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Democrats defied expectations in the 2022 midterm elections, beating back President Joe Bidens low approval ratings and record inflation. By the end of the cycle, they expanded their majority in the Senate and narrowly lost control of the House.

They came close but ultimately couldn't hand Biden another two years of total Democratic control in Washington.

Unexpectedly, the state that helped Republicans to clinch the House with a five-seat majority was reliably blue New York. Republicans there flipped four Democratic seats and snagged several other competitive races.

Now, Democrats are looking to reclaim lost ground in 2024 and usher in a new era of leadership, elevating House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to serve as the first Black Speaker of the House.

Democratic strategists and leaders put it simply to USA TODAY: In 2022 and all elections prior, New York was taken for granted.

You cant take it for granted because it never should have been taken for granted, Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime New York-based Democratic strategist and president of Sheinkopf Communications, told USA TODAY.

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After seeing what happened in 2022, national Democrats have recognized they can't afford to lose New York in 2024.

House Majority PAC, House Democrats largest super PAC, said in February it would funnel $45 million to New York. That unprecedented amount of cash will run the gamut, according to Mike Smith, president of House Majority PAC and former top aide to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Were planning to invest in everything from messaging research, to voter registration, field planning (to) Republican credibility, Smith told USA TODAY.

All of that messaging, including billboards and digital ads, is coming from a New York-based rapid-response war room handled by multiple communications and opposition-research staffers.

The push is centered on seven seats: New Yorks 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 22nd Congressional Districts. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting the same districts. Only the 18th Congressional District is held by a Democrat in Rep. Pat Ryan.

Its less about any particular issue and about the gamut of where Republicans stand. Smith said. And thats everything from the debt ceiling to be willing to cut Social Security and Medicare, to be willing to cut infrastructure jobs.

The recognition of the heightened importance of New York has dawned on Republicans as well. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., House Republican Conference Chair, announced in April she would be launching a New York battleground fund" after the fourth-highest-ranking House Republican flexed her fundraising muscles, raising $3 million in the first quarter of 2023. The battleground fund will be dedicated to defending the GOP's newly gained ground in the Empire State.

"It is paramount that we hold those seats," Stefanik told Time. "We are really ground zero politically for maintaining and expanding the House."

After the November elections, New York Democrats conducted a postmortem and over a thousand individuals and organizations signed onto a letter laying the blame at the feet of Jay Jacobs, the state party chair, and called for his resignation.

Jay Jacobs is not fit to serve as Chair of the State Democratic Party, read the letter, but Jacobs ultimately survived the calls for his ouster and told USA TODAY he plans to dig his way back through 2024.

Its been a very, Id say at times, disheartening and sometimes frustrating post-election period of time, Jacobs said, attributing Democratic losses to New York-specific headwinds, including a strong GOP gubernatorial candidate leading the top of the GOP ticket and poor Democratic counter messaging on crime.

As the 2024 election nears and national Democrats step into the Empire State, Jacobs disputed accounts the moves are a sign of a lack of confidence in him as a leader. Instead, Jacobs said his party is working in tandem with national groups and the initiatives were a long time coming for New York Democrats, who have long needed the resources after being overlooked.

This is a reflection of the fact that, whereas in the past, New York has been overlooked and national money has gone everywhere but New York, Jacobs said. We also have competitive races which are more purple than blue. We need attention too.

A large driver behind strong GOP performance in New York was Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin. Democrat Kathy Hochul won the governor's race over Zeldin by just over 6 percentage points, an uncomfortably close margin for a statewide race in deep blue New York.

We had a very energetic, good gubernatorial candidate, New York GOP chair Ed Cox told USA TODAY, who expressed disappointment in Zeldins loss, but credited Zeldins run for boosting several Republicans in highly competitive House races.

Post-November, a major point of contention among New York Democrats was a failure in redistricting following the 2020 census when state Democratic lawmakers drew an ambitious map that gave House Democrats a much stronger advantage in the state.

