And then there were 50 - another congressional retirement

Between a retirement announcement on Friday and today’s special elections, Minnesota has been in the headlines [View this email in your browser]( [Ballotpedia](   [Facebook](   [Twitter](   [The Daily Brew]( Minnesota Rep. Rick Nolan (D) will not seek re-election in battleground district Congressman Rick Nolan (D), who represents Minnesota 8th Congressional District, announced that he will retire at the end of his current term and not seek re-election in 2018. Nolan defeated Republican Stewart Mills to win re-election in 2016 by 2,000 votes out of over 350,000 cast (50.2 percent to 49.6 percent). That race was a rematch of their 2014 contest, which Nolan won by just under 4,000 votes out of over 266,000 cast (48.5 percent to 47.1 percent). This district is one of 108 congressional districts that intersects with one or more Pivot Counties. These 206 Pivot Counties voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Three candidates have filed fundraising paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for Nolan's seat; Democrat Leah Phifer, Republican Pete Stauber, and Independent Ray “Skip” Sandman. The candidate filing period for Congressional candidates in Minnesota is from May 22, 2018, to June 5, 2018, and primary elections will take place on August 14, 2018. As of February 9, 50 current representatives have announced that they will not seek re-election in 2018. Of those 50, 34 are Republicans and 16 are Democrats. Nolan was elected to his current seat in 2012, and was one of nine individuals elected to the U.S. House of Representatives that year who had prior congressional experience, having served three terms in the House from 1974 to 1980. [Get the full list of retiring members of Congress]( In other Minnesota news...party control of the Minnesota State Senate could be on the line Candidates in Minnesota State Senate District 54 and Minnesota House of Representatives District 23B will face off in a special election today (yes, that’s right, a Monday special election). Both seats are up for special election after former State Senator Dan Schoen (D) and former State Representative Tony Cornish (R) each resigned in late 2017 following sexual misconduct allegations. The District 54 race could determine control of the Minnesota State Senate, which currently has a 34-32 Republican majority heading into the election. With a Democratic victory, the Republican majority would shrink to 34-33. This would increase the possibility of Democratic control in the Senate: State Senator Michelle Fischbach (R) is waiting for a decision from the courts to determine whether or not she must resign from the State Senate after being appointed to the role of lieutenant governor. Should she step down from the Senate, her seat would be up for election. A primary was held in both districts on January 29 after two Republican candidates filed for each seat. In District 54, Karla Bigham (DFL), Denny McNamara (R), and Emily Mellingen (L) will face off for the two-year seat. In District 23B, Melissa Wagner (DFL) and Jeremy Munson (R) will compete for the one-year seat. Since 2006, District 54 has seen four regular election cycles with the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate winning the seat each time. In 2016, Schoen was elected with a 6.4% margin of victory; the previous three office holders won the seat with double-digit margins of victory. District 23B was held by  Republican incumbent Cornish from 2003 to 2017. He ran unopposed in 2012 and 2014 and defeated a Democratic challenger in 2016 with 66.97% of the vote. Between 2015 and 2017, the Minnesota State Legislature called five special elections; one Senate district special election and four House of Representatives special elections. In that time, only House District 50B had its partisan control flipped, from Democratic to Republican. Every other special election was retained by the party who controlled it before the election. [Learn more]( → [School board recall efforts by year]( Eight school board recall efforts tracked so far this year; eight fast facts about recalls Ballotpedia has tracked eight school board recall efforts so far in 2018. Those efforts target 12 board members. Here are eight fast facts about recalls. - There were 18 school board recall efforts in 2017, targeting 45 members. - There were 33 school board recall efforts in 2016, targeting 78 board members. - Half of the efforts tracked in 2018 target officials in California, two target officials in Virginia, and the other two target officials in Maine and Michigan. - One school board recall effort has qualified for the ballot this year. - California had the most targeted recalls in 2017 (61). - In 2017, five recall efforts against six members made it to the ballot. - The success rate for board recalls in 2017 was 6.7 percent. - In 2016, 11 recall efforts against 19 members made it to the ballot. - The success rate for board recalls in 2016 was 17.9 percent. [Learn more]( → Ballotpedia depends on the support of our readers. The Lucy Burns Institute, publisher of Ballotpedia, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible to the extent of the law. 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