How to win a 106-day campaign

Posted on by Brian A. Howey

A change at the top of the ticket happened a mere 106 days before the general election in a campaign that Donald Trump was poised to dominate. The sidekick was now thrust into the limelight.

A late-July caucus chose the new nominee. Less than a week later, a running mate was selected. This newly formed ticket faced a plethora of challenges. Staffers would have to be added. Money had to be transferred or raised. They were behind in the polls.

I’m talkin’ about Vice President Kamala Harris and her new veep nominee, Tim Walz, right?

Nope. Though the timing scenarios are exactly the same, this is the story of Eric Holcomb’s historic quest for governor in 2016. Holcomb had one of the most stunning rises in Hoosier political history, winning a 12-day gubernatorial nomination sprint after Gov. Mike Pence ascended to the vice presidential nomination. In five months, Holcomb had evolved from a third-place U.S. Senate candidate to a lieutenant governor appointee and then the party’s gubernatorial standard-bearer in the most unpredictable election cycle during the state’s bicentennial year. 

Then he was elected governor. 

Lt. Gov. Holcomb, who assumed that role in March 2016, began his ascent with a mere $20,000 in his campaign account while his statewide name recognition was a scant 15%. He faced Democrat John Gregg, who believed he would be in a November rematch with Pence. Gregg had raised more than $10 million by that July.

Holcomb campaign manager Mike O’Brien likened the whirlwind campaign to “building an airplane in mid-flight.”

Holcomb won a Republican Central Committee caucus on the second ballot on July 26, 2016 — just 11 days after Pence had resigned the ticket. Holcomb said something very similar to what Vice President Harris said after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race this past July 21: that he would “lean into it” with his eyes “on the windshield and not on the rearview mirror.” 

After he forged a 51.38%-45.42% victory over Gregg in what had begun as a “leans Democrat” race in late July, Holcomb said on election night that November: “You heard what I heard: ‘Holcomb can’t raise enough money. Holcomb can’t put a credible statewide campaign together in this short amount of time. Holcomb can’t do this and Holcomb can’t do that.’ Well, they were partly right. Holcomb couldn’t do it, but we did. We did it because we have the best volunteers in the nation. We did it with a remarkable ground game.”

In the Dec. 1, 2016, edition of Howey Politics Indiana, Holcomb added, “It took the Cubs 108 years to win a World Series and it took us 106 days to win a governor’s race. And that was, literally, how much would have to go into every day, how I would never be asleep before midnight and would be up by 6 a.m. and out the door and, uniquely, still doing the lieutenant governor’s job, never dropping a single spinning plate and filling in for the governor if an area needed attention. And campaigning.”

Gregg, surrounded by crestfallen family members and staff, told a subdued crowd at the Indiana Convention Center on Election Night: “This has been a wacky ride. This is the start where the healing begins. Tonight we’re all Hoosiers. As the dust settles and the wounds begin to heal, we’ll still be Hoosiers. Even though tonight is disappointing, tomorrow will be a new day.”

Trump selects Pence

Just minutes before the deadline to withdraw from his gubernatorial nomination, Pence was named Trump’s veep choice. 

“I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate. News conference tomorrow at 11:00 A.M.,” Trump tweeted on July 15, 2016.

Sandwiched between that news and the July 26 date to pick a new nominee for governor was the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. The Indiana GOP’s convention hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, became a hotbed of arm twisting and insider intrigue. Lt. Gov. Holcomb, U.S. Reps. Susan Brooks and Todd Rokita, and state Sen. Jim Tomes all sought the nomination by intensely lobbying the 22 Central Committee members.

Holcomb would win it with 12 votes on the second ballot after leading Brooks and Rokita 11-9-2 on the first. He and his team knew they would win on that next ballot after former legislator Dan Dumezich had fulfilled a promise to vote for Rokita on the first go-round.

“This year, as many of you know, has taken many twists and turns, and I am ready to take this next call and lead us to victory,” Holcomb said at GOP headquarters minutes after his win. He preceded that observation by saying, “We’ve got work to do and a short time to get there.”

In Pence’s madcap dash for the Trump ticket, the critical decision to move his campaign funds to the Republican Governors Association or the Indiana GOP wasn’t executed. That money fell under new Federal Election Commission guidelines as of July 20. 

GOP financier Bob Grand told Howey Politics Indiana the day Holcomb was nominated: “It’s all going to get worked out. Eric Holcomb is going to have plenty of money to run this race. A fair amount of it will come from the Mike Pence campaign.”

Holcomb added, “We’ll raise the millions it will take to get the message out over the next 100 days.” 

In the end, only $1.2 million of Pence’s money ended up in Holcomb’s coffers.

Six days later, Holcomb would ask the Central Committee to nominate Auditor Suzanne Crouch as lieutenant governor. 

“She brings it all,” Holcomb said as he was flanked by the same 22 committee members. “She’s held four important positions. She has legislative and executive experience. Most importantly, she can assume the office.” 

Crouch also brought to the campaign a $300,000 war chest.

Holcomb was asked about the impact of Trump on the Indiana gubernatorial race. 

“I consider a strong Trump-Pence ticket a strong asset,” he said in a prescient observation.

Gregg had early lead

In late July, Howey Politics Indiana moved the race to “leans Democrat” after the Pence-Gregg matchup had been a “toss-up” since the May primary. In late August, HPI observed, “Holcomb faces a political tornado on Nov. 8. There are bizarre crosswinds with the Trump/Pence campaign, with the reemergence of Evan Bayh in the U.S. Senate race and with one hand financially tied behind his back. He is a constant font of good cheer. He is curious and engaged. He tends to find a good balance of levity and humor. His staff time with Gov. Daniels and Sen. Coats has given him a good grasp of where the state is.”

How was Gregg approaching the race with Pence out? “No differently,” he told HPI. “It’s still about the economy. That’s all it’s ever been about.”

On Sept. 9, 2016, the WTHR/Howey Politics poll showed Gregg maintaining a 40%-35% lead over Holcomb, while new Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Evan Bayh’s lead over Republican Todd Young had dwindled to 44%-40%. For Gregg, the new numbers revealed a decline from the initial April WTHR/Howey Politics poll that showed him trailing Gov. Mike Pence 49%-45%.

“This is a function of the national political environment,” Public Opinion Strategies pollster Gene Ulm said of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “As Hillary sinks, he sinks with her.” 

Howey Politics Indiana observed, “This race could easily move into the toss-up zone by our next poll in early October.”

In late September, Gregg and Holcomb engaged in what HPI described as a “mild debate.” Gregg was asked about the lack of pyrotechnics in that confrontation. 

“I’m not hurling insults at Mr. Holcomb and getting into a ‘he said, she said,’” Gregg replied. “I’d rather fix the problem than affix blame. They’ve been civil in this matter. There can be disagreements, but there is no need to get into an argument.” 

October toss-up

The second WTHR/Howey Politics poll, published Oct. 6, showed Gregg with a 41%-39% lead over Holcomb (Libertarian Rex Bell stood at 5%), while Bayh’s lead over Young had dwindled to 42%-41%.

The problem Gregg faced then is similar to the one Donald Trump is confronting now. 

“Gregg has not been able to distance himself from a still largely unknown challenger in Eric Holcomb,” the Oct. 6 edition of HPI reported. “The Democrat has a 41%-39% lead, but his support has ticked up only 1% from September. That was before Holcomb’s TV ad campaign had kicked in, while Gregg had been advertising statewide since May 5. 

“The problem for Gregg is that his campaign was aimed at Gov. Pence,” HPI reported then, just as the Trump campaign’s effort for most of 2024 had been aimed at President Biden and not Vice President Harris.

“The governor’s race is tracking very close to the presidential race,” Ulm said in 2016. “If I would bet money, if Donald Trump wins Indiana, Holcomb wins. If he loses, Holcomb loses. Gregg has to break out of the presidential construct, the presidential architecture. Indiana is a red state, so there’s a slightly shorter path for Holcomb to get there.” 

The final poll

The final WTHR/Howey Politics poll, published Nov. 4, had Gregg and Holcomb tied at 42% (with 11% undecided) while Young forged a 5% lead over Bayh.

Could Gregg win? 

“I think so,” Ulm said, “but you’d have to give Holcomb the advantage, but not a big one.” 

But the trend lines in this third poll were unmistakable. The GOP numbers were beginning to align. 

The September WTHR/Howey Politics polls indicated Gregg had a 40%-35% lead over Holcomb. In the October survey Gregg was up just 41%-39%. And in the November survey, the race was tied
at 42%, with the Trump-Pence momentum beginning to build. It decimated Indiana Democrats.


“You could draw a line between those three surveys and that’s exactly where we ended up,” Ulm said. “Republicans had all the momentum and it was still moving.” 

Bayh’s November favorable/unfavorable ratings had declined to 39%/45% from 48%/28% in the September survey. In essence, Young and his super PAC allies had eviscerated Bayh’s clean image by painting him as enriching himself during and after his Senate term, which he abruptly ended in 2010. 

Asked if he had ever seen a candidate’s favorables plummet as considerably as Bayh’s, Ulm said, “Usually when they commit a crime or something or they’re just horribly bad candidates.” 

Bayh, who could once count on about 25% of the Republican vote during his last three gubernatorial and U.S. Senate bids, attracted just 7% of the GOP vote.

“Trump’s climb in the polls has been mostly Republicans coming home,” Ulm said.

When Bayh joined the ticket in July (replacing Baron Hill) it was seen as a tailwind for Gregg. But Bayh’s polling collapse inflicted collateral damage on Gregg. 

At a rally in downtown Zionsville, Holcomb told supporters: “We’ve made millions of contact attempts and connections. We’ve ID’ed hundreds of thousands of voters, and it’s all coming down — it’s not even seven days anymore. It’s six days and a wakeup. That’s where we are. We’re seven days away to determine which direction this state is going to go and the direction the country is going to go.” 

In the Dec. 1, 2016, edition of Howey Politics Indiana, Holcomb was asked if his campaign had been seeing poll numbers similar to those in the WTHR-Howey Politics survey. “We started down six, then down five, then down three, and then down one,” Holcomb said. “We were up one and a half on Election Day per our polling. So it was similar, margin of error, going in. So we knew if we had parity going down the stretch, we would win with or without a Trump wall.” 

2016 and 2024 parallels

What are the lessons here?

First, Holcomb demonstrated how you can win a truncated campaign. The U.S. presidential race has become a bloated, multiyear slog. In Europe, presidential (or prime minister) elections are conducted in just weeks or months. Holcomb revealed what Harris is experiencing now: You can win a sprint with the right message, with a running mate who does no harm and with enough money.

As Gregg did with Pence in 2016, Trump was aiming at the Biden mirage until July 22. 

Can the Trump-Vance campaign recalibrate and recover? Yes, but Trump needs to expand his voting pool beyond his base.

The addition of Minnesota Gov. Walz to the Harris ticket on Tuesday is meeting with widespread Democratic praise, whereas Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, didn’t appear to be well vetted and has been simmering in controversy.

Walz ascended to the ticket after calling the Trump-Vance ticket “weird.” He will attempt to provide a vivid contrast to Vance. Harris hopes to establish a similar demarcation with Trump, who is now the oldest presidential nominee ever and has been criticized for incoherent rambling at his rallies. 

This will be the “prosecutor vs. felon” campaign that has no historic parallel.

Finally, Gregg did not push his early polling advantage over Holcomb through aggressive tactics. Gregg had what Howey Politics Indiana described as a “mild debate” with the new challenger, while Holcomb pressed his case as if he were an Indy 500 driver (i.e., pedal to the metal).

If Harris defeats Trump, her win will likely be due to her aggressive pursuit of a contrast with the former Republican president. 

Brian A. Howey is senior writer and columnist for Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs. Find Howey on Facebook and X @hwypol.

How the DNC propelled (or stifled) 2 Hoosiers

Posted on by Brian A. Howey

INDIANAPOLIS — Next Monday, Chicago’s 10th Democratic National Convention begins. Two of these confabs helped determine the political trajectories of a pair of Hoosiers.

In 1884, former Indiana governor and senator Thomas A. Hendricks was nominated for the vice presidential slot on a ticket with Grover Cleveland at the Interstate Exposition Building. They won, but the 66-year-old Hendricks died in office in November 1885 after suffering a heart attack in Indianapolis. His last words were, “Free at last!” President Cleveland joined hundreds of dignitaries and thousands of Hoosiers at Hendricks’ funeral.

In 1996, Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh was widely viewed as a party rising star. He was given the convention keynote role at the United Center. Or, as Howey Politics Indiana reported in its Sept. 4, 1996, edition, “Gov. Evan Bayh gave a fine Indiana State of the State address in Chicago on Aug. 27. Unfortunately for him, it came before the Democratic National Convention — not the Statehouse — and it just didn’t work. And it wasn’t really his fault.”

Bayh’s speech had gone through several major revisions from the Clinton White House. Then the schedule changed. Instead of delivering his speech after a résumé video, Bayh was forced to follow two of the party’s greatest orators: New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and civil rights activist Jesse Jackson. Then Bayh found himself slotted after first lady Hillary Clinton, “whom delegates greeted with a literal frenzy of signs and hoopla.”

By the time Bayh took the stage, it was just minutes before the crucial 11 p.m. witching hour when network affiliates on the East Coast would shift to local news. Team Bayh would insinuate that the first lady was working to keep the Hoosier (and potential future rival) out of the prime-time network glare.

“Not an envious task speaking after Mrs. Clinton, Jesse Jackson and Mario Cuomo, but he did,” ABC News anchor Peter Jennings said. Robert Novak of the Chicago Sun-Times called the speech “mediocre to the extreme”; The Wall Street Journal’s Paul Gigot said it sounded like “a fact sheet from the Clinton for President campaign”; and Vanderburgh County GOP Chairman Joe Harrison Jr. called Bayh “the forgotten man last night.”

The next day, Bayh was on a bus ride with the Indiana delegation and reporters to greet President Bill Clinton for a rally at Michigan City’s Washington Park band shell. Clinton would then helicopter 35 miles across Lake Michigan to Chicago.

That trip was memorable because the bus motorcade left Chicago with a police escort and then made stops for rallies in Gary and Portage before getting lost, ending up on a narrow lakefront road in Long Beach just east of Michigan City. A young mother went to check on her kid’s roadside lemonade stand only to find the Indiana governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general waiting in line for refreshments while the bus driver sought directions in this pre-GPS era.

When President Clinton took to the stage in Michigan City, he talked of the close friendship he and first lady Hillary Clinton had with Evan and Susan Bayh. “They are our friends and they are two of the finest people I’ve ever met,” Clinton said from the Washington Park Band Shell.” I don’t know what the future holds for them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Evan Bayh returned to Michigan City as president.”

“It’s a little daunting,” Bayh told a press scrum on the bus. “I never intended for my style to be compared to theirs. I never intended to give a speech that would rival Mario Cuomo’s or Jesse Jackson’s. My speech was designed to be a good introductory and lay the foundation of the administration’s accomplishments in a positive, upbeat way. That would have built to the first lady’s very emotional presentation. I think everyone in the hall wanted to give her a very rousing welcome, and it’s very hard to sustain that kind of level. 

“I had some people tell me they thought the keynote had been shifted to another night,” Bayh continued. “It’s just one of those things. The thing you’ve got to remember is, there were no undecided voters in that hall. So what really mattered was the television audience. I don’t think I’ve ever attended a political convention that was quite like that.”

Convention keynotes often establish a future political trajectory. Bill Clinton delivered a long 1988 keynote address, which earned him a standing ovation when he finally uttered the words, “In conclusion. …”

Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama’s 2004 DNC keynote address essentially set the stage for him to eclipse Bayh’s rising stature. Bayh dropped out of the 2008 race in late December 2006 as Obama and Hillary Clinton absorbed all the political oxygen. Once Obama won the nomination, he made the most fateful decision in Bayh’s career when he chose the other veepstakes finalist — U.S. Sen. Joe Biden — for his ticket.

During that bus press scrum, Howey Politics Indiana asked Bayh, “Are you going to be supporting Al Gore in 2000?”

Bayh responded, “We haven’t talked about that. I think we ought to take this one election at a time.”

U.S. Rep. Andy Jacobs Jr. then asked me, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Did you really have the nerve to ask that question?” Jacobs asked.

“Andy, maybe that’s what you can do when you retire,” Bayh said. 

[Reporter’s note: Jacobs would later write a column for NUVO Newsweekly.]

There’s an old saying that history doesn’t repeat, but it sometimes rhymes. 

Speechifying in Gary that day in what Howey Politics Indiana would describe as a “sign of the times,” Jacobs observed, “One-third of a century ago, I stood with the president of the United States in Gary, Indiana, and heard him delineate the differences between the two political parties with this simple declarative sentence: ‘We don’t hate their presidents.’ And today, with hatred having risen to a level undreamed-of a third of a century ago, I think we can all say with pride, we don’t hate their presidents’ wives.”

In the current era of Donald J. Trump, wives of political rivals are now fair game.

Bayh wasn’t the only Hoosier seeking to make a mark in 1996. Former Republican Vice President Dan Quayle was the subject of this Howey Politics Indiana posting in that Sept. 4 edition. Like Bayh, Quayle was plotting a future presidential bid (which lasted about five months in 1999 before he was eclipsed by Texas Gov. George W. Bush):

“In San Diego, Quayle had included pro-life language in his Republican Convention speech. When he arrived at the convention hall, RNC communications director Chuck Greener and [lobbyist] Ken Duberstein pressured him to drop the phrase. As Quayle resisted, GOP Chairman Haley Barbour was contacted.

“Haley, have you even read the speech?” Quayle asked. He hadn’t, so Quayle read it to him. Barbour responded, saying it was OK with him. Quayle flung his phone at Duberstein and said, “Here, you talk to Haley. I’m going to practice.”

Later, convention manager Paul Manafort (yes, that Manafort, who temporarily managed Trump’s 2016 campaign before he was indicted and convicted of felonies, only to be pardoned by Trump) called Quayle, urging him to replace the word “extreme” with “radical.” Quayle dodged Manafort’s call but made the changes while steadfastly keeping in the anti-abortion text.

Manafort wasn’t done. He moved Quayle up in the speaking order to 8:45 p.m., with Howey Politics Indiana reporting that “an aide suspected the maneuver to deny Quayle a prime-time spot.”

DNC notes

Vice President Kamala Harris is the first nonincumbent since Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1968 to claim either party’s presidential nomination without first enduring months of grueling primary contests. That 1968 convention at Chicago’s International Amphitheatre was tumultuous, with local police battling antiwar demonstrators in Grant Park. Humphrey would lose to former Vice President Richard Nixon that November in one of the closest elections in American history.

Indiana’s 88-member delegation unanimously endorsed Harris during a July 22 video call. That’s the day President Biden officially dropped out of the race. Delegates were originally pledged to Biden based on the results of the Indiana Democratic primary in May but are now unbound to any specific candidate after his decision to leave the race. 

“Vice President Kamala Harris has already made history by serving in our nation’s second-highest office. She is tenacious, skilled and powerful, and we are proud to endorse her as the next president of the United States so that she can continue the legacy of unprecedented job growth, historically low unemployment, and fighting for reproductive freedom in all 50 states,” Indiana Democratic Party Chair Mike Schmuhl said. 

“As she served by President Biden’s side these past three and a half years, America has had the privilege of watching her continuously fight for the rights of marginalized individuals and working families. Our party stands behind her at this moment, and we are ready to work to usher in a new generation of leadership in our state and nation — and defeat Trumpism at the ballot box once more.”

In a separate vote and meeting, Indiana’s Democratic State Central Committee unanimously passed resolutions honoring President Biden and endorsing Harris to replace him on the ballot. 

The Indiana Delegation will be headquartered at the Hotel Fairmont Millennium Park, 200 N. Columbus Dr.

Harris is entering the convention sequence on a roll. In the RealClearPolitics polling composite, she leads Donald Trump 47.5% to 47.1%. In the FiveThirtyEight polling composite, Harris leads by 2.8%, with 46.1% for Harris, 43.4% for Trump and 4.9% for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Former Vatican ambassador U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly will head the Indiana delegation. Donnelly served as ambassador from 2021 until July. 

