CategoryFederal

Joe Biden leads in Ballotpedia pageviews for a second consecutive week, Bernie Sanders is sixth candidate to reach 100,000 pageviews

By David Luchs
In Federal
November 5, 2019 at 10:48 AM
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.
 
Joe Biden’s campaign page on Ballotpedia received 2,639 views for the week of October 27-November 2. Biden’s pageview figure represents 9.8% of the pageviews for the week. Elizabeth Warren had 9.2% of the pageviews for the week, followed by Andrew Yang with 8.4%. This is Biden’s second week in a row with the most pageviews.
 
Every Democratic candidate other than Joe Sestak and Wayne Messam received fewer pageviews last week than the week before. Sestak’s pageviews were up 35.1% from the week before, while Messam’s were up 12.1%.
 
Andrew Yang remains the leader in overall pageviews this year with 135,964. He is followed by Pete Buttigieg with 128,637 and Joe Biden with 120,375. Bernie Sanders had 100,139 overall pageviews as of November 2, making him the sixth Democratic candidate to reach 100,000 pageviews this year. The last candidate to break 100,000 was Elizabeth Warren during the week of September 29-October 5.
 


Federal court declares patent board structure unconstitutional

By Caitlin Styrsky
In Federal
November 5, 2019 at 10:43 AM
A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on October 31 held in Arthrex Inc. v. Smith & Nephew Inc. et al. that the structure of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.
 
Judges Kimberly Moore, Raymond Chen, and Jimmie V. Reyna identified a structural flaw in the PTAB’s statutory scheme for appointing its administrative patent judges (APJs). Under the faulty system, the United States secretary of commerce appointed APJs. Once appointed, APJs enjoyed for-cause removal protections that only permitted removal by the secretary or the director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for “such cause as will promote efficiency of the service.”
 
The judges held that APJs exercise significant authority that qualifies them as principal, rather than inferior, officers. As such, APJs must be directly appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the United States Senate pursuant to the Appointments Clause.
 
Instead of changing the method of appointing APJs, however, the court cited precedent set forth in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to propose removing APJs’ for-cause removal protections in order to classify them as inferior officers. Without protections against removal, the judges stated that APJs would be considered inferior officers subject to at-will removal by the director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
 
“We believe that this, the narrowest revision to the scheme intended by Congress for reconsideration of patent rights, is the proper course of action and the action Congress would have undertaken,” wrote Judge Kimberly Ann Moore.
 
The court’s decision is likely to result in the rehearing of 50 to 70 cases before the board.
 


Beto O’Rourke ends presidential campaign

By David Luchs
In Federal
November 4, 2019 at 4:28 PM
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) announced Friday that he was ending his presidential campaign.
 
In a tweet announcing his withdrawal, O’Rourke said, “Our campaign has always been about seeing clearly, speaking honestly, and acting decisively. In that spirit: I am announcing that my service to the country will not be as a candidate or as the nominee.”
 
O’Rourke is the tenth noteworthy Democratic candidate to suspend his bid for the presidency this year. The most recent candidate before O’Rourke to do so was Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) on October 24.
 
O’Rourke’s withdrawal leaves 17 noteworthy Democrats in the running. As of Monday, there were 286 Democratic presidential candidates registered with the Federal Election Commission.
 
O’Rourke was first elected to represent Texas’ 16th Congressional District in 2012 after defeating incumbent Silvestre Reyes (D) in the Democratic primary. He had earlier served six years on the El Paso City Council. O’Rourke challenged Sen. Ted Cruz (R) in 2018 rather than seek re-election, losing by a margin of 2.6 percentage points.
 


Fourth Democrat qualifies for December presidential debate

By Emily Aubert
In Federal
November 2, 2019 at 4:33 PM
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg gained his fourth and final poll on Oct. 29 to qualify for the Democratic presidential primary debate on Dec. 19.
 
Candidates must meet one of two polling standards: receive 4 percent support or more in at least four national or early state polls or receive 6 percent support or more in at least two state polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and/or Nevada. Candidates must also receive contributions from at least 200,000 unique donors and a minimum of 800 unique donors per state in at least 20 states.
 
