Let the US House Resignations Begin!

Even as the national GOP has been making much noise about recruiting women to run for Congress as Republicans, one of only 13 Republican women in the US Congress has just announced her decision not to run again.

The announcement by Rep. Susan Brooks, who has represented the 5th District of Indiana since her election in 2012, "stunned colleagues and party leaders," according to the WashPost.

"Though [Brooks] won reelection by 14 percentage points, Democrats figured they had a chance in a district north of Indianapolis that included the kind of wealthy suburbs Democrats did well in last cycle."

Bet there'll be additional stunning resignations before this year is out.

Good Luck With That Project, Brethren

Michael Whatley

CREDIT MICHAEL WHATLEY FACEBOOK PAGE

At the North Carolina Republican state convention last weekend, there was a good deal of public talk about how the NCGOP should and can win back urban areas.

“The first thing is that the party has to get branded as the party of family, faith and fun,” said Jim Womack, who was running to be the next state party chair and who received the most in raw votes but who lost the chairmanship anyway to "weighted voting."

"Family, faith and fun."

"Has to get branded."

diospswwixei ... Sorry. Sudden onset of "HAR-DE-HAR-HAR," and I doubled-over for a minute there.

Fun is funny enough, but it's the faith part that is deeply and offensively funny.

The Christianity of those evangelicals who've been publicly drunk with Trump-love doesn't resemble any Christianity I recognize from actually growing up on the Bible and going to church three blessed times a week. Is it not the essence of idolatry, their winking at and excuses for a shameless liar, a deeply cruel and immoral man, "a pagan who embodies the seven deadly sins"? One Watauga County Republican even claimed that he actually heard the voice of God when Trump came down the escalator, informing him personally that Trump was the future savior of both Christianity and the nation. God chose a man of those values and that behavior to save Christlikeness on earth? 

By "urban" we assume Womack meant black, and let me tell you something. Black Christians are the best Christians, and they tend to recognize hypocrisy when they see it.

But back to the Republican state convention and their discussion of re-branding themselves for the urban audience. Jim Womack, the candidate for state party chair who got snaked out of winning it, promised that if elected to leadership he would start running "ads on radio stations that cater to African-Americans." Boy! Wouldn't you like to get the contract to produce those radio spots!

Michael Whatley, the man who actually won the chairmanship, said the party needs "a permanent presence in urban communities. And it has to remind voters of Republican economic policies he said have benefited those communities." “It’s messaging but it’s also presence,” he said.

Maybe the NCGOP should open a chain of second-hand stores.

Retired Marine Scott Cooper Running to Replace Republican George Holding in Congress

Glad to see so many retired Marines announcing for Congress in 2020!

Scott Cooper retired from the Marine Corps in 2013 after doing a few things:

Twenty years of service specializing in operational leadership, strategic planning and communication, air power, nation-building, and cross-cultural liaisons at the executive level. 

• Squadron commanding officer. Deployed 200-person squadron to Afghanistan, flying in combat. Squadron recognized with Phoenix Award as the #1 unit for maintenance readiness within the Dept of Defense. 

• Strategic analyst and advisor – served as speech writer to the Marine Corps three-star Deputy Commandant for Aviation, responsible for analyzing long-range alternative future security environments and recommending future aviation force structures. 

• Over four years of international service in eight overseas deployments throughout the world. Significant experience in inter-agency coordination and overseas development. Led initial military team into Djibouti in 2002, establishing key relationships with Djiboutian civilians and military. Led U.S. military and embassy planning team efforts in 2002 contingency plans for American citizen evacuations in Pakistan, Jordan, and Egypt. 

• Deployed to Fallujah, Iraq during key tribal engagement efforts in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, the “turning point” in the campaign. 

• Flew Iraqi no-fly zone (Northern and Southern Watch), Bosnian no-fly zone (Deny Flight), Kosovo Air Campaign (Allied Force), Iraq Campaign (Iraqi Freedom – three tours), and Afghanistan Campaign (Enduring Freedom). 

• Key leader and technical expert in the Counter-Improvised Explosive Device efforts in Iraq. Led inter-service and inter-agency effort that achieved an over 50 percent reduction in fatalities in 2007.

Okay. You've got our attention, Colonel.

