Month: June 2022

Democrat Rep. Speier Wants States Banning Abortions To Force ‘Impregnator’ To Pay $350,000 ‘Bond’

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA), in an interview with CNN’s Jim Acosta, condemned the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and suggested that states banning abortion should force the “impregnator” to post a $350,000 “bond” to help take care of the child.

Speier, who shared her personal story of abortion on the House floor in a 2011 speech, was shown a clip of that moment during an interview with Acosta on Sunday.

“I realize the luxury, frankly, that I had,” to have an abortion at the time she explained, noting that luxury was “taken away from women today across this country.”

Speier went on to express agreement with fellow Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who suggested Supreme Court Justices need to be impeached because they “lied under oath.”

“There’s no question they lied and they did that under oath. So there should be consequences,” she concurred.

That’s when things turned very, very strange.

RELATED: Justice Alito’s Opinion Doesn’t Just Overturn Roe v. Wade, It Shreds It to Pieces

Jackie Speier: Force ‘Impregnator’ to Pay a Bond

In one of the more absurd responses to the abortion ruling by the Supreme Court, Representative Jackie Speier tossed out a suggestion that state legislatures take up bills that would force the “impregnator” to post a $350,000 bond to help care for the child.

“For all those states now saying a woman can’t get an abortion, I’d suggest their legislatures require the impregnators to put up a $350,000 bond so a mother can take care of that child,” she told Acosta.

Speier appears to, like many in her party, struggle to understand how sex works and that it takes two people to create life through pregnancy. She also seems to be a bit ignorant on the state of the economy and the number of people who have $350,000 in their bank accounts.

According to Open Secrets, Speier has a net worth of over $11 million. 

Speier has made past arguments in which she focuses on the “impregnator” when it comes to abortion.

She warned in December as the case was being heard in the Supreme Court, “I think the country hasn’t seen the rage of women speaking out.”

She said pro-life laws are “intended to be misogynistic” and say nothing about the “responsibility of the impregnator.”

RELATED: Gun Rights Victory: Supreme Court Tosses New York Law Restricting Concealed Carry

Made the Argument Before

Just last month, Jackie Speier said the ‘impregnator’ should post a $300,000 bond and cited mask mandates when arguing the government shouldn’t have control of women’s bodies.

“He should be subject to a DNA test [and] required to post a $300,000 bond for the child,” she tweeted, suggesting the Supreme Court believes pregnancies are a result of “immaculate conception.”

“The same people who don’t want mask mandates imposed on their bodies are ready to take control of our uteruses,” she added.

Speier’s reaction to the abortion case is similar to that of Representative Cori Bush, who likewise wanted to focus on the ‘impregnator.’

 

In that case, Bush (D-MO) wanted to know why Congress hadn’t been taking up “sperm regulation legislation.”

“You know, there’s a reason why we don’t see sperm regulation legislation,” Bush said in an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid. “There’s a reason why we don’t see mandated vasectomies.”

“You know, the very idea that we would take away men’s bodily autonomy is outrageous, like, it’s unfathomable,” she added.

“But truthfully sperm are busy. It’s busy. Who is regulating that? Who is saying something about it? … Where is that legislation?”

Speier, meanwhile, has argued that abortion is such a ‘luxury’ in today’s world that it amounts to little more than one having their wisdom teeth extracted.

“Abortions are one of the safest procedures you could do on an outpatient basis, safer than doing an endoscopy or doing a wisdom teeth extraction,” said Speier.

Of course, that’s not true. It only applies if you’re willing to completely overlook the fact that neither an endoscopy nor wisdom teeth extraction involves the death of a baby.

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Colorado Pregnancy Center Set On Fire, Vandalized Hours After Roe v. Wade Decision

Posted on by Becky Noble

A pregnancy center in Longmont, Colorado was vandalized with spray paint and set on fire early Saturday morning, just hours after the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. 

According to authorities, fire broke out around 3 a.m. Officials also said that the building sustained fire damage.

RELATED: Cameras Capture Biden’s Cheat Sheet Showing Hilarious Instructions: ‘YOU Take YOUR Seat’

Other Damage And Who Might Have Caused It

In addition to the fire, which authorities are investigating as arson, the front entrance to the building had been vandalized with black spray paint with symbols often used by Antifa, and a statement reading, “if abortions aren’t safe neither are you.”

That phrase has been found at the scene of other attacks, like the firebombing in Buffalo, New York.

Radical pro-abortion activists groups like “Jane’s Revenge” and “Ruth Sent Us” have taken credit for some of the attacks.

Protests and violence broke out in several cities over the weekend following the new landmark Supreme Court decision.

RELATED: Biden State Dept. Refusing To Cooperate With Afghanistan Inspector General Review

Ramping Up Violence

The violent rhetoric and protests by leftists pro-abortion activists has been escalating since a draft of the decision was leaked in May. While speculation abounds as to who might have leaked the document, there has been no recent information on the incident.

Earlier this month, an assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanugh was thwarted when a California man was arrested near Kavanaugh’s home in Maryland carrying such items as knives, a pistol, ammunition, pepper spray, and zip ties.

Since then, there have been attacks on crisis pregnancy centers and churches in at least 20 states and Washington D.C. The attacks have ranged from graffiti on the walls of centers and churches in Washington state and in the south, Molotov cocktails hurled at the pro-life Wisconsin Family Action Center, and a firebombing previous to the one in Colorado taking place in Buffalo, New York.

Abortion protesters also essentially held Arizona lawmakers hostage Friday night as they attempted to breach the State capitol building. Elected officials were told not to exit the building and tear gas was used to disperse the crowd.

Other Supreme Court Justices have had protests take place outside their homes. 

RELATED: CNN’s Ana Navarro Uses Relatives With Down Syndrome, Autism To Defend Right To Have Abortions 

When Rhetoric Meets Reality

Back in 2020, then Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) appeared to threaten Justices Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch should any abortion laws be rolled back.

“I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

After the decision on Friday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called the Court “illegitimate” and encouraged pro-abortion activists to go “into the streets” to fight the ruling.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), also previously known for encouraging confrontation after former President Donald Trump’s election, also joined protesters outside the Supreme Court building,

“The hell with the Supreme Court—we will defy them. Women will be in control of their bodies.” Then, referencing the crowd, said to reporters,”You see this out here? You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

The FBI is assisting in the investigation in Colorado.

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The post Colorado Pregnancy Center Set On Fire, Vandalized Hours After Roe v. Wade Decision appeared first on The Political Insider.

AOC Wants ‘Consequences’ For Supreme Court Justices, Impeachment For Clarence Thomas

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Far-left Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is calling for there to be “consequences” for Supreme Court Justices she claims “lied under oath” and suggested they need to face impeachment.

The Supreme Court on Friday overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion at the federal level.

Some Senators have claimed that by stating during their Senate confirmation hearings that Roe v. Wade was “settled” – which it was at the time they went through the nomination process – Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh “lied under oath.”

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), for example, released a statement indicating he “trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they also believed” the landmark ruling was “settled legal precedent.”

“What I believe that the President and the Democratic Party needs to come to terms with is that this is not just a crisis of Roe, this is a crisis of our democracy,” AOC said in an interview with Chuck Todd on Sunday.

The congresswoman was then asked about investigations being launched as a means to remedy the left’s perceived grievance.

RELATED: Justice Alito’s Opinion Doesn’t Just Overturn Roe v. Wade, It Shreds It to Pieces

AOC Calls for Impeachment of Supreme Court Justices

Being a day that ends in ‘Y,’ AOC explained to Todd that investigations and possibly impeachment were the way to go following the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Todd asked her if she thinks “the House Judiciary Committee should begin the process of an investigation” into Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. 

“If we allow Supreme Court nominees to lie under oath and secure lifetime appointments … we must see that through,” she said of possible investigations.

“There must be consequences for such a deeply destabilizing action and hostile takeover of our democratic institutions,” AOC hyperventilated. “This is a crisis of legitimacy.”

AOC then focused her ire toward justice Clarence Thomas, the longest-serving justice, the second black justice, and the most conservative member currently serving on the Supreme Court.

“We have a Supreme Court Justice whose wife participated in January 6th,” AOC said failing to discern between those who wanted election fraud investigated and those who took part in the Capitol riot.

AOC has targeted Thomas for impeachment for some time, following reports that Thomas’ wife, Virginia Thomas, exchanged text messages with Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about alleged election fraud.

“Clarence Thomas should resign,” she has tweeted.

RELATED: AOC Calls To Impeach Clarence Thomas, The Only Black Supreme Court Justice

Ocasio-Cortez Calls Court ‘Illegitimate’

Kavanaugh has also been the subject of smears from the New York socialist, having been maligned by AOC for being “credibly” accused of sexual assault.

“Reminder that Brett Kavanaugh *still* remains credibly accused of sexual assault on multiple accounts [with] corroborated details [and] this year the FBI admitted it never fully investigated,” she tweeted in December.

“Yet the court is letting him decide on whether to legalize forced birth in the US,” Ocasio-Cortez added.

In reality, a Senate Judiciary report from 2018 which investigated the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh showed there was “no evidence” to support any of the claims that were made against him – including the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford.

After the Supreme Court’s ruling, AOC joined protesters outside the building in chanting that the Court itself is “illegitimate,” even as Kavanaugh was the victim of an assassination attempt and there have been nearly 50 attacks on pro-life centers across the country.

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Republicans shocked to find that refusing to be on Jan. 6 committee means not being on committee

Posted on (Updated by Mark Sumner

On Wednesday, multiple Republicans, including Donald Trump, expressed their dissatisfaction with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy over how he has handled the House select committee on Jan. 6. On Thursday, as the committee prepares to air its next hearing, the “blame McCarthy” message seems to just keep expanding. One thing is absolutely clear: Republicans can see that the series of public hearings are devastatingly effective.

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi informed McCarthy that she would not seat either Rep. Jim Jordan or Rep. Jim Banks on the committee because both were likely to be sought as witnesses because of their involvement in the Jan. 6 conspiracy, McCarthy made an immediate response. Rather than appoint replacements, McCarthy reacted by withdrawing his three other nominees to the committee and refusing to cooperate. The intention from McCarthy was to create the impression that the select committee was, as Trump repeatedly claims, “a partisan witch hunt.” However, McCarthy could not stop Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger from participating.

In spite of the continuing cries on the right that the committee is “partisan” and “slanted,” it’s obvious Republicans can see the effect the public hearings are having. Day by day, the committee has reminded the public of the violence committed on Jan. 6. It has shown how white supremacist militias were involved in planning and promoting that violence. In the most recent hearings, the committee has begun the process of unfolding the conspiracy, led by Trump, that hoped to use Jan. 6 as a means of subverting a national election.

The effectiveness of those hearings can be directly measured in the scorn now being heaped on McCarthy.

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It’s not as if total noncooperation was an idea original to McCarthy. Refusal to cooperate and forcing House committees to go to court to get the most trivial documents that are usually handed over as a matter of course was standard operating procedure during the Trump White House. That noncooperation has continued as Trump has made it clear he doesn’t want any of his insiders testifying before the select committee on Jan. 6.

However, as The New York Times now reports, pro-Trump Republicans have discovered that since McCarthy cut them out off the committee, they have, shockingly, been cut out of the committee. That is, they haven’t been privy to the inner workings of the investigation or had any clarity on how the committee staff was building the case against Trump and his supporters. That’s left them open to surprises in terms of documents and testimony turned up in the investigation.

The absence of Trump-defenders on the committee has become exceedingly obvious during the public hearings, as the testimony of witnesses has not been hijacked or sidetracked as it frequently was during the House impeachment hearings. Witnesses to Jan. 6 violence have not been asked to give their opinion on Hunter Biden’s laptop, to discuss how President Joe Biden is responsible for high gas prices, or about anything related to Hillary Clinton. And Republicans are suddenly regretting that.

As The Washington Post notes, McCarthy is still instructing Republicans to simply ignore the hearings until they go away. Except a few Republicans seemed to have removed their heads from holes long enough to note that people are watching these hearings and seeing things that are not so good for Republicans. And especially not good for Trump.

That’s why Trump is said to be at “the point of about to scream at the TV” and why he has been going on right-wing media to complain that McCarthy made “a very, very foolish decision.” Not only does this information highlight the growing rift between Trump and McCarthy, it also provides the satisfying knowledge that Trump is sitting down at Mar-a-Lago, watching the hearings and fuming.

As he watches, Trump is complaining that there is no one to defend him. Blame for that lack is “falling squarely on McCarthy’s shoulders.” 

Elsewhere in the Post, a new Quinnipiac poll shows that 26% of Americas say they are watching the hearings very closely, while 32% say they are watching somewhat closely. In that poll, 64% of Americans also say they believe the Jan. 6 attack was planned, rather than spontaneous. 

As Politico notes, Republicans are now finding themselves in an uncomfortable schism between Trump, who multiple sources indicated intends to run again in 2024, and McCarthy, who hopes to replace Pelosi as House speaker after the fall midterms. The hearings are already hurting them both, but the growing rancor against McCarthy is making things worse.

Trump has refused to endorse McCarthy for the speaker position. And Republicans like Jim Jordan, who is regarded as an ally of McCarthy but a disciple of Trump, is finding there is no safe ground in this fight. Trump is reportedly “leaving room to turn on McCarthy if he chooses.” 

Considering the public statements he’s already making, the question should be if Trump chooses to turn on McCarthy more. 

However, one thing is certain: If Republicans didn’t see these committee hearings as effective, McCarthy wouldn’t be getting criticism. If they thought the hearings were really being viewed as partisan, or that Americans weren’t paying attention, McCarthy would be collecting praise.

And it’s not as if there haven’t been plenty of Republicans in the committee hearings. They’ve been in there every day, testifying to how Donald Trump pressured them, threatened them, and terrorized them in an effort to overturn a federal election.

Cheers and Jeers: Thursday

Posted on by Bill in Portland Maine

We’ll Return After This Message...

On #LSSC tonight: Trying to steal an election? Call Fast Earl! pic.twitter.com/pC1X0PaAae

— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) June 22, 2022

Grifters are standing by. Cash only, please.

Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, June 23, 2022

Note: A quick heads-up that, in our quest to be utterly horrible, there will be no C&J on Monday. We’ll return on Tuesday demanding that you take back what you said about us being utterly horrible or else we’ll take another day off. It’s up to you, people. It’s all up to you.  —Mgt. Team & $500/hr. Motivational Consultants

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By the Numbers:

Saturday!!!