New Yorks highest court ultimately rejected the map in a victory for Republicans, ruling the maps were gerrymandered and violated the state constitution. The court later appointed an independent special master to redraw the maps in a significant defeat for Democrats.

But Democrats are not willing to stick with the maps until 2030. Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James filed a court brief in April, asking the New York Independent Redistricting Commission to redraw the maps before the 2024 elections and arguing the map drawn by the special counsel was not done in accordance with the state constitution.

Jacobs argued the courts should take another look at the maps and echoed Hochul and James sentiments, saying that New York should not stick with a map drawn by a special master until 2030.

If your big argument as a Republican was that we have to do this according to the constitutional process, Jacobs said. Okay. Lets agree. Lets go by the process and follow the process.

Cox thinks otherwise of ongoing Democratic efforts to replace the maps, accusing them of sidestepping fair and competitive races. The redrawn maps benefited Republicans but not at the expense of Democrats, Cox said. The red wave in New York as Cox sees it, was a mix of both good politics from Republicans and poor politics from Democrats.

They do not want to just compete. They want to cheat, Cox said.

Republicans bet big on attacking Democrats for violent crime, but when results started pouring in from election night, GOP candidates floundered and multiple exit polls showed that voters did not rank crime as high on their list of priorities except New York.

Basil Smikle, a New York-based Democratic strategist and director of the public policy program at Hunter College, said Democrats could have done better on assuring voters they could keep them safe from violent crime. Heading into 2024, Smikle expects the GOP to keep pinning what they claim as rampant crime rates on Democrats.

Voter blocs that have generally trended Democratic have started a very slight tilt to the right that was a major contributor to Republican victories in New York, Smikle said. Groups such as Asian American voters and Jewish voters, according to Smikle, came around for Republicans amid a spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans and a rise in antisemitism.

GOP holds hearing on NYC crime: Democrats say it's to do the bidding for Donald Trump.

It put Democrats in a very tough spot, but I do think they could have handled it better, Smikle said, pointing to state Democrats reformation of New York bail laws which ended cash bail for most misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. In the lead up to the midterms, Republicans accused Democrats of letting criminals run free and Smikle said Democrats let the message stick.

Theres a way to talk about crime in a way that is both empathetic but also signals to voters that you will keep them safe, Smikle said. Thats a challenge that Democrats faced last cycle and didnt execute well.

Jacobs demurred when asked what issues will be most important to voters heading into 2024 and said it was too early to determine what issues will be at the forefront of the election. Still though, and unsurprisingly, Jacobs projected confidence the states Democrats will sweep the next elections. And for all the blame he has received for 2022, there will not be much of it in 2024, he predicted.

Well win, and I assure you this, Jacobs said. When we win back those four congressional seats and we have all these huge victories in New York and everything goes great, you will not a hear a single person say Thank you state party chair.

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After taking NY for granted, Democrats have a new plan to win back ... - USA TODAY

Texas Republicans are seeking to take control of elections in the Houston area, a growing Democratic stronghold that is making statewide races more competitive and could eventually turn the state into a presidential battleground.

So far this year, Republican state lawmakers have proposed eliminating the local elections clerks job; allowing the Republican-appointed secretary of state to suspend the clerk; letting the secretary of state overturn an election in the county and order a new one; creating new election marshals to investigate and press charges against elections clerks; and potentially allowing election charges to be brought in a neighboring county.

The sweeping proposals come as the greater Houston area has seen a population boom and shift among its highly educated suburban voters away from the GOP and toward Democrats, raising the possibility that the county could lead long-Republican Texas into the Democrats column.

Local officials around Houston say the bills are targeted at them. The text of two of the bills even says they would only apply to counties of a certain size, eliminating all but Harris, a sprawling metropolis criss-crossed by 10-lane freeways.

Some other bills are broader but would affect the Houston area more than the rest of the state. One would bar the use of voter centers a location where any voter can cast a ballot which have helped reduce travel time and confusion over polling places in a county which covers more land than London.

