Archive for the ‘Dems Behaving Badly’ Category
California Democrats Want Tax Hikes
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 01:00 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 26 May 2010 12:48
From LATimes.com:
The Democrats who control the Legislature have fired their opening salvo against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s spending blueprint, which proposed eliminating California’s welfare program and cutting deeply into other state services, by proposing that the state rely instead on billions of dollars in new taxes to balance the budget.
The Assembly’s Democrats detailed a plan Tuesday that would tax oil companies and borrow billions from the nickel-and-dime deposits that consumers make on recyclable bottles and cans. Tax breaks for businesses that are scheduled to take effect soon would be delayed under the plan.
A day earlier, Democrats in the Senate had begun debating a nearly $5-billion tax plan that would delay the same corporate tax breaks and extend both a hike in personal income taxes and a reduced dependent-care credit that are set to expire in December. Vehicle license fees would rise by $1.2 billion. Taxes on alcohol would increase 60%.
Tags: California | Posted under Dems Behaving Badly, State Legislature News | No Comments
CT: Rejected Democrat Susan Bysiewicz says she Won’t Run for Anything
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 01:05 Written by rslcpol Friday, 21 May 2010 11:57
From Courant.com:
On Christmas Day, Democrat Susan Bysiewicz was the front-runner in the governor’s race.
On President’s Day, she was the front-runner in the race for attorney general.
By Memorial Day, she won’t be on the ballot — for the first time in18 years.
After a shockingly quick ruling by the state Supreme Court that she is not qualified to run for attorney general, Bysiewicz announced Thursday that she will not run for any office this year. The decision marks a stunning end for an up-and-coming politician who had been viewed as a powerhouse in the 2010 election.
Tags: Connecticut | Posted under Attorney General News, Dems Behaving Badly, Secretaries of State | No Comments
KS: Democrat Candidate for Secretary of State gets Max Penalty for Violating Campaign Finance Laws
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 01:07 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 19 May 2010 01:14
From LJWorld.com:
A legislator who’s hoping to be elected Kansas’ top elections official was fined $5,000 on Tuesday by the state ethics commission for misusing campaign funds.
The penalty for state Sen. Chris Steineger, a Kansas City Democrat, was the maximum possible. He said the ethics violation resulted from an unintentional mistake and promised to pay the fine quickly.
The Governmental Ethics Commission concluded that Steineger violated a law restricting how campaign funds can be used. Twice last year, Steineger used his Senate campaign fund to pay for polls testing how well voters recognized his name for a potential run for statewide office.
Steineger is running against Secretary of State Chris Biggs in the Aug. 3 Democratic primary. Three Republicans also are running for the office.
Tags: Kansas | Posted under Dems Behaving Badly, Secretaries of State | No Comments
CT: Democrat’s Massive Database May Violate Law
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 01:12 Written by rslcpol Monday, 17 May 2010 12:50
From the New Haven Register:
The large database compiled by Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, which is the subject of a whistleblower complaint, appears to violate a statute that forbids disclosing the home addresses of public safety and court personnel.
A review of the 36,000 names kept by her office includes more than 750 firefighters, as well as a handful of police, at least two correction officers, one high-level prosecutor and two public defenders, whose home addresses are also listed.
Sec. 1-217 of state statutes forbids any public agency from disclosing, under the Freedom of Information Act, the residential addresses of judges, firefighters, sworn members of a police department, an employee of the Department of Correction, an attorney who represents the state in a criminal prosecution, public defenders and employees in the judicial branch, among others.
Tags: Connecticut | Posted under Dems Behaving Badly, Secretaries of State | No Comments
GA: Democrat Election Shenanigans
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 01:21 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 11 May 2010 12:55
From the Augusta Chronicle:
What they attempted — clumsily, since Garvin didn’t seem to know what district he lived in, and didn’t know what counties the 23rd included — is beyond offensive. It looks for all the world like a cynical attempt to play games with the people’s Senate seat, to treat it as their own.
That’s the kind of arrogant shenanigans that gave Augusta politics a well-deserved rotten reputation for years. Obviously, some folks are still trying to play such games.
Powell’s bait and switch — he gave no indication he’d be jumping out of the Senate seat, and didn’t even let the Democratic Party know — now has left District 23 voters with no Democrat in the race. And he’s a supposed Democrat.
Republican Jesse Stone, former mayor of Waynesboro, is now the lone candidate running, although Democrats are scrambling to run Chuck Pardue as an independent.
Richmond County Democratic Chairman Lowell Greenbaum was said to be livid about Powell’s power play. For his part, Greenbaum says, “We were shocked and surprised.”
Why would a Democrat do this to his own party, and to voters in his district? “This is the question we’re all asking ourselves,” Greenbaum says, adding that Powell offered no explanation in a recent conversation. “It put our party in a very difficult position.”
