This week in progressive state blogs is designed specifically to focus attention on the writing and analysis of people focused on their home turf. Let me know via comments or Kosmail if you have a favorite state- or city-based blog you think I should be watching.
Inclusion of a diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement or endorsement of its contents.
At Capital & Main of California, Steven Mikulan writes—Is Voter Turnoff Inviting a Progressive Rollback?
It’s become an unsettling fact of political life that as election turnouts dwindle, campaign spending skyrockets. Los Angeles’ recently concluded school board races, which drew a paltry 7.6 percent of potential voters, underscored this point. Ref Rodriguez, who unseated the District 5 incumbent, received most of the $2.2 million contributed by political action committees (PACs) controlled by the California Charter Schools Association Advocates. Rodriguez has co-created several charter schools and his backers, unsurprisingly, came from that community. Among the familiar local names of extreme wealth and influence were Eli Broad, Richard Riordan and William Bloomfield. Equally familiar to followers of school privatization were more distant funders such as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Walmart heir Jim Walton, Laurene Powell Jobs, the Gap Inc.’s Fisher family members and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Rounding out Rodriguez’s cascade of thousand-dollar checks were names associated with high-powered investment firms, various charter schools and charter-advocacy groups, such as Parent Revolution and StudentsFirst. Even among this varied and far-flung group, two names stuck out: Amplify Learning president Larry Berger of New York, and New Majority California, which calls itself the state’s largest Republican PAC.
Amplify Learning is probably the easier of the pair to figure out. It’s Rupert Murdoch’s education information division, headed by Joel Klein and built on the foundation of Berger’s old Wireless Generation company, which Murdoch’s News Corporation purchased in 2010. The friendlier the nation’s second-largest school system’s board of education is toward charter schools, the more likely Amplify is to land lucrative contracts with the Los Angeles Unified School District. New Majority California, on the other hand, is a political money funnel for corporate interests.
More excerpts from progressive state blogs can be found below the fold.
At BlueOregon, Kari Chisholm writes—It's true: Monica Wehby is... back!
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water... it turns out the rumors are true:
Monica Wehby is back. Tanned, rested, and ready? Not exactly.
Her new venture, a state political committee called Monica PAC, features the same content-free word salads that her Senate campaign featured. Here's her mission statement:
Monica PAC is dedicated to promoting smart, common sense government for all Oregonians. Monica PAC focuses on electing officials devoted to real world solutions, government transparency, and job-creating businesses. Monica PAC investments in winning candidates will change Oregon’s political landscape by giving voice to those who know freedom exists through opportunity. |
Does that mean anything? At all?
After all, it all sounds fine to me—common sense government, real world solutions, job-creating businesses, freedom, opportunity—but I'm pretty sure that I'm not exactly her target market.
So, what's Wehby really up to? Maybe she really does want to spend her time raising money ($45k so far) to give it away to other candidates. But "Monica PAC" is just so self-aggrandizing, I'm willing to bet she's running for a state office.
The question is, dear readers: Which one? In 2016, she could run for Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, Attorney General, the state legislature, or a local office. Let's hear your theories!
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Left in Alabama,
countrycat writes—
Let's Hope Mobile Doesn't Become The Next Santa Barbara:
How many times can a pipeline company ignore safety regulations & maintenance protocols and still keep operating? 176 times apparently. In the nine years prior to the massive Santa Barbara oil spill, Plains All American was cited 175 times for "safety and maintenance infractions." Only after this recent spill, did the government take action and order the company to cease operations while an investigation is ongoing.
This spill shouldn't surprise anyone. The company has a terrible record. [...]
Plains Southcorp is a subsidiary of Plains All American, and it holds the fate of the city's drinking water supply in its pipeline. Michele Harmon reported on this situation for LIA last year when she described how the route had been decided:
Here's the kicker: Plains did have an alternate route, which would have spared the risk to the drinking water supply.... Unfortunately, it went through the "Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail" in Mobile. They chose not to use this route because they feared community push back! The Pipeline company chose to risk the drinking water of thousands to keep from tearing up a golf course, and interrupting peoples golf games. Pretty pathetic, isn't it? |
This plan was approved by our totally misnamed "Public Service Commission" after a 15 minute presentation and Q&A session held in Montgomery—far from the people who will be affected by a spill.
