Archive for the ‘Republican’ Category

Republicans look to restrict ballot measures following a string of progressive wins – POLITICO

The Republican push to regulate ballot measures has escalated in recent years as citizen-led initiatives have been used to legalize marijuana, expand Medicaid, create independent redistricting commissions and raise the minimum wage in purple and red states.

This new tool in our box to protect reproductive rights and liberty is going to give our opposition even more incentive to take that away from us and to make it harder to pass ballot measures.

Corrine Rivera Fowler, director of policy and legal advocacy at the progressive Ballot Initiative Strategy Center

But the tactic is under new scrutiny after deep-red Kansas anti-abortion referendum failed by a wide margin, which gave abortion-rights supporters around the country hope that ballot measures can be a viable way to circumvent GOP-controlled legislatures and restore access to the procedure.

Some progressives worry they could lose one of their last remaining tools to defend or advance abortion rights in a post-Roe country.

Red states know that this is the one lever that reproductive rights advocates still have in many of these states where weve lost both chambers of the legislature, weve lost the gubernatorial seats, and we dont have very much hope in the court system, said Kelly Hall, executive director of the advocacy group The Fairness Project. Ballot measures remain the one true muscle that the people still have to flex.

Conservative groups in North Dakota are expected to try again next year to impose a supermajority vote threshold for ballot initiatives after their signature-gathering attempts to put such a measure on the November ballot fell short earlier this summer. Republican lawmakers in South Dakota are also expected to take another swing at making it harder to approve ballot initiatives after voters rejected one 60 percent vote requirement during the states June primary.

In Florida, a state where proposed constitutional amendments already need 60 percent approval to pass, lawmakers recently imposed limits on fundraising for ballot campaigns, though that policy was blocked by a judge this summer. In Nebraska, legislators this year banned signature-gathering near voting drop boxes as part of an omnibus election bill.

Hannah Joerger, left, Amanda Grosserode, center, and Mara Loughman hug after a Value Them Both watch party after a question involving a constitutional amendment removing abortion protections from the Kansas constitution failed, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, in Overland Park, Kan.|Charlie Riedel/AP Photo

Lawmakers in Missouri, Oklahoma and Utah are also expected to soon renew their push for other restrictions, such as raising the vote or signature threshold, requiring signatures from a certain number of counties in the state, limiting what topics citizen-initiated ballot measures can address, or dictating what font size canvassers need to use.

The Constitution is supposed to be a framework and then you have laws that operate within that framework. But, increasingly, our Constitution is becoming a law book in and of itself, said Missouri state Rep. Bishop Davidson, who supports limits on the ballot measure process.

Davidson added that the threat of a pro-abortion rights ballot measure something activists are discussing after their victory in neighboring Kansas may persuade more of his Republican colleagues to support reforms to the initiative petition process next session.

I would be shocked if there wasnt a petition circulated from the pro-choice side of this debate, he said. I think it is coming. I am concerned.

Proponents argue these changes, which more states are expected to debate when legislatures reconvene in January, are aimed at preventing out-of-state money from pouring into their states and influencing voters to change laws or amend their constitution.

I know that theres a lot of paid petitioners out there. Is it truly the people who are wanting these things, or is it just groups that are paying for these things? said Oklahoma state Rep. Carl Newton, a Republican.

The pattern extends beyond state legislatures into other parts of government.

In Michigan, Republicans on the states Board of Canvassers voted to block the certification of a sweeping abortion-rights ballot initiative that got far more than the required number of valid signatures over claims the text of the proposed constitutional amendment had spacing and formatting errors. The states Supreme Court overrode their decision on Thursday, meaning voters will have a chance in November to decide whether abortion remains legal.

And last year in Mississippi, a conservative-leaning court struck down the states entire ballot initiative process.

This new tool in our box to protect reproductive rights and liberty is going to give our opposition even more incentive to take that away from us and to make it harder to pass ballot measures, said Corrine Rivera Fowler, director of policy and legal advocacy at the progressive Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.

Of the two dozen states that allow citizen-initiated ballot measures, 11 have laws prohibiting most abortions, though some are temporarily blocked in court.

The efforts to stymie ballot initiatives, however, havent been targeted specifically at abortion.

Arkansas legislators, for example, acted after liberal groups turned to voters to raise the minimum wage and legalize medical marijuana. But these policies may have their greatest impact on abortion rights as lawmakers across the country consider not only whether and when the procedure should be legal but also what punishments to mete out to physicians and patients.

