Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Five measures certified in three states for the 2023 ballot
- Willie Wilson leads Chicago mayoral candidates in fundraising while Mayor Lori Lightfoot leads in spending
- Learn how school board elections played out in the 2022 midterms with On the Ballot, our weekly podcast
Five measures certified in three states for the 2023 ballot
Here’s an update on this year’s certified ballot measures.
As of Jan. 25, five statewide measures have been certified for the ballot in three states. That’s one more than the average number certified at this point in odd-numbered years from 2011 to 2021.
Three new measure was certified last week:
- Wisconsin Question 1, Conditions of Release Before Conviction Amendment
- Wisconsin Question 2, Conditions for Cash Bail Amendment
- Wisconsin Work Requirement for Welfare Benefits Advisory Question
Wisconsin voters will decide those measures on April 4, the same date as a state supreme court election. We wrote about the relationship between the ballot measures above and the state supreme court election in the Jan. 23 Brew.
Signatures have been submitted and are pending verification for two initiatives in Maine:
- Maine Voter Approval of Borrowing Above $1 Billion by State Entities and Electric Cooperatives Initiative
- Maine “Right to Repair Law” Vehicle Data Access Requirement Initiative
Additionally, enough signatures were verified for three indirect initiatives in Maine and Ohio to send them to the legislature:
- Maine Creation of Pine Tree Power Company Initiative
- Maine Prohibit Foreign Spending in Elections Initiative
- Ohio Marijuana Legalization Initiative
In general, with indirect signatures, if a legislative body doesn’t enact the initiatives within a set time period, the initiative is then placed on the ballot.
An average of 33 statewide measures were certified in odd-numbered years from 2011 to 2021. By this time during odd-numbered years from 2011 through 2021, an average of four statewide measures had been certified for the ballot.
Willie Wilson leads Chicago mayoral candidates in fundraising while Mayor Lori Lightfoot leads in spending
This year won’t be as packed with elections as 2022, but that doesn’t mean the election calendar is empty. In a little over a month, voters in Chicago, Ill., will go to the polls to decide one of this year’s biggest mayoral contests.
Nine candidates are running in the election—incumbent Lori Lightfoot, Jesus Garcia, Brandon Johnson, Paul Vallas, Kambium Buckner, Ja’Mal Green, Sophia King, Roderick Sawyer, and Willie Wilson.
Although elections are officially nonpartisan, candidates are typically affiliated with one of the major political parties. Eight of the current candidates are affiliated with the Democratic Party and one is an independent. The last Republican mayor of Chicago, William Thompson, left office in 1931. To learn about the partisan affiliation of each candidate, click here.
Lightfoot, Garcia, Johnson, and Vallas have performed the best in polling and received the most media attention.
Here’s an update on fundraising in the race, through the most recent filings on Dec. 31, 2022.
Wilson has raised $6.1 million. WTTW, Chicago’s PBS television station, reported that $5 million of that total was self-funded.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot spent $4.3 million, $2 million more than her next closest competitor.
Four other candidates raised more than $1 million: Lightfoot ($4.5 million), former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas ($2.2 million), Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson ($1.8 million), and U.S. Rep. Jesus Garcia ($1.5 million).
Three other candidates spent more than $500,000: Wilson ($2.0 million), Vallas ($1.0 million), and Johnson ($578,000).
If no candidate receives a majority of votes in the general election, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff on April 4. The last two mayoral elections (2019 and 2015) resulted in runoffs. In 2019, all 14 candidates, including those who participated in the primary, spent more than $38 million combined.
We’ll have more on this race in a future edition of the Brew. For now, you can learn more about the candidates, fundraising, issues, and what’s at stake at the link below.
Learn how school board elections played out in the 2022 midterms with On the Ballot, our weekly podcast
On the Ballot, our weekly podcast, takes a closer look at the week’s top political stories.
In this week’s episode, staff writer Doug Kronaizl walks us through what we’ve learned about last year’s school board elections. Doug digs into why recall campaigns against school board members spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic and helps us understand the core themes that animated school board elections last November (you can also subscribe to Hall Pass for weekly updates on school board politics).
Plus, Footnote Facts with Paul Rader returns to tell us about the 50 longest-serving governors in U.S. history who served non-consecutive terms.
New episodes of On the Ballot are posted every Thursday afternoon. If you’re reading this on the morning of Jan. 26, you’ve still got time to subscribe to On the Ballot on your favorite podcast app before this week’s episode drops!
Click below to listen to older episodes and find links to where you can subscribe.
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