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Politics, Religion, Science, Culture and Humanities => Politics & Religion => Topic started by: Crafty_Dog on April 09, 2013, 06:28:56 AM

Title: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on April 09, 2013, 06:28:56 AM
This thread is for articles of interest at the State level:


BATON ROUGE, La. — In a short address Monday on the first day of the legislative session, Gov. Bobby Jindal described why his next big plan — a plan that had been applauded by conservative pundits nationally, pitched at meetings around the state and promoted in slickly produced commercials — was crucial to Louisiana’s success.






Then he announced he was shelving it.

“Governor, you’re moving too fast, and we aren’t sure that your plan is the best way to do it,” Mr. Jindal said, describing what he had heard from legislators and citizens alike.

“Here is my response,” he said. “O.K., I hear you.”

The plan, to get rid of the state income and corporate taxes and replace the lost revenue with higher and broader sales taxes, was not dropped altogether. Mr. Jindal emphasized that he was still committed to losing the income tax, but that he would defer to the Legislature to suggest how exactly to make that work.

But it was a rare admission of defeat for Mr. Jindal, 41, a constant Republican in the mix for 2016 and rising conservative luminary since his early 20s. And it was only the latest in a season of setbacks.

In the fall, Mr. Jindal was tapped to lead the Republican Governors Association and after the 2012 election appeared often on national op-ed pages and at Washington forums, diagnosing the party’s ills and earning a reputation as a politician who could deliver straight talk.

Back home in Louisiana his troubles were piling up. Unfavorable polls, once discounted as the byproduct of an ambitious agenda, were only getting worse — recently much worse.

The governor’s statewide school voucher program, a pillar of his education reform package, was blocked by a trial court judge on constitutional grounds.

Judges have since also blocked his revamp of teacher tenure rules and a change of the state retirement system (the administration has appealed the rulings and is pushing for legislative action should they stand).

Then at the end of March, Mr. Jindal’s health secretary, Bruce Greenstein, announced his resignation amid reports of a federal grand jury investigation into the awarding of a $185 million state contract. Mr. Greenstein had also been the point man for one of the administration’s most complex, consequential and potentially risky projects: the accelerated transfer of the state’s safety-net hospital system to a system of public-private partnerships.

All along, opposition to the tax swap was growing broader and more bipartisan by the day. Clergy members urged the governor to drop the plan, saying it could hurt the poor, while the state’s most prominent chamber of commerce group came out against the plan for its potential impact on businesses.

With the math behind the tax swap remaining vague and variable, the plan’s few outspoken friends in the Legislature began to wobble.

Most legislators said on Monday that the governor had made the politically wise decision to stop championing something that had such unfavorable prospects, and some even expressed admiration.

“It’s a monumental thing for any politician to realize that what they’re trying to promote the public isn’t behind yet,” said John Alario, a Republican and the president of the State Senate.

But it sets up a legislative session no less contentious. Democrats immediately criticized Mr. Jindal for remaining committed to the elimination of the income tax while dropping the more politically difficult insistence that any tax plan be revenue neutral.

On the right, where Mr. Jindal has been facing some of his most vociferous opposition, a group of budget-minded Republican lawmakers who call themselves the fiscal hawks seemed far from satisfied as well.

“It doesn’t bode well for a governor’s leadership skills just to, in essence, kind of throw his hands up and say, ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with it but if it passes I’ll take credit for it,’ ” said Representative Cameron Henry, a member of the hawks, who has become so dissatisfied with the governor’s fiscal management that he and a colleague have sued to have Mr. Jindal’s most recent two budgets declared unconstitutional.

It is in fact the state budget, more than any reform plans, that accounts for the governor’s slide in the polls. In particular, surveys show a growing frustration with the annual deep cuts to higher education and health care, partly because of a reduction in federal Medicaid rates but also of Mr. Jindal’s fiscal policies.

Mr. Jindal says that these policies have made Louisiana more business friendly, and indeed the state has weathered the recession better than many others; there are regular announcements by major companies moving plants or offices into Louisiana, often taking advantage of generous tax incentives. The unemployment rate is a full two percentage points below the national average of 7.6 percent.

“There are only a handful of states that have more jobs now that than they did when the recession started and Louisiana’s one of them,” said Timmy Teepell, a political consultant and Mr. Jindal’s former chief of staff.

But in a state that is still poor, routine deep budget cuts — made even deeper after routine midyear revenue shortfalls — are hard to counter with a message of growth, said Bernie Pinsonat, whose polling firm, Southern Media & Opinion Research, released a survey last week showing Mr. Jindal’s approval rating below even that of President Obama’s within the state.

Mr. Pinsonat said that the governor’s upbeat message is further compromised when it is delivered, as it frequently has been, to audiences outside of Louisiana. “It is very difficult to play national politics and come back home and not suffer,” Mr. Pinsonat said, adding: “They see his reforms as not as helping Louisiana but putting another trophy on his mantel.”

Supporters of Mr. Jindal strongly take issue with this perception, saying that Mr. Jindal has long been an advocate of these reforms. Mr. Teepell suggested that the governor’s current political difficulties are in fact a testament to his seriousness about improvements.

“You go through temporary rough patches,” Mr. Teepell said. “But that’s not going to slow him down.”
Title: VA Gov. Race
Post by: Crafty_Dog on July 24, 2013, 08:13:25 PM


I may oppose gay marriage, but this is a bit much:

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2013/07/cuccinelli-stands-by-his-beliefs-that-gays-are-soulless-and-self-destructive/
Title: Detroit
Post by: Crafty_Dog on August 14, 2013, 10:35:36 AM
With Detroit languishing in bankruptcy, one would think city officials would be scrambling for every penny. Instead, a $1 million check from a local school district sat forgotten in a desk drawer for a month. If it seems odd that a million-dollar check would be sent in the first place rather than the funds transferred electronically, it is. Except in Detroit. The city that's been ruled by Democrats for 50 years hasn't invested in improving its computer system for efficiency since the 1990s and has no wire transfer capabilities. But it doesn't end there. Detroit has no central computer system, period, and it still does everything from payroll to income tax receipts by hand. With inefficiencies like this, the only surprise is that bankruptcy didn't come sooner.
Good thing Detroiters can still vote out incompetent leaders. If voters can get to the polls on the right day, that is. A billboard paid for by the city recently urged citizens to vote on Sept. 2. The election is Nov. 5. The mistake was set to be fixed yesterday -- unless, of course, doing so involves any sort of computer, in which case all bets are off.
Title: Obama/Dem chicanery in VA race
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 05, 2013, 03:02:52 PM
http://www.glennbeck.com/2013/11/05/va-libertarian-gubernatorial-candidate-funded-by-an-obama-campaign-bundler/?utm_source=Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2013-11-05_272656&utm_content=5054942&utm_term=_272656_272670
Title: Dem wins in VA
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 05, 2013, 07:46:24 PM
In reporting that is unusually dishonest even for Pravda on the Hudson, POTH fails to mention the presence of a Libertarian candidate who was polling distinctly more than the margin between the Rep and the Dem and that the Dems funded the launching of the Libertarian's campaign.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/us/politics/mcauliffe-is-elected-governor-in-virginia.html?emc=edit_na_20131105&_r=0
Title: Re: Dem wins in VA
Post by: G M on November 05, 2013, 10:35:41 PM
In reporting that is unusually dishonest even for Pravda on the Hudson, POTH fails to mention the presence of a Libertarian candidate who was polling distinctly more than the margin between the Rep and the Dem and that the Dems funded the launching of the Libertarian's campaign.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/us/politics/mcauliffe-is-elected-governor-in-virginia.html?emc=edit_na_20131105&_r=0

A now common tactic for the dems.
Title: ASsessing NJ and VA results
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 06, 2013, 04:48:43 AM
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/5/two-playbooks-for-defending-against-the-war-on-wom/?page=all#pagebreak

Again, no mention of the Dem sponsored Libertarian candidate in VA , , ,

============================

Minimal mention of the Dem sponsored Libertarian candidate:

THE FOUNDATION
"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that ... he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." --Samuel Adams
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
Off Year Elections: Lessons Learned?
 

Tuesday's main events were the off-year elections in New Jersey and Virginia, and political prognosticators always look for trends that may be useful for the coming national elections. Let's just say the lessons Tuesday are mixed.
Beginning in New Jersey, Republican Gov. Chris Christie won a resounding re-election bid with more than 60% of the vote in a blue state. Christie is no "Tea Party" conservative, but he has governed on the conservative side, winning pension reform for public employees, tenure reform for teachers that makes it easier to fire bad ones, and vetoing an ill-advised tax increase on the wealthy. On the other hand, he banned gender-disorientation therapy, has generally been ornery toward conservative national Republicans and runs a state still mired at the bottom economically. Still, Christie worked well across the isle and made significant outreach to minorities who supplied his margin of victory -- that's what hugging Barack Obama can do. He is well positioned to make a run at the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, and it's worth remembering that Ronald Reagan was the last true conservative to win that nomination.
Perhaps the more interesting lessons, however, come from Virginia's governor's race, where Clintonista carpetbagger Terry McAuliffe edged conservative Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. It was the latter who spearheaded the major lawsuit against ObamaCare, so Democrats will crow about their Virginia victory, but Cuccinelli was defeated by factors well beyond McAuliffe's campaign, and if the GOP doesn't learn from its mistakes, there will be more disappointments to follow in 2014.
Cuccinelli entered the race with an uphill battle created by a largely fabricated scandal involving former Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell. But more than any other factor, his narrow defeat was due to the completely avoidable liability created by the ill-conceived box-canyon strategy to defund ObamaCare, which enabled Democrats to hang the partial government shutdown around GOP necks. This was particularly true in northern Virginia, where some 30% of the state's voters reside, including a heavy portion of government employees or contractors.
Indeed, Democrats certainly understand the principle of "divided THEY fall." Too many Republicans, particularly in our conservative ranks, have yet to figure out that "divided WE fall."
Of course there were other factors.
The Republican National Committee virtually gave up on Cuccinelli early on, giving him just $3 million. McAuliffe raised almost $15 million more than Cuccinelli, thanks to help from his old boss, Bill Clinton.
In the end, however, McAuliffe victory margin was less than 3%, when he had led in the polls by double digits for months. Thanks to the calamitous rollout of ObamaCare, Cuccinelli nearly pulled off the upset -- and undoubtedly would have but for the government shutdown baggage. Of course, it could also be argued that the third party Libertarian candidate, Robert Sarvis, who received almost 7% of the vote, handed the victory to McAuliffe.
And a final note on the subject of Democrats dividing and conquering their adversaries, it turns out that Sarvis had the benefit of an Obama bankrolling bundler.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level - Va Governor race
Post by: DougMacG on November 06, 2013, 09:57:58 AM
1) Ken Cuccinelli is too conservative for a swing state.  Rule one for conservatives, run the most conservative candidate - who can win.

2) Outspent by $15 million!  I understand the McAuliffe is a crook with big money and big connections.  It is still time to stop being out-spent.  RNC for example put in 1/3 of their 2009 amount.  What did you (anyone reading) put in?

3) The Libertarian drew more than the margin of victory and ran I assume largely against the Republican for his votes.  Yes it was crooked that Dems funded him, imagine if Republicans got caught doing the equivalent!  Still, when will we learn.  This is a two party system.  Libertarians run against conservatives and the moderates in the semi-finals (caucuses, primaries etc.) not in the finals (general election).  If you want to defeat leftism, you must all come together with like minded to do that.  Whatever agenda the Libertarian(s) wanted, how is that going for you now?

4) What an  amazing upset this almost was, given the visits by the President, Joe Biden, Hillary, the money advantage, the media advantage, the double digit polling leads, the shortcomings of the candidate, and the third party problem.

5) Hopefully the close loss causes Republicans to re-think, re-focus, re-energize coming into 2014-2016.  That can be the only silver lining.

6) Don't we have a (libertarian) correspondent on the scene?
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level - Ranked choice voting
Post by: DougMacG on November 06, 2013, 10:04:30 AM
Minneapolis tried ranked choice voting; the voter must list first three choices.  Leading candidate out of 35 candidates got 36% of the first choice vote.  No winner declared yet.  What a Liberal-Utopian mess.  How about just hold an election, count votes and declare a winner?

http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/230760571.html
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: bigdog on November 06, 2013, 02:46:27 PM
"Yes it was crooked that Dems funded him...". I don't follow you here Doug. It is simply free speech. How is that crooked?
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on November 07, 2013, 05:09:19 AM
"Yes it was crooked that Dems funded him [the faux-Libertarian]...". I don't follow you here Doug. It is simply free speech. How is that crooked?

My thinking is that a straight line in politics would be to advance and support issues, positions and candidates that you honestly favor, and a crooked path would be to use lies, deceit and subterfuge.  This strategy clearly falling  within the latter.

Your thinking is now that money equals speech?
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: bigdog on November 07, 2013, 05:48:48 AM
"Yes it was crooked that Dems funded him [the faux-Libertarian]...". I don't follow you here Doug. It is simply free speech. How is that crooked?

My thinking is that a straight line in politics would be to advance and support issues, positions and candidates that you honestly favor, and a crooked path would be to use lies, deceit and subterfuge.  This strategy clearly falling  within the latter.

Your thinking is now that money equals speech?

Goodness, no. But yours is, and I still don't see why spending money in the manner above is seen as crooked. Perhaps I am unclear what a "straight line in politics" means. It seems to me that Dems clearly favored the libertarian.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on November 07, 2013, 06:54:28 AM


http://thefederalist.com/2013/10/25/virginia-gubernatorial-candidate-robert-sarvis-libertarian-name/

"I still don't see why spending money in the manner above is seen as crooked"

Sarvis is not a libertarian.  Libertarians would never support his positions.  That is why both Pauls were travelling through Virginia pointing this out.   

Why would do you think someone would run say as a Libertarian when he clearly is not, rather than say an "independent"?   Why does someone clearly and purposefully use the wrong label to describe himself?

Why would someone who was a major supporter of Obama fund this guy to the tune of 70% of his campaign funds through bundled donations?

He knew this guy wasn't going to win.  It had to be for some other reason.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on November 07, 2013, 07:09:02 AM
Thank you, CCP!
-------------------

Dems funded the Libertarian.
BD: "It is simply free speech"
Doug: Your thinking is now that money equals speech?
BD: "Goodness, no. But yours is"

Are you using my small mind as your playground - again?   :wink:


BD: "It seems to me that Dems clearly favored the libertarian."

Ah, Yes, the little known, Libertarian wing of the Cradle to Grave, Big Government party!  I can never tell for sure when you are pulling my leg.

The point is that, no, the Democrat operatives didn't favor the Libertarian.  They favored McAuliffe but were happy to take advantage of liberties afforded to them by libertarians in order to engage in this subterfuge.

BD: "I still don't see why spending money in the manner above is seen as crooked."

Maybe I chose my words poorly, but online dictionaries seem to back me up:
crook·ed
ˈkro͝okəd/
       bent, twisted, out of shape, out of place, contorted, warped, distorted

sub·ter·fuge
ˈsəbtərˌfyo͞oj/
    deceit used in order to achieve one's goal.

Proponents like me of unlimited money in politics generally like to balance that with a requirement of full and instant disclosure of the sources of the money.  One reason one might not want to engage in these shenanigans is that it might reflect poorly on oneself and backfire when exposed by our (laughable, AWOL) watchdog media.  Like the lies of Benghazi, this came to light only after it was too late to make a difference.






Title: Big win for McAullife; Bigger win for Clinton
Post by: ccp on November 07, 2013, 07:23:41 AM
The FOR PROFIT Clinton Blue Chip were not going to let this strategic position pass by without throwing everything they have into it.  It is remarkable how coordinated the Democrats are in their money, their focus, their unified messages, and their playing as take no prisoners, kill them all war.  It is remarkable that coverage for BCP is one of so many people's minds as THE big issue for them.  What a screwed up country.

*****And Now, The Airing of Grievances

By Jonah Goldberg

November 6, 2013 8:50 AM
In the recent government shutdown fight I found myself in polite (on my part at least!) disagreement with the elements of the right inclined to denounce the “Republican establishment.” No need to rehash all that again. But, I will say that in the wake of the Cuccinelli defeat, I think the critics of the establishment have the better side of the argument.

If the folks running the party want the tea partiers to support their preferred candidates — when they’re the nominee, at least — it should work the other way around as well. It now appears that Cuccinelli, a flawed candidate running against an even more flawed human being, could have pulled this thing out if he’d had more help at the end. In fairness, the Republican Governor’s Association did help Cuccinelli, but it came too early. The RNC treated him like a write-off. I can understand that temptation when Cuccinelli looked like a sure loser. But I don’t understand why, when ObamaCare became a big issue, the RNC couldn’t have done more. I’m sure it’s hard to ramp up at the last second. But so what? Things are going to be hard in lots of ways for as far as the eye can see. Hard can’t be an excuse anymore. As for the more moderate Republican donors who stayed away from Cuccinelli, I certainly don’t think they’re obliged to give money to anyone or anything they disagree with. So maybe they’re pro-choice. Maybe they call themselves “socially liberal but fiscally conservative” (don’t get me started). Fine. But on the issues that make them Republican, McAuliffe will still be far more of a disaster than Cuccinelli ever would have been. McAuliffe says his first priority for the legislative session is accepting the expanded Medicare option under ObamaCare. That’s bad enough, but does anyone doubt that another, equally important, priority of his will be to prepare the ground for a Clinton candidacy should she run? Even if she doesn’t, McAuliffe in the statehouse is terrible news for every kind of Republican. McAuliffe is not a policy person. He’s not a “statesman.” He’s a purely political hack moneyman. And he’s going to use his skills as best he can to put Virginia in the Democrats’ column in 2016.

For all the talk about how the base needs to cooperate with the establishment more, it’s worth remembering that the base almost always does its part on Election Day. Its the establishment that is less reliable in returning the favor.*****
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: bigdog on November 07, 2013, 07:37:52 AM
"Why would do you think someone would run say as a Libertarian when he clearly is not, rather than say an "independent"?"

Because the Libertarian Party can get on a ballot much easier than an independent.

Did the Libertarian Party disavow Sarvis?

"Why would someone who was a major supporter of Obama fund this guy to the tune of 70% of his campaign funds through bundled donations?"

Because he was freely speaking his mind? Why do you want limited campaign funding now? Maybe if McCain-Feingold had not been overturned....
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: bigdog on November 07, 2013, 07:49:43 AM
"...the Democrat operatives didn't favor the Libertarian."

In a three horse race, the Dems most certainly did favor the Libertarian... over Cuccinelli. So they gave him money to speak their mind. I'll ask you the same question I pose to ccp: Why do you want limited campaign funding now?

Can't a Democrat give as much money to any candidate of his/her choice, in an effort to maximize freedom?

"Proponents like me of unlimited money in politics generally..."

Are you suggesting to me that the majority of those who want to give unlimited monies to candidates want all the information to be made public? Do you have evidence for this position? Do the Koch brothers? Warren Buffet? The people who are actually giving this money?

I didn't see "subterfuge" in your first post, but thanks for adding the definition.

And, for the record, Doug: I sincerely hope by now you know that I do not believe that you have a "small mind." I greatly enjoy and appreciate our exchanges.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on November 07, 2013, 08:36:45 AM
"I'll ask you the same question I pose to ccp: Why do you want limited campaign funding now?"

The topic I am speaking to is fraud and deception.  Running under a banner that did not represent his positions.

I am speaking about lying on the campaign trail about who one is, who one represents.  You are turning this into a free speech issue.

I am speaking of honesty in politics.  

"Because he was freely speaking his mind? Why do you want limited campaign funding now? Maybe if McCain-Feingold had not been overturned...."

This was a divide and conquer strategy from the Democrat side.  It is a dirty trick that is all.

The Libertarians who allowed him to hold up their banner must have been fooled.  And the two most prominent libertarians absolutely were disavowing this guy later on when they realized his true colors.

BTW BigDog, I was never against campaign finance reform.  It does bother me how wealthy people, corporations, wealthy lobbyists can outright control or influence elections.

I believe I am on record somewhere way back when on the board about this.  

Probably one of the few times I diverge in opinion from Doug who is one of my favorite posters over the years.

Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: bigdog on November 07, 2013, 09:23:20 AM
One of my favorite parts of this forum is finding common ground, even among much disagreement.

In this case, ccp, you and I have two:

"BTW BigDog, I was never against campaign finance reform.  It does bother me how wealthy people, corporations, wealthy lobbyists can outright control or influence elections." You and I are of like minds on this subject.

"...Doug who is one of my favorite posters over the years." And here too.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, ccp.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on November 07, 2013, 11:34:47 AM
Why do you want limited campaign funding now?"

I'm not advocating limits, just exercising my own free speech to call them out on their chicanery.  ('the use of trickery to achieve a political, financial, or legal purpose')   :-)

I should disclose that I contemplated doing the same for one of my good buddies when he was Green party endorsed candidate for Governor in MN, and then for congress in St. Paul.  Obviously my effort would have been to help a Republican defeat a Democrat, not to favor far left over left.

"Are you suggesting to me that the majority of those who want to give unlimited monies to candidates want all the information to be made public? Do you have evidence for this position? Do the Koch brothers? Warren Buffet? The people who are actually giving this money? "

No.  I was clarifying my view shared by others who oppose limits but favor full disclosure.  Big donors, I would guess, prefer privacy and anonymity.  Transparency might actually help those like Koch brothers who get blamed beyond their actual involvement.  Now we have the worst of both with limits on involvement and then information coming out when it is of no use.

(CCP) "It does bother me how wealthy people, corporations, wealthy lobbyists can outright control or influence elections."

My thought on this is that IF government was mostly removed from the business of picking economic winners and losers, wealth redistribution, crony governmentism, over-regulation, etc., the utility of special interest money would be much smaller.  The enterprises of the Koch brothers for example are under constant political attack, perhaps justly, but we deserve to hear both sides.  I recall that Microsoft did not have one lobbyist on staff in Washington the day the Clinton/Janet Reno Justice Department set out to break them up, justly or unjustly.  They do now.
-----
I appreciate the kind words!
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: bigdog on November 07, 2013, 02:20:41 PM
"I'm not advocating limits, just exercising my own free speech to call them out on their chicanery.  ('the use of trickery to achieve a political, financial, or legal purpose')  :-)"

I just laughed out loud. Literally. Well played, Doug.
Title: Red States cutting taxes
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 25, 2013, 09:08:43 AM
Red State Tax-Cutters
By Stephen Moore
connect
Nov. 22, 2013 12:58 p.m. ET

After five years of wrenching fiscal deficits, states are once again experiencing stable budgets and healthy revenue growth. A new report by the American Legislative Exchange Council—a national network of more than 2,000 state legislators—finds that about one-third of the nation's governors have cut taxes. "Some of these tax cuts," says Jonathan Williams, the fiscal policy expert at ALEC, "also move in the direction of tax reform. Income tax rates are falling."

This is especially true in states with Republican governors. Indiana Gov, Mike Pence signed a 10 percent income tax rate reduction. Tax rates also fell in North Carolina, a state that turned red after the 2012 elections. But even Arkansas passed a small income tax cut, which might have been larger had Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe allowed it. If Republicans win the governorship there in 2014, as expected, bigger income tax cuts are possible.

GOP Govs. Rick Scott of Florida, John Kasich of Ohio, and Scott Walker of Wisconsin all face tough re-election bids next year, and all three will tout their tax-cutting on the campaign trail. In Kansas, Sam Brownback continued to trim the state income tax with the eventual goal of eliminating it. "We want to be the most tax competitive state in the midwest," Mr. Brownback tells me. "We're not done bringing rates down."

Tax cuts were also enacted in Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota and Tennessee. Taxes rose in California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Virginia. States were most likely to cut income taxes and least likely to cut sales taxes. Not every Republican governor is a tax-cutter. Virginia's Bob McDonnell leaves office next year with a legacy of signing the biggest tax hike in the Dominion State's history.

"On balance," says Mr. Williams, "states are moving in a supply side direction. Republican governors are trying to make their states pro-growth showcases."
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: G M on November 25, 2013, 09:12:11 AM
Why does Obama only create jobs in the states that voted against him? Strange...
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on November 25, 2013, 11:30:59 AM
Why does Obama only create jobs in the states that voted against him? Strange...

Yes.  I can't figure out why he want those new jobs to be in Texas when Detroit needs them more?  (BTW, how is cash for clunkers working out in Detroit?)

He takes credit for the oil boom in North Dakota while opposing it and while stopping any improvements (Keystone Pipeline?) in transporting the new oil.  Strangest of all is during this period of having a laser-like focus on jobs, he is not even curious how North Dakota has had the lowest unemployment rate for his entire Presidency:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/11/22/october-state-unemployment-rates/3673397/

What else is N.D. doing right?  They aren't moving there for the climate, -14 degree windchill tonight!
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/n-d-house-passes-m-tax-cut-bill/article_e47a77ea-b3b0-11e2-9057-001a4bcf887a.html
N.D. House passes $250M tax cut bill
May 03, 2013 12:18 am  •  By Nick Smith
BISMARCK, N.D. _ The North Dakota House passed a bill containing
$250 million in personal and corporate income tax cuts on Thursday.
Senate Bill 2156 passed by an 89-1 vote.

-- Senate Bill 2171 expands the Homestead Property Tax Credit. It changes the income eligibility requirements to open the program to more seniors who own homes. It also raises the limit on total assets a person can own and qualify for the program from $250,000 to $500,000. It passed the House by a 90-0 vote.
Title: WSJ: A Liberal mugged by pension reality
Post by: Crafty_Dog on December 02, 2013, 09:11:54 AM


Chuck Reed: A Liberal Mugged by Pension Reality
Mayor Chuck Reed knows the way to San Jose's solvency. Now he wants to take his approach statewide. Public unions aren't happy.
By Allysia Finley

Nov. 29, 2013 7:28 p.m. ET

San Jose, Calif., was the richest major city in the country last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's survey of median household incomes. More than 100 tech-related firms including Adobe Systems, ADBE +0.28% Cisco, CSCO -0.75% PayPal and eBay EBAY +2.44% are based in the self-proclaimed capital of Silicon Valley.

Yet in Mayor Chuck Reed's view from the 18th floor of city hall, San Jose in recent years has been dead broke and slouching toward bankruptcy, propelled by ruinous public-pension obligations. Over the past decade, he says, the city has shed 25% of its workforce, including 20% of its police department, to cover soaring retirement costs.

Since his election in 2006, Mr. Reed has been that rare creature, a Democrat in a liberal bastion who is nonetheless focused on salvaging government finances while inviting the wrath of public unions and their political allies. The city's budget problems, he says, "have made it impossible to do many of the things that I would have liked to have done as mayor."

Mr. Reed points to a bar graph showing how the city's pension obligations soared to $245 million from $71 million in 2001. The average San Jose police officer last year earned $203,211 in total compensation—more than many software engineers in Silicon Valley. The city is spending $45,263 each year per worker on pensions. Mr. Reed notes that San Jose has boosted retirement benefits several times over the past decade. Police officers can retire at age 50 with up to 90% of their final pay.
Enlarge Image

Ken Fallin

Last year, Mr. Reed piloted an innovative approach to fixing pensions that involves curbing future benefits for current workers. He plans to take the approach statewide with a ballot referendum next year that may throw a lifeline to other struggling California cities, like Fresno, Oakland and Desert Hot Springs. But he faces a more immediate hurdle at home: The public unions are suing him. "Nothing important happens without litigation in California," he quips.

The referendum is a last hurrah for Mr. Reed, who is term-limited out of office next year and has spent most of his 65 years in public service. After growing up in public-housing in Kansas, he applied to the Air Force Academy, which he says was "the most difficult school that I could afford to go to."

