The summer is barreling towards a close (well, okay, not technically—summer actually lasts until the autumnal equinox on Sept. 22), so I hope you’re squeezing in a little time off before Labor Day marks the beginning of campaign season in earnest. As an august reader of this weekly review of state-level political shenanigans, I’m willing to bet that stretch of weeks between Labor and Election Day affects your life and perhaps makes things like taking a week off to relax and recharge a bit of a nonstarter.
So why not drop everything—like, right now—and read this on a beach? At a lake? In a cabin in the woods? You deserve a break!
But state politics takes no breaks.
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Permanent Vacation: So there’s some pretty significant news to report on the West Virginia Supreme Court shenanigans I wrote about last week.
- Late Monday night, in a key step toward a Republican-engineered coup of an entire branch of government, the GOP-controlled West Virginia House voted to impeach all four remaining (of five total—more on that shortly) state Supreme Court justices.
- Keep in mind here that it’s not the impeachment itself that’s the issue. I mean, these justices’ corruption ranged from banal overspending to federal fraud charges, and some, if not all, probably deserve to get the boot. The issue here is the GOP’s shady timing.
- If Republicans had begun impeachment proceedings when Democrats wanted to—back in January and February—all the justices would be replaced by voters this fall.
- Heck, if GOP lawmakers had gotten their butts in gear back in June, when Justice Allen Loughry was indicted on 54 federal and state counts of fraud, witness tampering, making false statements, and more, the justices could have been removed in time for replacement elections in November.
- But Republicans dragged their feet until just last week, knowing full well that they needed to remove the justices by Aug. 14—this past Tuesday—to allow West Virginia voters to select replacements.
In a surprise move Tuesday morning, Democratic Justice Robin Davis announced her resignation just in time to trigger a special election to replace her this November.
Fun fact! Republicans made elections for the state Supreme Court officially nonpartisan after they took control of the legislature in 2014. However, Davis and most of the other justices were originally elected with partisan labels.
- The crucial timing of her maneuver will help mitigate—but not obviate—Republican lawmakers’ scheme to fill the entire court with GOP appointees.
- The remaining three justices declined to follow Davis’s lead, opting to wait until they’re forcibly removed from office by the legislature. This means Republican Gov. Jim Justice will get to name replacements—who will serve, unelected, through 2020.
How did we reach this appalling pass?
- It all started last fall, when reports began to surface that the justices had indulged in exorbitant spending on expensive furniture amid lavish renovations of their chambers (in the neighborhood of $700,000 for things like fancy couches, elegant flooring, and pricey rugs).
- These extravagant refurbs spurred the state’s legislative auditor to investigate the court.
- Fast forward to June, when prosecutors indicted Republican Justice Loughry on those 54 state and federal charges I mentioned above.
- He was swiftly suspended from the bench, but he refused to resign.
- Then, in early July, Democratic Justice Menis Ketchum announced his resignation, although he faced no criminal charges or formal allegations of ethics violations at the time. (He did later plead guilty to one count of fraud.)
- In fact, he had already repaid the state more than $1,700 for personal trips and $2,000 for a grandfather clock owned by the state he’d been keeping in his home.
- Anyway, needless to say, impeachment proceedings were very much not concluded by Aug. 14, so the resulting vacancies on the court will very much not be on the ballot this November, depriving West Virginia voters of the the chance to elect new justices.
But why would the GOP-controlled legislature want to give that power to voters when foot-dragging let them game the state’s election deadlines and allow the Republican governor to just appoint the replacements himself?
So by waiting until August to start proceedings, Republican lawmakers essentially guaranteed that the impeachment process couldn’t wrap up by the Aug. 14 deadline.
- And if the state Senate votes to remove the remaining three justices (one Democrat and two Republicans, including the indicted Loughry), replacement GOP appointees would get to serve two years on the bench before facing voters.
Note that prior to this entire debacle, Democrats held a three-to-two majority on the Supreme Court.
- But just in case you think this is anything but a brazen Republican attempt to usurp an entire branch of government through GOP appointments, consider this:
And why entertain timely steps to remove corrupt justices when you can slow your roll and execute a Supreme Court coup instead?