It seems that we are being punished for voting for Democrats, said Nicole Pedersen, voter protection director for the Harris County Democratic Party. Because Republicans cant win in Harris County, they are now trying to assert power over it at the state level.

But Republicans argue that they are focused on Harris County because of ballot shortages in the midterm elections.

Republican state Senator Paul Bettencourt, who used to manage Harris County elections and is the sponsor of several of the bills, said that the shortages were undermining confidence, leaving voters wondering if they would be able to cast a ballot at their polling place.

I flat have had enough, period, he said. It cannot be tolerated.

A recent investigation by the Houston Chronicle found that 20 out of the countys 782 polling places ran out of paper at some point in the day, some for as little as 15 minutes, far fewer than Republicans have claimed.

Its unclear which bills will make it to Republican Governor Greg Abbotts desk by the time the legislature ends the 2023 session at the end of May. Voting-rights advocates who are tracking the bills note that hearings have been scheduled with less than the usual notice and they expect at least one of the bills to pass the legislature before the end of the session, though they dont know which one.

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said the county will sue if the bill allowing elections to be overturned is signed into law, while powerhouse Democratic elections attorney Marc Elias said hell be reviewing it to see if a legal challenge is appropriate.

Other Republican-led states have also targeted election practices in increasingly Democratic urban areas, according to the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab.

In Georgia, lawmakers banned the use of a souped-up RV as a mobile voting center after Fulton County, home of Atlanta, began using one. In Tennessee, the legislature barred the use of instant-runoff voting after Memphis planned to use it in local races. Arizona, Florida and Texas authorized targeted audits of the 2020 election results in major urban areas.

In 2021, Texas banned drive-through voting and 24-hour voting, two innovations pioneered by Harris County the prior year. Houston and its suburbs are home to one of the worlds densest agglomerations of petrochemical and industrial manufacturing, which means tens of thousands of people work the graveyard shift.

With more than 4.7 million residents, Harris isnt just Texas largest county, its the third largest in the United States, with a population larger than 25 states. While Houston itself has long been a Democratic bastion, the outer areas are now trending away from the GOP as new transplants move in and highly educated suburban voters shift toward the Democrats.

In 2020, Harris County backed Biden over Trump by 13 percentage points, even as Texas overall went for Trump by 5.6 points, and it provided more than one of six votes Biden received in the state.

Matt Angle, director of the Lone Star Project, a Democratic PAC, said that while Republicans dominate Texas right now, each election they lose a little ground as Harris County and similar urban areas grow and become more Democratic. He sees Republican proposals to limit or control voting there as an attempt to minimize their losses.

Harris County is a place where Republicans know they cant let the score go up too high, he said. Democrats now regularly win, but if those percentages start moving from the mid 50s to the high 50s, there are not enough rural voters in the rest of the state for Republicans to make that up.

Republicans have been clear that they are worried about that possibility. After winning an unexpectedly close reelection race in 2018, Texas Senator Ted Cruz said that the state could soon become a presidential battleground, which would be especially damaging for Republicans, who depend on its cache of 40 electors to reach a 270 majority in most of their Electoral College maps.

Losing Texas, Cruz said, would be game over for Republicans.

With assistance from Joe Carroll.

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Texas Republicans want to take over elections in this Democratic ... - Brunswick News

Democratic lawmakers have attacked conservativeSupreme Court justicesover ethical matters in recent weeks but have overlooked issues involving liberal justices in the past.

Justice Clarence Thomas has taken the brunt of the criticisms from left-wing lawmakers after ProPublica reported he had received gifts from Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow and didn't report them, though Thomas' defenders say the justice has complied with the court's reporting guidelines. Since then, Politico reported that Justice Neil Gorsuch had sold a home to a law firm leader whose firm had several cases "before or presented to the court" and failed to document the sale.

The revelations led to Democratic attacks against the Supreme Court and Thomas. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said Thomas' relationship with Crow is a "conflict of interest" given Crow's status as a GOP donor. Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse called for a Justice Department investigation.

