 |
|||
|
Given everything else on the nation’s plate right now, a focus on this seems so 90s. It will inevitably result in many years of costly litigation. (Cross-posted, with author’s permission, from Politico’s Arena)
Cleo Powell has made history as the state of Virginia's first African-American female Supreme Court Justice. Virginia has its first female African-American Supreme Court Justice. Cleo Elaine Powell was sworn in on October 21 to the seat, vacated by Leroy R. Hassell, Sr., the states first African-American chief justice, who passed away in February. “He was my mentor, he was my friend,” Powell said of Hassell. “It is my privilege to fill the seat that he so untimely vacated.” A native of southern Virginia, Powell received undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia and was the first African-American woman to serve on the Virginia Court of Appeals in 2008. [Richmond Times-Dispatch] The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin has sued that state for its recently-enacted voter ID laws. The Republican-backed legislation does not directly affect women voters qua women voters, the group has stated that it believes that the laws are in violation of the Constitution by impinging upon the voting rights of minorities. “We are appalled by the stories the league is hearing about the barriers people are facing in trying to obtain an acceptable ID,” the group’s president, Melanie Ramey, said. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] In other voter registration news, a New Smyrna Beach, Fla. teacher may be fined thousands of dollars for holding a student voter registration drive. Jill Cicciarelli, who advises student government ar New Smyrna Beach High School, is said to have violated a controversial new state law regarding registration of new voters. Aimed at groups like ACORN, the law requires that any third party registering voters must register with the state and submit applications within 48 hours. [Daytona Beach News-Journal] California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law legislation that would allow children aged 12 and up to seek medical care for sexually transmitted diseases– including the much-maligned Gardasil vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV). The bill, signed hours before the governor’s deadline to sign bills sent to him by the State Assembly, was tempered by a donation two days later, when pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca donated some $8,000 to Brown’s reelection campaign. AstraZeneca says the donation was not related to the new law. (Incidentally, Gardasil is produced by rival Merck.) [Sacramento Bee] Debates between Republican Cindy Golding and Democrat Liz Mathis have been scheduled in an Iowa Senate special election. The election is hotly-contested and could flip the Senate’s close 26-24 Democratic majority to a 25-25 tie which, along with Republican Governor Terry Branstad and a Republican-controlled House of Representatives, would solidify Republican power in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. The seat was opened when incumbent Democrat Swati Dandekar Branstad appointed her to the state utilities board. [Des Moines Register] Along with Republican counterpart Dale Schultz, Democratic Wisconsin State Senator Tim Cullen is touring his state in support of bipartisanship and civility. Good… news out of Wisconsin this past weekend, as State Senators Tim Cullen, a Democrat, and Dale Schultz, a Republican, hit the road in their “Common Ground Tour,” an effort to promote bipartisanship while cris-crossing Wisconsin in their own cars. Cullen, whose hometown of Janesville is represented in Congress by controversial Republican House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, was one of the 14 Democrats who left the state during the teachers’ union showdown earlier this year, but he is quoted as saying “Bipartisanship is not an evil.” On the Common Ground Tour, Cullen and Schultz aim to bring civility and cooperation to a state torn asunder by recent political battles. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] In other good news, the Ohio state auditor’s office was given high marks for keeping the state’s financial house in order, despite Ohio’s infamous political fights over public-sector unions. [Columbus Dispatch] In a vivid example of what can happen when partisan gridlock envelopes the system, a stalled Missouri legislature led to effectively no progress in a recent special session, leaving the state, especially the foundering city of St. Louis, in a lurch. If, as expected, the session collapses, efforts to turn St. Louis’s airport into a trading hub and handing the city’s police department back to the city itself (it has been under state control for the past 150 years) wil be left hanging for the second year running, while a state economic development bill will be in a lurch for the fourth year running. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch] Proving that nasty state-level political tussles are not limited to the politicians, retail giant Costco and the WIne & Spirits Wholesalers of America are engaged in a battle of funding over a Washington state ballot initiative to privatize liquor sales, whereas the state currently controls all such commerce. Last week, Costco donated another $9 million in favor of privatization, bringing the total amount of money raised up to $34 million. In comparison, next year’s hotly contested gubernatorial race between Democratic Representative Jay Inslee and Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna is expected to cost about $25 million. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] Former Florida governor Reubin Askew, whose 1971-1979 tenure is widely regarded as among the best in recent Florida history, chastised Florida lawmakers for “blind partisanship” on Thursday. Speaking at an event with Martin Dyckman, who was promoting a book about Askew’s time as governor, the Democrat said that politicians in Tallahassee have jettisoned compromise and even socialization in favor of partisan balkanization, which he compared very unfavorably with the political environment in the 1970’s. [St. Petersburg Times] Efforts to repeal California’s recently enacted DREAM Act have already begun… and are already highly partisan. Spearheaded by Tim Donnelly, who represents parts far-suburban Los Angele, received permission to begin collecting signatures to put the bill up for a referendum, giving him until January 6 to collect some 504,760 signatures. Donnelly, a Republican, has said that he plans to build support for the movement through social media and talk radio. [Sacramento Bee] Perhaps disproving the belief in strong parallels between Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party (or just confirming their partisan tilts), a Siena Research Institute poll shows residents of New York state supporting Occupy Wall Street by a margin of 49 to 38 and opposing the Tea Party by a margin of 60 to 28. If forced to choose between populist, anti-status quo movements, New Yorkers prefer Occupy Wall Street 49 to 28. [Albany Times Union] California State Assemblyman Anthony Portantino claims that he has been targeted for voting against the state budget, while Speaker John Pérez says that his forced staff furloughs are a result of budget matters. California Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, a Democrat representing suburban Los Angeles, has said that Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles) has furloughed his staff as retaliation for being the only Democrat to bote against this year’s state budget. In response, Portantino is hosting a “Lemon Aid” event on October 5 in his Pasadena office. Participants will be asked to bring non-perishable food items, and Portantino aides will be 0n-hand to provide contact information for state agencies to assist constituents while his office is closed beginning October 21. [Sacramento Bee] Colorado State Senator Crisanta Duran (D-Denver) sent out an e-mail to supporters asking them to donate to the House Majority Project, a pro-Democratic Colorado PAC, while slamming Republican efforts to create stricter voter-registration laws, calling them “racially-charged” and “anti-immigration.” She specifically cited the example of Pueblo County Clerk Bo Ortiz, whom Secretary of State Scott Gessler forbade from sending absentee ballots to some 70 inactive military voters. Gessler’s office, for its part, claims that Ortiz was not meeting state deadlines and referred to Duran’s e-mail as a “fundraising pitch.” [Denver Post] Fair Elections Ohio has compiled some 318,460 signatures to put House Bill 194 on the November 2012 ballot and stop it from going into effect as planned. The Republican-backed bill would, according to opponents, curtail voting rights by decreasing the amount of time in which voters can register for absentee ballots and bans in-person voting for most of the weekend. [Columbus Dispatch] New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Ken Brynien, president of the Public Employees Federation, are at a standstill in terms of negotiations, after a tentative contract failed a Tuesday vote. The governor, who has been criticized by teachers’ unions for his education reform proposals, said that he was open to minor, “revenue-neutral” changes to the contract with PEF. [Albany Times Union] Rod Smith, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, has slammed that state’s Republican Party for its decision to flout national Republican rules and move its primary up to January 31. throwing the entire GOP primary calendar into disarray. Two of the three Democrats on the 9-person state panel voted against the move, which Smith called “a slap in the face to their own party and the bipartisan rules agreed upon over a year ago to ensure an orderly primary process.” [St. Petersburg Times] Illinois is headed for an $8.3 billion shortfall this year, according to Civiv Federation, a Chicago-based watchdog group. In spite of an income tax increase and spending cuts, the state faces shortfalls in pensions and Medicaid,two issues that have not been touched by Governor Pat Quinn (Democrat), though the top Democrat and Republican in the Democratically-controlled state legislature have pushed for addressing those issues. [Illinois State Journal-Register] Millionaire Stanford physicist Charles T. Munger, Jr., long a bankroller of moderate Republican causes, has said he does not have any regrets about backing last year’s Proposition 20, which created the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, even if it may end up solidifying Democrats’ power in the state legislature. Citing notoriously pro-incumbent lines as a “shortsighted and frankly vicious act of selfishness,” Munger said he would have promoted Proposition 20, and Proposition 11, its failed 2008 predecessor, even if Republicans had controlled the state legislature or California’s congressional delegation. [Sacramento Bee] Rod Smith, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, has slammed that state’s Republican Party for its decision to flout national Republican rules and move its primary up to January 31. throwing the entire GOP primary calendar into disarray. Two of the three Democrats on the 9-person state panel voted against the move, which Smith called “a slap in the face to their own party and the bipartisan rules agreed upon over a year ago to ensure an orderly primary process.” [St. Petersburg Times] Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, a Democrat, has promised that his city’s police department will be “brutally efficient” when that city hosts the Republican National Convention next summer. While Buckhorn said he would support peaceful, legal protest, he vowed to protect against “mayhem” and illegal, violent protests. [St. Petersburg Times] The National Organization for Marriage continues placing billboards around the state slamming Republicans who voted in favor of same-sex marriage this past summer. NOW, which is currently celebrating the election of anti-gay marriage Republican Bob Turner in the state’s 9th Congressional District, has dumped some $40,000 in billboards targeting James Alesi of Suburban Rochester, Roy McDonald of Suburban Albany, Mark Grisanti of Buffalo, and Stephen Saland, who represents rural stretches of the Hudson Valley near Albany. [NY Daily News] In Wisconsin, Keith Gilkes, Chief of Staff to embattled governor Scott Walker, has left the administration to work on an expected recall election campaign. This is a sign that the governor is taking seriously the threat that Democrats, livid over Republican efforts to curtail public unions collective bargaining rights, will attempt to recall Republican Walker, as they have done for State Senate seats throughout the state. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] Although large-scale protests seem unlikely at this point, Ohio is set to undergo a battle over public sector unions similar to the fight earlier this year in Wisconsin. The public union battle that so bitterly divided Wisconsin and New Jersey has a new front: Ohio. This time, however, unions have taken a slightly different tack, putting Senate Bill 5, which eliminates collective bargaining rights for public employee unions. SB 5 was signed into law by Republican governor John Kasich earlier this year, but Ohio allows for referendums on such laws if they meet certain petition requirements; with 1.3 million signatures, the unions passed that benchmark by more than 1 million. The measure to repeal SB 5, which will be voted on on November 8, is currently supported by around 50% of Ohioans, down fron 55% in May. [Huffington Post] Roughly 10 months into his third non-consecutive term as governor, California Democrat Jerry Brown is “bewildered and stunned” at the behavior of Republicans in the State Legislature, calling them less independent and much more difficult to work with than they were when he was governor in the 1970s and 1980s. Republicans, for their part, have responded by saying that Brown has been less willing to work with them, especially on tax issues, which require a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers of the California State Legislature. (In both houses, the Democrats fall two seats short of that margin.) [NY Times] In Wisconsin, it is estimated that the nine recall elections brought on by the public sector union battle earlier this year cost the state $2.1 million and various campaign committees some $44 million. Part of the cost to Wisconsin, the state’s Democrats contend, came from the fake Democrats that Republicans put up to run, forcing primaries in the six cases when a Republican State Senator was up for recall. Of the six Republicans and three Democrats involved in recall elections, two Republicans lost their seats, leaving a razor-thin, 17-16, Republican majority in that body. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] Though the State House of Representatives, Governor Rick Scott, and Tea Party activists opposed the bill, Florida State Senate President Mike Haridopolos (R-Melbourne) has said he will reintroduce an immigration bill that passed the Senate before dying in the House, setting up a confrontation between the two bodies. [St. Petersburg Times] Although New York State Assembly Republicans remain committed to not returning to the Capitol until the official beginning of a new session in January, Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) has expressed a willingness, admittedly not a particularly strong willingness, to return earlier if that is necessary. In particular, he has said he will come back to work out bills regarding livery cabs and the ever-controversial matter of a healthcare exchange. [Albany Times Union] California Republicans have upped the ante in working to get new redistricting maps repealed. In an effort to collect a little more than 500,000 signatures by November 14, and thus forcing a vote on the new State Senate districts next June, they have circulated material alleging that allowing the new maps, drawn by a citizens’ commission that was voted into existence back in November, would lead to crippling tax increases. The effort has already raised around $500,000, including some $188,000 from the State GOP. [Sacramento Bee] Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s press secretary, Cullen Werwie, was granted immunity in a state investigation, it was recently revealed. The Republican governor and his aides are under fire for improper use of state funds for campaigning, charges which culminated in a raid earlier this month of a Madison home. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] US Representative and Democratic Senate contender Tammy Baldwin is the most liberal congressperson in recent Wisconsin history, while her opponent Mark Neumann is the most conservative. We start in Wisconsin today, where that state’s storied partisan divide is likely only to be exacerbated by the current candidates for Senate. On the Republican side, we have Mark Neumann, who represented Rep. Paul Ryan’s suburban Chicago and Milwaukee district in the 1990’s, while the only declared Democrat is Tammy Baldwin, a 7th term congresswoman from the left-wing bastion of Madison. A comparison of their voting records shows Neumann to be the most conservative Wisconsin congressperson in years and Baldwin the most liberal. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] The Legislature isn’t even in session and New York State Senators are already debating the implementation of that state’s federally-mandated healthcare exchange. One of the few loose ends left at the end of the most recent legislative session, the exchange has only been approved in the Assembly, where a plan favored by Senate Republicans was passed. [Albany Times Union] At a speech in San Francisco, California Governor Jerry Brown assailed Republicans for an “unconstitutional delegation of power,” saying that they have ceded governing to anti-tax groups, namely the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Reeling from the defeat of his bipartisan tax plan the previous week, Brown accused Assembly Republicans of extreme fealty to absolutist anti-tax agencies. [Sacramento Bee] Florida governor Rick Scott has been drawing criticism over his plans to model that state’s public universities after those in Texas, including changes in professor pay and tenure policies. His critics point out that Texas’s public education system is among the weakest in the nation, an assertion that has become more common (and indeed more loaded) since Texas Governor Rick Perry entered the Presidential race last month. [The Buzz] Ohio Republicans have released their proposed Congressional district map, and it is already receiving criticism, especially from the left. Following the 2010 Census, Ohio will be losing two seats, and, as expected, the Republican-controlled state government has crafted a map that is disadvantageous to Democrats. [Columbus Dispatch] In Los Angeles for its fall convention, the California Republican Party rejected a more moderate platform that de-emphasized socially conservative policies, a move that supporters said would emphasize the fiscal aspects of the platform while attracting more voters. The plan’s detractors, who got it killed in committee, refused to compromise on any level and accused the moderate forces of trying to win the platform through money. [Sacramento Bee] Following an FBI raid of one of his aide’s homes, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker claims to know nothing about the matter. The raid on Cynthia Archer’s Milwaukee County home was the result of longstanding accusations that Walker aides had used taxpayer money and government time to stump for the current governor while he was the Milwaukee County Executive. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] Taking Wisconsin’s teacher union fight to the Southeast, the Florida Education Association has filed a suit in Leon County, home to the state capital of Tallahassee, alleging that a bill currently in the State Senate is unconstitutional by Florida law. They claim a provision tying teacher pay to performance, and more specifically test scores, is an abrogation of a constitutional right to collective bargaining rights. [The Buzz] Troublingly, the New York State General Fund is some $0.7 million lower than anticipated on weak tax revenues which, while $3.3 billion ahead of where they were last year, are substantially lower than expected. Additionally, New York State Controller Thomas DiNapoli has warned that much of this relative surplus has resulted from large settlements that are unlikely to be repeated over the remainder of the fiscal year. [NY Daily News] Within the past week, California Governor Jerry Brown has helped craft a highly unusual bipartisan tax plan, seen it fail in the State Senate, and attacked the Republicans who voted against the bill. – A (somewhat unexpected) tip of the hat goes to California, where Democratic governor Jerry Brown and Republican Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher of San Diego have hammered out a rare, especially in the hyper-polarized California political climate, bipartisan tax deal that would eliminate certain loopholes for out-of-state companies while lowering personal tax rates and tax rates for small businesses based in California. The bill was expected to have all the necessary support in the state Assembly, but possibly run into trouble in the Senate… [NY Times] – … Which it did. Because this is California, the bill failed in the Senate only two days later, receiving no Republican votes and multiple Democratic abstentions. Senate Republicans, including Sam Blakeslee, scoffed at Governor Brown and Assemblyman Fletcher’s plan, referring to it, as the San Luis Obispo Republican did, as “a slapdash collection of ideas that look like they were made for a press release, not serious policy.” Brown, for his part, called it “unbelievable that so many politicians in Sacramento would choose to protect cigarette makers and out-of-state corporations to the detriment of California jobs. [Sacramento Bee] – Wisconsin Assemblyman Brett Hulsey (D-Madison) recently made the incendiary accusation that the Wisconsin State Assembly, controlled by Republicans since the beginning of the current legislative session, voted on 376 bill amendments by Democrats and voted for precisely one. The sad part? According to a PolitiFact investigation, he is completely correct. The single amendment, to Assembly Bill 94, dealt with administering Milwaukee’s school choice program, and was introduced by Jason Fields, a Milwaukee Democrat who supports such vouchers. [PolitiFact] – In today’s second unexpected hat tip, another hyper-polarized state, Ohio, has managed to keep its AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, even as other states, including Florida and Illinois, lose theirs, according to State Treasurer Josh Mandel. [Columbus Dispatch] – Seemingly in a response to recent threats to State Senator Roy McDonald (R-Saratoga), Mayor Michael Bloomberg is hosting a fundraiser for the four Senate Republicans who voted in favor of same-sex marriage in July. The even is being co-hosted by Paul Singer, chairman of the right-wing Manhattan Institute, and Tim Gill, an LGBT activist from Colorado who founded Quark, Inc., a software company whose XPress software is widely used in print media. The event will be hosted in October and cost as much as $16,800, the maximum allowed by state law, to attend. [Albany Time Union] – Well, all that good will couldn’t last forever (or for this whole post). Redistricting fights have already begun in the Empire State, with Republicans protesting new laws that count prisoners as residents of their last known address, rather than the prison in which they are serving time. Additionally, state-level redistricting is being scrutinized in light of the increase in Asian population in the New York borough of Queens, especially given that there is currently only one Asian-American state legislator, Democratic Assemblywoman Grace Meng of Flushing. [Albany Times Union] – Finally, proving that you governmental dysfunction and divide need not come from states with deep legislative divides, or from legislators at all, we have South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Haley, an underdog-turned-Tea Party-favorite, dismissively referred to a reporter from Charleston’s Post and Courier, as a “little girl” following a September 5 article that was critical of the Governor’s use of state funds on a purported “jobs” trip to Europe over the summer. In the article, Renee Dudley discussed high-end meals and hotels that Governor Haley and her husband enjoyed while on the trip, questioning whether the primary purpose was state business or personal enjoyment. [Huffington Post] Republican New York State Senator Roy McDonald has beent target by socially conservative groups over his vote in favor of same-sex marriage. It’s been a while, but I’m back at The Recovering Politician, this time to cover the goings-on (especially the hyper-partisan and dysfunctional goings-on) of state governments around this country. This is planned to be a weekly feature on Monday mornings. Here we go! – Within weeks of his controversial vote in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in New York, State Senator Roy McDonald is already the target of attack ads in his suburban Albany district, including a rather unsubtle billboard paid for by the National Organization for Marriage implying that the Republican may face a stiff primary challenge, or at least pushback from socially conservative groups. [Albany Times Union] – Mayors across Ohio are doing battle with newly-elected governor John Kasich over state funding for individual municipalities. The Republican’s budget for this year cuts state funding to local government by 34 percent, reduces their share of utility taxes by about half, and, in 2013, will eliminate an estate tax that channels 80% of its revenues to towns and cities. In the states industrial northeast corner, mayors from across party lines are calling the plan “a money grab” and accusing the governor and statehouse Republicans of trying to stem the flow of money into urban centers. [The Cleveland Plain-Dealer] – A Tampa, Fla. based Tea Party organization, The Tampa 912 Project, will begin offering Saturday morning classes for children. The Liberty School, as it is called, seeks to instruct its students in the principles of freedom and liberty in the context of the American experience and this country’s founding, and is run by an offshoot of Glenn Beck’s 912 Project, one of the first Tea Party groups. [St. Petersburg Times] – In Wisconsin, it appears that the state court system is just as out-of-control as its legislature, as detectives investigate a physical altercation between State Supreme Court Justices David Prosser and Ann Walsh Bradley. Prosser, who recently won a hotly-contested and widely-followed race for his seat on the bench, admitted to touching Bradley’s neck, while Bradley said she went “face to face to confront him,” but claimed not to have suffered any injury in the incident. According to court documents, a dispute occurred on June 13 that involved justices “shouting, slamming doors, being physically threatening and locking their doors at night because of safety concerns.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] – In a bizarre but definite softening of rhetoric, California Governor Jerry Brown compared Republican legislators’ aversion to tax hikes to a fear of sexually transmitted diseases, while working to dispel the notion that taxes should be treated as such. Previously, he had likend Republicans’ stance on tax hikes to the Catholic Church’s stance on abortion. [Sacramento Bee] – Residents of Pinellas County, Florida, home to St. Petersburg, have become increasingly angry over redistricting in that state, taking to a recent hearing to protest the fact that state legislature has refused to show anything other than informal submissions at these meetings. Democrats are particularly incensed by this process, calling the meetings “useless” while representatives of left-wing groups have caused minor fracases by refusing to cut short their speaking time and yield the floor at such meetings. [St. Petersburg Times] |
| ||
| Copyright © 2024 The Recovering Politician - All Rights Reserved | |||
So, this turns some commonly used forms of birth control into murder. What a great idea!