Arkansas Right to Life hasnt taken a position on the proposed supermajority vote requirement. But the groups executive director, Rose Mimms, told POLITICO its passage would help prevent efforts to amend the states Constitution to codify a right to abortion.

The lawmakers pushing for the higher threshold, she said, are very good pro-life people, so Im thinking they had not only [abortion] but other conservative issues in mind when they wanted to protect our Constitution from being changed so easily by making that supermajority a requirement.

Weve seen it here in Arkansas with marijuana, that once you start amending the Constitution, theres no meaning to it, she added.

Opponents of the 60 percent requirement argue it would make it much more difficult to pass progressive policies, including protections for abortion, in a state where Republicans in the Legislature outnumber Democrats 3 to 1.

This is the only tool we have in a state like Arkansas, said Kymara Seals, policy director for the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, one of the groups campaigning against the amendment. Thats why we must fight to protect our access to the ballot because were not going to get it in the legislature.

Groups that oppose the restrictions also argue that the process is already time-consuming and expensive. In Michigan, for example, tens of thousands of canvassers mostly volunteers with some paid staff worked for months to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures to get the abortion rights amendment on the November ballot and planning for the effort began years earlier.

Both SBA Pro-Life America and Students for Life, two national anti-abortion groups that have spent millions on ballot initiative fights in Kansas and other states, told POLITICO they arent getting involved in debates over the ballot process.

Too many state and national leaders are not responsive to what voters really want, so the rise in ballot initiatives as a trend comes from people taking advantage of the course open to them, said Kristi Hamrick, the spokesperson for Students for Life. I hope this isnt about silencing constituents.

Polls show that Roes demise has helped Democrats close the enthusiasm gap and Democratic candidates have benefited from a surge in donations since POLITICO published the draft Supreme Court opinion in May, but progressive groups fear not enough attention is paid to the ballot initiative process.

We are really raising the alarm bell about whats happening this November, Hall said. Because if they succeed in any of these [states], it will be all the more fuel on the fire to say that they should be proposing these restrictions everywhere else.

The Fairness Project was behind a successful Medicaid expansion ballot measure in Oklahoma in 2020, after which lawmakers introduced several bills to make it harder to pass citizen-led ballot initiatives, including a proposal to raise the threshold for approving constitutional amendments to 55 percent.

The legislation failed this year, but Newton said he plans to bring back his bill in the 2024 legislative session.

Newton added that while hes not specifically concerned about an out-of-state group introducing a pro-abortion rights ballot measure in Oklahoma, there is a possibility because there are some groups [like] Planned Parenthood that would want that to be a reality. So they may pick us out as a target state.

Abortion-rights groups within Oklahoma, meanwhile, are contemplating unwinding the states near total ban by putting the question directly to voters. Thats why protecting ballot access is so crucial, said Laura Bellis, executive director of Take Control Oklahoma, which advocates for reproductive health care access.

We have to protect ballot initiatives in general before we can even think about having one to protect abortion rights, she said.

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Republicans look to restrict ballot measures following a string of progressive wins - POLITICO

Ted Cruz: Republicans are "lying" or "idiotic" if they dismiss Trump for 2024 – Axios

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Republicans who dismiss former President Trump as a potential 2024 presidential candidate are "lying" or "idiotic," he told the Washington Examiner.

Driving the news: Cruz is a potential Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential race but has held off on making any official announcement. He told the Examiner that he has not made a decision about 2024 because he wants to see what Trump plans to do.

What he said: There are a lot of candidates out there feeling their oats and boasting, Im running no matter what. I dont care what Donald Trump says. Anyone who says that is lying. Thats an idiotic statement for someone to make whos actually thinking about running, Cruz said.

Flashback: Cruz told Fox News at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last month that he will "wait and see" if former President Trump decides to run in the next presidential election.

The big picture: Other notable potential GOP candidates for the 2024 election include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and former ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, among others.

Go deeper ... Poll: Most voters don't want Biden or Trump on the 2024 ballot

Half of Republicans wouldn't vote for Trump in primary, poll finds

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Ted Cruz: Republicans are "lying" or "idiotic" if they dismiss Trump for 2024 - Axios

Kevin McCarthy’s Desperate Bid to Prove the Republican Party Has Ideas – The New Republic

It wasnt a particularly surprising response given the partys noteworthy abandonment of policy ambitions. A month earlier,McConnellhad told donors more or less the same thing, insisting that telling voters what Republicans would do if elected was a massive strategic blunder: The best thing to do, he argued, was just to hammer Democrats.

