CategoryNewsletters

1. Let’s be coworkers! Apply to Ballotpedia’s internship program
2. Fewer candidates running for mayor, city council in Memphis compared with 2015
3. Federal Register surpasses the 35,000-page mark for 2019

Let’s be co-workers! Apply to Ballotpedia’s internship program

We are looking for interns for our Fall 2019 program. Pass this along to anyone you know who might be interested. We are looking for Editorial, Communications, and Tech interns.

As an intern, you will go through a similar onboarding experience to full-time Ballotpedia employees. You will learn how to publish content on Ballotpedia, learn about all we do to prevent and detect bias in our resources, and much more. Following orientation, you will join the Editorial, Communications, or Tech team, working alongside staff members. Here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know about our program.

• Ballotpedia’s Fall 2019 internship program will run from Monday, August 26 through Friday, December 13. 

• The internship is a part-time program; interns will work approximately 20 hours per week depending on their availability. 

• Ballotpedia is happy to facilitate credit for your internship experience if that is available to you. If you will be seeking credit for your internship, and if there is anything that Ballotpedia will need to do to assist you, please include that information in the same file as your cover letter.

• Several current full-time employees at Ballotpedia started as interns. 

Now that SCOTUS has wrapped up their 2018-2019 term, let’s look back at how many cases the court heard, how many were overturned, and how the justices ruled. Watch the latest Beyond the Headlines video now→

Fewer candidates running for mayor, city council in Memphis compared with 2015 

The filing deadline to run for both mayor and all 13 city council seats passed last week in Memphis, Tennessee. The city is holding general elections on October 3. Memphis is the largest city in Tennessee and the 20th-largest city in the U.S. by population.

Incumbent mayor Jim Strickland faces nine challengers in his bid for a second term. Strickland—who was first elected to Memphis’ city council in 2007—defeated then-Mayor A.C. Wharton in 2015. I don’t live in Memphis, but as a political observer here are a few facts I found interesting when I was talking with our team about the election. 

• Memphis has two sets of district boundaries for its city council. It has seven regular council districts, with one member elected from each. It is also divided in half to form two super districts that elect an additional three representatives each.

• As of July 19, 42 candidates had qualified to run for city council, and the applications for another four were still being verified—an average of 3.54 candidates per seat.  Twenty-four candidates are running for the regular council seats and six of seven incumbents are seeking re-election. Twenty-two candidates filed for the six super district seats, including three incumbents. 

• In the most recent regular election for city council in 2015, 60 candidates ran—an average of 4.62 candidates per seat. That year, all seven incumbents who ran for re-election won.

In the 100 largest cities in the country from 2014 to 2018, 16 of 96 mayors—16.7%—and 127 of 1,002—12.7%—were defeated in their bids for re-election.

Federal Register surpasses the 35,000-page mark for 2019

Here’s something we track regularly at Ballotpedia, but we haven’t provided an update about in the Brew for a few months. Each week, we monitor page counts and other information about the Federal Register as part of our Administrative State Project. The Federal Register is a daily journal of federal government activity that includes presidential documents, proposed and final rules, and public notices. It is a common measure of an administration’s regulatory activity.

Last week, the number of pages in the Federal Register increased by 1,312 pages, bringing the year-to-date total to 35,002 pages. During the same week in 2018, the number of pages in the Federal Register increased by 1,994 pages for a year-to-date total of 34,752 pages. As of July 19, the 2019 total was more than the 2018 total by 250 pages.

The Trump administration has added an average of 1,207 pages to the Federal Register each week in 2019 as of July 19. Over the course of 2018, the Trump administration added an average of 1,301 pages to the Federal Register each week. During the Obama administration, the Federal Register increased by an average of 1,658 pages per week.

Our Administrative State Project includes information about the administrative and regulatory activities of the United States government as well as concepts, laws, court cases, executive orders, scholarly work, and other material related to the administrative state. You can get an introduction to some of these principles by joining our free briefing tomorrow on how this term’s Supreme Court rulings affect the administrative state. There’s still time to register by clicking here.

And to stay up to date on actions at both the federal and state level related to rulemaking, the separation of powers, and due process, subscribe to our monthly Checks and Balancesnewsletter.

1. Candidate lineup determined for second Democratic presidential debate
2. Three veto referendum efforts underway in Maine
3. Delaware, New York raise age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 21

Candidate lineup determined for second Democratic presidential debate

The candidate lineup for the second Democratic presidential debate July 30 and 31 in Detroit, Michigan. Host network CNN determined the participants in a live, on-air drawing. 

Twenty candidates qualified for the debate, with 10 scheduled to participate each night. Here is the lineup of candidates for each night of the debate.