Buttigieg joins former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in qualifying.
 
Four other candidates have reached just the fundraising threshold: Sens. Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang. Harris needs one more qualifying poll to make the debate stage, Klobuchar and Yang need three each, and O’Rourke needs four.
 
Candidates have until Dec. 12 to qualify. The debate will take place at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. PBS NewsHour and Politico are hosting.


Harris bulks up campaign in Iowa, reduces staff in Maryland

By Ballotpedia Marquee team staff
In Federal
October 31, 2019 at 5:18 PM

October 31, 2019: Kamala Harris is restructuring her campaign, sending more staffers to Iowa and reducing staff at her Maryland headquarters. Donald Trump ran a campaign ad during the final night of the World Series on Wednesday.

Here’s the latest from the campaign trail.

Notable Quote of the Day

“Last week, two polls painted two very different pictures of the state of the primary race. A CNN/SSRS poll put former Vice President Joe Biden 15 points ahead of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 34 percent to 19 percent, while a Quinnipiac University poll released a day later found Biden trailing Warren by 7 points, 21 to 28 percent. …

In short, the fact that they found such different outcomes isn’t that big a deal. As you can see in the chart below, once we control for house effects, the overall spread between polls since May isn’t actually all that large. In fact, the spread of values for both Biden and Warren fall within a range we might expect. So don’t read too much into those two polls. Turns out they’re just the kind of outliers we’d expect to see in this range of polls.”


– Laura Bronner, FiveThirtyEight

Democrats

 

 

 

  • Bennet spoke about healthcare at the HLTH conference on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

 

 

  • Booker discussed gun buyback programs and civility in politics on The View Wednesday.

 

 

  • Tulsi Gabbard tweeted Wednesday she was preparing for Army National Guard duty. She also called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “radical Islamist  megalomaniac who wants to establish a caliphate.”

 

 

  • Harris is restructuring her campaign, sending more staffers to Iowa and reducing staff at her Maryland headquarters. Her campaign manager, Juan Rodriguez, is also reducing his salary. Harris is planning to launch a seven-figure ad campaign before the Iowa caucuses.

 

 

  • Klobuchar begins her second bus tour of Iowa Thursday with an event in Des Moines.

 

 

  • Sanders is attending a forum hosted by Rights & Democracy, the New Hampshire Youth Movement, and People’s Action in New Hampshire Thursday. He is also filing to run in the state primary. 

 

 

  • Warren is expected to open her first California offices in Oakland and Los Angeles in November.

 

 

 

 

  • Yang is holding a Halloween Power Hour Thursday, where he will call 60 supporters in 60 minutes during a livestream.

 

Republicans

 

 

 

  • Donald Trump ran a campaign ad during the final night of the World Series on Wednesday. “He’s no Mr. Nice Guy, but sometimes it takes a Donald Trump to change Washington,” the narrator says in the clip.

 

General Election Updates

  • Twitter announced Wednesday that it will no longer accept political advertising on its platform beginning Nov. 22.

What We’re Reading

Flashback: October 31, 2015

Donald Trump released his platform for veterans’ healthcare and employment services.



Katie Hill announces resignation amid ethics investigation

By Joel Williams
In Federal
October 29, 2019 at 1:27 PM
Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) announced that she would resign from her position representing California’s 25th Congressional District. Hill did not initially announce the effective date of her resignation. The announcement followed Hill’s acknowledgment that she had been involved in an intimate relationship with a campaign staffer.
 
Once her resignation becomes effective, Hill will be the seventh member of the 116th Congress to leave office prior to the end of their term. Of those seven, six were members of the U.S. House (two Democrats and four Republicans), and the other was a Republican U.S. Senator.
 
Currently, Democrats hold a 235-199 majority in the U.S. House with one independent member of the chamber. In November 2020, all 435 seats will be up for election.
 
Additional reading:


One Congressional resignation and one retirement announced; 1,794 major party candidates filed for 2020

By Joel Williams
In Federal
October 29, 2019 at 1:02 PM
In the past week, one member of the 116th Congress announced her resignation: Democratic Rep. Katie Hill (Calif.-25). She will be the seventh member of the 116th Congress to leave office early.
 
