U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

Expelled Tennessee lawmakers both seeking seats again



NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Two former Black Democratic lawmakers who were expelled by Republican colleagues in Tennessee say they want to be reappointed, then elected back to their seats, following their ouster for a protest on the House floor urging passage of gun-control measures in the wake of a deadly school shooting.

Nashville’s metro council is likely to reappoint Justin Jones to the seat during a specially called Monday meeting. Mickell Lowery, the chairman of the Shelby County Commission, said in a statement Sunday that the panel will consider at a meeting Wednesday whether to reappoint Justin Pearson, who is from Memphis, to his seat.

Lowery said he understands the need to respond to those who “transgressed the rules” of the state House of Representatives.

“However, I believe the expulsion of State Representative Justin Pearson was conducted in a hasty manner without consideration of other corrective action methods. I also believe that the ramifications for our great State are still yet to be seen,” he said.

Both former lawmakers told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that they want to return to their positions as lawmakers. Special elections for the seats, which have yet to be set, will follow in the coming months.

The expulsions have made Tennessee a new front in the battle for the future of American democracy. The former lawmakers have quickly drawn prominent supporters. President Joe Biden spoke with them and Vice President Kamala Harris visited them in Nashville.

“You know, we will continue to fight for our constituents,” Jones said. “And one thing I just want to say ... is that this attack against us is hurting all people in our state. You know, even though it is disproportionately impacting Black and Brown communities, this is hurting poor white people. Their attack on democracy hurts all of us.”

In separate votes on Thursday, the GOP supermajority expelled Jones and Pearson, a move leaving about 140,000 voters in primarily Black districts in Nashville and Memphis with no representation in the House.

Pearson and Jones were expelled in retaliation for their role in the protest the week before, which unfolded in the aftermath of a school shooting in Nashville that killed six people, including three young students and three adults working at the school. The shooter was killed by police.

A third Democrat, Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, was spared expulsion by a one-vote margin. Johnson is white, spurring outcry at the differing outcomes for the two young, Black lawmakers. Republican lawmakers who split their votes have cited Johnson’s points on the floor that her role in the protest was lesser — she didn’t speak into the megaphone, for example.

Johnson has also suggested race was likely a factor on why Jones and Pearson were ousted but not her, telling reporters it “might have to do with the color of our skin.”

Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton said that’s a “false narrative.”

“It’s unfortunate, she’s trying to put political racism in this, which there was nothing on this,” Sexton told Fox News on Friday.

GOP leaders said the expulsion actions — used only a handful times since the Civil War — were necessary to avoid setting a precedent that lawmakers’ disruptions of House proceedings through protest would be tolerated.

Pearson said the statehouse has been a “toxic work environment.” He noted the scrutiny he received for wearing a black dashiki — a tunic-like garment that originated in west Africa — for session, rather than a suit and tie.

“It’s about us not belonging in the institution because they are afraid of the changes that are happening in our society, and the voices that are being elevated,” Pearson said on Meet the Press.

https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-expulsion-democracy-election-nashville-b6fba07308b9907450a8152b7a8ee1f0



Rep. Justin Jones expulsion updates: Council reappoints, Jones retakes oath of office



Days after Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, was expelled from the Tennessee House for leading a gun-control protest from the floor following a deadly shooting at Covenant School, the Metro Nashville Council reappointed him to the seat.

Last week, the House expelled Jones in a 72-25 vote, and Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, in a 69-26 decision — moves that put the nation's eyes on Tennessee and its politics. Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, survived a similar vote.

During a special called meeting Monday, the Council unanimously voted to reappoint Jones to the seat. Three members were not present for the vote.

Immediately after the vote, Jones, and hundreds of protesters, marched to the Capitol where he was sworn in again before taking his seat on the House floor as session was ongoing.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville called on Jones to speak within minutes of his re-taking his seat.

“I want to welcome the people back to the people’s house. I want to welcome democracy back to the people’s house,” Jones said in his first remarks back on the floor. “On last Thursday, members tried to crucify democracy, but today we have a resurrection.”