While at the academy, he says, "I met my wife on a blind date at a football game. It was love at first sight." The two married a couple of days after Mr. Reed graduated (second in his class) and remain together 43 years later. His frugality goes way back: While in the Air Force, he sewed his wife's maternity dresses.

In 1975, upon completing his rotation in Thailand during the Vietnam War, Mr. Reed attended Stanford Law School while his wife, Paula, worked at a nearby hospital as an oncology nurse. They settled in San Jose with their son and daughter, and Mr. Reed says he "probably served on 20 different board commissions."

In 2000, Mr. Reed was elected to the San Jose City Council with "about 200 items on my to-do list. The highest priority were items like building parks in areas that didn't have parks," he says, noting that "pension costs never crossed my mind." He frequently knocked heads with then-Mayor Ron Gonzales. For instance, he opposed the mayor's idea to use eminent domain in 2003 to take over and redevelop the Tropicana Shopping Center. He also opposed a $343 million city hall building, which opened in 2005, as an unaffordable extravagance.

With Mr. Gonzales term-limited, Mr. Reed ran for and won the top job—along with a ticking bomb of pensions obligations. It took several years, and plenty of fruitless negotiations, before he finally confronted the city's unions. In June 2012, Mr. Reed quarterbacked a city ballot initiative to limit pensions for new hires and scale back future benefits for existing workers. He says merely reducing new workers' benefits, as many other cities and states have done, wouldn't have achieved meaningful enough savings.

Mr. Reed's initiative gave current workers a choice between paying up to 16% more of their salary for benefits—which would amount to about 27% of a police officer's pay—or accepting lower future benefits. Giving workers a choice, the mayor says, was intended to circumvent state court decisions that protect workers' "vested right" to their pensions under the state constitution's contracts clause—meaning that their benefits after being hired "can only go up and not down."

Mr. Reed's pension initiative enjoyed the support of a majority of the San Jose City Council, including six Democrats. It also got a big boost from the Bay Area Council, whose steering committee includes the chief executives of Virgin America, the San Francisco Giants and 49ers, Safeway, Webcor and the San Francisco Federal Reserve.

Businesses don't often publicly wade into such controversies because they don't want to alienate customers or risk retribution. But Bay Area companies saw how retirement costs were draining the San Jose budget, threatening public safety and forestalling important public works. Driving a Tesla over pot-holed roads is no fun. The initiative passed with nearly 70% support.

San Jose's public unions sued the city almost immediately for violating their pension rights, and a state court is expected to rule in the next few weeks. Mr. Reed says he's confident the reforms will be upheld since San Jose, as a charter city, has plenary authority under the state constitution to modify compensation. The city also has "an ordinance that says we can make them pay more" to their pensions and "we've negotiated past contracts with the unions in which they have paid more."

Yet it could take a few years before the state Supreme Court issues a final ruling, and other cities now going broke from retirement costs can't afford to wait. As Mr. Reed notes, asking employees to pay more for pensions "is only an interim solution that gives you a little bit of relief for a little while because the real problem is these benefits are too expensive."

Mr. Reed has organized a small bipartisan group of current and former mayors, including Pat Morris (D., San Bernardino) and Tom Tait (R., Anaheim), to place an initiative on next November's state ballot that would give cities and the state flexibility to negotiate changes to future benefits for current workers.

The purpose is to "empower cities," most of which "are seeing crowding out and services being cut," Mr. Reed says. The initiative would also bar state agencies and retirement boards, including the California Public Employees' Retirement Systems (Calpers), from interfering in city efforts to fix pension problems.

In the Bay Area suburb of Vallejo, which filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2008, Calpers threatened to "litigate forever if they took on pension reform," Mr. Reed notes. Calpers has done the same in Stockton and San Bernardino. Vallejo chose not to modify existing workers' pensions, Mr. Reed says, and as a result "they're in trouble again because of rising pension costs."

Calpers has also harassed San Jose, which has a small retirement plan for elected officials with an unfunded liability of $900,000. The city wanted to end the plan, Mr. Reed says. "Calpers said if you do that, you have to give us $5 million" as a "termination fee."

Now Calpers and public unions are gearing up for a war on Mr. Reed's statewide initiative. In October, Calpers published a warning that "if this initiative were to pass, then all contractual rights in California could be in jeopardy."

How does the straight-shooting mayor plan to counter the spin? Simply by educating voters, he says, pointing to a chart showing that taxpayer contributions to state and local retirement systems increased to $17.4 billion in 2010 from $3.4 billion in 2000. Meantime, the average annuity for a newly retired California highway-patrol officer is $89,000, up from $44,000 in 1999, thanks to retroactive boosts to pension benefits.

"You have to buy a lot of paid media" to educate people, Mr. Reed says. And "you have to have big contributors who are willing to step up and fund [the initiative], and they're not all going to be from inside California. They're likely to be from all around the country because this is a national issue."

That will give unions an opening. Stanford physicist Charles Munger Jr. , who financed a losing initiative last year to limit union spending on politics, was pilloried as a "billionaire bully." The writer David Sirota at Salon has provided a taste of what's to come, denouncing a $200,000 contribution from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, a Houston-based philanthropy, as an "Enron billionaire's diabolical plot to loot worker pensions." John Arnold used to work at Enron.

Yet the mayor remains optimistic and says the public is receptive to his message, as he found in San Jose. But that move also had the backing of Democratic city council members. Mr. Reed now has only two Democratic mayors in his corner, and he says that "lots of other mayors" have expressed support but "they don't want to do so publicly." So far Democratic politicians in Sacramento have also been mum. Given that this is spendthrift California, that's encouraging.

Ms. Finley is an editorial writer for the Journal.
Title: Politics at State & Municipal level: MN Estate, gift, income taxes
Post by: DougMacG on December 12, 2013, 11:06:49 AM
“Every day we get calls from people about changing residency,”  And they tend to be employers!

This could go under Tax policy.  Also under Calif as the problems, post-Pawlenty here, are nearly the same with Dems controlling the state house, senate and Governor office.

http://www.startribune.com/business/234843991.html

Alarming excerpt buried in a positive, economic piece:

"This is the largest upward move in tax progressivity … since we started our tax-incidence reports in 1990.”

Many liberals and moderates like this trend. But some high-earners predict an exodus of affluent Minnesotans to Florida and other low-tax states. Especially troubling, they say, is the state’s failure to increase the amount excluded from inheritance taxes closer to the higher federal estate tax exclusion. Federal law exempts the first $5.25 million, Minnesota only the first $1 million.

Hunt Greene, a veteran Minneapolis investment banker, said: “I’m a Democrat. I can afford and tolerate paying higher income taxes. This is different. The Minnesota gift-and-estate taxes kick in at $1 million. The federal level is $5.25 million. And Minnesota is one of only a few states that have a gift tax.

“The result is that, as I talk to the big law firms about their business … their estate practices are swamped with people figuring out how to change their residences,’’ Greene said.

He’s not alone. Others predict that more wealthy Minnesotans will leave rather than subject their estates of over $1 million, or gifts made to heirs, to what can be up to a 40 percent tax that doesn’t exist in states such as Florida or Arizona.

“Every day we get calls from people about changing residency,” said Bob Abdo, a political moderate and 40-year Minneapolis business lawyer. “This pains me. I grew up and was educated here. Essentially, what we have got now is a disincentive for longtime Minnesota residents to stay in Minnesota.

“This means mom and dad … who are loyal to Minnesota because they earned a lot of money here, may now be worth more than $1 million. So, dad dies. No estate tax consequence to mom. But mom is worth $1 million, and it doesn’t take much if you add a house, your retirement accounts and a life insurance policy. Mom dies. It’s supposed to go to the kids. Any amount that goes to the kids in excess of $1 million, whether one kid or 12, will be taxed at about 40 percent for the first $250,000. The tax goes down from there.
Title: Political monopolies at the State level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on January 12, 2014, 08:38:26 AM
Long article by Pravda on the Hudson about the rise of political monopolies in sundry States

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/us/politics/a-national-strategy-funds-state-political-monopolies.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20140112&_r=0
Title: New Jersey least solvent in nation
Post by: Crafty_Dog on January 18, 2014, 10:55:56 AM


http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/17/state-in-the-worst-fiscal-condition-is/
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level - Wisconsin Surplus
Post by: DougMacG on January 27, 2014, 09:00:34 AM
Wisconsin had a $4 billion deficit in 2011 and has a $1 billion surplus now.  Hmmm.  I wonder if it is the policies?  How is California doing?  Detroit?

This could go under Presidential 2016, or Media Issues - where else have you read this, lol.

How Scott Walker and the conservatives saved Wisconsin. America, take note
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100256645/how-scott-walker-and-the-conservatives-saved-wisconsin-america-take-note/

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/give-the-surplus-back-to-wisconsin-taxpayers-b99189017z1-241915501.html
Give the surplus back to Wisconsin taxpayers,  by Gov. Scott Walker
Title: Chicago headed the way of Detroit?
Post by: Crafty_Dog on February 09, 2014, 03:42:34 AM


National Review's Michael Auslin: "Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel is increasingly
a textbook example of how far the Democratic party has moved to the left since
Bill Clinton's day. Emanuel, who cut his teeth in Clinton's administration,
just presided over a $1.9 billion increase in Chicago's debt, only months
after Moody's downgraded the city's bond ratings three notches based on its
growing and unsustainable spending and debt obligations. ... All told ... the
Windy City has $29 billion in long-term debt. ... Old-line Democratic cities,
it seems, have learned nothing from Detroit's collapse."
Title: Reps win big in San Diego
Post by: Crafty_Dog on February 14, 2014, 12:05:06 PM
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/370910/obama-turnout-machine-crashes-san-diego-loses-mayors-race-nine-points-john-fund
Title: More On the SD mayoralty election
Post by: Crafty_Dog on February 17, 2014, 03:31:22 AM
http://capoliticalnews.com/2014/02/16/unions-fail-to-retain-san-diego-mayors-office-despite-advantages/
Title: Politics at the State level: Scott Walker emails
Post by: DougMacG on February 20, 2014, 08:30:12 AM
Also relevant to Presidential 2016, but first he faces reelection contest in Wisconsin. Walker was not charged after years of investigators pouring over all these communications.  Surviving this may actually strengthen him for what lies ahead, where many of the other contestants have not had political executive experience.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/02/20/us/20walker-emails.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/us/wisconin-political-investigation.html?ref=us&_r=0

The accusations involve mixing government and campaign business.  I wonder if equivalent investigations are gong on in Dem strongholds like: the White House, Rahm's Chicago mayoral office, and Barack and Hillary's Senate offices 2008.

In the article:

...there were also signs among the documents that Mr. Walker had called for a stop to some of the activities. At one point in May 2010, Ms. Wink resigned after allegations that she had posted pro-Walker comments on The Journal Sentinel website while at her county job. Mr. Walker sent an email to another aide, writing of Ms. Wink: “I talked to her at home last night. Feel bad. She feels worse. We cannot afford another story like this one. No one can give them any reason to do another story. That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the workday, et cetera.”

Also, the passing of an internet joke by the Chief of Staff was discovered:

In 2010, Mr. Nardelli forwarded what appears to be a long chain email to undisclosed recipients that concluded, “I can handle being a black, disabled, one-armed, drug-addicted, Jewish homosexual on a pacemaker who is H.I.V.-positive, bald, orphaned, unemployed, lives in a slum, and has a Mexican boyfriend, but please, Oh dear God, please don’t tell me I’m a Democrat!”
Title: Plan to split California into six states
Post by: bigdog on February 22, 2014, 07:10:08 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/plan-split-california-six-states-gains-ground-222139687.html

From the article:

A plan to divide California into six separate US states is closer to making it on to a November ballot, with organizers gaining approval to collect signatures.


Any comments/thoughts, my California friends?
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on February 22, 2014, 07:32:04 AM
Well, that would increase the Senate by 10 senators.  Should it get so far as to be on the ballot and approved, one suspects fierce political fighting in Congress about this.  What articles of the Constitution would control this?
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: bigdog on February 22, 2014, 07:45:37 AM
Well, that would increase the Senate by 10 senators.  Should it get so far as to be on the ballot and approved, one suspects fierce political fighting in Congress about this.  What articles of the Constitution would control this?


Article IV, section 3.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on February 22, 2014, 12:37:39 PM
"A plan to divide California into six separate US states is closer to making it on to a November ballot, with organizers gaining approval to collect signatures."
"that would increase the Senate by 10 senators"

And decrease the clout of every other state and Senator.

Article IV, section 3:

New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state.
----------------

Surprisingly, I don't see anything about super-majorities.  I would have expected the procedure to be more like the process of ratifying a constitutional amendment.

Northeastern Colorado wants to split too.  As do I.

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/06/07/secession-colorado-north-northern-weld-county/




Title: More Detroits coming
Post by: Crafty_Dog on May 16, 2014, 08:48:39 AM


http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304101504579546263639995456?mod=Opinion_newsreel_3
Title: Not in a box
Post by: Crafty_Dog on June 28, 2014, 12:49:33 PM


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIgjOX1jJXw
Title: George Will:Calif Gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari defines new conservatism
Post by: DougMacG on July 24, 2014, 09:47:51 PM
I wonder what our Calif forum members think of the Calif R. Gov candidate.  I take from this column that George Will sees something good in Kashkari's brand of conservatism.  We are long overdue for new, real leaders who can begin to reach people and change minds.  Being on the top of the ticket on the nation's largest state presents an opportunity to do that.  Does anyone ever hold these Dems accountable for their record, reach out to all groups, offer an alternative?  Maybe he does.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/383510/californias-goldwater-20-george-will

In his own words, my first look at him:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSVVAA69Zr0[/youtube]
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on July 24, 2014, 10:51:18 PM
Well, I'm not down with the amnesty, but that is a federal issue , , , and the federal courts have taken gay marriage away from the vote so I suppose he doesn't hurt on those two issues.

Good message that the Reps are the party of work, etc.

Let's see.

Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on July 25, 2014, 12:15:03 PM
Well, I'm not down with the amnesty, but that is a federal issue , , , and the federal courts have taken gay marriage away from the vote so I suppose he doesn't hurt on those two issues.
Good message that the Reps are the party of work, etc.
Let's see.

Yes, I wonder if a person can be wishy-washy on something like sovereignty and yet genuine and passionate on things like freedom and responsibility.  As you said, let's see.

He is saying to a lot of immigrants and other groups, you can differ with conservatives on one issue (or two or three) and still vote conservative to move the country (state) in a better direction.  Certainly Reagan did that in his day with a wide range of voters.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on July 28, 2014, 04:55:50 AM
My friend Doug writes,

"He is saying to a lot of immigrants and other groups, you can differ with conservatives on one issue (or two or three) and still vote conservative to move the country (state) in a better direction.  Certainly Reagan did that in his day with a wide range of voters"

Yes Reagan granted amnesty to millions.  That backfired and the vast majority vote for the other party.  Indeed I doubt anyone thinks Reagan could possibly win California now.  

Obama is not a weak President.  He is a very strong President.  He is done everything he said he would.  Socialized medicine.  Towards the eventual universal single payer.  A powerful EPA with expanding regulations.  Putting coal out of business.  Almost the carbon tax.   Higher taxes.  Blame the rich while taking all their money in taxes and payoffs.

He is changing the electorate as fast as he can.   Turning us into a one party country like Reagan's state is now.

He is downsizing the military, retreating from foreign involvement.  Withdrawn support from Israel as much he can while most Jews will support him anyway.

Need I go on.

The only weak ones are the Republicans.  They can't even get their message straight.  Most of their leaders are fumbling around.  

Obama has indeed in affect checked out.  Why?  He is not disengaged.  His work is done.  He has put America on his and his liberal backers trajectory.   Now just sit back and tell the Republicans 'f' 'y', play golf, hobnob with the beautiful and interesting people, travel all over seeing the sites, eat all the world's best food and enjoy.

He 'f' us over pretty good if you asked me.

  
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on July 28, 2014, 06:22:08 AM
Good points.  Just to clarify on Reagan, I didn't mean immigration but just that he brought a lot of people over to his way of thinking on policy and philosophy that were previously headed a different direction.  Blue collar Democrats in particular.

On immigration I think Reagan would agree with you that what they did back then failed.  There is no reason to think he would be soft on border security today or let gangs control our southern border in this age of terrorism.  I'm guessing the 1987 law would have worked had it been followed.

In the context of Calif, the issues where Kashkari is wrong to our thinking  tend to be things out of the Calif governor's control and might actually help him with credibility in some demographics on the other fronts such as personal responsibility and reining in the role of government.

We don't need conservative purity in the deep yellow (blue) states.  We need a little traction and momentum wherever we can find it.
Title: Kansas Gov. race
Post by: Crafty_Dog on September 15, 2014, 05:03:20 AM
Conservative Experiment Faces Revolt in Reliably Red Kansas
By JOHN ELIGONSEPT. 14, 2014
The New York Times


HUTCHINSON, Kan. — In his 40 years living in Kansas, Konrad Hastings cannot remember voting for a Democrat. He is the type who agonizes over big purchases, trying to save as much money as possible. He is against stricter gun laws, opposes abortion in most cases and prefers less government involvement in his life.

But when he casts his ballot for governor in November, he plans to shun the leader of this state’s conservative movement, the Republican incumbent, Sam Brownback, and vote for the Democratic challenger.

“He’s leading Kansas down,” said Mr. Hastings, 68, who said he voted for Mr. Brownback four years ago, when he easily won his first term. “We’re going to be bankrupt in two or three years if we keep going his way.”

Voters like Mr. Hastings are at the heart of Mr. Brownback’s surprising fight for political survival.

Although every statewide elected official in Kansas is a Republican and President Obama lost the state by more than 20 points in the last election, Mr. Brownback’s proudly conservative policies have turned out to be so divisive and his tax cuts have generated such a drop in state revenue that they have caused even many Republicans to revolt. Projections put state budget shortfalls in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually, raising questions of whether the state can adequately fund education in particular.
Photo
Gov. Sam Brownback greeted supporters at the Kansas State Fair after his first debate against State Representative Paul Davis. Credit Lindsey Bauman/The Hutchinson News, via Associated Press

This has boosted the hopes of the Democratic candidate, Paul Davis, the State House minority leader, who has shot up in the polls even though he has offered few specifics about how he would run the state. Many disaffected Republicans might give Mr. Davis their vote because, if nothing else, he is not Mr. Brownback.

“There’s just a lot of negative momentum behind Brownback, and Davis has been hammering that home,” said Chapman Rackaway, a political-science professor at Fort Hays State University.

The governor’s campaign has appeared so worried about his weak poll numbers that it took the unusual step last month of releasing an internal poll that showed the race to be essentially tied, hardly something that would usually be showcased.

In some ways, it is unsurprising that many Kansas Republicans have turned on Mr. Brownback. This is a state that once had a tradition of centrist Republicans, like former Senator Bob Dole, and has had five Democratic governors over the past half-century.

But much of this moderation went by the wayside as Mr. Brownback and conservative majorities in the Legislature turned the state into a laboratory for the policies they had run on. In addition to passing the largest income tax cuts in state history, they have made it easier to carry guns in public buildings, turned over management of Medicaid to private insurance companies, made it more difficult to get an abortion, and made it harder to qualify for public assistance.

Even some of Kansas’ staunchest Republicans have found some of these measures to be too far to the right. More than 100 current and former Republican elected officials have endorsed Mr. Davis.
Continue reading the main story

Mr. Brownback, 58, a former United States senator who grew up on a Kansas farm, has defended his record and is trying to force Mr. Davis, who is from Lawrence, home of the University of Kansas in one of the state’s most liberal regions, to define himself.

“He’s been mostly just hiding as a candidate,” Mr. Brownback said in an interview. “All his statements have been basically against me, and none of it has been what he would do.”

The governor has painted Mr. Davis as a supporter of President Obama who wants to raise taxes and force the president’s health care law on Kansans.

Mr. Davis has hammered away at the “governor’s economic experiment,” as he put it in a debate held at the State Fair, saying it had left Kansas with a vast budget deficit. “It’s damaging our schools. It’s hurting our economy. It’s jeopardizing our future,” he said.

Mr. Brownback has also been set back by matters unrelated to lawmaking. The Topeka Capital-Journal reported in April that federal authorities were investigating the fund-raising and lobbying activities of some of his associates.

As Election Day draws closer, both sides can expect an even tighter, and perhaps rougher, clash, with outside groups stepping up their involvement.

The Republican Governors Association has run television ads attacking Mr. Davis and linking him to Mr. Obama. The Brownback campaign’s ads have sought to paint a rosy financial picture for the state. Political analysts expect Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group founded by the Koch brothers, the Wichita-based billionaires, to step in, too.

The Kansas Values Institute, a left-leaning advocacy organization, has run negative ads about Mr. Brownback. Mr. Davis has run an ad that said Mr. Brownback was taking the state in the wrong direction. But he also had to pull one of his television ads after it was revealed that one of the actors had been arrested on charges of soliciting a prostitute.

Most criticism of Mr. Brownback has centered on the tax cuts, which slashed individual income tax rates and eliminated taxes on nonwage earnings for nearly 200,000 small businesses. The most recent fiscal year ended with state revenues more than $300 million short of expectations.
Continue reading the main story
Recent Comments
Kirk Tofte
9 minutes ago

Gosh, we have problems in this country. This article discusses the broad array of issues that Governor Brownback has caused--wisely or...
Bill
10 minutes ago

Maybe Brownback is a secret follower of Keynes. After all, tax cuts in a depressed environment is a form of stimulus.
r.j. paquin
10 minutes ago

"And because he has reduced the size of government and made it more efficient, he said, state revenues do not need to grow that much to...

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Based on decreased revenue from the tax cuts, the state’s nonpartisan legislative research department estimates that the budget will have to be adjusted by $1.3 billion, either through spending cuts or additional revenue, over the next five years in order to remain balanced.

Opponents of the governor have used this to stoke fears that he would cut vital services. Both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have downgraded Kansas’ credit rating.

Mr. Brownback said that the steps he had taken on Medicaid, on bolstering the teachers’ pension system and on cutting taxes had been needed to stabilize state finances, and that revenue growth would resume. The tax cuts will attract new businesses and residents — and, in turn, cash — to the state, he said. And because he has reduced the size of government and made it more efficient, he said, state revenues do not need to grow that much to fulfill budget obligations.
Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story

As promising signs, the governor and his allies point to an increase in the number of private-sector jobs since the tax cuts went into effect in January 2013. They also promote a record number of new business filings — more than 15,000 — in the state last year as a sign that businesses were attracted to Kansas.

Spending is also an issue. Mr. Brownback said he would not cut funding for education or other essential services, and since taking office he has increased the total state dollars that go toward primary and secondary schools by more than $200 million. He has put tens of millions of dollars toward new programs for technical education and reading initiatives.

But most of the increase has gone toward things like teacher pensions and building maintenance. When adjusted for inflation, state spending on classroom-related expenses has remained flat, if not decreased slightly, each year, according to an analysis by Mark Tallman of the Kansas Association of School Boards.

So far, Mr. Davis, 42, the son of two teachers, has spoken mostly in broad terms about his priorities — improving public schools and investing in work force training and higher education. “We know that if we have a highly skilled work force, industry will come,” he said.

The only specific plan he has put forward is to freeze Mr. Brownback’s tax cuts next year and to appoint a commission to address tax issues.

“I’m not giving people the illusion that this is the magic bullet that’s going to fix the very, very deep financial problems that Governor Brownback has caused,” said Mr. Davis, a lawyer who joined the House in 2003 and has been minority leader since 2008. “But I think it is a good first step.”

Ray Merrick, the Republican speaker of the House, called freezing the tax cuts a nonstarter. “Right now, the Legislature on both sides, House and Senate, are on the side of the governor,” he said.

The question is whether most voters will stand with the governor. “I’m not sure that some of the tax policies have been as effective as we’d like them to be,” said Dianne Blick, a 58-year-old development officer from Hutchinson, who has usually voted for Republicans but is undecided in this race. “Either candidate has to really convince me that they can create positive change and can work across the aisle.”
Title: More on Kansas
Post by: DougMacG on September 19, 2014, 08:58:55 AM
Kansas is reliably red if you consider Bob Dole and Kathleen Sebelius to be conservatives...

We also discussed Kansas here: http://dogbrothers.com/phpBB2/index.php?topic=1736.msg83825#msg83825

(I see that young Eliana Johnson, daughter of Powerline's Scott Johnson, is now Washington Editor of National Review.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/388247/can-brownback-survive-eliana-johnson

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014 4:00 AM
Can Brownback Survive?
A conservative reformer is under siege.
By Eliana Johnson

Even before his election as governor in 2010, liberal observers were warning about Sam Brownback. In October of that year, the New York Times warned that the mere prospect of Brownback’s ascent was “redefining” the Republican party. That’s certainly been his goal. Operating on the assumption that change in the states drives change in Washington, Brownback has, over the past four years, slashed income taxes, privatized Medicaid, expanded gun rights, and taken on the state’s teachers’ unions.

Those reforms may have made him a hero to conservatives, but they have also made him a major target this election cycle. For Democrats, the former senator and 2008 presidential candidate is a high-profile scalp whose defeat would galvanize liberals across the country. Implementing his agenda also meant alienating the state’s many moderate Republicans, whom Brownback actively and successfully tried to defeat in the 2012 state legislative elections; for them, picking him off is a matter of simple revenge. Several of them have joined a group of over 100 Republicans to support Brownback’s Democratic challenger, the state’s house minority leader, Paul Davis.
 
Outside money from both sides has poured into the race, including $2.8 million on advertisements alone even before the end of September. The governor’s tax-cutting agenda has also attracted the attention of liberal journalists, who have denounced him en masse in an attempt to make Kansas an illustration of the catastrophe of conservative governance. “Brownbackistan” is now a Facebook group and the name of a Tumblr account; it is emblazoned on T-shirts and has its own entry in Urban Dictionary. Philadelphia magazine called it “the Koch Bros. experiment with making Kansas stupider, meaner, and more difficult.”

Much of this blowback was prompted by the tax cuts Brownback signed into law in 2012, which brought the personal income-tax rate down to 3.9 percent from 6.45 percent and exempted pass-through income — income earned by individual proprietors — entirely. No state had ever tried exempting pass-through entities.

“It was a totally new, untested thing,” says Lyman Stone, an economist with the Tax Foundation, a conservative tax-policy research organization. “Experts on the left and the right raised the alarm about this policy because we thought it might cause tax distortions, it was hard to predict in terms of the revenue changes.”

Revenues have fallen more than expected, and liberals have rejoiced. The New York Times’ Paul Krugman derided the “charlatans and cranks dictating policy in Kansas.” Vox.com reported that, while “Kansas was supposed to be the GOP’s tax-cut paradise, now it can barely pay its bills.” Another piece on the site explained “How Sam Brownback’s tax cuts backfired.”

At the same time, defenders of the cuts say they’​ve created economic growth. The state’s unemployment rate has steadily decreased since Brownback took office in 2010, and the unemployment rate today stands at 4.9 percent, more than a percentage point lower than the national average. The number of private-sector jobs has increased.

“The fact that revenues were down was kind of like, ‘Duh,’” says Dave Trabert, president of the free-market Kansas Policy Institute. “That was the plan. It was anticipated that revenues would fall off dramatically because we cut taxes dramatically.” That’s true, but Stone points out that the amount of income claimed by sole proprietors has risen dramatically, which suggests that the pass-through exemption is playing a large role in the state’s revenue decline.

“The tax plan has a lot of positive features, including the shift to a positive tax base and a reduction of taxes overall,” says Stone, “but in the short term there are some features of the tax plan, like the exemption for pass-through income, that have not met expectations and that do raise concerns.”