"It would be best for the Chief Justice to commence a proper investigation, but after a week of silence from the Court and this latest disturbing reporting, I'm urging the Judicial Conference to step in and refer Justice Thomas to the Attorney General for investigation," Whitehouse said in a mid-April statement.

REPORT ON CLARENCE THOMAS' TRAVEL HABITS IS 'POLITICS PLAIN AND SIMPLE': EXPERT

Democrats have targeted Justice Clarence Thomas following reports he accepted gifts from a Republican mega-donor and failed to report them.

But Democrats remained quiet throughout the years when reports surfaced on Supreme Court justices concerning their potential conflicts, including proximity toDemocratic mega-donors, omitting trips and reimbursements, failing to recuse themselves from cases involving companies in which they had financial stakes and cases concerning issues they had worked on in the past.

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Retired Justice Stephen Breyer, who served on the high court from 1994 to 2022, had been identified as maintaining close ties to the wealthy Chicago-based Pritzker family.

Story continues

OpenSecrets reported that from 2004 to 2018,Breyer took more tripsthan any other Supreme Court justice (219). The Pritzker family, known for their generous contributions to Democratic causes, supported many of the trips.

The billionaire relatives, mainly Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his sister Penny Pritzker, who formerly served as the secretary of commerce in the Obama administration, have funneled $23.3 million to Democratic committees over the past ten years, according to a Fox News Digital review of campaign finance records.

Breyer's Pritzker-backed trips included two related to his post as a juror for the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, which honors architects yearly, OpenSecrets reported. Breyer became a juror for the group in 2011 before becoming its chair in 2018.

Gov. Pritzker has attempted to influence judicial elections. In 2021, he banned out-of-state money for judicial campaigns ahead of supreme court races in his state. He later dipped into a trust and skirted campaign finance limits he had signed into law, the Chicago Tribune reported. And months ago, he funneled$1 million to the Wisconsin Democratic Partybefore its pivotal supreme court election that Democrat Janet Protasiewicz won.

Gov. Pritzker's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Breyer has spoken at numerous events held by law firms that handle cases before the Supreme Court. He has also taken part in cases where financial interests were close to home.

In 2015, PBS reported that he had heard arguments in a case as his wife owned $33,000 of a company's stock in the dispute. In 2019, Breyer did not recuse himself from a United Technologies case, even though he owned stock in the company, according to Bloomberg.

DEMOCRATS PRESS SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE TO INVESTIGATE CLARENCE THOMAS' TRIPS WITH GOP MEGADONOR

Every year, Supreme Court justices are required to submit disclosure forms that detail their income sources. Between 2004 and 2018, Justices reported 1,306 trips that others had reimbursed, according to the OpenSecrets report.

Liberal justices, meanwhile, have also omitted several trips and other potential conflicts.

Justice Sotomayor secured lodging for a group of friends at a boutique hotel in Rhode Island for herUniversity of Rhode Islandcommencement speech in 2016. According to the ABA Journal, she failed to include reimbursements from the university in her disclosure forms for several years.

Watchdog group Fix the Court also discovered in 2022 that Sotomayor had failed to disclose six visits to public universities in her 2016 financial disclosure.

Justice Elena Kagan refused to step away from issues she had previously worked on. Kagan declined to distance herself from ruling on Obamacare despite her past position as the solicitor general, where she gave legal advice. Many questioned whether she could make an impartial decision.

A month after the oral argument, however, Kagan found it necessary to recuse herself from an immigration case she had worked on as solicitor general, SCOTUSblog previously reported.

JUSTICE THOMAS DEFENDS TRIPS TAKEN WITH 'DEAREST FRIENDS' AFTER REPORTS SAY HE ACCEPTED GIFTS

Former Justice Stephen Breyer maintained close ties to the Pritzker family, who have generously showered Democratic campaigns and committees with cash.

Others further failed to disclose trips and other information. In a 2022 nomination form, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson revealed that she had previously omitted information from disclosures, including travel reimbursements, teaching income, her husband's consulting income and board memberships, according to SCOTUSblog.