“Today, 78,000 people have a voice in this chamber once again,” he added. "No expulsion, no attempt to silence us will stop us, but only galvanize and strengthen our movement. We continue to show up in the people's house. Power to the people!"

Sexton gaveled participants responding to Jones' speech in the galleries into order twice before Jones finished.

Jones will not be reappointed to legislative committees until after a special election is held. He will be allowed to file 15 new bills, as his original 15 bills were transferred to Leader Karen Camper when he was expelled. Jones said Monday that he plans to use all of those “to call for common sense gun reforms.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/10/justin-jones-expulsion-updates-rally-planned-outside-metro-nashville-council/70099458007/

[Rick Plant]

Since 1989, and a new global economic age began, 48 million net new jobs have been created in America.

46 million - 96% - have been created under Democratic Presidents. Basically all of them.

Don't let Republicans claim they are great with the economy and jobs. They are not. History has proven it. The BLS government statistics also proves it.   

[Rick Plant]

Conservatives defending Harlan Crow’s gifts to Clarence Thomas also have ties to GOP megadonor: report



On April 6, ProPublica published a bombshell report saying that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thomas had, for "over 20 years," been "treated to luxury vacations by Republican donor Harlan Crow" and failed to report it. Thomas' allies were quick to rush to his defense. And some of those defenders, according to The Lever's Andrew Perez, are Crow associates themselves.

One of them is The Manhattan Institute's Ilya Shapiro.

Perez, in an article published by The Lever on April 11, explains, "Hours after ProPublica dropped its report on Thomas, Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow at the right-wing think tank Manhattan Institute, tweeted, 'Unless Harlan Crow has some business before the Court, the @propublica report about Justice Thomas is a big breathless nothingburger.' Unmentioned: The Manhattan Institute, where Shapiro leads an amicus brief filing program lobbying the Supreme Court to rule certain ways on issues like student debt cancellation and corporate taxation, boasts Crow's wife Kathy on its board of trustees and has been called 'wonderful' by Crow himself."

Perez also notes that conservative journalist Jonah Goldberg, formerly of the National Review and now editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, has been defending Crow vigorously. On April 8, Goldberg tweeted, "Harlan Crow is a deeply honorable, decent, and patriotic person. He's not the strawman Thomas haters are trying to make him."

According to Perez, "As The Dispatch separately noted in a news article covering Crow's gifts to Thomas, 'Harlan Crow is a minority investor in The Dispatch and a friend of the founders.' Goldberg is also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think tank where Crow serves on the board of trustees. Previously, Goldberg was a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, the nonprofit affiliated with the conservative National Review magazine."

Read The Lever’s full article at this link: https://www.levernews.com/the-paid-pundits-defending-clarence-thomas-and-his-billionaire-benefactor/

[Rick Plant]

Lauren Boebert and Adam Frisch tied among likely 2024 voters, new poll says



An early poll shows incumbent U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and Adam Frisch, the Democrat who came close to unseating the Republican in 2022, in a tie for the seat amid current political conditions.

If the 2024 election were held today with the two candidates, 45% of voters would choose Frisch and 45% would choose Boebert, according to findings from a poll released Tuesday.

The poll, conducted by progressive organizations ProgressNow Colorado and Global Strategy Group, surveyed 500 likely voters and 100 unaffiliated likely voters in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District between March 29 and April 2. It has a 4.4% margin of error.

“Lauren Boebert, in a Republican-leaning district, is tied going into the 2024 presidential election cycle,” ProgressNow Colorado executive direct Sara Loflin said of the results.

The race was unexpectedly close in the 2022 midterms. Boebert, the highly controversial conservative lawmaker, beat Frisch by just 546 votes in the right-leaning district. It was redrawn in the recent redistricting process and favors a Republican candidate by 9 percentage points.

The district encompasses the Western Slope and the southwest corner of the state, sweeping east to include Pueblo, Otero and Las Animas counties.