Days 'til Independence Day: 11

Days 'til the annual Cheese Curd Festival in Ellsworth, WI: 2

Number of consecutive months home sales have been down: 4

Chronological rank of Bears Ears becoming a national monument to be jointly managed by the U.S. government and Native American tribes, as announced Monday: #1

Number of federal wildland firefighters being given "a hefty raise" by President Biden: 16,000

Percent of this year's wildfires that were caused by human activity: 96%

Percent caused by errant laser fire from an Orpglorpian cruiser in a dogfight with a Hfffhrrrrian destroyer in the Andromeda Galaxy: 1%

Stanley Cup Final Update

Colorado leads Tampa Bay 3 games to 1

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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:

I know we all like to figure out whom to blame when something awful happens, but it is not a particularly useful exercise. What we are trying to figure out is how to keep this from happening again.

Whether the teen killers in Colorado were driven berserk by being taught evolutionary theory or were just Bad Seed, I submit to you, as a simple and self-evident proposition, that they could not have injured and killed so many people if they had not had guns. If they had come into Columbine High School, pointed their index fingers at the kids they didn't like and said, "Bang, bang, you're dead!" not much would have happened as a consequence.

To address a tedious point, it is quite true that no law can assure that guns will not get into the hands of criminals and lunatics. But laws can make it much less likely that they will. The Brady law alone has kept tens of thousands of people with criminal or mental records from buying guns in just a few years.

—June 1999

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Puppy Pic of the Day: Must be a police dog…

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CHEERS and JEERS to locking and loading. The Senate Judiciary Committee released the text of their gun-control bill, which they hope to fast-track even if the Trump cult throws a fit over it. How fast? This fast…

The vote to advance the bill was 64-35. Fourteen Republicans joined Democrats in support of the measure, and senators now expect its final passage later this week.

The bill includes funding to bolster mental health, enhanced background checks for people under 21, incentives for states to adopt “red flag” laws, and school security measures.

This time IS different. Organizing works. Really excited to see the Senate introduce the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act led by Senator Murphy. It's not enough, but it's lifesaving and it's just the start. Let's get the bill passed.

— David Hogg ☮️ (@davidhogg111) June 22, 2022

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It would close the “boyfriend loophole,” a last-minute hang-up in the negotiations, by prohibiting romantic partners convicted of domestic violence who are not married to their victim from getting firearms. And it includes the first comprehensive federal criminal statute banning gun trafficking and straw purchasing.

This is historic. This is big. This leaves me slack-jawed, amazed, and astonished. The Senate actually let a bill go to the floor to be talked about and voted on? Looks like I picked the wrong day to sell my fainting couch on eBay.

CHEERS to Day 5. The House Jan. 6 Subcommittee hearings continue today, although a bit later than usual. The gavel will drop at 3pm ET, with today's action focusing on how Donald Trump personally tried to pressure the Justice Department to help steal the 2020 election. And since the hearings are proving to be both more damning and more watched than anyone expected, there might be a sequel or two on the horizon:

Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the Jan. 6 select committee, said Wednesday that significant new streams of evidence have necessitated a change to the panel’s hearing schedule, including the potential for additional hearings. […]

Thompson(D-Miss.) cited newly received footage from documentarian Alex Holder, who had access to Trump and his family before and after Jan. 6; new documents from the National Archives; and a flood of new tips received during the committee’s first four public hearings.

Although panel leaders have only teased the possibility of two public hearings beyond Thursday’s, Thompson said they may add one or more hearings, depending on the evidence it collects in the coming weeks.

Like I've been saying all along: we're gonna need a bigger tub of popcorn.

CHEERS to 1-900-CLARENCETHOMAS.  Who's up for some SCOTUS hilarity?  On this date in 1989, the Supreme Court refused to shut down the dial-a-porn industry, saying that indecent speech isn’t the same thing as obscenity, and is therefore protected.  Interestingly, all the justices in the majority had one cauliflower ear.  Coincidence, I'm sure.

P.S. Clarence Thomas turns 74 today. I hope he enjoyed the little, um, "present" we left on his Coke can this morning. We all chipped in, sir.

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BRIEF SANITY BREAK

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It's Summer Solstice in the north! Earth's 23.4° axial tilt and position in orbit mean the northern hemisphere gets the most daylight hours under the most intense sunlight of the year. The south gets the least of both. Earth is now on the right of this animation below pic.twitter.com/oOKPX9jpVw

— Dr. James O'Donoghue (@physicsJ) June 21, 2022

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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK

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CHEERS to Things That Go Clackety-Clack for $200, Alex.  On June 23, 1868, Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for his "Type-writer," the first to have the famous QWERTY sequence on its upper keys.  Today bloggers who can't think of anything for their subject line typically go south for the edgier and more mysterious "asdf."  And the day someone decides to drop down to "zxcv"?  Well, don’t tell anybody, but I believe that's the day the nukes leave the silos.

CHEERS to today's edition of Oh, So That's What Impeachment and Conviction Looks Like. Let's see…a sitting U.S. president trying to blackmail a foreign country to help him steal his re-election isn’t enough to get a conviction. The same sitting U.S. president orchestrating a deadly coup attempt to steal his re-election isn’t enough to get a conviction. Golly, Beav', what is worth impeachment and removal from office? Apparently something far, far less worse…

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg has been convicted in impeachment charges and removed from office over the aftermath following a fatal car crash in 2020 he was involved in. Ravnsborg,46, faced the state's first impeachment trial for his conduct surrounding the traffic accident, in which he struck and killed a pedestrian with his 2011 Ford Taurus.

But you can now just call him “the disgraced Mr. Ravsnbooger.”

Ravnsborg initially thought he hit a deer but discovered Boever's body when he returned to the scene the next day, he told authorities.

This has been today's edition of Oh, So That's What Impeachment and Conviction Looks Like.

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Ten years ago in C&J: June 23, 2012

JEERS to muzzling progress. And now, here to say a few words about the improving Florida economy is Governor Rick Scott:

"Mmmph!! Mmmmmph Mmmhhrgllmph!!!"

Gee, does he always make statements while tied up in a broom closet with a Romney campaign bumper sticker taped over his mouth??? I dunno, but…kinky!

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And just one more…

CHEERS and JEERS to the weather. Here's…the weather:

And that’s…the weather.

Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?

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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial

Bill in Portland Maine Is Bloggerdom’s Least-Appreciated Superstar

—FiveThirtyEight

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Dems vow they’ll do more on gun safety — but it could take years

Posted on by By Marianne LeVine and Burgess Everett

Democrats are calling the Senate’s bipartisan gun safety bill a first step to combat gun violence. The reality is, the second step isn't coming anytime soon.

The chamber is on the cusp of passing Congress’ most significant gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years. And even as Democrats hail that progress, they’ve described the package as a compromise that brings them closer to broader gun policy goals, such as expanding background checks and banning assault weapons.

But it took nearly a decade between the elementary school mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., and Uvalde, Texas, for the Senate to produce a substantial legislative response that could clear a filibuster. Given that, senators acknowledge that additional action on guns may be years away.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said describing the gun measure as a first step “accurately reflects people’s sincere hopes, and often success builds on success.” But he cautioned that “my read of the room here is, if we do this, we’ve got a lot of other issues that are on the table right now. And it’ll probably be a while before we return to anything in the gun safety space.”

