At-Large Councilmember Cooper defeats incumbent in runoff for Nashville mayor
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At-Large Metro Councilmember John Cooper defeated incumbent Mayor David Briley in the runoff election for Nashville mayor Thursday. Briley conceded the race after the results of early voting showed that, of around 49,000 votes, Cooper received 70 percent to Briley's 30 percent.
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Briley was the first mayor of Nashville's Metro government (formed in 1963) to lose a re-election bid. He assumed the office upon the resignation of Mayor Megan Barry in March 2018 and won a special election in May 2018 to complete Barry's term.
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Cooper emphasized shifting focus to neighborhoods and away from economic incentives for downtown projects in his campaign. He criticized Briley's plan to fund affordable housing through municipal bond-borrowing. Cooper said the city needs to use it surpluses more efficiently as opposed to raising property taxes.
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Briley campaigned on his record since becoming mayor, saying his accomplishments included not raising property taxes, establishing a college scholarship program for public school graduates, and a $500 million public investment in affordable housing over a decade.
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Briley said he had fought for progressive causes and that Cooper had a conservative approach, while Cooper called his own approach effective progressivism. Both Briley and Cooper identify as Democrats.
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Nashville was the 25th-largest city in the U.S. as of 2013, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates. Among the 100 largest cities by population in the U.S., 62 mayors are Democrats, 30 are Republicans, four are independents, and four are nonpartisan. Though most mayoral elections in the 100 largest cities are nonpartisan, most officeholders are affiliated with a political party.
Mayor Lyles (D) wins primary in Charlotte in bid for second term
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Charlotte, North Carolina, held partisan primary elections on Tuesday for mayor and city council. Twelve seats are appearing on the general election ballot on November 5, 2019. Democratic primaries were held for mayor and all city council districts except for Districts 6 and 7. City Council District 7 was the only office to hold a Republican primary. District 6 did not hold any primaries.
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Mayor Vi Lyles advanced to the general election after winning the Democratic primary. She faced four primary opponents—Roderick Davis, Tigress Sydney Acute McDaniel, Joel Odom, and Lucille Puckett. Lyles received 86.6% of the unofficial vote total. No challengers received more than 4.2% of the vote. She faces Republican challenger David Michael Rice in November. Rice was the only Republican candidate to file for the mayoral election and automatically advanced to the general election.
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The four at-large city council seats and Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 held Democratic primaries. All four at-large incumbents and the District 1 and 5 incumbents filed for re-election and advanced to the general election. Districts 2, 3, and 4 are open seats. The city council District 7 incumbent defeated one challenger in the only Republican primary of the night.
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The only other municipality in North Carolina that could have had a September 10 primary was Sanford in Lee County. However, their four city council primaries were canceled due to the number of candidates who filed from each party.
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Charlotte is the largest city in North Carolina and the 17th-largest city in the U.S. by population. As of September 11, 2019, the mayors of 62 of the country's 100 largest cities are affiliated with the Democratic Party. Republican-affiliated mayors hold 30 offices, independents hold four, and mayors with unknown party affiliations hold the remaining four.
Referendums filed to overturn California's new laws to regulate vaccine medical exemptions
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Opponents of Senate Bill 276 and Senate Bill 714 in California filed veto referendum petitions seeking to put the bills up for a public vote in 2020 Wednesday. Both of the bills address the use of medical exemptions from vaccination schedules for school students. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the bills on September 9, 2019.
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Proponents of the veto referendums will need to collect 623,212 valid signatures within 90 days of the governor's signature, which means signatures are due on December 8, 2019. Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) is expected to release ballot language for the veto referendums on September 23, 2019. If enough signatures are collected for the referendums, the laws would be on hold until voters decide whether to uphold or repeal them at the election on November 3, 2020.
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SB 276 and SB 714 were designed to create a process for the California Department of Public Health to review medical exemption forms for school attendance and allow a trained immunization department staff member (who must be a physician, surgeon, or registered nurse) to revoke medical exemptions that do not meet CDC, ACIP, or AAP criteria. The bills also include a process to appeal decisions to revoke exemptions, prohibit doctors who the department considers to be contributing to a public health crisis from writing medical exemptions, establish the information that must appear on medical exemption forms, and create a system to monitor immunization levels in schools and institutions and patterns of high exemption form submissions by physicians. SB 714 was written to amend SB 276 after Gov. Newsom requested several changes to the original bill, including a longer grace period
for students with medical exemptions that were issued before January 1, 2020.