Why the lack of interest and oversight? Possibly because our PSC officials think that "Service" refers to "serving industry" instead of the public. It appears to exist only to serve the industries that it's charged with regulating, bow before Alabama Power, fight abortion & environmentalists, and worship the Great Coal God.
Good luck to the people of Mobile. With the corrupt and incompetent state government that Alabama voters have turned loose in Montgomery, luck may be the only thing that saves us all.
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The Seminole Democrat of Florida,
Independent Thinker writes—
The Feds Didn't Blink. ... They'll Force Scott to Think!
The recent offer by the feds to provide a lesser scale of funding for the Low Income Pool is being characterized by some as a caving in to Rick Scott, or as "blinking" in this game of funding chicken. Others are saying it's more like a rescue mission so that the poor in this state don't end up suffering because of Scott's stubbornness. You can count me among those who go with the second choice, and add this: I think it's a tactical concession that is meant to force Scott to further reveal himself for what he really is.
As of this moment, the feds have the high moral ground. They've offered a compromise that will allow Florida—if Scott and the Legislature want it—to continue to fund this desperate need for the next two years. After all, Florida has an almost two billion dollar surplus projected (or 8 billion, if you believe Scott). They could make up for themselves much of what would be cut from the LIP grant for the next fiscal year. If they wanted to. Of course, that may mean that Scott will have to break a campaign promise or two, such as not funding education as high as he campaigned on. But since this was a guy who promised in 2009 not to cut education, and immediately did so anyway, I'm sure that would disturb him about as much as a housefly would disturb Godzilla.
Or, Scott might have to compromise by not delivering more of those delicious tax cuts to big business. ... or even that generous $14 per year he was offering us peons who live in the trenches as a savings on our cable TV bill. But if that's the case, Scott will still be forced to show his hand: Will he consider tax breaks for his business allies more important—or the health and welfare of the poor, sick, and vulnerable? If he chooses the first option, he'll play right into the hands of his opposition.
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Dirigo Blue of Maine,
Gerald Weinand writes—
Why wait Gov. LePage? Include repeal of Maine’s income tax in your next biennial budget:
Although he didn’t make it a major campaign issue, since winning re-election Gov. Paul LePage has pushed hard for a constitutional amendment that would repeal and ban any income tax in Maine. The bill being worked in the Taxation Committee (LD1367), would add this the Maine Constitution:
Taxation of income prohibited. Beginning January 1, 2020, the Legislature shall never, in any manner, enact or impose a tax upon the income of any person nor shall the State levy or collect such an income tax for any period beginning on or after January 1, 2020. |
The question would be put to voters in a referendum, but should it pass, it would mean the loss of an estimated $1.8 billion in revenue in each year. The measure is backed by all Republican legislative leaders. But to be sure, Gov. LePage has threatened all lawmakers to send the question to the voters or face tough re-election campaigns, telling one reporter that “there will be a lot of new faces” in 2016 if they don’t.
But why wait? An amendment is not required to repeal the existing state income tax. Gov. LePage need only to propose it in his next biennial budget (for FY2018-19). Instead, the amendment would leave it to LePage’s successor to deal with replacing $3.6 billion in revenue or cutting entire departments of State government to balance the budget, as mandated by the Constitution.
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Ohio Daily,
Anastasia Pantsios writes—
GOP Congressmen Demand the Pope Stay Out of Politics When He Doesn't Agree With the Republican Platform:
Anyone remember back in 2004 when there was an outbreak of right-wing Catholic bishops declaring that the church should deny communion to any politician or candidate who supported the right of women to have an abortion even if they were not Catholic? [...]
That year Cardinal Ratzinger, one of Pope John Paul II’s most powerful henchmen, and soon to be Pope himself, wrote to the U.S. bishops about this, trying to put his thumb on the scale of the American presidential election all the way from the Vatican. It was a pretty dramatic example of a church meddling inappropriately in politics, and Republicans cheered it—loudly. In fact, non-Catholic evangelical groups targeted Catholic churches to pass out flyers urging them to think only about abortion and gays.
