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Republican claims that Democrats would expand the U.S. Supreme Court to undercut the conservative majority if they win the presidency and control of Congress has a familiar ring.

Its a tactic the GOP already has employed in recent years with state supreme courts when they have controlled all levers of state political power.

Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia have signed bills passed by GOP-dominated legislatures to expand the number of seats on their states respective high courts.

In Iowa, the Republican governor gained greater leverage over the commission that names judicial nominees.

The arguments being advanced now by Republican leaders that this is an affront to separation of powers, that this is a way of delegitimizing courts those dont seem to be holding at the state level, said Marin Levy, a law professor at Duke University who has written about efforts to expand state high courts.

President Donald Trump and the GOP have seized on the issue in the final weeks of the presidential race, arguing that Democratic nominee Joe Biden would push a Democratic Congress to increase the number of seats on the Supreme Court and fill those with liberal justices.

Some on the left have floated the idea in the wake of Republicans rush to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon who died last month.

Biden, for his part, has said hes not a fan of so-called court packing, and its far from certain that Democrats can win back the majority in the U.S. Senate.

Arizonas governor, Republican Doug Ducey, said he opposes adding seats to the U.S. Supreme Court.

We shouldnt be changing our institutions, he told reporters recently.

Yet Ducey signed a bill that did just that at the state level in 2016, expanding the Arizona Supreme Court from five seats to seven. As a result, Ducey has appointed more judges than any other governor in the states history.

Ducey said the situations are not the same because Arizonas system for selecting judges allows him to appoint them only from a list sent to him by a commission that interviews and vets candidates.

Arizona judges also face retention elections, a process that is essentially a formality. No state supreme court justice has ever lost a retention election.

Its apples and oranges, Ducey said, comparing the state and federal high courts.

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Despite rhetoric, Republicans have supported expanding courts - The Columbian

Back in April, Wisconsin Democrats defied Republican voter-suppression efforts and produced an upset for a progressive State Supreme Court candidate. Photo: Sara Stathas/The Washington Post via Getty Images

A week ago I wrote about the big surge of early voting around the country, which had already reached an amazing 21 million! Now that number is up to an estimated 52.7 million and is continuing to climb.

In my earlier piece I echoed many political analysts in warning against too-hasty interpretations of the total numbers or the heavy Democratic tilt of early voting in places where that can be determined or at least estimated. Yes, the surge could mean massive overall turnout or it could simply reflect fears of health risks for in-person voting on Election Day, or unusually early mail-in or in-person voting based on concerns about postal delivery or long lines. And the Democratic skew could mean a big sweep, or simply the partisanship in voting methods resulting from the presidents endless and false attacks on voting by mail.

But journalist Ari Berman has a different theory based on what hes seen in Texas:

In the last week of September, Chris Rollins, the county clerk of Harris County, Texas, sent out mail ballots to voters in the Houston area who had requested them and set up 12 locations where voters concerned about delays with the US Postal Service could drop their ballots off. Then, on October 1, just as voters had started to return their mail ballots, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued an emergency declaration limiting mail ballot drop-off sites toone per county. The moveappeared designed specifically to makevoting harder in Harris County, the largest county in the state, which has 2.4 million registered voters and a larger landmass than Rhode Island

Yet when early voting began in Texas on October 13, Abbotts plan to limit Democratic participation appeared to backfire,as voters in Harris County, where voters of color make up a majority and where Hillary Clintonwon by 12 points in 2016,surged to the polls.

The numbers in Harris County have been astonishing. A record 128,000 people voted on the first day of early voting, up from 68,000 in 2016 and a higher turnout than the entire state of Georgia on the same day. Turnout has barely dropped since then. On Friday, Harris County surpassed1 million early votes, exceeding its total from 2016 with a week of early voting still left, andnearly equaling the 1.3 million people who voted overall in 2016.

Berman quotes local Democrats who suggest that the unusual visibility of Abbotts moves to make it harder to vote really galvanized the voters he was trying to discourage.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the countys top executive and a 29-year-old Latina, says that voters in Texas are used to the steady drumbeat of suppression, which has often kept turnout among voters of color and young voters low. But she called Abbotts declaration limiting mail drop-off locationsthe straw that broke the camels back.

Its the sort of thing that is hard to document other than anecdotally, at least until the returns are in. But there is one 2020 precedent: the infamous Wisconsin primary in April, when the COVID-19 pandemic had reached its first terrifying levels amid blatant Republican efforts to discourage voting by mail and make in-person voting more difficult and dangerous in Democratic-leaning urban areas. There was one very important nonpartisan but very ideologically charged election on the ballot in that intensely polarized state, and all the voter-suppression measures led most observers to expect a comfortable win for a conservative State Supreme Court judge. But it all went wrong, as I explained at the time:

There may have never been in living memory a more blatant voter suppression schemeoutside the former Confederacythan the one Wisconsin Republicans and their federal and state judicial allies attempted this month. With the connivance of the legislature and theWisconsin Supreme Courtthey controlled, the Badger State GOPinsistedon holding an in-person election at the height of thecoronaviruspandemic that was sure to disenfranchise many Democratic-leaning minority voters in Milwaukee. Meanwhile, the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Courtstoppeda federal judge from extending time for voters forced to vote by mail to receive and return their absentee ballots.

