Happy December to all who observe!
I confess, I’m finding it a little difficult to get into the holiday spirit this year.
On one hand, we’re about to leave this crap year behind us.
But on the other, so many lousy things are still happening, like, all the time.
… including (but in no way limited to) Trump continuing to attempt to use GOP-controlled state legislatures to help him overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
(… which, despite what many Republicans seem to think, was thoroughly won by Joe Biden.)
O Come All Ye Faithful: While the Trump campaign’s obvious plot to have Republican-majority statehouses declare elections “fraudulent” or “failed” and then replace Biden electors with Trump electors (which you probably read about in this space first, you’re welcome!) was 80 different kinds of unconstitutional and illegal, it sure didn’t stop them from trying.
Republicans held “hearings” and filed lawsuits, and the drama is somehow dragging on (… and by “somehow” I mean “because of the complicity of many Republican elected officials at almost every level of government”), but because you don’t come here for federal election news, let’s check out the state legislative fallout specifically.
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- In Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers tried to split the baby.
- While (correctly) claiming they had no authority to convene in session and address Trump’s complaints (“addressing” them might have meant trying to seat Trump electors instead of Biden electors or conducting bogus investigations into nonexistent election fraud or whatever), the Pennsylvania legislature’s GOP leadership (and many other members—64 in all) did sign a joint letter calling on the state’s congressional delegation to reject the state’s Electoral College votes for Biden.
- Republican Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward did not sign onto this letter, but she did receive a call from Trump himself claiming that there was fraud in Pennsylvania’s presidential vote.
- And while Ward didn’t sign on to the letter, she only failed to do so because she didn’t see it before it was hastily released after being hastily written.
- But she would have.
“If I would say to you, ‘I don’t want to do it,’” she said about signing the letter, “I’d get my house bombed tonight.”
Trump and his most ardent supporters are applying this kind of dangerous pressure in other states, too: Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan, in particular.
Nothing came of these sham hearings (yet—look for GOP-controlled legislatures in Michigan and elsewhere to find ways to make mail-in/early/absentee voting more difficult in the coming year).
… wait no that’s not right
Something definitely came of these hearings.
- Specifically, exposure to the coronavirus Giuliani was likely carrying when he met, unmasked, with lawmakers last week (it was announced Sunday that he’d tested positive for COVID-19).
But Michigan isn’t the only state to A. hold bogus performative “hearings” about alleged election fraud and B. grapple with the fallout from exposure to a likely contagious Giuliani.
- Last week, Giuliani spent two days with also-maskless GOP lawmakers in Arizona, where they whined and complained and made up nonsensical theories about how Biden managed to win the popular vote in the state (turns out he did it by getting more people to vote for him than for Trump, go figure).
The Hinch: But wait! I’m not even done with GOP lawmaker-driven coronavirus outbreaks.
- A bunch of Republican lawmakers in New Hampshire, fresh off their surprise flips of the state House and Senate, held a confab at a ski resort just before Thanksgiving.
- Last week, the media reported that an unspecified number of those in attendance had contracted COVID-19.
- House GOP leader (and soon-to-be Speaker) Dick Hinch refused to disclose how many of his caucus had tested positive—and he’d declined to share news of the infections with his Democratic colleagues, some of whom actually met with Republicans last week before they learned of the outbreak through press reports.
- Fast forward to Wednesday of this week, when Speaker Hinch unexpectedly, tragically died.
- On Thursday, his autopsy results were released.
- Hinch, just a week after meeting with hundreds of lawmakers (albeit outside) at the legislature’s swearing-in ceremony (he wore a mask, but it didn’t cover his nose), had died from COVID-19.
- Hinch was 71 and starting his seventh two-year term in the New Hampshire House.
Frosty The Vaccine: While most Americans are eagerly awaiting the wide release of any of the COVID-19 vaccines that have proven safe and effective (and must be kept at varying degrees of frigidity), some GOP state lawmakers are wasting no time in preemptively interfering with these efforts to return the country to some semblance of pre-pandemic life.
- In Kentucky, one Republican legislator has already pre-filed legislation prohibiting colleges and universities from requiring students be vaccinated—against COVID-19 or anything else.
- Rep. Mark Hart’s bill comes at a time when coronavirus cases and deaths are at record highs in the Bluegrass State (and virtually everywhere else).
- Currently, no restrictions exist regarding universities in the state requiring vaccines—in fact, it’s common practice.
- Hart is also cosponsoring legislation that would prohibit state government agencies from requiring immunizations.
Expect these types of bills to surface in GOP-controlled legislatures all across the country as legislative sessions convene next year.
In fact, another Republican lawmaker over in Tennessee is already on top of it.
Hard Cash Christmas: Speaking of coronavirus-related state legislative trends, another one to watch is the push by lawmakers to come up with ways to provide fiscal relief to folks whose businesses and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by the pandemic.
- Though stymied for the moment because of the COVID-related adjournment discussed above, Michigan lawmakers are considering Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s relief package that would provide $50 million for additional unemployment benefits and $50 million in small business assistance.
- Legislators in the divided Minnesota legislature (Dem-majority House, R-majority Senate) are struggling to reach a deal to provide coronavirus-related relief to business owners.
- Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, the Democratic governor and the GOP-controlled legislature remain at odds over not just a fiscal relief package, but also over restrictions on gatherings, businesses, and schools designed to limit the pandemic’s spread.
- It’s unlikely Wisconsinites will get any state help this year.
- In Colorado, lawmakers in the Democratic-majority legislature passed a whole package of emergency stimulus bills that will provide rent and mortgage relief, give assistance to food pantries, support childcare facilities, extend grants to small businesses, and more.
Many state legislative sessions have already adjourned for the year, so the coronavirus relief package debate isn’t happening in as many places as it might otherwise.
- But one key trend to watch next year is how lawmakers of both parties struggle to provide financial relief to their states’ citizens and businesses while dealing with the inevitable holes blown in their state budgets by coronavirus- and economy-related dips in tax and other revenue.
- … to say nothing of meeting their states’ existing financial obligations.
As eager as we all are for 2020 to be over, 2021 isn’t necessarily going to be much sunnier.
Next year is absolutely going to bring a lot of pain and require state legislators to make a lot of tough decisions about resource allocation and governing priorities.
Wonderful Electiontime: But on top of all these tough decisions, it’s also going to be an election year in a few states.
Virginia, for one, will elect a new (… or possibly not new) governor in 2021 (and will hold elections for all 100 House seats).
- Candidates have already begun declaring, and as a result, Virginia will host the nation’s very first special state legislative election in 2021.
- Democratic Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy’s HD-02 will be electing a new delegate on Jan. 5.
- Virginia’s legislative session doesn’t start until Jan. 13, though, so her constitutents will have representation again when it counts.
- The district has skewed heavily Democratic in recent years, but given the unpredictability of special elections, Team Blue should not take this one for granted.
Welp, that’s a wrap for this week. Thanks for taking a little space and time during a truly funky holiday season to tune in.
It’s officially Hanukkah, so good luck with your latkes and other holiday-appropriate victuals and practices if you observe!
I’m not a particularly religious person myself, but any potato-forward holiday is a celebration I can 100% get behind.
Whatever you are or aren’t celebrating, you should definitely knock off early from whatever responsibilities you’re grappling with and enjoy the snot out of your weekend.
Or at least maybe (carefully!) light some candles.