This was, at the time and for much of 2022, a sound strategy. The Democrats were, as is their wont, very much in disarray: Joe Bidens legislative agenda had stalled out, leaving the party with an anemic list of accomplishments on which to campaign. Inflation was bad and getting worse, with no end in sight; many were predicting an imminent recession. A new Covid variant, moreover, had just emerged, causing chaos, hospitalizations, and death across the countryand preventing the Biden administration from saying that it had fulfilled its core 2020 campaign promise, that it would end the pandemic and return the country to normalcy. For the first half of the year, Republicans battered their rivals on all these fronts. And they also used a kind of sleight of hand, obscuring the fact that they had no real solutions to any of these problems, nor any intention to gin any up.

That the Commitment to America exists is evidence that the GOP believes this approach has either failed or is no longer applicable. Indeed, much has changed: After the Dobbs ruling unleashed a litany of unpopular outcomeskicking off a summer in which new revelations about the extent of Donald Trumps efforts to illegally overturn the 2020 election seem to hit the front pages on a weekly basisDemocrats rallied with some unexpected legislative accomplishments. The GOP suddenly found itself steadily losing ground, both in the so-called generic ballotwhich tracks which party voters would prefer to have control of Congressand in several key swing-state races.

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Kevin McCarthy's Desperate Bid to Prove the Republican Party Has Ideas - The New Republic

Keating: When I was governor, Republicans and Democrats worked together – Oklahoman.com

Frank Keating| Guest columnist

I had the honor of being the only governor in Oklahoma history to have served in both houses of the Legislature. Moreover, as a rare breed Republican, I was only third in line behind my luminary predecessors, Henry Bellmon and Dewey Bartlett. Statehood in 1907 was long past. The Party of Lincoln was a relic to most Okies. Few knew much about them. Republicans were curiosities, searched for on Saturday nights by probing headlights of the inquisitive.My one House term saw 25 Republicans serving alongside 76 Democrats. The Senate was worse. My brief service there saw me as Republican leader. There were seven of us out of 48 members. Pretty slim numbers.

Once on the Senate floor, I presented a bill that would drop the long-time legislative requirement that before a person could be institutionalized for drug or alcohol abuse, he had to commit a crime. Like beating a wife or child. My bill would simply require a medical jury to decide to send someone for treatment who was a threat to himself or others. Before I could explain the bill, a powerful Senate Democratic leader rose and asked if I would yield? I agreed and he promptly asked his colleagues for unanimous consent to remove me as the author of the bill because it was too important a bill to be handled by a Republican. Fortunately, the bill passed.

When I was elected governor, I proposed that the Democratic heads of the Senate and House have breakfast with me once a week. They agreed. I pressed on and proposed that the Senate and House Republican leaders join us at the same time. They balked. Why would we do that? one inquired. They have nothing to contribute. I pressed and won the issue. For years, both party leaders and I met, socialized and debated. Knowing and respecting your adversary is a good way to move forward. We are all in government together. If the USS Oklahoma sinks, we all go down together. The last people left laughing will be the Texans.

In eight years with me as governor and Democrats in charge of the Legislature, we put Right to Work in the Constitution; finished the turnpikes on the to-do list and four-laned hundreds of miles of state highways; legalized charter schools and public school choice; passed tort reform; cut taxes and put the dome on the Capitol with private money.

Democrats and Republicans worked together. For Oklahoma. For progress. Because we knew one another and respected one another. We created a DO culture. What we needed was DONE, by both parties, hand in hand.

Frank Keating was formerly the governor of Oklahoma from 1995-2003.

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Keating: When I was governor, Republicans and Democrats worked together - Oklahoman.com

Why is the Republican Party falling out of love with big business? – The Economist

The close relationship between the Republican Party and the corporate world has shaped American capitalism for decades. Businesses are used to disdain from Democrats, but vitriol from the right is newer. This has been on display in public brawls between lawmakers and companies, and shifting orthodoxies in the Republicans economic philosophy. What will be the impact of the partys growing suspicion of America Inc?

West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore tells us why hes targeting firms that wont invest in fossil fuels. We go back to a high point in the partys love-in with big business. And political adviser Oren Cass explains the theory behind the Republicans new approach.

John Prideaux hosts with Charlotte Howard and Alexandra Suich Bass.

Runtime: 42 min

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Why is the Republican Party falling out of love with big business? - The Economist