North Carolina legislature prepares to adopt new state legislative district maps

Today we are featuring stories from North Carolina, Texas, California, Colorado, Alabama, Ohio, Connecticut and Illinois. On Friday, a series of commi   [View this email in your browser]( [Ballotpedia](   [Facebook](   [Twitter](   [The Tap](   Good morning! Today's email features reports from North Carolina, Texas, California, Colorado, Alabama, Ohio, Connecticut, and Illinois. [Get the rest of the major stories in state and local politics this week. View the full Tap.](   On Friday, a series of committee and procedural votes on new state legislative district plans took place in the North Carolina General Assembly. On August 19 and 20, the [North Carolina General Assembly]( released drafts of revised district maps for the state House and Senate, respectively. - The [proposed House map]( pairs incumbents in four districts: - The new district 24 would be home to representatives [Jean Farmer-Butterfield]( (D) and [Susan Martin]( (R). - The new district 51 would be home to representatives [John Sauls]( (R) and [Robert Reives]( (D). - The new district 61 would be home to representatives [Jon Hardister]( and [John Faircloth]( both Republicans. - The new district 83 would be home to representatives [Carl Ford]( and [Larry Pittman]( both Republicans. - The proposed [Senate district map]( also pairs incumbents in four districts: - The new district 3 would be home to senators [Erica Smith-Ingram]( (D) and [Bill Cook]( (R) - The new district 18 would be home to senators [Chad Barefoot]( and [John Alexander]( both Republicans. On August 20, Barefoot [announced]( that he would not seek re-election in 2018. - The new district 31 would be home to senators [Joyce Krawiec]( and [Dan Barrett]( both Republicans. - The new district 45 would be home to senators [Deanna Ballard]( and [Shirley Randleman]( both Republicans. - The Senate is expected to take a final vote on the Senate district plan on Monday, August 28, before the plan goes to the House. A House floor vote on the House district plan is also expected on Monday. - The present redistricting efforts underway in the state legislature come as the result of a [series of court orders issued this summer](. On June 5, the [Supreme Court of the United States]( affirmed an earlier district court decision finding that 28 state legislative districts had been subject to an [illegal racial gerrymander](. The high court, however, directed the district court to reconsider its earlier order calling for special elections in 2017. On July 31, the district court ruled that special elections would not have to take place in 2017, but ordered state lawmakers to draft remedial maps for use in the 2018 elections by September 1, 2017.   On Wednesday, federal judge [Nelva Gonzales Ramos]( issued an [order]( barring implementation of [Texas' revised voter ID law]( [SB 5]( which was signed into law by Governor [Greg Abbott]( (R) earlier this summer. Ramos found that the revised legislation was not "an adequate remedy for the findings of [racially] discriminatory purpose and discriminatory effect in SB 14 (Texas' original voter ID law)." [Texas Attorney General]( [Ken Paxton]( (R) announced that he planned to appeal Ramos' decision: "Today's ruling is outrageous. Senate Bill 5 was passed by the people's representatives and includes all the changes to the Texas voter ID law requested by the Fifth Circuit. The U.S. Department of Justice is satisfied that the amended voter ID law has no discriminatory purpose or effect. Safeguarding the integrity of elections in Texas is essential to preserving our democracy. The Fifth Circuit should reverse the entirety of the District Court’s ruling." - Texas' voter ID law has been the subject of ongoing litigation. On July 20, 2016, the [United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]( ruled that the state's original voter ID law (SB 14) violated Section 2 of the [Voting Rights Act](. However, the appeals court stopped short of saying whether the requirement was enacted with discriminatory intent, remanding that question to the lower court for further consideration. In April 2017, in light of the Fifth Circuit's decision, Ramos ruled that Texas' original voter ID had been enacted with racially discriminatory intent. - As of August 23, 2017, 32 states enforced (or were scheduled to begin enforcing) voter identification requirements. A total of 17 states required voters to present photo identification, while 15 accepted other forms of identification. To learn more, see [this article](     [States in session]     On August 18, The Sacramento Bee reported that proponents of the effort to recall California state Sen.[Josh Newman]( (D) have collected enough valid signatures to trigger a recall election. Proponents had until October 17, 2017, to gather 63,593 signatures from voters in state Senate District 29, which touches parts of Los Angeles, Orange, and San Bernardino counties. Now that enough valid signatures have been collected, California Secretary of State[Alex Padilla]( (D) has 10 days to submit the results to Gov.[Jerry Brown]( (D). The governor will then have to call an election within 60 to 80 days, likely setting the date in October or November 2017. The recall effort began in April 2017 and is related to Newman’s support for an increase in the state gas tax and Republican efforts to break Democrats’ two-thirds majority in the California Legislature. - Three candidates have announced their intentions to challenge Newman in the recall election: former Assemblywoman[Ling Ling Chang]( (R), Fullerton Mayor Bruce Whitaker (R), and Joshua Ferguson. Newman faced Chang in the 2016 elections, defeating her in the traditionally Republican District 29 by fewer than 2,500 votes. On the recall election ballot, voters will first be asked whether they want to recall Newman. If they say “yes,” they will then pick a replacement candidate. If more than half of voters choose to recall Newman, the replacement candidate with the most votes will take over his seat. - [Read more of Ballotpedia’s coverage of the Newman recall campaign.](     [Map of state government trifectas]     Next Friday, September 1, the filing deadline will pass to run in [general elections]( for 69 school board seats in 22 of the largest school districts by enrollment in Colorado. The general election will take place on November 7, 2017. A majority of seats will be up for