Every Republican Deserves This Heavy Anchor

 

This Democratic attack ad from Wisconsin makes Elon Musk the surrogate for every Republican everywhere. In this particular instance, it's Republican Brad Schimel, running for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The election is April 1st (Fool's Day). Musk is the biggest spender in this race and truly deserves taking center stage for what's wrong in the U.S. this year. Depending on the outcome of this special election, Elon Musk may become the poster child in every Democratic campaign everywhere.

Hoo Boy! Wisconsin Gives Trump the Finger

Jill Karofsky

Donald Trump endorsed Republican Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly in the Wisconsin vote last week, the man that former Republican Governor Scott Walker had appointed to the state's high court, and Trump tweeted on Election Day a week ago, "get out and vote NOW” for Kelly. Instead, the voters of Wisconsin, much aggrieved by their Supreme Court, which refused to delay the election in the midst of a pandemic, voted for Kelly's Democratic opponent Jill Karofsky. Last update I've seen said Karofsky was leading Kelly by 11 points.

Republican voter-suppression maneuvering leading up to last week's vote is now generally seen as a major miscalculation. People do finally get fed up with the partisan games.

We trust it'll be the same in North Carolina, come November, since we've been seeing Republican boss Phil Berger disparaging easier voting and we've known him for years as a major hindrance to greater ballot access. The North Carolina state Board of Elections has moved to make requests for mail ballots available through an online portal, and the executive director of the SBOE has recommended reducing the requirement for two witnesses on absentee ballots to just one -- but Phil Berger has already signaled his opposition.

Just another brick in his wall. And one more reason for North Carolina voters to be fed up TOO with the partisan games. The Trumpist Party is looking ever more toxic.

Here's What To Do When Voters Don't Like Your Candidates and Hate Your Agenda

This is happening right now in Wisconsin: Judge Paul V. Malloy of the Ozaukee County Circuit Court has thrown the state into chaos by issuing an order that the Wisconsin Elections Commission forthwith and immediately remove some 215,239 registered voters state-wide from the voting rolls, individuals located disproportionately in large Democratic cities and in counties with major universities.

215,239 sinners who will be cast out of the Kingdom of Heaven. Their sin? They were flagged by a national database as having possibly moved their residence. Tsk tsk. They should re-register at the new address. More, a rightwing group decided to exercise their imaginations in pressing for the harshest penalties of the law for failing to update residence. And thereby hangs the lawsuit which led to Judge Malloy's ruling (see more below).

So the Wisconsin Elections Commission, being good stewards of citizen rights, mailed -- snail-mailed, mind you -- in October 234,039 letters to addressees that had been picked out by the national Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a multistate partnership that shares voter registration information, as possibly having moved their residences since the last election. (Some 29 states plus DeeCee belong to the ERIC network and share data. North Carolina does not belong.)

It's one of ERIC's specialities -- identifying people who may have moved -- whether just upstairs to a bigger apartment or to a different state. Place of residence is the great and universal touchstone for ballot access, and people who move need to re-register.  That's reasonable, especially if enforcement is based on something more reliable than the accuracy of snail-mail. (And you might notice the disparity in numbers above -- 215,239 targeted for removal out of 234,039 letters sent out. That's because some 18,800 voters did return confirmation of their residence. The numbers were likely rounded up by Mark Joseph Stern, but thank gawd for his detailed reporting!)

Those Elections Commission letters were based on addresses of record, which were in turn based on hand-written voter information (often illegibly scrawled) on voter registration forms, which is in turn entered into a massive database by human technicians who are, yes, only human. Small errors can lead to big consequences. 234,039 letters went out into The Great Silence, bearing possible penalties for silence.

The Elections Commission planned -- until they got sued by a conservative group -- to spend the next 12 to 24 months "working with local officials to assess individuals who do not respond to the notice. If officials make an 'individualized determination' that there is 'sufficient reliable information' that a voter has moved, their registration will be 'deactivated' ” (Stern). In other words, the commission was going to investigate each case before removing anyone, and in any event, no action would come until after the 2020 primary election (at least).

