Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves called a special election to be held to replace House District 23 Rep. Jim Beckett.

House District 23 covers portions of Grenada, Calhoun, Lafayette, and Webster counties.

The seat became vacant when Beckett resigned to become the director of the Mississippi Public Utilities Staff.

The special election will be held on January 10, 2023.

The special session of the Delaware General Assembly scheduled to convene October 26 was canceled.

Lawmakers planned to consider a bill related to health coverage changes for retired state workers, but a state superior court judge ordered a temporary halt to the state’s plan to switch insurance plans for retirees, rendering discussion of the bill moot.

Coverage under the current health plan extends for another year.

While the General Assembly as a whole will not convene, the Senate will hold a special session to consider the confirmation of several Gov. Carney appointees.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is planning to call another special session to address the property insurance industry.

The governor is working with lawmakers to schedule the upcoming session.

While no confirmed date has been announced, DeSantis indicated lawmakers could convene sometime after the November 8 election and before the end of the year.

City Council approved a special election to fill the empty District 6 seat on April 4, 2023, with a runoff taking place June 27 if necessary.

The election follows Nury Martinez’s resignation after a leaked conversation about redistricting was made public.

In the recording, Martinez with fellow council members Gil Cedillo and Kevin De Leon were heard using racist and demeaning language when discussing how to manipulate the city’s redistricting process.

After pressure for all three to resign, only Martinez has stepped down.

Anaheim City Council has voted to modify the city’s Sunshine Ordinance in response to the Angels Stadium corruption case.

The change mandates city employees must retain emails on their server for at least two years.

The new ordinance makes certain violations of the lobbying code misdemeanors and requires all reports filed by the lobbyists be done so under penalty of perjury.

The new ordinance also changes the due dates for quarterly reports from the last day of the month to 30 days from the end of the quarter.

The third special session of the Hawaii Senate on judicial appointments adjourned sine die October 20.

The appointments considered were nominees Timothy E. Ho for District Court of the First Circuit; John Alberto Montalbano for District Family Court of the First Circuit; and James S. Kawashima for the Circuit Court of the First Circuit.

Lobbyists and lobbyist employers who engage in lobbying activities or who make expenditures for the purpose of attempting to influence legislative action considered during a special session must file a special report on or before November 19, covering the period from May 1 through October 20.

The Hawaii Senate convened a third special session on October 19 to consider and confirm judicial appointments.

The appointments being considered are nominees Timothy E. Ho for District Court of the First Circuit; John Alberto Montalbano for District Family Court of the First Circuit; and James S. Kawashima for the Circuit Court of the First Circuit.

Lobbyists and lobbyist employers who engage in lobbying activities or who make expenditures for the purpose of attempting to influence legislative action considered during a special session must file a special report within 30 days of adjournment sine die of the special session, covering the period from May 1 through adjournment sine die of the special session.

The adjournment date of the third special session has not yet been announced.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he plans to call a special legislative session on December 5 to tackle California’s escalating gas prices.

Currently, California’s average gas price is consistently over $2 more than the national average.

Newsom has requested the Legislature to approve a new tax that would require oil companies to pay back excessive profits to consumers.

Georgia State Rep. Henry “Wayne” Howard died on October 13. Howard represented the 124^th District, which covers portions of Augusta-Richmond County.

He was running unopposed in next month’s midterm election after also running unopposed in the Democratic primary.

A special election to fill the seat will be held on December 20, 2022.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted a preliminary injunction enjoining recently enacted restrictions on campaign contributions to judicial candidates.

The order by Judge John J. Tharp, Jr. enjoins Illinois from prohibiting judicial candidate political committees from accepting contributions from any out-of-state-person and from imposing limits on the amount a single person can contribute.

The ruling is effective for the 2022 judicial elections.

On November 8, Arizona voters will decide on a campaign finance ballot measure that would require disclosing names of original campaign donors.

Proposition 211 would require that anyone making independent expenditures of more than $50,000 on a statewide campaign or $25,000 on a local campaign to disclose the names of the money’s original sources, which would be defined as the persons or businesses that earned the money being spent.

Organizations that fail to disclose would face a fine equal to the amount contributed, or up to three times that amount.

Proposition 211 would apply to corporations, nonprofit groups and charities that currently are not required to disclose the names of the people who give money to political campaigns that the organization backs.

The proposition would pertain only to spending on political advertising and would be administered by The Citizens Clean Elections Commission.

Delaware lawmakers will convene for a special session of the General Assembly on October 26.

During the special session, lawmakers will focus on easing the transition for retirees from a state-funded health care plan to a Medicare Advantage plan.

The special session comes in response to a lawsuit filed by a retiree advocacy group contesting the transition.

The Philadelphia Board of Ethics revised a regulation governing coordinated campaign expenditures.

Regulation 1 considers expenditures to be coordinated if they are made based on instructions received from a campaign.

A public communication from a campaign may constitute instructions if the communication includes a suggestion the electorate should be made aware of the information and the manner in which the information should be presented (e.g., “voters need to hear”).

The presumption of coordination can be refuted by demonstrating there was an independent basis for the expenditure.

The revised regulation took effect October 3.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1439, expanding pay-to-play regulations.

The prohibition on agency officials accepting a contribution of more than $250 during and following a proceeding involving a license, permit, or other entitlement for use is extended by the bill from three months to 12 months following the final decision.

The bill removes the exception for elected local government officials, applying to them the same restrictions as state officials.

The bill also creates a duty for a party to a proceeding to disclose whether that party or the party’s agent has made a contribution of more than $250 in the 12 months before the proceeding.

This bill becomes effective January 1, 2023.