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Austin Davis was recently elected as Pennsylvania's first Black lieutenant governor. | Matt Rourke/AP Photo

Theres little glory in being second in command. But a Democratic committee tasked with electing top lieutenants across the country thinks it finally has the right pitch to secure major money investments in those races.

The Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association plans to raise $15 million by 2026 and spend $2 million each in a pair of high profile lieutenant governor races in 2024 and 2025. The organization also wants an internal operation to support communication and fundraising efforts for lieutenant governors as they eye reelection or higher office.

The plans shared first with POLITICO would represent a significant step forward for the committee, which says it has raised about $2 million a year since it was first organized in 2018. But it is one that senior aides and the lieutenant governors themselves say is a long-time coming.

For years, party insiders have stressed that the donor class is too focused on federal races, and the highest profile ones at that. The lack of attention paid to state contests has not only led to more conservative policy outcomes in the states, they warn, but less Democratic talent moving through the ranks.

The DLGAs pitch to donors and other party leaders is a bench-building one: Todays lieutenant governors are tomorrows senators and governors. They also note that Democratic lieutenant governors best represent a party that increasingly relies on the support of non-white and women voters. Of the 25 Democratic second-in-commands, which includes states where the secretary of state fills that role, 14 are women and 12 are people of color.

It is the most diverse organization of elected officials in the country, said Austin Davis, who was recently elected as Pennsylvanias first Black lieutenant governor. If you look at the number of lieutenant governors that elevate whether to the U.S. Senate, whether its governor, whether its Congress this is clearly a bench of folks who are going to be leading our party into the future.

The DLGA is looking to fashion itself as a training ground for up-and-coming Democrats, connecting them with donors and helping them build policy chops as they consider their political futures beyond their current role.

For a long time, I think the role of lieutenant governor was sort of in the background, Peggy Flanagan, the Minnesota lieutenant governor who serves on the organizations executive committee, said in an interview during a meeting of the organization in Washington this week.

Two of Senate Democrats highest profile midterm recruits were lieutenant governors: Mandela Barnes, who narrowly lost in Wisconsin to incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson, and now-Sen. John Fetterman, who won a close contest in Pennsylvania against Trump recruit Mehmet Oz. And overall in 2022, four now-former lieutenant governors won election as their states chief executives, either winning a term outright or winning a full term of their own after previously assuming the governorship following a resignation.

DLGA leadership says that it is eager to foster members future ambitions. Kevin Holst, who was recently named the committees executive director, noted that would-be donors can form relationships early with a future rockstar in the party.

Holst said that, beyond putting LGs forth as key fundraisers, one particular area of focus would be turning the committee into a centralized services hub for current and aspiring lieutenant governors.

Its a unique committee in which we are focused on electing more LGs, but we recognize that LG isnt likely the endpoint for a lot of these elected officials, he said. Can we provide the fundraising support? Can we help with press support? Can we help with profile building in their states?

Republicans also have a party committee focused on lieutenant governors, which is an arm of the Republican State Leadership Committee. The GOP version focuses on all down ballot races in states, including state legislator and secretary of state contests. The RSLC lieutenant governors website notes that these experiences often prepare our lieutenant governors for higher office, and that over a third of the countrys Republican governors were previously lieutenant governors.

Two tests in the upcoming years for the DLGA will be North Carolina in 2024 and Virginia in 2025, states where the lieutenant governor is elected independently of the governor.

The officeholders in both states are currently Republicans and both are considered potential gubernatorial candidates in the upcoming cycle.

Part of the impulse behind getting involved in these races is because Democrats lost an ultimately consequential race in North Carolina in 2020, a race the committee says it spent $1 million on. Now Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a controversial and bombastic Republican in the state, is a likely candidate as Republicans look to flip the governorship next year.

LG was a race that many people didnt pay attention to in 2020, and now it is biting us in the ass, Holst said.

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Democrats have a diverse bench waiting in the wings. They just ... - POLITICO

Its so sad seeing our great country being so divided politically. Over the past decades people with socialist and communist ideology have slowly but surely been indoctrinating our children in our educational system. The colleges and other institutions have been infiltrated by people who see control being more important than freedom. These same individuals are not leaders but followers who want to be taken care of. Most cannot handle life or lead effectively on their own.

Their political party is no longer the party of John F. Kennedy who believed in lower taxes and a strong military. Kennedy was a war hero who fought to protect our freedom and appreciated the sacrifices made to keep America free. In my opinion, the Democrats have lost that respect. They hate others who dont agree with their new woke ideology and those who work hard to have a successful living.

I believe these Democrats are destroying our country. Our First, Second and Fourth amendments and much more of our Bill of Rights of our Constitution have and continue to violated by the current regime.

If the Democratic Party no longer support your values you need to leave. The party already left you so what do you have to lose?

