Welcome to the Friday, June 3, Brew.
By: Douglas Kronaizl
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Ten statewide candidate filing deadlines coming up this month
- New Jersey’s upcoming statewide primaries
- Campaign finance in California with Transparency USA
Ten statewide candidate filing deadlines coming up this month
June is one of the busiest months of the 2022 election cycle, with 17 primary elections, the most of the year, and 10 statewide candidate filing deadlines, the year’s second-most.
We will be bringing you information about the primaries throughout the coming weeks, but today, let’s look at those candidate filing deadlines, some of the last ones remaining in this election cycle.
Three filing deadlines have already passed in June. Candidates in Alaska, Kansas, and Wisconsin had until June 1 to file to run in primary elections.
Five filing deadlines are coming up next week. Connecticut, Hawaii, and Massachusetts have deadlines set for June 7. New Hampshire and New York’s deadlines are coming up on June 10.
For Connecticut, Hawaii, and New Hampshire, these filing deadlines apply for all state and congressional offices on the ballot. For Massachusetts and New York, these are the second major filing deadlines of the cycle. Both states had earlier filing deadlines for some offices. The ones coming up in June apply to congressional and statewide candidates in Massachusetts and congressional and state Senate candidates in New York.
Two deadlines will come later in the month. Candidates in Florida have until June 17 to file, followed by those in Rhode Island on June 29.
These June filing deadlines are some of the last for this election cycle. Only two states—Delaware and Louisiana—have later filing deadlines, with both scheduled for July.
We will continue to bring you primary coverage as the election cycle progresses and in-depth looks at post-filing deadline statistics from every state as they become available.
New Jersey’s upcoming statewide primaries
We’re right around the corner from Super Tuesday. Seven states are holding statewide primaries for federal and state offices on June 7: California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota. Today, let’s take a closer look at New Jersey, the races on the ballot, and how their primaries work.
Elections in New Jersey tend to be quieter in even-numbered years. The state holds executive and legislative elections in odd-numbered years, most recently in 2021. That leaves only congressional races at the top of the ballot this year.
New Jersey is holding elections for its 12 congressional districts. The state’s congressional delegation currently includes 10 Democrats and two Republicans. Every incumbent is seeking re-election except for Rep. Albio Sires (D) in the 8th District, who is retiring. Of the 11 incumbents seeking re-election, six will face contested primaries, with the remaining five guaranteed to advance to the general election.
Overall, 56 major party candidates—20 Democrats and 36 Republicans—filed to run for the U.S. House this year, the largest number since 2014. This sets up 15 contested primaries, the same as in 2020. Unlike 2020, and every other cycle back to 2014, this is the first year New Jersey has more contested Republican primaries (9) than Democratic ones (6).
In New Jersey, candidates can advance from a primary with a plurality, rather than a majority, of the vote. The state does not hold runoff elections. This means the candidate with the most votes—even if less than 50% of the votes cast—advances. This is especially pronounced in primaries with many candidates like the seven-person Republican primary in the state’s 7th District.
In addition to the candidates on the ballot, New Jersey also allows write-in candidacies. These write-in candidates don’t need to file, but to win a primary, they must receive the number of votes greater than or equal to the number of signatures they would have needed to appear on the ballot.
These primaries are not the final step in completing the state’s general election ballot. The filing deadline for independent candidates, for example, is also set for June 7.
If you have primaries coming up, use Ballotpedia’s Sample Ballot Lookup to see what’s on your ballot and bring your choices to the polls with our My Vote app!
Campaign finance in California with Transparency USA
Campaign finance figures—how much candidates raise, spend, and have at their disposal—help voters understand where money is coming from and going in our elections.
One entity, the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), tracks these figures at the federal level. At the state level, it gets trickier. Every state has different reporting systems and typically uses different formats when releasing these reports.
That’s why we are excited to announce that we’ve added a new state to our collaboration with Transparency USA: California.
Ballotpedia has published individual campaign finance data on state-level legislative candidates in California in partnership with Transparency USA. Candidates for state executive and state legislative positions are covered as part of this partnership. To explore those races and candidates on the ballot this year, click here. And here’s an example of what this partnership has helped us create:
Democrats currently hold a trifecta and a triplex in the state, meaning they control the positions of governor, attorney general and secretary of state, as well as majorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
This year, we plan to publish several hundred articles breaking down campaign finance numbers in the 12 states covered by Transparency USA: Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Use the link below to learn more about our partnership with Transparency USA.Keep reading
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