“We’re incredibly proud to have a champion for Hoosier families and someone who has seen firsthand the amazing accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration leading our delegation forward in Chicago in Ambassador Joe Donnelly,” Chairman Schmuhl said. 

“I’m honored to be leading our delegation in Chicago for what is sure to be a historic Democratic National Convention,” Donnelly said. “We owe President Joe Biden a debt of gratitude for profound public service to our country and the incredible job he has done as president. This convention will be a celebration of the accomplishments of the last three-plus years and what is at stake if we go down the path of another four years of a Trump presidency. We must unite to defeat Trump and continue the progress into the next four years.”

President Biden is expected to give a prime-time DNC address Monday, Aug. 19.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is expected to deliver an address Wednesday Aug. 21 in primetime.

Trump’s convention speech was watched by 28.4 million viewers. Vice President Harris is scheduled to deliver her speech Thursday, Aug. 22.

Haley, Pence have tough words for Trump

When she was Donald J. Trump’s last standing Republican primary rival, Nikki Haley told CNN last February, “The party that gets rid of their 80-year-old candidate is the party that will win. There will be a female president of the United States. It will either be me or it will be Kamala Harris. If Republicans nominate Donald Trump, it will be Kamala Harris.”

On Tuesday, Fox News replayed that interview before quizzing her again that evening. The former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador under President Trump had two words of advice for Republicans watching him squander yet another election cycle: “Quit whining.”

Haley told Fox News, “Republicans should not be surprised that we are now running against Kamala Harris. It was her all the time. There was no way Joe Biden, in the condition that we saw him, could take on the stresses of a presidential election. So that was something I believed in then. It’s why I constantly referred back to her, because I knew that Kamala Harris was the person that we had. And the one thing Republicans have to stop doing: Quit whining about her. We knew it was going to be her.

“I want this campaign to win,” said Haley, who endorsed Trump earlier this summer after leveling withering criticism during the primary campaign. “But the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It’s not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It’s not going to win talking about whether she is dumb. You can’t win on those things. I think the campaign needs to focus. That’s the main thing. Look, this is a winnable election, but you need to focus. Who is your target market? Your target market is suburban women, college-educated, independents and conservative Democrats. That’s your target market.”

Meanwhile, former vice president Mike Pence reiterated he will not endorse Trump, as Haley has. “For my part, I’m staying out of the presidential campaign,” Pence said at The Gathering, an event organized by conservative radio host Erick Erickson. “For the reason that I cannot endorse this growing abandonment of our allies on the world stage that’s taken hold in parts of our party. I cannot endorse ignoring our national debt that reached $35 trillion just in the last week. I cannot support marginalizing the right to life in our party as we saw in our national platform.”

Indiana Delegation

District-Level Delegates

Congressional District 1

Paul Armando Aguilera Jr.

Chesterton Councilwoman Erin N. Collins

Jim Harper

State Rep. Ragen Hatcher

Michigan City Mayor Angela Nelson Deiutch

State Rep. Dr. Vernon Smith

Former State Sen. Karen Tallian

Congressional District 2

Elkhart City Councilman Chad Crabtree

South Bend City Clerk Bianca Tirado

Emily Voorde

Alexander Wait

Congressional District 3

Kiley Adolph

Derek Camp

Tito Farias

Patricia Hays

Fort Wayne Mayor Sharon Tucker

Congressional District 4

Vincent Aguirre

David Anderson

Thatcher Anderson

Brownsburg Councilwoman Cindy Hohman

Linda Lasiter

Former Greencastle Councilwoman Veronica Pejril

Congressional District 5

Rebecca Crumes

Dan T. Montgomery 

Heather Pirowski

Seth Rawlings

David Rosenthal

Monique Wise

Congressional District 6

Connor Elliott

Matthew Kochevar

Jane Phillips

Blythe Potter

David Ziemba

Congressional District 7

Tracy Boyd

LaMar Holliday

Bryan Lilienkamp

Karla Lopez-Owens

Alex Nyirendah

State Rep. Cherrish Pryor

Indianapolis City-County Councilor Nick Roberts

Andrea Scott

Congressional District 8

Stan Levco

Martha Nice

Cheryl Schultz

Allyson Shelby

Evansville Councilman Ben Trockman

Congressional District 9

Bloomington City Clerk Nicole Bolden

New Albany Councilman Adam Dickey

Former State Rep. Linda Lawson

John Perkins

Floyd County Councilman Tony Toran

Bloomington Councilwoman Sydney Zulich

At-Large Delegates

Zechariah Banks

Erin Collings

Devon Davis

Kaleb Hagen

Lawrenceburg Councilman Dylan Liddle

Victor Lopez

Cami Padilla

Leslie Salazar

Amy Schwarz

Emma Shriberg

Samantha Smulyan

Rick Sutton

Mary-Kathryn Takeuchi

Rebecca Tomerlin

Tom Wallace

James Wells

PLEO Delegates

Evansville Councilman Alexander Burton

Annette Craycraft

State Rep. Carey Hamilton

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett

State Rep. Carolyn Jackson

Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott

Gary Mayor Eddie Melton

Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun

Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson

Alternate Delegates

Elkhart City Councilman Arvis Dawson

Keith Gambill

Liane Groth Hulka

Annette M. Johnson

Amy Levander

Valparaiso Councilwoman Diana Reed

Jim Wieser

Pages

Sam Barloga

Linda Genrich

Meredith Fox

Connor Phillips

Standing Committee Members

Rules Committee

Douglas Brown 

Annette Craycraft 

State Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn

Credentials Committee

LaMicra Martin

Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun

Nicole Yates

Platform Committee

Michigan City Councilman Dr. Vidya Kora 

Tony Toran 

Fort Wayne Mayor Sharon Tucker 

Delegation Chair

Former U.S. Senator and Ambassador Joe Donnelly

Automatic Delegates

U.S. Rep. Andre Carson

Vice Chair Myla Eldridge

Shaw Friedman

David Frye

Lacy Johnson

U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan

Chair Mike Schmuhl

Deborah Simon

Patti Yount

Brian A. Howey is senior writer and columnist for Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs. Find Howey on Facebook and X @hwypol.

NIP & TUCK: Louisiana looks to mix of cuts, tax reforms

Posted on by David Jacobs

When it was clear lawmakers would not offer voters a new constitution, and there would be no package of Article VII amendments targeting finance and taxation, Speaker Phillip DeVillier reached out to his membership to explain the situation.

Just a week ago, DeVillier told reps the gap, whatever it ends up being, is due to the scheduled sunset of the .45 percent temporary state sales tax and a variety of other factors, like an expiring 2 percent tax on business utilities and the legislative decision to redirect vehicle sales taxes into transportation funding.

“But we have options,” the speaker added, “that can be considered that will balance the budget, including finding efficiencies in government and creating a more predictable tax structure for the state.”

In other words, spending cuts and tax reform — in that order, according to his statement.

As luck (or planning) would have it, Gov. Jeff Landry has given state agencies a mandate to tighten their belts.

The Division of Administration is forecasting a shortfall of about $340 million for the next fiscal year, according to Joint Budget Committee testimony on Friday. That’s less than what was projected earlier this year.

But there’s a major catch. 

The total doesn’t include $248 million in additional dollars for educational initiatives, including teacher pay stipends, that lawmakers would like to continue funding. Include those costs, and the total gap rises to approximately $588 million, which in turn — believe it not — is a bit higher than the $558.8 million shortfall the Landry Administration was anticipating in January. 

In response, over the next two months, Appropriations Chair Jack McFarland will bring int department and agency heads that receive the bulk of the state general fund dollars to present their suggestions to save money. He expects to have multiple agencies at the proverbial table each week. 

“We’re asking them to say, ‘Where can we do better?’” McFarland said. “Where can we save money rather than having to cut [services]?’”

The Department of Health is one obvious target. But McFarland hopes not to focus the brunt of the cuts on LDH, noting the importance of the department’s mission and its ability to draw down federal dollars that multiply state efforts. 

LDH did not respond to questions about whether there are significant savings to be found in their department, or whether the department could benefit from an overhaul, as is already happening at the Department of Transportation and Development; the Department of Energy and Natural Resources; and Louisiana Economic Development, among others. 

The results of DOTD’s reorganization study are due to the Legislature by January 15. But DOTD is largely funded by the state gas tax, so McFarland doesn’t anticipate giving it as close a look as the departments that rely on the general fund. 

Rep. Jerome Zeringue, who has chaired Appropriations in the past and remains on the committee, wants to hone in on statutory dedications and tax exemptions, while acknowledging that all of them have stakeholders ready to come to their defense. He said he supports dedicating auto sales tax revenue to roads and bridges, but suggests lawmakers may consider tapping the brakes on that plan and keeping some of the money flowing into the general fund for now. 

As for tax reform, a special session between now and next year’s regular fiscal session remains a possibility, though legislators want to know that there’s a clear plan in place for what they hope to accomplish. Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson is in the process of trying to figure out if there’s enough of a consensus to pass a meaningful package. 

Nelson is discussing proposals with legislators include reducing exemptions; taxing services or digital goods like streaming; and implementing a flat income tax rate of around 3 percent with a higher standard deduction. 

“If we can reach that consensus before the session next year, I think that there’s a good possibility we can have a special session,” the secretary said. 

Nelson told the Baton Rouge Press Club last week lawmakers wanted to reduce agency spending to pay for tax cuts. Asked this week how realistic a tax reduction is in the current budget environment, he said it depends on how you define a tax “cut.” 

If you’re using the current baseline, including the temporary taxes, a reduction is doable, he said, noting the surpluses of recent years. But if you let those taxes roll off, Nelson said, “I don’t think you can take tax cuts on top of tax cuts.” 

Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Chair Franklin Foil said he and House Ways and Means Chair Julie Emerson are working on holding a joint committee meeting in early September to hear more about tax credits and other issues that could be part of a tax reform package. 

The main reason to try and have a special session this year is if lawmakers decide constitutional changes are needed, Foil said. While it may be too late to get anything on the ballot in November or December, a fall session would give lawmakers time to send proposals to voters in March, he said; otherwise, a session early next year would work just as well. 

It’s been said that it’s a shame in politics to waste a good crisis. For Gov. Landry and others who may be looking to burnish their conservative credentials, making cuts that reduce the size and scope of state government could be appealing.

