By: Eric Veram

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois: Today, May 7, marks the filing deadline for state petition drive efforts seeking to place constitutional amendments before voters in this year’s statewide election on November 6.

For a measure to be placed on the ballot petitioners must submit valid signatures equal to 8% of the total votes cast for Governor in the last election, meaning 298,399 names are required this year. Any measures that are approved by the Secretary of State would then be placed on the ballot this fall, where they would need a three-fifths approval by voters to be enacted.

As of today there are no known active attempts to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot this year. However, groups opposing a 2011 law allowing same-sex civil unions have been gathering signatures for an advisory question regarding a referendum on the law. If this question is placed on the ballot it would need to be approved by voters, then approved by the legislature, before finally being sent to voters again as a referendum.

By Ballotpedia’s state executive team

CHARLESTON, WV: Six state executive office are up for election in West Virginia this year. Primary elections will be held for three of the offices: governor, treasurer and agriculture commissioner. The other offices - secretary of state, attorney general and auditor - have only one Republican and one Democrat running for each, and will not be on the ballot.

Five incumbents are seeking re-election and only one, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, faces a primary challenger - Arne Moltis. The state’s current agriculture commissioner, Gus Douglass, is retiring after serving 48 years in office. Five Democrats and one Republican are vying for his seat.

Polls are open tomorrow from 6:30 am until 7:30 pm, EST.^[1]

Read more about this here.

By Lauren Rodgers

Gov. Mitch Daniels is prevented by term limits from seeking another term in office.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN: Four state executive offices are up for election in Indiana this year: governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction. However, only the governor’s race is on the ballot in the primary election. In Indiana, the two major parties conduct state conventions to nominate candidates for many of the state executive offices, including lieutenant governor, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction.^[1]

This year, there is only one candidate running for governor from each of the parties, so you won’t see any surprises or upsets in tomorrow’s results. Indiana’s current governor, Mitch Daniels, is prevented by term limits from seeking another term in office. Two Republican candidates - Congressman Mike Pence and Fishers businessman Jim Wallace - submitted signatures and filed to run for their party’s nomination. But on February 24, 2012, the Indiana Election Commission voted 3-1 to remove Wallace from the May 8 primary ballot. In order to qualify for the ballot, a candidate needs 500 signatures from each of the state’s congressional districts. Wallace fell 14 signatures short of that figure, despite having submitted 1,282 signatures. The Marion County Board of Voter Registration rejected 62% of those signatures leaving Wallace with just 486 signatures from the district.^[2][3]

Pence, as the lone Republican now, will meet John Gregg (D),^[4] Rupert Boneham (L) and write-in candidate Donnie Harold Harris^[5] in the November 6th general election. In Indiana, the governor and lieutenant governor are elected on a single ticket in the general election. Boneham, of Survivor fame, is running with Brad Klopfenstein; Harris has chosen George Fish as his running mate. Pence and Gregg will have to wait until the statewide party conventions to see who will share their ticket in November.

The Republican Party state convention is scheduled for June 9th and the Democratic Party state convention will be held the following week on June 16th. Once those conventions are held, the major party ballots will be set for the attorney general and superintendent of public instruction races, as well. The Democrats have yet to indicate who might be their candidate for attorney general to challenge incumbent Republican Greg Zoeller, but all signs point to Justin Oakley as the likely Democratic challenger to current Republican superintendent Tony Bennett.

By Maresa Strano

NASHVILLE, Tennessee:Pending approval by Tennessee’s Senate Finance Committee, the majority of this session’s General Assembly, and then two-thirds of the next consecutive General Assembly, a resolution to change the state’s current qualifications and selection process for the state’s top law enforcement officer is poised to reach voters via statewide referendum as early as November 2014.^[1] Senate Joint Resolution 693, sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Mae Beavers (R), would amend the constitution to allow the governor to appoint the attorney general for a four-year term subject to legislative confirmation, and to reset the qualifications for holding the office. The law would change the eligibility requirements for an attorney general to 30 years old, a licensed attorney in Tennessee, a U.S. citizen and a resident of the state for at least seven years preceding the appointment.^[2]

In place today is “Tennessee Plan”, under which the attorney general is chosen by a State Supreme Court to serve for a term of eight years (Article VI, Section 5 of the state constitution), making it the only state in the nation to exclude voters from the selection process altogether. The legislation, approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 4, is the product of a Tennessee lawmaker’s rumination on the current system’s failure to uphold the Constitution’s original intentions for creating an office implicitly accountable to the people; prior to the adoption of the Tennessee Plan, the Supreme Court was a popularly elected body, thus the system provided–however indirectly–for voter involvement.