A handful of justices also did not recuse themselves from cases involving their book publishing company, Penguin Random House, including liberal Justices Breyer and Sotomayor and conservative Justice Gorsuch. Sotomayor has received $3 million from the company, making it by far her most significant source of income, theDaily Wire reported.

Durbin, Whitehouse and other Democrats now focusing on Thomas had refrained from voicing concern regarding the liberal justices.

"Sen. Durbin has been calling on the Supreme Court to adopt an enforceable code of conduct for years," a Durbin spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "He first sent a letter to the Chief Justice on this issue 11 years ago. So to say this is about the current Court is incorrect given today's Court did not exist 11 years ago when Sen. Durbin first started speaking out about this issue."

The office of Sen. Whitehouse, who called for a DOJ investigation into Thomas, did not respond to a request for comment.

Following ProPublica's report on Thomas detailing his trips on Crow's yacht and private jet, theRepublican mega-donoracknowledged providing "hospitality" to Thomas but stressed that he had never requested it and that their families have been friends for many years.

The report claimed that trips taken by Thomas "have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court."

GRAHAM SAYS DEMS' 'ASSAULT' ON CLARENCE THOMAS MEANT TO 'DESTROY' SUPREME COURT'S 'LEGITIMACY'

Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy and The Joseph C. and Elizabeth A. Anderlik Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, previously told Fox News Digitial that the report is "politics" and said that justices often receive gifts from friends.

"There is no 'there' there because the justices have received gifts of hospitality from friends forever," Severino said. "And many of the justices have taken far more trips than Justice Thomas on somebody else's dime, including Justice Breyer, who we know has taken at least 233 trips when he was on the bench."

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse called for a Justice Department investigation following the Thomas reports.

Severino explained that justices are permitted to accept invites to friends' properties for dinner or vacations without paying for it or disclosing it.

Supreme Court Justices do not have to disclose invitations and travel considered "personal hospitality" and are not subject to an ethics code.

"There'snothing to see here, because there's been no allegation whatsoever that accepting travel to a friend's property somehow influenced Justice Thomas's decision-making," Severino said. "That's absurd. If you know anything about Justice Thomas, it's that he's not influenced by outside pressures one whit. He's guided by the law and the Constitution. Period."

Retired liberal Justice Breyer also defended Thomas, calling him a "man of integrity."

"As far as I'm concerned, I sat next to him on the bench for 28 years. I like him. He's a friend of mine. I've never seen him do anything underhanded or say anything underhanded," Breyer said, according to Bloomberg Law.

South Carolina RepublicanSen. Lindsey Grahamaccused his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee of launching "a concentrated effort" to delegitimize the conservative majority Supreme Court by cherry-picking examples "to make a point."

SENATE DEMOCRATS DEMAND CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS OPEN INVESTIGATION INTO CLARENCE THOMAS OVER 'MISCONDUCT'

"This assault on Justice Thomas is well beyond ethics," Graham said during a hearing earlier this week. "It's about trying to delegitimize a conservative court that was appointed through the traditional process."

"Your response has been to pack the court," Graham said. "Virtually every member of the Democratic caucus, except maybe one or two, are for expanding the number of judges to dilute the conservative majority that exists today."

Graham then directed his statements toward Durbin, the committee's chairman.

"So, Mr. Chairman, from our point of view, this is not going to work. You can write all the articles you want to write. You can take all the shots at the conservative justices you want to take. You can picket before their houses, and it's not gonna stop people from doing their job," Graham said.

"This is an unseemly effort by the Democratic left to destroy the legitimacy of the Roberts Court; it's put people at risk, it's put their personal safety at risk," he said.

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Democrats attack conservative Supreme Court justices but have long ignored liberal justices' ethical issues - Yahoo News

The Department of Transportation has given the green light to New York's controversial congestion pricing plan, which would impose a toll on drivers who attempt to enter Manhattan during peak traffic hours.

On Friday, the Federal Highway Administration gave tentative approval to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's environmental and legal submissions for the proposal, allowing it to move forward with a 30-day public review period. The administration is expected to give its final approval to the congestion pricing plan at the end of that review period, Politico reported.