His philosophical outlook is high-minded (if a tad Little-Mary-Sunshine-ish). He writes on his Facebook page:

I’m proud of my 20 years in the Marine Corps, especially when I look back at all those who gave so much for our country. What strikes me about that experience is that no one asked where you were from, who your parents were, or how much money they made. No one cared about what religion you were, or with what political party you identified....

The last couple of years, it feels like we are more divided than ever. Somehow, the idea has taken hold that those who don’t share your political beliefs are your enemy. I couldn’t disagree more. We all share the same proud title, the most important one in a democracy – citizen.

He's good friends with Richard "Otter" Bew who ran (alas, unsuccessfully) in the Democratic primary for the special election in NC-3. Maybe Cooper's race in the NC 2nd Congressional District will turn winner next year. The "2020 Tracker" at PoliticsNC.com rates the district "competitive."

Scott Cooper is challenging Republican incumbent George Holding, who has played a potted plant in Congress.

Off and Running for 2020: Patsy Keever Announces Bid for NC Senate

Patsy Keever, a former chair of the NC Democratic Party, has announced she's running for the NC Senate District 48, which includes all of Henderson and Transylvania counties and part of southern Buncombe County -- a district rated "strong Republican" which is currently represented in Raleigh by a hamburger hustler (incumbent Republican Chuck Edwards owns a string of McDonald's).

Keever spent 25 years as a public school teacher. In fact, she was still a full-time teacher when she first ran for (and won) a seat on the Buncombe County Commission in 1992. She served a total of 12 years, winning reelection twice. In 2004, Keever jumped into a Congressional race against incumbent 11th District Congressman Charles H. Taylor and got some 45% of the vote.

In 2010 Keever ran a successful primary against an incumbent Democrat in the NC House District 115, and when that incumbent resigned after the primary, Keever was appointed to complete his term and then won her own two-year term in the NC House that fall.

In 2012 she again attempted a run for the US Congress, this time in the 10th Congressional District against incumbent Republican Patrick McHenry.

In other words, she's a veteran of political campaigns and knows what both success and failure looks like. A warrior who no doubt understands the odds in a "strong Republican" district and knows full-well what it'll take to win.

Incumbent Republican Chuck Edwards appears to be a species of Senate furniture. He was appointed to the Senate by Pat McCrory in 2016 when Tom Apodaca retired before the end of his term. Edwards went on to win election to the seat that fall.

Edwards doesn't stray from NC Republican orthodoxy. He's dead-set against expanding Medicaid to poor people, and he thinks that the quality of public education has very little to do with the state's money investment in it. He brags on his website about what a "po boy" he was growing up, but that rings as hollow as Virginia Foxx's heart, given the policies Edwards is now voting for in the NC General Assembly. Edwards sponsored a controversial 2017 bill to change at-large Asheville city council elections to a district system, a power-grab which 75 percent of city referendum voters opposed (though very few of the voters in Senate District 48 are Asheville residents).

If 2018 was famous in North Carolina for the flipping of "lean Republican" districts, can't 2020 be even more famous for the flipping of "strong Republican" districts?

The NCGOP Elected a New Chair Yesterday

He's called "businessman Michael Whatley." He's from Gaston County. Here's how he describes himself: "Since volunteering for Jesse Helms in his 1984 race against Jim Hunt as a sophomore at Watauga High School, Michael has knocked on doors, worked on phone banks, put out yard signs and raised money for Republicans in Local, Legislative, Congressional, Senatorial and Presidential races from one end of North Carolina to the other." Republican conservative activist Brant Clifton rebuts that: "Thirty days ago, NO ONE had heard of Michael Whatley. He has no record of recruiting candidates, promoting the party platform, running campaigns, or raising money for party organizations."

The Tea Party conservatives were backing Jim Womack, currently the chair of the Lee County Republican Party and a harder edged conservative. Womack actually won the raw vote at the convention yesterday, but then something magical -- called "weighted voting" -- intervened, and presto-chango, Michael Whatley came out on top.

So the conservatives are pissed. The establishment (Dallas Woodhouse) is still in control, and a Republican primary against Senator Thom Tillis, the establishment's boy, is looming next March.

Good times!

