries. Canada has already met this goal. Meanwhile, in the United States, 13 percent of electricity was generated from renewable sources in 2015. In 2014, the United States ranked second in the world in terms of its capacity to generate electricity from renewable sources, while Canada ranked fifth in the world. Each of the initiatives can be viewed here.

• President Barack Obama called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to express his condolences for the terror attack that occurred at Istanbul's main airport, which left at least 41 people dead and more than 270 wounded. Obama said, "Let me just publicly extend my deepest condolences to the people of Turkey for the terrible attack that took place in Istanbul.” Obama called Erdogan "to discuss with him not only how heartbroken we have been by the images of the injured and those killed, but also to reaffirm our strong commitment to partner with Turkey, with NATO, with the broad-based alliance that we have structured around the world to fight [ISIS]. We stand with the people of Turkey and we intend to do what's necessary to ensure these kinds of terrible events are not happening."
  • Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan said that the terror attack "bears the hallmarks of ISIL's depravity." According to The Hill, “Brennan said it is not surprising that ISIS has not claimed credit or responsibility for the attacks yet, adding that the group can send a signal while not alienating those inside of Turkey it might be trying to attract.”

• FILING DEADLINE: Rhode Island congressional filing deadline
  • There is no U.S. Senate race in Rhode Island in 2016.
  • Rhode Island has two U.S. House districts. Both are currently held by the Democratic Party and rated safely Democratic in the general election.
  • Both incumbents are seeking re-election in 2016. They will each face at least one primary challenger.

• Key vote: The Senate passed S 2328—the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act or PROMESA—by a vote of 68-30. The legislation proposed a plan to help Puerto Rico address its debt crisis “by establishing an oversight board, a process for restructuring debt, and expedited procedures for approving critical infrastructure projects.” It passed the House on June 9, 2016.
  • President Barack Obama praised Congress for passing the legislation in the following statement: “I commend Democrats and Republicans in the Senate for voting to address the economic crisis in Puerto Rico, providing the support it needs to restructure its debt, safeguard vital public services, and provide protection to public pensions. This bill is not perfect, but it is a critical first step toward economic recovery and restored hope for millions of Americans who call Puerto Rico home. I look forward to signing the bill into law, and remain committed to working with Congress and the people of Puerto Rico to return to lasting economic growth and opportunity.”

State

• The Massachusetts State Legislature is expected to approve a $39.1 billion state budget. This budget includes no new taxes or fees, and it does not include some expected increases in payments to certain services. For example, the University of Massachusetts will receive an increase of only 1 percent in funding, a move that is expected to result in a tuition hike. Other departments and programs will also receive only modest increases. These changes are an attempt to close a $750 million revenue hole. The hole will be closed by adjusting previous fiscal assumptions, anticipating further government efficiencies in spending, and assuming the state’s automatic income tax rollback won’t take place.

• The California Carry-Out Bag Revenue Initiative was certified for the November ballot. The measure would redirect revenue collected from the sale of carry-out bags at grocery and retail outlets to a special fund administered by the Wildlife Conservation Board. The secretary of state verified 409,463 of the more than 500,000 signatures submitted by supporters, about 40,000 more than the 365,880 signatures required to qualify the measure for the ballot. California voters will also have the chance to decide whether to prohibit plastic carry-out bags altogether when they are presented with the California Plastic Bag Ban Referendum this November.

• The California Hospital Executive Compensation Limit Initiative was withdrawn from circulation. Proponents were encouraged to withdraw the initiative after a Sacramento County judge ruled that it violated a deal made between the union backing the measure—SEIU-UHW West—and the main organization opposing the measure, the California Hospital Association. The deal resulted when SEIU-UHW West sponsored a similar measure, the California "Charitable Hospital Executive Compensation Act" Initiative, in 2014. The California Hospital Association also opposed the previous measure, and the two organizations developed an agreement with certain conditions. As part of the deal, the union withdrew its measure and, in exchange, the association drafted a new “code of conduct” that would make it easier for workers to unionize. The association sued when the 2016 initiative was filed, arguing that it violated the conditions of the 2014 settlement.

• Hawaii Governor David Ige appointed Thomas Gorak to the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission to replace former commissioner Michael Champley. Gorak’s appointment comes at a particularly important time as the commission has been reviewing a $4.5 billion deal which would allow NextEra Energy to purchase Hawaii Electric Co. Gorak will now have a say in whether that deal is approved.

• Filing deadline: Rhode Island
  • State legislature: Rhode Island has 38 state Senate and 75 state House seats up for election in 2016. Democrats have a 27-seat majority in the Senate and a 49-seat majority in the House. With a Democratic governor, Rhode Island is one of seven states under a Democratic trifecta.

Local

• Timothy Sullivan, director of intergovernmental relations in Boston, was arrested on federal charges of conspiracy and extortion. Sullivan allegedly forced an organization to hire unneeded union workers as stagehands at a concert held at City Hall Plaza in 2014. He is charged with colluding with a second member of Mayor Martin Walsh’s (D) administration, Kenneth Brissette, to withhold permits necessary for the concert to take place unless the concert organizer hired workers from the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Brissette was arrested in May 2016. Both aides are on administrative leave until the criminal cases against each of them are resolved. The arrests triggered additional scrutiny of Mayor Walsh, whose campaign for office was heavily tied to his support for unionized labor. In response to the arrests, Walsh scheduled ethics training for all city department heads to be held on July 11, 2016, and enlisted a panel to investigate the management of special events in the city. Boston is the largest city in Massachusetts and the 24th-largest city in the U.S. by population.

Preview of the day

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #22 of The Tap, which was published on June 25, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Local

• FILING DEADLINE: Deadline to run for nine school board seats across two of Rhode Island’s largest school districts. All seven school board seats are up for election in Cranston Public Schools, which is the state’s second-largest school district. It served 10,552 students during the 2013-2014 school year. Warwick Public Schools is holding an election for two of its five school board seats. The general election will be on November 8, 2016.