No Rules, No Rights, No Problems: Let’s be real: No report on shady doings by Republican state lawmakers would be complete without an update from North Carolina, amirite?
- A couple of weeks back in this space, I wrote about GOP lawmakers in North Carolina pushing a new law that would retroactively prevent a last-minute candidate for the state Supreme Court from running as a Republican.
- Last year, Republicans passed legislation specifically designed to impact the 2018 elections by allowing any candidate running for office to change his or her party affiliation right up to the time they officially file as a candidate.
- Democrats protested the move, saying it could lead to shenanigans.
- Oops:
- Just before the filing deadline, a third candidate got into the state Supreme Court race, which had previously just had one Democrat—Anita Earls—and one Republican—Barbara Jackson—running.
- That candidate—Raleigh attorney Chris Anglin—filed to run as a Republican, sparking GOP fears that he’d siphon votes away from Jackson, splitting the party’s vote and easing Earls’ path to the bench.
- Until June 7 of this year, this fresh Republican face in the race was a registered Democrat.
- The state Republican Party has vowed to treat Anglin as “the enemy he is.” Both Anglin and state Democrats aver that no shenanigans are afoot here; rather, Anglin is just a concerned citizen who wanted to run as a “constitutional Republican” … whatever that means.
- GOP lawmakers went further in their response to his candidacy: The state Senate majority leader filed a fun ex post facto bill this week that would prevent Anglin from being listed on the ballot as a Republican.
- While Anglin isn’t mentioned by name in the bill, it applies only to judicial elections, and it states:
The party information listed by each of the following candidates’ names is shown only if the candidates’ party affiliation or unaffiliated status is the same as on their voter registration at the time they filed to run for office and 90 days prior to that filing.
- The bill passed along party lines, of course.
- And if there was ever a law born to be challenged in court, it was this one.
I mean, changing the rules in the middle of an election?
Even for North Carolina Republicans, who are already legendary for their shameless and breathtaking attacks on democracy in their state, that’s … brazen.
- A North Carolina judge thinks so, too.
- On Monday, a Wake County judge issued an injunction to prevent the state from printing ballots unless the candidates are identified on them by their preferred party.
- Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt said the plaintiffs demonstrated “a likelihood of prevailing on the merits.”
I mean, yeah. Republicans literally changed the rules mid-game.
Stay tuned!
Wipeout: The state Supreme Court race isn’t the only thing holding up ballot printing in North Carolina.
No, you read that right: The Republicans’ lawyer is basically arguing that lawmakers have a right to mislead voters.
- Never mind that the GOP is asking voters to make fundamental shift to the balance of power among branches of government, obstruct ballot box access, and dramatically undermine the state’s tax base, resulting in inevitable cuts to schools and other essential government duties.
NBD
Naziritaville: In this week’s edition of Holy Snot Who The Hell Are Republicans Putting On The Ballot, we go to sunny Missouri, where a GOP candidate who came out on top (by almost 25 points!) in his four-way primary last week thinks “Hitler was right.”
- Republican Steve West is running in House District 15, which went for Clinton in 2016, 47-46 percent.
- West has a Monday morning radio show that he uses to peddle racist, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, and homophobic conspiracy theories. (If you’re in the neighborhood, you can catch him on KCXL, which, apparently, is “daring to be different everyday [sic].”)
- West faces incumbent Rep. Jon Carpenter, who is both a Democrat and not a bigoted, hateful Nazi-lover.
On The Ballot Again: In this week’s edition of Fun Factoids (okay, no, I guess I’ve never actually done this before, but maybe this is the first in a series), did you know that almost half of Democratic state legislative seats on the ballot this fall are going uncontested?
- 49 percent, specifically.
Bananas, right?
- Only 22 percent of Republican-held seats on the ballot aren’t being contested by Democrats this fall.
That’s all for this week, dear readers—and as you may have inferred by the theme of this edition, that’s all for next week, too. I’m going on vacation!
Bon voyage!