Judge blocks state takeover of Houston schools

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Happy Saturday! Keep reading for this week's highlights in state and local politics.

Read the full Tap online ([link removed])

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** SIGNATURES FILED FOR ALASKA INITIATIVE THAT WOULD ENACT RANKED-CHOICE VOTING, TOP-FOUR PRIMARIES, AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE CHANGES
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The campaign Alaskans for Better Elections filed 41,068 signatures on Thursday for a three-pronged ballot initiative to change the state's election laws ([link removed]) .

* Changes to Alaska's election policies proposed by the initiative include:

* requiring persons and entities that make contributions that were themselves derived from donations, contributions, dues, or gifts to disclose the true sources of the contributions
* replacing partisan primaries with open top-four primaries ([link removed]) for state executive, state legislative, and congressional
* and establishing ranked-choice voting ([link removed]) for general elections, in which voters would rank the four candidates that succeeded from the primaries

* Currently, no states utilize a top-four primary for state or federal elections, and one state—Maine—uses ranked-choice voting for some state and federal elections.
* Top-four primaries are similar to top-two, which are used in California and Washington. Instead of the top-two vote-getters moving to the general election, the ballot initiative would move the top-four vote-getters to the general election. Under the ballot initiative, voters would use ranked-choice voting to rank the four candidates in the general election.
* At least 28,501 (69.4%) of the signatures submitted need to be valid for the ballot initiative to be certified. Alaska also has a signature distribution requirement, which requires that signatures equal to 7% of the vote in the last general election must be collected in each of 30 (of 40) Alaska House of Representatives districts.

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** JUDGE ISSUES TEMPORARY INJUNCTION BLOCKING STATE TAKEOVER OF HOUSTON SCHOOL DISTRICT
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On January 8, Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy issued a temporary injunction preventing the Texas Education Agency (TEA) from taking over the Houston Independent School District ([link removed]) (HISD) until an ongoing lawsuit disputing the takeover is resolved.

* In November 2019, Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath notified the district of his decision to appoint a board of managers to replace the elected school board. This decision came as a result of a TEA investigation into the board’s governance and as a result of repeatedly poor academic performance ratings at a high school in the district.
* The transition was originally expected to take place around March 2020.
* Under a state-appointed board, elected board members would function as non-voting representatives until they were phased back in by the commissioner.
* TEA officials filed an appeal of the preliminary injunction with the Texas Third District Court of Appeals on January 9.

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** MAINE GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES TWO SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENTS
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Maine Governor Janet Mills (D) appointed ([link removed]) appellate attorney Catherine Connors and Maine Superior Court Justice Andrew Horton to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Connors and Horton were the governor's first and second nominees to the seven-member supreme court. Pending confirmation from the Maine State Senate, they will succeed Justices Jeffrey Hjelm and Donald Alexander.

* Connors is an appellate lawyer with Pierce Atwood, where she handles civil and criminal litigation matters in federal and state courts.
* Horton is a superior court justice for the Cumberland County Superior Court in Maine. Gov. John Baldacci (D) first appointed Horton to this court in January 2007.

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** BIDEN ENDORSES IN TEXAS HOUSE SPECIAL ELECTION RUNOFF
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Former Vice President Joe Biden ([link removed]) (D) endorsed Elizabeth Markowitz ([link removed]) (D) in the January 28 special runoff election ([link removed]) for Texas House of Representatives District 28. Markowitz and Gary Gates ([link removed]) (R) are running in the election. The seat became vacant after Rep. John Zerwas (R) resigned on September 30, 2019, to take a position with the University of Texas System.

* Markowitz and Gates advanced from a field of seven candidates in a special election on November 5 after neither received more than 50% of the vote.
* Heading into the election, Republicans hold an 82-64 majority in the House with three seats vacant. All 150 seats in the chamber are up for election in November 2020.
* Houston Public Media wrote that Democrats were targeting this race to pick up the seat ahead of a bigger push to gain control of the chamber in the 2020 elections.

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** FILING PERIOD ENDS FOR LEGISLATIVE, JUDICIAL AND LOCAL CANDIDATES IN KENTUCKY
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The filing deadline passed to run for elected office in Kentucky. In Kentucky, prospective candidates could file for the following offices:

* State Senate (19 seats) ([link removed])
* State House (100 seats) ([link removed])
* State Supreme Court (1 seat) ([link removed])

Ballotpedia is also covering local elections in the following areas:

* Louisville and Lexington
* Fayette County Public Schools
* Jefferson County Public Schools

The primary is scheduled for May 19, and the general election is scheduled for November 3. Kentucky’s statewide filing deadline was on the same date as Mississippi; these were the eighth and ninth deadlines to take place in the 2020 election cycle. The next statewide filing deadline is January 24 in Maryland.
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** ALASKA SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
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Alaska Supreme Court Justice Craig Stowers announced his retirement effective June 1, 2020. Justice Stowers was appointed to the Alaska Supreme Court in 2009 by Governor Sean Parnell (R). Stowers was retained by voters on November 4, 2014.

* Stowers’ replacement will be Governor Mike Dunleavy’s (R) first nominee to the five-member supreme court.
* Selection of state supreme court justices in Alaska occurs through assisted appointment. The Alaska Judicial Council forwards a list of its nominees to the governor, who must choose a name from the list within 45 days to fill any vacancy.

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** NORTH CAROLINA STATE SENATOR RESIGNS TO JOIN STATE UTILITIES COMMISSION
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North Carolina State Senator Floyd McKissick ([link removed]) (D) resigned his seat after representing Senate District 20 for 13 years. McKissick stepped down to accept an appointment to the North Carolina Utilities Commission ([link removed]) made by Gov. Roy Cooper (D).

* The North Carolina Utilities Commission is a seven-person executive board in the North Carolina state government. It is in charge of regulating the rates and services of public utilities and is the oldest regulatory body in the state.
* In North Carolina, the governor fills vacancies in the state Senate from a list of recommended candidates submitted by a committee of the political party that last held the vacant seat.
* The current party composition of the North Carolina state Senate is 29 Republicans, 20 Democrats, and one vacancy.

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** BALLOT MEASURES UPDATE
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** _2020_
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Fifty-one statewide measures ([link removed]) in 24 states have been certified for the 2020 ballot so far.

* Fourteen of the 50 certified 2020 measures are citizen-initiated measures.
* Thirty-five are legislative referrals.
* One is an automatic constitutional revision commission question.

Four measures were certified for the 2020 ballot last week.

* A first-of-its-kind initiative in Colorado ([link removed]) to require the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to create a plan to reintroduce and manage gray wolves on designated lands west of the continental divide
* An initiative to amend the South Dakota Constitution ([link removed]) to legalize the recreational use of marijuana and require the South Dakota State Legislature to pass laws providing for the use of medical marijuana and the sale of hemp
* An initiative in Mississippi ([link removed]) to legalize medical marijuana and establish a medical marijuana program qualified for the ballot on Tuesday with 105,686 valid signatures. Before voters consider it in November, the state legislature will consider it and has the option to put an alternative measure on the ballot alongside the initiative
* An Oklahoma ballot initiative ([link removed]) to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The governor will decide whether to place the initiative on the primary or general election ballot.

Proponents of four additional ballot initiatives ([link removed]) in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Michigan, and Oklahoma submitted signatures, which are pending verification by state officials.
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** STATE LEGISLATIVE SPECIAL ELECTIONS
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So far this year, 23 state legislative special elections have been scheduled in 12 states.


** _UPCOMING SPECIAL ELECTIONS_
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JANUARY 14

* Arkansas House of Representatives District 34 (primary) ([link removed])
* Connecticut House of Representatives District 48 ([link removed])
* Connecticut House of Representatives District 132 ([link removed])
* Connecticut House of Representatives District 151 ([link removed])
* Kentucky State Senate District 38 ([link removed])
* Minnesota House of Representatives District 30A (primary) ([link removed])
* Pennsylvania State Senate District 48 ([link removed])

JANUARY 21

* Minnesota House of Representatives District 60A (primary) ([link removed])
* New Hampshire House of Representatives Merrimack 24 District (primary) ([link removed])

JANUARY 28

* Georgia House of Representatives District 171 ([link removed])
* Texas House of Representatives District 28 (general runoff) ([link removed])
* Texas House of Representatives District 100 (general runoff) ([link removed])
* Texas House of Representatives District 148 (general runoff) ([link removed])

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** STATES IN SESSION
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Twenty-one states—California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia—are in regular session ([link removed]) .
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