Two months ago, everyone would have scoffed at the notion that the Senate could advance a bipartisan bill on one of the most polarizing subjects in American politics. Yet the final product also highlighted the stiff headwinds hindering support for broader proposals like raising the minimum age for assault weapons buys to 21.

And it’s not going to get any easier to write gun bills in a chamber where most legislation needs some GOP votes. The House is likely to flip to Republican control this fall. Democrats don’t have the votes to weaken the filibuster. Not to mention that a guns deal viewed by many Democrats as a modest accommodation to the GOP is getting support from fewer than one-third of Senate Republicans.

Some Democrats are tired of hearing the party line that they will come back for more later.

“This almost fell apart three times over the weekend. We are barely getting this done. And so one of the things I struggle with is, this constant ‘it’s not enough!’ and ‘we'll get more later’ is just rank bullshit,” said one Democratic senator who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “For the foreseeable future, I think this will be the high-water mark.”

Republicans, meanwhile, said the forthcoming gun safety package is about as far as their party will go, especially considering that four of the 15 Republicans likely to back the bill will retire at the end of this Congress. Then there's the political consequences of bucking the hard-core conservative faction of their own party as well as gun-rights groups like the National Rifle Association.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who supports the legislation, recalled suggesting to lead negotiators that they should include raising the minimum age to purchase assault weapons in their framework. They told him it wouldn’t get 60 votes.

“I predict [Democrats] will not be able to do more because we'll barely get by with the Republicans they need to get this done,” the Utah Republican said. “So if they want to do something more than this, they’re not going to get 10” Republicans.

Members on both sides of the aisle acknowledge that the dynamics surrounding the previously elusive deal on guns changed after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde at the end of May. Republicans saw Democrats as more willing to meet them in the middle on certain policy areas, like background checks. Democrats, meanwhile, saw a shift in some GOP senators' openness to gun safety legislation.

For Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the lead Democratic negotiator, the bipartisan compromise indicates that more gun safety legislation could be within reach.

“My theory has always been that once Republicans voted for gun safety measures they would find out that the sky doesn’t fall,” Murphy said. “We’ll have to see how this plays out for the Republicans. I think Republicans who vote for this will find a lot of new support back home that they didn’t previously count on, and I think they will find that the groups who were against this can’t really do much damage.”

Additionally, the effectiveness of the bipartisan gun safety package could heavily influence the likelihood of subsequent legislation. The bill provides grants for states to implement so-called red flag laws or other crisis intervention programs and closes what's known as the “boyfriend loophole” by broadening firearm restrictions for domestic abusers. In addition, the legislation provides new spending for mental health and school security.

Republicans who support the legislation dismissed Democratic suggestions that it’s a first step in a more lengthy series of gun proposals, a line that tends to exacerbate fears among GOP base voters who worry any restrictions on gun ownership will become a slippery slope.

“They shouldn’t say that,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who voted to advance the package. “Because this is the effort that is going to get over the finish line. … All of these things are steps in the right direction. So let’s get it into place … and let’s see the results.”

The Senate’s expected passage of the bipartisan gun safety package comes after a series of failed attempts to curb gun violence. Most Republicans blocked a 2013 bill to expand background checks after the Sandy Hook school shooting. Negotiations in 2019 after back-to-back shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, fell apart as former President Donald Trump lost interest amid the House impeachment inquiry. The Senate did, in 2018, pass narrow legislation to improve reporting from federal agencies and states to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

That bill was written by Murphy and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the lead negotiators on this year’s gun safety package.

“We've tried to include in this everything that we could think of that might possibly have bipartisan support," Cornyn said, describing how they approached negotiations this time around.

Cornyn didn’t rule out the possibility of revisiting the issue if circumstances require it. And senators in both parties suggested that additional congressional action will likely depend on the circumstances surrounding future tragedies.

That would require defying the political odds for a second time. So when will Congress act again on guns?

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) put it this way: “After waiting 30 years, I’m not ready to say.”

Posted in Uncategorized

As public hearings hammer home Trump’s conspiracy, Republicans have an answer: Blame Kevin

Posted on by Mark Sumner

On Tuesday, the nation heard incredibly compelling testimony about the pressure placed on state and local officials by Donald Trump in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. As Brandi Buchman reported, the testimony showed how Trump personally leaned on these officials, how his bullying opened both them and their families to threats, and how Trump was at the center of a scheme to subvert democracy using a slate of fake electors in multiple states.

Tuesday’s testimony was only the latest in a series of hearings in which the public has seen new information about events on Jan. 6. In those hearings, the House select committee has been working backwards. They started by showing the violence of the assault on the Capitol. Then they showed how Trump recruited white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys to his cause. Then how Trump and his legal team concocted a fictional narrative about voting fraud. Tuesday was the first day dedicated to Trump’s efforts to make that plan reality. 

If it seems familiar, it’s because what the select committee is doing is what the prosecution does at every murder trial: Show the jury a body on the ground, identify the weapon, then prove who was wielding the knife. They’re giving the nation the body of the crime, the tools enlisted to make it happen, and both motive and means of execution. 

And now Republicans are sorry. Not sorry that Jan. 6 happened—sorry that they didn’t corrupt the select committee when they had the chance.

Over at Punchbowl News, there’s a feeling from Republicans that, horror of horrors, the committee is doing a good job. That is, they’ve put together convincing evidence and the presentations to the public have been convincing. Republicans “won’t admit it openly” but in private, they’re fretting over how the committee has created a “blistering portrayal of former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept defeat following the 2020 elections” and the steps Trump took to overturn the results. And, as happens on almost every occasion, Republicans are looking for the most important thing in any crisis situation: someone to blame. 

It can’t be Trump, because as Lindsey Graham made clear, they’re all terrified of Trump. They love that little frisson of terror they get at the mere mention of his name.

So the finger of blame seems to be pointing at the guy who had the chance to turn this committee into an absolutely ineffective, watered down, good-people-on-both-sides farce, but passed up that opportunity: House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. 

Just over one year ago, Republicans in the Senate filibustered a bill to create an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate Jan. 6. As Laura Clawson reported at the time, Democrats made “huge concessions” concerning the makeup of the committee and limits of the investigation in an effort to address concerns expressed by Republicans. It was enough to get 35 House Republicans on board, but in the Senate only six Republicans were willing to go along, and a smirking Mitch McConnell led the filibuster to halt an investigation into crimes that were then only four months in the past. 

A month later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi handed McCarthy the outline for the current select committee, giving him the opportunity to appoint Republican members. McCarthy might have chosen to take it seriously, but he didn’t. Instead he promptly picked Reps. Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, both of whom McCarthy knew would be sought as witnesses for direct involvement in the Jan. 6 conspiracy.

When Pelosi rejected this attempt to knee-cap the committee, McCarthy had a list of literally hundreds of Republicans to choose from. He might have saddled the committee with any of a number of cynical old hands or hard-charging MAGA freshmen, either of which could have served to turn every session in the committee into the kind of “where is Hunter Biden’s notebook?” madness seen during Trump’s impeachment hearings.

Every public hearing, if there even were public hearings, could have been subject to lengthy diatribes about Benghazi and demands that they subpoena the grandkids of Hugo Chavez. Republicans could have done what Republicans do in defense of Trump: Throw up smokescreens, erupt in faux outrage, and use up committee time making regular statements about how the whole investigation was “a witch hunt.”

