Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Battleground election preview
- New Mexico’s June 7 primaries
- On this date in 1978—California voters approve Proposition 13
June 7 battleground election preview
Seven states are holding statewide primaries tomorrow—California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota. Let’s take a look at three of the battleground elections happening in those states.
California
California’s 27th Congressional District: Seven candidates are running in the top-two primary for the 27th Congressional District. The two candidates to receive the most votes—regardless of party—advance to the general election. Three candidates are Republicans, three are Democrats, and one is a write-in running as an independent. Incumbent Mike Garcia (R), John Quaye Quartey (D), and Christy Smith (D) have received the most media attention. In 2020, Garcia defeated Smith in the general election by 333 votes, making it the third-closest U.S. House race that year.
Chesa Boudin recall: San Francisco voters will decide whether to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who was elected in 2019.
Crime has also been a central issue in this election.
A group called San Franciscans for Public Safety started the recall effort on April 28, 2021. Organizers said: “We all agree that we need real criminal justice reform and police accountability now. Chesa Boudin isn’t delivering either priority — and since he took office, burglaries, car break-ins, homicides and overdose-related deaths are at a crisis level. Boudin is not keeping San Francisco safe.”
In response, Boudin said: “This is yet another recall relying on FALSE AND DISPROVEN REPUBLICAN talking points attempting to undo progress and take us backwards. Recalls are not political tools for people who lose elections.” Boudin has defended his approach, saying “the old approaches did not make us safer; they ignored root causes of crime and perpetuated mass incarceration.”
Boudin completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey in 2019.
If Boudin is recalled, Mayor London Breed will appoint a temporary replacement to serve until November.
So far in 2022, we’ve tracked 145 recalls against 228 officials at different levels of government. Voters have approved recalls in 19 cases.
Iowa
U.S Senate election Democratic primary: Abby Finkenauer, Michael Franken, and Glenn Hurst are running in the Democratic primary. The incumbent is Chuck Grassley (R).
Finkenauer represented Iowa’s 1st Congressional District from 2018 to 2021. The then-29 year old Finkenauer was the second-youngest woman elected to Congress. Finkenauer has campaigned on term limits.
Franken is a retired U.S. Navy Admiral. Franken said he appeals to, “that middle segment who want logical, pragmatic, smart, dedicated, national servants to work for them. Leader servants. I believe I’m that person.”
Hurst is a family physician who also chairs the Iowa Democratic Party’s Rural Caucus. Hurst says he is “a progressive candidate in this race” because of his support for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal.
New Mexico’s June 7 primaries
Now that we have looked at some battleground races, let’s take a deeper dive into New Mexico.
New Mexico voters will decide Republican and Democratic primaries for the state’s three congressional districts. Heading into the primary, Democrats have 2-1 advantage in the state’s U.S. House delegation. Eight candidates filed to run across the districts, including four Democrats and four Republicans. That’s 2.67 candidates per district, less than the 6.3 candidates per district in 2020 and the five in 2018. The eight candidates who filed to run this year were the fewest candidates running for New Mexico’s U.S. House districts since seven ran in 2016. All three incumbents are seeking re-election.
State offices
New Mexico is holding primaries for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and other state executive positions. Five seats on the Public Education Commission are also on the ballot.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is up for re-election. Incumbent Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, first elected in 2018, is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. Meanwhile, five candidates are seeking the GOP nomination. New Mexico’s last Republican governor was Susana Martinez, who served from 2011 to 2019.
All 70 of New Mexico’s state House districts are up for election. Democrats currently have a 44-24 majority in the state House (with one independent and one vacancy). Twelve of the 57 state legislators running for re-election face contested primaries—eight Democrats and four Republicans. That equals 21% of incumbents seeking re-election, the most since 2014. The remaining 45% of incumbents are not facing primary challengers.
Even though only one chamber is holding elections this year (New Mexico’s state Senate elections always coincide with presidential election years), the number of open districts is at its highest since 2014. In total, newcomers will represent 18.6% of the districts. In the 13 open districts, incumbents chose not to seek re-election. All incumbents seeking re-election are running in districts they represented before redistricting.
Three seats on the New Mexico Supreme Court are also on the ballot this year. One of the seats is up for a retention election in November, but two of the states are up for partisan election, with primaries on June 7. New Mexico is one of 32 states holding state supreme court elections this year. As of 2020, according to research in Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, the New Mexico Supreme Court was one of 15 states with a majority Democratic-affiliated state supreme court.
In New Mexico, the primary candidate with the most votes wins—even if that candidate receives less than 50% of the total vote. New Mexico is one of 40 states without primary election runoffs. The state does not cancel uncontested primaries, and write-in candidates are required to file.
On this date in 1978—California voters approve Proposition 13
On this date in 1978, California voters approved Proposition 13, an initiated constitutional amendment that capped property taxes at 1% of their 1975-76 assessment and restricted future annual increases to no more than 2%. Proposition 13 also required a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to increase taxes. The vote was 4,280,689 (64.79%) to 2,326,167 (35.21%).
The New York Times’ Conor Dougherty wrote, “Proposition 13 was spearheaded by a retired businessman, Howard Jarvis, who harnessed voter anger over rising home prices — and therefore rising taxes — to amend the state’s Constitution to limit property tax increases to 2 percent a year.”
You can read more about Proposition 13 below.