Here are the candidates for Tuesday, July 30:

• Steve Bullock

• Pete Buttigieg

• John Delaney

• John Hickenlooper

• Amy Klobuchar

• Beto O’Rourke

• Tim Ryan

• Bernie Sanders 

• Elizabeth Warren

• Marianne Williamson

The other half of the candidates will debate Wednesday, July 31:

• Michael Bennet

• Joe Biden

• Bill de Blasio 

• Cory Booker

• Julián Castro

• Tulsi Gabbard

• Kirsten Gillibrand

• Kamala Harris

• Jay Inslee

• Andrew Yang

Wayne Messam, Seth Moulton, Joe Sestak, and Tom Steyer did not reach the polling or fundraising qualification requirements for this debate. Mike Gravel achieved the fundraising threshold but did not make the debate stage because tiebreaker rules favored candidates who qualified via polling.

All 25 Democratic candidates will have to meet a new set of debate criteria to appear in the third presidential primary debate in September in Houston.

Candidates must reach 2 percent support or more in four qualifying national or early state polls and receive donations from at least 130,000 unique donors and a minimum of 400 unique donors per state in at least 20 states. Five candidates have qualified so far—Biden, Buttigieg, Harris, Sanders, and Warren.

Subscribers to our Daily Presidential News Briefing got a special email with this information last night. You can be a part of that group—click here to become a subscriber to this free newsletter.

Upcoming Event

Register now→

Three veto referendum efforts underway in Maine 

Three organizations have launched veto referendums in Maine since the legislature adjourned on June 20. A veto referendum is a type of citizen-initiated ballot measure that asks voters whether to uphold or repeal a law passed by the state legislature. Twenty-three states currently have a process for veto referendums at the statewide level. 

• Mainers for Health and Parental Rights is leading the campaign to overturn Legislative Document 798 (LD 798). LD 798 eliminates religious and philosophical, but not medical, exemptions from vaccination requirements for students to attend schools and colleges and employees of health care facilities. 

  The Maine House of Representatives passed LD 798 by a vote of 79-62.  The state Senate passed it 19-16. Most Democrats—74 out of 88 in the House and 18 of 21 in the Senate—voted in favor. Most Republicans—51 of 56 in the House and 13 of 14 in the Senate—voted against it. 

• Concerned Women for America of Maine is leading the campaign to overturn Legislative Document 820 (LD 820). LD 820 requires MaineCare—Maine’s Medicaid program—and private insurance companies that provide coverage for maternity services to also cover abortion services. LD 820 also allows religious employers to request an exemption from providing a health care plan that covers abortion services, except to preserve the life or health of the mother.

  The Maine House of Representatives passed LD 1313 by a vote of 82-59 with 79 Democrats and three independents voting in favor and 51 Republicans, six Democrats and 2 independents voting against. The Senate approved the legislation 19-16, with all votes in support coming from Democrats and all 14 Republicans joining two Democrats to oppose it. 

• The Maine Hospice Council filed a veto referendum against a law that legalized physician-assisted death in the state. Legislative Document 1313 (LD 1313) allows adults suffering from a terminal illness to request medications that can be self-administered to end his or her life. 

  LD 1313 passed by a 73-72 vote in the House. Sixty-eight Democrats joined one Republican and four independents to pass the measure. Fifty-three Republicans joined 17 Democrats and two independents voted against.  The Senate approved the law 19-16, with 18 Democrats and one Republican supporting it, and 13 Republicans and three Democrats opposing the measure.

  Maine became the eighth state to enact a law providing for physician-assisted death. Three of those states—Colorado (2016), Oregon (1994), and Washington (2008)—authorized physician-assisted death through citizen-initiated ballot measures. Voters in Maine rejected a physician-assisted death ballot initiative in 2000, 51.3% to 48.7%. 

The referendum campaigns have until September 18 to collect the 63,067 valid signatures required to earn a spot on the ballot. If the measures are certified, they could appear on the ballot either on November 5, 2019, or June 9, 2020, depending on when signatures are submitted and verified.

Since Maine adopted the referendum process in 1908, there have been 30 veto referendums on the ballot. Voters overturned 18 pieces of legislation and upheld 12. The last veto referendum was in 2018 when voters overturned legislation that would have postponed and repealed ranked-choice voting.

Delaware, New York raise age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 21

A Delaware law increasing the minimum age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 21 took effect July 16, becoming the 9th state to raise the age restriction since 2015.  

Gov. John Carney (D) signed the law April 17 after it passed the state House by a 25-16 vote and the state Senate by a 14-6 vote. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed legislation—also on July 16—to raise that state’s minimum age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 21. The bill, which passed the state Assembly by a 120-26 vote and the state Senate by a 52-9 vote, takes effect November 13.

The minimum age to purchase or use tobacco is 18 in 38 states, 19 in three states, and 21 in the remaining nine. Eight states—including New York—that currently have a minimum age of 18 or 19 have enacted legislation that will raise the minimum age to 21. 

Tobacco age restrictions can take the form of limits on the sale of tobacco by age, limits on tobacco possession by age, or a combination of the two. New Jersey passed the first law regulating the sale of tobacco by age in 1883, setting a minimum age of 16. By 1920, 46 states had implemented an age limit for tobacco sales, of which 14 set the limit at 21. During the interwar period, state laws trended toward a limit of 18 years, and all states with a minimum age to purchase tobacco of 21 decreased it.