The Lawsuit That Judge Malloy Exploited

That was the Wisconsin Elections Commission plan before the Bradley Foundation, which reportedly "bankrolls reactionary causes," saw an opening and filed a lawsuit in deep red Ozaukee County before a Republican judge. Its lawsuit was based on a complaint filed by another reactionary group, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. The institute cited a state law which says: “Upon receipt of reliable information” that a voter has moved, the commission (or municipal clerk) must send them a letter saying, in short, “We think you have a new address.” If the voter does not respond “within 30 days of the date the notice is mailed,” they must be deactivated.

That language depends entirely on the words reliable information. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty claimed that the ERIC "Movers Report" constitutes reliable information -- no need for Wisconsin Elections Commission investigation -- and Judge Malloy bought that argument. Along with the argument that the commission shirked its duties by not removing those 200,000+ people on the 30-day mark from their October letter. Thirty days, long expired. The judge was delighted to say his hands were tied. Jigs up for voters who don't answer their mail.

The Elections Commission is fighting back, claiming irreparable harm and the potential for 2020 chaos as would-be voters find out at the last minute that they're no longer registered. Plus the suit is based on the capricious and arbitrary claim that ERIC's data-mining constitutes "reliable information" under Wisconsin statute. The Elections Commission argues that its own mandated responsibility to maintain voter rolls can't be outsourced to non-state agencies.

The commission will appeal, but everyone is pointing out that it'll eventually land with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is 5-2 majority conservative. The conservative argument against "irreparable harm": Wisconsin allows election-day registration. The only problem: same-day registration also requires proof of residence, and most voters don't carry around electric bills in their pockets.

Weekend News That You Probably Already Knew

Federal Judge Reed O'Connor,
who threw out all of Obamacare
on Friday

1. A Texas federal judge finally caught that bus the Republicans have been chasing for years. "Yay!" tweeted Twitterman, we've finally done away with health insurance for millions of Americans! What a great day! “It was a big, big victory by a highly respected judge, highly, highly respected in Texas...."

Of course it would be Texas.

"If upheld on appeal, the decision could deprive an estimated 17 million Americans of their health insurance — including millions who gained coverage through the law’s expansion of Medicaid. Still others could see premiums skyrocket as price protections for pre-existing conditions lapse." (Stolberg, Pear, and Goodnough)

Now that you've caught that bus, Virginia Foxx, what are you gonna do with it?

"The decision puts Republicans in Congress into a political box. Most of them tried over and over to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And many of them survived the Democratic wave in midterm elections last month only by vowing to preserve the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions..." 

If Judge O'Connor's ruling stands -- and if will all ultimately be up to Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts and the other Supremes -- I wouldn't want to be a Republican running for reelection in 2020.

2. The North Carolina disease is catching and has spread. Alert the Centers for Disease Control!

Scott Walker, the defeated governor of Wisconsin, signed into law a last-minute power-grab to insure that the Democrat who replaces him will have considerably less power.

Berger/Moore are the proud parents!

3. In the first-ever "fact-checker" poll of American citizens, fewer than 3 in 10 Americans — including fewer than 4 in 10 Republicans — believe the lies that Trump has repeated over and over. (Kessler and Clement, et al.)

And if it's any consolation, those most likely to believe Trump's lies are Fox News imbibers.

4. On Friday, the UNC Board of Governors voted to reject the proposal to build a $5.3-million new shrine to house Silent Sam. (AP)

Back to the drawing board, they said.

There's still a chance, in other words, that the hardline conservatives on the BOG will try to force Sam back up on his pedestal and down the throats of the students.

5. On Friday, NC Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the General Assembly's voter photo ID law, saying it's "a solution in search of a problem" and pointing out it would have done nothing to stop the absentee ballot fraud now exposed in the NC-9.