Tags: Georgia | Posted under Dems Behaving Badly, State Legislature News | No Comments
KY: Democrat Files Ethics Complaint Against AG Conway
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 01:28 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 4 May 2010 01:08
From WHAS11.com:
Allegations in Kentucky’s U.S. Senate Democratic primary are now in the hands of the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.
Lt. Governor Daniel Mongiardo filed an official complaint against Attorney General Jack Conway today, saying Conway should not accept campaign contributions from utility company executives or lobbyists because the Attorney General’s office is involved in negotiating rate increases.
Meanwhile, during a candidate forum last night, Conway revealed he will seek to dismiss LG&E and Kentucky Utilities $220 million rate increase request. Mongiardo says Conway is taking action now because he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Tags: Kentucky | Posted under Attorney General News, Dems Behaving Badly | No Comments
RI: Longtime Ties Bind Democrat AG Lynch to Probe
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 01:29 Written by rslcpol Monday, 3 May 2010 01:25
From Projo.com:
If you’re a candidate for governor, you want to be as far away as possible from the scandal unfolding around Central Falls Mayor Charles D. Moreau. (Farther than Westerly even.)
But Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, a Democrat running for governor, is a longtime friend of Moreau’s, and Moreau’s spokeswoman is Lynch’s girlfriend and former legislative director, Cynthia Stern.
While we’re all entitled to have friends, that seems too close for comfort for a candidate in an election year.
If you haven’t been tuning in, state police detectives are scrutinizing lucrative work that Moreau gave to his friend and campaign contributor, Michael G. Bouthillette, to board up or clean up some 200 abandoned or foreclosed buildings, at a cost of about $2 million. “We went in on the boarded-up houses, but the investigation has gone beyond that,” the state police superintendent told The Journal’s Mike Stanton and W. Zachary Malinowski. “We’ll be there for quite some time.”
Tags: Rhode Island | Posted under Attorney General News, Dems Behaving Badly | No Comments
CT: Fiery End to Democrat’s AG Trial
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 01:37 Written by rslcpol Friday, 23 April 2010 11:55
From Courant.com:
In a quarrelsome end to an extraordinary trial, the lawyer for the Republican Party said Thursday that a judge should throw out the lawsuit in which Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz seeks a ruling that she is eligible to run for attorney general.
“Waah, waah, waah! I want to be attorney general, and I’m going to get my way in court!” is how the GOP’s lawyer, Eliot Gersten, characterized Bysiewicz’s stance as plaintiff in her lawsuit against her own office and the Democratic Party. She wants the party to nominate her for attorney general at its convention May 22.
Gersten’s comment touched off an animated finale to lawyers’ arguments in the trial at Superior Court in Hartford that began April 14. The judge, Michael Sheldon, said that he would work with “all deliberate speed” toward a decision but that it would not come this week.
Tags: Connecticut | Posted under Attorney General News, Dems Behaving Badly, Secretaries of State | No Comments
NY: Democrat Senate Leader’s Problems Grow
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 01:38 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 22 April 2010 11:50
From DemocratandChronicle.com:
The legal and political troubles for embattled Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada grew Wednesday as law-enforcement officials raided his government-funded health clinic in the Bronx and some senators called for him to step down as majority leader.
Agents from the FBI, IRS and the state Attorney General’s Office descended on the Soundview Healthcare Network about 7 a.m., removing boxes of potential evidence. Officials said Espada may face a number of criminal charges, ranging from wire and mail fraud, to money laundering and theft of government funds.
Espada, who has said that he is innocent, called Wednesday’s developments “politically fueled.”
Espada received an excused absence from the legislative session on Wednesday, leaving Democrats without the 32 votes necessary to pass any major bills. Democrats hold a 32-30 majority.
Tags: New York | Posted under Dems Behaving Badly, State Legislature News | No Comments
OH: Democrat Secretary of State Not Following Federal Election Disclosure Rules
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 01:38 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 22 April 2010 10:56
From Cleveland.com:
Jennifer Brunner, the U.S. Senate candidate whose day job is to make sure that Ohio elections run smoothly and lawfully, is not following a requirement of federal election law in her own campaign — or so it appears based on a review of her campaign finance reports as well as Federal Election Commission guidelines.
The Ohio secretary of state, running in the May 4 Democratic primary for Senate against Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, has consistently failed to list the identities and itemize the salaries of all her campaign staffers, as required by law.
Instead, she files quarterly FEC campaign finance reports that itemize every stipend to each of her interns. She then lumps the salaries of her top staffers into a payment she makes regularly to a paycheck-processing company, PayChex. During the first three months of this year, the Jennifer Brunner Committee paid $37,081.61 to PayChex, according to an itemization from Brunner’s latest FEC report.
Tags: Ohio | Posted under Dems Behaving Badly, Secretaries of State | No Comments