CategoryFederal

On October 19, Rep. Francis Rooney (R) announced that he would not seek re-election in Florida’s 19th Congressional District in 2020. He was first elected to Congress in 2016; he won an open-seat race to replace Rep. Curt Clawson (R). Rooney won his second term in 2018 with 62.3% of the general election vote.

 

Rooney’s announcement was made on the Fox News television channel. He said, “I’ve done what I came to do. And I want to be a model for term limits. […] I thought the idea was you came and did your public service and left, you accomplish what you want to accomplish and you left. And that’s what I want to be an example to do. And I’m also really tired of the intense partisanship that seems to stop us from solving the big questions that America needs solved.”

 

His retirement creates an open-seat race in the district. The candidate filing deadline to run is June 12, 2020. The primary is scheduled for August 18, and the general election is on November 3, 2020.

 

Rooney is the 18th Republican member of the U.S. House to announce he would not seek re-election in 2020. Six Democratic members of the U.S. House have also announced their intention not to seek re-election.

 

Democrats hold a 234-197 majority in the U.S. House with three vacancies and one independent member of the chamber. In November 2020, all 435 seats will be up for election. Ballotpedia has identified 71 U.S. House races as general election battlegrounds. Of the 71 seats, 42 are held by Democrats and 29 are held by Republicans.

 

Author Marianne Williamson is the first 2020 presidential candidate to complete Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey, answering questions about her personal beliefs, professional background, and political priorities.

 

Williamson describes the effect A Course in Miracles had on her life and why she thinks the United States needs “a season of moral repair.” She also discusses reparations, money in politics, and the quality Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump have in common.

 

We will continue to highlight noteworthy responses to the Candidate Connection survey in the Brew. Up next in Monday’s edition, Beto O’Rourke shares his vision for a 28th, 29th, and 30th Amendment.

 

Highlights from Williamson’s responses:

 

 

“A legacy of love that transforms politics and government to benefit We the People.”

 

 

“Overturn Citizens United. Limit money in politics.”

 

 

“I am the first presidential candidate to advocate for reparations, and the only one with a plan for how to do it.

 

In many ways, America has continued the process of racial reconciliation begun in the 1960’s. Yet in other ways, we have actually slipped backward. Yes, there are no more colored bathrooms and separate drinking fountains. But we now have mass incarceration; racial disparity in criminal sentencing; lost voting rights; outright voter suppression; and police brutality often focused on black populations.

 

Tepid solutions are not enough for the times in which we live; we need huge, strategized acts of righteousness, now. Just as Germany has paid $89 Billion in reparations to Jewish organizations since WW2, the United States should pay reparations for slavery. A debt unpaid is still a debt unpaid, even if it’s 150 years later. The legacy of that injustice lives on, with racist policies infused into our systems even to this day. From employment and housing discrimination, to equal access to quality education in underserved communities, to police brutality/prejudice, to lack of fair lending practices, to lack of access to quality healthcare, to insecure voting rights, America has not yet completed the task of healing our racial divide.

 

For that reason, I propose a $200 billion – $500 billion plan of reparations for slavery, the money to be disbursed over a period of twenty years. An esteemed council of African-American leaders would determine the educational and economic projects to which the money would be given.”

 

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) died October 17 due to complications from longstanding health challenges, according to a statement from his congressional office. He was first elected to Congress in 1996. Before that, Cummings served 14 terms in the Maryland House of Delegates and was the first African American in Maryland to be named Speaker Pro Tempore. He was the Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

 

Cummings won re-election in 2018 with 76% of the vote. He received 91.5% of the vote in the 2018 Democratic primary for the 7th District in a five-candidate field.

 

Democrats currently hold a 234-197 majority in the House of Representatives, with one independent member and three vacancies. In November 2020, all 435 seats will be up for election.

The U.S. Senate has confirmed four nominees to U.S. District Court judgeships. Overall, the Senate has confirmed 156 of President Trump’s Article III judicial nominees—two Supreme Court justices, 43 appellate court judges, 109 district court judges, and two U.S. Court of International Trade judges—since January 2017. At the end of the 115th Congress in January 2019, the Senate had confirmed 85 of the president’s judicial nominees.

 

The confirmed nominees were:

 

 

Three of the nominees—Kovner, Novak, and Volk—were confirmed nearly unanimously with the Senate voting 88-3, 89-3, and 92-0, respectively. The Senate vote to confirm Eskridge was closer at 61-31.

 

There are 94 U.S. District Courts. They are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system.

 

• Judicial vacancies during Trump’s first term
• Federal judicial nominations by president
• Current federal judicial vacancies
• United States federal courts

On October 15, U.S. District Court Judge Joan Ericksen assumed senior status in the District of Minnesota, which created a vacancy on that court. Ericksen had first joined the court in 2002 after being nominated by President George W. Bush (R).

 

As of October 18, there were 98 Article III vacancies in the federal judiciary out of 870 total Article III judgeships, and there were 37 presidential nominees awaiting a hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Another 15 nominees were awaiting a committee vote, and 23 other nominees were awaiting a confirmation vote in the full U.S. Senate.

 

The United States District Court for the District of Minnesota now has six active Article III judges:

 

 

The court has eight judges on senior status, including Ericksen. The other seven judges on senior status are:

 

 

The United States District Court for the District of Minnesota is one of 94 United States district courts, which are the general trial courts of the nation’s federal court system and where both civil and criminal cases are filed. The District of Minnesota’s main courthouse is based in Minneapolis.

 

• Current federal judicial vacancies
• United States District Court for the District of Minnesota
• Federal judges nominated by George W. Bush

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke is the second 2020 presidential candidate to complete Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey, answering questions about his personal beliefs, professional background, and political priorities.

