Archive for the ‘State Legislature News’ Category
PA: Governor Backs Voter ID Bill
Last Updated on Wednesday, 24 August 2011 01:42 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 24 August 2011 01:41
From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
The state’s top election official came out in support of a GOP-backed effort to require voters to show photo identification every time they cast a ballot in Pennsylvania.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele said the proposed ID requirement would make it harder to commit voter fraud.
She made her remarks Tuesday morning in Lancaster at the Pennsylvania County Election Officials Conference. State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, has been the most vocal proponent of the change in election law. His bill passed the state House in the spring and awaits action in the Senate.
Democrats largely oppose the proposal, saying that it would be unnecessarily burdensome, especially to Pennsylvanians who don’t have driver’s licenses.
Mr. Metcalfe said his legislation ameliorates that concern because it would provide for free photo IDs for non-drivers.
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WSJ: Deadlock in Ohio Over Union Rights
Last Updated on Friday, 19 August 2011 01:57 Written by rslcpol Friday, 19 August 2011 01:57
From Wall Street Journal:
Labor unions have rejected an offer by Ohio Gov. John Kasich to seek a compromise on a new law that removes most collective-bargaining rights for the state’s 350,000 public employees, as a fight over the legislation heads toward a statewide referendum in November.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kasich, a Republican, and the party’s leaders in the Ohio Senate and House made a pitch to public-employee union leaders to “avoid the bitter political warfare” over the law, known as Senate Bill 5. In a letter Thursday, however, unions said a “fresh start must begin with a full repeal of Senate Bill 5.”
Rob Nichols, a spokesman for Mr. Kasich, said the governor’s offer to meet with union officials Friday still stood. “We’re confident that there are reasonable folks who understand the value of restarting the negotiations that labor unfortunately pulled out from earlier, and we look forward to talking with them on Friday,” he said.
Republican House Speaker William Batchelder rejected the unions’ suggestion to craft a new law. “That dog won’t hunt,” said Mr. Batchelder, noting that GOP lawmakers offered to negotiate a compromise with unions in June but that effort failed.
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Olympic Star Carl Lewis Can’t Run… for NJ State Senate
Last Updated on Wednesday, 17 August 2011 01:07 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 17 August 2011 01:07
From nj.com:
Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno has kicked former Olympic track and field star Carl Lewis off the election ballot — again.
Guadagno, serving in her capacity as secretary of state, refused to certify Lewis as a candidate for state Senate, according to a letter to local county clerks filed in federal court today.
Her reason: a federal appeals court order to keep Lewis on the ballot while a case challenging his candidacy is considered by a judge only applied to the June Democratic primary — which Lewis won uncontested — and not the November general election.
“Although the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ordered Mr. Lewis name to appear on the primary ballot, that order was carefully circumscribed and limited only to the primary ballot — the sole issue before the Third Circuit at the time of its order,” Guadagno wrote.
Lewis attorney William Tambussi today called Guadagno’s decision “brazen” and said he would ask U.S. District Court Judge Noel Hillman to order him back on the ballot. A hearing is scheduled for Friday. “It just disregards everything that’s gone before her and before the voters,” he said.
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Last Round of WI Senate Recalls set for tomorrow
Last Updated on Monday, 15 August 2011 01:26 Written by rslcpol Monday, 15 August 2011 01:18
From postcrescent.com:
With two Democratic senators facing recall elections Tuesday, and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin still hoping Gov. Scott Walker will face the same threat next year, Wisconsin’s recall battles are far from over.
It’s unclear what effect this past week’s election results will have on Tuesday’s races, when Sens. Jim Holperin, D-Conover, and Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie, fight for their seats against Republican challengers Kim Simac, a tea party organizer, and Jonathan Steitz, a corporate attorney and political newcomer.
Going into this past week, Republicans controlled the Senate 19-14, so Democrats needed to win at least three seats and hold onto two more this week to take over. Instead they won two, shifting the balance in the Senate to give the GOP a razor-thin 17-16 majority.
Both sides said the election results showed promising signs for this week.
Republicans said GOP wins in four out of the six contests Tuesday showed broad support for their agenda.
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Wisconsin Votes Tomorrow
Last Updated on Monday, 8 August 2011 01:57 Written by rslcpol Monday, 8 August 2011 01:57
From courant.com:
Months of political rancor come to a head on Tuesday when Wisconsin holds recall votes seen as a referendum on the Republican governor’s fight against unions and a possible pointer for the 2012 presidential election.
Six Republican senators face recall elections on Tuesday, with two Democratic senators defending their seats on August 16. A third Democratic senator held his seat in a recall vote last month.
