Prepation

Published on December 15, 2021 at 10:55PM Welcome to the Thursday, December 16, Brew.  By: David Luchs Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day: Ballotpedia’s The Heart of the Primaries delivered weekly starting Jan. 6 Maine Question 1 saw $99.6 million in contributions, totaling $241.75 per vote County supervisor recalled, state legislative vacancies filled in Tuesday’s elections Ballotpedia’s The Heart of the Primaries delivered weekly starting Jan. 6 Texas will hold the first primary elections of the 2022 midterms on March 1. North Carolina was scheduled to hold the second statewide primary on March 8, but a recent state supreme court decision postponed those primaries until May.  Who’s running? What issues are they debating? What do these primaries—and the hundreds of others approaching—mean for the direction of the major parties and the nation? And how can you possibly keep up with so many elections throughout the year? Ballotpedia has you cove...

Published on December 15, 2021 at 08:14AM Three candidates have filed to run in the special election for District 31 in the South Carolina State Senate. State Rep. Jay Jordan (R), Mike Reichenbach (R), and Suzanne La Rochelle (D) all filed before the Dec. 11 filing deadline. Jordan and Reichenbach will face off in the Republican primary on Jan. 25. The winner of the Republican primary will face La Rochelle in the special election on March 29. The seat became vacant after the death of Hugh Leatherman (R) on Nov. 12. He had served in the state Senate since 1981. He was unopposed in his re-election bid in 2020. Heading into the special election, Republicans have a 29-16 majority in the state Senate with one vacancy. South Carolina has a Republican state government trifecta. A trifecta exists when one political party simultaneously holds the governor’s office and majorities in both state legislative chambers. As of December, 11 state legislative special elections have been scheduled to...

Published on December 15, 2021 at 07:41AM A recall election against Doris Karloff (R), District 2 representative of the seven-member Saunders County Board of Supervisors in Nebraska, was held on Dec. 14. A majority of voters cast ballots in favor of the recall to remove Karloff from office. The recall effort was started by Rhonda Carritt, a resident of Wahoo, Nebraska, which is represented by Karloff on the county board of supervisors. Carritt said Karloff was not representing “the best interests of the district.” Carritt confirmed with the Wahoo Newspaper that the recall was related to a solar farm project in the county among other things. Karloff’s son went into contract with the company starting the solar farm. Because of that connection, Karloff said she abstained from all discussions on the permit and did not vote on any actions related to the solar farm. “I have tried to do my best to make sure that I was doing everything legally correct,” Karloff said. To get the recall on ...

Published on December 14, 2021 at 11:35PM Welcome to the Wednesday, December 15, Brew.  By: Samuel Wonacott Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day: A Dec. 16 school board election in Wisconsin A redistricting update from across the country The seven states that decided 24 constitutional amendments in 2021 Recall election to be held Dec. 16 against Wisconsin school board member On Dec. 16, voters will decide whether to recall Gary Mertig, one of the five members of the Butternut School District school board in Wisconsin. Nate Pritzl filed to run against Mertig in the election. At the time the recall began, Mertig had served on the board for 31 years. Here’s a quick FAQ on recalls. How recalls work in Wisconsin The recall petition required 126 signatures to qualify for the ballot. One-hundred and thirty district residents signed it. The number of valid signatures required for a recall election in Wisconsin is 25% of the number of people who voted in the ...

Published on December 14, 2021 at 08:17AM The U.S. Senate confirmed one of President Joe Biden’s (D) federal judicial nominees to a lifetime Article III judgeship on Dec. 13: Lucy Koh, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, by a vote of 50-45 The United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is one of 13 U.S. courts of appeal. They are the intermediate appellate courts of the federal court system. Koh was nominated to the 9th Circuit on Sept. 20 to replace Judge Richard A. Paez, who is scheduled to assume senior status. Koh was rated Well Qualified by the American Bar Association. To date, 29 of Biden’s appointees have been confirmed. For historical comparison since 1981, the following list shows the date by which the past six presidents had 29 Article III judicial nominees confirmed by the Senate: President Donald Trump (R) – March 6, 2018 President Barack Obama (D) – June 7, 2010 President George W. Bush (R) – Jan. 25, 2002 President Bill Clinton (D) –...

Published on December 14, 2021 at 05:25AM Economy and Society is Ballotpedia’s weekly review of the developments in corporate activism; corporate political engagement; and the Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) trends and events that characterize the growing intersection between business and politics. ESG Developments This Week Lawsuit challenges California’s board diversity mandate   On November 29, the Free Enterprise Project, a program of the National Center for Public Policy Research that aims to keep politics out of capital markets, announced that it had joined a federal lawsuit filed against the state of California over the state’s new business diversity rules. A 2020 California law requires corporate boards of publicly held companies based in the state to have a minimum number of members from what it calls underrepresented communities. The National Center, which is represented in this case by the Pacific Legal Foundation, is suing to have the law...