Beyond the fundamental accountability issue from neglecting voters in the selection process, Senator Beavers laments that under the Tennessee Plan, the office of attorney general is specifically vulnerable to perversion. The office is responsible for cases at the appellate court level, and there is an inevitable conflict of interest when that office’s leader brings cases before the very body that appointed him/her to the position. He also points out that Tennessee is the only state to not select its attorney general by either popular election, or appointment by popularly elected officials, i.e. the governor or the state legislature. “The current system of selecting our state’s attorney general defies the checks and balances that are needed for our justice system,” said Senator Beavers.^[1]

By Ballotpedia’s State executive team: Greg Janetka, Lauren Rodgers and Maresa Strano

SPRINGFIELD, Missouri: Candidates interested in of the Show Me state’s five executive offices up for election in 2012 had until yesterday to file with the Missouri Secretary of State. The filing deadline has been extended for the office of governor, due to candidate withdrawals, but the remainder of the candidate line-ups are set in the races for lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state andtreasurer.

As of Tuesday’s initial filing deadline, a total of 29 candidates are running for a state executive office in Missouri. This number may increase slightly due to the extension to file for governor, but it’s not likely to drop. Four of the five incumbent state executive officials are seeking re-election; Robin Carnahan, the current secretary of state, is retiring from office. Third party candidates are making a strong showing this year. The Libertarian Party has a candidate in each of the five races and the Constitution Party has candidates in the elections for governor, lieutenant governor and secretary of state.

Read more here!

By Greg Janetka

DES MOINES, Iowa: Auditor of State David Vaudt (R) said both Democratic and Republican legislators are guilty of issuing obfuscated budget proposals, releasing targets that are “impossible to evaluate” and including proposals that cannot be accomplished.^[1]

Last month, Gov. Terry Branstad issued a proposed budget of $6.244 billion, which included an increase in spending of about $230 million more than the current budget.^[2] Senate Democrats answered with a $6.219 billion proposal that has $25 million less in spending than the governor’s plan. However, according to Vaudt, that figure does not include $113 million in tobacco tax transfers that will be spent on health care. With that spending included, the Democratic plan actually has $88 million more in spending than the governor.

House Republicans came out with a $6.062 billion proposal. Their plan includes $63 million in proposed spending cuts that Vaudt said are all but impossible. Republicans aim to save $43 million through a $200 per-month employee health care premium contribution, but those payments are not required and the legislature does not have the power to make them mandatory.^[3] Their plan also includes a savings of $20 million by selling state-owned land, but Vaudt said that isn’t realistic.^[4]

The main problem with both parties proposals is their lack of details. Branstad issued a full 1,300-page budget, while Republicans and Democrats issued two-page spending targets that only outline goals. “Let’s lay it out. Let’s show people what we’re actually doing and let’s not come up with techniques that kind of camouflage what’s really happening. Let’s be honest with the taxpayers and show them what’s exactly happening. It’s an incomplete picture. It doesn’t tell you everything you need to know. It makes it impossible to fully evaluate,” Vaudt said.^[4]

Vaudt is one of thirty-seven state executive auditors across the country. He was elected as a Republican and has served in that position since 2003.