election in the three largest school districts in the state: [Denver Public Schools]( [Jeffco Public Schools]( and the [Douglas County School District](. In total, these 22 school districts served 690,695 students during the 2014-2015 school year—approximately 78 percent of all public school students in the state. - The three seats up for election on the Jeffco Public Schools board are the same seats that were the subject of a [recall election]( in 2015, which attracted significant campaign contributions and media attention. [John Newkirk]( [Julie Williams]( and [Ken Witt]( were [elected]( together in 2013 as a slate and were the governing majority on the five-member board for two years. Those three members were accused of attempting to censor AP U.S. history classes, violating open meeting laws, limiting public input at board meetings, and bullying students and parents. In response, Newkirk, Williams, and Witt contended they had brought positive changes to the district, including raising teacher salaries, making union negotiations transparent, providing free full-day kindergarten to families in need, and bringing greater equality in how the district funded its schools. All three members were recalled, and the percentage of voters casting ballots in favor of the recall was about 64 percent of the total votes in each district.   On Tuesday, [Birmingham City School Board]( member [Randall Woodfin]( finished first in the city’s nonpartisan [general election]( for mayor. Woodfin led the 12-candidate field with almost 41 percent of the vote. Incumbent Mayor [William Bell]( (D), who has held that office since 2009, finished second with almost 37 percent. Third-place finisher Chris Woods received 18 percent of the vote, while eight candidates received less than 1 percent each. Woodfin and Bell will face each other in a runoff election on October 3, 2017. A poll conducted on behalf of [Birmingham]( television station WBRC in late July [indicated]( that Bell was the preferred mayoral choice of 54 percent of registered voters, and 57 percent rated his job performance as excellent or good. - All nine seats on the city council also saw [general elections]( with incumbents running for another term in eight of them. Six of those incumbents received a majority of the votes cast, and thus won re-election outright. Three city council races will be decided in runoff elections on October 3, 2017, including in District 2, where incumbent [Kim Rafferty]( came in second in her general election contest against challenger [Hunter Williams](. Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama and the [100th-largest city]( in the U.S. by population.   On Monday, [Jefferson County Court of Common Pleas]( Judge [Joseph J. Bruzzese]( was [shot]( by a lone attacker outside his courthouse in Steubenville, Ohio. Bruzzese, who was carrying a gun, returned fire at the assailant, along with a probation officer who was in the area at the time. The suspect died from gunshot wounds at the scene and was later identified as Nathaniel Richmond. Richmond's son, Ma’lik, was one of two Steubenville high school students convicted in 2012 of raping an unconscious 16-year-old girl, but Bruzzese was not the judge who handled that case. - Richmond had a criminal record and had previously appeared in court before Bruzzese, and was also the plaintiff in a civil case which was currently before the judge. In April 2017, Richmond had [filed]( a wrongful death lawsuit against the Jefferson Metropolitan Housing Authority (JMHA) on behalf of his mother, who died in a house fire in 2015. His mother was leasing the house from JMHA, and Richmond claimed JMHA had been aware of defects in the house's electrical wiring and smoke detectors. Bruzzese underwent surgery on the day of the attack, and is expected to survive.   On Wednesday, Connecticut House Democrats[released]( a[budget proposal]( that comes in the midst of the state’s ongoing conflict over spending and taxation levels for the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years. The proposal includes an increase in the state sales tax from 6.35 percent to 6.85 percent and an increase in the state’s tax on cigarettes. It also exempts Social Security benefits from the state income tax starting in fiscal year 2020 and allows towns to increase their sales tax on certain food and drink purchases by 1 percent. On the spending side, the proposal reverses some of the cuts to municipal payments proposed by Gov.[Dan Malloy]( (D). Additionally, the proposal contains provisions related to[regionalism]( towns work together to provide services for residents—which could result in cost savings. - Overall, the plan is expected to increase revenue by $2 billion, working to close the state’s $3.5 billion budget deficit over the next two years. Malloy and House Minority Leader[Themis Klarides]( (R) have expressed opposition to tax increases. Malloy did not say whether he would veto a proposal that includes a sales tax increase. The state House is expected to reconvene the week of September 11 to work on passing a budget.   On Thursday, four bipartisan leaders in the Illinois General Assembly announced that they have reached an agreement on SB 1, an education funding formula bill that is required to disburse nearly $7 billion in state aid to schools for the 2017-2018 school year. Gov. [Bruce Rauner]( (R) issued an amendatory veto of SB 1 earlier this month. [According]( to Politico, the agreement will include the funding formula from SB 1 and $75 million in subsidies for private school education. The state Senate had already overridden Rauner’s veto. The state House had previously scheduled an override vote for August 23, but cancelled it in order to pursue the bipartisan negotiations. - A statement [issued]( by Democratic General Assembly leaders, Senate President [John Cullerton]( and House Speaker [Michael Madigan]( said there was “agreement in concept.” A similar statement from the top General Assembly Republicans, Senate Minority Leader [Bill Brady]( and House Minority Leader [Jim Durkin]( said there was “agreement in principle.” If the compromise becomes law, Illinois public schools will begin receiving payments from the state government. [Click to view the full Tap](   Ballotpedia depends on the support of our readers. The Lucy Burns Institute, publisher of Ballotpedia, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. 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