Under the plan, drivers entering Manhattan could be forced to pay as much as $23 on top of other tolls and fees. The fees are opposed by North Jersey Democrats, who say the New York plan is unfair and essentially a tax on Jersey drivers.

MTA officials have said they need about a year to build the necessary tolling infrastructure, which puts the plan on target to go into effect in the second quarter of 2024.

CONGESTION TAX ON DRIVERS GAINS STEAM IN BIG CITIES AFTER NEW YORK APPROVES CONTROVERSIAL PLAN

Traffic moves through downtown Manhattan on April 21, 2023, in New York City. Local politicians and transit advocates are demanding the immediate implementation of New Yorks Central Business District (CBD) Tolling Program, also known as "congestion pricing." (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A spokesman for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told Politico that the Biden administration's approval "is a critical step that will allow our Environmental Assessment to be publicly available for anyone to read, and we will continue to work with our partners to move congestion pricing forward."

"Governor Hochul is committed to implementing congestion pricing to reduce traffic, improve air quality, and support our public transit system," Hochul spokesman John Lindsay said. "Weve worked closely with partners across government and with community members over the last four years to develop a plan that will achieve these goals."

JORDAN NEELY'S FATHER MOURNS HOMELESS SON'S DEATH ON NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY CAR: A GOOD KID

The Empire State Building and tourist district are seen while a traffic jam is reported along the route to New York City on Aug. 17, 2022, in Jersey City, New Jersey. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has said a congestion pricing plan will raise billions of dollars in revenue for public transit projects and also decrease traffic jams in Manhattans tourism district and financial center. (Eduardo MunozAlvarez/VIEWpress)

However, New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy called the plain "unfair and ill-advised."

"Since day one, Ive stood against the disproportionate negative impacts of congestion pricing on New Jerseyans a greater financial burden on New Jersey commuters, double tolling, toll shopping, a lack of revenue for NJ TRANSIT, outsized environmental burdens on certain North Jersey communities, and financial impacts on the Port Authoritys capital budget," Murphy said in a statement. "Everyone in the region deserves access to more reliable mass transit, but placing an unjustified financial burden on the backs of hardworking New Jersey commuters is wrong. Simply put, it is a money grab."

NYC SENDING MIGRANTS TO UPSTATE COUNTY NOT EQUIPPED TO HANDLE INFLUX

Phil Murphy, governor of New Jersey, has called New York's congestion pricing plan "unfair and ill-advised." (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The governor said he supports congestion pricing in principle but called New York's plan "misguided."

New Jersey Democratic Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Bill Pascrell, who each represent districts bordering New York, also condemned the "Congestion Tax."

"They want to stick it to our families and commuters with a $23-a-day tax, but we wont stand for it in Jersey the fight is just beginning. Im demanding the Department of Transportation reconsider their decision in the next 30 days," Gottheimer said in a statement.

"New Jerseyans are used to paying our fair share, but New Yorks congestion pricing scheme is fatally flawed and unnecessarily unfair," said Pascrell. "New Yorks plan would saddle Jersey commuters with extra taxes on top of our already-high taxes without the needed financial return for our transit systems. Having the rubber stamp of approval by the federal government is wrong and an affront to New Jersey."

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In a statement, MTA Chief of External Relations John J. McCarthy thanked the federal government for green-lighting the congestion pricing plan.

"Congestion pricing is a generational opportunity to make it easier for people to get around in, and get to, the Central Business District, by reducing traffic and funding improvements to the public transit system. To do it right, environmental equity has been an integral component. We are grateful that the FHWA has acknowledged the Project Sponsors efforts to date and has found the document has met the standards for legal sufficiency."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Link:
New Jersey Democrats slam Biden administration approval of congestion pricing plan for New York - Fox News

AUGUSTA, Maine Despite hoursof testimonylast week from Mainers opposed to a package of bills to expand abortion access, the Democratic-led Legislature is all but certain to pass measures that include a key proposal from Gov. Janet Mills.