By Lauren Rodgers

On January 4, 2012, Gov. Christine Gregoire announced her support for a law that would extend to same-sex couples the right to receive a marriage license issued by the state ofWashington.^[1] Less than a month later, the state legislature now appears poised to pass Senate Bill 6239 (and HB 2516, its counterpart in the state House) into law. The bills, sponsored by state Sen. Ed Murray (D) and Rep. Jamie Pedersen (D), provide “equal protection for all families in Washington by creating equality in civil marriage and changing the domestic partnership laws, while protecting religious freedom.”^[2][3]

Yesterday, the state Senate’s Government Operations, Tribal Relations & Elections Committee held the first in a series of public discussions about the bill, during which opponents and supporters alike offered testimony to the committee. Following the hearing, Democrat Margaret Haugen became the 25th state Senator to come out in favor of the bill, tipping the scale and giving the legislation enough pledged support to pass the state Senate. (The legislation is expected to easily pass the state House). Haugen, citing her “very strong Christian beliefs,” said she has always believed – and continues to believe – in traditional marriage between a man and a woman, but explained “this issue isn’t about just what I believe. It’s about respecting others.”^[4] The Seattle City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of marriage equality legislation and several companies with a large presence in Washington state, including Microsoft, RealNetworks and Nike, Inc., have advocated for the bill.

Speaking out against the law, Roman Catholic Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartrain called on Catholics to lobby their legislators against marriage equality. He argued “because only the union of a man and a woman can generate new life, no other human relationship is its equivalent,” and spoke ominously of “the grave challenges this legislation poses to the common good.”^[5] Several other opponents, including Christopher Plante of the National Organization for Marriage and Joseph Backholm of the Family Policy Institute of Washington, urged lawmakers to put the issue to a popular vote. Backholm has been quoted as saying marriage “has never existed for the purpose of affirming relationships involving adults. The primary function of marriage is to create the greatest likelihood that children will be raised by their mother and father.”^[6]

Ken Hutcherson of the Kirkland, WA Antioch Baptist Church has become the spokesperson for The Stand for Marriage Coalition, and indicated if the law passes, the group will begin to gather signatures to put a referendum on the ballot to overturn the law this fall.^[7] Under state law, citizens who disagree with a statute or bill that has been enacted by the state legislature can collect signatures to force the issue to a vote. If enough signatures are collected, the bill is placed on a statewide ballot.^[8]

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island: Data collected by Go Local Prov stated that $5 million was contributed in the 2008 and 2010 elections by 40 seperate individuals, $4.5 of that was spent in 2010 alone. Governor Lincoln Chafee topped the contribution list with donations coming in at $1.6 million and State spending coming in at $1.5 million. For individual Unions, the Local 1033 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America topped the list with $54,105 spent on campaign contributions for near 100 House and Senate candidates. Other contributions include those by lawyers and lobbyists which accounted for $1.9 million in political money, the largest amount given in contributions. While it makes sense for lawyers and lobbyists to top the list of contributions, other note that lumping them all together may be misleading as they all work for different organizations. Reform of the system has been suggested, noting that allowing for further public financing would help those candidates who cannot afford to finance their own campaigns.^[1]

TRENTON, New Jersey: A proposed bill in the New Jersey Legislature seeks to allow schools to move their budget and school elections to the November ballot. Traditionally school votes are held in April but have long been criticized for their low voter turnouts and high costs to run. Previous attempts to move these elections to November have all failed, but with this bill there may be renewed hope. This bill, unlike the previous attempts, would give the schools the choice to move the elections to November, it would not be mandatory. Opponents though note that this could cause more confusion for residents if different schools in the same area choose to have their votes at all different times throughout the year. But the New Jersey Education Association and the Teachers Union have given their support behind this bill, where as they had been against the previous attempts. Governor Chris Christie is now reviewing the bill.^[1]

LANSING, Michigan: Michigan lawmakers passed a bill that would set up guidelines for dividing up the $25 million in state film and movie incentives for the next fiscal year. The bill passed on December 15 with a 35-3 vote in the Senate and a 92-15 vote in the House. The incentives in the bill are not as plenty as they once were, but supporters of the bill say the incentives would still stay competitive.^[1]

Michigan’s film industry boomed in 2008 after legislation passed under former Governor Jennifer Granholm that provided rebates of up to 42 percent of a production’s expenses to film studios. The result of the film incentive program was a flocking of television and movie studios to Michigan. The original incentive program did not cap the rebates, and in 2010, Michigan approved $115 million. However, the state budget capped the program at $25 million in October 2011.^[2]