Happy Saturday! Thank you for spending a bit of your weekend with Ballotpedia. This week, we have updates on local elections in four cities, plus other statewide news. Click the link below for the full version of The State and Local Tap.

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Councilmember, incumbent advance to mayoral runoff election in Nashville

At-Large Nashville Metro Councilmember John Cooper and incumbent Mayor David Briley advanced to a September 12 runoff election for mayor of Nashville, Tennessee. Cooper received 35 percent of the vote and Briley, 25 percent. They faced eight other candidates.

• Briley, formerly vice mayor, took office in March 2018 upon the resignation of Mayor Megan Barry; Briley won a special election in May 2018 to complete her term. He's campaigning on his record over the past year, emphasizing his affordable housing plan, the creation of a college scholarship program for public school graduates, and his opposition to property tax increases.
• Cooper has highlighted his background in real estate and finance and says the city needs to focus on neighborhoods instead of economic incentives for downtown projects. He says fiscal stewardship is among his top priorities and that he entered the race partly out of opposition to Briley's plan to fund his affordable housing initiative through municipal bond-borrowing.

Mississippi voters to decide gubernatorial, state legislative primaries

Mississippi holds partisan primaries for all state executive and legislative offices on August 6.

• Three Republicans are seeking their party’s nomination to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Bryant (R)—Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr., and state Rep. Robert Foster. In the Democratic primary, Attorney General Jim Hood faces Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith and six other candidates. The last Democrat to win election as governor of Mississippi was Ronnie Musgrove in 1999.
• The Republican primaries for attorney general and secretary of state have also attracted local media attention. The attorney general primary features state Rep. Mark Baker, state Treasurer Lynn Fitch, and attorney Andy Taggart. On the campaign trail, all three have emphasized their political experience. No Republican has served as Mississippi Attorney General since 1878. In the secretary of state primary, state Sen. Michael Watson is up against Public Service Commissioner Sam Britton. Both candidates have criticized each other's political pasts. There is also a contested Democratic primary for secretary of state.
• In the state legislature, all 52 state Senate seats and 122 state House seats are up for election in 2019. There are 11 contested Democratic primaries and 16 contested Republican primaries in the Senate. In the House, there are 23 contested Democratic primaries and 26 contested Republican primaries.

Katz wins Democratic primary for Queens District Attorney after manual recount

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz was declared the winner of the June 25 Democratic primary for Queens County District Attorney in New York following a manual recount. The New York Board of Elections declared Katz the winner with 38.9% of the vote. Public defender Tiffany Cabán received 38.8%. The margin separating Katz and Cabán was 60 votes.

• Prior to the vote certification, the Cabán campaign filed a lawsuit challenging the results and alleging that several ballots were improperly invalidated. A hearing before the New York Supreme Court has been set for August 6, 2019.
• Attorney Daniel Kogan ran unopposed in the Republican primary. The general election for the open seat will take place on November 5, 2019.

Seattle holds primaries in all seven city council districts

On August 6, Seattle holds primary elections for the seven members of its city council that are elected by district. The primaries are nonpartisan, and the top two vote-getters will advance to the November 5 general election. As of August 1, the primary elections had seen more than $800,000 in total satellite spending—which is more than the $780,000 which was spent during both the primary and general elections in 2015, the last time these seven seats were on the ballot.

• Around $350,000 of the primary election satellite spending has come from Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy (CASE), the local Chamber of Commerce's PAC. The chamber, along with Amazon, opposed a head tax that was passed and then repealed by the city council in 2018. The tax required businesses grossing at least $20 million to pay $275 per employee in order to fund affordable housing programs for the homeless.
  • District 1 and 3 incumbents Lisa Herbold and Kshama Sawant supported the tax, although Herbold voted for its repeal. CASE has endorsed and spent in support of challengers to each. Amazon has contributed $250,000 to the PAC.
• Candidates participating in a public funding program called the Democracy Voucher Program had received $1.4 million through the program as of July 26. The program was approved by voters in 2015 and first used in 2017 when the two at-large city council seats were up for election.

State blocks Virginia House of Delegates incumbent from being reinstated to November ballot

The Virginia Department of Elections denied a request by a Republican House district committee to reinstate Del. Nick Freitas (R-30) on the November ballot after he withdrew from the race on July 18.

