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Welcome to the Monday, Feb. 10, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- 872 candidates responded to our Candidate Connection survey in 2019
- California rent control initiative qualifies for the 2020 ballot
- Senate confirms no Article III federal judges in January; Trump has appointed second-most judges at this point in his presidency
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872 candidates responded to our Candidate Connection survey in 2019
Do you try to understand more about political candidates than what you learn in advertisements or policy statements? If so, our Candidate Connection survey is for you. It asks candidates in federal, state, and local races about more than issues. Our Candidate Connection surveys are designed to elicit insightful and thoughtful responses from candidates on what they care about, what they stand for, and what they hope to achieve.
In 2019—the second year of the initiative—872 candidates responded to Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. This represents 10.4% of the 8,386 candidates Ballotpedia covered in 2019 and is a 3.5 percentage point increase from 2018's midterm election cycle when 1,957 candidates—6.9%—responded to the survey out of 28,315 total candidates covered.
Our 2019 Candidate Connection report details where those candidates lived, what offices they ran for, how they did in their races, and more. Here are three highlights:
- Candidates from 33 states participated in 2019. Virginia had the most respondents with 114, followed by North Carolina with 96 and Texas with 92.
- Out of the 872 survey respondents, 237 won and 616 lost their elections. Nine respondents withdrew or were disqualified from their races.
- Nearly half of respondents—48.7%—ran for municipal office. Candidates for state legislative seats made up the next-largest share of respondents—28.7%
The full report highlights several notable candidates who completed the survey, features the respondents who won their elections, and lists all 872 candidates who sent in answers. There's so much interesting information—click the link below to explore it!
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California rent control initiative qualifies for the 2020 ballot
California voters will decide a ballot initiative that would expand the authority of local governments to employ rent control. It would allow cities and towns to enact rent control on housing that was first occupied over 15 years ago, with an exception for landlords who own no more than two homes with distinct titles or subdivided interests.
The measure would replace the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act (Costa-Hawkins), which was passed in 1995. Costa-Hawkins allows rent control of housing that was first occupied before Feb. 1, 1995, and without distinct titles for each unit, such as units in an apartment complex. Under Costa-Hawkins, landlords are allowed to increase rent prices to market rates when a tenant moves out (a policy known as vacancy decontrol). This measure would require local governments to allow landlords to increase rental rates by 15% during the first three years following a vacancy.
The campaign that supports the measure—Homeowners and Tenants United—submitted 987,991 signatures to local officials on Dec. 5. In California, supporters of an initiated state statute must submit signatures totaling 5% of the votes cast in the preceding gubernatorial election—in this case, 623,212 signatures On Feb. 3, the secretary of state’s office announced that verification of a random sample of signatures projected that enough were valid for the measure to qualify for the ballot.
Homeowners and Tenants United is sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which sponsored Proposition 10 in 2018. Proposition 10 would have allowed local governments to adopt rent control on any type of rental housing. This year's ballot initiative would expand the number of units that could be rent-controlled, but it wouldn't expand rent control to any type of rental housing. California voters rejected Proposition 10—59% to 41%.
Rand Martin, a lobbyist for AHF, said, "The one lesson we learned from Proposition 10 is that the voters were not interested in a wholesale repeal of Costa Hawkins. But the other message we got in polling and focus groups is that people believe there are excesses to Costa Hawkins and there needs to be reforms." Tom Bannon, CEO of the California Apartment Association, opposed Proposition 10 in 2018. He said, "Voters overwhelming rejected the measure the last time it was on the ballot. Once we educate voters about Weinstein’s latest housing-freeze measure, it’s bound to fail just as miserably as Prop. 10."
Proposition 10 was the third most expensive ballot campaign of 2018. Groups that supported Proposition 10 raised $25.30 million and groups opposed raised $71.37 million. At this date in the 2018 election cycle, the campaign backing Proposition 10 had $175,010 and opponents had yet to organize committees. Through Dec. 31, 2019, groups supporting and opposing this year's measure had raised a combined $6.06 million.
The rent control ballot initiative is the fourth to qualify for the general election ballot in California. It will appear alongside initiatives related to criminal justice and taxes. Signatures for additional citizen-initiated measures need to be verified by June 25, 2020. The California state legislature can also refer measures to the ballot.
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Senate confirms no Article III federal judges in January; Trump has appointed second-most judges at this point in his presidency
The U.S. Senate did not confirm any Article III federal judges in January. As of Feb. 1, President Donald Trump (R) appointed 187 Article III judges—2 supreme court justices, 50 appellate court judges, 133 district court judges, and 2 judges on the Court of International Trade. Article III federal judges are appointed for life terms by the president of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate per Article III of the United States Constitution.
Trump ranks second among all presidents since Theodore Roosevelt in the total number of judicial appointments at this point in his presidency. Trump has made the most appellate court appointments and fourth-most district court appointments through the end of the third year of a president's term.
The average number of federal judges appointed by a president at the end of their third year in office is 99. Jimmy Carter (D) made the most appointments through three years with 197. Theodore Roosevelt (R) made the fewest at that point with 23.
Ronald Reagan (R) appointed 402 federal judges during his presidency, the most of any president. Carter made the most judicial appointments relative to his tenure in the White House. He averaged 65.5 judicial appointments per year during his one term in office.
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The Lucy Burns Institute, publisher of Ballotpedia, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible to the extent of the law. Donations to the Lucy Burns Institute or Ballotpedia do not support any candidates or campaigns.
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