The Republican Party isnt perfect, no party is, but at least we are trying to save our great country.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

BOB PRYOR

Mifflin Township

Submitted by email

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The Democrats have changed | News, Sports, Jobs - Williamsport Sun-Gazette

Update: Democratic municipal leaders in Essex County met on Saturday and unanimously awarded the organization line for State Assembly to Alixon Collazos. The New Jersey Globe has also confirmed that the Passaic County line will be awarded to Collazos.

One of the most consequential political careers of the last 50 years in New Jersey will soon come to a close with the decision of Assemblyman Thomas P. Giblin (D-Montclair), a powerful labor leader and hugely respected officeholder, not to seek re-election after eighteen years in the New Jersey Legislature.

Giblins replacement will be Alixon Collazos, a former aide to Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Englewood) and an immigrant who came to the U.S. from Colombia at age 14. She is a public affairs executive at the BGill Group, a firm run by her husband, Essex County commissioner Brendan Gill (D-Montclair).

I will not be seeing a new term in the New Jersey General Assembly, Giblin told the New Jersey Globe. It has been my greatest honor to serve as an assemblyman, freeholder, surrogate, and party chair, working to improve the quality of life for the people of New Jersey.

Essex County Democratic Chairman LeRoy Jones, Jr. has scheduled a meeting with municipal chairs in the 27th district today to discuss the Assembly race.

Giblin cited increased responsibilities at the 6,300-member union he runs, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 68. He said the union had opened a new training facility and office in Atlantic City and that he has become the Secretary-Treasurer of the Northeast Conference of the union, with 73,000 members. Hes been the president of the Essex-West Hudson Labor Council, AFL-CIO, for 27 years. He serves on multiple charitable boards, including one that supports the Burn Unit at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center. He also pointed to his five children and eleven grandchildren.

I will continue to be involved in my union and civic responsibilities, Giblin stated. I will serve until my term is complete.

Earlier this week, Giblin became the target of a complaint filed by his longtime chief of staff, Lolita Cruz, alleging that the longtime lawmaker yelled at her. In an interview with POLITICO, Giblin denied mistreating Cruz, his top aide, for the last fourteen years. Party leaders suggested that he retire. In advance of Mondays filing deadline, Giblin becomes the 26th incumbent legislator not to seek re-election.

There had been speculation that the 76-year-old Giblin, who has been dealing with some health issues, had already been considering retirement, but he announced early this year that he would seek a tenth term in the legislature.

Democrats in Essex and Passaic counties intend to put Collazos on the organization line with State Sen. Richard Codey (D-Roseland) and Assemblyman John McKeon (D-West Orange), the newly-drawn 27th district, which extends from Millburn to Montclair and then into Clifton.

They are facing a primary challenge from State Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair) and her running mates, Frank Kasper, a public school teacher from Clifton, and Eve Robinson, a former Montclair school board member. Legislative redistricting placed Codey and Gill in the same district.

Montclair is one of North Jerseys Democratic strongholds, producing the second-highest number of votes.

Collazos also served as Latino Outreach director for Gov. Phil Murphys 2017 campaign and as a grants manager for Millennium Strategies. She is a Democratic State Committeewoman and active in local community groups in Montclair.

If she wins the primary and general elections the 27th district is solidly Democratic, and Murphy won it in 2021 by a 2-1 margin Collazos will boost the number of Latinas in the Essex County legislative delegation from likely two Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark) and Carmen Morales, a high school principal from Belleville who is the organization Assembly candidate in the 34th district to three.

Giblin said he would support the candidates running on the organization line.

Ive been an organization Democrat all my life. There is no reason to change at this stage of the game, he said. I understand the complexities of putting together tickets.

Giblins retirement potentially balances the organization slate, which had included three white Irish Catholic men where the 64-year-old McKeon, known as the Prince Charles of Essex because of his longtime desire to succeed Codey in the Senate, was the young man on the ticket.

The 47-year-old Collazos will also reduce the average age of the 27th district organization ticket from 72 to 62. She would also flip the Assembly seat from a Pro-Life Democrat to a supporter of reproductive rights.

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Giblin to retire, Essex Democrats will back Collazos for Assembly seat - New Jersey Globe | New Jersey Politics

There is just one month left in the 2023 Washington state legislative session and a lot to get done in that time. It's a budget year, too. So, while lawmakers are deciding on new laws, conversation about how to use the budget is also ramping up.

KUOW's Olympia correspondent Jeanie Lindsay spoke to Paige Browning on Morning Edition.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Paige Browning: Washington state goes through this budgeting process every two years. There's a lot of money on the table but also a lot of proposals. How do the numbers look?