One member of the House also announced his retirement after the 2020 elections: Republican Rep. Greg Walden (Ore.-2), who was first elected in 1998. To date, four Senators (three Republicans and one Democrat) and 26 Representatives (19 Republicans and seven Democrats) are not running for re-election. In 2018, 55 total members of Congress—18 Democrats and 37 Republicans—did not seek re-election.
 
As of October 28, 2019, 275 candidates are filed with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to run for U.S. Senate in 2020. Of those, 242—130 Democrats and 112 Republicans—are from one of the two major political parties. In 2018, 527 candidates filed with the FEC to run for U.S. Senate, including 137 Democrats and 240 Republicans.
 
1,652 candidates are filed with the FEC to run for U.S. House in 2020. Of those, 1,552—782 Democrats and 770 Republicans—are from one of the two major political parties. In 2018, 3,244 candidates filed with the FEC, including 1,566 Democrats and 1,155 Republicans.
 
On November 3, 2020, 35 Senate seats and all 435 House seats are up for election. Of those Senate seats, 33 are regularly-scheduled elections, one is a special election in Arizona, and another is an expected special election in Georgia. Twelve are Democratic-held seats and 23 are Republican-held seats. In the House, where all the seats are up for election, Democrats currently hold a 235-seat majority.
 
Related pages:
 


U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) announces 2020 retirement

By Amee LaTour
In Federal
October 29, 2019 at 1:02 PM
Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) announced that he would not seek re-election to the U.S. House in 2020. He said in a statement, “[F]or me, the time has come to pursue new challenges and opportunities. So, I will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, nor election to any other office.” Walden was first elected to represent Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District in 1998 and most recently won re-election in 2018 with 56 percent of the vote.
 
Walden is the 19th Republican member of the U.S. House to announce he will not seek re-election in 2020 and is the second one to do so in October. Seven Democratic members of the U.S. House have announced 2020 retirements so far. In the 2018 election cycle, 52 members of the U.S. House—18 Democrats and 34 Republicans—did not seek re-election.
 
Currently, Democrats hold a 234-197 majority in the U.S. House with one independent member of the chamber and three vacancies. In November 2020, all 435 seats will be up for election.
 
Additional reading:


DNC announces new criteria for sixth presidential debate in December, three candidates qualify so far

By Emily Aubert
In Federal
October 27, 2019 at 7:27 PM
The Democratic National Committee announced the polling and fundraising thresholds for the sixth presidential primary debate on December 19, 2019.
 
Candidates must now meet one of two polling standards:
 
  • Four Poll Threshold: Receive 4% support or more in at least four national or early state polls—Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and/or Nevada. The four polls must be sponsored by different poll sponsors or in different geographical areas if sponsored by the same poll sponsor.
  • Early State Poll Threshold: Receive 6% support or more in at least two single state polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and/or Nevada. The two polls may be from the same geographical area and poll sponsor.
 
Candidates must also receive contributions from at least 200,000 unique donors and a minimum of 800 unique donors per state in at least 20 states.
 
Under these new thresholds, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are the only candidates who were qualified when the rules were announced. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Kamala Harris each needed one more qualifying poll.
 
The debate will take place in Los Angeles, California, at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Politico and PBS NewsHour are hosting the event.


Tulsi Gabbard announces 2020 Congressional retirement

By Joel Williams
In Federal
October 27, 2019 at 7:22 PM
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) announced that she would not seek re-election to Congress in 2020. In a Twitter post, Gabbard said she was fully committed to her presidential campaign and would not be running for her U.S. House seat as a result. She was first elected to represent Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District in 2012 and won re-election in 2018 with more than 77 percent of the vote.
 
Gabbard is the seventh Democratic member of the U.S. House to announce she would not be running for re-election in 2020 and is the second one to do so in October. Eighteen Republican members of the U.S. House are not running for re-election in 2020. In the 2018 election cycle, 52 members of the U.S. House—18 Democrats and 34 Republicans—did not seek re-election.
 
Currently, Democrats hold a 235-199 majority in the U.S. House with one independent member of the chamber. In November 2020, all 435 seats will be up for election.
 
Additional reading:


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