At times, the governor has not helped himself in the face of these challenges. His critics seized on his remark that he was undertaking a “real live experiment” in red-state conservatism. But his supporters argue that Democrats are threatened by the prospect that Kansas will, if Brownback wins reelection this year, come to serve as an example of red-state success. “There’s been a fundamental shift in state policies,” a top Brownback adviser tells me. “If it works, [the Left] is really in trouble.”

The Sunflower State was always going to be a tough place to lead a conservative revolution. It has long been home to a relatively liberal Republican party — “the most liberal Republican party in America outside of the Acela corridor,” says the Brownback strategist. Brownback himself has said Kansas has a “three-party system,” and there’s some truth to that claim. One former GOP chairman, Mark Parkinson, switched parties and went on become to become Kathleen Sebelius’s gubernatorial running mate, and to serve out her term as a Democrat when she joined the Obama administration.

Brownback has never shied away from intra-party battles, and his reforms have exacerbated tensions in the GOP. When he ran for the Senate in 1996, he defeated a more moderate Republican in the primary and, two years ago, when moderates in the state senate voiced their opposition to his tax plan, he went after them in that year’s elections and succeeded in ousting nine of them from office. It is in this context that Republican senator Pat Roberts is locked in a close race with his ill-defined independent challenger, the businessman Greg Orman.

Brownback’s reforms have not made him popular. His approval rating has for months languished in the mid 30s. All of the recent polls show Davis, his opponent, leading by single digits, and the race is considered a toss-up. The Tax Foundation’s Stone notes that it will take time to feel the impact of Brownback’s reforms. “Tax cuts are not a shot of adrenaline to the economy,” he says, “but a structural feature that has an effect in the long run, where you get an overall higher level of growth the next decade.” It will be a boon for Democrats if they can boot Brownback from office before that happens, assuming it’s in the offing.

Brownback, for his part, appears uncowed by the onslaught, and his strategy for victory is becoming clear. Up to this point, all of the focus on Brownback’s record has allowed Davis to avoid staking out his own positions. In their first debate earlier this month, Brownback called Davis “the Nancy Pelosi of Kansas.” Davis represents a house district in eastern Lawrence, home to Kansas University and widely considered more liberal than the rest of the state. While Kansas voters may not be fiery conservatives, they are not Lawrence liberals.

And they are certainly not Obama liberals. As Brownback’s strategist puts it, “If people look at the difference between Brownback, four times elected statewide, two times by double digits, versus Davis, a two-time Obama delegate, I think we know how this movie ends.”

How the movie ends will have broad implications for Brownback’s red-state experiment, whether it’s ultimately held up as an example by liberals, who will draw energy from upending it, or by conservatives, who, as Brownback hopes, will cite it as a model of good governance that ultimately reaches Washington, D.C.
Title: Michelle Malkin rips Colorado Gov Hickenlooper
Post by: DougMacG on September 24, 2014, 08:21:53 AM
A couple of Governors need to win reelection first in order to enter the 2016 Presidential hunt.  Hick now trails badly in his bid for reelection.  Michelle Malkin explains why.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/09/24/hicken-weasel_why_colorados_gutless_gov_is_in_trouble_124081.html

I hope the Dem Gov's weakness carries over into the close Senate race.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on October 27, 2014, 08:51:09 AM
ccp's George Will piece on the SWAT raids on political opponents in Wisconsin
http://dogbrothers.com/phpBB2/index.php?topic=2177.msg84341#msg84341
is a good reminder of how important some of these Governor races are.

If Scott Walker wins Wisconsin (for a third time), he will be one to watch for 2016, with significant executive experience and a strong record of governing conservatively in a liberal state, and winning.  If he wins, It won't be a win over a weak opponent and it won't be without local and national opponents throwing everything they had at him.

Colorado is a very different story, but if Dem Gov. Hick comes back to win (I hope he doesn't), his name will rise into the mix if Democrats start thinking, anyone but Hillary, or from anywhere but Washington. 
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on November 03, 2014, 09:32:25 PM
We are getting down to the last chance to prognosticate on tomorrow's election...  I have a conservative bias and these surprises are only possible if this does turn out to be a big Republican year. 

For my own state of MN, the entire state House of Representatives could flip to Republican.  They are currently down by 12 seats, and under one party rule of all branches and chambers.

The US Senate race, Mike McFadden vs. Al Franken, and MN Governor's race:  Jeff Johnson (R) vs Mark Dayton (D - incumbent) will both end up closer than predicted, I predict.  Both of these were VERY recently picked to be double digit Dem wins.  Both could close essentially to a tie.  Unfortunately in MN, the tie goes to the Democrat.
--------------------------------------------

All the Governor's races around the country are crucial and many are tossups.  Especially important (IMO) are the reelection contests of Wisconsin with Gov. Scott Walker (R) and in Colorado with Gov. John Hickenlooper (D).  If Walker wins, he becomes a 2016 factor with quite a few pluses on his side, executive experience, electoral success in a yellow state, and a record of taking on tough fights and succeeding.  If either loses, maybe they end up as an ambassador somewhere, someday.  I think the Fla. Gov race is important too.  Another loss for the slimy Charlie Crist would be good for Florida and mankind.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: G M on November 03, 2014, 11:36:27 PM
When dem's took over Colorado's state legislature, they changed the voting to make it very fraud friendly. I fear Udall with be rescued by this.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on November 05, 2014, 10:11:32 PM
When dem's took over Colorado's state legislature, they changed the voting to make it very fraud friendly. I fear Udall with be rescued by this.

That wasn't enough to rescue Udall, but it might be how Hickenlooper squeaked out a win.

The Scott Walker win in Wisconsin, 3rd in 4 years, is paradigm shifting.  Wisconsin has gone for the Dem Presidential candidate every time since Reagan 1984.  Yet Scott Walker has been able to win there as a reformer, and Ron Johnson and Paul Ryan too.
Title: Puerto Rico bankrupt
Post by: Crafty_Dog on June 28, 2015, 08:02:13 PM
Not a State, but this thread seems like the closest fit.


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/29/business/dealbook/puerto-ricos-governor-says-islands-debts-are-not-payable.html?emc=edit_na_20150628&nlid=49641193&ref=cta&_r=0
Title: Puerto Rico bankrupt 2.0
Post by: Crafty_Dog on August 06, 2015, 12:36:01 PM
Though it is not a state, this thread seems the best place for this.

I do not vouch for all the particulars of this article (op-ed page of Pravda on the Hudson) but it seems worth reading for its historical background material and its identification of what is at stake.

Free Puerto Rico, America’s Colony

By NELSON A. DENISAUG. 6, 2015

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PUERTO RICO has begun to default on its bond payments, for the first time since it became part of the United States, 117 years ago. If it fails to make interest payments on its $72 billion public debt, pension funds across the United States may be unable to meet their payment obligations. But if it were allowed to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, as cities and counties have done, every state will want that right.

For this reason, the Puerto Rico crisis is a national financial crisis, one that neither President Obama nor Congress has taken steps to resolve. Even a simple debt restructuring — in the unlikely event bondholders agreed to it — would not solve the mess. With a population of 3.6 million, every person on the island would need to pay $1,400 a year — 9 percent of Puerto Rico’s per-capita income — just to cover this year’s $5 billion principal and interest payments on the debt.

The problem is not Puerto Rico, or even the vulture funds that have refused to renegotiate the island’s debts: It’s the rigged capitalism the United States has forced on its Caribbean colony.

The United States “liberated” Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898. The following year, Hurricane San Ciriaco destroyed millions of dollars in property and nearly the entire year’s coffee crop. Banks swept in, buying land at a steep discount.

Even worse, in 1901, property taxes on every remaining farmer in Puerto Rico were raised. Farmers were forced to borrow from American banks at usurious rates; many lost their land to foreclosure. By 1930, 34 percent of land in use was managed on behalf of absentee owners.

A once-diversified island harvest (coffee, tobacco, sugar and fruit) was turned into a one-crop economy, dependent on sugar. By 1930, a collection of syndicates controlled all of the island’s sugar farms.

With no money, crops or land, Puerto Ricans left for cities like San Juan, Ponce and Mayagüez. The Legislature enacted a minimum-wage law, but the United States Supreme Court did not recognize the constitutionality of the law until decades later.

In the 1950s, the United States began giving companies tax exemptions to produce cheap products like bras and razors on the island. But once the corporations found cheaper labor in Asia, the factories disappeared.

The most unfair law of all is the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act, which requires that every product that enters or leaves Puerto Rico — cars from Japan, engines from Germany, food from South America, medicine from Canada — must be carried on a United States ship.

A foreign-flagged vessel may directly enter Puerto Rico — but only after paying taxes, customs and import fees that often double the price of the goods it carries.

This is not a business model. It is a shakedown, a form of legalized price-fixing, the maritime version of a protection racket. From 1970 through 2010, the Jones Act cost Puerto Rico $29 billion.

If the Jones Act did not exist, neither would the island’s debt, and tens of thousands of maritime jobs would shift to the island from Jacksonville, Fla., where the giant carriers Crowley, Horizon Lines and Sea Star Line conduct their offloading and reloading for shipment to Puerto Rico.

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Puerto Rico has more Walgreens and Walmarts per square mile than any other part of the country. It’s a dumping ground for cheap American-made exports.
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Recent Comments
Jim M.
1 hour ago

The residents of Puerto Rico elected ineffective politicians that raised the minimum wage to a level much higher than the average wage,...
Michael
1 hour ago

Not once does this article mention Prepa and the cronyism that takes place there and in goverment. The power company is the singular reason...
Mara
1 hour ago

There is another option: Return the island to Spain. I think it is time for US to transfer sovereignty over Puerto Rico to their mother...

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Car prices are typically $6,000 higher in Puerto Rico than in mainland United States. Some products, like unprocessed food items, cost twice as much as on the mainland. The cost of living is higher in Puerto Rico, even though per-capita income is less than half that of Mississippi, the poorest state.

When a set of tax exemptions expired in 2006, pharmaceutical companies abandoned the island, the final blow to its manufacturing sector. Without a real private sector, the government became the island’s largest employer.

The island’s Legislature has done what creditors and bond rating agencies have demanded: Since 2010, it has laid off workers; raised prices for water, gasoline and electricity; increased property, sales and small-business taxes; cut public pensions and health benefits; raised the retirement age; and closed schools.

No surprise that over the past 10 years, nearly 400,000 Puerto Ricans have moved, many to Central Florida. With a shrinking tax base, Puerto Ricans are unable to meet this burden. Gov. Alejandro García Padilla calls it a “death spiral.”

What can be done? The Jones Act must be repealed, right away. Congress will have to overcome opposition from lobbyists for the Jacksonville-based carrier companies that control trade to the island.

All import fees levied on foreign-flagged vessels should be paid into the Puerto Rican Treasury, not the merchant marine. Any tax abatement deals for corporations should require the reinvestment of a stipulated percentage of profits into Puerto Rican infrastructure and industrial development. Puerto Rico must be permitted to develop its own shipping industry and, eventually, negotiate its own international trade agreements.

Independence is the only solution, for Puerto Rico and the United States. After 117 years, many Puerto Ricans are victims of Stockholm syndrome, fearful of losing the “safety net” of United States benefits. But it’s clear that the safety net is a chimera. A gradual transition to independence (like that of the Philippines in 1946) would allow both island and mainland to adjust to a sovereign and self-sustaining Republic of Puerto Rico. It is the only way to end this colonial tragedy.

Nelson A. Denis, a former New York State assemblyman, is the author of “War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony.”
Title: Re: Politics at the State level - Minnesota 35th in disposable income growth
Post by: DougMacG on February 03, 2016, 08:34:46 AM
(from electoral fraud thread)
OMG.  Landlords have to provide voting registrations?   :x

How did Minnesota become such a Democ(rat) stronghold?

I don't know exactly, but you might compare it to Sweden.  Back when everyone had a strong work ethic, there was no measurable harm or dependency caused by social programs.  But when you have the biggest and best safety net over a sustained period, new people come in for the wrong reasons and the work ethic of people already here starts to deteriorate.  Like everywhere else, our population is changing.  People come not just for better benefits, but incoming welfare recipients talk of the shorter lines and better service to get the free money, goods and services.

A lot of the murders in north Minneapolis are committed among people with Illinois license plates, in other words, Chicago murders that happened elsewhere.

Powerline makes fun of StarTribune headlines about "Minneapolis man" did this or that such as join al Qaida when in fact these people are Somalians residing in Minneapolis.  Recall that Zacarias Moussaoui exploited Minnesota Nice to get his flight school training.  He showed a surprising lack of interest in safe landings.

Minnesota always has a low unemployment rate under the accepted rules that we don't count the underclass who isn't part of the labor force.  Twin Cities unemployment is typically around 3% in a good economy.  We have a diversified economy and have become the model for how "blue state", leftist policies can succeed.  That is all good and well unless someone peels back a layer and looks more closely.

Center for the American Experiment, a rare conservative Minneapolis based think tank reports that
Minnesota ranks 35th over the last 10 years in disposable income growth.  
http://www.americanexperiment.org/
In other words MN is close to last even when everything seems to be going well.

They also report that within state to state migration, close to a billion dollars a year of net assets is leaving.  Apparently not enough to reform the nearly worst in the nation death taxes.  

People say they leave Minnesota because of the cold weather (even in the face of global warming).  But cold weather has been here for a long time.  People leave because of high taxation, similar to California.  Wealthy people from MN (and everywhere) already have a home somewhere else (or 2 or 3) because they can.  It does not take rocket science or the moving of heaven and earth for a wealthy person to spend 6 months and a day somewhere else and tell the MN Dept of Revenue, income and death tax divisions to take a flying leap.

Minnesota has a great and diverse economy, as does America.  Copy our policies nationwide and maybe we can see our 0.7% national growth rate cut in half one more time.
Title: Politics at State Level, Politico: Something is Rotten in Minnesota, Race
Post by: DougMacG on July 20, 2016, 02:01:52 PM
"Self inflicted Stupidity", i.e. unforced errors.

This article is not good enough to post 3 times, in state and local, race thread and cognitive dissonance of the left.  But it is an interesting look into leftist cluelessness that affects everyone, everywhere.

They start by interviewing the architect of the current, failed plan, Myron Orfeld, a former state senator and professor of leftism at the University of Minnesota.  To balance his view, they talk to more and more leftists and ask them all the wrong questions about what has gone wrong.

MN WI and IA always have the best test scores in the nation.  Unfortunately it is because they have the highest proportions of white people, not the best schools.  If some other state had that proportion of Asian-American students, the advantage would be there.

People ask why the blue model works in Minnesota, a loaded question with a false premise.  Like Sweden, the welfare state worked back when the population had a more homogeneous culture and a widely held Scandinavian work ethic that was stronger than the disincentives to work contained in the blue state welfare mess.  

Minnesota has the highest disparity of incomes between black and white in the nation.  So much for success.  Many blacks live in neighborhoods where welfare is abundant and employment is scarce.  The goal of the leftists is to get a balance of blacks and welfare and programs and assistance into all the suburbs and communities, not just the currently black neighborhoods.  That would solve what?

Whites tend to come from here.  50% of blacks came here from other states.  That gets loser to 100% as you look back a few generations.

The article goes from quoting the person who designing the current failure:  “It was a lot of self-inflicted stupidity” is Myron Orfield’s analysis, to quoting other leftists who think more government programs and subsidies would this time help these people become self sufficient. [an oxymoron?]  Did the people who succeed do so because of more government programs and bigger subsidies?  No.  But they aren't black.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/minnesota-race-inequality-philando-castile-214053

"Minnesota may be paying for its own success; its consistently thriving economy [nation's most generous welfare benefits?] has drawn thousands of blacks and migrants of color from other states and countries, and traditionally homogeneous Minnesota has been slow to absorb them.
--------------------
The ones not working for the most part didn't come here to work.

The Twin Cities is roughly 1st in the nation for lowest unemployment rate (3.1%) for metropolitan areas:
http://www.bls.gov/web/metro/laulrgma.htm
Like the national numbers, that does not include entire segments of the population who live their lives outside of the BLS defined workforce.

Bring these people back into the economy in a positive and constructive way and it would solve nearly all our problems...
Title: Politics at the State level, Failure of the Blue State model, MN
Post by: DougMacG on August 15, 2016, 11:43:56 AM
http://2lffqo2moysixpyb349z0bj6.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/MN-Economy.pdf

Minnesota has been a solid success for a long time due to a lot of strong factors all of which are headed on a negative path. 

Strong work ethic and other things like a diversified economy tended to overcome the hurdles of big government.  Strengths like 3M, Honeywell, Control Data, Cray, General Mills, Target, Best Buy, Medtronic, United Healthcare, rivers, railroads, air hub, Great Lakes, Univ of MN and an educated workforce led to strength that handled a pretty large public sector burden for a long time. 

New report show MN is surviving off of past success and growing average or below average in many categories.  For example, productivity growth lags and high tech jobs are on the decline.

Not Venezuela yet but not a model of current success either.
Title: Republicans in control of Minnesota House and Senate
Post by: DougMacG on November 13, 2016, 08:50:17 AM
News from the bluest of blue states, the only state Reagan never won.  Note the non-msm source.  Did you see or hear this yet anywhere else?

https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2016/11/historic-election-puts-republicans-control-minnesota-house-and-senate
Title: In MN, Republicans gained with high turnout
Post by: DougMacG on December 01, 2016, 06:29:19 AM
Minnesota, the only state Reagan never won, had the highest voter turnout in the nation in 2016 and turned it's state houses Republican.

Liberal Dem Senator Amy Klobuchar won MN in 2012 by 35 points.  Hillary won in 2016 by 1.5℅.

The pundit class is still too shocked to explain this.

www.twincities.com/2016/11/29/minnesotas-no-1-in-voting-again/amp/
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on December 01, 2016, 11:31:10 AM
 :-o
Title: Democratic staffers in MN seek benefits under Minnesota’s Dislocated Workers Law
Post by: DougMacG on December 15, 2016, 08:16:51 AM
Minnesota, the only state Reagan never won, had the highest voter turnout in the nation in 2016 and turned it's state houses Republican.
Liberal Dem Senator Amy Klobuchar won MN in 2012 by 35 points.  Hillary won in 2016 by 1.5℅.
The pundit class is still too shocked to explain this.
www.twincities.com/2016/11/29/minnesotas-no-1-in-voting-again/amp/

Is it okay to laugh at their misfortune?


It was a bad year for Democrats in Minnesota. They didn’t see it coming.  How bad was it? Democratic legislative staffers on the losing end of the 2016 election have banded together to seek benefits under Minnesota’s Dislocated Workers Program.

The Dislocated Workers Program is aimed at mass layoffs or plant closings affecting 50 or more workers. The program is administered by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, which produced the educational video below to explain it. In the video, one laid-off employee explains: “I felt humiliated to lose a job, even though I had nothing to do with it. I was very frightened. How was I going to live? How was I going to support myself?”


http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/12/what-happened-in-minnesota-a-coda.php
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/12/14/dflers-job-loss-benefits/


Did they really think that being partisan staff for officials who face the voters every two and four years was a permanent source of income? (Yes.)  Here's some advice, get a job.
Title: NJ property taxes average 8500 per house
Post by: DougMacG on January 27, 2017, 07:48:44 AM
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/01/average_property_tax_bill_reached_85k_per_home_in.html

It's probably just rich people living there, right ccp?  )

I thought my property taxes were bad.  I pay more than 100% of my take home income in property taxes.

We need a tax revolt, preceded by a spending revolt.
Title: Politicians must resist the lure of the national spotlight
Post by: Crafty_Dog on February 26, 2017, 01:43:01 PM
http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/washington-politicians-must-resist-the-lure-of-national-spotlight-and-focus-on-states-woes/
Title: Illinois goes Banana Republic
Post by: Crafty_Dog on June 22, 2017, 11:05:44 AM
https://patriotpost.us/articles/49794
Title: Gov. Eric Greitens of MO
Post by: Crafty_Dog on September 16, 2017, 10:09:11 AM
A Former Democrat Rises in Trump Country
Missouri’s governor talks about his journey to the right, his fights with the unions, and his experience as a Navy SEAL.
Illustration: Ken Fallin
By Matthew Hennessey
Sept. 15, 2017 6:10 p.m. ET
WSJ

Jefferson City, Mo.

A few years ago, Eric Greitens was a Democrat—not that you’d know it from his first eight months as the hard-charging Republican governor of Missouri. A Rhodes scholar and former Navy SEAL, Mr. Greitens has pursued an unexpectedly muscular conservative agenda, enacting free-market reforms and gleefully going toe-to-toe with unions. While the GOP in Washington seems bent on squandering its legislative and executive power, Mr. Greitens, 43, illustrates how Republicans in many states are intent on making the most of theirs.

A day after taking office in January, Mr. Greitens signed an executive order to freeze pending state regulations. It also required agencies to review rules already on the books to ensure not only that they are “essential to the health, safety, or welfare of Missouri residents” but that they pass a cost-benefit test. In July he assented to a law overriding St. Louis’s $10-an-hour minimum wage. “This increase in the minimum wage might read pretty on paper, but it doesn’t work in practice,” he said at the time. “Government imposes an arbitrary wage, and small businesses either have to cut people’s hours or let them go.”

Mr. Greitens’s most contentious actions have challenged union power. His Democratic predecessor, Gov. Jay Nixon, repeatedly vetoed right-to-work legislation, under which workers can’t be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. Mr. Greitens signed a right-to-work bill within a month of his inauguration.

During a 75-minute interview at the governor’s mansion, Mr. Greitens explains that his inspiration came from another Midwestern state. “I read Mitch Daniels’s book, ‘Keeping the Republic,’ several times” before running for office, he says. The former Indiana governor’s 2011 paean to fiscal discipline and personal responsibility provided an example, as did the right-to-work law Mr. Daniels signed in 2012. “Look at the data,” Mr. Greitens says. “Indiana became a right-to-work state, and today Indiana has more private-sector union members than before . . . because it was good for the economy.”

Not surprisingly, the unions don’t share that view. They formed a group called We Are Missouri, which last month turned in more than 300,000 signatures—only about 100,000 were required—to force a referendum on right to work. If Missouri’s secretary of state certifies the names, right to work will go before voters in 2018—and the law will remain on hold until then. The tactic has succeeded before: In 2011 a referendum campaign styled We Are Ohio defeated Gov. John Kasich’s collective-bargaining reforms for public employees.

Mr. Greitens launched another salvo at the unions in May. He signed a law banning so-called project labor agreements, which require that all workers hired under a given government contract be paid union wages. In a move calculated for confrontation, Mr. Greitens invited Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker —whose 2011 collective-bargaining reforms stuck, unlike Mr. Kasich’s—to attend a bill-signing ceremony in a St. Louis suburb. The unions and their Democratic allies got the message. “Eric Greitens is rubbing salt in the wounds of working families by celebrating another attack on their paychecks,” said Missouri’s Democratic chairman, Stephen Webber.


Mr. Greitens is unruffled by the criticism. “I think that you’ve got to take action that actually helps people,” he says. “We know that we’re always going to get criticized and we recognize that there are certain liberal media institutions in the state of Missouri that will always see whatever we do in the worst possible light.” But the economic data, he insists, tell a different story: “Since I’ve been in office, Missouri has been outpacing the nation in job growth. Missouri has moved up nine places in the ranking of best states to do business. We’ve got more jobs in Missouri than ever before.”

What explains his appetite for bare-knuckle fights with the unions? More to the point, how did a lifelong Democrat announce he was switching parties the year before the 2016 election, run as a gun-toting conservative, win a Republican primary against three veteran officeholders, and—in his first try for public office—defeat a sitting state attorney general on the November ballot?

Mr. Greitens’s critics—Republican and Democratic alike—have implied it was mere opportunism. During last year’s campaign a Kansas City Star reporter suggested Mr. Greitens was “an ideological weather vane” whose “conservative bona fides” were in question. His evolution has matched the state’s. Missouri was a longtime presidential bellwether—carried by the winner of every election between 1960 and 2004—but has shifted Republican in the past decade. Donald Trump won here by 18.5 points.

Mr. Greitens’s explanation? “My parents were both Democrats and I grew up as a Democrat,” he says. “Basically I was told that the Democrats were the party that cared about people. I liked people and I cared about them, so I was a Democrat.”

His politics began shifting rightward while he was in college, he says, after an encounter with a Bosnian refugee during a trip to the Balkans in 1994: “This guy says to me, ‘Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you’re here. I appreciate that there’s a roof over my head and that there’s food for my kids and that there’s a kindergarten for them . . . but if people really cared about us, they’d also be willing to help to protect us.’ ”

That, he says, led to the realization, that “if you care about people, then you’re willing to act not just with compassion, but you’re also willing to act with courage.” In January 2001, ink not yet dry on his Oxford doctorate, he enrolled in the Navy’s Officer Candidate School. By 9/11 he was training to become a SEAL. Then he served four overseas deployments—in Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, the Horn of Africa, and Iraq. In the Philippines he commanded a detachment of 20 men on two 82-foot Mark V special operations craft patrolling the waters of the Sulu Archipelago in support of Filipino marines battling the Islamic terrorists of Abu Sayyaf. In Iraq, he was in charge of an “al-Qaeda-targeting cell.”

After returning stateside in the mid-2000s, Mr. Greitens started a security consulting business and founded The Mission Continues, a nonprofit that helps veterans readjust to civilian life. The organization’s success gave Mr. Greitens a national profile. He wrote two best-selling books, 2011’s “The Heart and the Fist” and 2015’s “Resilience.” In 2013 Time magazine named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people.

With his star on the rise, Mr. Greitens entertained the advances of Missouri Democrats who wanted him to run for Congress. All the while, he says, his politics were evolving. He announced his party switch in a July 2015 op-ed at FoxNews.com. “I was raised to stand up for the little guy, for working families and the middle class,” he wrote. “If I thought the Democratic Party had the right ideas to do that, I’d still be one of them. But they don’t.”

The change in his thinking, he says, grew out of experience more than philosophy: “Seeing what it took to actually start a business, while at the same time working with all of these other veterans who are trying to start businesses, just gave me a very practical sense of what it means to deal with burdensome regulations.” He didn’t know policy, so he turned to think tanks. “I read things that are put out by the Manhattan Institute. I read things that are put out by the American Enterprise Institute. I also read things that are put out by left-leaning organizations,” he says. “I think that it’s important to see what works.”

Last month Mr. Greitens traveled to Springfield, in the state’s southwest, to greet President Trump, who was in town stumping for tax reform. Unlike in many states, Mr. Trump did better in Missouri than other Republicans running statewide, beating Mr. Greitens’s vote total by more than 150,000. A recent SurveyMonkey poll gives the president a respectable 50% approval rating in the Show Me State.

When I ask Mr. Greitens if he has a good relationship with Mr. Trump, he grins broadly and doesn’t quite answer. “The president, on multiple occasions, has been great to Missouri,” he offers. He cites a February incident in which vandals desecrated a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis. Mr. Greitens, who is Jewish, organized an interfaith initiative to restore the damaged headstones. The president called the next day to thank him, the governor recalls, for “standing up to anti-Semitism” and “bringing people together.”

Isn’t that a contrast with Mr. Trump’s initial equivocation last month after white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Va.? Mr. Greitens is quick to condemn that rally. “I grew up in this household where we always talked about, ‘Never again. Never again,’ ” the governor says. “You have to be willing to stand up and fight and defend people.” But he declines to criticize the president directly, observing only that in a crisis, it’s important for a leader “to send a very clear and strong message.”

He faults his predecessor, Gov. Nixon, for failing to do so in 2014 when riots erupted in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. “The great tragedy of Ferguson,” Mr. Greitens says, “was that if you had had a leader who had shown up with any kind of command presence and courage and calm and clarity, we could have had peace by the second night.” Mr. Greitens’s time as a SEAL taught him how to assess whether a tense situation is about to spin out of control: “What you saw in Ferguson was a complete abandonment of the situation by our political leadership.”

