Each week, The Weekly Brew brings you a collection of the most viewed stories from The Daily Brew, condensed. Here are the top stories from the week of September 14 - September 18.
New York's commissioner of education was the highest-paid state executive official in 2025
In a Ballotpedia analysis of 2025 compensation data for statewide executive officers, we found that the highest-paid state executive official was New York's commissioner of education, with a salary of $489,000. The lowest-paid state executive official was the lieutenant governor of Texas, with a base salary of $7,113. However, the lieutenant governor receives additional compensation when serving as acting governor.
Our analysis covered the following offices in each state, where applicable: governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, controller, auditor, superintendent of schools, insurance commissioner, agriculture commissioner, natural resources commissioner, labor commissioner, and public service commissioner.
The American experiment in direct democracy
This week, we're sharing the eighth installment in our project marking America's 250th anniversary: The Blueprints of Democracy.
When voters get ready to head to the polls this November, many of them will discover that they will have the opportunity to decide on a variety of issues ranging from local bond issues to state constitutional amendments.
These issues — collectively called ballot measures — have been a feature of American governance from the nation’s earliest days. But unlike elections, where we choose between candidates running for offices in which they will propose, debate, and decide on policy, ballot measures put those decisions directly in voters’ hands.
Ballot measures fall into two major categories:
- Citizen initiatives, in which people gather a legally required number of valid signatures in order to place a measure on the ballot. A citizen initiative can be an initiated state statute, an initiated constitutional amendment, or a veto referendum.
- Legislative ballot measures, in which legislators vote to place a proposed statute, constitutional amendment, bond measure, or advisory question on the ballot.
While citizen initiatives and legislative referrals are the most common types of ballot measures, there are also automatic ballot referrals, constitutional convention-referred amendments, and commission-referred measures.
Voters in six states are deciding on nine income or wealth tax measures this year — the most since 2000
This year, voters in six states will decide or have already decided on nine statewide ballot measures regarding income or wealth taxes — the most such measures since 2000.
Income tax measures include taxes on wages, business earnings, investment income, and capital gains. Wealth tax measures concern taxes based on the ownership or value of assets or net worth.
The first of these measures was decided on Aug. 4 when Missouri voters defeated Amendment 5, 83.3% to 16.7%. It would have, among other changes, amended the state constitution to reduce the state individual income tax, based on revenue growth, until the tax was eliminated.
The remaining eight measures will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot in California, Colorado, Iowa, North Carolina, and Washington.
Seven former U.S. House members will be on the ballot this November
The final U.S. House primaries wrapped up on Sept. 15 in Delaware, with a total of seven former House members advancing to the general elections across the country in November. This is down from 10 former members who appeared on general election ballots in 2024 but up from three who did so in 2022.
During this year’s primaries, 22 former members ran for the House after leaving office, either due to defeat, to run for another office, or resignation. This is the most former members running in data Ballotpedia has collected going back to 2016.
Of the seven who have advanced to the general election, six are Democrats and one is a Republican. The highest number of former members to win in a single cycle is five, which happened in 2020.
U.S. House primary candidacies increased in three states after new maps reopened filing deadlines
This year, the number of candidates in three states' primaries for the U.S. House of Representatives increased after they reopened their filing deadlines.
Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee each adopted new congressional maps after their candidate filing deadlines had passed. Each state then reopened its filing period, giving candidates additional time to file under the new district boundaries. Based on the 2024 presidential election results, each state's new maps would result in Republicans gaining control of one Democratic-held district.