But you have to balance the political benefit of the cuts against the pain that they may cause to liberal and conservative voters alike, notes Dillard University professor and political analyst Robert Collins.

Plenty of Republican voters have kids in public universities, for example. 

Reducing the footprint of government may play well to out-of-state politicos who don’t have to live with the consequences, but to what end? Does Landry have national ambitions, as former Gov. Bobby Jindal did?

Collins doubts Landry has an immediate national possibility, but that doesn’t mean  

“You can cut, but you can be reasonable about it,” Collins said. “It’s a difficult balancing act.” 

Insider for August 15, 2024

Posted on by NC Insider

YOU DON’T SAY

“A lot of people want access to cannabis.”

Qualla Enterprises General Manager Forrest Parker, on the Cherokee Marijuana farm. (Asheville Citizen Times, 8/14/24)

Trump Rally

Bill Barrow, The Associated Press, 8/14/24

Donald Trump made little effort to stay on message Wednesday at a rally in North Carolina that his campaign billed as a big economic address, mixing pledges to slash energy prices and “unleash economic abundance” with familiar off-script tangents on Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ laugh, the mechanics of wind energy and President Joe Biden’s son.

The 75-minute speech featured a litany of broad policy ideas and even grander promises to end inflation, bolster already record-level U.S. energy production and raise Americans’ standard of living. But those pronouncements were often lost in the former president’s typically freewheeling, grievance-laden speaking style as he tries to blunt the enthusiasm of Harris’ nascent campaign.

Trump aired his frustration over the Democrats swapping the vice president in place of Biden at the top of their presidential ticket. He repeatedly denigrated San Francisco, where Harris was once the district attorney, as “unlivable” and went after his rival in deeply personal terms, questioning her intelligence, saying she has “the laugh of a crazy person” and musing that Democrats were being “politically correct” in trying to elevate the first Black woman and person of south Asian descent to serve as vice president.

When he was focusing on policy, Trump pledged to end “job-killing regulations,” roll back Biden-era restrictions on fossil fuel production and investments in green energy, instruct Cabinet members to use “every tool” to “defeat inflation” within the first year of a second term and end all taxes on Social Security benefits and income classified as tips. Specifically, he pledged to lower Americans’ energy costs by “50 to 70%” within 12 months, or a “maximum 18 months.”

But he immediately hedged: “If it doesn’t work out, you’ll say, oh well, I voted for him and he still got it down a lot.”

Trump spoke at Harrah’s Cherokee Center, an auditorium in downtown Asheville, with his podium flanked by more than a dozen American flags and custom backdrops that read: “No tax on Social Security” and “No tax on tips” — a scene that seemed to project the policy heft his campaign wanted Trump to convey.

Republicans had been looking for him to focus more on the economy than the scattershot arguments and attacks he has made on Harris since Democrats shifted to her as their presidential nominee. Twice in the past week, Trump has virtually bypassed such opportunities, first in an hourlong news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, then in a 2 1/2-hour conversation on the social media platform X with CEO Elon Musk.

Yet throughout his speech, Trump ping-ponged between his prepared remarks and familiar attacks — deviating from the teleprompter in the middle of explaining a new economic promise when something triggered another thought. He ticked through prepared remarks crisply and quickly. The rest was his more wide-ranging style, punctuated with hand gestures and hyperbole.

The latest attempt to reset his campaign comes in the state that delivered Trump his closest statewide margin of victory four years ago and that is once again expected to be a battleground in 2024.

Trump aides have long thought that an inflationary economy was an albatross for Democrats this year. But the event in Asheville only amplifies questions about whether Trump can effectively make it a centerpiece of his matchup against Harris.

The speech came the same day that the Labor Department reported that year-over-year inflation reached its lowest level in more than three years in July, a potential reprieve for Harris in the face of Trump’s attacks over inflation.

A Harris aide said Wednesday that the vice president welcomes any comparison Trump is able to make.

“No matter what he says, one thing is certain: Trump has no plan, no vision, and no meaningful interest in helping build up the middle class,” communications director Michael Tyler wrote in a campaign memo. [Source]

 

Election Polls

Will Doran, WRAL News, 8/14/24

Donald Trump is now trailing behind Kamala Harris in North Carolina and several other key swing states in the race for president, according to a new poll released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

It’s the first major poll of this election cycle that shows the Republican former president trailing his Democratic challenger in North Carolina. It was released the same day Trump gave a speech in Asheville, and just days after his campaign bought its first television ads in North Carolina — signs that the Trump campaign now sees North Carolina as being in play.

Trump was routinely favored over President Joe Biden in polls before Biden dropped out of the race on July 21. Multiple polls this spring and summer showed Trump up by nearly double digits over Biden in North Carolina. That was a stark contrast to 2020, when Trump won the state by just 1.5% of the vote.

But the Cook Political Report poll on Wednesday found Harris leading Trump by 2 percentage points — a 10-point swing in favor of Democrats from May, when its poll that month found Trump leading Biden by 8 points.

The poll of seven key swing states — North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — found Trump ahead in only Nevada.

“Harris’ success in closing the gap is driven by her consolidation of the Democratic base, and increased support among independent voters,” wrote Amy Walter, the group’s publisher.

Ahead of Trump’s speech in Asheville, local Democratic state Rep. Caleb Rudow told WRAL that when Biden was still in the race, the Buncombe County Democratic Party in Asheville had 20 volunteers. A week after Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris, he said, they had 140 volunteers.

“It’s seven times the number of volunteers out,” Rudow said. “And in states like North Carolina, where everything is really close, seven times the amount of energy makes a really big difference in elections.”

Harris plans to visit Raleigh on Friday, countering Trump’s Asheville visit.

Wednesday’s poll wasn’t the first sign that Harris’s candidacy has energized Democratic voters in North Carolina. A Morning Consult/Bloomberg poll conducted in late July showed Harris trailing Trump by one percentage point, gaining ground on the lead Trump held over Biden. And 65% of Black voters said they were more likely to vote now that Biden is no longer the Democratic nominee.

With North Carolina now appearing politically competitive once more, on Wednesday the GOP nominee for governor said his party has the winning message on the economy — always a key issue come election time.

Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson spoke in Asheville on Wednesday before Trump took the stage. He claimed to recently convince one Harris supporter to switch to Trump, by talking about inflation and the economy.

When she visits Raleigh on Friday, Harris is expected to roll out her own economic plan. It could set the tone for how much she plans to either continue Biden’s policies, or propose a new path forward. [Source]

 

School Bibles

T. Keung Hui, The News & Observer, 8/14/24

Newly released audio shows Michele Morrow, the Republican nominee to lead North Carolina’s public schools, wants Bible classes offered in every middle school and high school in the state.

A representative from a progressive super PAC approached Morrow at last month’s Republican National Convention to ask her about public schools teaching the Bible. Morrow responded by advocating having Bible elective classes in all secondary schools.

“I absolutely believe that we need to get elective Bible classes back in every middle and high school,” Morrow said in audio posted Tuesday morning by American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic super PAC.

American Bridge used the audio to criticize both Morrow and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is the GOP nominee for governor.

“While Michele Morrow might not want to talk to reporters, she’s making it clear to presumed supporters that she wants to push the Bible and Christianity on North Carolina’s children regardless of their religious background,” Philip Shulman, a spokesperson for American Bridge, said in a statement. “Michele Morrow and Mark Robinson have shown a disdain for religious freedom and, if given the chance, will push Christian nationalism as far as they can in North Carolina.”

Morrow is a homeschool parent, conservative activist, registered nurse and former Christian missionary who upset incumbent Catherine Truitt in the March GOP primary for state superintendent of public instruction.

She is running against Democrat Mo Green, the former superintendent of Guilford County Schools, and former executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, a group that funds progressive causes.

Morrow made national headlines after CNN reported on her past social media posts that talked about killing former President Barack Obama and encouraged President Donald Trump to use the military to stay in power in 2021. She has accused CNN of “gaslighting the public.”

Morrow’s campaign did not respond to an email from The News & Observer asking for more information on what she wants to be taught in the Bible classes.

In an interview Tuesday with WRAL, Morrow said she wants to ensure students can study the Bible. “It’s in our bylaws in North Carolina that if we wanted to study the Bible in terms of a historical text or because of legislative reasons or whatever it might be, that that could be an elective that students could choose to take if they wanted to take that,” Morrow told WRAL. “So I just want to expand that opportunity.” [Source]

 

Abortion Policy

Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, The News & Observer, 8/14/24

Progressive clergy in Raleigh are criticizing the Republican candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, for his comments about women, LGBTQ+ people and what they describe as Christian nationalism. And they are questioning Robinson’s apparent change of heart on the issue of abortion.

“Honestly, I have no faith in Mark Robinson’s new commitment to uphold the state’s current abortion law allowing access up to 12 weeks,” the Rev. Chalice Overy said. “And the reason I have no faith in this is because Mark Robinson has given no explanation of what has sparked his change of heart from earlier in the year, when he outlines a plan to get it down from 12 weeks to six weeks, and then go on from there,” she said.

Overy, associate pastor at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, said Robinson has “continually shown a disregard for the dignity and freedom of women, in particular, but a whole lot of groups.” She said that he does not represent all Christians.

Overy and other clergy spoke at a news conference Thursday in front of the N.C. Legislative Building organized by Progress NC Action.

The same group held an event with clergy in Greensboro, criticizing Robinson.

Overy referenced a new television ad in which Robinson says he will “stand by” the current abortion law, which bans abortion with exceptions after 12 weeks. That is a stark change from what his campaign described as his position only months ago, and what he has said for the past several years.

In the ad, Robinson and his wife talk about their “very difficult decision” to have an abortion 30 years ago, one that became a “silent pain between us that we never spoke of.” Robinson said that is “why I stand by our current law, and it provides common-sense exceptions for the life of the mother, incest and rape. Which gives help to mothers and stops cruel late-term abortions. When I’m governor, mothers in need will be supported.”

Robinson’s Democratic opponent in the governor’s race, Attorney General Josh Stein, has been airing an attack ad against Robinson featuring what he has said about abortion, including that women should keep their “skirt down.”