That's because Republicans aren't interested in actual election fraud, only in making it harder for some people to exercise their right to vote.

Republican Power-Grabbers in Wisconsin Take Lessons from Berger/Moore in How To Cure the Voters of Their Democracy

What's going on in Wisconsin today is so outrageous, it's a complete echo of what went on in North Carolina in 2016 in the month following the election of our Governor Roy Cooper while the Berger/Moore duopoly in the NC General Assembly still had Mr. Bobblehead Pat McCrory in office to rubber-stamp their power-grabs.

Wisconsin voters swept Democrats into office in most statewide races -- governor, attorney general, state treasurer, secretary of state, US senator -- but the Republican-dominated state legislature (as in North Carolina) got busy rewriting the rules ahead of the swearing-in of new Democratic Governor Tony Evers.

Hilariously, the Wisconsin Republicans justify their action this way: When we took full control of Wisconsin -- governorship and state lege -- in 2010, we transferred too much power to our new Republican governor, Scott Walker, and we now realize our grievous error. "Maybe we made some mistakes giving too much power to Gov. Walker and I'd be open to looking at that to see if there are areas we should change that," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told reporters a day after the general election.

Republicans in the Age of Trump -- the only thing that matters is holding power.

EARTHQUAKE: Paul Ryan Won't Run Again

I didn't think he'd bow out, but it's all over Twitter that Paul Ryan has told his closest associates that he won't run for reelection.

Ryan's expected to make a formal announcement to House Republicans later today.

Maybe it was the #ToxicTrumpEffect or maybe it was the prospect of losing reelection to the #IronStache. Either way, this opens the door wide for either steelworker Randy Bryce or schoolteacher Cathy Myers. A Democrat can win this congressional district.

No sudden Republican retirement from Congress will hit the GOP harder than this one.

Paul Ryan's Rocky Road

House Speaker Paul Ryan has until June 1 to file to run for reelection to the US House from Wisconsin. So far he hasn't, and he continues to say that he hasn't made up his mind. Some think he won't run again, considering the forecast of heavy weather and considering how there have already been two surprising blue flips in Wisconsin this year (here and here, just this week).

Some think he will run again, and I'm one of those. Look, he's a nice guy, and a nice guy wouldn't leave his party without a credible successor waiting in the wings. If he were going to vacate the seat he would have let everyone know months ago, wouldn't he? He's running again, and it may be

Randy Bryce

his most difficult race ever.

"The Iron Stache"
Wisconsin ironworker Randy Bryce announced his campaign to unseat Ryan all the way back in June of 2017 with an announcement video that got the attention of national Democrats including the DCCC. Bryce has since raised almost $5 million, so he's definitely going to be a playah.

He calls himself IronStache on Twitter for obvious reasons -- that horseshoe of facial hair and his laboring life as a union ironworker. He's also a veteran of the army and a cancer survivor, and he fits that Wisconsin district now perhaps better than Paul Ryan does, especially as Ryan has spent less and less time there and stopped holding public town hall events. Bryce says on his website, "My values are my neighbors’ values, and we know that Washington has gotten way off track. Whether it’s healthcare or jobs, national security or education, our democracy or the environment – there’s not one issue where Paul Ryan and Donald Trump are headed in the right direction."

The Iron Stache now has a primary opponent, a school teacher and member of the local Janesville school board named Cathy Myers. (Janesville is Paul Ryan's hometown.) She's also running as a blue collar warrior: "So if you think now is the time for a Member of Congress to represent the truckers, the teachers, the factory workers, and the small business owners, I am asking you to join this campaign." She's perhaps the more orthodox progressive.

Myers also has an effective announcement video:





Bryce can probably overpower her with his impressive war chest plus his long head start, though Sheryl Gay Stolberg reported in yesterday's NYTimes that Myers is gaining support. We'll have to wait until August 14 to see how this Democratic primary turns out.