Only McCarthy didn’t do that. Refused his first choice of sleeveless wrestling shower guy, McCarthy decided that he wouldn’t name anyone at all, leaving Pelosi the opportunity to select Liz McCarthy and Adam Kinzinger from the very short list of Republicans who were not willing to crown a game show host as America’s king.

Now, as that committee wades into Trump with one punch to the gut after another, Republicans are coming to the consensus that it was McCarthy who screwed this up. That consensus includes Trump.

Trump: “I think in retrospect [McCarthy should’ve put Republicans on] to just have a voice. The Republicans don’t have a voice. They don’t even have anything to say. … “I think it would’ve been far better to have Republicans [on the panel]. [Jim Banks and Jim Jordan] were great. They were great and would’ve been great to have them. But when Pelosi wrongfully didn’t allow them, we should’ve picked other people. We have a lot of good people in the Republican Party.”

This is a trial at which Trump has refused to testify and done everything he possibly can to keep all the others involved in the conspiracy from raising their right hand. And the truth is that every Republican in Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago thought McCarthy had done the right thing at the time, because “illegitimate witch hunt” was a well-established theme they could sell to Trump’s base.

Except Trump’s base isn’t watching the committee hearings. Everyone else is. And Trump is discovering that when you’re on trial for attempting to murder democracy, refusing to put on a defense isn’t a great strategy.

Expect the “blame Kevin” chorus to only grow louder. After all, “scapegoat” is McCarthy’s dedicated role.

Morning Digest: Trump’s candidates faceplant again in Georgia’s House runoffs

Posted on by Daily Kos Elections

The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Daniel Donner, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.

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Leading Off

● GA-02, GA-06, GA-10: Georgia held its primary runoffs on Tuesday, and all three of the House candidates endorsed by Donald Trump―including one he backed at almost the last moment―went down in defeat. The bad results for Trump’s contenders came a month after his Big Lie slate of statewide candidates unsuccessfully tried to deny renomination to Gov. Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Attorney General Chris Carr on May 24 (Georgia requires runoffs in any primaries where no one earned a majority of the vote).

In southwestern Georgia’s 2nd District, Air Force veteran Chris West edged out Army veteran Jeremy Hunt, the recipient of that belated Trump endorsement, 51-49 on Tuesday for the right to take on 15-term Democratic incumbent Sanford Bishop. Meanwhile in the 6th District, physician Rich McCormick triumphed 67-33 against former state Ethics Commission Chair Jake Evans in a newly-gerrymandered seat in the Atlanta suburbs. Finally in the open 10th District in the northeastern part of the state, trucking company owner Mike Collins walloped former state Rep. Vernon Jones, a prominent, conservative Democrat-turned-Republican, 74-26 in another safely red constituency.

We’ll start in the 2nd District, where Republicans are hoping that, despite Joe Biden’s 55-44 win here in 2020, Bishop might be vulnerable against the right opponent. Hunt seemed to have a good chance to be that opponent after leading West 37-30 in the first round of voting on May 24. Hunt, who was the subject of a detailed Washington Post profile a day ahead of Election Day titled, “A Black Republican tries to bring in Black voters to the GOP,” also benefited from numerous Fox News appearances as well as outside spending from a super PAC funded by conservative megadonor Ken Griffin.

However, while Hunt largely avoided bringing up Trump on the campaign trail, Trump waded in over the weekend in a truly odd way. The MAGA master used an address at the national Faith & Freedom conference to give a shoutout to Bishop Garland Hunt, who backed him in 2020, by saying, “Bishop Hunt, I know your son, I just endorsed your son and he won big…what a great son.”

That statement left observers scratching their heads both because Trump had made no such endorsement of his son, Jeremy Hunt, and the runoff had not even taken place yet. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that Trump had endorsed Texas’ Wesley Hunt, who did win his GOP primary in March; the two candidates do not appear to be related.) However, Jeremy Hunt’s campaign seized on those confusing words by broadcasting them in a text message, though even his team seemed a little confused by what was happening. “We were just going based on what the President said, speaking about Jeremy’s father, and then we took it as referring to our big win, coming in first place in the primary,” Hunt’s campaign manager said.

West, though, worked hard to portray his opponent as an outsider by attacking his weak ties to southwestern Georgia, saying at one debate that Republicans needed a nominee “who is going to go up and represent middle and southwest Georgia, not someone who has just moved here three months ago, who has been bought and paid for by Washington, D.C., special interests.” West also earned an endorsement from businessman Wayne Johnson, who finished third in the first round with 19% and went on to launch a lawsuit against Fox News for supposedly giving Hunt (whom he’s also suing) an unfair amount of positive coverage.

Trump, meanwhile, went all-in for Evans and Jones well before the May 24 primaries only to see them each wind up in second place: McCormick outpaced Evans last month 43-23 in the 6th, while Collins edged out Jones 26-22. McCormick, who narrowly lost last cycle’s race in the prior version of the 7th District to Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux, likely benefited from name recognition from that campaign; Evans, by contrast, had plenty of connections through his father, former Ambassador to Luxembourg Randy Evans, but he wasn’t such a familiar name to voters. It didn’t help that a Club for Growth affiliate spent heavily in the runoff on messaging using Evans’ old writings to portray him as “woke.”

Finally in the 10th, Collins, who picked up an endorsement from Kemp days ahead of Election Day, also had plenty to attack Jones with. While Collins’ late father, Mac Collins, used to serve this area in Congress, Jones never represented any part of this district either in the legislature or as the chief executive of DeKalb County. (The younger Collins also unsuccessfully ran here in 2014 only to lose the runoff to Jody Hice, who gave up this seat to wage a failed bid against Raffensperger.)

Jones earned Trump's support after he ended his long-shot campaign for governor to run here instead, but that hardly stopped Collins from portraying his Black opponent as an outsider and “radically anti-white racist.” Things intensified in the final days when Collins sent out a tweet that featured a picture of a rape whistle emblazoned with the web address for an anti-Jones site, an item that references an accusation of rape leveled against Jones in 2004​ (he was never charged), alongside an image of a gun.

However, while McCormick and Collins each turned back Trump’s candidates, both of them still ran as ardent Trump allies themselves: Collins notably launched his campaign with a video where he drove a truck labeled “Trump Agenda” that sported a Trump bobblehead on the dashboard. The results, while embarrassing for Trump, are another reminder what, while the GOP leader may lose some battles to nominate his favored candidates, Trumpism remains alive and well in the GOP.

election recaps

● Primary Night: We had another busy primary night on Tuesday outside of those three Georgia contests, and below is a summary of where things stood as of 8 AM ET in the big contests.

  • AL-Sen (R): Former Business Council of Alabama head Katie Britt defeated Rep. Mo Brooks 63-37 in the contest to succeed retiring Sen. Richard Shelby, who ardently supported her, in this safely red state. Trump himself endorsed Britt ahead of Election Day two months after he abandoned Brooks’ flailing campaign.
  • AL-05 (R): Madison County Commissioner Dale Strong outpaced former Department of Defense official Casey Wardynski 63-37 to claim the GOP nod to succeed Brooks in this heavily Republican constituency in northern Alabama. Wardynski’s allies at the nihilistic House Freedom Caucus ran ads portraying Strong as a politician who "caved to the woke liberals" and "shunned President Trump," but it was far from enough.
  • VA-02 (R): State Sen. Jen Kiggans, who was the candidate of the GOP establishment, scored a 56-27 victory over Big Lie fanatic Jarome Bell despite a late ad campaign from Democrats designed to help Bell capture the Republican nod. Kiggans will go up against Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria in a Virginia Beach-based seat where, under the new court-drawn map, Joe Biden’s margin of victory was halved from 51-47 to just 50-48.
  • VA-07 (R): Prince William County Supervisor Yesli Vega, who was backed by the House Freedom Caucus, beat Green Beret veteran Derrick Anderson 29-24 in the six-way GOP primary. Vega will now face Democratic Rep. ​​Abigail Spanberger in a constituency that dramatically transformed under the new map from a district anchored in the Richmond suburbs seat to one largely based in Northern Virginia’s Prince William County; Biden would have won the new seat 52-46, compared to just 50-49 under the old lines.
  • GA-SoS (D): State Rep. Bee Nguyen defeated former state Rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler 77-23 for the right to go up against Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
  • Washington, D.C. Mayor (D): Mayor Muriel Bowser won renomination by turning back Councilmember Robert White 50-39, a win that all but guarantees her a third term in this dark blue city.

Redistricting

● LA Redistricting: Louisiana's Republican-run legislature has failed to meet a court-ordered June 20 deadline to draw a new congressional map, meaning a federal judge will now be responsible for crafting her own map that would allow Black voters to elect their preferred candidates in a second district. However, Republicans have asked the Supreme Court to block a recent ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed the case to proceed. Earlier this year, the justices barred a similar decision in Alabama from taking effect.

Senate

● AK-Sen: Alaskans for L.I.S.A.—oh, you thought that was just "Lisa," as in Murkowski? nope, it stands for the almost recursive, very nearly tautological "Leadership In a Strong Alaska," and yes, it includes those periods—is spending $2 million to air ads boosting … you'll never believe it … Lisa Murkowski. The super PAC's spot, which is the first outside TV advertising of the race, touts the Republican senator's local roots and her advocacy on behalf of the state. There's no word yet as to whether the Man from U.N.C.L.E. plans to get involved.

● FL-Sen: Candidate filing closed Friday for Florida's Aug. 23 primaries, and the state has a list of contenders available here.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio's only serious opponent is Democratic Rep. Val Demings, whose one notable intra-party foe, former Rep. Alan Grayson, announced last month that he'd instead run to succeed her in the House. Demings has been a very strong fundraiser, but she faces a difficult campaign in a longtime swing state that has been trending right in recent years. Major outside groups have also so far avoided reserving ad time on either side in this extremely expensive state.

The most recent survey we've seen was a late May internal for the congresswoman's allies at Giffords PAC, and it gave Rubio a 47-41 edge.

● UT-Sen: A new WPA Intelligence poll for Republican Sen. Mike Lee finds him leading conservative independent challenger Evan McMullin by a 52-33 margin, a very different result from a recent independent survey from Dan Jones & Associates that gave Lee just a 41-37 edge. Earlier this year, Utah Democrats declined to put forward their own nominee and instead gave their backing to McMullin in the hopes that an alliance between Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans would give both factions the best chance to boot Lee, a notorious Trump sycophant.

● SMP: The Senate Majority PAC and its affiliated nonprofit, Majority Forward, have booked $38 million in airtime to run ads this summer in six key battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and New Hampshire, where Democrats are on defense, as well as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the party's two best shots to pick up seats. The PAC previously reserved $106 million for the fall, though this is the first time its target list has included New Hampshire, where it now has $4 million in spending planned.

Governors

● FL-Gov: St. Pete Polls, working on behalf of Florida Politics, shows Rep. Charlie Crist beating his one serious intra-party foe, state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, 49-24 in the Democratic primary to take on GOP incumbent Ron DeSantis. Fried herself recently publicized an internal that founds things far closer, but she still trailed Crist 38-34.

The ultimate winner will be in for an uphill battle against DeSantis. We haven't seen any reliable polling here in months, but the governor and his PAC ended May with a gigantic $112 million at their disposal. Crist, who was elected governor in 2006 as a Republican and narrowly lost the 2014 general election following his party switch, by contrast led Fried $6.3 million to $3.9 million.

● NM-Gov: Two new polls of November's race for governor in New Mexico both show a close contest. A survey from Democratic pollster Public Policy Polling, taken on behalf of the independent news site New Mexico Political Report, finds Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham leading Republican nominee Mark Ronchetti 45-42, with Libertarian Karen Bedonie taking 9% of the vote, while a Ronchetti internal from Public Opinion Strategies has him edging out the incumbent 46-45.

Ronchetti's poll doesn't appear to have included Bedonie, whose share of the vote is unusually high for a third-party candidate but not quite out of the realm of possibility: Former Republican Gov. Gary Johnson took 9% in New Mexico's presidential race in 2016 while running as a Libertarian, then followed that up two years later with a 15% showing in a bid for Senate. Bedonie of course lacks the name recognition of Johnson, and her ultimate Election Day performance is likely to be in the low rather than high single digits, but Democrats will be pleased so long as she draws votes away from Ronchetti.

House

● AK-AL: In a surprise development, independent Al Gross announced Monday that he was dropping out of both the special election and regular contest for a two-year term for Alaska's lone House seat, a decision that came a little more than a week after he earned a spot in the Aug. 16 instant runoff special by finishing third with 13% of the vote. But Gross' hopes that his spot might be filled by another candidate were quickly dashed by election officials.

Gross, who was the 2020 Democratic nominee for Senate, urged his supporters to back either former Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola or Republican Tara Sweeney, a former state Interior Department official who is in fifth place with most ballots counted in the June 11 top-four primary. Gross did not indicate a preference between the two or even mention either by name, saying only that there are "two outstanding Alaska Native women in this race" and urging his supporters to "consider giving their first-place vote to whichever of them best matches their own values."

However, Gail Fenumiai, Alaska's director of elections, said that state law only allows the fifth-place finisher to replace a candidate who drops out if there are at least 64 days until the general election; in a Tuesday letter to an attorney for second-place finisher Nick Begich, she noted there were only 56 days left. Fenumiai did say that Gross' name would be removed from the ballot, though she urged anyone who might disagree with her decision to "file suit immediately," citing a June 28 deadline to finalize the August ballot for printing.

It’s not clear whether Sweeney intends to challenge Fenumiai's ruling. Sweeney's campaign manager responded to the news late on Monday by saying the candidate had been in an area without cell phone reception and promised that a statement would be "forthcoming once she is back in communication"; Sweeney was still incommunicado on Tuesday afternoon, per her campaign. Gross himself explained Tuesday he'd decided to quit because he'd decided "it is just too hard to run as a nonpartisan candidate in this race."

With most of the votes counted, Sweeney holds a 6-5 edge over North Pole City Council member Santa Claus, a self-described "independent, progressive, democratic socialist" who is not running for the full two-year term, for what might be a suddenly important fifth-place spot. Two Republicans, former reality TV show star Sarah Palin and Begich, took first and second place in the top-four primary, respectively, with the Associated Press calling the fourth spot for Peltola late on Friday.

