1. 816 people have filed with the FEC to run for president in 2020
2. Nine candidates file for governor of Louisiana, including incumbent Gov. Edwards (D) 
3. Forty-two percent of Brew readers don’t feel that local politics in their area is covered adequately

816 people have filed with the FEC to run for president in 2020

According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), 816 people have filed a Statement of Candidacy to run for president in 2020. This includes 274 Democrats, 116 Republicans, 34 Libertarians, and 15 Green Party candidates. The number of declared presidential candidates for 2020 is now higher than any year since 1980, except for 2016 when 1,780 candidates filed with the FEC to run for president by election day.

To become a presidential candidate, a person needs to complete FEC Form 2, “Statement of Candidacy,” which is two pages and can be done online. On it, one declares the name and address of a principal campaign committee, which is who the FEC will contact to ensure they're filing the proper financial reports if they raise or spend more than $5,000 on your campaign.

Presidential candidates who raise funds for their campaign can receive a salary from their campaign committee, subject to certain conditions. Among them:

• “The salary must not exceed the lesser of the minimum annual salary for the federal office sought or what the candidate received as earned income in the previous year.” The salary of the President of the United States is $400,000.

• “Payments of salary from the committee must be made on a pro-rata basis (a candidate may not receive a whole year's salary if he or she is not a candidate for an entire 12-month period).”

• “The first payment of salary shall be made no sooner than the filing deadline for access to the primary election ballot in the state in which the candidate is running for office.” Although states are still finalizing their filing deadlines for the 2020 presidential primary, the first one isn’t expected until the fourth quarter of 2019.

We now have two versions of our Presidential News Briefing to keep you in the know about all the important news about the 2020 presidential election. Our original Daily Presidential News Briefing is sent every weekday, and if you don’t want a daily email, our Weekly Presidential News Briefing may be perfect for you. Both newsletters provide updates on where the prominent candidates are campaigning, policy releases, super PAC activity, campaign staff hiring, and more. 

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Nine candidates file to run for governor of Louisiana, including incumbent Gov. Edwards (D) 

Five Republicans, one independent, and three Democrats—including incumbent John Bel Edwards— filed by August 8 to run for governor of Louisiana. Edwards is the only current Democratic governor in the southernmost states and the only Democrat holding statewide office in Louisiana.

The incumbent and two Republicans—U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham and businessman Eddie Rispone—announced their candidacies in 2018 and have already been raising and spending money on the race. Abraham, Edwards, Rispone, and independent Gary Landrieu have already released campaign advertisements. 

The most recent campaign finance reports—through July 4—showed both Edwards and Rispone with more than $9.5 million cash on hand. This includes money raised prior to 2019 and funds remaining from the $10 million Rispone loaned his campaign. So far this year, Edwards raised $2.7 million, Abraham $1.6 million, and Rispone $915,000 in addition to his loan. State law prohibited Edwards from fundraising during and for 30 days after Louisiana’s state legislative session, which ran from April 8 to June 6.

Louisiana holds a nonpartisan blanket primary where all candidates—regardless of political party—run against each other. This takes place October 12. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a general election between the top two finishers will be held on November 16. A candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary. 

Forty-two percent of Brew readers don’t feel that local politics in their area is covered adequately 

As I noted in yesterday’s Brew, there’s a special election today for a vacant seat on the Los Angeles City Council formerly held by Mitchell Englander, the only Republican on the council. John Lee and Loraine Lundquist are facing each other after they were the top two vote recipients in a 15-candidate primary field June 4.

Ballotpedia provides in-depth coverage of America's 100 largest cities by population and all the counties that overlap with them. This list was established in 2013 based on the 2010 census and will be updated once the 2020 census report is published. As of 2013, 62,186,079 citizens lived in these cities, or 19.67% of the nation's total population. California (17), Texas (13), and Florida (6) have the most cities in the top 100. Sixteen states have no city in the top 100.

Speaking of local coverage, our What’s the Tea? question on August 9 asked your feelings on the news coverage of local politics and government. Here are your responses:

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