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Welcome to the Wednesday, April 8, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Coronavirus update: 15 governors have closed schools for the rest of the academic year
- Here’s the latest info on Wisconsin’s statewide, judicial, and local elections
- Filing deadline roundup
Updates on stories related to the coronavirus outbreak are current through Tuesday afternoon. Click here for the latest news.
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Coronavirus update: 15 governors have closed schools for the rest of the academic year
Ballotpedia is providing comprehensive coverage on how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is affecting America's political and civic life. Our coverage includes how federal, state, and local governments are responding, and the effects those responses are having on policy, campaigns, and elections. The news changes hourly - we know it can be hard to keep up. Today, let’s take a look at some recent updates in the area of school closings.
On April 2, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) ordered schools statewide to close through the end of April, becoming the 50th state to do so. Previously, Reynolds had recommended that schools close from March 15 to April 13 but had left the decision up to individual school districts.
Governors in three states—Arkansas, South Dakota, and Washington—ordered schools April 6 to close for the remainder of the academic year. In each state, the governor had already closed schools statewide.
So far, 15 states have closed schools through the remainder of the academic year—Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. These states combined have 9 Republican governors and 6 Democratic governors and their school systems account for 34.4% of the 50.6 million public school students in the country.
Here are some other notable coronavirus-related updates since Tuesday's Brew:
- Jersey City Councilman Michael Yun died April 6 from coronavirus-related complications. Yun was hospitalized for intensive treatment of COVID-19 symptoms March 24 and tested positive for the virus on March 29.
- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced he would appoint Bharat Ramamurti to the five-person panel tasked with overseeing $500 billion in corporate loans distributed as part of the third coronavirus relief package. Ramamurti previously worked as an economic advisor to the Elizabeth Warren presidential campaign and as senior counsel for banking and economic policy in Warren’s Senate office. Each congressional leader (Sens. McConnell and Schumer and Reps. Pelosi and McCarthy) will select one member of the panel, with McConnell and Pelosi jointly choosing the fifth member.
- Connecticut Department of Corrections officials announced 727 people had been released from state prisons since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in early March. It’s the largest, most substantial one-month reduction of the prison population in the state's history.
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Here’s the latest info on Wisconsin’s statewide, judicial, and local elections
After a series of governmental decisions and court rulings over the past several days, Wisconsin conducted in-person elections Tuesday for the following offices:
- presidential preference primary
- one seat on the state Supreme Court
- other judicial elections, including three judgeships on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals
- one statewide and various local ballot measures, and
- local races, such as Milwaukee mayor and other municipal and county executive and legislative offices.
Voters who cast absentee ballots were required to have them postmarked yesterday and election officials will count them if they are received by April 13.
A court order by U.S. District Court Judge William Conley stipulating that state election officials can not report election results until April 13 remains in place. The state elections commission and local officials may announce the numbers of ballots cast but will not release results until next week.
Ballotpedia will continue to cover these elections and provide the latest developments, both here in the Brew and at www.ballotpedia.org.
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Filing deadline roundup
Two candidate filing deadlines have passed so far this week—Arizona’s and North Dakota’s deadlines were April 6. The candidate filing period will end in Oklahoma on April 10.
Races on the ballot in Oklahoma include one member of the U.S. Senate and five members of the U.S. House, as well as 24 members of the state Senate and 101 members of the state House.
Through April 6, 2,756 major party candidates have filed to run for either the Senate or House of Representatives. There are 398 candidates who filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to run for U.S. Senate. Of those, 332—173 Democrats and 159 Republicans—are from one of the two major political parties. There are 2,695 candidates who have filed with the FEC to run for U.S. House districts, including 1,139 Democrats and 1,285 Republicans.
After Friday, filing deadlines will have passed in 33 states. There are two more states with filing deadlines in April, three in May, and 10 in June.
Two other states—Florida and Massachusetts—have different filing deadlines for different types of offices. Candidates for congressional and judicial offices in Florida must file by April 24 while candidates for the state legislature must file by June 12. In Massachusetts, major-party candidates for the state legislature must file by May 5 and congressional candidates must file by June 2.
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