Washington, Vermont governors announce supreme court appointments

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Your weekly review of the week in state and local politics is here! Check out the highlights below, and click the link for a more comprehensive review of last week and preview of the week to come.

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** ILLINOIS CANDIDATE FILING PERIOD ENDS
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The candidate filing deadline for Illinois established party candidates was December 2, 2019 ([link removed]) . The primary is scheduled for March 17, 2020, and the general election is November 3, 2020.

* Offices on the ballot in 2020 include the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Dick Durbin (R), all 18 U.S. House districts, 20 of the 59 state Senate seats, all 118 state House districts, four state Supreme Court judgeships, 10 intermediate appellate court seats, and local offices.
* The Illinois filing deadline was the third statewide filing deadline for the 2020 general elections. It was preceded by Alabama on November 8 and by Arkansas on November 12.

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** CALIFORNIA CANDIDATE FILING PERIOD CONCLUDES
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The filing deadline to run for elected office in California was December 6, 2019 ([link removed]) . The California Secretary of State will release the official candidate list on December 26. The primary is scheduled for March 3, and the general election is scheduled for November 3, 2020.

* In California, prospective candidates may file for the U.S. House, the State Senate, and the State Assembly.
* Ballotpedia is also covering local elections in the following areas: 12 counties 17 cities 94 school districts
* California's statewide filing deadline was the fourth to take place in the 2020 election cycle. The next statewide filing deadline is on December 9 in Texas.

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** WASHINGTON GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENT
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Washington Governor Jay Inslee (D) appointed Judge Raquel Montoya-Lewis to succeed Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst on the Washington Supreme Court. Fairhurst is retiring January 5, 2020 ([link removed]) , for health reasons. Montoya-Lewis is Inslee's second nominee to the nine-member supreme court.

* At the time of her appointment to the state supreme court, Montoya-Lewis was a judge for the Whatcom County Superior Court in Whatcom County. Before her appointment to the Whatcom County Superior Court, Montoya-Lewis served as the chief judge for the Nooksack and Upper Skagit Indian Tribes in Washington. She is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Isleta and a descendant of the Pueblo of Laguna Indian tribes.
* The Washington Supreme Court is the state's court of last resort and has nine judgeships. Three of the court's nine justices were appointed by Democratic governors. The other six were elected by voters.

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** VERMONT GOVERNOR NOMINATES STATE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE
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Vermont Governor Phil Scott (R) nominated Judge William "Bill" Cohen to succeed Marilyn Skoglund as a justice on the Vermont Supreme Court. Skoglund retired on September 1, 2019 ([link removed]) . Cohen was Gov. Phil Scott's (R) second nominee to the five-member supreme court.

* At the time of his state supreme court appointment, Cohen was a superior court judge in Rutland County, Vermont. Governor Howard Dean appointed him to that office in 1999.
* The Vermont Supreme Court is the state’s court of last resort and has five judgeships. If Cohen is confirmed, three of the court's justices will have been appointed by Republican governors and two were appointed by a Democratic governor.

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** MCLEAN WINS MAYORAL RUNOFF ELECTION IN BOISE, BECOMES CITY’S FIRST ELECTED WOMAN MAYOR
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Lauren McLean defeated incumbent David Bieter in the runoff election for mayor of Boise ([link removed]) on Tuesday—Dec. 3—receiving 65.5% of the vote. This was Boise's first runoff election for mayor in over 50 years. McLean and Bieter were the top two finishers in the city's general election Nov. 5, with McLean receiving 46% of the vote and Bieter 30% in a seven-candidate field.

* Bieter was first elected mayor of Boise in 2003 and has served four terms. McLean has been a member of the Boise City Council since 2011 and is the first woman elected to be the city's mayor.
* Although municipal elections in Boise are officially nonpartisan, McLean describes herself as a Democrat and Bieter is a former Democratic member of the Idaho House of Representatives.

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** GEORGIA SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
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On December 5, 2019, Georgia Supreme Court Justice Robert Benham announced he is retiring March 1, 2020 ([link removed]) .

* Benham became an associate justice of the nine-member Georgia Supreme Court in 1989. He was appointed to the court in December of that year by Governor Joe Frank Harris (D).
* Selection of state supreme court justices in Georgia occurs through nonpartisan election of judges; however, the governor appoints judges with the help of a nomination commission in the event of a midterm vacancy. Benham’s replacement will be Governor Brian Kemp’s (R) first nominee to the nine-member supreme court. Judges serve six-year terms.

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** CANDIDATE FILING PERIOD TO END IN TEXAS
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The major-party filing deadline to run for elected office in Texas is on December 9, 2019 ([link removed]) . Independent candidates must submit their declaration of intent to run on the same date, but the final filing deadline for independent candidates is June 25, 2020.

* In Texas, state and local prospective candidates may file for Texas Railroad Commissioner, 8 seats on the Texas State Board of Education, 16 seats in the Texas State Senate, 150 seats in the Texas House of Representatives, four seats on the Texas Supreme Court, four seats on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and 23 judgeships on the Texas Court of Appeals. Ballotpedia is also covering multiple municipal and school board elections in Texas in 2020.
* The primary is scheduled for March 3, and the general election is scheduled for November 3, 2020.
* Texas’s statewide filing deadline is the fifth to take place in the 2020 election cycle. The next statewide filing deadline is on December 18 in Ohio.

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** BALLOT MEASURES UPDATE
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Forty-three statewide measures ([link removed]) in 20 states have been certified for the 2020 ballot so far.

* Eight of the 43 certified 2020 measures are citizen-initiated measures. Thirty-four are legislative referrals. One is an automatic constitutional revision commission question.

* Proponents of 13 ballot initiatives ([link removed]) in California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota submitted signatures, which are pending verification by state officials.

* These include an initiative in Florida ([link removed])) that would establish a top-two open primary system for primary elections for state legislators, the governor, and other state offices in Florida. The Florida Secretary of State unofficially reported that enough submitted signatures were valid to qualify the measure for the ballot.
* On December 5, proponents of a California initiative ([link removed])) to allow local governments to adopt rent control on housing units reported submitting about 1 million signatures. At least 623,212 submitted signatures (or around 62.3 percent) need to be valid for the initiative to be certified.

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** SPECIAL ELECTIONS UPDATE
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So far this year, 77 state legislative special elections have been scheduled in 24 states. Special elections have been held for 73 seats so far; heading into those races, Democrats had previously controlled 37 of the seats while Republicans previously controlled 36.

* Five seats have flipped from Democratic control to Republican control.
* Two seats have flipped from Republican control to Democratic control.
* One seat has flipped from Republican control to an independent officeholder.

Another 11 state legislative special elections have been scheduled for 2020 in seven states.


** _UPCOMING SPECIAL ELECTIONS_
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DECEMBER 10

* Arkansas House of Representatives District 22 (primary) ([link removed])

DECEMBER 19

* Tennessee House of Representatives District 77 ([link removed])

JANUARY 7

* Michigan House of Representatives District 34 (primary) ([link removed])

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** STATES IN SESSION
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Four states—Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, and Wisconsin—are in regular session ([link removed]) . Indiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia are in recess. Forty-two states have adjourned their 2019 legislative sessions.


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