But seven House Democrats are the lone members of their party to not sign on as co-sponsors to the signature billfrom Mills and House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, that would allow doctors to perform abortions they deem necessaryafter fetal viability around 24 weeks.

The small groups members told the Bangor Daily News they arent signing because they are staunchly anti-abortion, but rather are weighing constituent concerns or waiting to see the final version of the plan.

Those seven Democrats Reps. Mana Abdi and Michael Lajoie of Lewiston, Bill Bridgeo of Augusta, Anne Perry of Calais, Joe Perry of Bangor, Ronald Russell of Verona Island and Bruce White of Waterville mostly represent a mix of historic Franco-American strongholds and rural communities with close political divides.

White, who did not respond to a request for comment, was the only Democrat to vote with Republicans when they forced a rare procedural voteon sending the Talbot Ross bill to the Judiciary Committee last month. Joe Perry and White are the only returning House Democrats who voted in 2021 for another bill that would have repealed MaineCare abortion funding.

In an interview, Perry said he understood the governors stated focus on allowing mothers who discover fatal fetal anomalies late in pregnancies to get abortions in Maine. Under current law, the only exception to the viability standard is for the life and health of the mother.

I want to gather my information from my medical professionals, and thats who Ive seeked out, he said.

He, Bridgeo and Anne Perry, a retired nurse practitioner, are each waiting for the measure to come out of the committee to make a final decision. The Calais lawmaker said the measure isnt quite as much of a policy shift as I thought it was at first. Bridgeo said he was withholding comment until the committee deals with the bill.

Russell, a first-term lawmaker who narrowly flipped a Republican-held seat in the 2022 election, said he takes the word representative seriously. During the campaign, he answered a BDN questionnairealongside many other candidates in both parties to say there should be no changes to abortion law, an idea that Mills put forward as well during her concurrent run.

The decision would be easier if it were simply personal, Russell said. But he is trying to weigh feedback that he has gotten since the campaign, saying the issue came up at a recent chat over coffee with constituents.

I dont want it to come across that Im a fervent anti-abortionist, he said. I definitely feel the woman has the right to choose.

Russell also questioned what would happen if a doctor disagrees with the viability cutoff, which has its roots in a landmark 1993 lawthat codified Roe v. Wade protections in Maine. Numerous states have either restricted or expanded abortion access since the Supreme Court overturned those abortion protectionslast summer.

This sessions signature bill championed by Mills would additionally repeal two sets of criminal penalties, including those aimed at those performing post-viability abortions without proper medical licensure, although Maine has other punishments for unlicensed medical practice. It would also amend an abortion reporting law to shield personally identifiable information.

Asked why he did not cosponsor the measure, Lajoie said he preferred to keep that to myself. He voted againsta Republican attempt in 2013 to expand on Maines law that requires a doctor to obtain informed consentfrom a woman seeking an abortion.

Abdi, a first-term lawmaker who joined Rep. Deqa Dhalac, D-South Portland, last year in becoming the first Somali Americans elected to the Legislature, did not respond Friday to requests for comment.

When unveiling the plan in January, Mills cited the story of a Maine womanwho discovered 32 weeks into her pregnancy that her fetus had a rare, likely fatal condition and then went to Colorado for an abortion because Maines law would not let her get one at that stage.

Maine had no abortionsafter 20 weeks in 2021, according to state data. The vast majority of abortions nationally come in the first trimester. Democrats have pointed to their election victories and a recent University of New Hampshire pollfinding a majority of Mainers back the Mills bill.

But Republicans and social conservative allies, who flooded the State House from Monday into Tuesday for marathon testimony against several abortion access bills, call them extreme.A competing package of their bills to limit abortion access receiveda hearing Friday.

Other bills from Democrats would bar Maine cities and townsfrom restricting abortion, require private insurers to cover abortion servicesand prevent malpractice insurers from taking action against abortion providers based on anti-abortion laws in other states.

More articles from the BDN

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The Democratic holdouts on Janet Mills' abortion bill - Bangor Daily News