Published on December 14, 2021 at 12:57AM The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) accepted three cases for argument during the 2021-2022 term on Dec. 10: Golan v. Saada , originating from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, concerns international child custody. Southwest Airlines v. Saxon, on an appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, concerns the scope of the Federal Arbitration Act. ZF Automotive US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd. (consolidated with AlixPartners, LLC v. Fund for Protection of Investor Rights in Foreign States ), originating from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, concerns international arbitration proceedings. The court also released opinions in two cases on Friday: United States v. Texas and Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson . As of this writing, the court has agreed to hear 53 cases during the term. Four cases were dismissed, and one case was removed from the argument calendar. Twelve cases have not ...

Published on December 14, 2021 at 12:51AM The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued opinions on Dec. 10 in two cases concerning Texas Senate Bill 8 (S.B. 8). To date, the court has issued decisions in five cases during the 2021-2022 term. Two of those cases were decided without argument. United States v. Texas concerned whether the federal government had the right to challenge S.B. 8 in federal court. In a two-sentence per curiam opinion , the court held that the “writ of certiorari is dismissed as improvidently granted. The application to vacate stay presented to JUSTICE ALITO and by him referred to the Court is denied.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from this decision. A per curiam opinion is unsigned and delivered by the court as a whole. In its opinion in Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson , SCOTUS affirmed in part and reversed in part the order of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas that denied the defendants’ motions to dismiss the case ...

Published on December 14, 2021 at 12:45AM In the 2021 general election, an average of 85.54% of incumbents nationwide won their re-election bids. The number drops to 82.35% when including incumbents that withdrew or were disqualified. In 2020, 93% of incumbents won their elections. In 2019, that number was 90%, and it was 92% in 2018.  Minnesota incumbents were the least successful in 2021 with a win rate of 55%, followed by Kansas (59%) and Colorado (67%). Additional reading:  Ballotpedia’s Election Analysis Hub, 2021 Ballotpedia’s Election Analysis Hub, 2020 2019 election analysis: Incumbent win rates by state 2018 election analysis: Incumbent win rates by state Elections editorial approach Read more

Published on December 13, 2021 at 11:25PM Welcome to the Tuesday, December 14, Brew.  By: Douglas Kronaizl Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day: Democrats outraised Republicans by 125% in Virginia state legislative races The polls are open in Ballotpedia’s Holiday Cookie election! Candidate filing deadlines are here Democrats outraised Republicans by 125% in Virginia state legislative races New campaign finance filings for Virginia’s House of Delegates races showed that Democrats led Republicans in fundraising throughout the 2021 election cycle. Between Jan. 1, 2020, and Nov. 25, 2021, Democratic candidates outraised Republican candidates by 125%. Heading into the Nov. 2, 2021, general elections, 103 Democrats candidates raised $56.4 million compared to $25.1 million raised by 103 Republicans. The largest fundraiser of the cycle was incumbent Del. Wendy Gooditis (D), who raised $3.1 million. The remaining nine largest fundraisers were also all Democr...

Published on December 13, 2021 at 03:21AM Every state but Delaware requires voters to ratify proposed changes to a state’s constitution. There are four ways that proposed constitutional amendments can be proposed and put on the ballot: Through legislatively referred constitutional amendments. Through citizen-initiated constitutional amendments put on the ballot through signature petition drives. Eighteen states allow this method of amendment. Through referral by constitutional conventions. In some states, automatic ballot referrals allow voters to decide at regular intervals whether or not to hold a convention. In Florida, there is a commission-referred amendment process through the Constitution Revision Commission that meets every 20 years. It last met in 2018. From 2006 through 2021 a total of 1,040 constitutional amendments were proposed and put before voters. This data only includes constitutional amendments put on the ballot for a statewide vote. It does not include certa...

Published on December 12, 2021 at 11:09PM Welcome to the Monday, December 13, Brew.  By: Samuel Wonacott Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day: The 12 Days of Ballotpedia are upon us! Maryland enacts new congressional map All local ballot measures Ballotpedia covered on Nov. 2 have been decided Welcome to the 12 Days of Ballotpedia! Happy holidays! We’re excited to welcome you to the 12 Days of Ballotpedia!  Each day we will celebrate a different part of Ballotpedia’s mission to showcase how our work to educate people about politics and policy- without the spin- helps strengthen our democracy. We love what we do…but we need your help to make it all possible. That’s why we’re counting on you to help us raise $100,000 between now and the end of the year so we can keep providing the news, research, and insights people depend on us to deliver in 2022. We hope this display of our work will inspire you to support us before the year’s end so that we can c...