In the meantime, Paul Ryan -- assuming he runs -- will have his own repeat primary contest with a white nationalist and anti-Semite, Paul Nehlen, who lost to Ryan by 68 points in 2016. He'll easily beat Nehlen again, but the fall showdown may not be so easy, whether it's Randy Bryce or Cathy Myers facing him.

Another Flip: Wisconsin Supreme Court Seat Goes To a Democrat

Gov. Scott Walker

Milwaukee Judge Rebecca Dallet easily won election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court last night (56% to 44%) over incumbent Republican Judge Michael Screnock who had portrayed himself in TV ads as a “rule of law” conservative endorsed by the National Rifle Association.

Screnock had been appointed to the high court by Governor Scott Walker.

In a March debate with Screnock, Dallet hit him for advocating "on behalf of gerrymandering, rigging our maps in our state, which has been found to be unconstitutional.” She also pointed out that he had a history of physically protesting abortion clinics: “He has stood in front of women’s ability to access their lawful rights, and he’s been arrested twice for doing that.”

Democrats have not won a state Supreme Court seat since 1995, and even with Dallet's win last night, there is still a 4-3 Republican majority on the court.

"Underdog" Becomes Top Dog: Long-Shot Democrat Wins Special Wisconsin Senate Seat

Patty Schachtner

AP reporting: Patty Schachtner defeated Republican state Rep. Adam Jarchow for an open state Senate seat Tuesday in an upset victory for struggling Wisconsin Democrats, signaling voter anger toward President Donald Trump that could cost the GOP more legislative seats in the fall elections.

...Schachtner, the St. Croix County medical examiner and a Somerset school board member, had entered the race in northwestern Wisconsin’s traditionally conservative 10th Senate District as the clear underdog.

The Republicans fought hard for the seat, nominating a young state representative to carry the Trumpian message. Plus Americans for Prosperity poured in the bucks along with the Republican State Leadership Committee. But nothing helped turn back the blue wave.

Wisconsin Voter ID Law Struck Down

Yesterday. By a Federal judge. Thus increasing the legal precedents against North Carolina's law, which doesn't go into full effect until 2016.

In the meantime, the targets for court action need to be the squeezing down of Early Voting, the deliberate fencing out of young voters, the elimination of straight-ticket voting, the barring of out-of-precinct voting ... and the list goes on.

Solidarity Forever

In view of what's been stirring in Wisconsin, and spreading to other states, and the unprecedented verbal attacks on teachers spewing out of Fox News and talk radio, and the wholly skewed values of the contemporary GOP that glorify banksters and vilify public workers, a reader has shared an original verse added to the old organizing song, "Solidarity Forever":

It is we who teach the classes, hold the workshops in the schools,

Go to conferences and meetings to expand our thoughts and tools.

Yet now we are reviled, told we're nothing more than fools,

But united we are strong.

Solidarity Forever, etc.

Go Wisconsin!

Former Senator Russ Feingold, whom the voters of Wisconsin retired last fall, has launched Progressives United, "aimed at countering the impact of corporate money in politics."

“Washington, sadly, has become a playground for corporations and our lobbyists,” Mr. Feingold said. “It’s time we stood up to the total dominance of corporate power that’s invaded our democracy and hijacked our elections.”

Fight the Kochtopus!

Sidenote: Wisconsin was smoking something really mind-bending last November, because they also turned their entire state government over to the Republicans. Their new Republican governor immediately went to war with public employees, moving to take away their rights to collective bargaining.

The result: an uprising of citizens that makes it look like "Cairo moved to Madison," as someone remarked today. I've been perusing the Wisconsin State Journal for photos and local coverage. And loving it that the 14 Democrats in the state Senate have disappeared, preventing the 19 Senate Republicans from achieving a quorum. Also loving it that there's massive resistance on the part of public school teachers and other workers whose labor is totally essential for the functioning of the state but is dissed by the Republicans.