Democratic victories could bolster a potential recall of Governor Scott Walker next year, while Republican gains could freeze that bid in its tracks and give the national party momentum toward defeating President Barack Obama in 2012.
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RSLC Launches Ad in Wisconsin Senate District 12
Last Updated on Thursday, 4 August 2011 01:52 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 4 August 2011 01:50
There’s a hole in our budget. A big hole. Sen. Jim Holperin caused a half a billion dollar hole in Wisconsin’s state budget. Stop the hole, stop Holperin. Watch the video below.
Please help keep this ad on the air and help conservative candidates across the country!
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Republicans Look to win Wisconsin Recalls
Last Updated on Thursday, 4 August 2011 01:39 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 4 August 2011 01:39
From Roll Call:
Though Yogi Berra is most often associated with the phrase “it ain’t over till it’s over,” it is Republicans in Wisconsin who are now uttering the phrase, hoping that their party can limit its losses to only a seat or two in next week’s state Senate recall elections.
Following the GOP-controlled Legislature’s passage of a bill limiting public employee’s collective bargaining rights, Democrats are targeting six Senate Republicans for recall. If they win even half, Democrats will turn a 19-14 seat disadvantage in the chamber into a 17-16 seat majority. Republicans also control the state Assembly.
The recall contests have turned into a referendum on Gov. Scott Walker (R), who isn’t subject to recall until he has served at least a year in office. Insiders acknowledge that voters on both sides of the aisle show a high level of interest in the elections, and partisan lines have been sharply drawn in the contests.
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VA: ‘Mudslinging’ in Democrat State Senate Primary
Last Updated on Thursday, 4 August 2011 01:34 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 4 August 2011 01:34
From Washington Post:
To one candidate, Arlington County Board member Barbara A. Favola, it’s about “bread-and-butter issues” — transportation, education and the environment. To the other, lawyer Jaime Areizaga-Soto, it’s about who will fight hardest for “Democratic values” against Republicans in Richmond.
And to longtime political observers in Northern Virginia, it’s one of the most heated, unpleasant races in recent memory.
“It’s much more negative than Arlington is used to, and it’s unfortunate that both candidates have gone down this road,” said Del. Patrick A. Hope (D-Arlington), who considered running for the 31st District seat and is staying neutral in the primary. “I wish they would focus on the issues.”
Read the Rest…
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Primary Day in Mississippi
Last Updated on Tuesday, 2 August 2011 08:08 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 2 August 2011 08:08
From the AP:
Mississippians are voting Tuesday in party primaries for statewide, regional, legislative and county races.
Polls opened at 7 a.m. and were to close at 7 p.m.
Democrats’ only statewide contested primary is for governor. Republicans have contested statewide primaries for governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer, agriculture commissioner and secretary of state.
In some counties, voter turnout will be driven by races for sheriff, supervisor, circuit clerk and chancery clerk.
If runoffs are needed, they’ll be Aug. 23. The general election is Nov. 8.
Mississippi’s top elections official, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, said a new law enacted this year could help ease the headache of long lines at precincts. It requires at least 75 percent of voting machines to be used in each election.
Previous state law didn’t specify what percentage of machines must be used in elections. During the 2010 congressional races, some counties put out too few machines, and voters in several precincts encountered long lines, Hosemann said. The new law came in response to that situation.
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Democrats Worried about losing the Latino vote?
Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 July 2011 01:20 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 26 July 2011 01:08
Are Democrats worried about losing the Latino vote? Seems like it. Read about the RSLC’s efforts to reach out with it’s newly announced program, the Future Majority Project.
From the Daily Caller:
The same survey found that one-third of Latino Republicans are former Democrats, a figure that could change as the GOP begins to actively develop Latino and Hispanic bases.
Last week, the Republican State Leadership Committee launched a $3 million initiative aimed at attracting and promoting conservative Latinos running for office. Not that an unofficial intuitive wasn’t already underway: The number of Hispanic Democratic officeholders has decreased by about 2 percent since 2006, while it’s jumped to 22.5 percent for Hispanic Republicans, according to NPR. Thanks to the 210 midterm elections, state-level elected Hispanic Republicans now outnumber corresponding Democrats by a 5-to-3 margin.
As Republicans make a clear and concerted effort to bring Latino voters into the conservative fold, does the DNC’s new ad suggest concern about losing a voting bloc that swung heavily for Barack Obama in 2008?
“This [ad] is nothing more than a strong signal, just how high of a priority Hispanic voters are to this President and to this campaign,” said DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, defending the ad against suggestions that it was a response to Republicans, during a press conference touting the campaign. “And the Hispanic community needs to know the accomplishments.”
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