1. Let’s be coworkers! Apply to Ballotpedia’s internship program
2. Fewer candidates running for mayor, city council in Memphis compared with 2015
3. Federal Register surpasses the 35,000-page mark for 2019

Let’s be co-workers! Apply to Ballotpedia’s internship program

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As an intern, you will go through a similar onboarding experience to full-time Ballotpedia employees. You will learn how to publish content on Ballotpedia, learn about all we do to prevent and detect bias in our resources, and much more. Following orientation, you will join the Editorial, Communications, or Tech team, working alongside staff members. Here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know about our program.

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Fewer candidates running for mayor, city council in Memphis compared with 2015 

The filing deadline to run for both mayor and all 13 city council seats passed last week in Memphis, Tennessee. The city is holding general elections on October 3. Memphis is the largest city in Tennessee and the 20th-largest city in the U.S. by population.

Incumbent mayor Jim Strickland faces nine challengers in his bid for a second term. Strickland—who was first elected to Memphis’ city council in 2007—defeated then-Mayor A.C. Wharton in 2015. I don’t live in Memphis, but as a political observer here are a few facts I found interesting when I was talking with our team about the election. 

• Memphis has two sets of district boundaries for its city council. It has seven regular council districts, with one member elected from each. It is also divided in half to form two super districts that elect an additional three representatives each.

• As of July 19, 42 candidates had qualified to run for city council, and the applications for another four were still being verified—an average of 3.54 candidates per seat.  Twenty-four candidates are running for the regular council seats and six of seven incumbents are seeking re-election. Twenty-two candidates filed for the six super district seats, including three incumbents. 

• In the most recent regular election for city council in 2015, 60 candidates ran—an average of 4.62 candidates per seat. That year, all seven incumbents who ran for re-election won.

In the 100 largest cities in the country from 2014 to 2018, 16 of 96 mayors—16.7%—and 127 of 1,002—12.7%—were defeated in their bids for re-election.

Federal Register surpasses the 35,000-page mark for 2019

Here’s something we track regularly at Ballotpedia, but we haven’t provided an update about in the Brew for a few months. Each week, we monitor page counts and other information about the Federal Register as part of our Administrative State Project. The Federal Register is a daily journal of federal government activity that includes presidential documents, proposed and final rules, and public notices. It is a common measure of an administration’s regulatory activity.

Last week, the number of pages in the Federal Register increased by 1,312 pages, bringing the year-to-date total to 35,002 pages. During the same week in 2018, the number of pages in the Federal Register increased by 1,994 pages for a year-to-date total of 34,752 pages. As of July 19, the 2019 total was more than the 2018 total by 250 pages.

The Trump administration has added an average of 1,207 pages to the Federal Register each week in 2019 as of July 19. Over the course of 2018, the Trump administration added an average of 1,301 pages to the Federal Register each week. During the Obama administration, the Federal Register increased by an average of 1,658 pages per week.

Our Administrative State Project includes information about the administrative and regulatory activities of the United States government as well as concepts, laws, court cases, executive orders, scholarly work, and other material related to the administrative state. You can get an introduction to some of these principles by joining our free briefing tomorrow on how this term’s Supreme Court rulings affect the administrative state. There’s still time to register by clicking here.

And to stay up to date on actions at both the federal and state level related to rulemaking, the separation of powers, and due process, subscribe to our monthly Checks and Balances newsletter.

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