For those of you who observe and are keeping track, Christmas is a mere five days hence.
Is your shopping done? Gifts wrapped? Packages shipped? Booze bought?
(Remember, stuff’s closed on Tuesday. Stock up.)
Really, I’m just grateful that, amid all the holiday hubbub, you’ve returned to this space for the thrilling conclusion of last week’s epic 12 Days of Session cliffhanger.
Campaign Action
Because yes, even this close to a pagan holiday cleverly co-opted by Christians, there’s still statehouse action galore.
So sing along with me as we finish out that classic seasonal tune.
On the 12th day of session, my legislator gave to me …
(reprise)
12, the number of seats Minnesota House Democrats needed to flip to win the chamber (they flipped 18)
11, the time of night Michigan Republicans passed a bill to restrict ballot measures
10, the day of April GOP Gov. Matt Bevin signed this terrible legislation
9, the total the numbers two and seven in North Dakota House District 27 add up to
8, the day of January Floridians convicted of felonies were supposed to get their right to vote back
7, the Kansas Senate district represented by a GOP party-switcher
6, Ann Arbor’s rank in Michigan cities according to population size
[[deep breath]]
5 special legislative session daaaaaaaaaays: So, remember that terrible teacher pension-gutting measure Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin signed on April 10 that was ruled unconstitutional and thrown out on its proverbial ear last week?
- Bevin tried to call a five-day special session on Monday night to force a new version through the legislature before the end of the year.
- But leadership in the GOP-controlled legislature couldn’t get it together.
- Hell, Bevin didn’t even send a new bill to lawmakers for review until Monday night.
- He confessed on Tuesday that he hadn’t read the full legislation himself, which was allegedly just a version of the original anti-pension measure with a few bits removed to make it more palatable to the court it would inevitably be challenged in.
- After convening for just two days (costing taxpayers $130,000 in the process), Republicans couldn’t muster the votes needed to move forward, so they threw up their hands and went home.
4, the total the numbers two and two in House Bill 2002 add up to: A Republican lawmaker in Arizona is still pretty pissed at all the educators and their supporters who descended on the capitol last April with the temerity to protest inadequate funding for public education.
- Rep. Mark Finchem has introduced legislation that would “prohibit teachers in taxpayer-supported schools from engaging in political ideological or religious advocacy in the classrooms.”
- The thing is, this bill seeks to address a nonexistent problem.
- But more problematic is the part of the legislation that seeks to subjectively censor teachers’ instruction that may involve current events.
- The bill prohibits teachers from addressing "any controversial issue that is not germane to the topic of the course or academic subject being taught."
- The bill further defines a "controversial issue" as one that is a point in a political party platform at the local, state, or federal level, but it offers no guidance as to who or what determines “germaneness” or how this would be enforced (snitches get Cs?).
Yeah, my JD’s a little dusty but I don’t see this one working out too well
3 times is enemy action: First, North Carolina Republicans vented their sore-loserness at a Democrat getting himself elected governor by stripping him of key powers they didn’t mind a Republican governor having.
Second, Wisconsin Republicans immediately moved to follow North Carolina’s example when a Democrat ousted GOP Gov. Scott Walker two years later.
Third, Michigan swiftly followed suit.
So where are those efforts now?
- In North Carolina, Republicans are prepared to deploy the last gasp of their veto-proof supermajority (they won’t have the required number of votes in the coming legislative session to override vetoes) to try, one last time, to revamp the state's election board.
- Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, however, looks like he’s going to make life hard for the GOP.
- He’s slowed his veto roll and may delay rejecting the bill until after the legislature adjourns on Friday, which would force lawmakers to reconvene during after Christmas but before the new year to override it.
- Many members have trips and other difficult-to-change plans during that time, making corralling the numbers required to override the veto a challenging undertaking.
- In Wisconsin, after a soon-to-be-unemployed Scott Walker signed into law several bills usurping his Democratic successor’s power, Republicans can’t even agree on how to defend the GOP power-grab.
- Some like to talk about the powers that they magnanimously did not take away from the incoming governor.
- Others try to pivot to less-controversial aspects of the new laws.
- And some just lie, like GOP Senate President Roger Roth did when he insisted on TV last weekend that “there will be more legislative oversight in a lot of areas, but no power was taken away from the governor or attorney general.”
Fun fact! Power was expressly taken away from both the governor and the attorney general.
- The power stolen by the GOP-controlled legislature from the incoming Democratic administration includes curtailing the governor’s power to
- guide economic development,
- halt litigation on the state’s behalf, and
- make administrative rules implementing new laws.
- The new laws also limit the state attorney general’s power to defend legal challenges to state laws.
- Meanwhile, in Michigan, lawmakers are frantically trying to wrap up their lame duck session on Thursday, and some of the Republicans’ power-grabby bills may not make it to the outgoing GOP Gov. Rick Snyder’s desk.
2 more Republican defectors in Kansas: Last week, the 7th Day of Session was dedicated to a party-switching GOP senator in Kansas.
- This week, two more Republicans joined her in moving to the Democratic caucus.
- State Sen. Dinah Sykes and Rep. Stephanie Clayton are abandoning the Republican Party.
- Sykes feels she can “better serve [her] state and constituents as a member of the Democratic Party.”
- Clayton switched after hearing legislative leaders discuss abandoning a plan to boost public school funding, describing the strategy as “moves to support chaos in public policy.”
- After these party switches and Sen. Barbara Bollier’s flip last week, the Kansas Senate will be 28 R/11 D/1 I, and the House will be 84 R/41 D.
And the nation’s first majority-women legislature: With the appointment of two women to fill open Democratic seats in the state Assembly, Nevada has become the first state with a legislature made up of mostly women (32 out of 63 total Assembly and Senate seats).
- Also, one of the newly appointed assemblywomen will be the only Asian-American Pacific Islander community member in the legislature.
Welp, there are your 12 days. Congrats!
And that’s a wrap for me until the new year, probably.
Anyway, tomorrow’s the winter solstice, so you should totally observe the shortest day of the year by just taking it off entirely. Just print this out and show it to your boss, I’m sure she won’t mind.
