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The Daily Brew: Making sense of the 2nd quarter presidential fundraising
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Biden proposes $750 billion healthcare policy
20 candidates file for Toledo City Council elections
Twenty candidates filed to run for the November 5 general election for six of the 12 city council seats in Toledo, Ohio. A primary is scheduled for September 10 for races that had more than two candidates file. The filing deadline was July 12. Toledo’s municipal elections are nonpartisan, but party affiliations were available for each candidate.
District 1 incumbent Tyrone Riley (D) faces three Democrats and one Republican in his bid for re-election. In District 2, incumbent Matt Cherry (D) faces a Republican candidate and a Green Party candidate. Incumbent Peter Ujvagi (D) did not file to run for re-election, leaving the District 3 seat open for a newcomer. Two Democrats and one Republican are running for the seat. The District 4 race includes incumbent Yvonne Harper (D) and two other Democrats. No Republicans filed to run in that race. The District 5 race is also open for a newcomer as incumbent Tom Waniewski (R) was unable to run for re-election due to term limits. One Democrat and two Republicans are running for the seat. In District 6, incumbent [[Chris Delaney]] (D) is running for re-election against a Republican. Because only two candidates filed, no primary will be held for that race.
Elections for Toledo municipal judges and the clerk of the municipal court are also scheduled to be on the ballot in 2019. No official candidate lists were available for those races as of July 15.
Toledo is the fourth-largest city in Ohio and the 66th-largest city in the U.S. by population.
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Recall initiated against Colorado state Sen. Pete Lee
An effort to recall Colorado state Sen. Pete Lee (D) was approved for circulation on July 12, 2019. Supporters have until September 10, 2019, to collect 11,304 signatures to force a recall election. Another recall petition targeting state Sen. Brittany Pettersen (D) received approval by the secretary of state on July 12 but it was withdrawn by petitioners three days later. According to the Denver Post, supporters have plans to resubmit the petition.
The recall petition targeting Lee was submitted by Scott David Fisher. Supporters have until September 10, 2019, to collect 11,304 signatures to force a recall election.
According to the recall petition, Lee is being targeted for recall because he supported legislation related to firearms, oil and gas, the national popular vote, and sex education during the 2019 legislative session. The firearms bill was designed to temporarily remove guns from people who are deemed a threat to themselves or others. The oil and gas bill was designed to give local governments more control over regulating the industry and also mandates that the state emphasize safety over promoting oil and gas production. The sex education bill updated the state’s curriculum for school districts that offer that education. The bill added instruction on such things as sexual orientation, consent, STDs, and pregnancy prevention. All four bills were signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis (D) in 2019.
After the recall was announced against Sen. Lee, he said: “I am disappointed that radical activists have decided to disrespect the voters of Senate District 11 and undermine the electoral process. I was elected eight months ago by 60% of the voters. To overturn the will of the people because of a disagreement on a couple of votes is inconsistent with our democratic process. They couldn’t defeat me in the election so they’re taking the back door of a recall.”
Gov. Polis is also facing an official recall campaign in 2019 over the same legislation as Sen. Lee. According to The Gazette, the Lee recall is being supported by the same group backing the recall against Gov. Polis. Two state representatives—Tom Sullivan (D) and Rochelle Galindo (D)—were also targeted by recall campaigns in 2019 due to the same legislation. The recall targeting Rep. Galindo (D) ended after she resigned her seat in May 2019. The recall targeting state Rep. Sullivan (D) ended in June 2019 after recall supporters concluded the effort. Unofficial recall campaigns are also underway against state Sen. Jeff Bridges (D), state Rep. Meg Froelich (D), state Rep. Bri Buentello (D), and state Sen. Leroy Garcia (D).
Lee was elected to the state Senate in 2018 with 62% of the vote. Prior to the 2018 election, Michael Merrifield (D) represented District 11 from 2015 to 2019.
Since 2011, 83 recall petitions have been filed against state lawmakers. Nine recalls were successful, nine were defeated at the ballot, 57 did not go to a vote, and eight are still ongoing. California state Sen. Josh Newman (D) was recalled in 2018. Two Colorado state senators were successfully recalled in 2013.
Colorado became a Democratic trifecta in 2019 after Democrats flipped the state Senate in the 2018 elections. Democrats control the state House by a 41-24 margin and the state Senate by a 19-16 margin. Gov. Polis succeeded John Hickenlooper (D) as governor in 2019.
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Twenty-one Democrats qualify for 20 spots in the second Democratic presidential debate
The lineup for the second set of Democratic presidential debates on July 30-31, 2019, will be announced when CNN airs a live drawing for the qualifying candidates Thursday night.
Twenty-one candidates have reached the polling or grassroots fundraising threshold or both. The debate is limited to 20 candidates.
Candidates who have reached both sets of requirements are former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Sen Kamala Harris, Gov. Jay Inslee, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, author Marianne Willamson, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.