● FL-01: Rep. Matt Gaetz, the far-right icon who reportedly remains under federal investigation for sex trafficking of a minor and other alleged offenses, has three opponents in the Republican primary for this safely red constituency in the Pensacola area.

Gaetz's most serious foe appears to be former FedEx executive Mark Lombardo, who pledged to spend $1 million of his own money when he launched his bid last week against the incumbent, whom he labeled "a professional politician who has dishonored his constituents with unnecessary drama, childish gimmicks, and is reportedly entangled in a federal investigation for sex-trafficking a 17-year-old girl to the Bahamas." Air Force veteran Bryan Jones and Greg Merk, who took 9% in Gaetz’s uncompetitive 2020 primary, are also in, but they've generated little attention.  

● FL-02: Democratic Rep. Al Lawson decided to take on his Republican colleague, Neal Dunn, after the new GOP gerrymander transformed Lawson's reliably blue and plurality-Black 5th District into a very white and conservative constituency. Neither congressman faces any intra-party opposition ahead of what will almost certainly be one of only two incumbent vs. incumbent general elections of the cycle (the other is in Texas' 34th District, where Republican Mayra Flores will take on Democrat Vicente Gonzalez).

The new 2nd, which includes Tallahassee and Panama City, would have supported Trump 55-44. Dunn, for his part, already represents 64% of the redrawn constituency, while another 31% are Lawson's constituents.

● FL-04: Three Republicans and two Democrats are campaigning for the new 4th District, an open constituency that includes part of Jacksonville and its western suburbs and would have supported Trump 53-46.

The only elected official on the GOP side is state Senate President Pro Tempore Aaron Bean, who recently began running ads here. Navy veteran Erick Aguilar, meanwhile, earned just 20% of the vote in 2020 when he challenged incumbent John Rutherford in the primary for the previous version of the 4th (Rutherford is now running for the new 5th), but he appears to be running a far more serious operation this time: While Aguilar brought in just $16,000 two years ago, he ended March with $810,000 on-hand thanks to both stronger fundraising and self-funding. The final Republican, Jon Chuba, has raised almost nothing.

The Democratic contest is a duel between former state Sen. Tony Hill and businesswoman LaShonda Holloway. Hill left office in 2011 to take a job in then-Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown's administration, while Holloway took 18% of the vote in the 2020 primary against incumbent Al Lawson in the old 5th District.

● FL-07: Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy announced her retirement months before Republicans transformed her suburban Orlando from a 55-44 Biden seat into one Trump would have taken 52-47, and Republicans have an eight-way primary to replace her.

The only sitting elected official in the race is state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, a far-right zealot who has a terrible relationship with his chamber's leadership. The field also includes former DeBary City Commissioner Erika Benfield, who lost a competitive state House primary in 2020, and former Orange County Commissioner Ted Edwards, who entered the race last week pledging to balance gun safety with respect for the Second Amendment.

There are several other Republicans worth watching. One contender who has been trying hard to get attention is Army veteran Cory Mills, a self-funder who recently aired an ad bragging how his company manufactures the tear gas that's been used on left-wing demonstrators. There's also Navy veteran Brady Duke, whom we hadn't previously mentioned but who has raised a notable amount of money through March. Rounding out the GOP field are former congressional staffer Rusty Roberts; businessman Scott Sturgill, who lost the 2018 primary for the old 7th 54-30; and Al Santos, another businessman who has yet to earn much notice.    

There are four Democrats running here as well. The early frontrunner appears to be party official Karen Green, who has endorsements from a number of local elected officials.

● FL-10: Ten Democrats are campaigning to succeed Senate candidate Val Demings in a contest that completely transformed in the final days of candidate filing.

Until then, the frontrunners for this safely blue Orlando constituency were state Sen. Randolph Bracy and gun safety activist Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who each ended March with a credible amount of money. Several other candidates, including pastor Terence Gray, have also been running since last year, but they've struggled to bring in cash. Things took a dramatic turn last week, though, when former 9th District Rep. Alan Grayson decided to end his little-noticed Senate campaign to run here, while former 5th District Rep. Corrine Brown jumped in days later. (Brown's launch came about a month after she accepted a deal with federal prosecutors where she pleaded guilty to tax fraud.)

Both former House members have experience running in this area. Grayson, according to political data expert Matthew Isbell, would have carried the new 10th 40-39 in the 2016 Senate primary against national party favorite Patrick Murphy even as the bombastic Grayson was badly losing statewide. (Grayson in 2018 went on to badly lose the primary to take the old 9th back from his successor, Rep. Darren Soto.) And while Brown's longtime base is from Jacksonville, she spent 24 years representing a seat that snaked down about 140 miles south to Orlando.

● FL-11: Six-term Rep. Dan Webster faces Republican primary opposition from far-right activist Laura Loomer, a self-described "proud Islamophobe" who has been banned from numerous social media, rideshare, and payment services for spreading bigotry, in a constituency in the western Orlando area that Trump would have won 55-44. Webster only represents 35% of this new district, but he's still a far more familiar presence here than Loomer, who ran a high-profile but doomed 2020 bid against Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel in South Florida. Two other Republicans also filed here.

● FL-13: Five Republicans are competing to replace Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, who is leaving to try to reclaim his old job as governor, in a newly gerrymandered St. Petersburg-based district that flipped from 52-47 Biden to 53-46 Trump. The frontrunner is 2020 nominee Anna Paulina Luna, who sports endorsements from Donald Trump and the Club for Growth for her second try. Team Red's field also includes Amanda Makki, whom Luna beat last time; attorney Kevin Hayslett; and two others. The only Democrat on the ballot, by contrast, is former Department of Defense official Eric Lynn.

● FL-15: Each party has five candidates campaigning for a new suburban Tampa constituency that Trump would have won 51-48.

On the GOP side, the two elected officials in the running are state Sen. Kelli Stargel, who is an ardent social conservative, and state Rep. Jackie Toledo, who has prevailed in competitive turf. Another notable contender is former Secretary of State Laurel Lee, who recently resigned to run and was previously elected as a local judge before Gov. Ron DeSantis chose her as Florida's top elections administration official. Rounding out the field are retired Navy Capt. Mac McGovern and Demetrius Grimes, a fellow Navy veteran who lost the 2018 Democratic primary for the old 26th District in South Florida.

For the Democrats, the most familiar name is arguably Alan Cohn, who was the 2020 nominee for the previous version of the 15th. Also in the running are political consultant Gavin Brown, comedian Eddie Geller, and two others.

● FL-20: Freshman Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick faces a Democratic primary rematch against former Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness, whom she beat by all of 5 votes in last year's crowded special election, in a safely blue constituency that includes part of the Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach areas. Holness doesn't have the anti-incumbent lane to himself, though, as state Rep. Anika Omphroy is also in.

● FL-23: Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch is retiring from a Fort Lauderdale-based seat that's very similar to the 22nd District he currently serves, and six fellow Democrats are running to succeed him in this 56-43 Biden constituency. The frontrunner from the beginning has been Broward County Commissioner Jared Moskowitz, a well-connected former state representative who later served in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration as director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. Moskowitz's two main rivals appear to be Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Ben Sorensen and former prosecutor Hava Holzhauer.

