Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) Has a Credible Democratic Opponent

Noticing white supremacist and eight-term Congressman Steve King's recent approving retweet of an avowed admirer of Adolph Hitler, I began to wonder about his 4th District of Iowa (which contains the university town of Ames) and about what Democrat is running against him.

This is the Democrat, J.D. Scholten, who's actually out-raised King by a substantial amount.



Scholten is an ex-professional baseball player and is working now as a litigation paralegal. He's a fifth generation Iowan, and he certainly looks like he "fits" the district.

Never mind, though, because the experts say Steve King can't be beaten (just as they say Virginia Foxx can't be beaten). Steve King is so smug about easily winning every time, he hardly bothers to raise campaign money, and he's very comfortable spouting Trumpist racism about how white civilization is endangered by the invasion of brown people over our borders.

The Republican Party under Trump has become very comfortable with open hostility toward non-whites, and perhaps the 4th District of Iowa will continue that embrace, but it's heartening that a man of Scholten's qualities is willing to stand up against that.

You Can Make Them Stop on November 6

Among other pernicious twists in the new Senate bill 325, which would monkey with early voting in North Carolina, is a provision that mandates all early voting sites would have to have uniform hours — 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. — during weekday early voting.

In Watauga during recent elections, the Watauga Board of Elections opted to open some early voting sites later than others -- like the one in the ASU Student Union -- and open them for reduced hours -- like the one in the ASU Student Union. That would no longer be allowed by the new law.

Seven a.m. to seven p.m. Twelve-hour days, with resulting staffing needs and salaries. The requirement seems designed to discourage multiple early voting sites in counties. And that's pernicious.

Yesterday, in an emergency teleconference meeting of the State Board of Elections, the Board criticized the authors of S325 for never consulting the Board of its staff about the proposed changes. Only two of the four Republicans on the Board actually showed up for the meeting -- Four Eggers and John Lewis -- who screamed that the Board's emergency meeting was purely political.

I'll tell you what's political, answered Board member Stella Anderson: "Lawmakers proposing major changes of this sort without consulting experts and the very people tasked with running elections in the state."

Not a Race to Watch -- But Anyway, Fun

Kaine and Stewart

Tuesday's Republican primary for the US Senate put Corey Stewart in an awkward place: He won with less than 50% of the vote (on very puny Republican turnout), and every big buck Republican and conservative machine immediately announced they wouldn't be participating at the US Senate level in Virginia this year.

Because of Corey Stewart (who, like his idol Twitterman, trails disreputable baggage).

See, he's a Civil War fantasist who hangs with white nationalists. "Stewart launched his Senate campaign after surprising -- and alarming -- national Republicans by winning 42.5% in last year's gubernatorial primary against former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie." (Gillespie went on to lose the governorship to Democrat Ralph Northam.)

Corey Stewart, campaigning last year

Stewart made Charlottesville's push to remove its statue of Robert E. Lee the centerpiece of his campaign for governor, holding rallies for the monument and displaying Confederate flags while defending "heritage" at his events. At one point, he attended an Old South ball.

He attended a news conference with the leader of the white supremacist protest that later resulted in the death of a counter-protester in Charlottesville. And after that counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed in a hit-and-run, Stewart blamed the violence on "both sides."

With Twitterman, Stewart has become the norm in the Republican Party of 2018, and the now "old guard" of sane Republicans are withdrawing to the wings. The Koch network, which runs Americans for Prosperity, announced it would not support Stewart -- or anyone else -- and the US Senate Republican campaign arm is giving Stewart a pass too. Ouch.

Incumbent Democratic Senator Tim Kaine had no primary opponent. He'll run strong statewide, and meanwhile Corey Stewart is likely to depress turnout among suburban Republicans ... hurting the reelection prospects of at least three endangered Republican US House members.

R Barbara Comstock (Va. 10th CD) ... challenged by D Jennifer Wexton

R Dave Brat (Va. 7th CD) ... challenged by D Abigail Spanberger

R Scott Taylor (Va. 2nd CD) ... challenged by D Elaine Luria

Now those are races to watch.

GOP in Raleigh: Desperate Much?

Photo ramcquade.com

At 5:07 this morning, North Carolina election law expert Gerry Cohen began tweeting about a new election law revealed late last night in the General Assembly and already scheduled for a 10 a.m. committee hearing this morning -- a bill deceptively titled (natch!) "The Uniform & Expanded Early Voting Act," which will -- despite its rosy title -- squeeze down early voting from 17 days to 10 days and completely eliminate voting on the last Saturday and do some other wholly unnecessary and pernicious shit.

They are that worried.

May we all turn in their general direction and vow, "You think that's gonna stop us?"