 

In his response, O’Rourke lists the first actions he would take in the Oval Office and explains his policy focus on strict gun regulations. He also describes why his family, the community of El Paso, and President Abraham Lincoln are his heroes.

 

Here are some highlights from his survey:

 

 

“Beto believes that the 28th Amendment to the Constitution should be the Equal Rights Amendment. He believes the 29th Amendment should overturn Citizens’ United. The 30th Amendment should place term limits on Justices of the Supreme Court.”

 

 

“Beto worked in his mother’s furniture store, a small business in El Paso. He would later work in the library during college and at a furniture moving business. Beto later started his own small technology business that brought high-skill, high-wage jobs to El Paso.”

 

 

“The Democrat field all recognizes the urgency in enacting comprehensive gun control reform, and Beto appreciates the conversation that all of the candidates are having around this issue. But Beto has proposed going farther than any of the other candidates. Along with his plan to implement universal background checks, close every loophole, pass Extreme Risk Protection Orders, increase trauma support, and keep weapons of war off our streets by not only banning the sale of assault weapons but implementing a mandatory buyback of every single one of them, he has directly called on credit card companies to take steps to help prevent mass shootings. This includes calling on them to refuse to provide their services for the sale of assault weapons; refuse to provide their services for the sale of firearms online or at gun shows, where background checks are not required; and to stop doing business with gun or ammunition manufacturers who produce or sell assault weapons. He is the first, and so far the only candidate to directly call out credit card companies for their role in mass shootings and gun sales.”

Three federal district judges in New York, California, and Washington issued temporary injunctions on October 11 blocking the Trump administration’s public charge rule from taking effect on October 15. A fourth federal judge in Chicago issued a similar injunction on October 14.

 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the final version of the new public charge rule on August 12. The rule changes how the federal government screens immigrants who might become dependent on government services, or “public charges.” Agencies may deny immigrants a visa or a green card under the rule if they have used food stamps, Medicaid, housing subsidies, or other public benefits.

 

The rule amends a guidance document issued in 1999 stipulating that only public cash assistance or long-term institutionalization at government expense qualified as evidence that an immigrant was at risk of being a public charge and could be denied legal status. The new rule expands the factors agencies may consider when deciding those cases.

 

Twenty-one states, the District of Columbia, New York City, the Cook County government, and immigrant aid organizations formed coalitions that filed four separate lawsuits aiming to prevent the implementation of the rule.

 

The judges—Judge George Daniels of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Phyllis Hamilton of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, and Judge Gary Feinerman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois—argued that the rule was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, failed to consider potential costs to state and local governments, and constituted an unsupported congressional delegation of authority to DHS, among other claims.

 

The White House and USCIS Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli issued separate statements on October 11 expressing disappointment with the decisions. “An objective judiciary will see that this rule lies squarely within long-held existing law,” Cuccinelli stated.

 

• George Daniels
• Phyllis Hamilton
• Rosanna Peterson
• Gary Feinerman
• Administrative Procedure Act

 

Twelve Democratic presidential candidates will meet on stage Tuesday in the fourth primary debate of the 2020 election cycle:

 

• Joe Biden

• Cory Booker

• Pete Buttigieg

• Julián Castro

• Tulsi Gabbard

• Kamala Harris

• Amy Klobuchar

• Beto O’Rourke

• Bernie Sanders

• Tom Steyer

• Elizabeth Warren

• Andrew Yang

 

Gabbard and Steyer are the only candidates in this group who did not also participate in the third Democratic debate in Texas on Sept. 12.

 

With 12 candidates on stage, it will be the largest single presidential primary debate in history. Republicans held the previous record with 11 candidates on stage during the September 2015 debate.

 

CNN and The New York Times are hosting the event at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. Erin Burnett, Anderson Cooper, and Marc Lacey are set to moderate.

 

Looking ahead to the general election, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced last week when the general election presidential and vice presidential debates will take place.

 

Three presidential debates are scheduled for the following dates in 2020: Sept. 29 at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, Oct. 15 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Oct. 22 at Belmont University in Nashville. A vice presidential debate will be held on Oct. 7 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

 

The CPD will invite candidates to participate in these debates who meet three eligibility requirements. They must (1) be constitutionally eligible to run for president, (2) provide evidence of ballot access in enough states to win an Electoral College majority, and (3) demonstrate 15 percent support in national polling.

 

On October 11, President Donald Trump announced that Kevin McAleenan was leaving as acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). McAleenan is the seventh person to serve as DHS secretary.

 

Trump tweeted, “Kevin McAleenan has done an outstanding job as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security. We have worked well together with Border Crossings being way down. Kevin now, after many years in Government, wants to spend more time with his family and go to the private sector……..Congratulations Kevin, on a job well done! I will be announcing the new Acting Secretary next week. Many wonderful candidates!”

 

The Department of Homeland Security was formed in 2002 “to secure the nation from the many threats we face,” according to the department’s official website. It oversees the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Secret Service, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced the dates of three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate for the 2020 general election. The CPD has sponsored every presidential and vice presidential general election debate since 1988.

 

Presidential debates are scheduled for the following dates in 2020: September 29 at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, October 15 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and October 22 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. A vice presidential debate will be held on October 7, 2020, at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

 

The debates will be 90 minutes in length and start at 9:00 p.m. ET. Additional information, such as the debate format and moderators, will be released in 2020.

 

The CPD also announced its criteria for inviting candidates to participate in these debates. Candidates will be invited if they are constitutionally eligible, provide evidence of ballot access in enough states to win an Electoral College majority, and demonstrate 15% support in national polling.

 

• Important dates in the 2020 presidential race
• Presidential election, 2020