Primary opponents

Frisch has already started his campaign for the seat in 2024 and raised $1.7 million since mid-February, according to his campaign. That sets the stage for the race to receive national attention — and dollars — as Democrats view Boebert as vulnerable and potentially beatable in a presidential election year with higher expected turnout.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced last week that it will target Boebert in 2024.

Andrew Baumann with GSG said that Frisch will have a clearer path to victory if he can increase his name recognition before 2024. Among voters who knew both Frisch and Boebert, Frisch led by 19 percentage points in the poll.

Among Republicans who described themselves as not very conservative, 60% back Boebert, 24% back Frisch and 16% are undecided. Pollsters said this shows an opportunity for Frisch to gain ground with center-of-right voters who may be disillusioned with Boebert’s extreme politics and who might agree with Frisch’s stance on abortion and economic policies. Frisch painted himself as a moderate last year.

Additionally, the poll found that Boebert’s priorities do not align with those of voters in her district. Respondents listed addressing inflation and protecting Social Security as the two most important issues for Congress to focus on. They put defending former President Donald Trump and self-promotion on social media as the two bottom priorities among those offered by pollsters. Those two issues, however, were the ones respondents ranked as the top priorities Boebert seems to be focused on.

“Voters see Boebert focused on the exact things they don’t want to see her focused on,” Baumann said.

Boebert’s unfavorable rating has grown in the past two years. In March 2021, 39% of respondents had an unfavorable view of her. Now, 50% of them do.

Debby Burnett, who also ran in 2022 but did not make the Democratic primary ballot, is also running in 2024, according to the Pueblo Chieftain. Russ Andrews announced this week he is seeking the Republican nomination, according to The Daily Sentinel.

https://coloradonewsline.com/briefs/boebert-frisch-tied-like-poll/

[Rick Plant]

Republicans face the music after their Wisconsin Supreme Court loss



Losing the Wisconsin Supreme Court race by a whopping 11-point margin was a big blow to Republicans, prompting a round of soul-searching and recriminations. The Wall Street Journal called it a “five alarm” warning that the party is losing its grip on the Midwest and could face stiff headwinds in the 2024 presidential election. Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker told Fox News that the defeat of Daniel Kelly — whom Walker himself had appointed for a short stint on the state’s highest court — is a sign that conservatives must redouble their efforts to fight liberal indoctrination in the classroom and on university campuses to win over younger voters (coincidentally, that’s the very effort Walker is paid to lead at the Young America’s Foundation).

Some conservative advocates argue that the race proves that Republicans need to be even more vocal about their anti-abortion views. Others point to softening support among suburban women and suggest dumping Trump and moving away from the hard right is the path to success.

Regardless, in the most gerrymandered state in the nation, you can bet the GOP is not going to give up power easily.

There’s been a lot of speculation that Republicans could use their new supermajority in the state Senate — the one bright spot for the GOP after an otherwise miserable election night —  to impeach newly elected Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz. But that’s unlikely since A. Protasiewicz hasn’t been seated and hasn’t even arguably done anything impeachable yet and B. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers could appoint her replacement (just like Walker appointed Kelly to fill an empty seat), so the net result would not advance the conservative cause.

Losing its lock on power is an existential crisis for a party that has been able to run the table, even while losing statewide elections.

Republican legislators and their allies can no longer turn to a conservative majority on the state’s highest court to help them seize powers from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers as they did after he won in 2018. They won’t be able to rely on the court to stick by the “least change” doctrine that conveniently ratified their gerrymandered maps, locking in their control of the Legislature after they changed everything to draw themselves into power. And they won’t be able to count on the conservative majority that very nearly overturned the legitimate vote for President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

In a letter to supporters, Rick Esenberg, founder, president and general counsel of the rightwing Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which is continually bringing cases to the state Supreme Court on behalf of the Republican Legislature, reacted to the news about the new liberal majority by calling for an all-out war against “the progressive left” that now hold the White House, the governor’s mansion and the Wisconsin Supreme Court. “The left has already begun bragging of how they will ‘undo’ Act 10, the congressional district maps, and every other hard-fought win that we achieved in the first place,” Esenberg wrote. “They will start in Wisconsin and go on from here. We cannot let them succeed.”