The Blunt Truth: Republican Government in North Carolina Is Illegitimate. Bottomline: They're Bastards

Reporting by Michael Wines:

The advocacy group Common Cause said in court documents submitted in Raleigh on Thursday that the Hofeller files include new evidence showing how North Carolina Republicans misled a federal court to prolong the life of their map of state legislative districts, which had been ruled unconstitutional.

The Republicans told the federal court hearing the map case that they would not be able to draw new legislative districts and hold public hearings on them in time for a proposed special election in late 2017 or early 2018. In fact, Common Cause said, Mr. Hofeller’s files show that almost all the work had already been done. 

While the advocacy group’s court filing did not include any of the underlying documents from Mr. Hofeller’s storage drives, it stated that a detailed analysis of the maps found among his files showed that new boundaries had been drawn for more than 97 percent of the state’s proposed Senate districts and 90 percent of House districts. 

The federal court’s decision later not to call a special election left the existing legislative gerrymander — and a veto-proof Republican majority in both the state House and Senate — in place for roughly an additional year. 

Republicans used that extra time to, among other things, try to tilt the state judiciary rightward, remap elected judges’ districts in the state’s largest county, and tweak election rules for the state Supreme Court. They restructured the State Board of Elections to dilute the influence of Roy Cooper, the state’s Democratic governor. And they tacked six proposed constitutional amendments onto last November’s ballot — many of them, like a proposal to make fishing and hunting a constitutional right, aimed at pumping up Republican turnout. 

The new evidence about the actions of the Republicans in North Carolina “raises serious questions about the legitimacy of their hold on power in the state,” said Eric Holder, an attorney general in the Obama administration who now heads the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. The committee’s nonprofit arm has financed the Common Cause lawsuit. “They should now explain to the court — and the people of North Carolina — why they are so intent on manipulating the election process for their own benefit,” Mr. Holder said in a written statement.

Or What's a Blue Wave For?

The NC House Republicans failed yesterday to override Governor Roy Cooper's veto of their newest attempt to criminalize abortion and stigmatize doctors who provide it ... the “Born Alive Abortion Survivors Act,” a focus-group tested title for a bill meant to further politicize health care for women and tar Governor Cooper as a supporter of infanticide.

Bollocks.

Two Democrats broke ranks and voted with the Republicans, but that wasn't enough to overcome the veto. Last fall's election guaranteed the collapse of the Republican super-majority in the House, and yesterday saw the first example of that.

Rep. Ray Russell Hits a Lick for Voter Rights

RALEIGH -- Monday, Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law a bipartisan bill that is a milestone for Rep. Ray Russell.

House Bill 646 improves the process for universities, government agencies, and other organizations to certify their photo IDs as Voter IDs. Rep. Russell was a primary sponsor of the bill. He, along with Rep. Zack Hawkins (D-Durham), became the first freshman Democrats to have a bill signed into law this session.

In addition to Reps. Russell and Hawkins, primary sponsors include two veteran lawmakers, Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett) and Rep. Jon Hardister (R-Guilford).

The bill becomes law amid a myriad of court challenges to sweeping voter ID changes instituted by the NC General Assembly last year.

“Even though court Constitutional challenges have and will be filed against North Carolina’s voter ID law, we must act to make sure every citizen, including college students, can vote without undue burden, regardless of the outcome of these court challenges,” Rep. Russell said.

“The voter ID law written last year placed insurmountable barriers for using university IDs as voter IDs,” he added. In March 2019, only 72 of over 850 schools and other institutions had their photo IDs approved as voter IDs for 2020 elections.

Rep. Russell and Rep. Hawkins sounded the alarm bell on problems with student IDs earlier in the session. In March 2019, Appalachian State was one of only 5 UNC System schools whose IDs were approved by the State Board of Elections for voting. House Bill 646 modifies the law so that additional IDs can be certified for use as a voter IDs and creates a new round of submissions to the State Board of Elections later this year.

HB 646 also addresses problems with early voting in odd-number year elections, restoring some local flexibility regarding hours and days for early voting in municipal elections.

Since beginning service at the NCGA in January, Rep. Russell hit the ground running with primary sponsorships to 16 different bills. For a full list of bills for which he has been primary sponsor, visit https://www.ncleg.gov/Members/IntroducedBills/H/753/2019/true.

North Carolina Trends

For what it's worth... (hattip PoliticsNC)