Jonathan Jordan: "I Have a Very Interesting Job, and I'm Very Good At It"

At a House Finance Committee meeting yesterday
Photo Colin Campbell

Biggest Damn Ignorant Fool on the Planet

Headline at this hour on 13 June 2018: "Trump declares North Korea 'no longer a nuclear threat' "

A Race to Watch in Virginia: Incumbent Barbara Comstock v. Jennifer Wexton

Jennifer Wexton

Back many months ago, when we first started taking detailed dives into the building BlueWave2018, we focused a posting here on Virginia's 10th Congressional District:

Incumbent Republican Barbara Comstock, often mentioned as one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress. Cook Political Report rates this race a "toss-up." It's heavily suburban.

Insurgent Democrats -- A whole tribe of them wanting to run in the primary on June 12th:

Kimberly Adams -- educator

Julia Biggins -- scientist

Alison Friedman -- human trafficking activist and a former Obama staffer

Dave Hanson -- Naval intelligence officer

Dan Helmer -- veteran, has won the backing of the Democratic veterans group VoteVets

Julien Modica -- charitably described as a "perennial candidate"

Paul Pelletier -- 9th Democrat to get into the race. A former Federal prosecutor who directed high-profile public corruption investigations of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former congressmen Robert W. Ney and William Jefferson

Michael Pomerleano -- an immigrant from Romania with a Ph.D. from Harvard in business economics

Deep Sran -- school founder

Lindsey Davis Stover --communications strategist and a former Obama staffer

State Sen. Jennifer T. Wexton (D-Loudoun) -- already well known in the district and has the backing of most of the Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates

By the time filing came around, many of these potential candidates had dropped out, and only six ended up running. Of the six who ran, State Senator Jennifer T. Wexton came out on top -- by quite a lot. I liked Wexton's chances way back last December and ran her photograph.

She's a state senator from Loudon County, which is both the heart of and the population center for the 10th District. She's a lawyer and a former prosecutor, spending four years as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney for Loudoun County. She's done a ton of pro bono legal work (and got official recognition for it), served as president of the local bar, and was appointed a special judge in Loudoun District Court. She won her seat in the State Senate in a special election in 2014 and was reelected in 2015 with over 56% of the vote.

She's a suburban mom and an accomplished professional. She's causing plenty of excitement today in Virginia and in Washington, DeeCee.

There's a Special Place in Hell for a General Assembly that Encourages Giant Pork Corporations Spraying Pig Shit on Their Neighbors

Indebted to Jeffrey C. Billman for bringing us up to date on a new North Carolina Farm Bill, now moving through the Republican Senate in Raleigh:

...among other things, [it] carves out even more special protections for multibillion-dollar pork producers. Following a law passed last year that restricted the amount of money neighbors of hog farms can recoup in nuisance lawsuits — industry advocates tried but failed to make it retroactive, which would have negated more than two dozen pending cases against Smithfield Foods — this year's Farm Bill redefines the word nuisance itself.

If it becomes law, agricultural operations can't be sued for causing nuisances if they follow practices, methods, or procedures "generally accepted and routinely utilized by other agricultural and forestry operations in [the] region."

Translation: If everyone does it, it must be okay. (It's also okay with Republicans because it's mainly poor blacks who are suffering.

Wanna know what an environmental nuisance is? It was summed up by the headline in The Guardian: "A Million Tons of Feces and an Unbearable Stench: Life Near Industrial Pig Farms."

Wanna know what another environmental nuisance catastrophe is? Take a look at the power-mad and corrupt boy's club in Raleigh (President: Phil Berger; Vice-President in Charge of Sitting by the Door: Tim Moore) and what they've done -- or tried to do until stopped by judges -- since 2013.

Waterkeeper Alliance

Congressman Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) Has a Primary Today, and It's No Walk on the Appalachian Trail

Donald J. Trump endorsed Mark Sanford's Republican opponent today, with only three hours left for voting in the primary: “Mark Sanford has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to MAGA,” Trump tweeted. “He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina. I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in SC, a state I love. She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. VOTE Katie!”

Arrington has criticized Sanford primarily for criticizing Trump.

Curiouser and curiouser, because Arrington herownself has a history of dissing Trump: "In a March 2016 Facebook post, she praised Mitt Romney on the night that he delivered a rebuke of then-Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, whom Romney called 'a phony, a fraud' and someone who was 'playing the members of the American public for suckers.' 'LOVE MITT ROMNEY!!!!!' Arrington wrote that night. When challenged by someone about the posting, Arrington doubled-down, writing that she 'really has a problem with the moral and ethical issue of someone being president who has done nothing more than ... make fun of people'."

It appears that Arrington has had a change of heart. It also appears (again) that Trump doesn't read.

Whoever wins this Republican primary will have this guy -- Joe Cunningham -- as the likely Democratic opponent. We like Joe's chances, whether it's against Mark Sanford or finger-in-the-wind Katie Arrington.