WASHINGTON — (CNN) Even as Americans remain transfixed by Donald Trump and the feisty presidential contest that won’t actually be decided for another 12 months, Election Day this year arrived Tuesday with plenty at stake.
Voters across the country are heading to the polls to make their picks in local elections, a couple of governors’ races, and on dozens of important — and sometimes quirky — ballot measures in the off-year election.
In Kentucky, the closely fought battle for governor in one of 2015’s most-watched contests pits wealthy tea party favorite Matt Bevin, who unsuccessfully took on Sen. Mitch McConnell, against Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway for the open seat. (McConnell is now backing Bevin.)
In Mississippi, incumbent Republican Gov. Phil Bryant looks set to win another term, although the contest has been pushed to the background by a clash over a constitutional amendment that would allow voters to sue the state to boost funding for public schools. In Virginia, Democrats are seeking to capture the state Senate, which Republicans now hold narrowly. And there are notable elections for mayor in Philadelphia, Houston and Salt Lake City.
Meanwhile, heated debate surrounding an effort to defeat a LGBT rights law in Texas could become hot fodder for the presidential candidates, a billionaire is backing a major effort to protect Big Game, and voters in Seattle are weighing a unique answer to the problem of money in politics.
Here are some of the issues being decided Tuesday and that are sure to be dissected in the aftermath as pols, pundits and the press look for clues to what the results all mean in the 2016 contest for the White House:
Houston: LGBT rights on the line down south
“No Men In Women’s Bathrooms” — that’s the rallying cry from opponents of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), a law passed by the city last year to protect lesbian, gay and transgender people.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Clinton campaign joined the fray, responding to a baiting tweet from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, that urged Houston to “vote Texas values, not @HillaryClinton values.”
Abbott, the Clinton campaign shot back, is “right about one thing: equality is one of Hillary’s values.”
In recent months, the campaign to undo HERO has become a focal point for the right, which has spent millions and recruited an assortment of local celebrities to their cause, including former Houston Astros star outfielder Lance Berkman.
“My wife and I have four daughters,” Berkman says in an ad paid for by the Campaign for Houston PAC, which is seeking to repeal HERO. “Proposition One would allow troubled men to enter women’s public bathrooms, showers and locker rooms.”
Supporters of the ordinance have bristled at the claim, calling it fear-mongering against transgender men and women.
Ohio: An ex-boy band star tunes up for legalizing pot
Nick Lachey, the onetime lead singer of 98 Degrees, is headlining again — but the attraction is a little different this time around.
Lachey and a group of investors are behind ResponsibleOhio, a group that is pushing an initiative to legalize marijuana for recreational use in the Buckeye State.
The amendment would permit anyone 21 and older to hold up to an ounce of pot for personal use. With a $50 license, they can house eight ounces of harvested pot and four plants. If passed, Ohio would become the most populous state to legalize pot.
“Ohio is my home,” Lachey says over some breezy tunes in ad produced by the pro-legalization group, “and I care very deeply about the people here.” He promises jobs, a “reinvigorated economy” and a safer state.
Also on the pot front, Colorado voters are deciding what they want to do with the millions in revenue raised from its sale — return the funds to taxpayers or use it to pay for school construction and other things.
Seattle: Trying to make elections more “honest”
How would you like a coupon to spend on your favorite candidate?
That’s what’s on the table in Seattle with the “Honest Elections” referendum to diminish the influence of money in politics.
Backers of “Initiative 122” are seeking to radically remake how local campaigns are financed. Under the measure, voters would each be given $100 in “democracy vouchers” — four each, at $25 per — to be shelled out to the candidates of their choice.
It would also lower donation caps, ban contributions from corporations with significant city business interests, increase transparency and increase fines for electoral wrongdoing. Officials who leave office would also be required spend three years on the sidelines before becoming eligible to register as lobbyists.
Washington: A push to save endangered animals
This one’s for Cecil the Lion, the big Zimbabwean cat killed in July by a dentist on safari from Minnesota.
This statewide ballot measure would criminalize “selling, purchasing, trading, or distributing certain animal species threatened with extinction,” raising the bar beyond where laws already on the books in New York, New Jersey and California have previously gone to protect Big Game.
The measure is the brainchild of billionaire Paul Allen, a Microsoft co-founder, who has sunk millions of dollars of his own money into the campaign.
Opponents, including the “Legal Ivory Rights Coalition,” say the proposal goes too far. “It’s Not What They Say It Is!” blares the group’s website, which warns that grandmas looking to pass along their “antique” ivory will be made into criminals.
Not complaining: Elephants and rhinoceroses — often hunted for the ivory in their tusks and horns — along with lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, marine turtles, and sharks that are among the threatened species that supporters say would be helped by the referendum.
Texas: The NRA is on the hunt
On the other hand, Texans with a taste for “hunting, fishing and harvesting” could get a constitutional boost on Tuesday, as the state goes to the polls to weigh in on its Proposition 6.
The amendment would make it more difficult for activist groups to push through new legislation or regulations aimed at expanding protections for animals or delicate ecosystems. The NRA is leading the way in lobbying for its passage with groups like the “Dallas Safari Club” also boosting the cause.
If the measure passes, Texas would become the 19th state to guarantee its residents a constitutional right to hunt and kill almost all manner of wildlife and the freedom catch and “bag” as many fish as they can haul back home.
San Francisco: Airbnb could get the boot
Will Airbnb be kicked out of its hometown?
The vanguard of the so-called “sharing economy” is locking horns with the left again, as affordable housing activists in increasingly unaffordable San Francisco are angling to deal a blow to Airbnb.
This measure would impose a citywide ban on what’s known as “short-term rentals.” If approved, it would effectively cripple Airbnb, the profitable hub for homeowners and renters who profit from leasing out rooms or houses to travelers for, in most cases, below market rates.
The problem: Rent and home sale prices in San Francisco are skyrocketing, along with evictions, and critics say the fault lies, at least in part, with wealthy buyers who purchase housing for the express purpose of leasing it out for a quick profit.
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