Asked for a response on the criticism of Robinson for his changed abortion stance, LGBTQ+ comments and Christian nationalism, Robinson’s campaign called Progress NC Action “completely out of step with the people of North Carolina.” [Source]

 

Antitrust Lawsuit

Ray Gronberg, Business NC, 8/14/24

A Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel recently handed Duke Energy a loss, reinstating a competing power provider’s antitrust lawsuit against it and instructing the trial judge who’s been handling the case to step aside. Authored by Fourth Circuit Judge Paul Niemeyer, the unanimous ruling held that there are “genuine issues of material fact” at stake that merit sending the court battle between Duke and NTE Energy to a jury.

That overturned earlier rulings from the trial judge, Trump appointee Kenneth Bell, who sided with Duke. Bell won’t preside over the case on remand, as Niemeyer and his colleagues ordered his removal from the litigation.

The Wake Forest-trained Bell had recused himself early in the case because a former law partner was representing Duke, but he returned to it after another judge also recused.

Though the previous conflict had been eliminated, Fourth Circuit precedent is that once a judge recuses from a case, he or she is out of it for good.

That “bright-line rule can be applied with ease and promotes the goal of ensuring public confidence in the impartiality of the judicial process,” said Niemeyer, a George W. Bush appointee to the Fourth Circuit bench.

The antitrust case concerns Duke’s response to competitive pressure from NTE, which in the 2010s built a gas-fired power plant near Kings Mountain and started selling electricity to a set of nine former Duke customers that included Western Carolina University. Aside from any prestige factor, Duke’s problem was the NTE’s facility and the follow-up it wanted to build near Reidsville were “more cost-efficient than Duke’s own plants,” Niemeyer said.

Duke nonetheless had most of its customers signed to long-term contracts that kept them from jumping ship.

Fayetteville was a major exception, with a supply deal that was set to expire in 2024, and it quickly became the major battleground for the two companies. Duke secured that flank in 2019, when it signed a new deal with the city. The company served up a discount on the remaining years of its predecessor contract, and agreed to pay a premium for excess electricity buys from what Niemeyer termed Fayetteville’s “very inefficient” Butler-Warner Generation Plant.

Being the newcomer, NTE wasn’t able to offer Fayetteville a discount on the last three years of its existing contract with Duke.

Moreover, there’s evidence Duke’s “blend and extend” strategy involved charging higher prices than need be so that it could offer discounts when the need arose, Niemeyer said. And company internal documents also told of a plan to “raise prices on other of Duke’s wholesale and retail customers to make up for the profit it lost on the Fayetteville deal,” Niemeyer said.

Meanwhile, the competitors were also at loggerheads about the Reidsville plant, which NTE reckoned would become the source of the electricity it would sell Fayetteville if it won that city’s business. The Reidsville plan stalled and Duke bumped it from the queue for a slot on its power-transmission network.

The key legal issue in the case is that Duke contends that all of its actions were “lawful in themselves,” and thus it couldn’t have committed an anti-trust violation. Bell agreed.

But writing for an appeals panel that also included Judges Stephanie Thacker (an Obama appointee) and Diana Motz (a Clinton appointee), Niemeyer said the Supreme Court has long recognized that a string of otherwise legal actions can add up to an antitrust violation when they serve an anti-competitive plan.

The facts supporting the parties’ conflicting positions, we conclude, are fairly disputed and therefore require a trial to resolve,” Niemeyer said. [Source]

PFAS Regulation

Peter Castagno, Port City Daily, 8/14/24

Environmental issues are a core theme of Sen. Michael Lee’s, R-New Hanover,  2024 reelection campaign. Port City Daily reached out to the senator’s office multiple times in the last week to ask for his response to environmentalists’ recent criticisms of his PFAS record; his team responded with a list of bills and accomplishments.

The senator’s office cited Lee’s leading role in appropriating funds for PFAS mitigation in local infrastructure, passing legislation, such as the Water Safety Act of 2018, and providing nearly $50 million to fund academic research through the NC Collaboratory. This is an organization that coordinates with state universities and governments to facilitate research that informs the state’s policy-making process.

Lee’s campaign expanded on his PFAS position in an advertisement that launched last month: “Senator Michael Lee took action. Holding polluters accountable, protecting us from harmful chemicals. Michael Lee delivered uniting scientists, engineers, and new technologies to clean our water. Pioneering solutions so impressive they’ll be used around the world.”

However, environmentalist groups including Clean Cape Fear, the Natural Resource Defence Council, the Southern Environmental Law Center and the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters argue Lee’s legislative record contradicts the claims of his campaign.

“The North Carolina General Assembly has yet to enact any legislation that would stop PFAS from getting into our environment in the first place, or to hold polluters responsible for the harm they have caused and continue to cause,” SELC legislative counsel Brooks Pearson told Port City Daily.

Clean Cape Fear — a Wilmington-based nonprofit co-founded by former mayor and state senator Harper Peterson, who competed against Lee in the 2018 and 2020 elections — criticized Lee’s recent PFAS ads in an article earlier this month. The group argued Lee should have leveraged his position as one of the state’s most influential lawmakers to advocate bills creating PFAS regulatory limits and liability.

The Water Safety Act of 2018, introduced by Lee, provided the first $5 million tranche to the North Carolina Collaboratory — Lee’s legislative efforts in 2021 and 2023 brought the total figure to around $50 million — as well as $2 million to help local governments connect residents to water utilities and $450,000 to Cape Fear Public Utility Authority to evaluate PFAS testing and treatment technologies.

The bill also authorized the governor to shut down companies like Chemours if unauthorized pollution does not stop. But critics, including Clean Cape Fear’s co-founder Emily Donovan, Duke University director of Environmental Law Ryke Longest, and the DEQ argue the bill did not actually expand or improve the state’s power to regulate polluters.

“Senate Bill 724 makes existing enforcement against Chemours plant harder, allocates millions of dollars to agencies with no enforcement authority, and creates uncertain liability for intermediaries who have treated wastewater from homes, businesses and military bases,” Longest wrote in a 2018 Fayetteville Observer op-ed.

Clean Cape Fear partnered with Duke University public policy researchers for a December 2023 study — “Examining North Carolina’s Insufficient Response to PFAS Contamination in Water Supplies” — that analyzed recent PFAS legislation and cited local legislators Lee, Rep. Davis Jr., R-New Hanover, Rep. Frank Iler, R-Brunswick, and Deb Butler, D-New Hanover, among state leaders on the issue.

The study categorized lawmakers that support or detract from PFAS limits in North Carolina. Lawmakers who pushed for bills focused on enforceable PFAS limits and corporate accountability were deemed “supporters”, while those who sponsored “less effective” bills focused on issues such as research grants were regarded as detractors. Lee was put in the latter category.

Donovan emphasized a provision in Senate Bill 658, sponsored by Lee last year, that would have funded a training facility for firefighters using PFAS-containing foam. New Hanover County Professional Firefighters Association president Benjamin Bobzien criticized the bill for turning firefighters “into human guinea pigs.”

“He’s not paying attention,” Donovan said. “He’s just rubber-stamping whatever is handed to him from God knows whoever is handing it to him. And then doing these really beautiful campaign ads, gaslighting our community that he’s a champion for us. No, this is total smoke and mirrors.”

Donovan, Pearson, and other environmentalists lauded scientists involved in the collaboratory for PFAS research and monitoring. However, the Clean Cape Fear co-founder raised concerns about leadership’s influence on research priorities — such as research and development for novel removal technologies that would benefit companies like Chemours — rather than seeking community input to use resources for immediate needs.

The organization’s executive director, Jeffrey Warren, is the former scientific adviser of Sen. Phil Berger.

Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, told NC Newsline in 2016 that she could not think of anyone who has had a more negative impact on the state’s environment than the collaboratory leader.

“Academic groups are supposed to be independent of political influence,” Donovan said. “The presence of someone like Jeff Warren does not instill confidence for many of us in the community.”

2015 emails obtained by investigative reporter Lisa Sorg show Warren assured Reidsville and Greensboro officials there would be no action to regulate 1,4-dioxane — another toxic compound highly concentrated in the Cape Fear River Basin — absent a federal mandate. He added regulation of the compound “has the potential to set an improper precedent.”

Warren worked as an adviser on bills including HB 819 in 2012, which banned state agencies from using sea level rise data in coastal development policy until 2016. “Deny science, and now you’re in charge of the science?” Donovan asked.

The collaboratory paid Thermo Fisher Scientific $3 million for five high-resolution spectrometers for PFAS research at universities including UNCW earlier this year. PCD reached out to the collaboratory to ask for details about funding for specific projects and contracts with private sector partners but did not receive an answer by press.

Publicly-funded utilities currently bear the cost of PFAS remediation. The DEQ has requested PFAS surface and groundwater standards that would require PFAS dischargers to install filtration technology to address emissions at the source and lower costs for ratepayers and taxpayers. The NC Chamber argues the standards could negatively impact the state’s manufacturing sector and has pushed to delay their implementation.

The NC Chamber noted Lee’s work to address New Hanover County’s water concerns in its 2020 endorsement of the senator. The organization also gave Lee a 100% career average for supporting Chamber-endorsed policies in its 2023 “How They Voted” annual report. 

The same report noted Rep. Ted Davis’ PFAS Pollution and Polluter Liability bill was “sidelined by Chamber opposition.” Davis reintroduced an amended bill this year but it did not move out of the House; Lee told PCD in June he hadn’t yet reviewed the legislation but would follow it closely. [Source]

 

Cherokee Marijuana

Will Hofmann, Asheville Citizen Times, 8/14/24

On an overcast August morning, Aaron Queen and Avery Wilnoty pick a trellis off the bright green cannabis stems and flowers on the Cooper’s Creek farm owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Once Queen and Wilnoty cut the plants, the cannabis is put on a small truck and taken across the 13-acre farm, where it is processed, trimmed and packaged for sale. Some of the plant is processed into a distillate, tested and then sent to the Great Smoky Cannabis Co. Dispensary about 9 miles away to be converted into products like cannabis infused chocolates, beverages and cereal bars.

It’s the lifecycle of the estimated 165,000 cannabis plants on the farm and is key to the massive marijuana play being made by Qualla Enterprises, an Eastern Band-backed company that has created North Carolina’s first medical and recreational marijuana market despite the drug’s illegal status in the state.

To develop their own marijuana company, the project has required the creation of a vertically integrated “seed to sale” market on the Qualla Boundary, the Eastern Band’s sovereign territory in the far-western counties of WNC, bordering the Great Smokies. 

