State Senator David Dutremble has announced his resignation from the senate after serving there for the past four years. Dutremble cited the demands of splitting his time between working as a firefighter and senator as the primary reason for his resignation.

Governor LePage will call for a special election to fill the senate seat, but has not yet announced a date.

The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly voted to call for a special election to elect a mayor for the remainder of the current term. Deputy Mayor Mary Becker stepped in to the role in November following the passing of Mayor Greg Fisk. The special election will be held Tuesday, March 15. Because Becker was serving as Assemblymember for District 1 when she became mayor, there is now a vacant seat on the Assembly.

Interested applicants for the seat will be interviewed during a Special Assembly meeting on Monday, January 11. On Tuesday, January 12, the Assembly will hold a Special Assembly Meeting with the Juneau Legislative Delegation and will conduct a public hearing followed by Assembly action regarding appointment to the vacant District 1 seat.

With the Liberal Party taking office in Canada, a new process for appointing unelected Senate position is taking effect. Under the new process, an independent advisory board will use merit-based criteria to present a list of five potential candidates for each vacancy to Prime Minister Trudeau.

This new measure was motivated by the desire to have a more independent and non-partisan Senate.

Senators from the Liberal Party caucus were expelled last year after accusations of expense account abuse.

A territorial general election will be held on Monday, November 23.

The Commissioner of the Northwest Territories issued the Writs of Election for the 2015 Territorial General Election following the dissolution of the 17th Legislative Assembly on October 25.

The Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, won the October 19 general election in Canada by a landslide, taking 184 seats. Only 170 seats are needed to form a majority government. Stephen Harper, the Conservative Prime Minister, was unseated after three terms and almost 10 years in office.

Trudeau has stated plans to reduce greenhouse emissions, legalize marijuana, and improve infrastructure.

Photo of Justin Trudeau by Alex Guibord on Wikimedia Commons.

A special election has been scheduled for November 3, 2015, to fill the vacant House District 23 seat.

Candidates had until September 14 to file to be on the ballot. Write-in candidates must file their declarations by September 25.

State Rep. Michael Shaw, who was in his fourth term, resigned his position because he will be moving out of the district.

A special election for state House District 5 has been scheduled for November 3, 2015 to coincide with the regular municipal general elections.

The seat was held for more than 10 years by Rep. Chuck Soderberg, who resigned to take a vice president position with the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives.

The Office of the Secretary of State is currently working on setting the deadline for candidates to submit their nomination papers.

The Oregon Office of the Secretary of State has ruled a recall campaign against state Sen. Floyd Prozanski did not violate election law to collect the signatures it turned in.

This ruling means the recall effort will be able to continue.

The secretary of state has until Monday to check the 10,027 signatures collected. In order for a recall election to be called, there need to be 8,415 valid signatures from voters in the senator’s district.

If there are enough valid signatures, the election would have to be held before October 23.

A special election has been scheduled for November 3, 2015, for the House District 19 seat. The seat was left vacant when state Rep. William Noon passed away from cancer.

His widow, Jean Noon, an organic sheep farmer, was chosen by Democratic caucus to run in the special election.

The Republican caucus chose Matthew Harrington, a police officer, as their candidate.

Photo of Rep. William Noon courtesy of the Maine House of Representatives website.

Elizabeth Brown, daughter of Sen. Sherrod Brown, will replace Michelle Mills on the November ballot in the race for Columbus City Council. Mills recently announced her resignation from council effective September 4, 2015.

Though no reason was given for her resignation, Mills was one of four members of council who attended the Big Ten Championship football game with lobbyist John Raphael. Raphael is part of a federal bribery investigation involving the city’s former red light camera vendor.

A by-election for the riding of Calgary-Foothills will be held on September 3, 2015.

Former Progressive Conservative Leader Jim Prentice vacated the seat when the New Democratic Party gained control of the Legislative Assembly in the May 5 provincial election.

There are six candidates competing in the election.

A runoff election for mayor will be held next month due to such close voting results in the August 6 Nashville municipal election.

Megan Barry and David Fox came in first and second, respectively, in a field of seven candidates. Barry, an at-large member of Metro Council, earned about 1,500 more votes than Fox, former chair of the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools Board.

The runoff election will be held on September 10.

Voters will decide whether to increase the city’s minimum wage on November 3.

If passed, the initiative would increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020.

Opponents of the measure say such a change could cause businesses to leave the city. There is currently a group working to put a veto referendum on the November ballot.

Photo of the JC Nichols Fountain in Kansas City by Henri-Léon Gréber on Wikimedia Commons.

Gov. Scott Walker has called a special election for July 21, 2015, to fill the Senate District 33 seat of Paul Farrow (R), who plans to resign on July 17.

Farrow is resigning to focus on his new position as county executive of Waukesha County.

Rep. Chris Kapenga (R) and Brian Dorow, an associate dean at Waukesha County Technical College, have announced plans to run in the Republican primary on June 23.