Governors in Brief - November 19 2018

DESANTIS WINS FL RECOUNT

A machine recount in FLORIDA has confirmed that Republican Ron DeSantis won the Sunshine State’s highly charged gubernatorial race. The final margin of 34,000 votes was enough to avoid an automatic hand recount. But Democrat Andrew Gillum has not conceded and may go to court in an effort to ensure a recount is fully complete in Palm Beach County, a Democratic stronghold that had not completed its recall by last Thursday’s 3:00 PM EST deadline. (NEW YORK TIMES, MIAMI HERALD)

 

IA GOV COMES DOWN ON OUTSPOKEN CONGRESSMAN

Newly re-elected IOWA Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) urged controversial U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-IOWA) to consider whether his inflammatory rhetoric on immigration is out of step with his district. Voters selected King, who co-chaired Reynolds’s re-election campaign, for another term representing the most strongly GOP district in the Hawkeye State, but the margin (50 to 47 percent) was the narrowest of his nine previous elections. “Steve King needs to make a decision if he wants to represent the people and the values of the 4th District or do something else, and I think he needs to just take a look at that,” Reynolds told reporters afterward. (SIOUX CITY JOURNAL)

 

COOPER SEEKS MORE FEDERAL HURRICANE RELIEF FUNDS

NORTH CAROLINA Gov. Roy Cooper (D) asked the Tar Heel State’s Congressional contingent to help the state secure an additional $5 billion in federal relief funds to help with recovery from Hurricane Florence. Congress appropriated $1 billion in relief funds in October for the state, which suffered approximately $17 billion in damages from Florence. (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER)

 

KY GOV DECRIES ‘CULTURE OF DEATH’

KENTUCKY Gov. Matt Bevin (R) blamed mass shootings in America on a popular culture “inundated by the worst things that celebrate death,” including television shows and movies that feature zombies. He said he knew some people would decry his position as “trite and simplistic,” but insisted that violent TV shows and video games, coupled with a rise in the prescribed psychotropic drugs, are desensitizing young people to the impact of violence on society. (WASHINGTON POST)

 

OH LAWMAKERS OVERRIDE KASICH AGENCY RULE VETO

The Buckeye State General Assembly overrode OHIO Gov. John Kasich’s (R) veto of SB 221, a bill that allows anyone adversely affected by an agency rule to request that a legislative panel review it and potentially declare it invalid. Kasich said there is already a process in place for people to challenge government agency rules, but lawmakers said the business community asked for the bill. (CLEVELAND.COM)

 

-- Compiled by RICH EHISEN

Hickenlooper Has Advice for IL on Weed

With Gov.–Elect J.B. Pritzker (D) expressing interest in working quickly to decriminalize cannabis in the Prairie State, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) took time last week to offer his fellow Dem some advice on how to keep it all from going off the rails.

 

Speaking to the Economic Club of Chicago, Hickenlooper said Illinois would be wise to collect as much good data as possible to ensure it is making decisions based on the best information.

 

“We had a little increase in teenage consumption, but then it went down. We do think that some of the teenage consumers are using it a little more frequently than they were five years ago before legalization,” he said. “We have in many ways seen no demographic where there’s an increase in consumption, with one exception: senior citizens. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.”

 

He also cautioned against imposing excessive taxes, saying it would only serve to bolster the very illicit market lawmakers are trying to kill.

 

“We still have a black market, and it’s a serious, serious problem,” Hickenlooper said. “[But] we now have $250 million a year in tax money we can put toward [dealing with] that.”

 

The governor noted he was vehemently against legalization at first, but acknowledged none of the worst case scenarios has come to pass.

 

“The things we most feared — a peak in teenage consumption, a peak in overall consumption, people driving while high — we haven’t seen,” Hickenlooper said. “I’m not quite there to say this is a great success, but the old system was awful.” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, MARIJUANA MOMENT)

Incoming KS Gov Will Renew LGBTQ Protections

Kansas Gov.-elect Laura Kelly (D) reiterated her intention to issue an executive order reinstating protections from workplace discrimination for LGBTQ Kansans after she is sworn in next January.

 

“I am planning to actually have an executive order drafted before I take office,” Kelly told reporters during a press conference last week.