The effort to launch the industry entails a massive grow farm, an independent Eastern Band-based cannabis regulatory system, a production and packing facility, an independent testing company and a 10,000-square-foot dispensary that contains a drive-thru, edible kitchen and a small grow room.

Qualla Enterprises General Manager Forrest Parker called the whole project the result of “a gigantic R&D process” that leveraged the dedicated work of employees, hired industry professionals and extensive funding from the Eastern Band with the hopes that a new marijuana market could launch the tribe into another era of extensive growth. To Parker, it’s clear based on outside research — and from the energy behind the project — that “a lot of people want access to cannabis.”

The U.S. cannabis industry has blossomed in recent years, with 24 states fully legalizing recreational sales and even more legalizing limited medical sales. In a 2023 study, Brightfield Group, a top cannabis research firm, estimated the nation’s cannabis industry could grow to over $50 billion in sales by 2028.

While the drug remains illegal in North Carolina, Parker pointed to the economic opportunities of a marijuana market in the state. In a 2023 study by HedgeRow Analysis, the firm estimated that the approval of just medical marijuana in the state could bring around $180 million in annual revenue within its first year. By its fifth year, the North Carolina medical market could expand to $650 million and is estimated to bring $65 million in annual tax revenues.

Before the vote to legalize recreational use, Qualla Enterprises made the pitch to enrolled Tribal members to legalize adult-use cannabis in a column published in Cherokee One Feather, the official media outlet for the Eastern Band.

The company wrote that the legalization of adult-use cannabis “represents another opportunity for our people to lead” similar to the legalization of gaming in 1993, which eventually resulted in the construction of the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort and Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino. Those operations have been reported to make over $500 million some years and are the only legal casinos in the state. Smoky Mountain News reported casino revenues were estimated to be around $423 million in the most recent Eastern Band budget.

Shortly after, the September 2023 recreational marijuana referendum passed with 70% of Eastern Band voters in favor of legalization. It’s a higher percentage of voters than any other recreational marijuana ballot referendums that have gone through state governments, Parker noted.

Parker, who is from Cherokee and graduated from Western North Carolina University, had previously traveled the country and experienced his own “profound” health impacts from cannabis. Now, he feels the job of guiding Qualla Enterprises offers the opportunity to have a “unique impact” as the fledgling Eastern Band marijuana industry comes into the limelight.

“To be creating this many jobs in a small community like this in rural Western North Carolina — that doesn’t happen every day,” Parker said. Of the company’s 124 employees, 105 are enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. [Source]

 

Escaped Inmate

Makiya Seminera, The Associated Press, 8/14/24

More than 24 hours after a prisoner serving a life sentence for murder escaped from a transport van, the local sheriff said Wednesday that they have “no concrete leads” on his whereabouts.

Ramone Alston, 30, escaped from the van on Tuesday as it arrived at the UNC Gastroenterology hospital in Hillsborough, North Carolina, where he was being taken for a medical appointment. He freed himself from his leg restraints and fled into the woods with handcuffs on, according to a news release from the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction.

Authorities brought in dogs and they did find tracks that led searchers north of the hospital, but the scent ran cold, Orange County Emergency Services director Kirby Saunders said at a Wednesday news conference.

The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are supporting Orange County deputies and other state agencies in the search. Helicopters have swept over the area and tips are being called in, but so far, there are “no concrete leads” on Alston’s whereabouts, Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood told the news conference.

There are about 105 people across the various agencies and offices working on the search, and more are on the way, according to the sheriff’s office. Blackwood urged residents near the hospital to check their home cameras for any evidence of where Alston went, and to stay vigilant. “He’s extremely cagey, extremely dangerous, and he has nothing to lose,” Blackwood said.

Alston has been serving a life sentence at Bertie Correctional Institution in Windsor since his conviction in the murder of 1-year-old Maleah Williams, who was shot on Christmas Day in 2015 from a passing car while she was playing outside her family’s apartment in Chapel Hill. She died three days later.

The transport officers involved are being interviewed to gather more details on Alston’s escape, Blackwood said. No one has been suspended, he said.

Alston has family and friends who live in the area, and Blackwood said they’ve contacted some family members, but their cooperation has been “varied.”

The reward for information leading to his capture has increased from $25,000 to $35,000 after a contribution from the U.S. Marshals Service, officials said.

While many calls from local residents haven’t been serious, the sheriff’s office has received a few tips about Alston being seen in Durham, and a team of investigators has been sent to the area to check them out, Blackwood said. [Source]

 

Battery Plant

Jack Hagel, WRAL News, 8/14/24

Edgecombe County is about to get an economic jolt. An industrial battery manufacturer is planning a high-tech plant that could bring roughly 1,200 jobs to the county, officials familiar with the project told WRAL News late Wednesday. The project — an expected investment of roughly $1.4 billion — would be one of the biggest economic development deals in eastern North Carolina and the latest to bolster the state’s roster of clean energy companies.

State and local officials are expected to announce the project as soon as Thursday, according to government officials who declined to name the company. Several officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to discuss the project.

The project, expected to be built on a 400-acre site between Tarboro and Rocky Mount, would be a redemption deal following a major economic letdown in the county.

Seven years ago, Chinese tire maker Triangle Tyre said it would build a $580 million manufacturing facility at the Kingsboro site, where it planned to create about 800 jobs. At the time, state officials heralded it at the time as the biggest planned manufacturing investment in rural North Carolina. But the company ended up canceling the project in 2022, citing a change in strategy to focus on its operations in China. The withdrawal came amid a trade dispute between China and the U.S.

“This is a game changer for the region,” state Rep. Shelly Willingham, D-Edgecombe, said Wednesday.

Even though it’s going to be located in Edgecombe County, the project is expected to offer employment opportunities to people beyond the county lines. “About 10 of the surrounding counties will be affected,” said Willingham, who declined to name the company or the nature of the project.

Willingham said the project is expected to also give a boost to community colleges, which will be involved in training workers. “There will be a lot of things that we think will come as a result of this company being located here — that we know will come,” he said.

The state Department of Commerce’s Economic Investment Committee is scheduled to hold a special meeting Thursday. Gov. Roy Cooper is also scheduled to make an economic development announcement Thursday at Edgecombe Community College. [Source]

CMS Error

Ann Doss Helms, WFAE Radio, 8/14/24

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials acknowledged Wednesday that the district has missed out on two years of grants for homeless students because of what CMS calls “a paperwork error under previous leadership.”

District officials now say they learned about the lost grants more than a year ago. WCNC broke the story.

CMS has almost 5,500 students considered homeless or lacking stable housing. The federal McKinney-Vento Act requires school districts to provide those students a range of services.

CMS acknowledged it received no McKinney-Vento grants for two school years, from 2023 to 2025. The district has not answered questions about how much money was involved, but sent a statement saying it represented “0.0038% of the total budget.” CMS also has not answered questions about who made the error — or even which previous leadership the statement refers to.

Superintendent Earnest Winston was fired in April of 2022. The McKinney-Vento grants were not cited in documents released about the cause of his firing. Hugh Hattabaugh stepped in as interim superintendent, then announced in November of 2022 that he was leaving about halfway through his 14-month contract. Crystal Hill took over as interim in January of 2023 and was hired as superintendent last summer.

The CMS statement says it has reallocated money to ensure the students get all the services they’re entitled to and added 33 social workers. [Source]

Rail Purchase

Steve Harrison, WFAE Radio, 8/14/24

The Charlotte City Council is scheduled to vote Sept. 9 on buying the O Line freight rail tracks from Norfolk-Southern — a major step towards building the long-delayed Red Line commuter train to Lake Norman communities.

Ed McKinney, who is the city’s point person for the transportation plan, said the agreement has been a long time coming.

Norfolk Southern had previously refused to sell or share the little-used line with the city.

“Take the big picture and step back,” he said, noting the city has been trying to get access to the line for more than 20 years. “This is an unprecedented opportunity at this point.”

The city hasn’t said how much it will spend to buy the line. Council members are scheduled to discuss the purchase in closed session before the final vote.

The news about the Red Line came during a discussion Tuesday with the council’s transportation committee about Charlotte’s overall transit and transportation goals. The city unveiled the framework for a new transit authority that would replace the city-run Charlotte Area Transit System. Officials also discussed plans to ask state legislators for permission to have a referendum for a one-cent sales tax increase to pay for transportation improvements.

Under the city’s proposal, 40% of new tax money would be spent on roads with only 40% spent on new rail transit. The rest would be spent on buses. That’s a big change from the initial plans, which called for spending upward of 80% of new tax money on new transit, including the $8 billion-plus Silver Line light rail. [Source]

 

Cisco Layoffs

Brian Gordon, The News & Observer, 8/14/24

On Wednesday, Cisco announced it will lay off around 7% of its global workforce in a move that will impact several thousand employees.

The number of affected workers in the Research Triangle, where the company has a major footprint, is not yet known. But the timing of these job cuts is clearer. Cisco said in a filing it expects to spend $1 billion in severance and other termination benefits from this restructuring, with between $700 million and $800 million of these costs realized in the current fiscal quarter.

“It really is about ensuring in a rapidly moving market that we serve that we’re able to shift resources into the most important areas,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins told investors during an earnings call Wednesday.

Two areas Cisco has prioritized are artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

Cisco did not answer The News & Observer’s request for details on the local impact of the announced cuts. In a statement, the company said “The care of our people is a top priority, and we will provide full support to our employees thoughout this process.” [Source]

540 Delay

WTVD News, 8/14/24

The new southern section of N.C. 540 will not open in August as recently stated by the North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA). This new section of the Triangle Expressway will extend the toll road from N.C. 55 in Apex to I-40 and U.S. 70 at the Johnston County line. There will be five new interchanges.

NCTA scheduled a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Aug. 27. The plan was to open the 18-mile section of toll road for the morning commute on Aug. 28. That would mean the new road would be open for the Labor Day holiday.

However, NCTA spokesman Logen Hodges said Wednesday that ribbon-cutting ceremony had been postponed indefinitely. Hodges said rain from Tropical Storm Debby caused erosion which will delay the opening of the toll road for at least two weeks. A new opening date has not been decided on, but Hodges said he expects it to be sometime in September.

