Democrats keep key statewide offices in North Carolina, Asheville continues repair of water system
North Carolina Democrats keep key statewide offices
Democrats in North Carolina emerged from election night with key victories up and down the ballot. But they failed to break Donald Trump’s hold on the battleground state for a third straight time as he cruised to a second term.
The results — still unofficial as of Wednesday — saw Democrats keep hold of critical statewide offices, win the state’s sole competitive U.S. House race and gain just enough support to potentially weaken a Republican stranglehold in the statehouse…
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson defeated his House colleague, U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, in the race for AG, coming away with 51.3% of the vote. Mo Green, running to oversee public schools, earned 51% of the vote over Morrow. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall narrowly eked out another term, and state Sen. Rachel Hunt took the lieutenant governor’s race.
In a redistricted congressional map, North Carolina’s sole competitive U.S. House seat also stayed in Democratic hands. U.S. Rep. Don Davis was set to narrowly prevail over Republican challenger Laurie Buckhout.
Democrats might have weakened GOP hold on N.C.’s General Assembly
Republicans will remain in power in both houses of the North Carolina legislature when lawmakers convene in January, but they appear to have lost their veto-proof supermajority in the state House after Tuesday’s election.
In the current General Assembly, the GOP holds exact 60% supermajorities in both the House (72-48) and Senate (30-20). As of early Wednesday morning, however, unofficial results appeared to show that Democrats had picked up a net gain of one seat in the House, thus reducing the majority to 71-49.
“For too long, the supermajority has operated without checks, pursuing extreme agendas that left too many North Carolinians behind,” House Minority Leader Robert Reives said in a statement late Tuesday night.
“Tonight, voters made it clear that they want a government that prioritizes working families, access to quality education, affordable healthcare, and the safeguarding of our fundamental rights.”
The national Democratic Leadership Campaign Committee issued a statement that said the results mark “a monumental shift in the balance of power in North Carolina and is a testament to the DLCC’s work alongside many partners and allies to challenge unchecked Republican power in the state.”
— NC Newsline
Asheville continues to repair water system
As the murkiness of North Fork Reservoir continues to improve — some residents noticed clearer tap water over the weekend — the City of Asheville is pursuing a filtration plan from the Army Corps of Engineers that could be in place by the end of the month.
“Some good news is Water Resources now has a second option at its disposal for treating the turbid water at North Fork reservoir,” city Water Reources Department spokesperson Clay Chandler said at the Monday Buncombe County Helene briefing. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the early stages of implementing an alternative treatment project that could possibly — and I want to stress possibly — be operational in very late November, very early December. That’s based on information the Corps of Engineers has given us.”
The city has installed turbidity-reducing curtains in North Fork, which supplies 80 percent of Asheville’s drinking water, and it has completed two rounds of treatment with aluminum sulfate and caustic soda, which cause coagulation of sediments and reduce sedimentation. That allowed the city to put 10 million to 15 million gallons of treated water a day into Asheville’s system over the weekend, which likely accounted for the clearer water customers say they saw over the weekend, Chandler said.
The Corps of Engineers system will rely on mobile treatment units, which will be staged at North Fork in a clearing above the dam. The exact number of the units, which Chandler described as “generally shaped like a shipping container,” and precise layout are still being determined. He said the city hopes the system is operational by early December.
— Asheville Watchdog
GOP breaks Democratic dominance in state legislatures
Running for vice president raised Tim Walz’s national profile, but now he has to return to his day job as governor of Minnesota. He’s going to find the next two years a lot more frustrating than the last two, according to Governing.
Since Democrats took full control of the Legislature in 2022, Walz has been able to sign any number of progressive bills on issues including abortion and transgender rights, as well as major spending increases for education and transit. But on Tuesday, Republicans won three additional seats in the state House, throwing that chamber into a tie and bringing the governor’s legislative agenda to a screeching halt.
“I would argue that Gov. Walz is dramatically weakened as a governor as a result of this,” says David Schulz, a political scientist at Hamline University in St. Paul. “His star, I think, is dramatically diminished.”
Republicans have dominated legislative politics ever since the 2010 elections, controlling a majority of legislative chambers around the country and, heading into this election, trifectas with both legislative and gubernatorial power in 23 states.
Tuesday’s results did nothing to weaken their longstanding strengths, despite heavy spending from the Democratic Party and allied groups. Democrats went into the election with 17 trifectas but lost two of them.
— Governing
Majority of ballot measures to protect abortion rights passed
On Tuesday evening, voters in 10 states cast their ballots to decide on the fate of abortion rights. In three of those states, voters rejected a constitutional right to abortion.
But residents in seven states — Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York — approved ballot measures to establish or protect abortion rights.
Missouri and Montana have been reliably red states for decades, voting for Republican presidential candidates since 2000.
— Route 50
Florida rejects partisan affiliation being on ballot for school board candidates
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, This amendment would have made district school board elections partisan again with candidates' political parties listed with their names on ballots, the way they were before voters decided to make them nonpartisan in 1998.
Instead, school board elections will remain nonpartisan after voters rejected the measure with 45% of the vote, according to Popular Information (Ballot initiatives in Florida need 60% of the vote to pass.)
If Amendment 1 had passed, millions of Florida voters would have been unable to vote in school board primary elections, as voters in Florida can only vote in a primary election if they are affiliated with a political party, HuffPost reported. This would have affected 30% of Florida voters.
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