It’s been a big week for judges.
No, I don’t mean that Brett Kavanaugh fellow. You’ll have to read about him elsewhere.
Career Suicide Squad: This week’s other judicial drama comes from West Virginia, where reports began to surface last fall about state Supreme Court justices indulging in Trump cabinet-esque spending on fancy furniture amid lavish renovations of their chambers.
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- Specifically:
- Justice Allen Loughry’s new office featured a $32,000 couch and a $7,500 wooden inlaid floor.
- Justice Robin Davis spent $500,000 on an office re-do, plus an additional $28,000 on rugs.
- Justice Beth Walker’s office upgrade cost $130,000.
- These ludicrously extravagant refurbs spurred the state’s legislative auditor to investigate the justices. A series of audits revealed:
- In June, Loughry was indicted on state and federal charges (54 in all!) of fraud, witness tampering, making false statements, and more.
- This week, Ketchum announced his resignation.
- The state House Judiciary Committee is considering impeachment of as-yet-unnamed justices, and Loughry has been suspended from the court in the meantime.
Fun fact! Republicans made state Supreme Court races nonpartisan when they took control of the legislature in 2014.
- Based on the parties the justices were members of when they first ran for their or past offices, Ketchum’s retirement erases Democrats’ ostensible one-seat majority on the bench.
- But Loughry’s resignation or ouster would make the five-seat court a body of just two Democrats and one Republican. (Thus far, Loughry is blowing off calls to resign.)
If impeachment proceedings are concluded and Loughry is booted by Aug. 14, both open Supreme Court seats will be on the ballot this November—something Democrats would very much prefer, given the way 2018 is shaping up for the party, even in West Virginia.
It’s A Bird(-shaped district), It’s A Plane(-shaped district) … No, It’s Gerryman(der)! On June 26, a panel of federal judges ruled that 11 Virginia state House districts in the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas were drawn in a way that discriminated against black voters.
- The court ordered the legislature to get off their duffs and draw new districts by Oct. 30—well ahead of the 2019 elections, when all 100 House of Delegates seats will be on the ballot.
- This week, the GOP-controlled (barely—Republicans hold just a one-seat advantage in both the House and the Senate) General Assembly requested a stay of the ruling as they appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Stay tuned!
Democratman Returns: Speaking of Virginia, remember Joshua Cole?
Eh, that’s fair. It’s not like he won his House of Delegates race last fall.
… except maybe he actually did, but we’ll never know.
Will this be Virginia Democrats’ GOP majority-busting 50th House seat next fall? (Or 51st? 52nd?)
We shall see.
Identity Crisis: North Carolina Republicans have another racist candidate on their hands as they try to prevent Democrats from breaking their House and Senate supermajorities this fall.
- In my last edition, I wrote about Russell Walker, a white supremacist (and anti-vaxxer, by the by) vying for a state House seat.
- The state GOP did withdraw their support from this racist creep, fwiw.
- This week brings us Rickey Padgett, a Republican and former deputy sheriff running in state Senate District 22 against incumbent Democrat Mike Woodard.
- While Padgett isn’t a self-avowed white supremacist like Walker, his statements about Democrats skew decidedly anti-Semitic.
- He’s used his social media feeds to call Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer—who is Jewish—members of “Chuck’s SS anti Trump unit.”
Do I really have to explain Heinrich Himmler’s Nazi SS? I hope not.
- Padgett also routinely attacks Rep. Maxine Waters and likes to compare her to Sanford and Son “villain” Aunt Esther, whom the Republican characterizes as “mean, hateful and angry … every time [Waters] says something, it always seems to be the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard since the last time she said something.”
- Padgett also compared Democrats to “cock roaches [sic].”
The North Carolina Republican Party has not yet withdrawn its support of Padgett.
The Killing Joke: Maybe GOP Gov. Paul LePage is laughing about 70,000 Mainers not receiving access to health care, but no one else is.
- After LePage vetoed bipartisan Medicaid expansion no fewer than five times, activists took the measure to the ballot in 2017, where 59 percent of voters supported it.
- LePage, apparently dead set on denying medical coverage to those in need, claimed Medicaid expansion couldn’t happen unless the legislature funded it.
- The Democratic-majority House and Republican-majority Senate obliged, coming together to pass a funding bill this year.
- … which LePage gleefully vetoed last week.
- Now it’s probably up to the courts to see that Medicaid expansion is successfully implemented in the Pine Tree state.
That’s all for this week. Tune in next Thursday for another exciting Statehouse Action installment—same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!
