Roundup: Women in state government, X’s AI chatbot, Massachusetts’ monster housing bill, and a family-exodus doom loop
Route Fifty
A news publication covering trends and best practices in state and local government across the U.S.
It’s Saturday, August 10, and we’d like to welcome you to the weekly State and Local Roundup. We start in Minnesota, where the prospect of the state having its first woman in the governor’s office has suddenly become very real. If Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan moves up, she would also be the first Native American governor of the state.
Those possibilities reflect a recent shift in state capitols where women—and specifically women of color—are more frequently in positions of power, especially when it comes to the office of lieutenant governor.
“The increase of women of color in lieutenant governor positions yields opportunity,” said Kelly Dittmar, a Rutgers University political science professor and director of research for the Center for American Women and Politics. “We don’t know the outcome, but it increases the opportunity for women of color to go on to run for governor. They have that credential, access to voters, name recognition and donors behind them. Or they can be poised for succession.”
Those advantages could be significant, because the country has elected very few women or people of color as governor. The 12 women serving as governors right now is the highest number on record. Only three women of color have ever served as governor—Susana Martinez and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, who are both Hispanic, and Nikki Haley of South Carolina, who is Indian American.
But 19 women of color have served as lieutenant governor, and eight of them are currently in office.
Continue reading here.
News to Use
Trends, Common Challenges, Cool Ideas, FYIs and Notable Events
Elections
Secretaries of state urge Elon Musk to fix AI chatbot spreading false election info. The elected officials from five U.S. states urged the billionaire on Monday in an open letter to fix social media platform X's AI chatbot, saying it had spread misinformation related to the Nov. 5 election. Within hours of President Joe Biden’s announcement that he was suspending his presidential campaign on July 21, “false information on ballot deadlines produced by the chatbot Grok was shared on multiple social media platforms,” the secretaries wrote. The letter was spearheaded by Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and signed by his counterparts in Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington state.
Housing
Massachusetts governor signs $5B housing bill, “most ambitious” in state history. Gov. Maura Healey’s signing of the bill on Tuesday paves the way for the production, preservation and rehabilitation of more than 65,000 homes across Massachusetts over the next five years. The legislation is the largest housing bond bill ever filed in the state, more than tripling the spending authorizations of the last housing bill passed in 2018. It is comprised of 49 policy initiatives that permit accessory dwelling units, modernize the state’s public housing system, enhance programs that assist first-time homebuyers and promote homeownership, provide incentives to build more housing for low- to moderate-income residents, support the conversion of vacant commercial spaces into housing, and promote sustainable and green housing initiatives.
Guns
Maryland ban on assault-style weapons upheld by U.S. appeals court. The state can prohibit AR-15s and other semiautomatic rifles, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled Tuesday, bolstering gun control efforts across the country under legal threat following a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision. The majority ruling repeatedly cited the landmark 2008 case of District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the Supreme Court upheld a Second Amendment right to possess a firearm at home for self-defense. That ruling also held that the Second Amendment does not guarantee “a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose” and weapons with firepower far exceeding the needs of self-defense “may be banned.” The ruling is expected to be appealed to the high court. Meanwhile, a Maine law requiring a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases went into effect Friday.
Immigration
Texas public hospitals will be required to collect patients’ immigration status. Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order on Thursday that requires public health providers starting Nov. 1 to check the immigration status of patients so that the hospitals can then track costs incurred for the care of undocumented migrants. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission will in turn collect the information from hospitals so that the state can bill the federal government. Meanwhile, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of 15 states in an attempt to stop President Joe Biden from expanding health care access to “Dreamers” by making them eligible to participate in the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplace.
Continue reading here.
Picture of the Week
Tropical Storm Debby, which made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of at least 74 miles per hour, downed trees, submerged streets and drenched neighborhoods across Florida this week. The state Department of Transportation reported clearing “nearly 6,600 miles of state roads and interstates from downed trees and other storm debris in less than 24 hours.” But it was another product of the strong winds that garnered headlines. Debby also blew 25 blocks of cocaine worth about $1 million onto a beach on the Florida Keys, according to Samuel Briggs II, the acting chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol in Miami. The drugs were discovered by a “good Samaritan,” who alerted the authorities.
Government in Numbers
50%
The percentage of the under-5 population that several counties are on pace to lose in 20 years. An article in The Atlantic this week reported that in large urban metros, the number of children under 5 years old is in a free fall. From 2020 to 2023, the number of these young kids declined by nearly 20% in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. They also fell by double-digit percentage points in the counties making up most or all of Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and St. Louis. The urban exodus worries observers about a possible “family-exodus doom loop. … When the population of young kids in a city falls 10 or 20% in just a few years, that’s a potential political earthquake. Almost overnight, there are fewer parents around to fight for better schools, local playgrounds, or all the other mundane amenities families care about,” Connor O’Brien, a policy analyst at the think tank Economic Innovation Group, told the publication.
ICYMI
The Democratic nominee for vice president has pushed through big changes during his time as governor, a record that both parties will now scour as Walz becomes Kamala Harris’ running mate. | By Daniel C. Vock
Hawaii has adopted several laws to head off disaster gentrification and ensure affordable housing is available to local residents. The nation is watching to see how those efforts play out. | By Molly Bolan
A Senate committee advanced a $7 billion funding vehicle for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which expired at the end of May. | By Chris Teale