1. Lowest number of recall efforts since 2012
2. Democratic National Committee announces qualifying criteria for Jan. 14 presidential debate
3. Looking at upcoming candidate filing deadlines

Lowest number of recall efforts since 2012

Now that 2019 is behind us, we’re able to take an in-depth look at last year’s recalls. As I highlighted in our mid-year review back in June, there was a 50% decline in the total number of recall efforts in 2019 compared to the same time in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Ballotpedia covers all recall efforts against elected officials across the country that we learn about, even of officeholders that are outside our normal coverage scope.

For all of 2019, we covered 151 recall efforts against 230 elected officials.

• This represents a 27% decline compared to the 206 recall efforts that targeted 299 officials in 2018. 

• Since our first report in 2012, the number of recall efforts has ranged from 151 in 2019 to 282 efforts in 2016.  

In addition to fewer recalls overall, a lower percentage of recall elections in 2019 also resulted in the targeted officials’ removal from office. Of the 66 officials whose recalls reached the ballot, 34—or 52%—were recalled. In 2018 and 2017, 63 and 58 percent of recall efforts, respectively, were successful.

Here are three other highlights from Ballotpedia’s 2019 Recall Analysis:

• As in 2016, 2017, and 2018, city council members were the subject of more recall petitions than any other officeholder. Ninety city council members were targeted for recall in 2019. Mayors and vice-mayors faced the second-most recall efforts with 45. 

• California had the highest number of officials targeted for recall with 37, a distinction it also had in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Michigan had the highest number of recall efforts—65—in 2018. 

• Twenty percent of recall efforts we tracked in 2019 were still in progress as of mid-December. Six percent have recall elections scheduled. Forty percent of recall efforts we covered last year did not make it to the ballot. 

Click the link below to read the full report, which includes more statistics and graphs and summaries of some of the year’s notable recall efforts.

Learn more

       

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Democratic National Committee announces qualifying criteria for Jan. 14 presidential debate 

The Democratic National Committee announced the criteria to qualify for the Jan. 14 presidential debate at Iowa's Drake University—three weeks before that state’s caucuses on Feb. 3. The Iowa caucuses are the first presidential nominating event of the 2020 presidential election cycle.

The criteria raised both the polling and fundraising thresholds to participate. Candidates must receive 5% support or more in at least four national or early state polls or 7% support or more in at least two single state polls. The four early states are Iowa (Feb. 3), New Hampshire (Feb. 11), Nevada (Feb. 22), and South Carolina (Feb. 29). 

Candidates also have to have 225,000 unique donors and a minimum of 1,000 donors in at least 20 states. 

The qualification deadline is Jan. 10. Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren have already met both requirements.

Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang—who participated in the most recent debate on Dec. 19—have not yet qualified. Yang has met the donor threshold but needs three more polls to qualify. Steyer has not yet achieved the fundraising threshold and needs two additional polls to meet the polling criteria.  

Michael Bloomberg has reached the polling requirement, but as he is not accepting contributions to his campaign, he won’t meet the fundraising threshold.  

In the 2016 GOP presidential primaries, 11 Republican candidates participated in that party’s seventh debate on Jan. 28, 2016—also held in Des Moines, Iowa. At that event, four Republicans appeared in the early debate and seven appeared in the primetime debate. Candidates qualified for that primetime debate by polling among either the top six candidates nationally or among the top 5 in Iowa or New Hampshire, based on polling averages. President Donald Trump did not participate in that debate.

Looking at upcoming candidate filing deadlines

If you’re like me, it’s been hard to approach this short work week after the New Year’s holiday. Yesterday felt a bit like a Monday and it’s hard to believe that today is actually Friday. Consequently, I’ve spent a fair amount of time getting back up to speed on all that’s been happening. 

The deadlines to run for congressional, executive, and legislative offices have already passed in seven states—Alabama, Arkansas, California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas. Four states have upcoming candidate filing deadlines in January.

Here are the filing deadlines to watch in the next 60 days:

• Jan. 10 - Kentucky and Mississippi
• Jan. 24 - Maryland
• Jan. 25 - West Virginia
• Feb. 7 - Indiana
• Feb. 18 - Pennsylvania
• Mar. 2 - Nebraska

I’m looking forward to a year full of political campaigns and election-related stories to cover at Ballotpedia, and I hope you’re as excited as we all are. For the full list of primary election dates and every state’s candidate filing deadline, click the link below.  

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