Maybe T.S. Eliot had it right—perhaps April truly is the cruelest month.
Or maybe it’s Smarch ...
Anyway, one doesn’t have to look hard to find cruelty in some statehouses. Or even just evil. Take, for instance, Missouri.
Show Me The Meaning Of Being a Crony: Republican legislators in Missouri still have yet to kick Gov. Eric Greitens to the curb, although tbh he doesn’t have many friends right now.
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And for damn good reason.
- On Wednesday evening, a report dropped from the legislative committee that Republican House Speaker Todd Richardson formed in February to “investigate allegations against Gov. Eric R. Greitens” after the governor’s indictment on felony charges.
- This bombshell document details the governor’s horrific conduct with a woman described in some press reports call his “mistress” but we now know to be his victim.
For those just joining, a wee bit of background:
- Greitens faces felony invasion of privacy charges stemming from an incident in 2015 when he allegedly restrained his partly nude then-girlfriend (Greitens is married) and took photos of her without her consent.
- Greitens then reportedly used those photos to blackmail the woman into remaining silent about their affair as he ran for governor.
- The GOP House speaker convened a committee of five Republicans and two Democrats to investigate various allegations against Greitens as a potential precursor to impeachment proceedings.
- This investigation spawned the report that dropped yesterday, et voila! Here we are.
So it turns out that the incident resulting in the blackmail photos was far more horrific than previous press accounts had indicated.
- The investigating committee, finding the woman a “credible witness,” described in detail the means by which Greitens allegedly restrained, exposed, and photographed her without her consent.
This man is the governor of Missouri.
- The report also recounts events that the woman says happened immediately after Greitens took the photos and freed her from her restraints.
- As she wept “uncontrollably,” says the report, Greitens pushed her to the floor and coerced her into giving him oral sex “under duress” before permitting her to leave his home.
This man is the governor of Missouri.
- The woman also disclosed additional encounters with Greitens, including multiple instances where he reportedly hit her.
This man is the governor of Missouri.
- An hour before this damning report dropped, Greitens held a pre-emptive press conference, during which this garbage human read a prepared statement castigating the report’s findings as “lies” and claiming that the allegations against him were “outlandish,” “false,” and the result of a “political witch hunt.”
- Greitens also accused the lawmakers on the investigating committee of publishing “an incomplete document made in secret”—never mind that he declined requests to testify and provide documents.
Greitens, by the by, continues to ignore calls for his resignation.
Ohhhhhhhhhh wait, y’all. There’s more.
- The House committee is also investigating allegations against Greitens involving possible illegal use of assets of a nonprofit he started before running for office; those findings will appear in a separate report.
Despite the horrific findings of yesterday’s explosive report, the GOP-controlled House has no plans to move quickly on impeaching Greitens.
- Republican leadership plans to call a special session after the regular session’s adjournment to consider the matter. The current session doesn’t end until May 18.
But why wait? The House committee’s report is damning, to say the least. And “moral turpitude” is very much grounds for impeachment in Missouri.
- State GOPers have a good (for them, anyway—so therefore bad) reason to drag their feet.
- Greitens’ trial on those felony invasion of privacy charges is set to start May 14, so Republican House members would probably prefer to let a conviction remove any potential controversy from the matter of impeachment.
- Ousting a member of your own party, even when obviously warranted, tends to be fraught with political complications that these super brave Republicans would likely rather avoid.
- But Greitens’ blackmail and assault of this woman are clear grounds for at least attempting to remove him from office.
- Missouri Republicans are sending a clear message to her and other victims of sexual violence by slow-walking this: Even when we believe you, we don’t care enough to do anything about it.
Don't Be Cruel: I mean, Nevada Republicans pulled the whole recall thing because they basically have no hope of winning back a majority in the state Senate there until at least 2020. But why kick a party when they’re down?
I’d rather drink their delicious tears instead
- The saga surrounding the Nevada GOP’s efforts to undo their 2016 election losses by recalling Democratic state senators has taken another—probably, hopefully final—turn.
tl;dr The Silver State GOP’s attempts to recall Democratic Sens. Joyce Woodhouse and Nicole Cannizzaro are effectively dead.
- News broke on Monday that the petitions circulated by Republicans to recall these Democratic lawmakers had an insufficient number of valid signatures to trigger special elections to unseat and replace them.
- Notwithstanding a potential appeal of a related court ruling, the GOP’s long-running campaign to recall these women senators is over.
- Honestly, this isn’t much of a surprise after a court decision last month upheld the constitutionality of a state law allowing voters who signed recall petitions to change their minds and remove their names after their petitions get submitted to the state.
- Democrats had been running aggressive campaigns to urge petition signers, many of whom say they were misinformed of the real purpose of the petitions, to ask to have their names removed, and, well, that’s what happened.
- Both Cannizzaro’s and Woodhouse’s recall petitions ended up with too few signatures, and that’s pretty much it.
But why did Republicans try to recall these state senators in the first place?
A brief jog down memory lane:
- Republicans lost the Nevada Senate in 2016, resulting in an effectively 12-9 chamber, and the GOP is understandably worried about flipping the chamber back this November.
- Only three of the 10 seats that are up this fall are held by Democrats, and all three went decisively blue in 2014.
- At the same time, of the six Republicans up in 2018, one represents a Clinton seat (51-43 percent), making it tough turf to defend.