“To prevent further erosion control issues and satisfy environmental protection requirements, all other work on the project needed to be paused until the requirements are met,” he said. “Safety is our first priority, and the project will open to traffic when we can do so safely.”

The new 18-mile highway is the first of the two-phase Complete 540 project. [Source]

Spring Lake Grant

Trey Nemec, CityView, 8/13/24

Spring Lake commissioners approved ordinances for several grant opportunities, appointed two individuals to town committee positions and discussed updates to the town’s current Code Enforcement and Ordinance guidelines during the board’s Monday meeting.

The grant was awarded by the Golden LEAF Foundation, a nonprofit organization established in 1999 with funding from the Masters Settlement Agreement. The funds will allow the municipality to complete community and infrastructure projects to help ease damage in the event of flooding, like that caused by Tropical Storm Debby last week throughout Cumberland County. The grant required a 10% match from the town’s stormwater fund, bringing the total budget for flood and stormwater mitigation to $825,000 for fiscal year 2024-25.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the use of a $250K grant from the N.C. Office of State Budget and Management to replace computer hardware and software within Spring Lake. The funds will allow the town to upgrade its technology, much of which is outdated, according to Town Manager Jon Rorie, and will allow the town to convert documents to a digital format.

Many of Spring Lake’s records and documents are hardcopy, kept in filing cabinets and boxes throughout the town, Rorie explained, noting the over 40 filing cabinets in town hall alone. Commissioners expressed excitement about digitizing the town’s recordkeeping, making it easier for officials and citizens to find the documents they need. [Source]

 

St. Aug Start

Martha Quillin, The News & Observer, 8/14/24

St. Augustine’s University has delayed for two weeks the start of the fall semester at the Raleigh school, citing ongoing funding and maintenance issues and some damage the president says was caused by Tropical Storm Debby.

Students will now move in on Aug. 27 and 28, and classes will begin Sept. 3. The historically Black university made the announcement Wednesday on its website, accompanied by a video by Dr. Marcus H. Burgess, who has been serving as interim president since December.

Burgess acknowledged the chaotic finances and run-down campus he took over eight months ago after St. Aug’s lost its accreditation and fired its former president.

“Bills had not been paid in years,” Burgess said he found when he assumed the job. “Facilities had not been taken the best care of,” with the heat, air conditioning and elevators failing in multiple buildings. Staff had not been paid and students were owed refunds.

“The good news is that since you left campus in March, we have been working,” Burgess said in the video.

The work includes:

  • Financial experts sorting through student accounts and faculty debts; ▪ Closing some buildings that were not up to standards
  • Repairing and upgrading some buildings and amenities, including student laundry facilities
  • Graduating the largest cohort St. Aug’s has had in a decade in May
  • Regaining accreditation in July
  • Securing corporate and private donations to help with the school’s backlog of expenses [Source]

Beaufort Docks

Mark Hibbs, Coastal Review Online, 8/14/24

A split Beaufort commissioners board on Monday heeded the public’s increasingly vocal demands to slow down the process of selecting a new concessioner to operate the town docks.

Beaufort commissioners voted 3-2, with commissioners Charles “Bucky” Oliver and Dr. John LoPiccolo opposed, to terminate all discussions and rescind a letter of intent that was written to “the company of interest as it relates to future management of the Beaufort Docks.”

That was how Commissioner Paula Gillikin worded her two-part motion. The second part of her motion was to direct the town manager and/or the assistant town manager to work with Beaufort Waterfront Enterprises, the current and longtime operator of the docks, on a 12-month lease extension to be approved by commissioners no later than Sept. 9.

The action was in response to public demands for transparency in the selection process, which had been moved behind closed doors with town officials deeming it an “economic development” matter and therefore confidential.

The move was also in response to objections to apparent conflicts and legal cases in other coastal communities involving the “company of interest.” [Source]

 

Robin Sage

Matthew Sockol, WNCN News, 8/13/24

Students at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School based out of Fort Liberty will participate in the Robin Sage training exercise between Aug. 23—Sept. 5 as the final test of their Special Forces Qualification Course training.

The school says all Robin Sage movements and events have been coordinated with public safety officials throughout and within the towns and counties hosting the training. Residents may hear blank gunfire and see occasional flares. Controls are in place to ensure there is no risk to persons or property. Residents with concerns should contact local law enforcement officials, who will immediately contact exercise control officials. [Source]

 

HPU Bonuses

David Mildenberg, Business NC, 8/13/24

High Point University announced a five-year bonus plan for its 2,000 faculty and staff members that would total about $19,000 for each of those sticking around. President Nido Qubein announced the plan Tuesday, citing it as a “major thank you” that was also practical for the university. “Our team is extraordinary, and God has richly blessed our institution,” he said at the university’s annual faculty and staff kick-off meeting.

Full-time employees are in line to receive $3,848 in bonuses per year, which could total $19,240 over the next five years. There’s a historical reason for the number: HPU was founded in 1924 and will celebrate its centennial anniversary in September.

High Point called the bonus a rarity in higher education, noting that many colleges are closing or consolidating. During the pandemic, some U.S. colleges and universities provided bonuses rather than raises, often for economic reasons.

Employees also can get a discretionary $600 for use on campus or with local merchant partners in High Point. [Source]

NC Insider Legislative Report

LB: LEGISLATIVE BUILDING. LOB: LEGISLATIVE OFFICE BUILDING

HOUSE CALENDAR

Monday, Sept. 9, 2024

House Convenes at 12 P.M.

SENATE CALENDAR

Monday, Sept. 9, 2024

Senate Convenes at 12 P.M.

HOUSE & SENATE: Reconvening allowed under provisions of SB 916, if no sine die adjournment previously adopted.

  • Monday, Sept. 9 to Wednesday, Sept. 11
  • Wednesday, Oct. 9
  • Tuesday, Nov. 19 to Friday Nov. 22
  • Wednesday, Dec. 11 to Friday Dec. 13

Legislative Studies and Meetings

LB: LEGISLATIVE BUILDING. LOB: LEGISLATIVE OFFICE BUILDING

Thursday, August 22

  • 2 p.m. | America’s Semiquincentennial Committee, 1228/1327 LB

Thursday, August 29

  • 1 p.m. | Agriculture and Forestry Awareness Study Commission, Ed Emory Auditorium, Kenansville.

N.C. Government Meetings and Hearings

BOLD ITEMS ARE NEW LISTINGS

Monday, Aug. 19

  • 2 p.m. | The Executive Committee of The North Carolina Partnership for Children meets, The meeting will be held via Zoom. You may contact Yvonne Huntley at 984.221.1242 or email at [email protected] for additional information.

Tuesday, Sept. 3

  • 1:30 p.m. | The Accountability Committee of The North Carolina Partnership for Children meets, The meeting will be held via Zoom. You may contact Yvonne Huntley at 984.221.1242 or email at [email protected] for additional information.

Friday, Sept. 6

  • 10 a.m. | The Finance and Audit Committee of The North Carolina Partnership for Children meets, The meeting will be held via Zoom. You may contact Yvonne Huntley at 984.221.1242 or email at [email protected] for additional information.

Tuesday, Sept. 10

  • 8:30 a.m. | The Fund Development Committee of The North Carolina Partnership for Children meets, The meeting will be held via Zoom. You may contact Yvonne Huntley at 984.221.1242 or email at [email protected] for additional information.

Tuesday, Sept. 17

  • 10 a.m. | The North Carolina Partnership for Children Board of Directors meets. You may contact Yvonne Huntley at 984.221.1242 or email at [email protected] for additional information.

UNC Board of Governors

23 S. WEST STREET, SUITE 1800, RALEIGH

Wednesday, Sept. 11

  • Meeting of the Board of Governors, TBA.

Thursday, Sept. 12

  • Meeting of the Board of Governors, TBA.

Thursday, Oct. 17

  • Meeting of the Board of Governors, TBA.

Wednesday, Nov. 13

  • Meeting of the Board of Governors, TBA.

Thursday, Nov. 14

  • Meeting of the Board of Governors, TBA.

N.C. Utilities Commission Hearing Schedule

DOBBS BUILDING, 430 NORTH SALISBURY STREET, RALEIGH

Tuesday, Aug. 20

  • 6 p.m. | Public Witness Hearing – Application for Transfer of Public Utility Franchise and Approval of Rates of HISCO East, LLC in Carteret County to HISCO I in Carteret County | W-1297 Sub 17, W-1344 Sub 0
  • 6 p.m. | Public Witness Hearing – Application for Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and for Approval of Rates to Provide Sewer Utility Service to Currently Served Cape Ponte Village Subdivision, Additional Phases for the National Park Service, Harkers Island RV Park and a Fe | W-1344 Sub 1

Wednesday, Aug. 21

  • 7 p.m. | Public Witness Hearing – Application for General Rate Increase for Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. | G-9 Sub 837

Thursday, Aug. 22

  • 7 p.m. | Public Witness Hearing – Application for General Rate Increase for Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. | G-9 Sub 837

Other Meetings and Events of Interest

BOLD ITEMS ARE NEW LISTINGS

Thursday, Aug. 15

  • 4:30 p.m. | Gov. Roy Cooper to make an economic development announcement, Edgecombe Community College, Tarboro.

Friday, Sept. 6

Friday, Sept. 27

  • 2024 Lumbee Powwow, Lumbee Tribe Cultural Center, 638 Terry Sanford Drive, Maxton.

CD3 race still too close to call, winner likely to be named next week

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff
Results in the CD3 primary race recount between Democrats Yassamin Ansari and Raquel Teran will be announced August 20, per an order from a Maricopa County Superior Court judge Tuesday. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes petitioned the court for an automatic recount given the tight margin between the two candidates on Monday after Maricopa County’s canvass of the election. Ansari maintained a lead over Teran since the initial ballot drop, but the final result certified by the county tightened the margin between the two candidates to 42 ballots, or one-tenth of a percentage point. If Ansari is ultimately victorious, she will face Republican Jeff Zink, and likely will win given the district’s heavy Democrat lean. The court will announce recount results at 11:30 a.m. on August 20.