Same with the 2015 disruptions on the University of Missouri’s flagship Columbia campus. The Mizzou administration, Mr. Greitens says bluntly, “was too willing . . . to appease the left.” There was “a failure to act,” as in Ferguson. “One of the things that I’ve found in everything that I’ve done: People want leaders to create a sense of direction and to lead and to act,” he says, “and they know that we will never get everything perfectly right, but they want us to lead.”

While Mr. Greitens is conservative, he isn’t always predictable. When I ask his opinion of Mr. Trump’s proposal to ban transgender military service members, he opposes it vigorously. “The military is not a place for us to have culture wars,” he says. “The No. 1 criteria that we should be looking at for every person who joins the military is, ‘Can they close with and kill the enemy in close-quarters battle?’ ”

Then last month Mr. Greitens earned praise from opponents of capital punishment when he stayed the scheduled execution of Marcellus Williams. A DNA test had raised serious doubt about whether Mr. Williams had in fact killed Felicia Gayle, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who was stabbed at home in 1998. Mr. Greitens says he’s not against the death penalty but views it as “the ultimate irrevocable punishment.” A board of inquiry will now review the evidence against Mr. Williams and make a recommendation. “Ultimately, it’ll be my decision,” the governor says, “and I will make it.”

Mr. Greitens is the nation’s second-youngest governor, after 42-year-old Chris Sununu of New Hampshire. If he survives what is sure to be an unrelenting union assault on his 2020 re-election, Mr. Greitens will be only 50 when term limits require him to leave the governor’s mansion in 2025. What comes after? Mr. Greitens is too disciplined to bite. “There are certain times I think in your life where you feel like you’re in exactly the right place at the right time,” he says. “I love doing this job.”

Mr. Hennessey is an associate editorial features editor at the Journal.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: G M on September 16, 2017, 10:32:44 AM
"The heart and the fist" is a great book. Well worth reading.
Title: Barry Diller's Hudson River Dream Dies
Post by: Crafty_Dog on September 18, 2017, 06:13:51 PM
http://nypost.com/2017/09/16/a-few-busybodies-have-destroyed-a-dream-for-nyc/
Title: Politics at the State & Municipal level, Meet (Gov.) Kristi Noem
Post by: DougMacG on June 06, 2018, 08:10:07 AM
America meet Kristi Noem; South Dakota already knows her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1TCFSn0O7c

She doesn't fit the angry-white-male mean-spirited-Republican caricature very well.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on June 06, 2018, 09:04:49 AM
That is one of the best political ads I have ever seen!!!
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level, Meet (Gov.) Kristi Noem
Post by: G M on June 06, 2018, 09:12:49 AM
America meet Kristi Noem; South Dakota already knows her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1TCFSn0O7c

She doesn't fit the angry-white-male mean-spirited-Republican caricature very well.

Nice to see there are parts of America that are still America.
Title: Seattle
Post by: Crafty_Dog on July 02, 2018, 03:27:32 AM


https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/06/29/how-cities-became-the-new-unions-218837
Title: need to split
Post by: ccp on July 03, 2018, 07:25:24 AM
Montana Wyoming Utah and N and S Dakotas into 3 states each so we can have 30 Senators rather then ten . 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/02/bid-to-split-california-into-3-states-gains-traction-could-it-really-happen.html
Title: Re: Stata and Local
Post by: DougMacG on July 03, 2018, 12:32:04 PM
ccp:   need to split
Montana Wyoming Utah and N and S Dakotas [each] into 3 states each so we can have 30 Senators rather than ten. 

   - Very funny.  )  Why don't WE do it if it's so easy.

Like Puerto Rico, why don't we make them get their own act together before we invite them in.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/02/bid-to-split-california-into-3-states-gains-traction-could-it-really-happen.html

"But she maintained the state [California] is “too big to govern.”

Other adjectives?  Too ______ to govern?

I thought it was governed great.  Big surpluses etc.  We could all learn from them...

Only in Calif are points in Northern Calif and Calif south of points in Southern California.  [And Reno, NV is west of LA!]  There are no logical dividing lines to split this up.  If the three capitals are the cities listed, San Francisco, LA and San Diego, some areas on the map, will be closer to the other two capitals than to their own.  The nature of the split is political more than geographical?

Wouldn't a leftist want far left Calif to have 3 Dem states?  But make it harder to get approval from other states.  If one new state is 'R', Dems lose electoral votes, and the rest is even further left, uncontended. 

They could govern differently, by region, and not change statehood.  Give some power back to the counties?  Leftists decentralizing power?  Ha!

I am disappointed that Congress without supermajority can agree to a change this large, way easier than I thought. Still, why would Kansas or anyone else agree to this? It makes all other states smaller in clout, at least in the Senate.  Maybe this is finally a reason for a 'convention of the states' to change the constitution and make split-offs harder.

Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution states, “no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state … without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.”

[Not 2/3rds of the congress and 3/4th of the legislatures like a constitutional amendment.]  Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned is rather specific.  This ballot initiative is not that.

No new state has been created out of an existing state for more than 150 years.
Title: Florida governor race
Post by: Crafty_Dog on July 31, 2018, 10:12:54 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=29&v=5IbT9j30TtM
Title: If you are going to San Francisco , , ,
Post by: Crafty_Dog on July 31, 2018, 10:54:17 PM
second post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=24&v=ld6qYJe4pRs
Title: Re: If you are going to San Francisco , , ,
Post by: DougMacG on August 01, 2018, 07:11:57 AM
second post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=24&v=ld6qYJe4pRs

" America's largest, unsupervised, outdoor mental hospital."

And it makes the neighbors all want to vote Democrat? How is that working out??
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on August 01, 2018, 08:50:31 AM
A very good friend is now a LEO in precisely that part of SF.  I forwarded the clip to him and he tells me it is dead on accurate.
Title: Georgia
Post by: Crafty_Dog on October 24, 2018, 08:36:10 AM
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/412870-five-takeaways-from-heated-georgia-governor-debate
Title: The economics of Foxconn in Wisconsin and the Governor's race
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 04, 2018, 11:37:25 AM
https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/did-scott-walker-and-donald-trump-deal-away-the-governors-race-to-foxconn?mbid=nl_Daily%20110418&CNDID=50142053&utm_source=nl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20110418&utm_content=&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=Daily%20110418&hasha=52f016547a40edbdd6de69b8a7728bbf&hashb=e02b3c0e6e0f3888e0288d6e52a57eccde1bfd75&spMailingID=14558953&spUserID=MjAxODUyNTc2OTUwS0&spJobID=1520291898&spReportId=MTUyMDI5MTg5OAS2
Title: NYC headed for bankruptcy?
Post by: Crafty_Dog on March 10, 2019, 08:36:17 PM


https://nypost.com/2019/03/09/new-york-city-is-edging-toward-financial-disaster-experts-warn/?utm_source=NYPFacebook&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&sr_share=facebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow&fbclid=IwAR2k5VL5DlJsUC3_41qi-h8LZGbmr_ZdpVvsXikvPxgvZikK5EYNNGSuBIE
Title: Re: NYC headed for bankruptcy?
Post by: G M on March 10, 2019, 08:43:01 PM


https://nypost.com/2019/03/09/new-york-city-is-edging-toward-financial-disaster-experts-warn/?utm_source=NYPFacebook&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&sr_share=facebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow&fbclid=IwAR2k5VL5DlJsUC3_41qi-h8LZGbmr_ZdpVvsXikvPxgvZikK5EYNNGSuBIE

Funny how all the blue states are full of the smart people and yet they can't even come close to funding their big governments.
Title: model bills
Post by: bigdog on April 10, 2019, 11:57:55 AM
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/04/03/abortion-gun-laws-stand-your-ground-model-bills-conservatives-liberal-corporate-influence-lobbyists/3162173002/
Title: San Francisco poop patrol makes $71-184K
Post by: Crafty_Dog on April 23, 2019, 10:13:44 PM
https://amp.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-poop-patrol-employees-make-184000-a-year-2018-8?fbclid=IwAR0A8fpisQ2HdkfrX8RE2lOkCxTmD0sg3nJUDl7DZ_BSGBfnN5gf_wbeYfs
Title: Chicago, NYC, others drowning in debt per taxpayer
Post by: Crafty_Dog on May 15, 2019, 04:06:55 PM
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cities-drowning-debt-chicago-study?fbclid=IwAR16ImR7vz_AZhPOIisPmEbFWY3W_fRsLClKrk6oeS7C0PR9Ml9fSdvHD9o
Title: Re: Chicago, NYC, others drowning in debt per taxpayer
Post by: G M on May 15, 2019, 10:32:42 PM
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cities-drowning-debt-chicago-study?fbclid=IwAR16ImR7vz_AZhPOIisPmEbFWY3W_fRsLClKrk6oeS7C0PR9Ml9fSdvHD9o

Obviously they need to raise taxes!
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on May 16, 2019, 05:25:12 AM
deBLAZ to the rescue of America
to save us from the tyrant and to help the middle class
like he does for NYC

https://nypost.com/tag/bill-de-blasio/
Title: West Virginia
Post by: Crafty_Dog on June 27, 2019, 11:00:20 AM
https://www.ft.com/content/327a9c4a-9799-11e9-9573-ee5cbb98ed36?fbclid=IwAR0G1MuGgmbb5vRBIMZsIfvl5O940ymnmKkhkcbM9tHV9MGgnZ3BSO8ijoM
Title: VA elects repeat pedophile
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 13, 2019, 08:37:57 AM
https://www.newstarget.com/2019-11-10-democrats-elected-convicted-pedophile-to-virginia-senate.html?fbclid=IwAR0wpyryD76Kp85cHRUYrXEjoHAnXgmKbAq6APYXGYod6QaEqHuan44sXWg
Title: Sliwa for mayor of NYC
Post by: Crafty_Dog on March 09, 2020, 11:48:20 AM
https://nypost.com/2020/03/08/guardian-angels-founder-curtis-sliwa-vows-to-run-for-mayor/
Title: Gov. Northam in VA
Post by: Crafty_Dog on April 18, 2020, 11:18:15 AM
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/ralph-northams-transformation-of-virginia/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NR%20Daily%20Saturday%202020-04-18&utm_term=NRDaily-Smart
Title: Re: Gov. Northam in VA
Post by: G M on April 18, 2020, 11:51:16 PM
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/ralph-northams-transformation-of-virginia/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NR%20Daily%20Saturday%202020-04-18&utm_term=NRDaily-Smart

He will probably be successful in starting CW2 there.
Title: DiBlasio appoints wife to head WuFlu Racial Inequality Task Force
Post by: Crafty_Dog on April 27, 2020, 09:57:53 PM


https://nypost.com/2020/04/26/de-blasio-appoints-wife-head-of-coronavirus-racial-inequality-task-force/
Title: NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo
Post by: Crafty_Dog on May 03, 2020, 06:51:56 AM
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/05/02/gov-cuomo-had-the-worst-response-to-the-crisis-of-any-governor-in-america-n387642
Title: Speaking of the Cuomos , , ,
Post by: Crafty_Dog on May 03, 2020, 08:26:33 AM
I remember Congressman Ed Koch visiting in our home in 1968 to meet with a Dem committee headed by future Congresswoman Bella Abzug and my mother.  I was 16 at the time and he struck me as rather wimpy and deferential to Bella-- who was a force of nature.  I remember being surprised at what a bold mayoral candidate and mayor he became and I remember the "Cuomo, not the homo" campaign by Team Cuomo.

https://710wor.iheart.com/featured/mark-simone/content/2020-04-23-remember-why-ed-koch-hated-the-cuomos/
Title: Andrew Cuomo
Post by: Crafty_Dog on May 03, 2020, 08:51:34 AM
third post

Not clear to me why calling Cynthia Nixon out on her BDS position is wrong, but lots of insider trivia in this one

https://nypost.com/2018/09/11/andrew-cuomo-has-been-playing-dirty-in-politics-for-years/
Title: 2020 at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on November 28, 2020, 09:28:46 AM
Democrats targeted state chambers in 12 states and failed in all.
-----------
“I think that there were voters out there who were disgusted with Donald Trump and saw Joe Biden as an alternative,” said state Rep. Chris Turner, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus. “They said, ‘You know what, I’m not a Democrat — maybe I’m an independent; maybe I’m a moderate Republican — I’m going to vote for Republicans down ballot.’ ”

Turner said Republicans successfully nationalized the races by accusing down-ballot Democrats of seeking to defund the police, favoring socialism and aiming to ban fossil fuels, ...

https://news.yahoo.com/democrats-suffered-crushing-down-ballot-151200736.html
------------
There is a lesson for Republicans in there somewhere.
Title: NYC
Post by: Crafty_Dog on December 20, 2020, 10:11:12 AM
https://www.vagabondjourney.com/and-then-they-destroyed-new-york-city/?fbclid=IwAR0RVo5cd1SRLHYyaut3cG8zgQSDpUlnkaXZmjd2DAEuiDWZ_kwEenfxgK0
Title: Judge strikes down South Dakota recreational cannabis measure
Post by: DougMacG on February 10, 2021, 10:54:24 AM
Interesting that it is Gov Kristi Noem and her appointed judge are acting against the will of the people.  Isn't that a losing battle?
-----------------------------------------
Judge rules recreational marijuana measure unconstitutional in South Dakota

...argued last month that because Amendment A added an entirely new section to the state Constitution instead of modifying an existing one, it should be considered a revision, not an amendment.
https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2021/02/08/south-dakota-marijuana-court-strikes-down-recreational-pot-measure/4442883001/
Title: PJ Media: Done with Minnesota
Post by: DougMacG on April 13, 2021, 09:25:06 AM
He barely touches on the bad stuff here, like Minneapolis city clowncil.

1984, in my whiny, Walter Mondale mocking voice:  "Ronald Reagan and I will both raise your taxes.  He won't tell you.  I just did."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2021/04/13/the-morning-briefing-u-s-may-want-to-look-into-getting-rid-of-minnesota-n1439273

U.S. May Want to Look Into Getting Rid of Minnesota
BY STEPHEN KRUISER APR 13, 2021 3:49 AM ET
   
What Has Minnesota Done for Us Lately?

Early in my stand-up career, I drove to all of my gigs. The average opening act in comedy club isn’t flying all over the place. I got to see a lot of this great land and became quite enamored of it. Most of it, anyway. I never did get San Francisco.

That was a long time ago, however. People change. Countries change.

The Democrats go off the socialist deep end and turn the states and cities that they run into fetid cesspools of civil unrest.

I’m kind of over those places now.

Hear me out. I know that we have all gotten used to the way the American flag looks and that change is difficult but, let’s be honest here, we could all probably get used to having fewer stars on it. Maybe start by removing one after we rid ourselves of, say, Minnesota. I’m done with it. Minnesota and its 10,000 lakes need to go somewhere that isn’t here.

Off the top of my head, Prince is the only worthwhile thing I can think of to ever come out of Minnesota. OK, our own Ed Morrissey lives there, but he’s not a native and we can rescue him and move him to a free state.

In recent years, all the state has given us is Keith Ellison, Ilhan Omar, and race riots since last summer.

We can do better, America.

These people really need hobbies. Ones they can do as Canadians, preferably. Or Greenlanders. Progressives are obsessed with Russia, maybe Vlad can take this miserable place off of our hands. This is a breakup that’s been a long time in the making.

If we have any luck getting rid of the thorn that is Minnesota, maybe we can find a taker for Oregon and its ne’er-do-well hellhole Portland, which has been in a state of permanent unrest since last summer doesn’t show any signs of letting up.

The only goal for these leftist enclaves is to have all of this rioting lead to the de-Americanization of America. Why keep them around? If they were acting out under another country’s flag it might make them just a bit easier to ignore.

If it doesn’t, at least somebody else would be picking up the bill for all of this nonsense.

We’ll always have Prince.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on April 13, 2021, 10:12:26 AM
".We’ll always have Prince."

and WE have Doug :))

even Bob Dylan I am sure is a lib

plus he was weirdly at a hotel some yrs back new Newark airport when some cab driver asked Katherine if she wanted to meet him

same thing happened once in Florida yrs ago
  cabbie tells Katherine he could introduce her to Dolly Parton

I did not know cab drivers had such connections

Title: TX: Free range kids
Post by: Crafty_Dog on May 19, 2021, 08:32:55 AM
https://reason.com/2021/05/18/texas-becomes-third-state-to-pass-free-range-kids-law/
Title: AZ
Post by: Crafty_Dog on June 01, 2021, 08:43:22 AM
https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/arizona-governor-vetoes-22-bills-including-election-integrity-and-anti-critical-race-theory-legislation_3838054.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-06-01&mktids=c2f44648d1f2989d5343c085a6522bb4&est=YjGQHijmHtdaM6ybPDUPbOvARBsk0IsGoxtKY4Hfb4ruIas4%2FGzrDkis6a3Ls3qXZt8l
Title: NYC
Post by: Crafty_Dog on June 24, 2021, 01:12:07 PM
https://patriotpost.us/articles/80853-law-and-order-takes-center-stage-in-nyc-mayors-race?mailing_id=5928&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.5928&utm_campaign=digest&utm_content=body
Title: Politics at State & Municipal level, Larry Elder
Post by: DougMacG on July 13, 2021, 04:28:04 PM
ElectElder.com
For Governor of California
I donated today.
It won't be free to put out a message of freedom and prosperity against all media powers.
Yes, this affects what happens nationwide.
The man deserves our support.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on October 23, 2021, 01:23:22 PM
Texans have been asked to continue to use masks...
 ... to clean their guns.  )
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: G M on October 23, 2021, 02:21:14 PM
Texans have been asked to continue to use masks...
 ... to clean their guns.  )

Funny. I love my fake mask btw. I carry two. One looks like a real mask and the other is obviously clear mesh.
Title: Thomas Sowell answers Obama on the Virginia race
Post by: DougMacG on October 25, 2021, 06:35:23 AM
https://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell102521.php3

Although Virginia has been a politically blue state for years, this year's election has the Democrats' governor facing a serious challenge.
One of the reasons is that many Virginia parents are outraged by the "woke" propaganda their children are being subjected to in the public schools — and the governor has sided with the education bureaucrats and the teachers union.

Very few politicians in any state dare to go against the teachers unions, which have millions of votes and millions of dollars in campaign contributions.

This is one battle in a much bigger war, and the stakes are far higher than the governorship of Virginia or the Democrats and Republicans. The stakes are the future of this nation.

When school propaganda teaches black kids to hate white people, that is a danger to all Americans of every race. Anyone at all familiar with the history of group-identity politics in other countries knows that it has often ended up producing sickening atrocities that have torn whole societies apart.

If you have a strong stomach, read about the 1915 atrocities against the Armenians in Turkey, "ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans, or the reciprocal atrocities between the Sinhalese and Tamils during their civil war in Sri Lanka.

Do not kid yourself that this cannot happen in America. The relations between the Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka were once held up to the world as a model of intergroup harmony.

They got along better than blacks and whites have ever gotten along in the U.S. But then a talented demagogue polarized the country with group-identity politics, to get himself elected prime minister.

Once he was elected, he was ready to moderate his position. But you cannot just turn group hatred on and off, like a light bulb. He was assassinated and the hatred continued on.

There is a point of no return in America as well. And we may be nearing it, or perhaps past it.

Low-income minority students, especially, cannot afford the luxury of having their time wasted on ideological propaganda in the schools, when they are not getting a decent education in mathematics or the English language.

When they graduate, and go on to higher education that could prepare them for professional careers, hating white people is not likely to do them nearly as much good as knowing math and English.

This may be a new issue to some people, but such irresponsible indoctrination has been going on for decades. Back in 1993, my book "Inside American Education" had a long chapter titled "Classroom Brainwashing."

Anyone who reads the school propagandists' own words quoted there can find that a sickening experience as well.

Parents who protest the arrogant abuse of a captive audience of children are performing an important public service. They deserve something better than having the Biden administration's Attorney General threatening them.

But this whole issue is far older and far bigger than the Biden administration. It will be a cancerous threat to this country, long after the current administration is over.

Poisonous indoctrination will not stop unless it gets stopped. But most parents and voters have lives to lead, and cannot keep monitoring everything the schools do.

Most low-income parents lack the one thing that would get them taken seriously by the education establishment — an ability to take their children to other schools.

Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Parents and voters in New York state can go on the Internet and see the State Education Department's data on how many students in traditional public schools and in charter schools pass the math and English tests. People in other states may have something similar.

In low-income minority neighborhoods, most of the students in unionized public schools fail both these statewide tests. But most students in charter schools in the same neighborhoods pass those same tests — several times more often.

In 2013, a 5th-grade class in a Harlem charter school scored higher in math than any other 5th-grade class in the state.

Neither the educational problems nor the propaganda problems can be solved without allowing parents the option to take their children out of the failing schools they are forced to attend.
Title: Biden goes all-in on Virginia Governor race
Post by: DougMacG on October 26, 2021, 06:55:38 AM
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/this-could-be-the-ballgame-biden-goes-all-in-on-virginia/ar-AAPXHN1?li=BBnb7Kz
------------
Nothing like having the most clueless public person on the planet double down on you.  Is that really what corrupt deep state creature Terry McAulliffe needs?

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/578440-three-reasons-youngkin-is-likely-performing-better-than-polls-say-in

My expectations for blue state reversals are low after watching Larry Elder move the needle zero points against the nation's worst Governor.

In the short run it seems impossible to move one person politically, but zoom out a bit further and, from time to time, we see major shifts.  That said, moving a government based economy in northern Virginia toward a limited government position is like reversing gravity.
Title: pessimistic that dEms will win in NJ and Va governor races
Post by: ccp on October 26, 2021, 07:37:01 AM
"My expectations for blue state reversals are low after watching Larry Elder move the needle zero points against the nation's worst Governor."

mine too!
as GM pointed out the Dems will lie and use every dirty trick in the book to win in Va and NJ

they are already lying to every union member in NJ
that Ciattarelli wants  to take their pensions away

( FYI NJ is controlled by union bosses - corrupt dem machines)
Title: Re: pessimistic that dEms will win in NJ and Va governor races
Post by: G M on October 26, 2021, 09:16:02 AM
Somehow, Newsome got MORE votes in the recall election than he did when he was first elected. Even though California lost population during that time period between those elections.

Funny how that works.

WE MUST VOAT HARDER!


"My expectations for blue state reversals are low after watching Larry Elder move the needle zero points against the nation's worst Governor."

mine too!
as GM pointed out the Dems will lie and use every dirty trick in the book to win in Va and NJ

they are already lying to every union member in NJ
that Ciattarelli wants  to take their pensions away

( FYI NJ is controlled by union bosses - corrupt dem machines)
Title: When you write off MN, you are ignoring most of the state
Post by: DougMacG on October 26, 2021, 04:06:39 PM
https://www.valleynewslive.com/2021/10/25/hundreds-rally-fergus-falls-recently-fired-surgeon/
---------
"Hundreds" have never protested anything in Fergus Falls. Population 13k.
Title: Re: When you write off MN, you are ignoring most of the state
Post by: G M on October 26, 2021, 04:15:50 PM
https://www.valleynewslive.com/2021/10/25/hundreds-rally-fergus-falls-recently-fired-surgeon/
---------
"Hundreds" have never protested anything in Fergus Falls. Population 13k.

The PTB will get thousands of Haitians, Afghans and Guatemalans there as soon as possible.
Title: campaign while keeping distant from Trump
Post by: ccp on November 01, 2021, 08:36:36 AM
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/01/trump-republican-governor-race-glenn-youngkin

Maybe this is key to get independents
and those Republicans who have strong distaste for Trump?
Title: Re: campaign while keeping distant from Trump
Post by: G M on November 01, 2021, 08:38:19 AM
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/01/trump-republican-governor-race-glenn-youngkin

Maybe this is key to get independents
and those Republicans who have strong distaste for Trump?

To outvote the dem fraud machine? Prepare for McAwful to suddenly come from behind and win.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level, Gov race Virginia, public schools?
Post by: DougMacG on November 01, 2021, 12:47:48 PM
McAuliffe answered a question about public schools by saying he and his wife raised 5 children in Virginia.

  - At least 4 of the McAuliffe children went to (very expensive) private schools.

Please help me find an MSM link to this, anywhere a Dem voter might read, before the election.  #swept under the carpet

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcauliffe-references-raising-5-children-in-virginia-in-touting-public-schools-4-went-to-private
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/mcauliffe-sent-kids-to-school-with-17-separate-pta-committees/
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on November 01, 2021, 01:17:53 PM
I guess I first heard of McAuliffe when he was DNC head
early 2000's

as likely most of us did

my first impression was that he was one of the biggest lying corrupt 100%  sleaze balls I had ever had displeasure of having to listen to -
right from the get go -
he has lived up to that standard ever since

Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 01, 2021, 05:08:53 PM
Didn't the Clinton machine donate $700,000 to his wife's campaign to become a VA state legislator?  (Via , , , McCabe?!?)

Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on November 01, 2021, 07:30:51 PM
"Didn't the Clinton machine donate $700,000 to his wife's campaign to become a VA state legislator?  (Via , , , McCabe?!?)"

"In 2018, McAuliffe considered running for the Democratic nomination to challenge Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) for the U.S. House of Representatives in Virginia's 10th congressional district,[21] but ultimately decided not to.[3]"

I forgot Terence was a Clinton campaign manager in 1996 . That must be the first I heard of him.

he and McCabe are both professors at the same "university" I posted somewhere else.
the more one searches the more one finds the same names with one degree of separation showing up Wash DC.

They are all in the same bed .....

Title: FOUND IT the McAuliffe McCabe connection
Post by: ccp on November 01, 2021, 07:47:41 PM
Hat tip the great Judicial Watch 

who in this article links the two micks :

https://www.judicialwatch.org/investigative-bulletin/the-strange-case-of-mcauliffe-mccabe/
Title: reported even earlier by WSJ
Post by: ccp on November 01, 2021, 08:00:18 PM
https://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-ally-aids-campaign-of-fbi-officials-wife-1477266114

and more here:

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/jill-mccabe-slams-trump-absurd-personal-attacks-husband-article-1.3911239

I guess I missed all of this when it came out.
and everyone denies any wrong doing and the MSM moves on

and quietly few yrs later with Dems in power McCabe who was supported by CNN during the hiatus gets his pension and other benefits back noted on page 4,375 in the NYT.... :wink:
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 02, 2021, 01:06:11 AM
Nice work CCP!
Title: Newt Gingrich Says Democrats Will 'Steal' Virginia if Governor Election is Close
Post by: DougMacG on November 02, 2021, 11:32:10 AM
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/newt-gingrich-says-democrats-will-steal-virginia-if-governor-election-is-close/ar-AAQdA0M

Newt Gingrich Says Democrats Will 'Steal' Virginia if Governor Election is Close
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Voting matters and margin of victory matters.

I voted for school board today.
Title: Re: Newt Gingrich Says Democrats Will 'Steal' Virginia if Governor Election is Close
Post by: G M on November 02, 2021, 11:46:44 AM



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/newt-gingrich-says-democrats-will-steal-virginia-if-governor-election-is-close/ar-AAQdA0M

Newt Gingrich Says Democrats Will 'Steal' Virginia if Governor Election is Close
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Voting matters and margin of victory matters.

I voted for school board today.

Did you vote for the communist or the socialist?
Title: Re: Newt Gingrich Says Democrats Will 'Steal' Virginia if Governor Election is Close
Post by: DougMacG on November 02, 2021, 12:58:24 PM
"Did you vote for the communist or the socialist?"

  - No.  At least not knowingly. 