- So, faced with a rough general election landscape, Republicans turned to sham recalls to oust two Democrats who’d just been elected and one independent who started caucusing with them this year (and isn’t even running for re-election).
- Using lies and distortions of voting records, Republicans gathered signatures to recall these three lawmakers—who all just happen to be women.
So now it looks like Republicans will have to try to win back their Nevada Senate majority the old-fashioned way: via general elections. Womp womp.
Mean Mr. Metcalfe: Pennsylvania Republicans just can’t help themselves—when they come across an institution they don’t like, they try to mess with it.
- Recently, that institution was the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court, when GOP lawmakers threatened to impeach justices who’d ruled the state's congressional map and unconstitutional Republican gerrymander. (After weeks of saber-rattling, they backed down.)
- Now Republican legislators are attempting to position their own party to completely control Pennsylvania redistricting in 2021.
And just how do they propose to do such a thing? Come see!
- Currently, congressional maps are approved by a majority in each legislative chamber and submitted to the governor for approval or veto.
- For state legislative maps, a commission of two Republicans, two Democrats, and a fifth member agreed upon by the other four is tasked with creating new state House and Senate maps every ten years.
- If (when, let’s be real) the two Republicans and two Democrats fail to agree upon that fifth tie-breaking member, the state Supreme Court steps in to select that member (which it did in 2011, when Republicans had a court majority).
- In 2021, the now-Democratic-majority Supreme Court is likely to select a tiebreaker who will reject any map that unfairly benefits Republicans.
- The maps will then be approved or rejected by the governor, who will likely still be Democrat Tom Wolf for the coming round.
- GOP Rep. Daryl Metcalfe’s proposal replaces the five-member commission with a six-member commision that draws both state legislative AND congressional district maps, obviating the need for the Supreme Court to appoint a tiebreaker for the legislative process.
- This Republican proposal also cuts the governor out of state legislative and congressional redistricting completely.
- Each party’s caucus in each legislative chamber picks a member of this revamped commission, and then the fifth and sixth members would be voted on by the full House and Senate—which would almost certainly result in the redistricting committee consisting of four Republicans and two Democrats in 2021.
- That’s because the very same gerrymanders the GOP is trying so desperately protect are very likely to allow them to retain their ill-gotten majorities in the legislature.
- Five of the six members would need to approve the commission’s proposed maps; if that doesn’t happen, the full legislature votes on them.
- … which, in 2021, would still almost certainly give Pennsylvania Republicans the partisan gerrymanders they rely on to stay in power.
The timeline for this usurping of the redistricting process in the state is tight, but it’s definitely doable in time for the next round of map-drawing in 2021.
- As a constitutional amendment, the measure must pass two consecutive sessions of the legislature. Then it goes to the ballot for voters to approve or reject.
- Theoretically, this could happen as soon as spring 2019.
- The measure, which took the form of an amendment that gutted a bill that would’ve established a nonpartisan redistricting commission (lol), was approved on a party-line vote Wednesday.
- The next step is to pass the bill out of committee, though no further vote is set as of this writing.
This redistricting power-play is a BFD, though, and it merits close watching in the weeks to come.
Evil Little Goat: A GOP lawmaker in Tennessee used the extraordinarily racist term “wetback” during debate this week on a bill that would ban so-called “sanctuary cities” in the state.
- Republican Rep. Jay Reedy, who’s been in the House since 2014, reportedly “shrugged” afterwards and offered neither explanation nor apology for using the slur.
This man makes laws.
Speaking of Tennessee legislative elections, there’s some good news for Democrats here.
- State Democrats reported this week that the party has candidates running in 97 of 99 state House districts and in 15 of 17 state Senate districts. It’s not clear if this is a record, but it’s definitely the most seats Democrats have contested “in recent memory.”
Good recruitment news abounds elsewhere, as well!
- In South Dakota, Democrats are running candidates in 101 of 105 legislative races this fall, tying the record high number of contested elections Democrats set here in 2008.
- In Indiana, a record number of women are running for state legislative office—roughly double the number of women that ran four years ago.
- Of the 75 women running for the Indiana legislature, 52 are Democrats (up from 22 in 2014) and 23 are Republicans (a bump from 15 four years ago).
Gee, this seems like a great time to check in on the amazing and beautiful Daily Kos Elections 2018 Legislative Open Seat Tracker, which has been updated to reflect the status of 3,406 partisan legislative seats that will be on the ballot this fall (2,600 or so yet to go)!
Here’s where each party is currently situated in terms of retirements and open seats at the state legislative level this fall.
- 321 Republicans are retiring (vs. 162 Democrats)
- 101 Republicans are term-limited out (vs. 41 Democrats)
- 477 Republicans will skate into office unopposed, while 611 Democrats will do the same.
- In percentage terms, the difference is even starker: Full 48 percent of Democratic-held seats are going uncontested by Republicans, while the reverse is true of just 23 percent of GOP-held seats.
- And in raw numbers, the differences is even starker still: So far, Democrats are fielding candidates in 1,623 GOP seats, while Republicans are doing so in just 673 Democratic seats.
- That’s an astounding 2.4 times as many Democratic legislative candidates versus Republican candidates.
Not too shabby.
Until next week, be excellent to each other!