Ratzinger, of course, became Pope Benedict the following year and reigned until his 2013 resignation. Surprisingly, his successor Pope Francis has taken a very different take. He is preaching some ideas that don’t line up with the Republican party platform. He’s talking about things like income inequality, the corruption of greed, climate change and care for the earth.
NOW some Republicans think the Pope should stay out of politics. The same Republicans who want to declare—in contradiction of the Constitution—that American is a “Christian” country, who think that if we just injected a whole lot more religion—THEIR type of religion—in politics and public policy, things would be hunky-dory don’t think SOME religions should get involved in politics. Specifically, the kind Pope Francis is preaching.
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HorsesAss of Washingtion,
Goldy writes—
A Republican Worth Listening To:
Bill Finkbeiner, the former Republican state senate majority leader, has an op-ed in the Seattle Times urging lawmakers to give Sound Transit the full $15 billion taxing authority it needs to extend light rail to Everett, Tacoma, Redmond, West Seattle and Ballard. [...]
Interestingly, the Seattle Times merely describes Finkbeiner as “a former state legislator,” rather than the Republican majority leader that he was (you know, back before the Republican Party went totally tea-bagger crazy). Not sure why they would want to hide this biographical detail from readers, as for all the cogent arguments that he makes, it’s Finkbeiner’s Republican pedigree that is the hook here.
A Republican enthusiastically endorses expanding light rail. That’s the story here.
That it is a story, well, that’s a whole nother story.
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Demoratic Diva of Arizona,
Donna writes—
Bigots Don’t Necessarily Take Vows of Poverty:
Ann Coulter is one of those right wing demagogues with a high public profile who attracts a strange sort of – almost what you’d call a defense of her – that she’s just in it for the money! There’s a belief among many liberals that because she lives a cosmopolitan life split between New York City, Palm Beach FL, and Los Angeles (according to available bios) and is known to have gay friends and date liberal men, that she doesn’t really believe all that nasty stuff she espouses in numerous books, articles, speeches, and TV appearances.
But if you watch Coulter in a recent interview on the Fusion network with Jorge Ramos, it’s difficult to conclude that she’s acting. She refused to accept the offer of a hug a young woman who was an undocumented immigrant and compared Mexican immigrants to ISIS terrorists.
At another point in the appearance, Fusion host Jorge Ramos asked Coulter whether she really believed that immigrants were more dangerous to Americans than the Islamic State terrorist group.
“I have a little tip,” Coulter said. “If you don’t want to be killed by ISIS, don’t go to Syria. If you don’t want to be killed by a Mexican, there’s nothing I can tell you.”
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This isn’t acting, in my estimation. Coulter is expressing a carefully thought out viewpoint. And yes, she is a skilled con artist who has separated money from millions of credulous wingnuts (for whom she likely has zero respect) for nearly two decades, having risen to fame in the late 90s as an attacker of the Clintons.
I don’t understand why some people cling to this weird insistence that one can either be a reactionary bigot or a grifter, but not both.
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Michigan Liberal,
Eric B. writes—
Sue Snyder launches effort to curtail campus sexual assault:
This is great.
Michigan first lady Sue Snyder is calling leaders from colleges and universities across the state to a statewide summit June 8 to develop ways to end campus sexual assaults by encouraging more victims to report the crime, changing the culture that leads authorities to dismiss allegations and developing uniform programs, policies and punishments, she told the Free Press. |
What's great about this is that while it's normal for First Spouse to take up some kind of cause, it's usually one that everyone agrees is bad. Before her, Dan Mulhern had his Read to Lead thing or whatever it was. I mean, reading and leading ... great all around. Who would argue with that. But campus sexual assault is a genuinely hot button issue, with the people at her husband's party base most likely to wave off the issue as either overblown or not real. So it's pretty excellent to see her take up this banner.
