Welcome to the Thursday, May 2, Brew.
By: Mercedes Yanora
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Preemption plays out with marijuana in Texas – our latest episode of On the Ballot
- 118th Congress saw its lowest-ever approval rating in April
- Ballotpedia and Decision Desk HQ partner to offer real-time local election results coverage
Preemption plays out with marijuana in Texas – our latest episode of On the Ballot
In today’s episode of On the Ballot, Ballotpedia’s weekly podcast, we take a look at the May 4 vote to decide Lubbock Proposition A. The ballot measure will determine whether Lubbock, Texas, will decriminalize Class A or Class B misdemeanor marijuana possession offenses for adults, with certain exceptions. Those exceptions would be offenses “(a) revealed as part of a felony narcotics investigation that has been designated as ‘high priority’ by a commander, assistant chief of police, or chief of police; (b) and/or revealed as part of the investigation of a violent felony.”
For the first part of the podcast, Ballotpedia Podcast Producer Frank Festa interviews the Texas Tribune’s Jayme Lozano about her reporting on the measure. They discuss how five Texas cities — Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Denton, and Elgin — passed similar decriminalization measures in 2022 with more than 69% of residents voting in favor of decriminalization in each locality.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued all five cities in 2024. He said the measures violated state laws and the Texas Constitution and that “the legislature passes every law after a full debate on the issues, and we don’t allow cities the ability to create anarchy by picking and choosing the laws they enforce.”
Given this context, Festa and Lozano discuss the odds of Lubbock Proposition A passing and the potential for Paxton to sue the city as he did the previous five.
For the second part of the podcast, Ballotpedia Marquee Team Lead Joel Williams joins Festa to discuss preemption conflict both nationally and in Texas. Preemption conflict is when law at a higher level of government is used to overrule authority at a lower level. For example, state law can be used to preempt local ordinances, and federal law can be used to preempt state or local law.
Preemption conflicts between state and local governments often arise because of differences in the partisan makeup of the respective governments. Sometimes Republican state governments preempt Democratic-led cities such as when the state legislature in Missouri preempted efforts to increase the minimum wage in St. Louis in 2017. Democratic state governments have also come into conflict with Republican-led localities such as when state law preempted several Virginia municipal governments that passed firearms resolutions in 2020.
Common targets of state preemption include ordinances related to the minimum wage and paid sick leave, firearms policy, plastic bags, and marijuana decriminalization.
Circling back to marijuana, below is a snapshot of the marijuana preemption conflicts we’ve covered:
As of Nov. 8, 2023, 24 states and Washington, D.C., had legalized the possession and personal use of marijuana for recreational purposes, and 38 states and D.C. had legalized marijuana for medical purposes. Texas is one of 26 states where the possession and personal use of marijuana for recreational purposes is illegal.
We have covered two marijuana-related ballot measures in Texas so far: Lubbock’s Proposition A and San Antonio’s Proposition A. To learn more about local marijuana-related ballot measures across the country, read here.
You can watch the episode on YouTube here.
Remember, new episodes of On the Ballot drop every Thursday morning. If you’re reading this on May 2, there’s still time to subscribe on YouTube or your preferred podcast app and catch this episode on marijuana legalization efforts in Lubbock!
118th Congress saw its lowest-ever approval rating in April
At the end of April, congressional approval was at 19% and disapproval was at 70%. The 118th Congress saw its lowest-ever approval rating this month, hitting 13% from April 25-29. The highest approval rating it has received was 33% on April 21, 2023.
At the end of April, approval polling averages showed President Joe Biden (D) at 40% approval. Fifty-six percent of voters disapproved of his performance. This was the same approval rating he received at the end of March.
Throughout April, Biden’s approval rating fluctuated between 40% and 41%. The lowest approval rating he’s received during his presidency is 38% on July 27, 2022. The highest approval rating Biden has received is 55% on May 26, 2021.
At this time during the Trump administration, presidential approval was five points higher at 45%, and congressional approval was 11 points higher at 30%.
Ballotpedia’s polling index takes the average of polls conducted over the last 30 days to calculate presidential and congressional approval ratings. We average the results and show all polling results side-by-side because we believe that paints a clearer picture of public opinion than any individual poll can provide. The data is updated daily as new polling results are published.
Ballotpedia and Decision Desk HQ partner to offer real-time local election results coverage
We are pleased to announce that we are teaming up with Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), a leading real-time provider of election results and race calls, to provide results of up to 65,000 county, school board, and other municipal elections that are taking place across the country between now and the end of 2024.
Launching in time for Indiana’s May 7 elections, the partnership will add a real-time dimension to our election coverage because DDHQ’s graphics, which display DDHQ-gathered and -reported results and race calls, will be embedded on our race pages. Voters, journalists, academics, and others interested in election trends will benefit from access to local election outcomes on one website.
Ballotpedia Editor-in-Chief Geoff Pallay said, “We’re excited to work with DDHQ, and bring their innovative and accurate, real-time local election results coverage to our readers, no matter how small the district. Through this joint effort, we’re now able to provide full local election lifecycle information – from candidate filing to election results – and fill an information gap for voters.”
Drew McCoy, president of Decision Desk HQ, said, “By making the results of local elections more easily discoverable, we hope to call attention to their importance. Ballotpedia is the obvious partner and we’re thrilled to be working with them.”
To learn more about this new offering, click below!