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The three individuals who filed the veto referendums—Denise Aguilar, Heidi Munoz Gleisner, and Tara Thornton—were active in protesting the vaccination bills in August and September, according to The Sacramento Bee. Aguilar described the protests as "just parents who are getting a little bit fed up with the bills that are being passed." She added, "To have our health in bureaucrats’ hands, that’s the complete tyranny of the government." Senator Richard Pan (D-6), who authored the laws, responded to the referendums, saying, "What they haven’t demonstrated through the legislative process is a compelling argument based on science and facts and when they go to the public they will need that. Pounding on doors and walls won’t be any more compelling to the public as it was to the Legislature."
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After Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed SB 277, which eliminated personal belief and religious exemptions from vaccination requirements, former Rep. Tim Donnelly (R-33) filed a veto referendum to overturn the law. On October 7, Donnelly said the campaign lacked financial contributions and signatures, which led to the veto referendum failing to make the ballot. While the signature requirement in 2015 was 365,880, the signature requirement in 2019 is a quarter-million higher at 623,212.
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Californians have voted on 48 veto referendums since the state's first in 1912. Voters upheld the targeted legislation in 20 veto referendum measures and repealed it in 28. Nationwide, between 1906 and 2018, 521 veto referendums appeared on the ballot in 23 states. Voters repealed 340 (65.3 percent) of the targeted laws and upheld 181 (34.7 percent). California has had the third most veto referendum measures certified for the ballot behind North Dakota (75) and Oregon (68).
New ads released in Kentucky gubernatorial race
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Since the beginning of September, the Kentucky gubernatorial race between Gov. Matt Bevin (R) and Attorney General Andy Beshear (D) has stepped up across a handful of campaign ads. This week, Beshear released two new ads, while the Republican Governor’s Association affiliate Putting Kentucky First also released an ad. The most recent wave of ads hit on several of the key issues of the campaign up to this point, such as healthcare and education.
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The general election takes place November 5 and features Bevin, Beshear, and John Hicks (L). This race will decide the state's trifecta status until at least the 2020 state legislative elections. If Bevin wins, Republicans will maintain their trifecta control of the state, while a Beshear or Hicks victory would result in neither party having trifecta control.
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Currently, one outlet rates the race Lean Republican and two outlets rate the race Toss-up. Kentucky's gubernatorial election history also suggests that the race will be competitive. Prior to Bevin's 2015 victory, Democrats held the governorship for 16 of the previous 20 years. Beshear is the son of former Gov. Steve Beshear (D), who served from 2007 to 2015.
Three prominent Louisiana gubernatorial candidates release ads
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Among six candidates running in the October 12 primary for Louisiana governor, media outlets have identified three top candidates: incumbent Gov. John Bel Edwards (D), U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham (R), and businessman Eddie Rispone (R). If no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote on October 12, the top two finishers will advance to a general election on November 16.
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The three top candidates have all recently released new ads:
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Abraham's spot, titled "Louisiana Is Dead Last," focuses on his criticism of the state's economy under Edwards.
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Rispone's ad, "Home," highlights his childhood, family life, and his business experience.
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Edwards' ad, titled "Highest," focuses on the state's unemployment rate, its GDP, and new jobs in the state.
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On Wednesday, Abraham announced that he was endorsed by the Acadia Parish Republican Executive Committee, marking the eighth local Republican Party endorsement of his campaign. The Louisiana Republican Party endorsed both Abraham and Rispone on September 3.
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The state Democratic Party backed Edwards in his re-election bid in March.
Ballot Measures Update
2019:
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Twenty-four statewide measures are certified for the 2019 ballot so far in Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington.
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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:
Special Elections
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So far this year, 73 state legislative special elections have been scheduled in 24 states. Special elections have been held for 52 seats so far; heading into those races, Democrats had previously controlled 30 of the seats while Republicans previously controlled 22. 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.
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In special elections between 2011 and 2018, one party (either Republicans or Democrats) saw an average net gain of four seats nationally each year.
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An average of 91 seats were filled through special elections in each of the past four odd years (2011: 94, 2013: 84, 2015: 88, 2017: 98).
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An average of 55 seats were filled through special elections in each of the past five even years (2010: 26, 2012: 45, 2014: 40, 2016: 65, 2018: 99).
Upcoming special elections include:
October 1
States in session
Five states—California, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin—are in regular 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. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are in recess. Missouri is in special session. Forty-one states have adjourned their 2019 legislative sessions.
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