Strangely, I voted for incumbents.  Top rated schools in the top rated state:
https://stacker.com/minnesota/best-places-raise-family-minnesota

Although woke has hit a rival suburban district hard:
https://www.americanexperiment.org/a-curriculum-of-political-indoctrination-in-edinas-public-schools/
https://www.americanexperiment.org/katherine-kersten-adds-explosive-follow-up-to-her-investigation-of-edinas-public-schools/
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level, Virginia 2021
Post by: DougMacG on November 03, 2021, 07:39:37 AM
Looks like VA voted harder.

Margin of victory matters!  A 10 vote lead will not hold up in NJ, but gave them one hell of a scare.  Also, at some point cheating methods will be caught and revealed.

Let's not mock voting harder until everyone tries it.

Funny that largest Virginia voter turnout in history favored the Republicans, up and down the ballot.
[Conventional wisdom used to be that R's only win in light turnout years.]

'Vote harder' includes choosing candidates and message discipline wisely, winning where you can and using that to gain ground on future election integrity and safeguards.

Republicans have majorities in 30 or more states, not counting Virginia, New Jersey, Minnesota and others that can be competitive.  If Republicans can win in Virginia, can win the House of Representatives, there is no reason they can't win the Senate and electoral college.  It all starts by winning at the state and municipal level!
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level, MN 2021
Post by: DougMacG on November 03, 2021, 07:48:46 AM
Not a happy day for me.  Rent control measures passed in Minneapolis and St. Paul, even as they decided to keep some semblance of a police force and knocked out two city clowncil members that supported defunding the police.  Fascism is alive and well in the urban American electorate and no one is teaching economics 101 in the government (or private) schools anymore.  Voters trust government coercion over markets in spite of a century proving that wrong.  God help us.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on November 03, 2021, 08:32:24 AM
 "Rent control measures passed in Minneapolis and St. Paul"

sorry to hear that
I feel your pain......

Schumer already boasting about lower drug pricing for seniors but i have not been able to determine how they do it

if it is simply with price controls I do not favor it
if it through increase in competition (with Medicare) etc. or changing the patent laws that do not allow a pharm to extend the patents for extended many yrs with slight bs changes to their meds etc , I am for it

"Voters trust government coercion over markets in spite of a century proving that wrong.  God help us."

endless free shit crowd
 make the rich pay crowd
  tax the rich
   
just encourages screaming for more free shit
and more soak those who have been more successful

no end in sight


Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 03, 2021, 10:22:04 AM
Doug:

So sorry to hear it!

What does this mean for you?  What do you think to do?
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level, MSP rent control measures passed
Post by: DougMacG on November 03, 2021, 11:07:07 AM
Doug:

So sorry to hear it!

What does this mean for you?  What do you think to do?

Thank you.  For me personally, it probably makes little difference.  I pretty much plan to sell all, one by one, as fast as I can get them ready to sell.  Rents are already high.  If I could collect 12 months rent for each property at current levels, life would be good.  I don't have property in St Paul, and in Mpls this is just enabling legislation so far, allowing the City Politiburo to implement a program.  It also means they have the backing of the (ignorant) voters to do so.  I have mostly single family houses so they can be sold to a homeowner and taken out of the rental supply.  Mostly to me, this is another step of giving the government more power over what is already the most regulated industry on earth.  Criminalizing common sense business practices.

My hurt comes from watching us destroy our economy and our country.  Seeing young people pay 450k for a small house in an ordinary neighborhood similar to what i used to buy for 40k.  Some of it's inflation but it didn't have to be this way.  The City (and bad state laws) drive up the costs and drive out the weaker players and the cheaper properties.  There will be no more fixer uppers or starter homes.  We chop off the lower rungs of the economic ladder in all ways then wonder why 60% of the country is dependent on government for basic needs.

I will put more in the housing thread but in short, rent control reduces supply and drives up the cost for everyone who is not protected.

PS: The Biden election already drove up natural gas prices DOUBLE IN ONE YEAR.  That is the cost to heat a home and nearly 100% of homes in Mpls use natural gas.  The real heating season just started and people will soon see their first Biden Bill.  Electricity prices already doubled with pretend green initiatives for those of you whose main home energy cost is AC.

Moscow?  Caracas?  Pyongyang?  Here we come.
Title: NYC
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 03, 2021, 11:07:58 AM


www.facebook.com/1512198700/videos/231446412385372/
Title: Reps win House of Delegates in VA
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 03, 2021, 12:45:03 PM
https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/republicans-win-back-virginia-house-of-delegates-in-historic-sweep_4084073.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-11-03-2&mktids=6468ca4f707a1e64577c143ea62fdb0d&est=lS%2ByVg6HLrbq8LQcZNZb%2BQfVxuAU%2BrI1d%2B1fFhFE8io0umM4cZ8nQxIhJ115DbaZRob2
Title: Dem strong hold & immigrants
Post by: ccp on November 03, 2021, 04:25:39 PM
dem strongholds by county

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/11/02/us/elections/results-new-jersey.html

https://www.njspotlightnews.org/2016/03/16-03-27-the-list-new-jersey-counties-with-the-highest-immigrant-populations/

(and this is just the immigrants from the past 5 y only)

the immigrants of today are not those like who checked in at  Ellis Island.

I am not talking about where they come from ,
I am talking voting for big government

Title: Re: Dem strong hold & immigrants
Post by: G M on November 03, 2021, 07:24:30 PM
There is a crucial difference between immigrants and colonists.


dem strongholds by county

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/11/02/us/elections/results-new-jersey.html

https://www.njspotlightnews.org/2016/03/16-03-27-the-list-new-jersey-counties-with-the-highest-immigrant-populations/

(and this is just the immigrants from the past 5 y only)

the immigrants of today are not those like who checked in at  Ellis Island.

I am not talking about where they come from ,
I am talking voting for big government
Title: Meanwhile in Joisey...
Post by: G M on November 03, 2021, 07:26:23 PM
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/11/new-jersey-governor-race-called-democrat-murphy-20000-votes-mysteriously-gained-40000-ballots-overnight/

Was the VA dem fraud machine not as prepared?
Title: New Boston mayor
Post by: ccp on November 04, 2021, 05:56:55 AM
https://dnyuz.com/2021/11/03/for-progressives-michelle-wu-points-to-a-way-forward/

next woke mayor to run for president in the future?
Title: Seattle City Attorney
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 04, 2021, 06:09:03 AM
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/republican-city-attorney-candidate-on-the-verge-of-defeating-police-abolitionist-dem-in-liberal-seattle/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=breaking&utm_campaign=newstrack&utm_term=25578013
Title: Politics State & Municipal level, two more races of note: TX, NJ
Post by: DougMacG on November 04, 2021, 10:28:45 AM
https://www.westernjournal.com/red-wave-republican-flips-texas-house-seat-district-biden-won-14-points/
Red Wave: Republican Flips Texas House Seat in District Where Biden Won by 14 Points

 By Kipp Jones
  November 3, 2021 at 8:56am
A Republican managed to flip a Democratic-held Texas state House seat Tuesday in a district that President Joe Biden won in November by 14 points.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-11-04/gop-edward-durr-defeats-top-nj-lawmaker-sweeney-with-153
Spending $153, Edward Durr Ousts NJ Senate Leader Sweeney
New Jersey’s longtime state Senate president, Democrat Steve Sweeney, has lost reelection, falling to a Republican newcomer who spent less than $200 on the race and leaving his party reeling.

By Associated Press
|
Nov. 4, 2021, at 12:26 p.m.
Title: Truck Driver Durr's most excellent win
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 04, 2021, 11:37:38 AM
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/republican-edward-durr-truck-driver-who-spent-153-on-campaign-defeats-new-jersey-senate-president/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=breaking&utm_campaign=newstrack&utm_term=25581032
Title: Winnie calls out Joy Reid
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 04, 2021, 04:22:55 PM
https://dailycaller.com/2021/11/03/va-lt-gov-elect-winsome-sears-challenges-joy-reid-to-interview-her-on-msnbc/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=recaps&tpcc%3D=recaps&pnespid=vbI4DC5EMLEC1uLRrCmyGIqO5xC_V58nLujkwvVvrkFmwA_IHa.breVP5I_ohGHFROeKPzjM
Title: Re: Winnie calls out Joy Reid
Post by: G M on November 04, 2021, 06:37:55 PM
https://dailycaller.com/2021/11/03/va-lt-gov-elect-winsome-sears-challenges-joy-reid-to-interview-her-on-msnbc/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=recaps&tpcc%3D=recaps&pnespid=vbI4DC5EMLEC1uLRrCmyGIqO5xC_V58nLujkwvVvrkFmwA_IHa.breVP5I_ohGHFROeKPzjM

Mafia informants in the USMS' WITSEC program will get more press than VA's new Lt. Gov.
Title: Politics State & Municipal, "Dem Party needs a Woke Detox Center
Post by: DougMacG on November 05, 2021, 07:22:33 AM
Analysis continues on the Virginia result and NJ too.
1.  Read Glenn Reynolds in USA Today (while you still can):
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/11/04/election-results-democrats-moderate/6272711001/
"what happens when the school boards try to write parents out of the equation?  Virginia happens."
"It’s not just school boards, of course. The governance of blue cities has been bad enough to be a national drag on the Democratic Party. Bill de Blasio’s awful mayoralty turned New York City from a crown jewel into a dump; Seattle and Portland are national disgraces with their lawlessness; and Midwestern cities like Minneapolis and Chicago have suffered under the influence of trendy but awful depolicing policies or rhetoric."  (see Carville below)

As close as you'll come to seeing our view in legacy media.

2.  Most telling is when lefties like Bill Maher and this time James Carville 'get it"
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/11/04/james_carville_democratic_party_needs_woke_detox_center_if_we_want_to_win_another_election.html

"Democratic Party needs a Woke Detox Center"   - James Carville

Paraphrasing, all the nuttiness in Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, (and arson, looting, violence) defund the police, etc. is screwing up the moderate center left brand name.

3.  Someone on American Thinker named the theme song for the Dem party today, Strawberry Fields Forever. 

The then-woke Beattles saw this coming.  Besides the part in Revolution:  "if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow"

Strawberry Fields forever: "Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about".
Living is easy with eyes closed, Misunderstanding all you see

Nowhere Man:  He's as blind as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see...
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody      - Thinking of 57 gender bathrooms.
Isn't he a bit like you and me?    - No. Just you.

4.  One more thought:  If Dems get caught cheating in NJ.  That is a good thing.  We can tighten up election security in 30 states, maybe 31 or 32 and counting.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: G M on November 05, 2021, 07:30:08 AM
4.  One more thought:  If Dems get caught cheating in NJ.  That is a good thing.  We can tighten up election security in 30 states, maybe 31 or 32 and counting.

Who will investigate and prosecute the vote fraud in NJ?

What dem run states will tighten up voting laws?

Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on November 05, 2021, 07:44:02 AM
4.  One more thought:  If Dems get caught cheating in NJ.  That is a good thing.  We can tighten up election security in 30 states, maybe 31 or 32 and counting.

Who will investigate and prosecute the vote fraud in NJ?

What dem run states will tighten up voting laws?

Right.  My point was Dems getting caught, whether prosecuted or not in a blue state, will help R's clean up red states (before they collapse) and there are a lot of them.  There is reason to move forward with election integrity laws.  We can win and hold House, Senate, Electoral College, majority of legislatures and governorships etc. without ever flipping Calif, NY, NJ etc.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: G M on November 05, 2021, 07:50:29 AM
4.  One more thought:  If Dems get caught cheating in NJ.  That is a good thing.  We can tighten up election security in 30 states, maybe 31 or 32 and counting.

Who will investigate and prosecute the vote fraud in NJ?

What dem run states will tighten up voting laws?

Right.  My point was Dems getting caught, whether prosecuted or not in a blue state, will help R's clean up red states (before they collapse) and there are a lot of them.  There is reason to move forward with election integrity laws.  We can win and hold House, Senate, Electoral College, majority of legislatures and governorships etc. without ever flipping Calif, NY, NJ etc.

But the president and the weaponized feral government will continue down the path to tyranny.
Title: Loudoun County Rapist's mother blames victim
Post by: G M on November 05, 2021, 11:05:20 AM
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2021/11/02/mother-of-convicted-loudoun-county-school-sex-offender-blames-the-victim/
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 05, 2021, 12:19:51 PM
I saw a report a week or so ago that they had had sex a couple of times previously.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: G M on November 06, 2021, 01:15:49 AM
I saw a report a week or so ago that they had had sex a couple of times previously.

Not relevant to the criminal charge.
Title: Hold the victory lap
Post by: G M on November 06, 2021, 01:16:32 AM
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/woke-gets-whacked-but-hold-the-victory-lap/
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level, Eric Adams, Mayor, NYC
Post by: DougMacG on November 08, 2021, 08:10:43 AM
https://nypost.com/2021/11/02/right-man-to-de-blasify-ny-goodwin/

Is he the right person to de-Blasify NYC?  We will see.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level, Eric Adams, Mayor, NYC
Post by: G M on November 08, 2021, 08:39:48 AM
https://nypost.com/2021/11/02/right-man-to-de-blasify-ny-goodwin/

Is he the right person to de-Blasify NYC?  We will see.

Doubtful.
Title: Republicans eye 8 Governorships
Post by: DougMacG on November 18, 2021, 06:09:55 AM
Eight states the RGA eyes flipping next year are Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Biden carried all those states – other than Kansas.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-aim-flip-more-governorships-2022-virginia-victory
Title: Bugging Beta in Texas
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 21, 2021, 05:18:49 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2u5ap-hkHI&t=56s


Also:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10227211/Texas-governor-hopeful-Beto-ORourke-criticizes-Biden-immigration.html
Title: Politics State level - anti JD Vance conservative column
Post by: DougMacG on December 03, 2021, 07:38:37 AM
Disappointed to read this; I was starting to like the guy.  One reason he is a current sensation is the $10 mil Peter Thiele already put behind him.  I see clever internet ads, 'learn the truth about JD Vance'.  It looks like a hit piece and leads you straight to campaign fluff.  Ohioans can sort this out but the rest of us don't want another Flake Murkowski taking a seat in what has become a strongly conservative state.

A lot of it is about his campaign adviser being from the Kasich camp.  Also his anti-Trump contributions on CNN.  Whatever those were, I'm sure they will come to light.  Also pro-Obamacare?  Anti 'right-to-work'?

https://pjmedia.com/columns/jasonhart/2021/12/02/kasich-republican-j-d-vance-the-worst-option-in-ohios-senate-race-n1538365
Title: sen. Tom Cotton: Get rid of Soros puppets
Post by: DougMacG on December 23, 2021, 09:00:46 AM
Sen. Tom Cotton:  Recall, remove, replace every last Soros supported prosecutor.  I would add, same for the the Soros funded  state level Secretaries of State who control (administer?) our elections.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/12/20/recall_remove__replace_every_last_soros_prosecutor_146914.html
Title: Another fine piece of analysis from McCarthy: This one on NY mask mandate
Post by: Crafty_Dog on January 29, 2022, 07:18:08 AM
The New York Mask-Mandate Mess
By ANDREW C. MCCARTHY
January 29, 2022 6:30 AM


As our Michael Brendan Dougherty recounted Tuesday, confusion abounded Monday over the ramifications of a ruling by a state judge in Nassau County, which invalidated — however fleetingly — the New York mask mandate. Judge Thomas Rademaker’s six-page decision stemmed from a challenge to the mandate’s draconian application to children aged two and up.

Much of the confusion was sown, willfully it appears, by the authoritarian progressives who run the Empire State’s administrative state — in this instance, the Department of Education, which was leaping to the defense of its fellow technocrats in the Department of Health (and, derivatively, Kathy Hochul, the state’s accidental governor).

Judge Rademaker’s ruling has since been lawfully stayed. Yet, it was not stayed at the time the state agencies were claiming it was. It is always that way with Leviathan: Bank on the mind-numbing process being exploited. Bureaucrats — education, health, climate, wetlands, thought, etc., etc. — know they’ve conditioned people to believe that nothing ever happens quickly and that no one is big enough to take on the state. They have no compunction about because-I-say-so assertions that an administrative rule remains in effect, even if a court has ruled it infirm. They figure you benighted masses will assume that the wheels of some abstruse administrative process are slowly grinding and, therefore, that you’d better just comply if you know what’s good for you. By the time the masses realize they’ve been had, if they ever realize it, we’re five new controversies down the road.

In this instance, while the state Education Department was deceptively claiming that Judge Rademaker’s ruling had been stayed, Letitia James, the state’s progressive Democratic attorney general, was seeking a stay. It was granted by an appellate judge . . . but not until late Tuesday afternoon. In the interim, the state’s weird duck of a governor (MBD has that nailed, too), who is becoming a more progressive Democrat as she seeks to be elected (the recently Peter-Principled former lieutenant governor calls it “re-elected”), was insisting that Judge Rademaker’s ruling would not stand.


You may notice that, to this point, I have not described the courts involved. That’s because, this being New York, doing so adds further confusion to the mix. But here goes.

The state’s lower court is called the “Supreme Court.” Judge Rademaker is thus a Supreme Court judge. His is an elected position. Running as a Conservative Party candidate in Nassau County on Long Island, which trends more right-leaning than most of the state (a low bar, to be sure), Rademaker was elected to a ten-year term in 2014. Appeals from state Supreme Court rulings are directed to the Appellate Division, which has four “Departments.” Its judges are appointed by the governor. Appeals from Nassau County go to the Second Department, which is headquartered in blue, blue Brooklyn. There sits Justice Robert J. Miller, a Democrat appointed by former governor David Patterson (the Democrat who inhabited the governor’s mansion before the Democrat after him resigned in disgrace, but after the Democrat before him resigned in disgrace). At the conclusion of a “for appearances’ sake” hearing that took about a half-hour, Miller stayed Rademaker’s ruling.

This temporary stay will remain in place while the case crawls along the appeals process. Depending on what happens in the Appellate Division (gee, wonder what that will be . . .) the case could be appealed to the state’s highest judicial tribunal, the Court of Appeals (which, in New York, has supremacy over both the “Supreme Court” and the appeals court, a.k.a the “Appellate Division”). Its seven members — the chief judge and six associate judges — are appointed to 14-year terms by the governor . . . and the current incumbents are, naturally, appointees of Andrew Cuomo.

Enough said. And don’t worry, there is no test on your recall of the above — and certainly no math! Rest assured in any event that somewhere ’neath this morass, there must be a “Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler” and They/Them is undoubtedly a bureaucrat.


Are we clear? Good.

Now, just for guano and giggles, let’s suspend disbelief and pretend that the law — remember that? — has some attenuated connection to all this theater. Were that the case, we wouldn’t need to strain our brains if we paid attention to President Biden’s OSHA vaccine mandate. This is the Empire State version of that federal constitutional controversy.

A good deal of reporting, as well as such Republican critics as Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, refer to the subject of the dispute as Governor Hochul’s mask mandate. Not true, at least not technically. At issue is a state Department of Health rule, not a gubernatorial executive order.

As a matter of law, Hochul is impotent to issue a mask mandate. Nothing in New York’s state constitution empowers the chief executive to decree such mandates. Separation-of-powers principles theoretically apply to the three branches of state government the same way they apply to the federal government under the U.S. Constitution. A “mandate” is a law, and laws have to be enacted by the legislature. The governor and the sprawling bureaucracy (the state’s administrative state) may promulgate rules if the legislature delegates that authority; but they are confined to what the legislature has authorized them to do — they may not go beyond it.

It is not enough to say the state legislature has not empowered Governor Hochul to issue a mask mandate. In the initial months of the Covid pandemic, then-Governor Cuomo issued numerous mandates, rationalizing that public health required them, and statutory emergency authority authorized him to decree them. But between Cuomo’s reckless directive ordering nursing homes to accept Covid-infected patients and his hands-on (ahem) supervision of female staffers, state lawmakers came under increasing pressure to impeach him. As most of them were Cuomo cronies, they groped — uh, let me rephrase — they struggled for ways to emote their disgust without, you know, actually doing anything. One such exhibition was legislation that curtailed the governor’s ability to issue emergency decrees.

Good show! Except for the inconvenience that, as a matter of law, it was not a show; it was binding legislation. After Cuomo was cashiered, the Accidental Governor replaced him, and . . . Omicron happened.

As we’ve already recounted, not content with hitting the lottery once, Hochul wants to be “re-elected.” New Yorkers, like most Americans, may be fed up with inept pandemic governance, but politically speaking, New York is a Democratic-machine state, increasingly run by hard-Left progressives. They will heavily influence the determination of a nominee. It is progressive dogma — The Science notwithstanding — that cloth masks protect us from microbes. So if the Progs want masks, Hochul says, “Let there be masks . . . on everyone . . . on pain of listening to more of my speeches.”

But see, she can’t say that actionably because the legislature swiped that power from her predecessor. Meaning she needs . . . yes . . . wait for it . . . a work-around.

That’s what White House chief of staff Ron Klain touted, remember? President Biden wanted to issue a national vaccine mandate, but even this White House — having already been slapped down by the Supreme Court — knew that wouldn’t fly. So what to do? The administration’s legal beagles scoured the statute books and the Code of Federal Regulations that set out each administrative agency’s authority. The point, as the strangely guileless Klain revealed, was to come up with a “work-around” — a patchwork of enabling statutes and rules that spell out what administrative agencies such as OSHA are authorized to do, and which those agencies and executive-branch lawyers then stretch to the breaking point (and beyond) in order to rationalize whatever they want to do. Thus did the Biden administration attempt, in futility, to convince the high court that OSHA’s enabling statutes authorized it to promulgate a workplace rule requiring Covid vaccinations (or alternatively regular testing, designed to be so burdensome that people would see vaccination as the only practical option).

That is what New York is trying to do. Bereft of the necessary emergency authority, Hochul had the lawyers scrutinize the array of state health statutes and regulations in order to mine some that might plausibly be seen as authorizing the Health Department to issue its mask rule. As Judge Rademaker concluded, they don’t. Since there is no statutory authorization, the rule must be seen as law making rather than a mere application of existing law. The Health Department has no power to legislate. Ergo, Rademaker ruled, the rule violates New York’s constitution.

So, it’s essentially the same case as OSHA. But just as a fly ball down the right-field line may be the same thing at Fenway Park and Citifield, that doesn’t mean it will have the same result. In New York’s courts, as we reach the rarefied ranks, progressivism rules. As the Supreme Court’s opinions in the two Biden mandate cases illustrate, progressive jurists can be relied on to uphold administrative power if it is being exploited by a Democratic administration. Such quaint niceties as separation of powers and statutory provisions must not be permitted to obstruct administrative experts who are just selflessly trying to do the right thing to save lives. Oh, and let’s not forget, science!

There is no masking that . . . except in New York.
Title: Michele Tafoya ripped by MSNBC over CRT, Kendall Qualls responds
Post by: DougMacG on February 24, 2022, 01:40:17 PM
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/02/24/an_open_letter_to_critics_of_michele_tafoya__147242.html
[Kendall Qualls is a businessman, U.S. Army veteran, and candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of Minnesota.]

To MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross, Joy Reid, and the crew at “The View,” I am standing shoulder-to-shoulder with my friend and new co-chair of my gubernatorial campaign, Michele Tafoya. Not only is Michele right to criticize critical race theory (CRT) and promote the idea that skin color shouldn’t matter, but she’s also encouraging us toward achieving Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream.

I know you are familiar with his famous 1963 Lincoln Memorial speech. Based on your comments, it seems you have forgotten its objective. Let me remind you of a few key points. The Rev. King said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification … little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

Critical race theory flies in the face of these words and the principles for which Martin Luther King was martyred. CRT is a leftist agenda shrouded in harmless-sounding words – equity, inclusion, and culturally responsive teaching among others – to hide its radical intent. It has been injected into government, corporations, and yes, as Michele Tafoya said, even our schools. Critics of CRT are not just white Americans but also a growing of number black Americans, just like me, who recognize its harmful and divisive intent.

Before you dismiss me with some lame slur and try to de-legitimize me as an inauthentic voice of the black community, take a moment to learn my story. As a boy, I lived in poverty in the gang-infested housing projects of Harlem in the late 1960s. From there, I was uprooted to a trailer park in Oklahoma. I’ve witnessed the demise of my siblings, my mother, and countless other African Americans to the cruel world of government-sanctioned poverty of the inner cities.

By the grace of God, I escaped that life, obtained an education, got married, and raised five children who are now functioning adults serving their communities. To answer your unspoken (and offensive) question, yes, I am married to a black woman. We have five black children together. We even have a black Labrador retriever. I pledged the same fraternity as the first black Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – Alpha Phi Alpha. My wife pledged in the first black sorority – Alpha Kappa Alpha.

We are children of parents who were raised in the Jim Crow south. We were baptized in a black church by a black pastor, and we are not confused about who we are or where we have come from when we look in the mirror every day.

Don’t waste time trying to marginalize me. Instead, explain to your readers and viewers the real reason we see such significant disparities in comparison to other ethnic groups. Black families were stronger during the worst of times – when our country actually was systemically racist – than they are today. Since Dr. King’s death, the black community has drastically changed from approximately 80% two-parent families to approximately 80% fatherless homes, all without one national initiative to reverse the trend.

You and I both know the real reason for disparities isn’t skin color. The disparities can be attributed to a reason you and others of your ilk are afraid to talk about – the epidemic of fatherless homes and the poor performance of schools in cities run by Democrats.

For the last 50 years, we have experienced a cultural genocide in our community coupled with the complete silence of the media including you and your pals. The number one driver of that change was and is social welfare programs, like Aid to Families with Dependent Children launched during the LBJ Administration in the mid-1960s. This program drove fathers from the home by incentivizing women to have children and remain unmarried, leaving generations of children without the benefit of learning social norms and a work ethic, or having the benefit of a stable home environment. This was the beginning of disparity that continues today.

Today, we have generations of people who have never entered a church for a wedding but frequently enter churches for funerals because of black-on-black crime.

The sacrifices of our most iconic civil rights leaders were meant to yield opportunities and outcomes for the lives of millions of black Americans, like me, who escaped poverty through hard work, faith, and education. But you want to convince our children they are victims of a system that was designed to keep them down.

Before you demean Michele Tafoya, who is brave enough to speak the truth, try and listen for a moment to the millions of other black Americans, me included, who refuse to buy into the cult of victimhood.
---------
You might want to support this guy.
https://kqformn.com/
Title: MY on the OR Gov race
Post by: Crafty_Dog on May 14, 2022, 04:14:38 PM
https://michaelyon.locals.com/upost/2137939/make-oregon-great-again-kerry-mcquisten-for-governor
Title: WT: Abortion supercharges gubernatorial races
Post by: Crafty_Dog on June 27, 2022, 01:25:01 AM
SUPREME COURT

Abortion ruling supercharges gubernatorial races

BY SETH MCLAUGHLIN THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Josh Shapiro is a staunch pro-choice Democrat and Doug Mastriano is a staunchly pro-life Republican.

The abortion views of the two gubernatorial candidates in Pennsylvania are now going to get more attention with the Supreme Court’s decision to kick the issue back to the states.

”The governor’s race becomes paramount because of the governor’s veto power,” said John Cordisco, former chairman of the Bucks County Democrats in Pennsylvania.

“It is one thing to have a court decision, it is another to have legislation,” Mr. Cordisco said of the pending battle. “Now the issue of abortion is going to be front and center in the governor’s race.”

President Biden and congressional Democrats said the landmark ruling puts “Roe on the ballot” in the midterm elections, where they are defending their fragile hold on the House and the Senate and facing significant headwinds.

Odds are, though, that the most pressing abortion-related battles will play out at the state level now that governors can sign off on or reject efforts to expand abortion access.

The ruling had an immediate impact in about a dozen red states that passed “trigger laws” to reduce abortion just in case the justices overturned Roe, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

In Wisconsin, the ruling could reinstate a state law passed in 1849 that banned Wisconsin doctors from performing abortions unless the pregnant person’s life is at risk.

Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, who is running for reelection in a “toss-up” race, said the “grim news” left him heartbroken.

“It’s now up to the states to protect access to abortion,” Mr. Evers said. “I’ve already vetoed nine extreme Republican bills. As long as governor I will do everything in my power to protect reproductive health care.”

“Can you join my team in this fight to protect choice?” he said.

In Georgia, the decision cleared the way for an anti-abortion law that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed in 2019, sparking criticism from his Democratic rival Stacey Abrams.

“This callous decision proves once again that Georgians cannot afford four more years of a governor who puts his personal politics ahead of Georgians,” Ms. Abrams said.

She vowed to work with the state legislature “to reverse the draconian law that will now rule our state.”

That is easier said than done. Even if Ms. Abrams wins, Republicans are still expected to keep calling the shots in the state legislature, which they’ve controlled for nearly two decades.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, another vulnerable Democrat, faces a similar situation in Michigan, where Republicans rule the legislative roost. There is a good chance the best hope Democrats have of changing a 1931 state law that bans abortion, except if the pregnant person’s life is at risk, is an initiative pro-choice activists are trying to get on the ballot that would enshrine the right to an abortion in Michigan’s Constitution.

In a fundraising appeal, Ms. Whitmer said the ruling was “devastating” and warned that “Michigan’s dangerous abortion ban could go back into effect — making abortion a felony in Michigan.”

“I am running against a slew of opponents who want Michigan’s abortion ban to stay in place. With abortion access on the line this November, every contribution is critical,” she said.

It is a different story in states like Pennsylvania, where state law dictates abortions are legal for up to 24 weeks and if the pregnant patient’s life or health is endangered.

Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, now stands as the last line of defense for pro-choice advocates against the Republican-controlled state legislature. His successor will determine what happens next.

“It is in all likelihood going to be a Republican legislature and depending on who gets elected governor, the impact on reproductive rights is going to be incredibly significant,” said Christopher P. Borick, a political science professor and director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. “The conditions are in place in Pennsylvania — perhaps more so than any place in the country — to make this decision front and center in the race for governor.”

“We know the Republican-led legislature is going to put a bill on the desk of the next governor to ban all abortions,” Mr. Shapiro, a former state attorney general, said in a social media post. “I will veto that bill and protect abortion rights here in Pennsylvania, but my opponent he will sign it into law.”

Polls show that most voters are more concerned with inflation, the economy and other issues than they are about abortion access.

“Those who are really concerned about abortion — especially liberal women — already vote Democratic anyway,” said Steve Mitchell, a Michigan-based GOP strategist. “So the question becomes: What will the impact be on independent women?”

Still, Mr. Mitchell said voter attitudes could change now that the long-anticipated ruling is a reality.

“It is one thing to be told a decision is coming down, it is another thing to have the decision come down,” he said. “Now voters have to deal with the reality that in Michigan unless there is a concern about the life of the mother, you can’t get an abortion.”
Title: State Senate control 2021-2022
Post by: DougMacG on August 24, 2022, 06:19:36 AM
Republicans control 32 state senate chambers.  Democrats control 18.

Image, red blue map:
https://mcusercontent.com/dc8d30edd7976d2ddf9c2bf96/images/30e39081-23ca-0f46-97d1-e6946026f5cf.png

In the state House chambers the margin is 30 R to 18 Dem.

How is it that we can't:
a) Force a fair and cheat-free election process,
b) elect 60 US Senators
c) win consistently in the electoral college?
Title: Stratfor: Sun Belt to Dust Belt
Post by: Crafty_Dog on August 30, 2022, 02:30:40 PM
From Sun Belt to Dust Belt: Can U.S. Desert States Stave Off Their Decline?
undefined and Stratfor Middle East and North Africa Analyst at RANE
Ryan Bohl
Stratfor Middle East and North Africa Analyst at RANE, Stratfor
13 MIN READAug 30, 2022 | 20:58 GMT





The water intake towers at the Hoover Dam in Lake Mead, Arizona, are seen on Aug. 19, 2022.
The water intake towers at the Hoover Dam in Lake Mead, Arizona, are seen on Aug. 19, 2022.

(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The desert Sun Belt states of Arizona and Nevada have seen some of the fastest growth in the United States for the past half century, but if climate projections are accurate, that growth might turn into a decline as temperatures soar and critical resources like water run low. But it's not only climate change that's challenging their growth models: from affordability to education, the states are facing a need to update the ways they attract migrants to replace an aging population that's having fewer children. Without a strategic reaction to the pressures on population growth, Arizona and Nevada could start seeing a slowdown in migration — and even an exodus, as the years wear on. If that happens, it'll create pressures on the strategic industries, from tech to defense, that call the region home, and could bring a new form of populism — Dust Belt populism — into American politics that demands radical solutions to their problems.

The Rise of the Sun Belt
The American Sun Belt spans the whole of the southern United States, from Los Angeles in California to Charleston in South Carolina, and is characterized by mild winters, hot summers, and lots of sunshine hours throughout the year. For centuries, it was notoriously underdeveloped by the Spanish, French and British empires and then the United States, as its climate and resource base favored wide-scale cash crops like cotton and tobacco but little industrial development up until the end of the 19th century. After the Civil War and the rapid colonization of the American West, industrialization rapidly reached the milder climates of coastal California.

But notably, settlers largely skipped over the Sun Belt's harshest region — the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts of Arizona and Nevada. With little water (and much of the groundwater brackish) and long hot summers, only the more enterprising of miners seeking gold, silver and copper strikes, and farmers living by unstable desert rivers like the Salt River, could eke out a living in the tiny communities that would one day make up the heart of the American Southwest.

As the 20th century dawned, however, technology began to erode the bitterness of life in the desert. Railways brought food, fuel and luxury goods to budding communities like Phoenix and Yuma. Hydroelectric dams, starting with the Salt River Project in 1903, eventually brought lights — and most importantly, water. Industrialized, corporate mining tore through the landscape at a much greater speed and efficiency than the wildcat miners of the 19th century (one of Arizona's nicknames is ''The Copper State,'' and even in 2017 it produced 68% of U.S. copper). Farming communities sprang up that could grow East Coast summer crops in the dead of winter, while air conditioning, invented in 1903 and widespread by the 1930s, took the edge off the harsh desert summers. With the climate now tamed by technology, there came the region's economic slogan of ''the five C's'' — climate, copper, copper, cattle and citrus.

The U.S. federal government saw interest in the region, too. With World War II and the Cold War, Washington needed lots of cheap land to test new weapons (like the atomic bomb, the F-16 fighter jet and the F116 stealth fighter), often in secret, bringing the military and swarms of contractors to Arizona and Nevada. Mushroom clouds were visible from Las Vegas as late as the 1950s, while Nevada's infamous secret bases, including possibly Area 51, based the Cold War U-2 spy plane and served as the proving ground for stealth technology.

And because the region was last to be settled in the United States, land remained cheap in Arizona and Nevada, leading to a boom in single-family housing that sprawled across the desert expanses. Economic growth abounded in the post-war years and brought millions to the region. Between 1950 and 2020, Phoenix's population grew from just over 100,000 people to 1.6 million people (with 4.9 million in the metro area, which includes satellite cities like Tempe, Glendale, and Peoria). Within that same period, the population of Las Vegas also grew from 25,000 to 641,000 people (with 2.3 million in the metro area, which includes satellite cities like North Las Vegas and Paradise).

As a result, the two states grew in political and strategic importance. Despite still being dwarfed by more populous states like California, Texas and New York, both Nevada and Arizona parlayed their rising stature into national influence, Arizona produced swing-state senators like John McCain and libertarian ideologues like Barry Goldwater, while Nevada contributed former Democratic majority leader Harry Reid. This political influence helped cement their importance for federal spending in defense and education, creating the ecosystem that has since lured big tech companies like IBM and Motorola to the region, as well as more recently chip manufacturers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturer Company (TMSC).

Beginning to Blister
But the first of those ''five C's'' — climate — is turning sour. The region has been in a so-called ''megadrought'' since 2000 (though there's now a debate as to whether it's really a drought or if this is an ''old normal'' that's reasserted itself after a wetter-than-usual 20th century). On Aug. 16, the U.S. federal government announced that starting in January 2023 it would impose water cuts on all the states (and Mexico) that rely on the dwindling Colorado River. Of those states, Arizona and Nevada will take the biggest hits, losing 21% and 8% of the water they currently receive from the river, respectively. For Arizona and Nevada, these cuts will hammer at least three of their other ''C's'' — citrus, cattle and cotton, which are among the water-hungry agricultural sectors that will be first to cut back.

But climate change is not just affecting water. Projections suggest summer temperatures in Phoenix and Las Vegas will average well over 110 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, placing them among the ranks of current cities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Such scorching temperatures will wither crops, feed wildfires, and contribute to the perception that perhaps the desert is once again unlivable, deterring tourists from the Las Vegas Strip and Arizona shopping malls for parts of the year.


There's also the challenge of remaining an attractive place to live, work and (in the case of the region's substantial retiree populations) die. Both Arizona and Nevada are now both performing poorly on ''best places to live'' surveys, driven by low state spending on education, worsening cost of living, and healthcare affordability. In 2022, CNBC ranked Nevada the 39th best state to live in the United States; Arizona ranked dead last at 50th, driven by poor education systems, worsening cost of living, and controversial political climate.

Arizona and Nevada rank toward the bottom for education spending, with the former spending only $8,800 per student and the latter spending barely above $9,100 per student (compared with Texas's $9,900, California's $13,600, and New York state's $24,900. Both Arizona and Nevada struggle with teacher shortages as well due to the low wages offered by schools in both states, which deter people from entering the profession. For those considering relocating with children, neither state's schooling systems are necessarily a selling point.

Like many cities across the United States, the once-cheap housing tracts in Phoenix and Las Vegas have also skyrocketed in value in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, pricing out many first-time buyers. Phoenix alone saw a 32% increase in home prices, the steepest in the nation, in 2021. Internal politics suggests that the price increase could be a permanent one: strictly enforced single-family zoning means that denser, cheaper housing is in short supply (and will continue to be so), while newer homes will be built farther and farther out from the amenities, workplaces and services new residents want. Long commute times aside, some will weigh in their minds the possibility of another sudden surge in gas prices — like the one caused by the global shocks following Russia's invasion of Ukraine — as another reason to avoid cities that force miles of commutes.

There are also both looming political problems in Arizona and (to a lesser extent) Nevada. Arizona, in particular, is at the center of ongoing controversies surrounding the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. With the state's politics focused more on such national issues, mitigating crises within Arizona — like housing, education spending, and water management — is left up to cities with limited resources. Meanwhile, the states themselves are squabbling over who should face cuts, worried about domestic political backlash from citizens who find lawns drying up and farmland collapsing.

The Rise of a Dust Belt?
Arizona and Nevada will cement their reputations as being poor places to live without improvements to these climate, economic, social and political problems. Both states may welcome fewer and fewer new residents, while current residents — including critical businesses — increasingly consider packing up for greener pastures (figuratively and literally) as well. As the years wear on toward the 2030s, Arizona and Nevada might also fail to replace their Baby Boomer retiree populations, as that sizeable segment of the population begins to die, taking with them the jobs and services that are used to support their retirement communities.

This decline has happened before in U.S. history — in the Rust Belt, the stretch of states from New York to Illinois that rapidly industrialized in the 19th and early 20th centuries and then found themselves unable to adapt to the challenges of the modern era. Even now, the populations of some cities in those Rust Belt states, like Syracuse in upstate New York, continue to shrink.

This migratoory pattern is possible because the U.S. is the fourth largest country in the world by land; Americans can readily relocate to an entirely new climate and geographic landscape — all without having to leave their home country, as they did from the Rust Belt when the region began to lose its luster. Those living in U.S. desert cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas can also more easily escape to cooler and wetter areas, compared with desert cities elsewhere in the world like Riyadh, where Saudis have more or less no choice but to face climate change head-on given the lack of climate diversity in their country.

Indeed, a narrative that the deserts are increasingly unlivable could collide with expensive or unattractive housing and lifestyles and deter fresh migration. In that case, a so-called Dust Belt might emerge, with stagnating or shrinking populations in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, and Yuma creating a reputation of decline that only furthers the decline. And once that reputation takes hold, it's very hard to shake off.

And when declinism becomes the narrative for a city, it also accompanied rises in drug abuse and crime, which only furthered the narrative of decline. Cities like Detroit and New York saw surges of organized and individual crime throughout their toughest years in the 1970s and 1980s. But unlike the Rust Belt, the Dust Belt would be on the border with Mexico, where the influence of cartels could more readily creep northward through the social decay. That could make the Dust Belt a much greater strategic problem than the Rust Belt ever was.

A Dust Belt would also pressure those strategic industries that rely on well-educated workers. It would be no simple feat for the military, defense and tech companies to relocate, especially when they've already invested heavily in major infrastructures like factories and military bases. They might be stuck with struggling to attract talented workers and paying more for those they do attract. Meanwhile, those that could, especially in the private sector, would likely be planning their own exit from the region.

And if there is a Dust Belt, it's likely it will accompany the invention of a new type of populism that will further destabilize American politics. The resentful politics of the Rust Belt helped produce the anti-globalization and nativist populist nationalism that has gripped America's right in the past decade; their uniting quality was anger at the ruling establishment that they saw as sending their jobs overseas or undermining their wages through immigration.

Those who stay in the Dust Belt will doubtless be just as angry. It's hard to say exactly what Dust Belt populism would believe in, though assuredly it would demand expensive investments in the region to offset climate change (like the increasingly touted Mississippi-to-the-Colorado River canal or pipe system that early estimates suggest would cost $23 billion). If the cartels exploit social decay, this Dust Belt populism would probably be deeply nativist as well, even nationalist, as the cartels could bring the kind of crime to Phoenix and Las Vegas that New York and Detroit experienced in the 1970s. And there is also a chance that Dust Belt populism might even be radically environmentalist, demanding rapid shifts in Federal policies to slow the climate decay of their own region. They might embrace the environmental rhetoric of groups like the Extinction Rebellion, demanding a rapid end to fossil fuels, or even become a base of recruitment for extremist environmental groups that engage in eco-terror throughout the United States.

Not a Fait Accompli
However, none of these trends are fatal or deterministic. New York City went through similar Rust Belt challenges but by the early 1990s had returned to growth; by the 2010s, had even pushed down crime to record low levels. The city met the economic challenge of deindustrialization, pivoting into finance, technology and tourism, to solve its economic woes, while embracing new technologies and police tactics to combat crime and investing in rehabilitating its abandoned homes and apartments to fight the image of a city in permanent decline. With adaptation, New York City overcame the challenges of its era.

But as a warning to the Sun Belt desert cities, not all Rust Belt cities were able to do as well as New York. Some, like Gary, Indiana, could never find a replacement for their vital industry — in Gary's case, steel — once that industry moved on from the city. And as a result, Gary remains in decline. Detroit, Michigan, was able to hold its vital industry — automobiles — but still couldn't fight the perception of a city still falling apart; Detroit lost 10% of its population between 2010 and 2020.

In the Rust Belt, New York City, as it turns out, was more exception than the rule. More importantly, none of these changes happened overnight. The Rust Belt's decline began in the 1960s and continues in some places to this day, driven by major headline-making events like the race riots in Detroit in 1965, along with less publicized (but no less substantial) trends like rising labor costs and changing patterns of government spending.

There remains some time before the prospect of a Dust Belt becomes a real existential threat to Phoenix, Las Vegas, Yuma and Tucson. But as the experience of the Rust Belt shows, if the process gets steadily underway, it will take years, even decades, for the region's governments to turn the perception around.
Title: Law and Order for Oregon
Post by: Crafty_Dog on September 06, 2022, 01:46:23 PM
A Law-and-Order Leader for Oregon
As governor, Christine Drazan would fully fund state police.
By Larry Hogan
Sept. 5, 2022 11:26 am ET


With even Democrats like Joe Biden now distancing themselves from the defund-the-police movement, it’s time to put this far-left lunacy to rest. Nowhere in America is there a clearer opportunity for change than in Oregon, where Republican Christine Drazan is running for governor to move her state in a new pro-law-enforcement direction. I’ll be campaigning for her there this week.

Oregon was one of the centers of this dangerous movement. In 2020, when riots broke out in Portland, city and state leaders seemed more concerned with blaming police than restoring order and holding violent rioters accountable. Instead of backing up law enforcement, Portland politicians passed reckless measures to defund it. The results have been predictable and tragic: Homicides surged 207% in less than two years.

Compare this with Maryland. In 2015 I had been governor only 89 days when the worst violence in 47 years erupted in Baltimore. When then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she wanted to give the rioters “space” to “destroy,” I made clear that approach was unacceptable.

I declared a state of emergency and sent 1,000 additional police officers and 4,000 National Guardsmen to the city. We allowed peaceful protests but immediately stopped the violence. I walked the streets of Baltimore to lower the temperature and listen to concerns.

In the summer of 2020, the success of our peace-through-strength approach was clear. While cities across America were facing unrest, Baltimore was peaceful, and the community worked with the police to keep the city safe. While Portland was defunding police, I enacted a Re-Fund the Police Initiative, which invested $500 million in law enforcement.

A breakdown of law and order only harms the most vulnerable among us. While homelessness is out of control in Oregon, we’ve reduced it in Maryland by 24%.


The people of my deep-blue state, including Democrats and independents, have stood with us because they knew I would never put politics or ideology before public safety. That’s exactly the common-sense approach that Christine Drazan would bring, and that’s why I believe she can win and be successful in a blue state.

She would fully fund state police and increase the number of officers across Oregon, work to make sure violent criminals are held accountable, and crack down on the supply of deadly drugs such as fentanyl and the gangs that bring them into communities.

Few ideas have been more destructive to the U.S. in recent years than “defund the police.” With violent crime rising across America and police recruitment, retention and morale at all-time lows, it’s important that we begin reversing the damage by electing pro-law-enforcement leaders. Other Republican gubernatorial candidates, like Joe Lombardo in Nevada and Mark Ronchetti in New Mexico, are running great campaigns focused on supporting law enforcement, but a vote for change in Oregon would be heard all across the country.

I urge Oregonians to set their state and our nation on a new course by electing Christine Drazan.

Mr. Hogan, a Republican, is governor of Maryland.
Title: MD: Patriotic black Dem candidate for Gov looks likely to win
Post by: Crafty_Dog on September 12, 2022, 07:30:36 AM
This can be a formidable message for the Dems:
==================================

MARYLAND

Democrat seizes GOP mantle of patriotism

Moore cites Army in bid for governor

BY MICA SOELLNER THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Maryland gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore is using his military record and a pro-America agenda to remind voters that Republicans don’t hold a monopoly on patriotism.

The Army combat veteran and firsttime Democratic candidate said he takes patriotism “very, very seriously.” “I look at my history where I was willing to put my life on the line for this country, and I would do it all over again because I believe in what this country is and what this country can be for so many other people,” he said in an interview with The Washington Times.

At first glance, the candidate’s rhetoric sounds more like the talking points out of a Republican playbook than a Democratic campaign in a reliably blue state.

Mr. Moore, the undisputed frontrunner in the governor’s race, intends to knock down Republican attacks that portray Democrats as anti-patriotic or

promoting an “America Last” agenda.

Alongside running mate Aruna Miller, he is telling voters they will level the playing field, enhance public safety and change the attitude in their party about embracing American ideals.

Stella Rouse, a government and politics professor at the University of Maryland, said Mr. Moore’s approach could appeal to more independent and persuadable Republican voters.

“Particularly, the way he is approaching the campaign, he is trying to reach out to non-Trump-like Republicans, who certainly exist in a state like Maryland,” she said.

“In a state like Maryland, his progressive platform is going to appeal to many, but obviously, I think, he needs to be mindful and he’s very conscious about the fact that he wants to bring people together in a Biden mold, even though I would argue he is more progressive than the president.”

Mr. Moore is coming on strong ahead of Election Day with a 10-1 fundraising advantage over his Republican opponent, state Delegate Dan Cox, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican serving two terms, is ineligible to run for reelection because of state term limits.

Maryland is typically a safely Democratic state. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden won by wide margins over Mr. Trump. Mr. Moore campaigned with Mr. Biden last month in Rockville.

The Democrat has painted Mr. Cox as an extremist for attending Mr. Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“When I talk about patriotism, my definition of patriotism is putting on a uniform and leaving my family to go serve this country overseas in Afghanistan. [Mr. Cox’s] definition of patriotism is putting on a baseball cap and calling others to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6,” Mr. Moore said.

Mr. Cox has distanced himself from accusations that he is too right-wing for Maryland. He counters that Mr. Moore is politically out of touch with moderates and independents in the state.

“He’s too left. I’m actually very moderate. I am focused on the issues that people believe in Maryland: less taxes, more freedom, more parental involvement. That’s what everybody wants, and [Mr. Moore] wants the exact opposite,” Mr. Cox told The Washington Times.

Mr. Moore has adopted the militaryinspired campaign slogan of “Leave Nobody Behind.” He said he will fight to make Maryland more competitive in attracting businesses and expanding opportunities in low-income and minority communities.

Promoting his personal story of triumph, Mr. Moore focuses on the power of opportunity rather than the barriers of institutional racism that other Democrats emphasize.

“I think about my life and the opportunities that I had. There’s no place else where a story like mine could be real,” Mr. Moore said.

Mr. Moore grew up in a single-parent household. He was 3 years old when his father died of an infection from a rare virus.

At 17, he joined the Army. He received an associate degree from Valley Forge Military Academy and College in 1998 and later graduated from Johns Hopkins University.

He was the first Black student from his alma mater to receive a Rhodes Scholarship, and he served as a White House fellow in the Bush administration to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Mr. Moore emphasizes his roots in his book about himself and a Baltimore man with the same name who grew up under similar circumstances but ended up on a drastically different path.

“The Other Wes Moore” ended up dealing drugs and engaging in crime and is serving a life sentence for the murder of a security guard during a robbery.

Mr. Moore, the gubernatorial candidate, shares the story to highlight the dichotomy of educational opportunities and having family support.

He said he wants to expand educational opportunities and close the racial achievement gap by promoting opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and deepening access to career and technical education opportunities.

The candidate said he hopes to shore up learning gaps driven by the pandemic by expanding after-school programs and tutoring resources.

If elected, Mr. Moore will be the first Black governor of Maryland, but he isn’t interested in being just a footnote in history books.

“The future of Maryland is personal to me,” he said. “I know that Maryland can be a state where we leave nobody behind because we’ve left too many behind. Opportunity has not been apportioned fairly in the state, but we can build and grow it in a way that everybody can benefit.

===============

edited to add:

Hogan donors give nearly four times as much to Moore campaign as Cox

BY EMMETT GARTNER CAPITAL NEWS SERVICE ANNAPOLIS | Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has distanced himself from GOP gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox since Maryland’s primary elections in July. Now, so are some of Mr. Hogan’s former campaign donors.

Democratic nominee Wes Moore has received nearly four times as much in donations from Mr. Hogan’s former financial supporters as has Mr. Cox, according to data analysis by Capital News Service.

Between July 19 and Aug. 23, following the primary elections and until the most recent campaign reporting period, former Hogan donors gave Mr. Moore’s campaign $117,861. During that same span, the governor’s former donors sent a mere $29,727 to Mr. Cox.

Mr. Cox raised a total of $195,000 and Mr. Moore raised nearly $1.9 million in the last reporting period, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections campaign finance report.

Included on Mr. Moore’s list of former Hogan donors is a political action committee for the Maryland Asphalt Association, which donated $5,000, and two energy utilities — Baltimore Gas and Electric, whose political action committee donated $1,000, and Benfield Electric Co., which donated $2,000.

Donations range from the maximum allowable amount per individual, $6,000, to $10. Donors included real estate firms, plumbing contractors, health care workers, lawyers and individuals.

Most of the Hogan-to-Moore donors that Capital News Service contacted declined to comment on their campaign contributions. Some were lobbyists who cited narrow political lines they did not want to cross, and others were business owners that wanted to keep their political connections private, despite the public availability of campaign donation data.

Nina Kasniunas, chair of the political science department at Goucher College, explained in an interview with Capital News Service why she believes some former Hogan donors are supporting Mr. Moore instead of Mr. Cox.

Ms. Kasniunas said a large number of Marylanders are fairly moderate in their ideologies, as demonstrated by the many Maryland Democrats who supported Mr. Hogan.

“When you have a candidate like Dan Cox who is part of the wing of the party that is in support of Donald Trump, what you’re seeing with the giving of Republicans to Wes Moore is a denunciation of that and what that stands for,” Ms. Kasniunas said.

Increasingly, Maryland Republicans have been distancing themselves or declining to offer full-throated support for Mr. Cox. In the most recent example, the Maryland Senate Republican Caucus Committee avoided endorsing Mr. Cox on Tuesday in a virtual press conference.

When asked if the committee was endorsing Mr. Cox for governor, Senate Minority Leader Bryan Simonaire of Anne Arundel County sidestepped the question by responding that his committee was not endorsing any statewide candidates.

“We’re solely focused on the Senate races,” Mr. Simonaire said.

In another showing of a Republican fissure, Barry Glassman, the Republican comptroller candidate and currently the county executive for Harford County, donated $500 to Mr. Moore.

Mr. Glassman, who has contributed $4,250 to Mr. Hogan, is endorsed by Mr. Hogan
Title: New Hampshire
Post by: Crafty_Dog on September 12, 2022, 07:35:10 AM
second post

NEW HAMPSHIRE
WT
National Republicans scrambling to boost Morse ahead of Senate primary

BY TOM HOWELL JR. THE WASHINGTON TIMES

National Republicans are rushing to boost New Hampshire Senate president Chuck Morse in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, fearing a loss to front-runner Don Bolduc on Tuesday will imperil their chances of winning a critical seat in November.

A political action committee with ties to Senate GOP leadership is spending millions on ads attacking Mr. Bolduc’s “crazy ideas,” while Republican Gov. Chris Sununu offered Mr. Morse a late endorsement Thursday that could rally independent voters and consolidate the anti-Bolduc vote.

Mr. Morse could use the help. He trailed Mr. Bolduc, a retired brigadier general who lost a 2020 Senate primary, by 21 points in a University of New Hampshire poll released in late August.

Mr. Bolduc has heavily touted his Army experience and signed a letter claiming that irregularities in the 2020 presidential election were ignored. His latest ads portray him as a political outsider who will fight government mandates and bring down inflation.

His primary lead has establishment Republicans worried they will squander a winnable pickup against Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat viewed as vulnerable in the general election.

Already, the GOP is bemoaning the quality of candidates needed to preserve GOP seats in places like Pennsylvania and Georgia as they try to tilt the balance in a Senate chamber split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie for Democrats.

“Bolduc did gain name ID among GOP primary voters from his previous run and having campaigned for now nearly 3 years, and he did get over 40% last time, so there is a base,” said Fergus Cullen, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party and a Morse supporter. “But voters have never been exposed to negative info about him before, he has no money of his own to defend himself, and his candidate skills remain very shaky. He will be pretty easy to caricature as a too-Trumpy-for-NH candidate unprepared for the office he’s seeking.”

Mr. Sununu disappointed Senate Republicans by passing on a Senate bid and opting to run for another term as governor.

The governor’s endorsement of Mr. Morse might not have a seismic impact but could help Mr. Morse close the gap in a primary that also includes entrepreneur Vikram Mansharamani, Bitcoin investor Bruce Fenton and former Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith.

The White Mountain PAC is spending over $4 million on ads attacking Mr. Bolduc for criticizing Mr. Trump’s team after his 2020 primary loss and tying him to Mr. Biden’s chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“The pro-Morse ads, the Sununu endorsement, and Kevin Smith’s failure to become a player in this race — a surprise — means all the non-Bolduc vote could/ should consolidate to Morse,” said Mr. Cullen, who thinks the state Senate president can “pull this out.”