Sen. Michael Bennet, Gov. Steve Bullock, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Rep. John Delaney, former Gov. John Hickenlooper, and Rep. Tim Ryan have met the polling threshold of 1 percent support or more in three eligible national or early state polls.
Over the weekend, former Sen. Mike Gravel reached the grassroots fundraising threshold of at least 65,000 unique contributions and at least 200 unique contributions from a minimum of 20 U.S. states. Under previously announced tiebreaker rules, the candidates’ polling averages will be considered before fundraising figures.
Joining Gravel on the bubble are four candidates who have not yet met either qualifying criteria: Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam and Rep. Seth Moulton and race newcomers former Rep. Joe Sestak and investor Tom Steyer.
The candidates who qualify for the July debates will encounter new debate rules when they appear on stage in Detroit, Michigan. Unlike the June debate hosted by NBC News, MSNBC, and Telemundo, there will be no questions requiring a show of hands or one-word, down-the-line answers. Candidates who repeatedly interrupt other speakers will be penalized. Candidates will also be allowed to make both opening and closing statements.
A third presidential debate is scheduled in Houston, Texas, on September 12-13, 2019. Candidates will need to receive 2 percent support or more in four national or early state polls and receive donations from at least 130,000 unique donors to qualify.
Four new statewide ballot measures certified for 2019 and 2020
Four new statewide ballot measures were certified for 2019 and 2020 ballots in the past 30 days.
Three statewide measures were certified for 2019 in Maine, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Here’s what they would do:
- Maine: allow legislation to let persons with physical disabilities that prevent them from signing their own names use an alternative signature to sign petitions for citizen-initiated ballot measures.
- New Jersey: extend an existing $250 property tax deduction that veterans receive to continuing care retirement centers on behalf of the veterans living there, and require retirement centers to pass the value of the deduction on to veterans in the form of credits or payments.
- Pennsylvania: add specific rights of crime victims, together known as a Marsy’s Law, to the Pennsylvania Constitution.
A 2020 measure to establish the authority of state and local governments to pass campaign finance laws was certified in Oregon.
All four statewide measures certified in the past month were proposed constitutional amendments referred to the ballot by state legislatures.
Proponents of a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment in Florida designed to state that only citizens of the United States are qualified electors announced that they had collected 1.5 million signatures seeking to qualify their measure for the 2020 ballot; they need to submit 766,200 valid signatures and have them verified prior to a deadline on February 1, 2020.
Proponents of a 2019 sanctuary city measure in Tucson also submitted signatures for their initiative.
The Daily Brew: Who will be in the next Democratic presidential debate? We’ll know this week
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Harris leads Democratic candidates in Ballotpedia pageviews for second consecutive week
Each week, we report the number of pageviews received by 2020 presidential campaigns on Ballotpedia. These numbers show which candidates are getting our readers’ attention.
Sen. Kamala Harris’ campaign page on Ballotpedia received 3,594 pageviews for the week of July 6-13.
Harris’ pageview figure represents 8.7 percent of the pageviews for all Democratic candidates during the week.
Former Vice President Joe Biden had 7.7 percent of the candidate pageviews for the week, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren had 6.7 percent.
Every Democratic campaign’s pageviews decreased this week with former Rep. Eric Swalwell showing the steepest drop of 69.2 percent. Swalwell suspended his presidential campaign on July 8, 2019.
The top three candidates in lifetime pageviews are South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg with 86,772, entrepreneur Andrew Yang with 73,481, and Harris with 71,849.
On the GOP side, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld had 8,945 pageviews to President Donald Trump’s 1,368.
Trump administration asks court to uphold restrictions on presidential authority over housing agency
In a July 9, 2019, letter, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold for-cause removal protections, which limit the circumstances in which presidents can remove the heads of agencies. The FHFA told the court that the agency’s new director had reconsidered the constitutionality of the agency’s structure.
The FHFA sent the letter as part of the ongoing proceedings in Collins v. Mnuchin, where a panel of the Fifth Circuit found that the structure of the FHFA is unconstitutional because it is led by a single director who is only removable by the president for cause. The court reheard the case en banc in January 2019 and had not announced a decision as of July 11, 2019.
The FHFA was created by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) to oversee the government-sponsored mortgage security corporations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In Collins v. Mnuchin, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders presented the following complaints:
- A 2012 dividend agreement between the FHFA and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which rendered their shares valueless, exceeded the statutory authority of the FHFA and the Treasury Department.
- The FHFA is unconstitutionally structured because it is headed by a single director who is only removable for cause and it does not depend on congressional appropriations.
A district court dismissed the shareholders’ complaints. In a split decision, however, the Fifth Circuit panel reversed the decision on the grounds that the structure of the FHFA violates the separation of powers because the agency’s director is too insulated from presidential control. The court struck the language from HERA that only allowed the president to dismiss the FHFA director for good cause. Though the panel found the FHFA structure unconstitutional, they upheld the power of FHFA and Treasury Department to enter into the dividend agreement.
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FHFA letter to the 5th Circuit:
