Some things just won’t stay dead.
The GOP’s attempt to repeal Obamacare and kick millions of Americans off of their health insurance. Zombies. Jesus. Jon Snow.
And now we can add Republican attempts to sow fear and division with blatantly racist campaign ads in Virginia elections this cycle to the list.
Dawn of the Dead Horse: It sure is getting beaten.
Campaign Action
- First, there was Republican gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie’s fear-mongering ad that was chock full o’ racist dog whistles and sought to target Democratic nominee and current Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam as weak on immigration policy and for allegedly supporting “sanctuary cities.”
- The ad claimed that Gillespie will keep us “safer” by “get[ting] tough on illegal immigration” and used racially charged language and tropes often used to smear members of the Latino community.
- Then there was the blatantly racist direct mail piece dropped by a Virginia Republican’s “leadership PAC” (read: political committee that does certain things so GOP candidates can keep their hands clean) against Elizabeth Guzman, a Latina House candidate.
- The mailer uses the term “illegal alien,” a term that’s dehumanizing and is just one of the many racially charged dog whistles often used to cloak racism in a veneer of moral authority while perpetuating negative stereotypes.
- The mailers also are designed to evoke the racist trope that giving driver’s licenses to members of this community would lead to gun violence or voter fraud. (Take a gander at them yourself right here.)
- Now we’ve come back around to Gillespie, who’s just dropped another “anti-immigration” ad that makes his first one look positively tame by comparison (but don’t get it twisted—the first one is still awful).
- Gillespie’s ad essentially equates “dangerous illegal immigrants”—itself a racist anti-Latino trope—with MS-13, a dangerous and violent street gang that actually heavily targets undocumented Latinos.
- The ad further equates Northam’s vote against prohibiting “sanctuary cities” with “increasing the threat of MS-13.”
- It uses photos of imprisoned MS-13 members and flashes the gang’s “Kill, Rape, Control” motto across the screen in a positively Willie Horton-esque attempt to stoke racially charged fears among Virginia voters.
- And here’s a fun fact about that Northam vote on “sanctuary cities”: The vote Gillespie hits Northam for in the ad was almost certainly engineered by GOP lawmakers to force Northam to break a tie in the state Senate—solely to give the Republican an anti-immigration talking point, because, well, Virginia doesn’t technically have any “sanctuary cities” to ban in the first place.
The ad is straight out of Donald Trump’s racist fear-mongering playbook, and it’s just the latest indication of Gillespie’s terror and desperation.
28 Dollars Later: Gillespie’s not the only Republican in Virginia who should be worried right now. An analysis of the most recent fundraising reports in state House races reveals that Democratic challengers are doing pretty well for themselves so far this cycle. In the reports for the period ending on Aug. 31,
- Eight of the top 10 fundraisers were Democrats.
- The Democratic challenger out-raised the Republican in 22 GOP-held seats.
- Nine Democratic challengers raised more money AND have more cash on hand than their Republican opponents.
- Thirteen Democratic challengers out-raised their Republican opponents but have yet to overcome incumbent war chests and still trail in cash on hand.
- Three Democratic challengers still have more cash-on-hand than their Republican opponents, despite being out-raised this reporting period.
- Only six Republicans are challenging Democratic incumbents this year. None of the Republican challengers out-raised their opponents this period.
- In terms of total dollars, Democratic incumbents and challengers out-raised their Republican counterparts this reporting period.
Hooray!
I Am Legend (according to this totally unbiased website that only posts nice things about me): The Republican Governors Association recently got caught with its pants down. An Associated Press investigation revealed that the RGA is connected to two websites that purport to be independent news sources but are, in reality, propaganda platforms that support GOP candidates.
- The first, launched in Virginia as a way to boost Ed Gillespie’s flaccid campaign, is the at-least-mildly-obvious Republican Standard, which describes itself as “a new media journal delivering clear, factual and smartly-balanced information to Virginia’s public square.”
- The RGA’s broad-spectrum propaganda endeavor is far more insidious. The Free Telegraph is a site that trumpets the supposed accomplishments of Republican governors and gubernatorial candidates and blasts the alleged shortcomings of their Democratic counterparts.
- That AP inquiry revealed that the RGA sought to conceal its involvement in the creation and administration of the site; it launched in July with no indication that it was the product of an official Republican Party committee.
- After the AP caught on to them, they “remedied” their lack of accountability. Now, at the very bottom of each page, you can squint and see a teeny tiny “paid for by Republican Governors Association” disclaimer, in fine gray-on-black font for ease of reading, surely.
Fake news is real (sort of)!
Foxconnland: So Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed that ugly Foxconn giveaway package into law this week. You may recall that the GOP-controlled legislature was so desperate to woo the flat screen factory to the state that it passed legislation that
- Has state taxpayers forking over up to $2.85 billion to Foxconn as an incentive to build their plant and hire workers,
- Exempts Foxconn projects from state environmental rules and protections, and
- Essentially creates a separate state court system just for Foxconn.
- Foxconn-related lawsuits skip the normal appeals process and appeals are expedited to the state Supreme Court, where conservatives just happen to hold a majority.
- Any ruling by lower trial courts would be automatically stayed until a higher court (likely that state Supreme Court) takes action on the case.
Pretty nuts, right? Well, the Wisconsin legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys think so, too. A recent memo from the Wisconsin Legislative Council found that several provisions of the Foxconn giveaway legislation may be unconstitutional. Womp womp.
Night of the Living Data: This week’s data interlude features not only new states for which we’ve calculated 2016 presidential election results by legislative district, but also a sweet new data set showing how many Democrats are in seats Trump won and how many Republicans hold seats Clinton won in each legislative chamber. The sheet also lists the median seat in each legislative chamber.
- Our two new presidential results-by-legislative district states are Montana and North Dakota, bringing our total number of states for which we’ve completed calculations to a nice, round 40 (you can find our master list of states right here).
Well, that’s more than enough zombie movie references for one week. Don’t mind me, I’ll just be shambling off into the sunset.