AG wants environmental review of Pinyon Plain Mine

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff
Mayes is asking the U.S. Forest Service to conduct an environmental impact study on Pinyon Plain Mine, despite reassurances from Hobbs’ office that the mine is safe and regularly inspected by state officials. In a letter sent Tuesday, Mayes expressed concerns about the mine’s impact on the water supply of northern Arizona tribal communities living near it. According to Mayes’ letter, the Forest Service has not conducted an environmental review of the mine in 38 years, and the original review “is based on an outdated, inaccurate understanding of the risks posed by the Mine.” The mine had been dormant for decades, but uranium mining began in December after prices for the mineral went up. Since mining began, environmental and Indigenous rights groups have raised concerns about the impact Pinyon Plain could have on the area’s water supply, communities and historical landmarks. The mine is close to both the Grand Canyon and the newly designated Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. In June, several groups delivered a petition to Hobbs asking her to shut down the mine. Her office told our reporter at the time that the mine was “one of the most closely regulated mines in the country” and received routine inspections from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Earlier this month, the owner of the mine, Energy Fuels Resources Inc., received criticism from the Navajo Nation for hauling uranium through its land without advance notice. Hobbs helped negotiate a pause on uranium hauling so the company and Navajo Nation officials could discuss the issue. A spokesperson for Hobbs’ office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Mayes’ letter.

High court leaves ‘unborn human’ in abortion rights measure

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff
The phrase “unborn human being” can stay in the legislative council’s analysis of the Arizona Abortion Access Act, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Wednesday on a 5-2 vote. The court found the language “substantially complies” with a state law requiring analyses included in the state’s publicity pamphlet to be impartial, reversing an earlier ruling from Superior Court. In July, the legislative council presented a draft analysis of the Arizona Abortion Access Act, which states current law as prohibiting abortion if the gestational age of the “unborn human being” is more than 15 weeks. In describing the measure in later paragraphs, the analysis instead uses the word “fetus.” Despite pushback, the Republican members of the legislative council adopted the draft analysis. Arizona for Abortion Access then sued the legislative council for violation of a state law requiring analyses of ballot measures to be “impartial” and claimed terms like “unborn human being” are politically and emotionally charged. Republican members of the legislative council pointed to the cited state law, which uses “unborn human being” and contended the phrase must be neutral due to its inclusion in statute. Though Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Whitten noted the statute does use “unborn human being,” he was “not persuaded that every word chosen by the legislature in every statute it enacts is intended to be neutral in character. There is no requirement that the legislature chose its words in such a way, and plenty of evidence that they sometimes do not.” Whitten wrote, “The term ‘unborn human being’ is packed with emotional and partisan meaning, both for those who oppose abortion and for those who endorse a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion,” and entered an order requiring the legislative council to strike “unborn human being” from the description. Legislative council then appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court, again noting the phrase’s presence in existing state law. Arizona for Abortion Access again argued the language, both in state statute and in the analysis were still partial. A majority of the state high court sided with the legislative council majority and issued an order allowing “unborn human being” to remain in the ballot analysis. Justice Clint Bolick recused himself from the matter, given his spouse, Shawnna Bolick, is one of the legislative council members and was replaced by former Justice John Pelander. Arizona for Abortion Access asked Justice William Montgomery to recuse himself, given past anti-abortion comments, but he declined to step aside from the case. Chief Justice Ann Timmer and Justice James Beene dissented. The order noted a more full opinion explaining the decision would be issued “in due course.”

Partisans, abortion rights advocates react to Supreme Court ruling

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff
Following the ruling allowing “unborn human being” to remain in the Arizona Abortion Access Act analysis in the state publicity pamphlet, Dawn Penich, a spokesperson for Arizona for Abortion Access, said the ruling “means that Arizona voters won’t get to learn about the questions on their ballot in a fair, neutral and accurate way, but will instead be subjected to biased, politically-charged words developed not by experts but by anti-abortion special interests to manipulate voters and spread misinformation.” She added the group was “deeply disappointed in the ruling, but will not be deterred from doing everything in our power to communicate to voters the truth of the Arizona Abortion Access Act and why it’s critical to vote YES to restore and protect access to abortion care this fall.” Toma said in a statement to Arizona Capitol Times the state Supreme Court’s ruling was “correct.” “The ballot analysis prepared by the Legislative Council is intended to help voters understand current law. Arizona’s 15-week law protects unborn children, while the abortion initiative essentially allows unrestricted abortions up until birth,” Toma said. “It’s really that simple.” In a text to our reporter, Petersen added, “Common sense and good judgment prevailed.”   

School district investigating legislator for sexual harassment

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff
Tolleson Union High School District has hired an outside firm to investigate sexual harassment allegations against Luna-Nájera, who also serves as the board’s president. The school district’s governing board vice president Kino Flores said during a Tuesday board meeting that the board is proceeding with an independent investigation after district Superintendent Jeremy Calles came forward with allegations that Luna-Najera had made unwanted advances towards him from December to April. He told 12News that he believed Luna-Nájera was retaliating against him for rejecting her advances, and he believed she tried to get the board to terminate his position as superintendent. “At no point has the board considered terminating the superintendent’s employment,” Flores said Tuesday. “That has never been on the table.” The board’s Friday emergency meeting only had one agenda item – Calles’ employment – the board members discussed in executive session. Calles told our reporter Tuesday he couldn’t speak further on the matter while it’s under investigation, but 12News reported he said Friday that Luna-Nájera should resign. Luna-Nájera didn’t respond to requests for comment after Tuesday’s meeting. “This matter is being treated seriously, and is under investigation by the district, and everyone is afforded their due process,” L. Contreras said in a statement Wednesday. “We want to be clear, we do not condone harassment of any kind, but we will not provide any additional comment until the investigative process plays out and the facts are on the table.” Contreras is Luna-Nájera’s seatmate, and both just advanced to the general election in the blue Legislative District 22. Two school board members of Littleton Elementary School District also called for Luna-Nájera’s resignation. Board members Markus Ceniceros and Rachel Barnett wrote a letter to the board Monday expressing their concern with the “troubling” allegations against Luna-Nájera. “The misuse of power for personal gain, especially in a manner that creates a toxic environment, is unbecoming of someone in Dr. Luna-Nájera’s positions. It erodes trust in district leadership and sets a harmful example for our students,” Ceniceros and Barnett wrote in their letter. Littleton Elementary School is a “feeder” district for the high school district since many students at Littleton go on to attend Tolleson Union. Both Littleton board members who sent the letter have a connection to former state Rep. Leezah Sun, who Luna-Nájera replaced after Sun resigned from the House following a House Ethics investigation that determined she threatened a Tolleson lobbyist. Ceniceros managed Sun’s primary campaign for state Senate during the primary 2024 primary, and Barnett was the mother involved in a child custody dispute in which Sun improperly intervened in June 2023. Sun allegedly attempted to prevent the transfer of the children per a court order, and Barnett was the mother in the case. Barnett told The Arizona Republic in November that she spoke to Sun on the day of the transfer but did not ask her to intervene. “We know the integrity of this investigation is critical to our teachers, to our staff, to our parents and to the community that we serve,” Flores said. “We have reached no conclusion regarding the allegations. We will not rush to judgment and we have resolved to consider all information available and get all facts. Only then, will we take action.”

Survey reveals shifting parental perceptions over children’s postsecondary career paths

Posted on by Matt Resnick

A growing number of parents across Kansas are in favor of their children attending technical colleges or gaining job skills via apprenticeships as opposed to obtaining bachelor’s degrees, according to a study presented to the Kansas State Board of Education on Tuesday. 

Kristin Brighton, representing Manhattan-based marketing firm New Boston Creative, presented the findings from a recently conducted “parent perception” survey. The study was  a collaboration between New Boston Creative and the state Board of Education.. 

Brighton, vice president of the Manhattan-Ogden School Board, contrasted those results with a survey distributed to parents by numerous K-12 school districts in 2019. That  survey netted around 19,000 respondents, while the spring 2024 survey collected responses from roughly 5,000 parents. 

The survey asked parents a set of questions related to postsecondary plans and how they would define success for their eldest child, age 18 or under. The results showed shifting perceptions related to postsecondary plans in the five years since the first survey. For instance, the number of parents hopeful their child would go straight from high school to a four-year bachelor’s degree program dropped to roughly 51% from the 62% favoring the four-year degree in 2019. 

“That’s a very significant change,” Brighton said. 

The number of respondents reporting that they would be “very happy” to see their child attend technical college rose to 28.7% from 17.1% in 2019. Additionally, 5.5% of those surveyed said they would like to see their child enter an apprenticeship program — up 2.3% from the initial study. 

The percentage of parents who thought their child would enroll in a university after high school graduation dropped to 44% from 52% in 2019. 

Brighton also launched the HirePaths marketing campaign aimed at helping parents navigate postsecondary career exploration for their children. The goal of the program, per board documents, “is to retain Kansas youth in the state after the completion of their formal education.”

Brighton added that she’s previously worked closely with the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce. 

“The business community was really feeling like we needed different skills in our next generation of workers in order to have a successful Kansas economy,” she said.

Brighton said the Department of Education and other state agencies have made noticeable strides in revamping career and technical education programs in K-12 school districts, but not enough has been done to get the word out to parents. 

“If we don’t get tuned into all these new opportunities and change the public perception that the only way to be successful in the United States and Kansas is to have a four-year college degree, then all of these new efforts are never going to be successful,” she said.

Board member Ann Mah, District 4, said she wasn’t too surprised by the survey’s findings, adding that parents she’s spoken with have indicated they are more open to seeing their children explore alternative career paths that are not dependent on the competition of a four-year degree.  

“The survey was pretty well in line with what we were thinking in terms of more kids going to tech or community colleges,” she said. 

Board member Danny Zeck, District 1, questioned the overall percentage of those surveyed since 5,000 responding parents represent about 1% of the 450,000 students in Kansas.

“So how do we really know that this data really means much?” he asked.

According to her PowerPoint, Brighton attributed the marked dip in respondents to “survey fatigue” and districts not distributing the survey to parents. 

“But frankly, you don’t need nearly that many people to have a good survey,” Mah said. 

The 2024 study concluded that parents have developed a more positive perception of apprenticeships and technical training — as well as cultivated positive views of skilled trade careers. 

Matt Resnick is a statehouse reporter at State Affairs Pro Kansas/Hawver’s Capitol Report. Reach him at [email protected].

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