2016 elections

Municipal

See also: United States municipal elections, 2016 and Mayoral partisanship

Who runs America's cities and counties?

Only 16 of America's 100 largest cities hold partisan elections, but 94 of the mayors in those cities were affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican parties at the beginning of 2016.

Democratic mayors oversaw 67 of the 100 cities, including nine of the 10 biggest cities, while Republican mayors led just 27 of them. Democrats held a higher percentage of mayoral offices in big cities (67 percent) than seats in the U.S. Senate (44 percent), U.S. House (43 percent), state legislatures (43 percent), or governor's mansions (36 percent).

In 2016, there were 23 mayorships up for election. Of the incumbent mayors, 12 were Republican, 10 were Democratic, and one was nonpartisan. These positions accounted for 44.4 percent of all Republican mayors, 14.9 percent of Democratic mayors, and 33.3 percent of nonpartisan mayors. This put Republicans on the defensive in the 2016 elections.

Elections to watch

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer (R)

San Diego, California: Republicans were able to retain control of the mayor's office in America's eighth-largest city—the largest city to hold a mayoral election in 2016. Entering 2016, San Diego, with its approximately 1,330,000 residents, was the largest city in the nation with a Republican mayor.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer was endorsed by the Republican Party and won a special election in 2014 after former Mayor Bob Filner (D) resigned from office due to a sexual harassment scandal.^[1] The city swung between Democratic and Republican nominees over the previous four presidential elections, with a majority of residents casting ballots for George W. Bush (R) in 2000 and 2004 and then Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012.

Faulconer won re-election by receiving more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary election on June 7, 2016. He defeated two Democratic challengers, former California State Assembly member Lori Saldana and Ed Harris, the latter of whom was endorsed by the San Diego County Democratic Party. Neither of the Democratic candidates received more than a quarter of the total vote.

Five of the nine city council seats were also up for election, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016.^[2] Democrats held a narrow five-seat majority on the city council before the election. Three seats were won outright in the June primary election, two by Republican incumbents and one by a Democratic newcomer filling a seat previously held by Democrats. Of the two remaining seats up for election, both were held by Democrats. The District 9 race featured a pair of Democrats in the general election, so it could not change party control. The District 1 race, however, included Democrat Barbara Bry and Republican Ray Ellis in the general election. That council race therefore determined whether Republicans would take control of the council.^[3]

Stockton mayoral candidate Michael Tubbs (D)

Stockton, California: Mayor Anthony Silva (R) faced a tough challenger in his re-election bid. City Councilman Michael Tubbs (D) received more than a third of the vote in a crowded primary on June 7, 2016, which surpassed the mayor's vote total. Although the election itself was officially nonpartisan, the partisan affiliations of both candidates was well-publicized. Tubbs defeated Silva with more than 70 percent of the vote in the general election on November 8, 2016.

Mayor Silva ousted the city's previous mayor, a Democrat, in 2012 by criticizing the incumbent's failure to prevent the city from declaring Chapter 9 bankruptcy in the same year. At the time, it was the largest city in the United States to declare bankruptcy. Stockton's fiscal woes were attributed to the 2007 collapse of a once-robust housing market and large commitments to public pensions.^[4][5] Stockton emerged from bankruptcy in February 2015 following an increase in its sales tax and new business development in the city.^[6][7][8]

In his candidate statement, Councilman Tubbs wrote, "Elected to serve on the City Council in 2012, I have spent the past several years helping our community bounce back from record homicides and bankruptcy."^[9] His statement referred to Stockton being listed as the eighth-most violent city in the United States in 2012 by Forbes.^[10] Stockton's violent crime rate was higher than cities of similar population in the United States, though these cities experienced significant changes in their rates. Lexington, Pittsburgh, and St. Paul had lower rates in 2012 than in 1999. Stockton, Anchorage, Toledo, and Cincinnati had higher rates in 2012 than in 1999. Stockton's violent crime rate remained more than double the rate of each comparable city in 2012.

Mayor Silva claimed the FBI Uniform Crime Report published in 2015 showed the city had "its lowest crime rate in the past 15 years" in 2014.^[11] According to a Ballotpedia fact-check analysis, this statement was true but only if the totals for both property crimes and violent crimes were combined. The FBI report does not combine the two crime rates. According to the FBI's report, property crime declined in 2014 but the violent crime rate increased. Click here to read the full fact-check analysis of Silva's statement.

Courts

See also: Local trial court judicial elections, 2016

Partisanship in judicial elections

Courts and judges are meant to embody justice, equal application of the law, and the absence of outside considerations such as politics and partisanship. However, purely impartial judges are not born on the bench. The processes by which judges take office varies significantly across the country. Many local judges are appointed by governors or state legislatures, while other judges are elected. Although some local judicial elections are nonpartisan, 20 states do hold partisan elections for at least some local judges.

Eight states use partisan elections for all trial court judges, and seven of those states—Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia—held elections in 2016. An additional 12 states—Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, and Vermont—also held partisan judicial elections in 2016.

In a 2002 case, Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, the U.S. Supreme Court voted in a 5-4 decision that judicial candidates held the First Amendment right to comment on contentious political or legal issues. The majority opinion of the court stated:

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia (d. 2016)

The combination of this decision and increased political spending opened the door for partisan issues to take on a greater importance in local court elections across the country.

Elections to watch

Tennessee: A set of 10 Tennessee judgeships were up for partisan primary election on March 1, 2016, but only a Republican primary was held. No Democrats filed for any of the 10 courts, eliminating the necessity for the party to hold a primary election. Four of the 14 general or limited jurisdiction judgeships up for general election on August 4, 2016 were nonpartisan. The remaining 10 judgeships were won by Republicans.

Texas: Although 295 Texas local judgeships were up for partisan election in 2016, only 73 of the races required a primary election on March 1, 2016. The primary runoff election for 20 judgeships across the state was held on May 24, 2016.

There were 56 district courts and 17 county courts with contested primaries, but just two of the 73 primaries featured both Democratic and Republican candidates. More than 97 percent of the primaries, therefore, had only one political party with multiple candidates competing for the position. Of all 295 seats, 44 district court judgeships and six county court judgeships held contested general elections on November 8, 2016. Therefore, only 16.9 percent of general and limited jurisdiction judicial elections held in Texas in 2016 featured candidates from both parties competing with one another.

School boards

See also: School board elections, 2016

School board majorities at stakes

Debates between Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., regarding the scope of the U.S. Department of Education or in state legislatures over education reform are commonplace. Partisan battles on the matter of K-12 education extend all the way to the local level through school board elections. Elected school boards govern most public school districts, and, by extension, the education of tens of millions of American children each year.

President Barack Obama (D)

Only 94 of America's 1,000 largest public school districts hold partisan elections. Like city elections, however, nonpartisan school board elections frequently feature partisan elements. Local branches of the major political parties—or partisan state legislators—often make endorsements or financial contributions to school board candidates. In 2016, common issues of contention between school board candidates affiliated with the Democratic or Republican parties included charter schools, teacher merit pay, and Common Core.

Education historian Diane Ravitch

The partisan battles lines are often murky when it comes to education, though. President Barack Obama's (D) education agenda included increased federal support for charter school expansion, despite education historian Diane Ravitch's assertion that charter schools are "the darlings of Republican donors and candidates."^[14][15]

Since its founding in 2007, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) drew heavy criticism from other Democratic organizations and teacher unions due to its support for school choice programs and standardized testing.^[16][17] DFER describes itself as "Democrats leading a political reform organization that cultivates and supports leaders in our party who champion America's public school-children."^[18] The Democratic Party of California denounced the group in 2013 and claimed that DFER "is funded by corporations, Republican operatives and wealthy individuals dedicated to privatization and anti-educator initiatives, and not grassroots democrats or classroom educators."^[19]

Therefore, partisan affiliations do not always reflect school board candidate positions on education reform issues. Teacher unions tend to support candidates in favor of expanding the existing public education system and modifying recent reforms such as standardized testing practices, whereas education reform organizations frequently support candidates campaigning for significant overhauls of the public K-12 system and alternatives to it, such as school choice and charter schools. Competitive school board elections often center around conflicts between these two groups as well as the more traditional partisan battles.

Elections to watch

Buffalo Public Schools: Six of the nine seats on Buffalo's school board were up for general election on May 3, 2016. In 2014, a closely contested election resulted in a reversal of the board's governing majority and the ousting of Superintendent Pamela Brown. Another competitive contest in 2016 also resulted in a power shift after two members of the board's majority were defeated.

Buffalo school board member Barbara Seals Nevergold

The following three members of the board's five-person majority bloc were up for re-election: Jason McCarthy, Carl P. Paladino, and James Sampson. In 2010, Paladino was the Republican nominee in New York's gubernatorial election, but he lost to Governor Andrew Cuomo (D). The other three seats up for election were held by members of the board's four-member minority faction.

Control of Buffalo Public Schools, New York's second-largest school district, hinged on the election. The loss of a single seat by the majority faction would flip control of the board, while a series of losses by the minority faction would dwindle its membership to former board President Barbara Seals Nevergold alone. Individuals disinterested in joining either faction—as well as those intent on starting a new faction—could have also joined the board and thereby tilted the scales of power.

Although Paladino narrowly won re-election, McCarthy was defeated, and Sampson also lost a write-in bid after being removed from the ballot. Minority faction members Theresa Harris-Tigg and Sharon Belton-Cottman both ran unopposed and won re-election. The board's two new members, Paulette Woods and Jennifer Mecozzi, were endorsed by the New York State United Teachers and sided with Harris-Tigg and Belton-Cottman, who both received the same endorsement. The governing majority of the board therefore flipped as a consequence of the election, with the former minority faction taking power with six of nine seats.

Local reporters described the board as "widely known for a unique brand of divisiveness and infighting that has resulted in about a dozen legal challenges involving its members."^[20] After taking power in 2014, the board's majority bloc undertook several new initiatives, including an effort to open more charter schools in the city.^[21] The 2016 flip was the second consecutive election cycle in Buffalo that featured a change in the governing majority of the school board.

Ballot measures

See also: Local ballot measure elections, 2016

Direct democracy as a partisan tool

15 Now logo

Many battles over ballot measures center around political issues with partisan angles, such as fracking, marijuana, and the minimum wage. Organizations such as the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), and minimum wage reform advocacy group 15 Now attempted to promote national political agendas in local ballot measure elections nationwide in 2016.

Although political parties do become involved with some local measures, it is most often issue-based organizations aligned with either the Democratic or Republican parties that spend significant resources to support or oppose ballot measures. Even local measures without a direct connection to liberal or conservative policies can become partisan battlegrounds. For example, measures to change local zoning laws regarding land use and development frequently pit Republican-aligned business interests against Democratic-aligned environmentalist groups.

Nevertheless, each measure must be examined on an individual basis; it is common for individuals and organizations affiliated with the same political party to disagree with one another about a particular measure. Proponents of a policy reform, such as a minimum wage increase, may oppose certain measures that would increase the minimum wage due to nuances in the measure, such as the measure's timeline or scope.

Elections to watch

Jacksonville Councilman Bill Gulliford (R)

Jacksonville anti-discrimination measure: In Jacksonville, Florida, a referendum to assess voter opinions regarding a city ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression was considered for the ballot in 2016. The city council rejected an ordinance designed to expand existing anti-discrimination laws to LGBT residents in 2012, but a March 2015 poll found that 62 percent of city residents supported such an ordinance.^[22] In July 2015, a Ballotpedia research study found that 71 of America's 100 largest cities prohibited private employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and that 69 of those cities also prohibited discrimination based on gender identity.

Jacksonville was the third-largest city in the United States with a Republican mayor prior to the 2016 elections. Republicans also controlled the city council with 12 of its 19 seats. The idea of a voter referendum was proposed by Councilman Bill Gulliford (R) and met opposition from both Councilman Tommy Hazouri (D) and Councilman John R. Crescimbeni (D). Gulliford stated that a referendum would provide a clear direction for the city council's decision for or against enacting an ordinance, but Hazouri responded, "That’s why we’re all elected, to make those tough decisions."^[23] Crescimbeni expressed doubt that the result of a referendum would be conclusive enough to provide the council with a clear and final direction on the issue. The city council did not take a vote on the voter referendum in time for it to go on the ballot in 2016.^[23]

Background

Understanding political partisanship at the local level is not always intuitive. In 2012, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney handily defeated President Barack Obama (D) in Texas with over 57 percent of the vote. No Democratic candidate had won a statewide election in Texas since 1994.^[24] Despite that, the four largest cities in Texas—Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin—all had a majority of residents voting Democratic in both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. As a columnist with The Atlantic wrote, "Partisan lines that once fell along regional borders can increasingly be found at the county level."^[25]

Each municipality is a unique entity with a different mixture of partisanship in terms of its elected officials and residents, but some trends may be discerned. Big cities tend to have more liberal populations and elected officials, while more rural areas tend to have more conservative populations and elected officials.^[26]

The following two statistics illustrate this divide:

• In 2016, 67 mayors in America's 100 largest cities by population were affiliated with the Democratic Party. Governing magazine claimed, "Cities have been magnets for younger, more diverse populations that tend to be socially liberal. This makes the Republican Party, with its national image of social conservatism, a tough sell."^[27]
• In 2012, approximately 78 percent of counties voted for the Republican nominee in the 2012 presidential election.^[28] Most American counties were rural, indicating that most rural municipalities leaned Republican.^[29]

According to a 2012 New York Times report, more than 80 percent of American cities held nonpartisan elections for public office.^[30] Nevertheless, a column in The Wall Street Journal claimed that nonpartisan elections made "voters less informed, less likely to vote and would create a less competitive atmosphere in down-ballot races."^[31] Research studies indicated that requiring candidates to affiliate with a political party could provide voters with useful contextual information. Although local elections and candidates may have appeared entirely distinct from the polarizing atmosphere of state and national politics, partisan affiliations and ideology still held an important role.

Since Ballotpedia's coverage of local politics began in 2013, many elections featured either closely contested partisan battles or local elections dominated by a single party. The following section describes what happened in several local elections in 2015 as potential precursors for the partisan battles that took place in 2016.

2015 examples

Municipal election in Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry (R)

Jacksonville, Florida, became the third-largest city in the United States with a Republican mayor—behind only San Diego and Indianapolis—after an extremely close election on May 19, 2015. Jacksonville was the 13th-largest city in the nation at that time, with a population of 842,583. Republican challenger and businessman Lenny Curry narrowly ousted Democratic incumbent Alvin Brown in his bid for a second term. Brown had interrupted a recent tradition of Republican control of Jacksonville's mayoral office when he was first elected in 2011; the city had previously elected only Republican mayors since Ed Austin in 1991.

In the primary election on March 24, 2015, Brown and Curry defeated Republican city council member Bill Bishop and independent candidate Omega Allen. Following the primary, Bishop recanted an earlier statement that he would not endorse a candidate and instead endorsed Brown, the Democratic incumbent, over Curry, his fellow Republican challenger. General election polls showed a dead heat between Brown and Curry—and as a result, major political figures such as former U.S. President Bill Clinton (D), then-Texas Governor Rick Perry (R), and Florida U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R) and Bill Nelson (D) became involved in the election. Curry ultimately defeated Brown with 51.3 percent of the vote. Republicans also retained control of the city council, although their majority dropped from 13-6 to 12-7.

Indianapolis Mayor Joseph Hogsett (D)

Municipal election in Indianapolis, Indiana

In the same year that Republicans won back control of Jacksonville, they lost their hold on the mayor's office in Indianapolis, which was then the second-largest city in the United States with a Republican mayor. Indianapolis was the 12th-largest city in the nation at that time, with a population of 843,393. Mayor Greg Ballard (R) refrained from a re-election bid after eight years in office, leaving the position vacant. Former U.S. Attorney Joseph Hogsett (D) overwhelmingly defeated local businessman and Iraq War veteran Charles Brewer (R), who received less than 38 percent of the vote on November 3, 2015. Hogsett also outperformed Brewer in terms of fundraising. His campaign raised nearly $4.5 million and spent over $4 million on his candidacy, while Brewer raised and spent only $1 million.^[32][33]

The city council elections, which were the first to use a newly redistricted map of council districts, were more competitive than the mayoral race. Local Democrats filed a lawsuit in 2012 to invalidate the new map, but the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in favor of its implementation in 2014. In addition to changing the geographic composition of city council districts, the map also eliminated its four at-large seats. Three of those seats were held by Democrats, and one was held by a Republican. The Democratic majority on the council survived the election, keeping a one-seat edge as the governing body shrank from 29 to 25 seats.

School board election in Jefferson County, Colorado

A team of anti-incumbent candidates nicknamed "The Clean Slate" swept all five seats on the Jeffco Public Schools Board of Education on November 3, 2015. Only two of the seats were up for regular general election, but the other three were added to the ballot after a large-scale recall effort targeted the three incumbents who constituted the board's governing majority. Residents voted to recall all three members of the board's majority bloc with more than 63 percent of the vote, and "The Clean Slate" candidates were elected to replace both them and the two former members of the board's opposition faction, neither of whom had decided to run for re-election.

A local organization, Jeffco United for Action, led the recall effort and submitted more than double the required petition signatures for each targeted school board member. Before the petitions were filed, the 2014-2015 school year proved contentious. Students protested and teachers staged "sickouts" in response to new board policies on curriculum review and teacher merit pay. The majority bloc—Julie Williams, John Newkirk, and Ken Witt—were all elected in 2013 after campaigning in favor of reforms in the district. Superintendent Cindy Stevenson resigned shortly after that election due to the new board majority's desire for a change in district leadership.

The election received state and national attention, with The Denver Post editorial board weighing in against the recall effort and deeming it "nakedly political."^[34] Local political analyst Eric Sonderman called Jefferson County the "ground zero for all kinds of political wars" in Colorado and highlighted that the county was evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.^[35] The Washington Post referred to the Jeffco election as a "proxy war" featuring Americans for Prosperity (a conservative political advocacy group founded by Charles and David Koch) backing the board's reform efforts versus liberal teacher unions supporting the recall activists and the "Clean Slate" candidates.^[36]

See also

Local Politics	2016 Election Analysis
Municipal government Local courts School boards Local ballot measures Local recalls	Municipal elections, 2016 Local court elections, 2016 School board elections, 2016 Local ballot measure elections, 2016 Political recall efforts, 2016	Local: Money in local elections Local: Preemption conflicts between state and local governments Municipal: Partisanship in United States mayoral elections Municipal: Race, law enforcement, and the ballot box School boards: Education reform at the state and local levels Local ballots: Using local measures to advance national agendas

Footnotes

v • e Ballotpedia's coverage of local politics Other coverage Elections • Federal politics • State politics • Public policy • Influencers • Fact check • News Local coverage Municipal government • School boards • Local courts • Local ballot measures • Local recalls 2024 elections Municipal elections • Mayoral elections • School board elections • Judicial elections • Local measure elections • Recall elections Lists Top counties • Top 100 cities by population • Top 200 school districts by enrollment • Courts and judges by county • Local elections by year • List of local ballot measures by state • Political recall efforts by state Analysis Preemption conflicts between state and local governments • Partisanship in United States municipal elections • United States school shootings and firearm incidents, 1990-present