If there’s one universal pet peeve, it might be having your time wasted.
It’s one of my top ones for sure.
I mean, I hate it. HATE it. Gives me indigestion.
So in the interest of demonstrating the respect you and your time deserve, let’s get straight to it.
Remember The Time: First thing’s first: last week in this space, I gave a little preview of the interesting/consequential special elections that hit this week, and now we know how they shook out.
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In New Hampshire, where Republicans just barely control the 400-seat state House, the very special special shook out in Democrats’ favor.
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In Wisconsin, voters cast ballots this past Tuesday in two primary contests: one special, one regularly scheduled.
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The special primary was for the 8th Senate District’s GOP nomination (with a special general to come on April 4), where three Republicans battled it out.
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Those three Republicans: state Reps. Janel Brandtjen and Dan Knodl and Thiensville Village President Van Mobley.
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The two sitting members of the Assembly running for this seat are both election deniers, but Brandtjen was perceived as so extreme and potentially unelectable that Democrats themselves spent money on ads supporting her, and the Republican State Leadership Committee took the unusual step of spending money in a GOP primary to defeat her.
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The RSLC’s investment was the better deal here, though; Knodl trounced his colleague Brandtjen 57-28%.
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Knodl will face attorney Jodi Habush Sinykin (who had no Democratic primary opposition) in the April 4 special general election, where Democrats are hoping to flip this red seat (which Trump would have won 52-47% if it had existed in its current form at the time, which it didn’t, because redistricting) to score a pickup that will deprive Republicans of the gerrymandered state Senate supermajority they secured last fall.
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Wisconsin’s regularly-scheduled primary on Tuesday wasn’t actually for a state legislative election, but the results of this race will have an outsized impact on elections, reproductive rights, and more, so it’s absolutely worth recapping here.
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As I’ve said before in this space, arguably the most consequential election of the spring is happening in Wisconsin on April 4, and the balance of power on the state Supreme Court is at stake.
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The liberal candidate in the spring election is Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz, and the conservative candidate is former Justice Daniel Kelly.
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Kelly’s win was a little surprising, honestly, considering how much money and name recognition Waukesha County Judge Jennifer Dorow had coming into the primary (specifically, she’d raised $365,000 and had $267,000 cash on hand, and she became a household name in a big chunk of the state when she presided over a high-profile murder case last year).
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But while Kelly’s fundraising numbers weren’t as impressive ($100,000 raised, $202,000 cash on hand), a number of high-powered conservatives came to his aid, including GOP megadonors Dick and Liz Uihlein and conservative super PAC Women Speak Out PAC (an affiliate of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America).
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Kelly also benefited from a little bit of cross-partisan “ratfucking,” as those in the business are wont to call it.
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But just days before the primary, an interesting new fact about Dan Kelly came to light that might have helped him on Tuesday but will hopefully bite him in the butt in the April 4 general.
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You see, after he lost his April 2020 Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Kelly went on to get paid almost $120,000 by the Wisconsin Republican Party and the RNC to work on “election issues.”
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… which, okay, doesn’t sound all that concerning, but recently released Jan. 6 Committee testimony indicates that Kelly was involved in the GOP scheme to have fake Republican electors cast Wisconsin’s electoral votes for Trump in 2020, despite the fact that Biden won the state, which is, like, PRETTY CONCERNING.
So this is the part where I go on about how incredibly important this Wisconsin Supreme Court election is, so feel free to skip ahead if you’ve heard about it enough already.
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Currently, conservative justices (candidates are nominated by the parties but are ostensibly nonpartisan and appear without party labels on the ballot) have a 4-3 majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and Republicans have used it to protect their gerrymandered legislative maps and buttress unpopular GOP policies.
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Soon, the court will hear and rule on a case that will either uphold or strike down Wisconsin’s abortion ban, and they have and will continue to hear cases on voting rights, workers’ rights, public school funding, gun safety, and more.
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These justices serve 10-year terms, so whoever wins in April is gonna be around and ruling on stuff for quite a while.
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And if Democrats don’t flip the court this year, they may not have another chance to do so until 2026 (notwithstanding retirements and other intervening factors).
Okay, enough Wisconsin for the moment. Let’s see what’s happening in some other states.
Time Is On My Side: What if we … checked in on a wee bit of good news, just as a change of pace…?
But Colorado Dems aren’t just in the business of blocking lousy legislation; they’re pushing some policies of their own, too.
Back In Time: A extremely not fun fact: As February speeds towards its end, state lawmakers have already introduced 321 anti-LGBTQ bills this year in legislatures – six more than were proposed in all of 2022.
It’s hate, but it’s increasingly efficient hate
It’d be kinda impressive if it weren’t so profoundly shitty.
Time After Time: But Republican lawmakers can walk and chew gum, too.
You can read the rest of this week’s edition here!