Never say never again—I’m back like Sean Connery!
I had the temerity to take a vacation, and I can only hope you’ll forgive me.
Campaign Action
Said trip did involve riding the Riesenrad, which you may remember from the classic film The Living Daylights (or from The Third Man, whichever).
By the by, an ep I recorded with The Great Battlefield podcast just dropped. If you want to know why I do [[gestures broadly]] this, why Daily Kos rocks, or just what the hell I actually sound like (apologies in advance), you should check it out here.
Goldfinger: But I’m back just in time for another round of key campaign finance updates from Virginia, where you may recall that elections for all 140 seats of the state legislature are just over three weeks away.
- And while flipping just two seats in each chamber to win a majority might seem like not a huge lift on paper, we can count on Republicans pulling out all available stops to keep their decades-long claw-hold on power.
- Not only are Virginia GOPers scratching and clawing to hold on to the seats they have, but they’re also making credible plays to unseat a couple of first-term Democrats in the House of Delegates.
- Just how pitched is the battle for control of the legislature this fall?
- Well, for general cash money frame of reference, all candidates for the General Assembly, D and R, have raised about $53 million so far—up 67% from 2015, the last time all 140 seats were up.
- In the most recent round of reports (which cover the month of September), Democratic challengers out-raised GOP incumbents in every competitive state Senate race.
- The top four fundraisers in both state House and state Senate races were Democratic challengers.
- Currently, Democratic House candidates boast a whopping $9.2 million cash on hand.
- Republican House candidates, on the other hand, are sitting on a respectable-in-a-vacuum-I-guess $7 million.
- Additionally, the Democratic party and caucus fundraising committees frankly embarrassed their GOP counterparts over the past quarter.
- The state Republican Party and House and Senate campaign committees raised just under $3 million combined.
- Meanwhile, the state Democratic Party and House and Senate campaign committees raised over $9.8 million.
- Republicans make up a little of that deficit in terms of leadership committee fundraising—they currently have majorities in both chambers, after all, so it’s not a surprise.
- The GOP speaker’s, House and Senate majority leaders’, and Senate president’s PACs raised a combined $1.4 million.
- Democratic House and Senate leaders raised $623,736.
- … so, not exactly much of a dent in that party/caucus committee deficit. Womp womp.
Dr. Nope: So yeah, it’s clear that Virginia Republicans are struggling/failing to keep pace with Democrats in terms of fundraising.
- But what do you do if you’re a GOP incumbent who’s raised a paltry sum and is getting pummeled via direct mail and digital media?
- Well, if you’re Glenn Davis, you pull a desperate stunt to
- inflate your sad fundraising numbers and
- try to seem … clever? edgy? I dunno.
- This Republican issued an actual press release announcing he’d claimed $44,000 as an in-kind (not cash money) donation from the Democratic Party of Virginia, based on his belief that the attacks have actually benefitted his campaign.
Sure, Jan.
- Regardless of whether mailers and ads describing Davis’ actual history of voting against things like Medicaid expansion and school funding could somehow help his campaign, you know what the most pathetic part of this is? The incumbent’s actual fundraising numbers.
- Including the fake $44,000 in-kind “donation,” Davis raised a sad $82,027 last month (vs. Democrat Karen Mallard’s $341,589).
- But that means poor Glenn actually raised just $38,027.
- And that means, instead of the $111,747 Davis claimed to have on hand at the end of September, he actually had just $67,747 going into the final month of the race.
- Mallard, for her part, has $354,847 for the home stretch.
- That’s more than three times Davis’ fake cash on hand amount—and more than five times his actual ending balance.
You can make Glenn Davis even sadder by donating here.
From Wisconsin with Hate: Back in August, I wrote in this space about how Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was being an asshole about accommodating a Democrat whose physical condition made attending all committee meetings in person nearly impossible.
- You see, Democratic Rep. Jimmy Anderson was paralyzed from the waist down when a drunk driver hit his car in 2010 (his parents and brother were killed in the wreck).
- This makes getting around more challenging for him than for most of his colleagues in the legislature.
- So he asked GOP leadership if he could call in to some committee meetings to participate and cast votes (scrambling from one meeting to another during busy parts of the legislative session can be pretty challenging even if you’re not using a wheelchair tbh).
- Also, it’s not healthy for Anderson to remain in his wheelchair for long stretches of time (session alone can go on for hours a day).
- When his request was rejected, Anderson shared his situation with the media.
- Vos immediately lashed out at Anderson, accusing him of—I shit you not— “political grandstanding.”
… honestly dude you could have used any other word
- Fast forward to last week, when Republicans finally held a vote on some proposals that could help Rep. Anderson more easily manage his legislative obligations.
- But because they’re Wisconsin Republicans, they did it in the most jacked up way they could.
- Also, they only accommodated some of Anderson’s requests, because, hey, why make it easy on the guy, or something?
- So yeah, after a months-long fight, Assembly Republicans finally granted Anderson’s request to be allowed to call into committee meetings.
- But GOPers refused to ban overnight sessions, a request necessitated by Anderson’s inability to spend but so many hours a day in his wheelchair.
- But let’s get back to how Assembly Republicans just had to take a dump on a proposed rule change that was supposed to help a disabled colleague.
- The GOP decided to wrap some totally unrelated rule changes into that proposal, including ones that allow the majority party (i.e. Republicans) to limit debate on specific bills as they arise and to dismiss motions to recess for a partisan caucus.
- Both of these are departures from current practice, and they’ll effectively stifle Democratic dissent by allowing Republicans to end debate on contentious bills as soon as they please.
- But the real stinker of a rule is the one that will allow unlimited veto override vote attempts on a single bill.
- Currently, lawmakers only get one bite at the veto apple.
- They hold a vote, the veto is overridden or not, and they’re done.
- But now Republicans can try, try again if at first they don’t succeed.
- You see, Wisconsin GOPers don’t have veto-proof majorities in the state Assembly and Senate.
- And they have that pesky Democratic governor.
- And they don’t like his vetoes.
- And they’d sure like to override them.
- So with this rule, they’re taking a page from North Carolina Republicans, who told their Democratic colleagues they wouldn’t be holding any votes the morning of Sept. 11 and then—SURPRISE—called a critical veto override vote on the state budget as soon as they figured out that not enough Dems were present to block it.
- Being able to call a veto override vote however often they like means that now Wisconsin Republicans can wait around until just enough Democrats happen to be absent for the override to succeed and BOOM! Veto override vote.
- You’ll be shocked to learn that these garbage rules passed on basically a party-line vote (a [crucial] Waukesha Republican crossed over on one to vote with Dems).
Quantum of Solace: We woke up Thursday morning to the extremely sad news of the untimely passing of Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings.
- His life and tenure in the U.S. House certainly deserve the accolades they’re receiving, but did you know that, before his election to Congress, Cummings was a state legislator?
- Yup. From his election in 1982 until leaving for Congress in 1996, Cummings was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates.
- In fact, he was the first black speaker pro tem in the state’s history.
- He chaired the Legislative Black Caucus and was widely regarded as a mentor who helped other black lawmakers ascend to leadership positions within the body.
Welp, that’s a wrap for this week. While Tomorrow Never Dies, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the day off, maybe hit the Casino Royale. After all, You Only Live Twice. This missive is For Your Eyes Only, but it’s okay if you print this out and show it to your boss, I’m sure she won’t mind.