Likewise, the Morse campaign insists it can overtake Mr. Bolduc in the “poll that matters” on Tuesday.

“The gap is not that big,” Morse campaign spokesman Joe Sweeney said.

He said the Bolduc campaign doesn’t have the resources or organization to pull off a win against the Democratic incumbent, especially with the quick turnaround to the general race after a relatively late primary.

“We have an operation, a field team, a full campaign staff and organization, multiple chairs in every county,” Mr. Sweeney said. “There’s not going to be any delay in us taking the fight right to Maggie Hassan.”

Mr. Bolduc is leaning into his role as an outsider, saying New Hampshire voters aren’t interested in electing another career politician amid post-pandemic shocks and inflation.

“The very people who caused all our problems are now standing in front of us asking for a vote. They’re asking us to elect them or reelect them. Hell no, we need to hold them accountable. Vote for a fighter. Vote for an outsider. Vote General Don Bolduc for U.S. Senate,” the latest Bolduc ad says over scenes of empty shelves, rising gaspump prices and images of Ms. Hassan and President Biden.

One wild card is former President Donald Trump, who loves to play kingmaker but hasn’t made an endorsement in this primary. He may remain on the sidelines, though he praised Mr. Bolduc as a “strong guy, tough guy,” in a recent interview with conservative host John Fredericks, who supports Mr. Bolduc.

“I think he’s doing very well, too. I hear he’s up, he’s up quite a bit,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Fredericks. “You’re involved in that race, it’s very interesting, and you’re for Bolduc. So, I’m going to remember that.”

Mr. Sununu has reportedly spoken to Mr. Trump about the race, too, suggesting there is lobbying for Mr. Morse.

The latest ads from groups aligned with Senate leadership hit Mr. Sununu for his gripes about Mr. Trump’s operation two years ago and for dubbing Mr. Sununu a “Chinese Communist sympathizer.”
Title: Re: MD: Patriotic black Dem candidate for Gov looks likely to win
Post by: G M on September 12, 2022, 07:36:32 AM
https://www.armytimes.com/resizer/W1xU5kRsoRxMcYo3OLRpYapSOs0=/1024x0/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/archetype/C7H6IBFMCZBZHM3KZJWT463GQE.jpg

(https://www.armytimes.com/resizer/W1xU5kRsoRxMcYo3OLRpYapSOs0=/1024x0/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/archetype/C7H6IBFMCZBZHM3KZJWT463GQE.jpg)

This can be a formidable message for the Dems:
==================================

MARYLAND

Democrat seizes GOP mantle of patriotism

Moore cites Army in bid for governor

BY MICA SOELLNER THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Maryland gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore is using his military record and a pro-America agenda to remind voters that Republicans don’t hold a monopoly on patriotism.

The Army combat veteran and firsttime Democratic candidate said he takes patriotism “very, very seriously.” “I look at my history where I was willing to put my life on the line for this country, and I would do it all over again because I believe in what this country is and what this country can be for so many other people,” he said in an interview with The Washington Times.

At first glance, the candidate’s rhetoric sounds more like the talking points out of a Republican playbook than a Democratic campaign in a reliably blue state.

Mr. Moore, the undisputed frontrunner in the governor’s race, intends to knock down Republican attacks that portray Democrats as anti-patriotic or

promoting an “America Last” agenda.

Alongside running mate Aruna Miller, he is telling voters they will level the playing field, enhance public safety and change the attitude in their party about embracing American ideals.

Stella Rouse, a government and politics professor at the University of Maryland, said Mr. Moore’s approach could appeal to more independent and persuadable Republican voters.

“Particularly, the way he is approaching the campaign, he is trying to reach out to non-Trump-like Republicans, who certainly exist in a state like Maryland,” she said.

“In a state like Maryland, his progressive platform is going to appeal to many, but obviously, I think, he needs to be mindful and he’s very conscious about the fact that he wants to bring people together in a Biden mold, even though I would argue he is more progressive than the president.”

Mr. Moore is coming on strong ahead of Election Day with a 10-1 fundraising advantage over his Republican opponent, state Delegate Dan Cox, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican serving two terms, is ineligible to run for reelection because of state term limits.

Maryland is typically a safely Democratic state. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden won by wide margins over Mr. Trump. Mr. Moore campaigned with Mr. Biden last month in Rockville.

The Democrat has painted Mr. Cox as an extremist for attending Mr. Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“When I talk about patriotism, my definition of patriotism is putting on a uniform and leaving my family to go serve this country overseas in Afghanistan. [Mr. Cox’s] definition of patriotism is putting on a baseball cap and calling others to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6,” Mr. Moore said.

Mr. Cox has distanced himself from accusations that he is too right-wing for Maryland. He counters that Mr. Moore is politically out of touch with moderates and independents in the state.

“He’s too left. I’m actually very moderate. I am focused on the issues that people believe in Maryland: less taxes, more freedom, more parental involvement. That’s what everybody wants, and [Mr. Moore] wants the exact opposite,” Mr. Cox told The Washington Times.

Mr. Moore has adopted the militaryinspired campaign slogan of “Leave Nobody Behind.” He said he will fight to make Maryland more competitive in attracting businesses and expanding opportunities in low-income and minority communities.

Promoting his personal story of triumph, Mr. Moore focuses on the power of opportunity rather than the barriers of institutional racism that other Democrats emphasize.

“I think about my life and the opportunities that I had. There’s no place else where a story like mine could be real,” Mr. Moore said.

Mr. Moore grew up in a single-parent household. He was 3 years old when his father died of an infection from a rare virus.

At 17, he joined the Army. He received an associate degree from Valley Forge Military Academy and College in 1998 and later graduated from Johns Hopkins University.

He was the first Black student from his alma mater to receive a Rhodes Scholarship, and he served as a White House fellow in the Bush administration to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Mr. Moore emphasizes his roots in his book about himself and a Baltimore man with the same name who grew up under similar circumstances but ended up on a drastically different path.

“The Other Wes Moore” ended up dealing drugs and engaging in crime and is serving a life sentence for the murder of a security guard during a robbery.

Mr. Moore, the gubernatorial candidate, shares the story to highlight the dichotomy of educational opportunities and having family support.

He said he wants to expand educational opportunities and close the racial achievement gap by promoting opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and deepening access to career and technical education opportunities.

The candidate said he hopes to shore up learning gaps driven by the pandemic by expanding after-school programs and tutoring resources.

If elected, Mr. Moore will be the first Black governor of Maryland, but he isn’t interested in being just a footnote in history books.

“The future of Maryland is personal to me,” he said. “I know that Maryland can be a state where we leave nobody behind because we’ve left too many behind. Opportunity has not been apportioned fairly in the state, but we can build and grow it in a way that everybody can benefit.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on September 12, 2022, 07:40:03 AM
Are you saying this is the Dem candidate?
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: G M on September 12, 2022, 07:45:01 AM
Are you saying this is the Dem candidate?

I'm saying our military is fake and gay and no longer a place to look for patriots and American values.
Title: Kari Lake AZ Gov race
Post by: Crafty_Dog on October 04, 2022, 11:38:20 AM
I want to donate to her.  URL?

=============================

Candidate for Arizona Governor Kari Lake Takes Campaign on Road After Opponent’s Refusal to Debate
By Allan Stein October 3, 2022

TUCSON, Ariz.—Democratic candidate for Arizona governor Katie Hobbs has refused to debate her Republican opponent Kari Lake ahead of the Nov. 8 mid-term election, with her campaign telling local media she won’t argue with a “conspiracy theorist.”

Instead, Hobbs, Arizona’s secretary of state, requested a “town hall-style” format where each candidate would sit for a 30-minute interview in a controlled setting.

“Secretary Hobbs remains willing and eager to participate in a town hall style event, such as the forum she participated in [September] in which Arizonans were able to hear directly from Sec[retary] Hobbs about her in-depth policy plans and how she would approach governing this state,” wrote Nicole DeMont, Hobbs’ campaign manager, in a letter to the Citizens Clean Elections Commission in Phoenix.

The commission sponsors public debates each election cycle so Arizona voters can better gauge the candidates running for office.


“Unfortunately, debating a conspiracy theorist like Kari Lake—whose entire campaign platform is to cause enormous chaos and make Arizona the subject of national ridicule—would only lead to constant interruptions, pointless distractions, and childish name-calling,” DeMont said in the letter.

“We must respectfully decline the invitation.”

Lake called Hobbs’ refusal to debate her one-on-one a political act of “cowardice” on social media.

Either way, it appears the voters will never get the chance to hear these two ideologically opposed gubernatorial candidates debate in a public forum, pitting their ideas—and political agendas—against one another.

Debates Are ‘Critical’
The political debate is perhaps as old as politics itself. It’s an opportunity for the voters to gauge the candidates’ image, honesty, and substance.

It’s considered democracy.

“Debates are a critical tool for voters to learn directly from the candidates about where they stand on the issues,” said Clean Elections voter education director Gina Roberts.

“Voters are often inundated with messaging from different sources during the election season, and debates offer voters a direct line of communication with the candidates.”

Roberts told The Epoch Times that Clean Elections has a successful history of providing voters with access to statewide and legislative candidate debates, “along with an opportunity to submit their questions for the candidates.”

“Most recently, a poll commissioned by Clean Elections identified debates as a primary source of election information for general election voters,” Roberts added.

Clean Elections rejected Hobbs’ request for a town hall-style format. What seems to have evolved in this debate-free environment are two separate campaign strategies for reaching out to Arizona’s committed and undecided voters.

Trump-endorsed candidate Lake recently went on the road with a series of live “Ask Me Anything” events, where voters can ask her any question about the campaign’s issues.

“It’s all politics right now, and politics matter. This is just a job interview, and you guys are the hiring managers. I’m applying for a job interview, and we’re taking the job interview on the road since my opponent is hiding in her basement,” Lake said at a packed “Ask Me Anything” session at Whiskey Roads Restaurant in Tucson on Oct. 2.

“Somebody ran into her in a Starbucks, and they asked her a question, ‘Why don’t you do an interview and debate Kari Lake?’ She said I’m not answering anything. Here we are, answering everything.”

Lake is unapologetically pro-life and opposes progressive education that includes transgenderism and Critical Race Theory. She supports the Second Amendment, border security, school choice, and election integrity with the campaign slogan, “Don’t California Our Arizona.”

Hobbs is a former Arizona state senator, and a social worker whose politics are decidedly progressive. She was elected Arizona’s secretary of state in 2018, presiding over Arizona’s controversial 2020 presidential election which turned up numerous ballot discrepancies resulting in a Republican state-Senate sponsored election audit in 2021.

Hobbs has vowed on her website that on “day one” as governor, she would repeal Arizona’s 1901 law banning abortion and replace it with one that is “in line with the beliefs of the vast majority of Arizonans.”

She supports making state government more “inclusive” by hiring and promoting more people of color, creating the position of chief equity officer and civil rights policy adviser, and addressing state payroll inequities.

Polls Show Tight Race
Hobbs appears to have adopted a more low-key strategy rather than meet Lake head-on in a public debate. In early August, she met with constituents during a meeting with labor union leaders.

“Good coffee. Bagels. Getting to sit down and speak with Arizona’s union leaders about real challenges we’re facing,” Hobbs said in a post on Twitter on Aug. 9.

“Couldn’t think of a better way to start my morning than at the ADP Labor Breakfast.”

The latest polls show Lake and Hobbs nearly deadlocked, with Lake, a former Fox10 news anchor, leading Hobbs 46 percent to 45 percent among voters.

Both candidates are also running close in fund-raising: Hobbs has garnered $5 million compared to Lake at just under $4 million.

The winner in the general election will succeed Arizona’s two-term Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who cannot seek re-election due to the state’s term limits.

Neither Lake nor Hobbs responded to a request for comment through their respective campaigns.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 03, 2022, 05:09:11 AM
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/nov/2/republicans-make-push-capture-governors-seats-unli/?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=subscriber&utm_campaign=morning&utm_term=newsletter&utm_content=morning&bt_ee=2%2BjXH0qb0T4p9lfZ%2B%2F5mDOQRhZtcYBO8%2B5wt694xZuBcGAc5Hxn2ZdXb4tSF24lg&bt_ts=1667468727629
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 07, 2022, 05:02:23 PM
"Third reason, because Crafty and I sent her money"

 :-D
Title: Keri Lake moving up!
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 09, 2022, 03:56:17 PM
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—A total of 4,094 votes separated the candidates in the hotly contested Arizona governor’s race after a batch of results was reported on the evening of Nov. 9.

With over 74 percent of the votes counted as of 5:27 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs led Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake by one-fifth of a percent, according to Decision Desk HQ.

“Wow. We’re going to win big. Stay tuned, Arizona!” Lake tweeted early on Wednesday afternoon, before the new batch of votes was reported.

“Remaining ballots (Election Day & Early Drop-offs) are all breaking BIGLY for @KariLake. Just like we knew they would,” she added.

Early Election Issues
Earlier in the day, voting got off to a rough start in Maricopa County as officials said approximately 20 percent of voting centers experienced tabulator problems.

As a result, some voting locations experienced longer than expected wait times. But, by 5:30 pm, election official Bill Gates told reporters that most of the tabulation machines were back in working condition, and the voting deadline wouldn’t be extended, despite a GOP suit to extend hours.

Lake encouraged her voters to remain in line on her Twitter account, reminding them that if they were in line by 7 pm, they were legally allowed to vote.

Epoch Times Photo
Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake attends her Karizona Election Eve Concert and Rally, on Nov. 7. (Katie Spence/The Epoch Times)
Political Polarization
In a bitter fight to the end, Hobbs and Lake blasted each other on the campaign trail and courted Arizona voters until election day. They also ran on wholly opposite views on how best to govern Arizona.

The race for Arizona’s governor has drawn the eyes of the nation, not the least because Republican Gov. Doug Ducey was term-limited and not eligible to seek a third consecutive term. Thus, there wasn’t an incumbent advantage going into the Nov. 8 election, and like what happened in 2020, Arizona’s governor could play a pivotal role in the 2024 presidential election.

Leading up to the election, The Cook Political Report rated the Arizona Governor Race as a toss-up between Lake and Hobbs. However, FiveThirtyEight polls showed Lake with a slight edge over Hobbs. In an OH Predictive Insights poll, for example, Lake led Hobbs by two percentage points, and Lake was up three percent in a Fabrizio, Lee, and Associates poll.

Epoch Times Photo
The U.S. Capitol building is pictured in Washington on Nov. 7, 2018. (Zach Gibson/Getty Images)
According to a report from the Pew Research Center, Republicans and Democrats are farther apart ideologically than at any other time in the past 50 years. The report specified that both parties have moved from the ideological middle, with Republicans adopting a more conservative stance and Democrats becoming more liberal.

That divide played out in the campaigns of both Lake and Hobbs. Lake called Hobbs a “convicted racist,” while Hobbs called Lake a “conspiracy theorist” and refused to debate her. In response, Lake repeatedly called Hobbs a “coward.” Still, Hobbs stuck to her refusal.

As a result, Arizona voters missed the opportunity to compare the candidates in a live debate and instead had to settle for contrasting campaign events and political statements on the candidates’ websites.

Opposite Plans for Arizona
Described as a “polished” Trump by critics, Lake is an Obama Democrat turned Trump Republican who is proud of never holding public office. But, thanks to her long tenure as a television journalist, Lake is well known in Arizona. She received Trump’s blessing during the Arizona primaries.

Hobbs is Arizona’s Secretary of State and served in Arizona’s State Legislature from 2011 to 2019. She’s received endorsements from NARAL/Arizona Right to Choose and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona.

Regarding policy issues, Lake and Hobbs could not be more opposed. On immigration and the border, Lake wants to finish “the wall” and calls the current setup a “national security and humanitarian disaster.”

Epoch Times Photo
Arizona Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs speaks at a press conference calling for abortion rights outside the Evo A. DeConcini Courthouse in Tucson, Ariz., on Oct. 7, 2022. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Hobbs wants to “pass comprehensive immigration reform” but calls the border wall an “anti-immigrant” policy that’s not a real solution.

On tackling inflation and the economy, Lake said she wants “tax relief” and to stand against Washington’s current “tax-and-spend” agenda. Echoing Trump, Lake proposed rolling back  regulations and lowering taxes.

To tackle inflation and fire up the economy, Hobbs wants to expand on The American Rescue Plan, passed by Congress and signed by President Biden. She also wants to create a $250 state-level child tax credit and make diapers and baby formula tax-free.

Since the beginning of her candidacy, Lake has stood firm in questioning the integrity of the 2020 election. On her website, she lists recent pipeline and meat-plants hacks as problematic. Thus, she wants to remove all software equipment from the counting process. Lake further advocated for voter ID and regular audits.

Hobbs, however, called such audits “shams” on her website and said “dangerous forces” are trying to “silence the voices of Arizonans.” She said she’d fight against “voter suppression bills” and “protect the freedom to vote.”

trump rally
Former President Donald Trump and Kari Lake, who has Trump’s support in Arizona’s gubernatorial race, speak during a rally at the Canyon Moon Ranch festival grounds in Florence, Ariz., on Jan. 15, 2022. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)
Lake said she is pro-life and that “every life, starting at conception, is worth saving.” As governor, she said she would work to support mothers by putting resources into pregnancy centers and government programs that provide counseling, material assistance, care coordination, and housing support.

“I will ensure Arizona matches and exceeds all other states in supporting these centers and the amazing work they are doing,” Lake said.

Lake added that “it takes two to make a baby,” and she wants to hold fathers accountable by reforming Arizona’s laws to ensure fathers support the women they impregnated.

Hobbs, in contrast, is pro-choice and stated that on “day one, I will call a special session of the legislature to repeal the draconian 1901 [abortion ban] law.”

Hobbs said she would work “tirelessly” to increase access to abortion and use her veto power to oppose “restrictive and extreme measures” limiting the procedure in Arizona.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on November 09, 2022, 04:12:43 PM
 :-D
Title: PA House to flip to Blue?
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 11, 2022, 10:26:52 AM
Blue Pennsylvania: Undecided State House Races May Cause Party Power Shift
Republicans lose 12 House seats
By Beth Brelje November 10, 2022 Updated: November 10, 2022biggersmaller Print

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The balance of political power in Pennsylvania has taken a left turn as the Republican-controlled state House lost at least 12 Republican seats in the Nov. 8 election and could lose more. Control of the chamber will remain undecided until at least next week because results in two races are too close to call.

Democrat Mark Moffa, with 15,095 votes, has two votes more than Republican Joe Hogan’s 15,093 in District 142, Bucks County. Neither candidate is an incumbent; this is a new district due to redistricting.

Those totals are not expected to change for days, Jim O’Malley, deputy director of communications for Bucks County told The Epoch Times. Currently, Bucks County election workers are inspecting provisional and segregated ballots and determining which ones can be counted. They will make a report about those ballots to the Bucks County Board of Elections on Tuesday, Nov. 15, and the board will determine the next steps for those ballots.

The process is similar in Montgomery County’s District 151, where Rep. William Todd Stephens, a Republican incumbent, has 16,611 votes and leads with 26 votes over Democrat Melissa Cerrato’s 16,585 votes.

No automatic recount is triggered for legislative races. A campaign or other organization would have to file a request to recount, Montgomery County spokeswoman Kelly Cofrancisco told The Epoch Times.

“The other outstanding ballots include our provisional and military/overseas ballots which we have until next week, Nov. 15, to accept,” Cofrancisco said. “Next week our Board of Elections will hold a provisional ballot hearing to determine which ballots will be included in the final count. We have until Nov. 28 to certify the election.”

Dead Candidate Wins
In total, there are 203 Pennsylvania House seats. In the current session there are 113 Republicans, 88 Democrats, and two vacant seats.

The new configuration, so far, is 101 Republicans and 100 Democrats, plus those two undetermined races.

And here is a wrinkle: the new House will have three vacant seats right away.

Longtime Democrat Rep. Anthony M. “Tony” DeLuca, 85, died on Oct. 9, and having held the seat for 39 years, was running for another term. When he died, the ballots had already been printed.

Voters chose to cast their ballots for a dead man rather than the Green Party candidate. DeLuca got 85 percent of the vote compared with 14 percent for Green candidate Queonia “Zarah” Livingston. No Republican ran in this race.

Democrat state Representatives Summer Lee and Austin Davis both ran for two offices at once and won all four seats. Lee was reelected to the state house and also elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Davis was also reelected to the state house and at the same time, elected as Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, filling the seat vacated by John Fetterman.

House seats all come up for election every two years. House members will be sworn in Jan. 3, 2023. The new speaker of the House will then schedule special elections for the vacant positions. The house votes as a whole to name a speaker. It is possible that Davis and Lee will be sworn in to the state House to help choose the speaker, then vacate their seats.

But DeLuca can’t vote from the grave.

If the final house count is 101 Republicans and 102 Democrats, with DeLuca missing, there will be 101 votes for each party. It is unclear how the House will determine speaker, and that issue has caused some chatter in the hallways of the Capitol in Harrisburg.

The Pennsylvania House and Senate have been solidly Republican-controlled since 2011. Outgoing Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf has had a sometimes-contentious relationship with the General Assembly. Wolf was never able to convince Republicans to raise the minimum wage or legalize recreational marijuana, although during the Wolf administration Pennsylvania did legalize medical marijuana. Wolf used executive orders to move his agenda forward.

While Pennsylvania’s Senate remains Republican, the House is close to flipping to Democrat control, giving incoming Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro a smoother ride to advance his agenda.

It will also signal a less purple Pennsylvania ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Even if Democrats don’t get control of the House, they have gained much ground. Republicans, who have been accustomed to having enough votes to move legislation, only to have it stopped by the governor’s veto, will have to work harder to negotiate with Democrats.
Title: Dems take four state legislatures
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 11, 2022, 10:40:06 AM
second

Democrats buck history, take control of 4 state legislatures

Party adds seats in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona results pending

BY DAVID A. LIEB ASSOCIATED PRESS

Bucking historic midterm election trends, Democrats wrested control of state legislative chambers away from Republicans in Michigan and Minnesota while also gaining full control of state capitols in Maryland and Massachusetts.

The Democrats’ gains in Tuesday’s elections gave them power to set the agenda on topics ranging from state taxes and spending to contentious social issues in four states that previously had politically divided governments.

Democrats also gained legislative seats in Pennsylvania, another important presidential swing state where Republican lawmakers have held majorities against a Democratic governor.

Future control of several legislatures — including Republicanled Arizona’s and Democratic-led Nevada’s — remained unclear as votes were still being counted.

The New Hampshire House clerk said results show an almost even partisan divide in the 400-member chamber. That could set the stage for either unprecedented bipartisanship or major gridlock.

Democrats were thrilled with the results, especially since the president’s party almost always suffers legislative losses during midterm elections.

“By all accounts, this election should have been a landslide for Republicans. Instead, their socalled red wave is looking more like a puddle,” said Jessica Post, president of the national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

Republicans entered the election with full control of both legislative chambers and the governor’s office in 23 states, compared with 14 for Democrats, with the rest divided.

Democrats already controlled both legislative chambers in Maryland and Massachusetts but picked up governorships being vacated by popular, term-limited Republicans.

Even with Democratic gains, Republicans will still control more states and more total legislative seats.

Only twice since 1900 had the president’s party posted a net increase in state legislative seats during a midterm election — in 1934 during the Great Depression and in 2002, a year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

This year, “it’s becoming apparent that if either side gains seats, it’s going to be a narrow margin relative to history,” said Ben Williams, the NCSL’s principal for elections and redistricting.

Republicans said going into the election that they would be happy to keep what they held, though they had targeted several states for potential gains. Despite some losses, Republicans withstood bigger Democratic spending in some states and “an incredibly challenging political environment” to maintain a majority of state legislatures, said Andrew Romeo, communications director for the Republican State Leadership Committee.

A summertime Supreme Court decision ending half a century of abortion as a federal constitutional right, thus returning the issue to the states, gave Democrats a new campaign theme to counter Republican ads blaming Democrats for rising inflation and economic concerns.

In Michigan, voters passed a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights while narrowly electing Democratic legislative majorities.

Lawmakers were running for the first time in new districts drawn by an independent citizens committee that gave Democrats a better chance than the previous districts draw by the GOP-led Legislature.

When newly elected lawmakers take office along with Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, it will mark the first time in 40 years that Democrats wield full control in Lansing.

Though the economy was the top issue for Michigan voters, a majority also said the abortion ballot initiative was very important and that their views aligned most closely with the idea that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,200 of the state’s voters.

Republican House Speaker Jason Wentworth attributed the loss to redistricting and “special interests from all over the country” that aided Democrats. He predicted that Republicans would regain the chamber in two years.

In Minnesota, Democrats won control of the state Senate from Republicans while also defending their House majority against a Republican takeover attempt. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz also won reelection
Title: Re: Dems take four state legislatures
Post by: DougMacG on November 11, 2022, 11:55:30 AM
Yes these were important losses.  Chips away at the theory that the losses were because of weak candidates at the top.

Losing people like Larry Hogan in places like Mass. and Maryland, with no incumbent running, was inevitable and not all bad.  Dem overreach is our best message.

Minnesota was a total loss, (although we flipped my local Rep back).  This loss was not unexpected, but if it had gone the other way, suburban women shifting right, it would have changed everything, nationwide.  Not so or at least not yet.

The losses of legislatures in swing states is horrible!  Those were the biggest races and Republicans snoozed on it.

A LOT of outside Dem money went into all these races.  When I saw that is when I jumped in, but my small amounts only help if tens of millions of conservatives also jump in with their share. 

Money isn't everything but how does our side get our message out without it?  With fair coverage in the Minneapolis Star and Sickle monopoly newspaper? Through the schools?  Through the networks?  Through Facebook?  Hardly. 

I know we've said this before, but we better figure this out now and start work for next time or history will keep repeating itself, getting worse and worse each time.
Title: We lost Oregon too
Post by: DougMacG on November 11, 2022, 05:59:57 PM
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/oregon-election-results-democrat-tina-kotek-holds-off-republican-christine-drazan-gubernatorial-race
Title: AZ
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 14, 2022, 04:18:53 PM
https://www.fox10phoenix.com/election/2022-arizona-election-results-live-updates
Title: WT: Black Reps doing well
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 22, 2022, 05:55:27 AM
Black Republicans gain ground in local and state elections 56 Black Republicans ran for state and local office, and nearly half won By Paris Dennard T

he attention surrounding the midterm elections always centers on control of Congress because historically, with few exceptions, the political party of the sitting president loses seats in both the Senate and House of Representatives. The driving force for media attention, pundits and pollsters is focused on the federal elections, especially the demographics of the incoming members of Congress.

As the results came in late Tuesday night and into next morning, it was clear that the so-called red wave was not going to yield the large results that many had predicted, but Republicans would take back control of the House of Representatives and retire Nancy Pelosi from being speaker of the House.

What also became clear was, despite a tremendous candidate recruitment effort and hundreds of Black and Hispanic candidates earning the trust of their constituents to get on the ballot, many of them lost in close elections for Congress.

There were 31 Black Republicans on the ballot for federal office, with five winning outright: incumbents, Sen. Tim Scott and Reps. Byron Donalds and Burgess Owens, along with Reps.-elect John James and Wesley Hunt, both West Point graduates. Herschel Walker remains in a very important December runoff for U.S. Senate in Georgia.

While the potential for six Black Republicans in the 118th Congress would be historic — you would have to go back to the late 1800s to see that many serving at once, and never two in the Senate — there was an overlooked bright spot for Black Republicans in the midterms on the state and local level.

There were at least 56 Black Republicans running for state and local office this year, with nearly half of them winning their seats. Next year. there will be well over 40 Black elected Republicans at all levels, from senator to lieutenant governor to county council member.