Jeanie Lindsay: So, the good news is that there's still growth expected in terms of state revenue over the next two years. The bad news is that it will just be slower than expected, with officials predicting about $480 million less than they did in November. But the state is still expecting more than about $65 billion in revenue. And that's not counting the carbon emissions auction dollars that raked in about $300 million in the first auction in February; those auctions are going to happen at regular intervals, which could mean a good chunk of change for the state more than $1 billion over the next two years.

But the state's revenue can still change, right? Because there is one big moving piece that we haven't talked about yet, which is the state's capital gains tax.

Yeah, actually, on Friday morning, the court issued an opinion upholding the capital gains tax. The court was asked to expedite its opinion, because right now the state is planning to collect that tax on tax day next month and included the tax revenue, which is expected to be about $500 million a year, in the revenue forecast. Also, the Senate included that in its proposed budget released last week. So, with the court upholding it, that means that that funding will be collected, and the state will be able to use that in the state's next two-year budget.

There's about a month left in the session, a month to negotiate the budget. We got a first look at a draft from state Senate Democrats last week. What are they wanting to fund?

The operating budget that Senate lawmakers released includes about $5 billion in new spending, and almost $3 billion of that would be for education, for things like teacher salaries, special education funding. There's also a lot of money targeted at housing and behavioral health. There's also a good chunk for child care and environmental needs, you know, carbon reduction and other sort of environmental projects. There are also dollars to continue addressing the fallout from the state Supreme Court's Blake decision striking down the state's drug possession laws and the fallout from that, but then also funding some of the proposals to address addiction and addiction treatment.

The dollar amounts definitely will change, but you can kind of see what their priorities are.

That's what the Senate Democrats want. This week, we'll see a draft from the House. What will you be looking for?

Democrat leadership has said that the two chambers, the House and the Senate, are really aligned on their values and what their priorities are. But I'm going to be curious to see what those dollar amounts really break down to look like and then how much money goes into each of these different buckets. If there are, you know, drastically different takes on, say, higher education or how much they want to spend on housing. So, we don't know exactly what that will look like. But on Monday we will, so, you know, listen to KUOW to get the latest.

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What's in the WA state Senate Democrats' budget proposal? - KUOW News and Information

To the Editor:

On April 4th, the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) will make a final decision on next years town budget. The most closely watched aspect is how much it will allocate to desperately needed repairs for our aging schools. If the past is any indication, the answer will be not nearly enough. And once again, Greenwich Republicans will have denied our children the safe, accessible, 21st century buildings they deserve.

The Greenwich Democratic Town Committee believes that our schools should be the highest priority for our town more important than a new ice-skating rink or refurbished Roger Sherman Baldwin Park. In addition to giving our children what they deserve, quality public schools keep property values high. Theyre a major reason families choose one town over another.

Unfortunately, the Republican-controlled BET is fixated on funding only one major school project at a time. This short-sightedness costs all of us more in the long run.

We paid more when Hamilton Avenue School had to be torn down and rebuilt, because BET Republicans wouldnt set aside money to maintain and repair a badly leaking roof. We paid more when the ceiling at North Mianus School collapsed fortunately school was not in session. And we avoided a crisis when the Board of Education (BOE) fundedan engineering study of Central Middle School that the Republicans on the BET refused to fund.Thankfully the BOE found federal money to pay for the study, because the school was in such bad shape it needed to be condemned and rebuilt. And were seeing it again, with BET Republicans refusing to provide what the BOE has requested for new construction and renovations, forcing them back to the drawing board to revise projects to fall in line.

Cost-cutting pressure by BET Republicans compromises school design, and further, proposals by the Republican Town Committee risk negatively impacting teaching models that have been successfully used for decades. How shameful would it be to welcome 8th graders to a brand new Central Middle School in the fall of 2026, then tell them in the spring that they must choose only one guest to attend their graduation because the Republican BET would not pay for enough seats in the school auditorium?

Speaking of shameful,eighty percentof our schools are not ADA compliant. Greenwich has already been the subject of anOffice of Civil Rightscomplaint. Students at Old Greenwich School must choose between navigating flights of stairs on crutches or staying home while they recover from an injury. Aside from being short-sighted from a risk management standpoint, failing to make our schools accessible sends the wrong message about who we are as a town. As Democrats, we stand for inclusivity, and our schools should reflect our values.

And dont get fooled by a makeshift plan concocted by five BET Republicans at the 11th hour. That plan does not address all of the Old Greenwich School issues and does not have backing from the community or the BOE. BothCentral Middle SchoolandOld Greenwich Schoolurgently need major funding this budget cycle. Failing to provide it would be malfeasance. The dismal state of the places where we send our children to learn can no longer be ignored or tolerated. Greenwich Democrats wholeheartedly support moving forward on both of those projects with the scope approved by the Board of Education. Its time for our town to invest in our students.

Joe AnglandGreenwich, CT

Angland is the chair of the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee

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Greenwich Democrats Wholeheartedly Support Both School Projects - CT Examiner