It’s been a big week for seconds.
I mean, there’s the Second Amendment.
And the 30 seconds it took the Dayton shooter to fire 41 shots and murder nine people.
Campaign Action
But let’s extend this theme to the states, because
A. That’s what I do, and
B. That’s where all gun legislation actually moves.
Second Guessing: As fate and scheduling would have it, this past weekend’s horrific shootings took place just before the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), where thousands of state lawmakers of all political persuasions from across the country convene each year to discuss state policy stuff.
Gee, seems like a great opportunity to chat about moving meaningful gun safety laws forward in various states, right?
LOL wrong
- GOP legislators from Arizona, Minnesota, Arkansas, and Texas spoke openly in the aftermath of the murder of 31 Americans about their opposition to meaningful reforms like universal background checks and bans on high-capacity ammunition magazines.
- One Arkansas Republican supports improved mental health services, but for the express purpose of helping people deal with the aftermath of mass shootings, which he described as a matter of “when,” not “if.”
- In fact, in Rep. Brian Evans is “proud” that his state is taking “such a proactive approach.”
Because why bother trying to prevent shootings when you can just, like, line up therapists for the survivors?
- Anyway, gems like Evans aren’t in charge everywhere—as evidenced by the fact that 22 (mostly Democratic-controlled) states and the District of Columbia have enacted new gun safety laws this legislative year.
- But in the GOP-controlled states, Republican leaders are already suggesting that monitoring social media could be a way of preventing mass shootings.
Because guns don’t kill people, Twitter kills people.
Second Time Around: Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve devoted some space here to the jacked-up situation in Alaska.
To refresh your recollection:
- Back in June, GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy line-item vetoed $444 million from the state budget at the expense of … well, basically everything.
- This epic gutting included:
- $130 million for higher education (a 41% cut),
- all Head Start and early childhood education funding,
- all Medicaid dental coverage,
- money for arts and public safety,
- environmental protection program funds,
- as well as a $334,700 cut to the budget of the Alaska Court System—an attempt to sabotage the rule of law in response to repeated rulings by the state Supreme Court that abortion rights are protected by the state constitution.
- Why the draconian cuts? Glad you asked!
- You see, Dunleavey needed all that cash just to keep an overambitious campaign promise to voters.
- When he ran for governor, Dunleavy said he’d increase the Permanent Fund dividend—an entitlement paid to literally everyone who lives in the state—to $3,000 for the year.
- This would, by the by, be a pretty huge jump from last year’s $1,600, which itself was the biggest payout of all but two years of the past decade.
- As of this writing, two bills that would restore the vast majority of Dunleavy’s cuts are sitting on the governor’s desk, awaiting his signature or veto.
- But he may have bigger problems than an overambitious campaign promise looming.
- Because this week, a serious effort to recall Dunleavy launched—and it’s off to a roaring start.
- The three primary sponsors of Alaskans to Recall Mike Dunleavy hail from across the political spectrum:
- Among them, these three “heavy hitters” bring a great deal of money and political power to the recall effort.
- But recalls in Alaska are … complicated, even by recall standards.
- Before getting Dunleavy’s recall on the ballot, the recall campaign will have to collect signatures in two phases.
- First, organizers need signatures from about 28,500 Alaska voters (or 10% of the number of votes cast in the 2018 general election).
- If this initial round of signature-gathering is successful, the recall committee has to go and do it all over again, but, like harder.
- The second round requires the committee to collect over 71,000 signatures (or 25% of the votes cast in 2018).
- There’s no deadline for this phase, either.
- If organizers meet this goal, a recall election could take place 60 to 90 days after signatures are certified.
- So, yeah, this is … a lot.
- But, like I said, the recall effort is off to a pretty hot start.
- This process will drag on for quite a while, and it’s likely to end up in court, besides.
But if it’s recall action you crave, you’re in luck!
- Recall-mania has apparently possessed Republicans in the lower 48.
- … or rather, Republicans in solidly blue states.
- Because if you’re a Republican, what do you do when you can’t win in a general election?
- You try to trigger a do-over via an off-cycle recall election, natch.
- GOP recall efforts against both Democratic lawmakers and governors have been all the rage over the past couple of years, especially in western states: specifically Nevada, Colorado, California, and Oregon.
- I wrote lots about the (failed) Nevada recall saga, but Republicans also used a recall in 2018 to temporarily roll back the Democratic supermajority in the California state Senate.
- In Colorado, the GOP is pursuing recall efforts against two Democratic House members, two Democratic senators, and Gov. Jared Polis.
- Republican leadership in Colorado is supporting the recalls there, but over in Oregon, top GOP officials are less excited about an effort to recall Democratic Gov. Kate Brown.
Second Chance: Is there anything more pathetic than making a motion and not receiving a second?
I mean, yes, but in terms of parliamentary moves, it’s the equivalent of a sad trombone.
- Last week, I updated you on the plight of Virginia GOP Del. Nick Freitas, who, as a Republican running for re-election in a cherry-red district (60-36 Trump and 61-38 Gillespie), basically had one job: to get his nomination paperwork to the state Board of Elections on time.
- Turns out Freitas sucked at that one job.
- Okay, technically, both Freitas and the local GOP committee chair sucked at that job, since they both failed to submit required paperwork.
- Despite the district’s deep redness, Democrat Ann Ridgeway is challenging Freitas this fall.
- Or she would be, if Freitas were appearing on the ballot.
- Which … well, he’s not.
- While the Department of Elections was in the midst of trying to sort out whether he could still qualify for the ballot despite the missing paperwork, Freitas “withdrew” his candidacy—a neat trick when you haven’t actually been certified as a candidate.
- This maneuver was purely tactical in nature.
- State law allows Republicans to replace a candidate on the ballot if that candidate drops out or dies, and Freitas planned for the local GOP to name him as the replacement candidate for … himself.
- Thing is, you can’t actually withdraw your candidacy if you haven’t been certified as the candidate in the first place, which is exactly what the Department of Elections concluded last week.
- Freitas appealed to the state Board of Elections to place him on the ballot despite his epic fail.
- The Virginia Board of Elections met this week to consider Freitas’ plight.
- At this meeting, lone Republican board member and former Del. John O’Bannon made a motion to accept Freitas’ failed nomination and place him on the ballot anyway.
- The motion did not receive a second.
- O’Bannon tried again, this time to allow the state Republican Party to nominate literally any GOPer to appear on the ballot.
- Freitas, naturally, accused the board of a partisan conspiracy to keep him off the ballot.
- Funny thing is, the board definitely allowed another Republican with a paperwork snafu (far less egregious than Freitas’ fail) to appear on the ballot, so, yeah, that’s not it.
- Even O’Bannon called out his fellow Republican for his “ad hominem attacks” on the elections board.
- Freitas and/or the Republican Party of Virginia will probably challenge the decision in court, but for the time being, the incumbent’s only hope of holding on to his seat is a write-in campaign.
- And considering the fact that the GOP is clinging to its House majority by a single seat, it’s one the party can’t afford to lose—or waste money on.
Nick Fritos for delegate!
Welp, that’s all for this week. As a reward for making it all the way through this week’s missive, you should probably just go ahead and take tomorrow off, maybe get a head start on your weekend trip. Just print this out and show it to your boss, I’m sure she’ll give you the best navigation advice ever: Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning.