Category: Uncategorized

  • Half of the 50 largest cities in the U.S. have adopted local climate action plans

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    Half of the 50 largest cities in the U.S. by population have adopted local climate action plans. These plans include goals like community-wide and municipal operations greenhouse gas reduction and renewable energy use, mostly with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.   Opponents say that such plans increase living costs and cause economic harm.…

  • Trifecta vulnerability update for November 2019 statewide elections

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    Five states are holding gubernatorial or state legislative elections this year: Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia. All five states could see a change in trifecta status as a result. A state government trifecta exists when one party controls a state’s governorship and holds majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Today, there…

  • RNC outraises DNC by more than two-to-one for a fifth month, DSCC outraises NRSC for second month this year

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    The Republican National Committee (RNC) outraised its Democratic counterpart by more than two-to-one for the fourth consecutive month, while the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) outraised its Republican counterpart for a second month this year, according to September 2019 campaign finance reports filed with the FEC.   The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) raised $4.7…

  • One 2020 Congressional retirement announced last week; 1,580 major party candidates filed for 2020 Congressional races

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    In the past week, one member of the U.S. House announced their 2020 retirement. Republican Paul Cook (CA-8) said he will run for the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. To date, four Senators (three Republicans and one Democrat) and 20 Representatives (16 Republicans and four Democrats) are not running for re-election.   As of…

  • Joe Biden becomes fourth Democratic candidate to reach 100,000 pageviews, Andrew Yang leading in pageviews for sixth consecutive week

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    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.   Andrew Yang’s campaign page on Ballotpedia received 4,203 views for the week of September 15-21. Yang’s pageview figure represents 11.4% of the pageviews for all Democratic candidates during the…

  • Four battleground elections may determine the triplex status of three states in 2019

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    A state government triplex describes when one political party holds the following the positions of governor, attorney general, and secretary of state within a state. Three divided triplex states, or states where no party holds a triplex, are holding state executive elections in 2019: Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Key races within those states have the potential…

  • De Blasio ends presidential campaign

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      September 20, 2019: Bill de Blasio announced he was ending his presidential campaign on Friday morning. The Bernie Sanders campaign announced it had received contributions from 1 million donors. Each Friday, we’ll highlight a presidential candidate’s key campaign staffer. Richard McDaniel is a Democratic staffer with experience campaigning in the southeast. McDaniel graduated from Morehouse College with…

  • There are 224 state-level, ballot-qualified political parties in the U.S. How does that compare with prior years?

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    Although there are dozens of political parties in the United States, only certain parties qualify to have the names of their candidates for office printed on ballots. In fact, in 2019, there are 224 ballot-qualified, state-level political parties in the 50 states and Washington D.C..   Of these, 51 are Democratic Party affiliates and 52…

  • Federal Register weekly update; highest weekly final rule total since June

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    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.   During the week of September 9 to September 13, the number of pages in the Federal Register increased by 1,432 pages, bringing…

  • Ballotpedia completes research into public-sector union membership

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    Our research project analyzing public-sector union membership, finances, and political spending is complete. We will be sharing our key findings with you in upcoming editions of our weekly newsletter, Union Station. This week, let’s turn our attention to membership totals.   Methodology: Because it is all but impossible to collect comprehensive data on public-sector union…