What choice do conservatives have?

They can take the long and arduous route Walker recommends, trying to persuade more college students that abortion shouldn’t be a right and that climate change isn’t real. Or they can try a more expedient route, fighting like hell to hold onto gerrymandered maps so they can remain in power.

Rather than trying to impeach Protasiewicz, my bet is that Republicans press the current conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, perhaps in response to a request for original action from WILL, to make a ruling ratifying the existing gerrymandered map. They might also suddenly get interested in ethics rules. After refusing for years to recuse themselves from cases involving their own campaign contributors, they could pass new rules based on their argument that Protasiewicz, having expressed her support for abortion rights and her belief that Wisconsin’s voting map is “rigged,” must therefore recuse herself from cases involving gerrymandering and abortion.

That won’t get them very far, though, since a new liberal majority can undo the kinds of last-minute deck-stacking efforts the Legislature successfully executed against Evers in the lame duck session.

At some point, cheating isn’t enough. Having lost the high court, Republicans are facing a perilous moment.

Which brings us back to all those Republican politicos’ pleas to the party to figure out how to do a better job appealing to voters.

When the Republicans talk about losing “everything we’ve worked for” with the change on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, they’re referring mainly to the changes Walker set in motion with his union-busting Act 10, as well as more than a decade of deep cuts to education funding and deregulation of polluting industries.

The tangible results of Walker’s “divide and conquer” politics are visible everywhere now.

That bitter legacy was most eloquently described by former UW chancellor John Wiley in a 2015 essay for Madison Magazine in which he described Wisconsin’s decline since he first arrived here four decades ago as a graduate student after living in Indiana and Tennessee. Wiley paints a picture of Wisconsin the way it used to be, when progressive-era investments in infrastructure and a small-d democratic ethos created a state with perfectly maintained highways, tidy farms, city streets and parks free of trash and a well educated workforce. After spending 40 years at the university, Wiley sadly observed, “almost everything that once made Wisconsin seem like a promised land is being systematically stripped away and discarded. That process has been tragically accelerated under Governor Scott Walker.”

Business interests that have been able to buy seats on the Wisconsin Supreme Court “really do want us to become a third-world state, and they are winning,” Wiley wrote.

Investments in public schools and our great university have been slashed, tuition is no longer affordable for families of modest means, including  people like Wiley’s parents. Meanwhile, the median family income in Wisconsin has declined, and with the attack on unions, the route to the middle class has been further barricaded. There is a rundown quality to our state, a meanness exacerbated by “divide and conquer” political rhetoric, and a deep inequality. We are no longer that clean, optimistic land of opportunity that attracted Wiley.

That’s the legacy Walker and his allies worked so hard for. And now it’s threatened, because their vision won’t be protected from voters who don’t like it.

Abortion and gerrymandering were the big topics in the Supreme Court election (along with a big dose of lurid Republican ads about violent crime). Protasiewicz calculated, correctly, that a majority of voters did not agree that conservative triumphs have been good for the state. She has also been an opponent of Walker’s Act 10, having grown up in a union household and seeing what a difference pro-worker policies made for her own family.

If Protasiewicz and her colleagues are able to rule on fair maps, legislators who play only to their hard-right base could suddenly face a referendum on the whole Walker legacy, the damage it has done and what kind of a state we really want to live in. No wonder they’re so dismayed.

https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2023/04/11/republicans-face-the-music-after-their-wisconsin-supreme-court-loss/

[Rick Plant]

Abbott Seeks Pardon for Killer of Protester

"Gov. Greg Abbott (R) directed the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to consider recommending a pardon for Daniel Perry on SaPersonay, one day after a Travis County jury convicted the U.S. Army sergeant in the 2020 murder of Austin protester Garrett Foster,” the Texas Tribune reports.