Published on December 11, 2021 at 07:27AM The special primary for Arkansas State Senate District 7 is on Dec. 14. Lisa Parks and Derek Van Voast are competing in the Democratic primary, and Jim Bob Duggar, Colby Fulfer, Edge Nowlin, and Steven Unger are competing in the Republican primary to advance to the special general election scheduled for Feb. 8. The candidate filing deadline passed on Nov. 22. The special election was called after Lance Eads (R) left office to assume another position on Oct. 28. Eads served from 2017 to 2021. Eads also served as a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 2015 to 2017. Arkansas held 12 state legislative special elections between 2010 and 2020. The year with the most special elections during that time period was 2018. There were five state legislative special elections called that year.  Additional reading: Arkansas State Senate District 7 Read more

Published on December 11, 2021 at 07:24AM The Federal Register is a daily journal of federal government activity that includes presidential documents, proposed and final rules, and public notices. It is a common measure of an administration’s regulatory activity, accounting for both regulatory and deregulatory actions. From Dec. 6 through Dec. 10, the Federal Register grew by 1,814 pages for a year-to-date total of 70,688 pages. The Federal Register hit an all-time high of 95,894 pages in 2016. This week’s Federal Register featured the following 513 documents: 384 notices Three presidential documents 49 proposed rules 77 final rules Four proposed rules, including notification of a public hearing for Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program Annual Rules from the Environmental Protection Agency, and four final rules, including an extension of the Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) which prohibits specified flights in areas of the Sanaa Flight Information Region (FIR) ...

Published on December 11, 2021 at 07:22AM The nonpartisan general runoff election for Albuquerque City Council Districts 7 and 9 in New Mexico was on Dec. 7. The general election was held on Nov. 2, and the filing deadline for publicly funded candidates passed on July 5. The filing deadline for privately funded candidates passed on Aug. 24. Tammy Fiebelkorn defeated Lori Robertson for the District 7 seat with 61.8% of the vote, and Renee Grout defeated Rob Grilley for the District 9 seat with 51.7% of the vote. Odd-numbered seats on the nine-member Albuquerque City Council were up for election on Nov. 2. Only the races for District 7 and District 9 advanced to a general runoff. Two of the three incumbents running for re-election to the city council were defeated outright in the general election. Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico and the thirty-second largest city in the U.S. by population. Additional reading: City council City elections in Albuquerque, New Mexico (2...

Published on December 11, 2021 at 05:12AM The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) announced on Dec. 6 that it will continue hearing oral arguments in person for its January and February sittings. The court began hearing in-person arguments at the beginning of its 2021-2022 term in October, after hearing arguments via teleconference for the entirety of its 2020-2021 term in accordance with precautions taken due to COVID-19. Though arguments will be heard in the courtroom, the court remains closed to the public. Argument audio will be streamed live to the public, and audio files and argument transcripts will be posted on the court’s website following oral argument each day. The Supreme Court’s January sitting is scheduled to begin on Jan. 10, 2022. Eight cases have been scheduled for a total of eight hours of oral argument. Jan. 10 Gallardo v. Marstiller Jan. 11 Johnson v. Arteaga-Martinez Garland v. Gonzalez Jan. 12 Boechler, P.C. v. Commissioner of Internal Reven...

Published on December 10, 2021 at 12:18PM Our weekly summary of state & local news highlights redistricting updates in Texas and the Virginia House recounts. Read all about it in this week’s edition of the State & Local Tap. Ballot Measures Update 2021 review Voters in nine states decided 39 statewide ballot measures on four different election dates in 2021. Twenty-six were approved and 13 were defeated. Four of the measures were citizen initiatives, three were advisory questions about taxes in Washington, eight were bond issues, one was a legislatively referred statute, and the remaining 23 were legislatively referred constitutional amendments. 2022 ballot measures Sixty-three statewide measures have been certified for the 2022 ballot in 30 states so far. No new measures were certified for the ballot last week. States in session Seven state legislatures—Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—are in regular session . ...

Published on December 10, 2021 at 11:58AM Our weekly summary of federal news highlights the latest congressional retirement and a federal judge blocking the Biden administration’s federal contractor vaccine requirement. Read all about it in this week’s edition of the Federal Tap. Congress is out of session Both the House and Senate are out of session next week. Click here to see the full calendar for the first session of the 117th Congress. Members of Congress not seeking re-election in 2022 Thirty-seven members of Congress —six members of the U.S. Senate and 31 members of the U.S. House—have announced they will not seek re-election. Twenty-two members—six senators and 16 representatives—have announced their retirement. Five retiring Senate members are Republicans and one is a Democrat, and of the retiring House members, 11 are Democrats and five are Republicans. SCOTUS is out of session The Supreme Court will not hear oral arguments next week. To learn about the 2021-2022 te...