Lots of news!
First up: A request for an emergency halt to block Wisconsin Voter ID Law has been officially brought to the US Supreme Court. A 3 judge panel (all Republican appointees) of the 7th Circuit Court recently reversed a federal judges decision to block it. Not only did they approve a law that will essentially disenfranchise 300,000 registered voters who don't have one of a small number of "approved" IDs, but empowered state officials to implement the requirement less than 7 weeks from the mid-term elections.
Their request to have the full 10 member 7th Circuit Court hear the case failed on a tie vote.
Those suing over the law asked the full 10-member court to reverse that decision and came just one vote shy of getting all 10 judges to hold a hearing on the case. The members of the court split 5-5 on whether to hold the hearing, which means that the request did not get a majority of votes and failed as a result.
The five 7th Circuit judges who voted to rehear the case included two judges appointed by Republicans and three appointed by Democrats. They were: Diane P. Wood and Ann Claire Williams, both appointed by President Bill Clinton; Richard A. Posner, appointed by President Ronald Reagan; Ilana Diamond Rovner, appointed by President George H.W. Bush; and David F. Hamilton, appointed by President Barack Obama.
Implementing the ID requirement weeks before an election in a state where DMV hours have already been cut by the Walker administration is voter suppression plain and simple (
for more on DMV hours read this from Kossack Mark Andersen). Some rural DMVs are only open two days a month and virtually all of them are only open during daytime hours Monday through Friday necessitating persons in need of state-approved IDs taking a day off work and finding transportation to the DMV.
"Thousands of Wisconsin voters stand to be disenfranchised by this law going into effect so close to the election. Hundreds of absentee ballots have already been cast, and the appeals court's order is fueling voter confusion and election chaos. Eleventh-hour changes in election rules have traditionally been disfavored precisely because the risk of disruption is simply too high," said Dale Ho, director of the Voting Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the voters suing the state.
The request went to US Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan who is responsible for cases from the 7th Circuit.
Kagan, an appointee of President Barack Obama, is likely open to the arguments of the voter ID opponents and has the ability to take action on their appeal on her own. But legal experts said it's unlikely that Kagan would act without consulting her colleagues in a case such as this one.
Republicans pounced on the request claiming it will "add confusion" to the election and Walkers representative chimed in to defend their law with his oft-repeated meme "These reforms make it easy to vote but harder to cheat" - which is pure, unadulterated BS.
Scott Walker is in serious trouble for his re-election bid and voter suppression will be needed to keep him in office (along with mega spending, lying ads, and his TM pals working on his behalf).
Up next is some interesting John Doe news:
A dark money group is now suing the State of Wisconsin in Federal Court over what it claims is its Constitutional Right to collaborate with candidates. This is the 6th lawsuit involving the most recent John Doe Probe. They're suing the Government Accountability Board which oversees Wisconsin elections and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, one of the John Doe prosecutors.
Of COURSE it's going to be heard by RW Federal Judge Rudolph Randa whose latest ruling on the John Doe Probe (stop the probe and destroy all the evidence) was brutally smacked down by the 7th Circuit Court last month.
That's right. The issue at the heart of the current John Doe Probe on alleged illegal coordination between dark money groups and candidates is now going to be argued as having Constitutional merit. Should they prevail, mega donors, even foreign sources, will be able to donate mega bucks anonymously to dark money groups who will coordinate spending and advertising directly with candidates for office.
What's next? Bypass the "middle man" and just dump money directly on the candidates themselves as though no bribery laws or campaign finance laws exist?
Citizens for Responsible Government Advocates has not been involved in the investigation connected to Walker. But its lawsuit addresses what has been raised in the investigation into his campaign's activities. CRG is being represented by the lawyers working for one of the groups at the center of the probe, the Wisconsin Club for Growth.
So who is this new group that's using the same lawyers as the Wisconsin Club for Growth in their up to their eyeballs involvement in the current John Doe?
Citizens for Responsible Government Advocates was founded in 2006 and is related to the entity that backed recalls more than a decade ago over a Milwaukee County pension scandal. The group has been a strong backer of Walker, who was elected Milwaukee County executive after the pension scandal and went on to be elected governor in 2010.
I hope you're noticing how entwined everything is. Yup, these guys are all chummy with each other.
The group is asking the court to declare that the officials' view of the law is wrong and that it has a constitutional right to work with the candidates. It is seeking an injunction specifically barring Chisholm and the accountability board from stopping the group from working with the candidates.
The group hopes to publish a Take Charge Wisconsin website promoting fiscal responsibility and is considering running ads with the same theme. It wants to begin its work immediately so it can have an impact before next month's election and believes collaboration with the candidates is essential, the lawsuit says.
OK, so these guys want to create another astroturf group and directly influence the election.
Yes, they have moon-sized balls.
Even More:
2 local multimillionaires are buying huge ad time to try to convince Milwaukee minority groups to vote Republican.
The advertising campaign — which focuses on taxes, abortion, education and gun rights — was launched this year by Americas PAC, a conservative organization based in Iowa.
Tom Donelson, spokesman for the group, said Americas PAC hopes to persuade African-American and Latino voters to leave the Democratic Party and support GOP Gov. Scott Walker, though this is not stated explicitly in the ads. Walker is taking on Mary Burke, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate.
Donelson estimates that Americas PAC will drop between $150,000 and $200,000 on the radio spots in Milwaukee through the group's tax-exempt nonprofit, also known as a 527 group.
It's going to be a tough sell considering how much Scott Walker and the GOP have been blowing their dog whistle and how hard they have worked to devastate Wisconsins major urban centers.
.