Historically, Black Republicans have excelled at a greater number at getting elected or appointed statewide. More Black Republicans (15) have been state attorney general than Democrats, and we currently have more Black Republicans serving today as lieutenant Governors than Democrats do. Florida made history in several ways this year, one of which was by electing four Black Republicans to the State House.

There has only been one Black Republican woman to serve in Congress, former U.S. Rep. Mia Love, and we came very close to having the second Black Republican women in Congress with Jennifer-Ruth Green. However, on the state and local level, Black Republican women serving in the past and present is very common.

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears will remain the highest-ranking Black woman in the GOP — and the midterm elections have two Black women winning, including Florida state Rep.-elect Kiyan Michael. On the local level, Dorchester County, South Carolina, Councilwoman Harriet Holman won reelection as a Republican after leaving the Democratic Party this year.

State and local elected officials often play an even greater role in the everyday lives of Americans because they have a more direct and immediate impact on the lives of their constituents.

While these positions do not normally garner the same attention and notoriety as federal positions, they are just as important, and Republicans should continue to recruit candidates to run at the state and local level.

It was great to see the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) start a program directly aimed at recruiting, training and supporting more diverse candidates for state and local office through their Right Leaders Network. Black Republicans like Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson signed on to serve in leadership roles because they understand the importance of electing great leaders on the state and local level.

Remember, Tim Scott got his start in politics on the Charleston County Council and then the South Carolina House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and eventually the U.S. Senate.

Organizations like Run GenZ, co-founded by West Virginia state Rep. Caleb Hanna, are on the front lines trying to identify, mentor and support Generation Z Republicans to run for office on the state and local level to great success.

They continue to promote and highlight Black leaders like Bowie, Maryland, City Councilwoman Roxy Ndebumadu, Albany, Georgia, City Commissioner Jalen Johnson and Willard, Missouri, Mayor Samuel Snider.

The future of the GOP is bright when we build a bench from the state and local level all the way up to the federal level. The midterm elections did see the wave of Black Republican leadership continue to grow on the state and local level with courageous Americans who were elected to serve, and will do so with distinction. Leadership always doesn’t always come from Washington, and all these Black Republicans elected on the state and local level prove it. Paris Dennard is a communications and political strategist and consultant who has worked at the highest levels of government and Republican politics.

ILLUSTRATION BY HUNTER
Title: Reps increasing women and POCs
Post by: Crafty_Dog on December 21, 2022, 05:16:44 AM
https://washingtontimes-dc.newsmemory.com/?token=2454ee0a666e61c25d7d880a41f78ca5_63a32819_6d25b5f&selDate=20221221&goTo=A01&artid=5&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=washingtontimes-E-Editions&utm_source=washingtontimes&utm_content=Read-Button
Title: Schlapp: Conservative States are Winning Big
Post by: Crafty_Dog on December 21, 2022, 06:33:14 AM
second

Conservative states are winning big as liberal policies collapse

Americans are voting with their feet

By Matt Schlapp

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has released its 50-state legislative analysis, ranking all 50 states from the most conservative to the least, revealing which states are implementing policies aligning with American values to promote individual liberty, economic growth and human dignity. All 50 state legislatures were ranked based on policy, revealing the clear relationship between conservative policymaking and quality of life. Between prosperity, freedom and crime, failed policies adopted in Democrat-led states leave a lot to be desired. Republican-led states, on the other hand, have become the primary benefactors of state-to-state migration, wealth and safety thanks to excellent legislation.

To create these rankings, CPAC’s Center for Legislative Accountability tallied 265,000 votes on legislation from all 50 states and all 7,400 state legislators. This compilation of data allows us to look at outcomes in a nuanced way and interpret recent state-to-state migration and economic trends.

By now, most people are familiar with the California exodus, with many disgruntled voters abandoning the Golden State for conservative Texas. Our new state rankings provide context to the mass migration in a more useful way. Florida, for instance, ranks as the sixth most conservative state in the nation and has also been the top destination for Americans leaving their home state for more than a decade. The result has been a massive transfer of wealth, with more than $200 billion in income migrating to Florida from the rest of America.

Florida’s zero individual income tax policy and the absence of an estate tax or inheritance tax have attracted income-earners across the economic spectrum from states with confiscatory tax rates like New Jersey and New York. And thanks to the conservative policies adopted in Tallahassee, Florida’s low cost of living does not come at the expense of high sales taxes or poor public infrastructure.

Indeed, Florida outperforms most states when it comes to things like school choice and state-run pension programs while maintaining fiscal discipline.

But it’s not just low taxes that make conservative-run states more attractive. Nationwide, “go woke or go broke” policies led to some of the largest state-to-state migration numbers in years, with people fleeing liberal hellscapes for conservative safe havens.

When comparing states that have embraced woke social and economic policy with those that have adopted commonsense conservative legislation in 2021, the 10 most liberal states had more people moving out than moving in, with an average 9% net loss. Conversely, the top 10 conservative states, on average, experienced a 12% net gain of people moving in versus those leaving.

And while conservative states attracted citizens of all kinds with strong economic policy and the rule of law, Democrat-led states burdened people with never-ending debt. Of the 10 worst-rated states for conservative policy, they shared an average of $6,670 in debt per capita compared with the top 10 conservative states, which averaged $2,190. Highly rated conservative states also dominate the field when it comes to safety. While conservative states represented the true interests of citizens: defending law enforcement and securing the property of hardworking citizens, Democratic lawmakers worked to “defund the police” and allow people to escape accountability for their actions. Across the country, George Soros-funded officials favored criminals over the law. In Philadelphia, District Attorney Larry Krasner dropped or lost 47% of illegal gun cases in his first two years. In New York, District Attorney Alvin Bragg stated that his day-one policy would be to make prison time a last resort for fighting crime. And in Colorado, the state Legislature voted to make the possession of 4,000 lethal doses of fentanyl just a misdemeanor, essentially giving criminals responsible for the deaths of hundreds a free pass.

It’s no surprise that Black Lives Matter/woke soft-on-crime policies have resulted in crime spiking in cities and states dominated by liberal politicians. Murders, for example, have jumped by almost 50% in New York and 60% in Chicago since 2019. Democratic leaders have done such poor work to provide security that even Starbucks, in all of its woke wisdom, decided to close six stores in its hometown of Seattle, six in Los Angeles, two in Portland, Oregon, one in Philadelphia and one in Washington, D.C.

It has never been clearer that Democrats’ policies are doing less for Americans — less wealth, less security, and less economic and real freedom.

These kinds of insights are the reason why CPAC leads the way in American politics. Our expansive rating system, which began 11 years ago, ensures that voters get a real idea of whom they are voting for and where they stand on any given policy. It is no longer possible for lawmakers to hide behind excuses and power struggles while in office. At CPAC, we make it crystal clear which politicians are on your side.

Matt Schlapp is the chairman of CPAC
Title: Gov Sarah Huckabee in AR
Post by: Crafty_Dog on January 10, 2023, 05:02:36 PM


https://dailycaller.com/2023/01/10/governor-sarah-huckabee-sanders-crt-executive-order/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking&pnespid=qbh_DikeKrJA3_vbrC7tSMjQug_hWZtocbi3wfBivwBm781dulXNVIxFT2Ikuy1euWRjNed7
Title: Weird scenes inside the Ohio gold mine , , ,
Post by: Crafty_Dog on January 21, 2023, 08:31:24 PM
WSJ
Ohio Republicans Staged Their Own House Speaker Drama
A breakaway bloc of GOP legislators joined with Democrats to give Rep. Jason Stephens the gavel.
By Jack Butler
Jan. 20, 2023 5:34 pm ET

As the national media focused on Kevin McCarthy’s contentious election as U.S. House speaker, a similar political drama was playing out in Columbus, Ohio—even though Republicans hold a 67-32 supermajority in Ohio’s House. At a party meeting shortly after November’s election, GOP state representatives chose Rep. Derek Merrin as their nominee for speaker. As the legislative session was set to begin earlier this month, however, a breakaway faction of 22 GOP lawmakers joined with the chamber’s Democrats to elect a different Republican, Rep. Jason Stephens, speaker.

Explanations of what happened and why differ. Rep. Allison Russo, the leader of the House’s Democratic minority, told the Columbus Dispatch that Democrats sensed division and wanted a speaker who “would work with us on the issues we could agree on.” But in an interview this week Mr. Merrin was decidedly less sanguine. “Every Republican voter in Ohio has been betrayed,” he said, accusing the dissidents of caring more about “power” than about conservative issues. “Tens of millions of dollars were invested in making Ohio a Republican state, a Republican-led state,” but thanks to Mr. Stephens and his faction, “now the Democrats are the ones who are really in control.”

That’s how the central committee of the Ohio GOP sees it. On Jan. 6 the committee passed a resolution censuring the Republicans who voted for Mr. Stephens. The resolution claims that their vote “dishonors” the Republican Party and “misrepresents the voice of Ohio Republican voters” who wanted “to defeat the dangerous and perverse Democratic Party Caucus agenda, not to empower it.” Rep. Jon Cross, one of the Republicans who supported Mr. Stephens, professed confusion. He told the Columbus Dispatch that he didn’t understand how Republicans could be censured by the Republican Party for voting for a Republican. “Sounds like the dip—s are running the insane asylum.”

The dust is settling, but the acrimony is likely to linger. GOP Rep. Bill Seitz, a Stephens supporter, lays blame for the party crackup squarely at Mr. Merrin’s feet. He and his team did “very little outreach” to other Republicans after winning the caucus vote, Mr. Seitz claims, and awarded leadership slots only to Merrin supporters. Mr. Seitz calls the idea that lawmakers in the breakaway bloc aren’t conservative “complete bull hockey.” He notes that he’s a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s board of directors. Mr. Stephens, he says, was endorsed for speaker by the Conservative Political Action Conference.

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Rep. Brian Stewart, a Merrin supporter, said that endorsement came out of the blue on the day of the caucus vote: “I don’t think CPAC had heard of Jason Stephens prior to that afternoon.”

The coming legislative session is likely to see big votes on school choice, tax reform and redistricting. Perhaps the most contentious debate will be over House Joint Resolution 6, which, if passed, will ask Ohioans to raise the threshold for amending the state constitution via ballot initiative to 60%. Currently all that’s needed is a simple majority. Democrats oppose the change because they think it will make it harder to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

To make May’s ballot, the Legislature must approve the resolution by Feb. 1. Failure to do so will increase suspicions among Merrin-allied Republicans that Mr. Stephens struck a deal with Democrats to sideline the issue. Mr. Stewart says it’s an open secret that Mr. Stephens promised Democrats to block the resolution in exchange for their support. He claims Mr. Stephens twice promised him never to seek Democratic votes to become speaker, worrying that it could “tear the caucus apart” after a similar episode four years earlier, “and then he did it anyway.”

Democrats—and Mr. Seitz—deny a deal was struck, but things are far from resolved. Mr. Merrin, calling himself “leader of the House Republicans,” promises not to “stand by and let a progressive agenda be marched through the Ohio House.” Mr. Stephens pledges to “respect and work with” all members, but it’s hard to see how. He commands a minority of the coalition that elected him speaker. Imagine the chaos in Congress if the Republicans who opposed Mr. McCarthy had cut a deal with Democrats to elect one of themselves speaker.

In a country where power is divided both horizontally, between branches of government, and vertically, between the national government and the states, Washington isn’t the only place where political drama happens. Often, it isn’t even the most interesting place.

Mr. Butler is submissions editor at National Review Online and a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow at the Fund for American Studies.

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Title: WSJ: NY Charter Schools
Post by: Crafty_Dog on February 05, 2023, 04:36:22 PM
In her debate during last year’s race for Governor, Democrat Kathy Hochul answered “yes” when asked if she supported lifting New York’s cap on charter schools. Last week she followed through with a proposal that would allow more charters to open, mostly in New York City. But she’ll have to spend political capital to get it through the state Legislature where unions hold sway.

In her budget proposal released last week, Ms. Hochul didn’t touch the overall cap of 460 charters statewide. But she did propose eliminating the regional charter caps. The bottom line is that New York City—which hit its cap of 275 charters in 2019—would have as many as 85 slots for new schools. Ms. Hochul would also reallocate slots now held by “zombie” charters that have closed, which would allow roughly two dozen other new charter openings.

These steps are modest but badly needed. They would also be popular. Last week Democrats for Education Reform released a poll showing that New York City Democrats favor lifting the cap by 51% to 27%. The margins for Hispanics (53% to 26%) and African-American New Yorkers (48% to 23%) are more than 2 to 1 in favor. Nearly two-thirds of parents (64%) support raising the cap.

The polling is a bitter reminder that the only reason there is a cap is because of the teachers unions. In January New York City parents were sold out by Mayor Eric Adams, when the city at the last minute killed plans to co-locate three Success Academy charters in vacant public-school building space in Queens and the Bronx.


Parents now need a champion in Albany. Andrew Cuomo played that role when he was Governor. The temptation for Ms. Hochul will be to throw the charter proposal over the side at crunch time in budget negotiations and then blame legislative leaders. But she can make the charter changes a priority if she wants. Parents and children will be watching.
Title: NJ council switches parties
Post by: ccp on February 09, 2023, 05:37:11 AM
https://www.dailywire.com/news/entire-nj-town-council-mayor-switch-from-democrats-to-republicans

but do their policies change ? or is this some manipulation to save their seats
or win election ; ala Bloomberg who is R, D & I
 whatever the flavor of the day is.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on February 09, 2023, 08:03:05 AM
As I read the article, it seems to me like this is likely sincere.  Let us take the win!
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: DougMacG on March 01, 2023, 05:58:37 AM
US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeting: 'Lori Lightfoot. Crime doesn't pay.'   
-----------------

Pretty good line.  Also to explain the right of self defense, crime doesn't pay.
Title: Florida bill 1316
Post by: ccp on March 02, 2023, 03:29:04 PM
not sure what to make of this

certainly this is NOT in the spirit of smaller less intrusive government:

https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/florida-bill-would-require-bloggers-who-write-about-governor-to-register-with-the-state/

would appreciate it if anyone has a better grip on why Republicans would do this.
Title: Re: Florida bill 1316
Post by: G M on March 02, 2023, 05:39:25 PM
not sure what to make of this

certainly this is NOT in the spirit of smaller less intrusive government:

https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/florida-bill-would-require-bloggers-who-write-about-governor-to-register-with-the-state/

would appreciate it if anyone has a better grip on why Republicans would do this.

Blatantly unconstitutional, and it appears to be only one person pushing the legislation at this point.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on March 03, 2023, 07:17:54 AM
Random Observation:

I perceive deep subtlety in DeSantis strategy to go for American renewal via the States instead an all-out food fight/civil war to capture and control the Deep State in Washington. 

The divinely inspired genius of our Founding Fathers is shown yet again-- this time with Federalism (enabled in part by the Electoral College).
Title: TN: Lawmakers lose committee assignments
Post by: Crafty_Dog on April 04, 2023, 06:16:06 AM
https://resistthemainstream.com/lawmakers-lose-committee-assignments-after-storming-state-capitol/?utm_source=newsletter2
Title: WI, NC
Post by: Crafty_Dog on April 07, 2023, 09:59:17 AM
Republican Wins Open Wisconsin State Senate Seat, Giving GOP Supermajority and Added Impeachment Power
By Ryan Morgan
April 6, 2023Updated: April 7, 2023

Republican Wisconsin state Rep. Dan Knodl won an open state senate seat in a special election on Tuesday, giving Republicans a supermajority in the state senate.

Knodl defeated Democrat attorney Jodi Habush Sinykin in the election for Wisconsin’s 8th state senate district, an area representing Milwaukee’s northern suburbs. Republican Alberta Darling had held the senate seat, but Darling decided to retire in December of last year, leaving the seat open after the 2022 election.

Before the 2022 election, Republicans held a 21-12 majority in the state senate, leaving them one seat shy of a supermajority. Republicans flipped one seat in the November 2022 election, which would have given them a 22-11 supermajority in the new state congressional session until Darling retired just weeks later, delaying those Republican supermajority prospects. With Knodl’s win on Tuesday, the Republicans will soon be able to exercise supermajority powers in the state Senate.


Supermajority Powers

With a supermajority, Republicans can now override a gubernatorial veto in the state Senate. A successful override takes a two-thirds vote in the Senate and State Assembly, and Assembly Republicans remain two seats shy of the 66 they need for a supermajority in that house.

The Senate supermajority means Republicans could theoretically convict the state government’s judges and executive branch officers in an impeachment proceeding, including Democrat Gov. Tony Evers and Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. The State Assembly can vote to impeach elected officials with a simple majority, and the Senate can convict those officials on the impeachment charges with a two-thirds majority, both of which the Wisconsin Republican Party now has.

The Tuesday election also saw Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz win her bid for the state Supreme Court, tipping the balance of the seven-member judicial panel toward the liberals on the court. The Republican impeachment powers in the state legislature could allow them to impeach Protasiewicz.

Knodl has said he’s not interested in impeaching Evers, saying he has been able to work with the governor. But he said he wants to impeach Milwaukee judges for being too lenient on criminal defendants.

Protasiewicz’s opponents criticized her for being too soft on crime in the lead-up to this Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

“Protasiewicz presided over one case in which a father abused his children, ages 5, 8, and 10, by whipping them with a dog leash. He was convicted of a Class I felony with two counts of child abuse. Yet, Protasiewicz sentenced him to only nine months of work-release jail and probation,” the Wisconsin Republican Party said in a February press release. “In response to questions about her weak sentences, Protasiewicz doubled down by calling them ‘fair’ and ‘appropriate.’ Her soft-on-crime record is deeply troubling.”

As one of her final appeals in the election, Habush Sinykin tweeted, “Don’t give the GOP the power to impeach. I’m asking for your vote today.”

“We are at a crossroads in Wisconsin,” Habush Sinykin added in a statement to CBS 58. “And this election is going to decide the future of our state.”

Recent GOP Gains in State Legislatures

Knodl’s remarkable election victory came in the same week that Democrat North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham switched party affiliations, becoming a Republican and handing the Republican Party a supermajority of seats in the North Carolina House of Representatives. Republicans in North Carolina now have supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature, allowing them to override vetoes from Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper, who’s vetoed a record number of Republican bills.

North Carolina Democrats called Cotham’s party switch a betrayal. The party’s chairs said, “If she can no longer represent the values her constituents trusted her to champion, she should resign immediately.”

Republicans also gained a supermajority in the Louisiana House of Representatives in March after Democrat Rep. Francis Thompson switched party affiliations. Republicans now hold supermajorities in both houses of the Louisiana state legislature, potentially increasing their ability to override vetoes by Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards.

“While Rep. Thompson’s decision (to switch parties) is disappointing, it is not surprising. He already caucused with Republicans,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Sam Jenkins said in a statement following Thompson’s party switch.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Title: AZ house expels GOP lawmaker
Post by: Crafty_Dog on April 13, 2023, 10:12:10 AM
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/arizona-house-expels-gop-lawmaker-over-unproven-claims/ar-AA19N3CQ?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=83d7aa6ff4f7400c8d12937b96b30fe6&ei=8
Title: TN: Lawmakers lose committee assignments 2.0
Post by: Crafty_Dog on April 13, 2023, 11:02:52 AM
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/tennessee-house-democrat-justin-jones-assaulted-driver-during-2020-protests-video-shows/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=breaking&utm_campaign=newstrack&utm_term=31155263
Title: Democrat AGs sue a vape company
Post by: ccp on April 13, 2023, 11:41:17 AM
another way to raise revenue while protecting children:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/12/juul-to-pay-462-million-settlement-to-six-states.html
Title: Re: Democrat AGs sue a vape company
Post by: G M on April 14, 2023, 07:12:08 AM
another way to raise revenue while protecting children:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/12/juul-to-pay-462-million-settlement-to-six-states.html

They obviously went about this the wrong way.

Juul should have done this:

1. Bribe Fauci and the medicrats to declare Juul "safe and effective" and mandate it's use.

2. Use the FBI to silence social media dissident voices.

3. Use dem states to target the licenses of medical professionals that disagree and ban alternatives such as Nicotine gum.

4. Have Juul placed on the childhood vaccine roster.
Title: TX: Impeachment of AG Paxton
Post by: Crafty_Dog on May 29, 2023, 12:48:18 PM
I have no opinion here:

https://dailycaller.com/2023/05/29/charlie-kirk-texas-ken-paxton-dan-patrick/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking&pnespid=6rNqFngXLKQIiv.Y_DamEcKD5kigXoYoffWhyvowoBBmC05nrrUVlIfZu8y7x.zJwxZSVJLf
Title: NYC: Life is tougher when you are stupid
Post by: Crafty_Dog on May 29, 2023, 01:14:29 PM
second

https://www.city-journal.org/article/mayor-adams-is-making-the-migrant-crisis-worse-for-new-york?fbclid=IwAR1R5MBB_CV1t5EIQvjSJgDwtyFUbiB3KEiL3LdN4Ruuv2QRuhqg24v1TxQ#:~:text=Now%2C%20Adams%20is%20signing%20the,laid%20off%20during%20the%20pandemic.
Title: South Dakota
Post by: Crafty_Dog on June 08, 2023, 01:15:53 PM
https://amgreatness.com/2023/06/08/south-dakota-gov-kristi-noem-no-help-to-over-80-landowners-facing-eminent-domain-property-loss-for-carbon-capture-pipeline/
Title: Oklahoma shows Justice Jackson how it is done
Post by: Crafty_Dog on August 01, 2023, 09:07:30 AM


https://dailycaller.com/2023/08/01/kevin-stitt-oklahoma-womens-bill-of-rights-transgender/?pnespid=qbNlCTlcL6kZhv7epzHoFMLX4kijCcpsPbm6nLZj9kxm24RsNcJ9xDo.wugxg__KGA7RvxUM
Title: Ohio constitutional amendment process
Post by: Crafty_Dog on August 08, 2023, 05:39:09 AM
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/progressives-poised-to-remake-ohio-government-if-measure-raising-threshold-to-amend-constitution-fails/?bypass_key=ckV5UFBNczFOdnJnWXMwNHp5T0c4UT09OjpXV3h1WWxreE5YWldWMVptV0ZSemRXeExaRzVwUVQwOQ%3D%3D?utm_source%3Demail&utm_medium=breaking&utm_campaign=newstrack&utm_term=32328348&utm_source=Sailthru
Title: Democrat train wreck Minnesota
Post by: DougMacG on August 29, 2023, 07:03:58 PM
https://dailycaller.com/2023/08/28/opinion-this-state-is-reaping-the-results-of-its-failed-leftist-policies-john-phelan/

John Phelan is a British economist who works for Center for the American Experiment.
Title: Staten Island
Post by: Crafty_Dog on September 01, 2023, 06:58:22 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRUg-Xo-2xA
Title: Texas AG Paxton acquitted in impeachment trial
Post by: DougMacG on September 17, 2023, 07:16:51 AM
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-acquitted-impeachment-texas-attorney-general/
Title: VA
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 12, 2023, 03:35:58 PM
https://americanwirenews.com/virginia-dems-control-of-state-senate-may-hinge-on-whether-member-fibbed-about-residence/?utm_campaign=james&utm_content=11-12-23%20Daily%20AM&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=Get%20response&utm_term=email
Title: Reps sweep LA
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 25, 2023, 07:26:46 PM
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republicans-pull-off-clean-sweep-voters-hand-them-every-elected-position-in-state/ar-AA1kwBNk?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=0768cd27158d43c2a8629caa96c2588e&ei=9
Title: NYC: Badges getting turned in in big numbers
Post by: Crafty_Dog on November 26, 2023, 05:59:48 AM
https://americanwirenews.com/upwards-of-2500-nypd-officers-turned-in-their-badges-in-2023-amid-concerning-trend
Title: Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals Leaving Washington
Post by: DougMacG on December 19, 2023, 05:22:22 AM
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/washington-wizards-capitals-virginia-move-rcna129862

Government should leave there too.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on December 19, 2023, 06:14:25 AM
"Government should leave there too."

 I think that was Ron DeS plan .

 move to "red" areas.
 hire conservatives into the Fed government and replace the 90% of them who are Dems

Vivek wants to one up this and shut them down altogether.
Title: Muslim Boston City Councilor ordered to retake oath of office
Post by: Crafty_Dog on January 06, 2024, 07:39:51 AM
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/woke-boston-city-councilor-is-ordered-to-retake-oath-of-office-after-refusing-to-say-the-words-and-raise-her-right-hand-during-swearing-in-ceremony/ar-AA1mxrzZ?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=8bc49c52108042caa8d072c552c52d5a&ei=35
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on January 06, 2024, 09:24:28 AM
 :x

kick her the hell out

go back to your shithole
if you don't like this country.

what is she doing here if that is how she feels
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on January 06, 2024, 09:45:18 AM
speaking of hell holes:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/an-african-gulag-so-ghastly-that-inmates-risk-death-to-escape/ar-AA1mxzPq
Title: Sanctuary mayor of Chicago freaking out
Post by: Crafty_Dog on January 21, 2024, 06:17:23 AM
https://amgreatness.com/2024/01/21/has-bidens-border-crisis-driven-chicagos-mayor-to-the-hospital-for-panic-attacks/
Title: Chicago, sanctuary city, and illegals
Post by: Crafty_Dog on January 28, 2024, 03:58:28 PM
Chicaga’s (as it’s pronounced there) new mayor ashcans the sweetness & light he’d previously committed to:

https://pjmedia.com/rick-moran/2024/01/28/this-is-the-reason-chicago-is-puling-up-the-welcome-mat-for-illegal-aliens-n4925907

ETA: the city’s denizens are also objecting:

https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/01/black-chicago-residents-want-city-officials-to-remove-sanctuary-city-status/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=black-chicago-residents-want-city-officials-to-remove-sanctuary-city-status

HT BBG
Title: NYC falling into disorder
Post by: Crafty_Dog on February 04, 2024, 06:02:20 AM
https://www.city-journal.org/article/new-york-city-falling-into-disorder
Title: Look Whut Dat Awful “Climate Change” has Dun Now
Post by: Body-by-Guinness on February 06, 2024, 08:59:22 PM
Muai fire cleanup (caused by “climate change,” don’tcha know?) being slow walked. Is a crisis being used to a political end, you kinda like the manufactured climate crisis is being used to reverse engineer the Industrial Revolution.

https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1754627473348899021?s=61&t=L5uifCqWy8R8rhj_J8HNJw
Title: GA Squatters
Post by: Crafty_Dog on March 04, 2024, 03:44:18 PM
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2024/03/04/helpless-homeowner-finds-squatters-broke-into-his-home-changed-locks-as-he-was-caring-for-his-sick-wife-1442213/?utm_campaign=bizpac&utm_content=Newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=Get%20Response&utm_term=EMAIL
Title: Re: GA Squatters
Post by: DougMacG on March 04, 2024, 04:12:28 PM
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2024/03/04/helpless-homeowner-finds-squatters-broke-into-his-home-changed-locks-as-he-was-caring-for-his-sick-wife-1442213/?utm_campaign=bizpac&utm_content=Newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=Get%20Response&utm_term=EMAIL

"It could take months for a Georgia homeowner to see justice if he waits for an eviction order to work its way through the court system."

  - [Doug]  Too bad we don't have a first world thing called ... property rights.
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on March 05, 2024, 10:14:59 AM
Back in the day getting a favor from the Mafia might have been an option , , ,
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: ccp on March 05, 2024, 10:37:42 AM
had a patient who apparently married into John Gotti family.

an uncle or something -

stated Gotti went up to him at the wedding and said "you get one favor, nothing more."
Title: Re: Politics at the State & Municipal level
Post by: Crafty_Dog on March 05, 2024, 02:46:44 PM
 :-o :-o :-o