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Welcome to the Thursday, February 13, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Harvard the most attended higher education institution among top four state executives
- Local Roundup
- Oklahoma governor issues executive order to cut regulations
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Harvard the most attended higher education institution among top four state executives
We’re in between presidential primaries and debates right now, and our team of researchers and writers recently completed another analysis that I couldn’t wait to share with Brew readers. This one focuses on where top state executives went to school.
At Ballotpedia, we define the top four state executive offices as governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and secretary of state.
There are 192 officials nationwide that hold one of these top state executive positions. All states have a governor and attorney general. Five states—Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Wyoming—do not have a lieutenant governor. The office of secretary of state does not exist in Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah.
According to each officeholder’s official biography, the educational backgrounds of these state executives are as follows:
- 185 officeholders have a bachelor’s degree (B.A., B.S., etc.)
- 56 officeholders have a master’s degree (M.A., M.S., M.B.A., etc.)
- 95 officeholders have a J.D.
- 7 officeholders have a Ph.D.
- 2 officeholders have an M.D.
- 7 officeholders have no higher education degree
The seven officeholders without a higher education degree in their official biography are Gov. Mike Parson (R-Mo.), Gov. Gary Herbert (R-Utah), Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R-Ga.), Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser (R-La.), Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe (R-Mo.), Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden (R-S.D.), Sec. of State Connie Lawson (R-Ind.)
The table below shows a breakdown of degrees held by top state executive officials by degree type.
Fourteen state executives attained at least one degree from Harvard University, making it the most attended school overall. Institutions that awarded the next-most degrees to state executives were Columbia University (8 officeholders), Yale University (7), and the University of Virginia (6).
Harvard and Dartmouth College were the most-attended universities for bachelor's degrees, with five alumni each. Harvard was also the most popular for master’s (4) and law degrees (6).
For more analyses or to see where the executive officials from your state went to school, click the link below.
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Local Roundup
We cover all officeholders in the nation's 100 largest cities, plus every election on the ballot in these cities, such as special districts, county officials, and local ballot measures. Here's what's happening in those cities.
Voters in the Lincoln, Nebraska, public school district approved a bond proposition Tuesday, 62% to 38%, that authorizes $290 million for projects including the construction of three schools, improvements and repairs to two other schools, and capital improvements to other district facilities. Turnout was 34% for the all-mail election.
District voters approved a $153 million bond issue in 2014, 67% to 33%. School officials estimated that a tax increase would not be needed to repay the bonds proposed by this measure. Going into the election, the district's bond debt and building fund were paid through a property tax levy of $0.161 per $100 of assessed property value. School district officials estimated this rate would not increase because of existing bond debt that is set to be repaid. San Diego
voters will elect a new mayor and five members of the nine-person city council this year after Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the five council incumbents up for election this year did not file for re-election. A top-two primary for those seats, along with city attorney, will be held March 3. The general election is on Nov. 3.
Faulconer was first elected mayor in 2014 and was re-elected in 2016. He also served as a city council member for 12 years. Although municipal elections in San Diego are nonpartisan, Faulconer was endorsed in 2014 by the San Diego County Republican Party. In the country's 100 largest cities by population, 64 have mayors affiliated with the Democratic Party, 29 mayors are affiliated with the Republican Party, three are independent, and the partisan affiliation of four is not known. San Diego—the nation’s eighth-largest city—is the largest city that currently has a mayor affiliated with the Republican Party.
Six candidates are running to replace Faulconer, including two city council members. Two other council incumbents are running for either the state assembly or U.S. House and one was ineligible to run for re-election due to term limits. Between four and nine candidates are running for each open city council seat in the primary. San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott is the only city incumbent who is running for re-election and she faces two challengers.
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Oklahoma governor issues executive order to cut regulations
State governments can take a variety of actions that impact the administrative state at the state level. These actions may affect how states amend, repeal, or create administrative regulations or the extent to which governors or state legislatures oversee rules, regulations, and other policies. State governments can also take actions regarding judicial deference to state administrative agencies.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) issued an executive order Feb. 3 designed to reduce state regulations by 25%. The order has two main requirements. First, state agencies must review their administrative rules and list any that are expensive, ineffective, redundant, or outdated. Next, for all new restrictive rules proposed after Feb. 15, 2020, agencies have to eliminate at least two existing regulatory restrictions until agencies reduce regulations by 25%.
The order requires the Oklahoma secretary of state to write an annual report for the governor “outlining progress made in eliminating burdensome regulations and streamlining state government.”
President Donald Trump (R) issued a similar executive order at the federal level in January 2017. Executive Order 13771 included a requirement that agencies eliminate two old regulations for each new regulation issued.
Since Trump’s 2017 executive order, Oklahoma and other states have taken similar actions to address regulatory activity. In July 2019, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) signed a budget deal that included a comparable 2-for-1 regulatory requirement. Idaho Governor Brad Little (R) issued an executive order with a similar mandate in January 2019 and later directed an agency-wide regulatory reduction process that resulted in a 75% decrease in the state’s regulations.
Click the link below to read more about how certain states approach their regulatory processes, including regulatory review, separation of powers, and judicial deference.
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