“After 17 hours of deliberations and an eight-day trial, jurors Friday found Perry guilty of murder for shooting and killing Foster, who was armed with an AK-47 as part of a group protesting police brutality.”

https://politicalwire.com/2023/04/09/abbott-seeks-pardon-for-killer-of-protester/

Missouri GOP proposes a frighteningly efficient way to ban books
Targeting particular library books for removal was bad enough. Now some Republican lawmakers in Missouri have proposed withholding state money from libraries.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/missouri-defund-libraries-book-ban-rcna78014

Missouri’s new effort to punish libraries is vindictive and harmful
https://missouriindependent.com/2023/04/10/missouris-new-effort-to-punish-libraries-is-vindictive-and-harmful/

Missouri House votes to strip state funding from public libraries
https://www.ky3.com/2023/03/29/missouri-house-votes-strip-state-funding-public-libraries/

[Rick Plant]

Republicans facing a reckoning later this week
An NRA convention and an RNC confab in Nashville come at an inopportune time.



Republicans are openly distressed about the prospect of losing younger voters over their stances on abortion, firearms and democracy.

By week’s end, their challenges on those three fronts could grow worse.

Days after a mass shooting in Louisville, Ky., many declared and undeclared 2024 candidates will be brandishing their Second Amendment bona fides at the National Rifle Association’s annual leadership forum in Indianapolis. From there, a number of the candidates will travel south on I-65, where they will make their cases to Republican National Committee grandees for a gathering in Nashville — the site not only of another mass shooting, but also the state GOP-led ejection of two Black Democratic lawmakers last week.

“Talking at the NRA meeting in Indianapolis then going to the RNC meeting in Nashville all fits together,” said Paul Helmke, the former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind., and president and CEO of the Brady Center/Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “You’re giving a single unified message: You don’t brook dissent or disagreement on guns.”

The cattle calls in Indiana and Tennessee, on the books for months and aimed at reaffirming core principles for the party, come at a moment when there are growing questions from within about its direction. Inside the party’s headquarters, there has been recognition that Republicans need to change their message on abortion with pollsters arguing for a more moderate tack. And among some committee members, there is a belief that the GOP’s image could be bolstered if it lessened its strident opposition to gun safety measures, especially among a group of voters who are just engaging in national politics.

“Every life matters,” said Oscar Brock, an RNC member from Tennessee. “Including those three 9-year-old kids in Green Hills,” the neighborhood in Nashville where they were shot and killed at school. Brock said he believes the party is suffering among swing voters on the issue of guns and abortion.

But while a corner of the party has begun pushing for nuance, others are making the case for staying the course on long-held policies.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a 37-year-old presidential candidate and wealthy biotech entrepreneur, warned that the party would not succeed “by compromising on its core principles.”

“We should be at once unapologetic on principles, and also live up to the principle instead of just uttering the slogan,” he said in an interview this week.

Ramaswamy suggested the party neither increase abortion access nor tighten gun laws, but instead take steps to make it easier for women to obtain child care or “tap into Social Security early” to fund a family. On guns, Ramaswamy, a father of two young children, said the GOP should get serious about funding armed guards in every school — and “none of us should tolerate kids being killed.”

It’s not uncommon for there to be disagreement within Republican ranks over whether to shore up the party’s standing with the base or adjust and moderate to appeal to independent voters. But the latest round of debate has taken on greater importance after a series of poor election performances, including a Democratic win in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. And it has been sparked by a series of events, including those recent mass shootings and a Trump-appointed federal judge’s ruling to suspend the FDA’s approval of a commonly used abortion pill.

The fissures were on vivid display Tuesday in deep-red Tennessee. After previously resisting calls for red flag laws — including from former President Donald Trump in 2019 — Republican Gov. Bill Lee publicly urged the state Legislature to pass a version of it, and announced he would sign an executive order strengthening background checks for firearm purchases.

Lee’s news conference, which came as a surprise even to GOP legislative leaders, followed a shooting March 27 that killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a Nashville Christian school. Lee said one of his wife’s closest friends — with whom she was planning to have dinner that night — was murdered.