• Freitas initially withdrew as a candidate prior to a board meeting where he anticipated being removed from the ballot for submitting required paperwork past the specified deadline. Withdrawing from the race, rather than being removed, allowed the district’s committee to submit a new candidate for the November ballot. Freitas said he plans to appeal the decision. As of now, he would be required to run as a write-in candidate.
• All 100 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates are up for election on November 5. In 2017, Democrats flipped control of 15 seats and narrowed the Republican majority to 51-49. Ballotpedia identified 26 battleground races this year: 11 Democratic seats and 15 Republican seats.

Group submits signatures for veto referendum to block Colorado from joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact

Coloradans Vote reported submitting over 227,000 signatures to the secretary of state to qualify a veto referendum that blocks Colorado from joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. To qualify the measure for the 2020 ballot, 124,632 signatures must be found valid.

• The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an interstate compact to award member states' presidential electors to the winner of the national popular vote. The NPVIC would go into effect if states representing at least 270 electoral college votes adopt the legislation. As of August 1, 15 states and Washington, D.C., (representing a total of 196 electoral votes) had joined the NPVIC.
• Coloradans Vote sponsored the referendum petition and is leading the campaign in support of a no vote, which would stop Colorado from joining the NPVIC. The group states that "demanding Colorado’s electors cast their votes this way is theft of our votes for president and gives them to more populated areas like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. [The current Electoral College system] ensures that the minority always has a voice by allowing smaller, less populated states to have a more proportionate voice in electing our president."
• Colorado National Popular Vote (Colorado NPV) supports Colorado being a part of the NPVIC and is advocating for a yes vote on the referendum. In a statement to Ballotpedia, Co-Chair of Colorado NPV Sylvia Bernstein said, "The Electoral College system has resulted in 5 out of 45 American presidents not winning the popular vote. This does not fairly reflect the will of the voters and is harmful to a modern democracy ... We believe every vote by every American for the President should count equally, no matter where you live."

Wichita mayor faces eight primary challengers in bid for second term

Nonpartisan primaries will take place for mayor and one school board seat in Wichita, Kansas.

• The mayoral race features nine candidates, including incumbent Jeff Longwell. Although the position is nonpartisan, Longwell is affiliated with the Republican Party. He was first elected as mayor on April 7, 2015, with 59.4% of the vote.
• In the Wichita Public Schools Board of Education at-large race, incumbent Sheril Logan faces three opponents. Logan was first elected in 2011.
• Primary elections in three city council districts and for two seats on the Wichita Public Schools school board were canceled since three candidates or fewer filed for each of those positions. All candidates in those races automatically advanced to the November 5 general election.

Ballot measures update

2019

• Twenty-two statewide measures are certified for the 2019 ballot so far in Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington. No new measures were certified for the ballot last week.
• Four of the 26 states with a process for citizen-initiated measures allow for ballot initiatives or veto referendums on ballots in any odd-numbered years: Colorado, Maine, Ohio, and Washington.

2020

• Thirty-eight statewide measures in 18 states have been certified for the 2020 ballot so far. Four of the 36 certified 2020 measures are citizen-initiated measures. Thirty-three are legislative referrals. One is an automatic constitutional revision commission question.

State legislative special elections

So far this year, 70 state legislative special elections have been scheduled in 24 states. Special elections have been held for 49 seats so far; heading into those races, Democrats had previously controlled 29 of the seats while Republicans previously controlled 20.

• Four seats have flipped from Democratic control to Republican control.
• One seat has flipped from Republican control to Democratic control.
• One seat has flipped from Republican control to an independent officeholder.

• Arkansas House of Representatives District 36 (primary)
• Iowa House of Representatives District 46
• Washington State Senate District 40 (primary)
• Washington House of Representatives District 13-Position 2 (primary)

• South Carolina House of Representatives District 84 (primary runoff)

• Alabama House of Representatives District 42 (primary)
• New Hampshire House of Representatives Rockingham 9 (primary)
• Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 85
• South Carolina House of Representatives District 19

States in session

• Four states—Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin—are in regular session.
• Alaska is in special session.
• Ohio is in skeleton session.
  • In a typical skeleton session, a clerk, a presiding officer, and another legislative member are the only people present. The presiding officer will convene the session day and adjourn it minutes later.
• California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are in recess. Forty states have adjourned their 2019 legislative sessions.

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