● FL-24: While former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson announced in March that she'd challenge Rep. Frederica Wilson in the Democratic primary, Edmonson never filed to run here before qualifying closed last week. Wilson now only faces one little-known opponent for renomination in this safely blue Miami-based seat.  

● FL-27: Republican map makers did what they could to insulate freshman GOP Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar by shifting her Miami-area seat from a 51-48 win for Joe Biden to a 50-49 margin for Donald Trump, but Team Blue is still betting she's beatable. National Democrats, including the DCCC, have consolidated behind state Sen. Annette Taddeo, who dropped out of the governor's race earlier this month to run here. Taddeo's main intra-party rival is Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, who abandoned his own long-shot Senate bid, while progressive activist Angel Montalvo rounds out the field.

● FL-28: Freshman Republican Rep. Carlos Giménez picked up a notable Democratic rival just before filing closed Friday when former state Rep. Robert Asencio launched a campaign. Trump would have carried this exurban Miami seat 53-46, which makes it a tad redder than Giménez's existing 26th District.

● HI-02: Former state Sen. Jill Tokuda earned an endorsement earlier this month from both the Hawai'i Government Employees Association, which is the largest union in the state, and the AFL-CIO ahead of the August Democratic primary.

● IL-01: Two crypto-aligned groups, Protect Our Future and Web3 Forward, are dropping just shy of $1 million total to support businessman Jonathan Jackson in next week's Democratic primary, a crowded contest that saw little outside spending until now. Only the latter's spot is currently available, and it reminds the audience that Jackson is the son of civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate Jesse Jackson. "Jonathan Jackson knows we are in the fight for our lives now," says the narrator. "Jackson is running for Congress to get guns off our streets, tackle inflation, and protect our right to vote."

Meanwhile, another organization called Forward Progress is deploying $160,000 to help former Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership CEO Karin Norington-Reaves, who has retiring Rep. Bobby Rush's backing.

● IL-15: Far-right Rep. Mary Miller has publicized an internal from Cygnal showing her edging out fellow incumbent Rodney Davis 45-40 ahead of next week's Republican primary, which is an improvement from their 41-41 tie in an unreleased survey from two weeks ago. We haven't seen any other recent polling of the contest for this dark-red seat in downstate Illinois.

● MD-04: The hawkish pro-Israel group AIPAC last week began a $600,000 ad campaign against former Rep. Donna Edwards through its United Democracy Project super PAC, which was the first major outside spending of the July 19 Democratic primary. AIPAC, which supports former Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn Ivey, argues that Edwards did a poor job with constituent services during her first stint in the House: The narrator claims, "Her congressional office was widely regarded as unresponsive to constituents who needed help and Donna Edwards was rated one of the least effective members of Congress, dead last among Democrats."

Edwards quickly responded by releasing a video message from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who supports her comeback campaign, praising her as "one of the most effective members in Congress" and someone who "fought hard for Prince George's County—for jobs and investments in her community, to help constituents in need, and to deliver results."

● MD-06: Matthew Foldi, a former staff writer for the conservative Washington Free Beacon whom we hadn't previously written about, has unveiled an endorsement from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ahead of next month's GOP primary to face Democratic Rep. David Trone.  

Foldi, who previously worked for McCarthy's allies at the Congressional Leadership Fund, faces five intra-party opponents including Del. Neil Parrott, the 2020 nominee who lost to Trone 59-39 as Biden was carrying the old 6th 61-38. However, the new map, which the Democratic-dominated legislature passed after their original draft was struck down in state court, halved Biden's margin to 54-44.

● TX-15: The Texas Democratic Party announced Friday that a recount has confirmed that businesswoman Michelle Vallejo won the May 24 runoff by defeating Army veteran Ruben Ramirez by 35 votes, which was five more than she started with. Vallejo will now go up against 2020 Republican nominee Monica De La Cruz in a Rio Grande Valley seat that, under the new GOP gerrymander, would have supported Trump 51-48.

● WI-03: Former CIA officer Deb McGrath has released an attention-grabbing spot for the August Democratic primary that features the candidate skydiving. McGrath, who is campaigning to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Ron Kind, explains that, as the one woman in her Army jump school, "The guys thought I'd chicken out. I was the first out the door." Following her jump and before deploying her parachute, McGrath explains through a voiceover, "I'm running for Congress because of the sky-high cost of everything. Wisconsin needs a representative who thinks for herself, works with both parties, and fights for women's rights."

Other Races

● SD-AG: Republican Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, who was impeached in April for fatally striking a pedestrian named Joe Boever with his car in 2020 and lying about the crash to investigators, was convicted on both counts and removed from office on Tuesday. Twenty-four members of the GOP-dominated state Senate—exactly the two-thirds supermajority necessary for conviction—voted in favor of the first count, with 9 opposed, while the second count was backed by a wider 31-2 margin. In addition, in a unanimous 33-0 vote, the Senate barred Ravnsborg, who recently announced he would not seek re-election, from ever holding public office in South Dakota again.

Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, who had long called for Ravnsborg's resignation, will now appoint a replacement. Noem has not yet said whom she might pick, but she previously endorsed former Attorney General Marty Jackley's bid to reclaim his old post. Jackley faces a top Ravnsborg aide, David Natvig, for the GOP nomination, which will be decided at the state party's convention that begins on Thursday.

Mayors

● Oakland, CA Mayor: Former City Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente announced last week that he was joining November's instant-runoff contest to succeed termed-out Mayor Libby Schaaf, which makes him the 16th candidate to enter the officially nonpartisan race to lead this loyally blue city. De La Fuente, who mulled a 2018 bid against Schaaf, launched his new effort by pledging to hire more police officers and saying he "will not tolerate" homeless encampments.  

De La Fuente ran for mayor twice during his long tenure on the City Council, which spanned from 1992 to 2013, but he badly lost both campaigns to prominent figures. In 1998 he took just 7% in a contest that resulted in former Gov. Jerry Brown beginning his second stint in elected office (Brown reclaimed his old job as governor in 2010). De La Fuente tried again in 2006 but lost 50-33 to former Rep. Ron Dellums; De La Fuente himself left the City Council six years later when he unsuccessfully campaigned for a citywide seat.

The field already included a trio of councilmembers: Loren Taylor, Sheng Thao, and Treva Reid. Schaaf has not yet endorsed anyone, but Taylor has often supported her on key votes. Thao, by contrast, has run to Taylor's left and sports endorsements from several unions and state Attorney General Rob Bonta, while the San Francisco Chronicle identifies Reid as a Taylor ally. Also in the running is Allyssa Victory, who works as an attorney for the regional ACLU and Communications Workers of America Local 9415.

Grab Bag

● Where Are They Now?: Former Rep. David Rivera's latest comeback bid may have ended before it could begin, as elections authorities say that he didn't actually qualify for the ballot in state House District 119. Rivera responded Tuesday by insisting that the matter wasn't settled and that he'd "let the lawyers in Tallahassee handle that," though there's no word on what the problem is. The former congressman, though, didn't hold back on attacking the Miami Herald's coverage of the many corruption scandals he's been linked to.

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South Dakota Senate convicts and removes state attorney general in impeachment trial after he killed pedestrian in 2020

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The South Dakota state Senate on Tuesday voted to convict and remove state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg from office on two articles of impeachment after he struck and killed a pedestrian in September 2020, making Ravnsborg the first elected official to be impeached and removed in the state's history.
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