It was a remarkable illustration of a GOP official moving swiftly to try and sand down the party’s image. Less clear is whether a GOP-controlled Legislature that has worked for years to roll back gun regulations will heed the governor’s call to act.

Republicans in the Legislature were already facing the reality that their plan to expel two Democratic House members for protesting the state’s gun laws inside the Capitol had backfired. One of the expelled members, Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville, quickly returned to his seat on Monday after being reappointed by local officials. The other, Justin Pearson of Memphis, is expected to return later this week.

But that wasn’t the only front on which the party was showing signs of retrenchment. On the topic of abortion, Republican anxieties have been building for months.

Last week, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel declared that the party had a “messaging issue” surrounding abortion, citing recent GOP losses. The New York Times, meanwhile, reported on Tuesday that the RNC has been circulating a memo showing that voters are more comfortable with a 15-week abortion ban — even as state GOP lawmakers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, embrace far more restrictive measures. Left unsaid in the article was that the memo had been put together back in September, well before the midterm elections.

“She was right,” said Brock, referring to McDaniel’s call for a party messaging shift on issues such as abortion. “And yet she got shouted down by the hardcore pro-life wing of the electorate. And I’m sorry that happened.”

The party’s divides on the issue of abortion have erupted into clearer view since last week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race and Friday’s ruling by the Trump-appointed Texas federal judge on mifepristone. Within hours of the ruling, the only likely 2024 GOP candidate to issue a statement of support was former Vice President Mike Pence. No other GOP candidates have commented on the matter.

Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, an anti-abortion group, said it was the silence itself, not the ruling, that was making life hard for Republicans.

“It’s foolish not to take these issues head on. They paint our side as extremist when there aren’t any counternarratives,” said Nance.

A Republican pollster who has conducted surveys on the issue but declined to speak on the record said the problem was that party officials were “not articulating our position very well and so voters in the absence of information fill the void with what’s provided to them, and it’s largely provided by Democrats.”

But when asked if there was anyone in the party singing the right tune on the issue, the pollster would only name only Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, Mace has repeatedly sounded the alarm that the GOP is wrong on abortion, and on Monday told CNN that the FDA should ignore the Texas judge’s ruling.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/11/republicans-face-reckoning-young-voters-00091453

[Rick Plant]

Shelby County Commission reappoints Justin Pearson to state House seat, days after expulsion



The Shelby County Commission voted unanimously to reappoint Justin Pearson to the state House seat Republicans expelled him from six days ago.

House Republicans kicked out Pearson, D-Memphis, and Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, for violating the chamber’s rules on decorum when the two men took over the chamber’s speaking podium to protest a lack of action by lawmakers on gun violence. Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, joined the duo in the floor protests, but Republicans fell one vote short of expelling her.

The floor protests followed a mass shooting in Nashville where three adults and three children were killed at Nashville private school on March 27.

Republicans chose to expel Pearson and Jones because they used a megaphone to lead chants with a crowd gathered in the House gallery. Over a thousand protesters descended on the State Capitol that day.

The floor protests forced the House into a 40-minute recess.

The floor protests occurred on March 30, and House Republicans held expulsion hearings one week later on April 6.

Pearson’s reappoint comes days after the Metro Nashville Council reappointed Jones to his seat. Only seven of the Shelby County Commission’s 13 members were present for Wednesday’s special-called meeting.

Earlier in the day, Pearson led a rally from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis to the commission meeting, showing the community support for his reappointment.

Pearson should be able to attend Thursday’s House floor session in Nashville.

Republican leaders said they would welcome back Pearson and Jones but emphasized they had to follow the House rules.

Pearson and Jones must run in separate special elections later this year to regain their seats. It will be Pearson’s second election in less than a year. In a special election earlier this year, he won his current Memphis district seat, which was previously held by the now-deceased Barabara Cooper.

https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/04/12/shelby-county-commission-reappoints-justin-pearson-to-state-house-seat-days-after-expulsion/