 

Those protections were originally put in place by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) via executive order in 2007. That directive prohibited harassment, firing or discrimination against state workers based on sexual orientation or gender identity. But the order was rescinded in 2015 by then-Gov. Sam Brownback (R), who claimed the order had created a new protected class, which was out of the purview of the executive branch. Such a change, he said, needed to come from lawmakers.

 

Kelly said throughout her campaign that if elected she would make reinstating the protections one of her first official acts. She said she would also direct her staff to investigate whether she can block enforcement of a new state law signed by outgoing Gov. Jeff Colyer (R) that gives legal protection to adoption agencies – even those with state contracts - that cite religious faith in refusing to allow LGBT couples or individuals to adopt children.

 

“If there is way to direct the agency to not implement that, then I will do that,” Kelly said.

 

Kelly also campaigned on expanding Medicaid, something lawmakers endorsed in 2017 but which was also blocked by a Brownback veto. With Brownback gone, Rep. Dan Hawkins (R), who chairs the House Health Committee, told the Wichita Eagle after the election “it’s a foregone conclusion that now that will probably go through.”

 

If so, it would extend health coverage to approximately 150,000 low-income Kansans currently ineligible for KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program. But the cost remains a concern for the Republican majority, even with the federal government committed to paying for most of the tab. According to an estimate by the Kansas Health Institute, expansion would cost the state $68 million a year.

 

Even so, proponents believe they still have the votes to get a bill to Kelly, particularly now that it would not need a veto-proof majority to become law.

 

Kelly noted another priority on her agenda – restoring some collegiality to state government. On the campaign trail she regularly decried the hyper-partisanship that had taken over government, saying it “tore our state apart.” In a post-election statement released by Colyer’s office, Kelly vowed to “set the right tone” in Topeka and “a new era of cooperation in Kansas.” (KANSAS GOVERNOR’S OFFICE, WICHITA EAGLE, HILL, KCUR [KANSAS CITY], KANSAS HEALTH INSTITUTE)

FCC Funding Spurs Dispute Between States and Cell Phone Carriers

Last year the Federal Communication Commission offered $4.5 billion in funding over the next 10 years to help states provide high-speed mobile broadband service in underserved rural areas.

 

Cell phone carriers informed the FCC that several states, including Kansas, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Vermont, were already well covered with high-speed broadband, making the states ineligible for the FCC’s Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) reverse auction money.

 

The states disagreed.

 

“When we first looked at the confidential coverage maps we called the FCC staff and said, ‘These maps are wrong,’” said Corey Chase, telecommunications infrastructure specialist for Vermont’s Department of Public Service.

 

He said the FCC told them, “Well, if you don’t think they’re accurate, it would behoove you to do a challenge.”

 

That advice resulted in scores of contractors and volunteers crisscrossing multiple states doing a rendition of the “Can you hear me now?” line from the Verizon ad and, ultimately, in the filing of several state challenges with the FCC.

 

In response to those challenges, the FCC suspended its MF-II program last month so it could investigate whether one or more of the major carriers had violated its auction mapping rules. The accuracy of that data is not only key for determining state eligibility for MF-II funding but also a “public safety issue,” according to Ryan Brown, a deputy commissioner for Mississippi’s Public Service Commission.

 

“We’ve had folks who have been in car wrecks and haven’t been able to call 911; we’ve had elderly people who have fallen and can’t get a signal to call an ambulance,” he said. “Lives are at stake in this matter too.” (STATELINE, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION)

Politics in Brief - January 28 2019

RECORD NUMBER OF ETHICS COMPLAINTS IN AK ELECTIONS LAST YEAR

The ARKANSAS Ethics Commission received 146 citizen complaints against candidates and others during last year’s election cycle. That number was a new record and a 45 percent increase from 2012. (ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE)

 

KS LEGISLATURE ALLOWS UNRECORDED VOTES

Despite a push for greater transparency in KANSAS state government, both chambers of the Legislature allow unrecorded votes on bills in committee. Unrecorded votes are also allowed on amendments to bills before the full chambers, although final votes always get recorded. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

 

PUSH FOR MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION IN MN

MINNESOTA Rep. Mike Freiberg (D) and Sen. Melisa Franzen (D) are working on legislation to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Rep. Raymond Dehn (D) is aiming, instead, to put the issue before the state’s voters as a constitutional amendment in 2020, which would still require the approval of both the DFL-controlled House and the Republican-led Senate first. (MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)

 

-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK