Kentucky Rep. Robert Goforth, who won reelection despite facing criminal charges for allegedly choking a woman during a domestic dispute, resigned from his House District 89 seat.

A House panel dismissed a citizen’s impeachment petition seeking his removal from office after determining impeachment does not apply to legislators under the state’s constitution.

Gov. Andy Beshear will set the date for a special election to fill the seat.

Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Senate President Don Harmon issued a joint proclamation calling on the Legislature to convene on August 31 for a one-day special session to make changes in the new state legislative district map after official 2020 population numbers were released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The House and Senate approved the state legislative map on May 28 with only Democratic votes, and Gov. JB Pritzker signed the map into law on June 4.

Republicans have filed a lawsuit in federal court to invalidate the map and give the redistricting commission remapping authority, claiming if a valid redistricting plan with the full force and effect of law was not completed by June 30, the Illinois Constitution shifts the responsibility for drafting a plan from the General Assembly to a redistricting commission.

Cleveland City Council adopted rule changes at the August 18 meeting to allow public comment at regular council meetings beginning at the September 20 Meeting.

The new rules make public comments the fifth item in the order of business at council meetings.

Anyone may speak, regardless of whether they are a resident of Cleveland and public comments will not be limited to current agenda items, but anyone who wants to speak must register.

Registration will open at noon on Wednesdays before a Monday council meeting and will close at 2:00 pm on the day of the council meeting.

Speaking slots of up to three minutes each will be allotted by order of registration up to a maximum of 10 speakers.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation changing the vendor disclosure due date.

Effective immediately, Senate Bill 581 requires the Vendor Payment Program financial backer disclosure to be filed on August 1 of each year for the previous fiscal year.

The former deadline was July 1.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a proclamation to schedule a special election for House District 37 on September 14 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Rep. John Landon on July 29, 2021.

Iowa law requires a special election to be called within five days following a vacancy in the Iowa legislature.

There is no primary, and candidates will be nominated directly by political parties.

The winning candidate will serve the remainder of Landon’s term, which runs through 2022, and the seat will come up for election again next year.

In the Sterling Heights, Michigan nonpartisan mayoral primary election incumbent Mayor Michael C. Taylor received the most votes and will face Ken Nelson in the Nov. 2 general election.

The City Council will also be elected on Nov. 2 when voters will choose from the 12 candidates receiving the most votes in the primary.

In Detroit’s nonpartisan mayoral primary election, incumbent Mayor Mike Duggan, seeking his third term, overwhelmingly won the day with Anthony Adams coming in second.

Duggan and Adams will vie for Mayor in the Nov. 2 general election.

Incumbent Janice M. Winfrey received the most votes and will face off against Denzel Anton McCampbell for City Clerk in the Nov. 2 election.

And Proposal P which would have added 47 new elected positions and 102 new appointed positions to the city’s government, was overwhelmingly rejected by voters.

Two special primaries were held yesterday to determine who would be on the ballot for the Nov. 2 special election to fill two vacant state senate seats.

For Michigan State Senate District 8, Democrat Martin Genter and Republican Douglas Wozniak won their respective special primary elections to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Pete Lucido.

They advance to the Nov. 2 special election with Andrew Kamal, who is running as an independent.

For Michigan State Senate District 28, Democrat Keith Courtade and Republican state Rep. Mark Huizenga won their respective special primary elections to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Peter MacGregor.

Republicans currently have a 20-16 majority in the Michigan State Senate.

Mike Carey, a coal lobbyist backed by former President Donald Trump, won the Republican primary to succeed former Rep. Steve Stivers over 10 other candidates for the Ohio Congressional District 15 seat.

Carey will face Democratic state Rep. Allison Russo, a health policy consultant who won the Democratic nomination, on Nov. 2.

Cuyahoga County Council member Shontel Brown defeated former state Sen. Nina Turner in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Ohio Congressional District 11 to succeed former Rep. Marcia Fudge.

Brown will be on the ballot on Nov. 2 with Laverne Gore, the business owner, consultant, trainer and community activist who won the Republican nomination.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation creating an elected school board for Chicago Public Schools and increasing the size of the board.

The first election will be held in November 2024 to elect 10 board members, with 11 members including the board president to be appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who currently appoints all of the existing board’s seven members.

Chicago voters will elect the full slate of 21 board members beginning in 2026.

House Bill 2908 also includes language to prevent individuals with conflicts of interest from serving on the board and will be effective June 1, 2022.

The North Dakota Ethics Commission unanimously approved an exception to the gift ban for food or beverage with a value of $10 or less, excluding gratuity, purchased for a public official in conjunction with an informal social and educational event.

The purchased food and beverage must be consumed during the event and a state resident must be present but is not required to be the purchaser of the food or beverage.

This new exception is effective immediately.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed Executive Order 127 calling for a special session of the Legislature to begin Tuesday, July 27 to consider a proposal to invest more than $500 million in funding for K-12 schools, the University of Wisconsin and Technical College systems, special education funding, and per pupil aid.

North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger approved petitions for term limits, changes to the constitutional amendment process, and to recall state House District 24 Rep. Dwight Kiefert.

The term limits petition would limit the governor and legislators to eight years of service, though lawmakers could serve up to eight years each in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The measure also prohibits the Legislature from proposing a constitutional amendment to eliminate the term limits in the future.

The petition to change the process for constitutional amendments would raise voter approval from a simple majority to 60% and limit ballot measures to a single issue.

The petition by a group of lawmakers to recall Kiefert is in response to his vote to expel a colleague accused of sexual harassment earlier this year.

He is one of several representatives who were censured for the vote to expel Rep. Luke Simmons.

Each petition group has one year to gather the required number of signatures.