Cripes, y’all. Summer’s almost gone.
(Okay, no, not technically, but amusement parks are about to close on weekdays and pools are shutting down after this weekend and we’re no longer supposed to wear white for some reason, so in the lay, non-astronomical sense, I think we’re all agreed that summer spiritually ends with Labor Day.)
(Which is, like, here.)
But before we all take off for the holiday that heralds the last hurrah of the season, let’s check in on what’s happening in the states. Because, while most legislatures aren’t in session in the summers, that doesn’t mean statehouse action takes a vacation.
Campaign Action
Summer Fights: First, let’s pay a visit to North Carolina.
Because, thanks to the GOP-controlled legislature and its never-ending series of power-grabs and general assaults on democracy, there’s ALWAYS something happening in North Carolina.
- Two weeks ago in this space (my vacation was lovely, thank you), I wrote about a court fight over the GOP’s super-brazen (even for them) attempt to change the rules in the state’s Supreme Court race mid-game, so to speak.
Two weeks was, like, forever ago, so let me catch you up:
- 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.
- 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 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.” (Yeah, I don’t know what that means either, but whatevs, cool, you do you.)
- 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 have prevented Anglin from being listed on the ballot as a Republican.
- While Anglin’s not mentioned by name in the bill, it applies only to judicial elections, and it only allowed candidates to display their party affiliation on the ballot if they were a member of that party 90 days prior to filing to run.
- The bill passed along party lines, of course.
- And it was immediately challenged in court, of course.
- A Wake County judge swiftly issued an injunction to prevent the state from printing ballots unless the candidates are identified on them by their preferred party, and the court ultimately ruled in favor of Anglin appearing on the ballot as a candidate of his party of choice.
- This week, the state Court of Appeals declined Republicans’ request to stay the lower court’s ruling.
- And, for once, GOP lawmakers gave up.
I mean, yeah. Republicans literally tried to change the rules mid-game.
Summer Pain: Also in North Carolina, the fight over a series of tremendously impactful series of amendments to the state constitution continues.
- The constitutional amendments at issue include:
- Lowering the constitutional cap on the state income tax from 10 percent to 7 percent.
- Giving the legislature complete control over the candidates the governor can choose from to fill judicial vacancies.
- Giving the legislature (read: Republicans) the ability to choose members of the State Board of Ethics and Elections enforcement, taking that power away from the governor and preventing the Democrat currently occupying the office from appointing a Democratic majority to the board.
- Requiring voters to present a photo ID to cast ballots.
- Two weeks ago, a court issued an injunction on printing ballots (by now a familiar experience for the GOP) in response to a lawsuit disputing the deceptive wording Republican lawmakers are using to explain some constitutional amendments they want passed this fall.
Yup, the Republicans’ lawyer basically argued 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.
- Last week, a state court blocked two of the proposed amendments because of their deceptive wording.
- Specifically, the one concerning stripping the governor’s power to appoint the elections board and giving it to the legislature, and the one giving the legislature control over who the governor can select to fill judicial vacancies.
- The GOP-controlled legislature both immediately appealed and convened a special session to hastily rewrite those amendments.
- Shockingly, they’re still misleading.
Okay, not shockingly.
Fun fact! Ballot printing is supposed to begin Saturday.
Primary Night Moves: The primaries in Florida and Arizona may have garnered all the buzz, but did you know that Oklahoma held its primary runoffs on Tuesday, too?
… okay yes probably. You are, after all, an elite and erudite reader of this exceedingly nerdy newsletter.
- The fun news out of the Sooner state this week is that six—SIX—more Republican incumbents lost their primaries.
- This brings the total number of defeated GOP lawmakers to a whopping 12 (11 of whom were in the House).
- Eight of the 12 losers opposed the tax increase passed back in the spring to fund education and end the epic teacher walkout and associated statehouse demonstrations.
- These primary losses marked the biggest GOP primary wipeout of the cycle to date, besting even the seven Republican incumbents who lost in Kansas and the five losers in Idaho.
When your own party’s voters don’t like you enough to support your officeholders in primaries, what does that mean for November?
Session Is In: Lawmakers across the commonwealth were robbed of an early start to the long weekend when Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam called a special session on Aug. 30.
- The Democrats didn’t mind, though.
- After all, they were convening to redraw the map for the House of Delegates in accordance with a federal court ruling from June that found Republicans had unconstitutionally packed black voters into too few districts in order to maximize GOP seats in the chamber by ensuring that neighboring seats would be whiter.
- One GOP lawmaker just doesn’t get what the big deal is about another election held under unconstitutionally racist districts. After all, Virginians have “lived with these lines for eight years. There's only two more years until they have to be done anyway."
- I’m sure this Republican saw absolutely no significance in the fact that the Legislative Black Caucus submitted the Democratic plan for new districts. (VPAP has an analysis of the proposal, which would redraw 29 of the House’s 100 districts, here.)
- Republican lawmakers, to no one’s surprise, are not fans of the new plan.
- They’ve asked for the federal court to stay the ruling while they appeal it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which makes foot-dragging their most effective tactic.
- GOP leadership has made it clear that they have no intention of approving new boundaries before exhausting their legal options.
- The Democrats’ redistricting plan was referred to committee, and the full chamber is slated to convene again before Sept. 21.
Okay, y’all, that’s enough business for one week. I hereby give you permission to play hooky until Tuesday. Just print this and show it to your boss, I’m sure she’ll be good with it.
