Gov. Gavin Newsom has picked Laphonza Butler to fill Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat.

Butler is the current president of Emily’s List, a national political organization that focuses on electing Democratic women who support abortion access.

She previously served as president of a labor union and as an advisor to Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign.

Butler also has political ties to Newsom, as she was a partner in the political consulting firm now known as Bearstar Strategies that is run by the governor’s veteran strategists Ace Smith, Sean Clegg, and Juan Rodriguez.

Butler is only a short-term caretaker of the seat, with the position being voted on the 2024 ballot.

None of the three front runners were chosen for the appointment. Newsom stated he did not want to play favorites ahead of the 2024 election.

Dianne Feinstein passed away at the age of 90.

Feinstein’s death leaves a vacant U.S. Senate seat, requiring Gov. Gavin Newsome to appoint a temporary successor.

Feinstein started her public service career as president of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors in 1978. She was also appointed Mayor of San Francisco before winning a special election for her U.S. Senate seat.

During her decades-spanning career, she was a major gun-control advocate, helped create the AMBER alert network, and sponsored bills protecting millions of acres of California desert.

She declared earlier this year she would not seek reelection at the end of her term in 2024.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced special elections to fill vacancies in Senate District 8 and 28.

The vacancy in Senate District 8 was caused by the election of Sen. Pete Lucido as the Macomb County Prosecutor.

In addition, the Senate District 28 vacancy was caused by Sen. Peter MacGregor’s election as the Kent County Treasurer.

Therefore, the special primary election will be held on August 3 and the general election will be held on November 2.

The Maine Senate will convene on Monday, August 24, to vote on three nominees for the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Campaign Practice.

Under the Legislature’s joint rules, the Senate may convene independently for confirmation votes.

Two of the nominees were nominated by Gov. Mills in February and the third was nominated by the state’s Republican caucus.

The Senate was unable to vote on the nominations during the regular legislative session due to COVID-19 concerns.

Senate President Harvey Peeler announced he will call the Senate back to session early on September 2 to consider the impact of COVID-19 on upcoming elections.

The Legislature recessed in May and was set to reconvene on September 15.

Peeler emphasized the need to protect the voter and the vote as the chief reason from reconvening early.

After making inflammatory remarks about his African-American colleagues, Sen. Frank Artiles resigned from the state legislature. Artiles faced mounting pressure to step down following an outburst at a private Tallahassee club directed toward Democratic Sens. Audrey Gibson and Perry Thurston. He also referred to fellow Republicans by a racial slur.

Artiles later apologized for his comments on the floor of the Senate, but it was not enough to quell the outrage from both sides of the aisle.

Gov. Rick Scott will schedule a special election to fill the Senate District 40 seat and, in the meantime, Artiles’ staff will remain in place to serve constituents.

State Sen. Joe Seng lost his battle with brain cancer on September 16, 2016.

Seng was elected to represent District 45 for the fourth time in 2014.

As Seng’s seat was not up for election this year, a special election will need to be called to fill his remaining term.

The Hawaii Senate convened a third special session last week to confirm two judicial appointments.

The Senate confirmed one judicial appointment for the District Family Court of the Third Circuit and another for the District Court of the Fifth Circuit.

The two-day special session began Tuesday and adjourned Wednesday, September 14.

On February 24, the Utah Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution 2, which asks Congress to repeal the 17^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and proposes a new Amendment to return the power of choosing U.S. Senators to state legislatures. The resolution contends the “popular election of senators has diluted the power of the separate states, diminished federalism, and resulted in the increased power of the federal government over the individual states.”

In the proposed language of the new Amendment, each state must create “a liaison committee” to “work with its United States Senators in evaluating the impact of federal legislation on its state. All legislation proposed by Congress, and all treaties proposed, shall be submitted to each State’s liaison committee.” Additionally, the language of the Amendment calls for the senators to be subject to removal by the senator’s state legislature and for their salary to be provided by the senator’s state. The resolution quotes arguments made by James Madison in the Federalist Papers that federal legislation should be “ratified by two independent power sources: the people’s representatives in the House and the state legislatures’ agents in the Senate.”

The resolution passed 20-6. All five senators from the Democratic Party, along with one Republican senator, voted against the resolution. Three other Republican senators did not vote.

A new bill introduced in the Georgia Senate seeks to prevent campaign contributions from companies and executives doing business with the state. Senate Bill 394, introduced by Senate Judiciary Chairman Josh McKoon, prohibits contributions from business entities and affiliated persons who have contracts with the state exceeding $50,000 in the aggregate to any candidate for the office responsible for awarding such contracts.

Just last year, DeKalb County CEO, Burrell Ellis, was found guilty of threatening to end a contract with a state vendor if it did not make a $2,500 campaign contribution.

McKoon introduced the bill after noting Georgia is lagging behind the rest of the country, and federal law, on such legislation. The bill currently only affects statewide offices, but McKoon stated he is open to making the law more robust.

Photo of Georgia State Senator Joshua McKoon courtesy of the Georgia Senate website.

A bill to increase campaign contribution limits hit a roadblock this week in the West Virginia Senate after Democrats successfully added amendments requiring greater disclosure. The Republican-inspired measure, Senate Bill 408, would increase the limit on contributions to state office candidates from $1,000 to $2,700 per election. Democrats, however, were willing to accept the increase only if greater disclosure by dark money groups was also part of the changes.

The effective date of the bill was also amended by the Democrats to go into effect in 2017, whereas the original would make the changes effective on May 11, 2016, the day after the primary election.

With these two amendments, the Republican leadership decided not to bring the bill up for a vote. Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Trump said he will have to discuss the changes with other senators before deciding whether or not to move forward with the legislation.

A bill seeking to increase lobbyist disclosure advanced in committee in the Florida state senate. Senate Bill 686, if passed, will require lobbyists to report on a monthly basis the bills and amendments they are attempting to influence. This would include listing the specific bar code the legislature uses to track amendments.

The bill still has several hurdles to clear before reaching the Senate floor, including three more committees.

South Carolina Sen. Billy O’Dell died of a heart attack at the age of 77. The fiscally liberal Republican was due to file for reelection in March 2016 for an eighth term in office.

Pending senate notification, the South Carolina Election Commission will set a special election date. There is expected to be a March 22 primary, followed by an April 5 runoff, if necessary, and a May 17 general election. The special election would usually be held on May 10 but state offices will be closed in celebration of Confederate Memorial Day.

Photo of Sen. Billy O’Dell courtesy of the South Carolina Senate website.

Following just a little over a day of deliberations, former state Senate leader Dean Skelos has been found guilty of abusing his power while in office. Skelos used his office to extort over $300,000 in salary and other benefits to obtain employment for his son, who was also convicted of similar charges.

Skelos was arrested in May, and lost his Senate leadership role less than a week after his arrest.  Skelos’ conviction comes just two weeks after the conviction of former Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver.

Photo of Dean Skelos courtesy of the New York Senate website.