What they're overlooking, however, is that the entire college culture is need of change. It's not just enough to get police and first responders and victims better trained or more likely to come forward. You also have to address binge drinking and other behaviors where people interact with each other with depressed inhibitions. There's a lot of sexual violence that goes unreported because it occurred while the victim was drunk or high and is convinced that he or she must have consented at some point. And, sports fans, that ultimately goes back to treating college students as customers rather than as people who require an education. When people regard their education as a product they are consuming they are more likely to feel entitled to blow off classes and study projects and instead take up the important work of spending all day celebrating St. Patrick's Day.
But, small steps, and this is a good one.
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Hillbilly Report of Kentucky,
Berry Craig writes—
General Motors To Expand Unionized Plant In KY:
To hear some local politicians and business leaders tell it, a slew of companies has expressed interest in coming to Bowling Green and its environs since the county fiscal court approved a “right-to-work” ordinance last December.
General Motors has just announced it will plunk down $439 million to expand Bowling Green’s biggest unionized business: the giant factory where members of United Auto Workers Local 2164 build Chevy Corvettes.
The upgrades will include a 450,000-square-foot paint shop. The facility will be nearly half the size of the plant, according to a press release from Gov. Steve Beshear’s office.
“For more than three decades, Kentucky and General Motors have shared a deep connection,” the governor said in the release. “This expansion only makes the relationship stronger and will create a foundation for future growth.”
Nobody is happier over the plant expansion than Bill Londrigan, president of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO.
“But it is ironic that this enormous investment in Bowling Green, the fulcrum of anti-unionism in Kentucky, is taking place at a union shop,” he said.
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Louisiana Voice,
tomaswell writes—
Vitter may be making use of U.S. Senate franking privilege to unfair advantage over his three opponents in governor’s race:
U.S. Sen. David Vitter could be setting himself up for a repeat of ethics complaints over a perceived use of his Senate franking privileges in his campaign for governor.
The congressional franking privilege, which originated in 1775, allows members of Congress to send official notices, brochures and updates to constituents back home under their signature without having to pay postage. Congress, through legislative appropriations, reimburses the U.S. Postal Service for franked mail it handles.
Vitter is not a candidate for re-election in the 2016 election but instead is running to succeed Bobby Jindal as governor against three other candidates. He is making full use of his franking privileges to announce town hall meetings across the state to address local issues. One such mail-out has caught the attention of LouisianaVoice.
Reform efforts over the past two decades have reduced overall franking expenditures from $113.4 million in fiscal year 1988 to $16.9 million in FY 2014 and even then, many of the mail-outs are simply tossed unread by recipients back home. Much of that reduction can be attributed to a shift to electronic communications rather than any real reform of the practice.
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Appalachian Voices,
Hannah Wiegard writes—
A summer of clean energy progress ahead in Virginia:
At the moment, there is no option for Appalachian Power Company’s Virginia customers to buy power from a third party that installs and owns a solar installation. Hurdles have existed in the past keeping the utility from offering such programs, while a pilot program remains open for qualified Dominion customers until the end of the year.
Now an analog is in the works in APCo’s service area because of interest on the part of area universities in pursuing similar arrangements. Grant funds awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s SUNSHOT initiative are also a factor in helping to give clean energy a foothold at institutions of higher learning.
These resources can be put to good use if the schools are permitted to enter into agreements to host solar generation and purchase power from systems owned by a third-party, reducing upfront costs relative to buying a system of its own.
APCo is seeking approval from state regulators to commence a program for systems larger systems 250 kilowatts for non-residential customers, including allowing for aggregation of systems on the rooftops of many different buildings that applies to non-profit universities.
This proposal may be subject to some major modifications before becoming available; these changes may pertain to charges imposed on renewable energy buyers, the size of the systems that are eligible, and even the legal ramifications of treating these arrangements so differently from net energy metering.
On July 1, Appalachian Power will release its latest long-term plan outlining how to meet demand over the next 15 years. Because of our community’s efforts and customer engagement in the process, the utility is already modeling ways to comply with the EPA’s new carbon pollution reduction targets including through energy efficiency programs.