The big prize for Republicans in this maneuvering was a ten-year term on the state Supreme Court that would haveensured its judicial agentsa majority on that powerful tribune until well into the next decade, making a Republican gerrymander of the legislature and the congressional delegation much more likely, along with a voter purge. The intended beneficiary was incumbent judge Daniel Kelly. But in a big upset delayed by slow-arriving absentee ballots (SCOTUS would not allow an extension of the April 7 voting deadline but left in place a ban on the announcement of results until April 13), Kellys progressive rival Jill Karofsky won the nonpartisan election.

It wasnt close, and it was pretty clear Democrats were driven to the polls by anger at what the GOP was doing to the franchise. It could happen again in jurisdictions controlled by Republicans who are cooperating with Trumps battle to discourage and intimidate voters likely to favor Democrats.

My colleague Eric Levitz recently speculated that Trumps devious tactics might backfire if ongoing spikes in COVID-19 cases keep Republicans the president has convinced to vote in person instead of voting by mail to stay home on November 3. So its possible the GOP effort to shape an electorate in its own image could backfire twice, by scaring away Republicans and turbocharging angry Democrats. What goes around comes around, for sure.

Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.

The rest is here:
Is Republican Voter Suppression Starting to Backfire? - New York Magazine

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Letter to the editor: What the Republican Party believes - TribLIVE

A longtime Republican stronghold in the heart of San Antonio is shaping up as a partisan battleground.

For decades, ZIP code 78209 the home of affluent Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills was the domain of well-known Republicans, including former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus and Congressman Lamar Smith.

Support for President Donald Trump still is prevalent here. Flags with his name fly from trees and houses. Residents have given so much to Trumps re-election campaign that 09 ranks among the top ZIP codes nationally in fundraising for the president.

But Republicans for Biden signs also are in evidence. The Trump era has stoked Democratic turnout in 09, delivering gains for Democrats in previously Republican neighborhoods. Even some longtime Republicans say theyre uneasy about giving the president a second term.

For Terrell Hills resident Susie Golden, four years of Trump is more than enough. She voted for former Vice President Joe Biden this year and for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The list is so long, starting with the misogyny, the racism, just the lying, the craziness the list is endless, Golden said. I just dislike everything about that man.

Golden grew up in a Republican household, she said, and still has residual respect for Republicans in the Straus mold fiscally conservative with a moderate temperament and less eagerness to please a far-right base.

But given sitting Republicans association with Trump, they dont deserve to keep their jobs, she said. She voted for Democrats up and down the ballot.

I would love to see it all flipped blue at this point, Golden said. I want to see them burn to the ground.

Patti Haugen is on the other end of the political spectrum. For her and her husband, a partner in an oil and gas company, a vote for Trump means a continuation of lower income and corporate tax rates passed under his administration.

Despite Trumps widely criticized handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Haugen is sticking by the president.

I don't think really any of it was his fault, she said. He didn't bring a pandemic on.

On ExpressNews.com: These Texas women arent flocking to Trump. They made up their minds weeks ago.

The road to victory in 78209 may prove tough for Democratic candidates, navigating terrain where voters are more educated than the average Bexar County voter and are prone to splitting their ballots between Democrats and Republicans in the same election year.

That makes it a battleground because those are people who are persuadable by evidence as opposed to voting purely based on partisanship, Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said.

In 2016, Clinton narrowly carried 09, winning 13 out of the ZIP codes 25 precincts. But Trump won Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills.

In 2018, Democrats made headway in pockets Republicans won two years before.

In the race to fill Smiths open congressional seat in 2018, Democrat Joseph Kopser, an Austin entrepreneur, picked up seven precincts Smith won in 2016 and carried a majority of the ZIP codes precincts.

But his opponent, Republican Chip Roy, ultimately won the district, which stretches from San Antonio northeast to Austin and north and west into the Hill Country. Roy now is in a contentious re-election battle with Democrat Wendy Davis, a former state senator and gubernatorial candidate.

In his narrow loss to Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, Former El Paso Congressman Beto ORourke managed to flip five precincts Trump had won two years before, including two in Alamo Heights and one in Terrell Hills.

The Republican senator came away with seven precincts across 09.

But that same year, many areas ORourke and Kopser won also went for Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican state Rep. Steve Allison, a former school board president of the Alamo Heights Independent School District who replaced Straus when the House speaker retired.

In early voting this year, Peggy and Paul Foerster an Alamo Heights couple who tend to vote Republican cast ballots for Biden, Davis and MJ Hegar, the Air Force veteran challenging Republican Sen. John Cornyn.

I dont consider Trump to be a Republican, Paul Foerster said. I consider him to be an autocrat.

Biden, has a better chance of drawing the country together, which is what we really need, he said.

But the couple did vote to re-elect Allison, whom they see as more moderate and good on education. Allison once again faces Democratic challenger Celina Montoya, who lost to Allison in 2018 by less than nine points.

I never thought it was a good idea for people to be able to just pull one lever, push one button and vote all for one party, Peggy Foerster said.

On ExpressNews.com: What Trumps save-the-suburbs pledge means in Texass only political battleground

The president has plenty of support in 09. If Trump signs are less pervasive than might be expected for a sitting president in historically Republican turf, it could be because some of the presidents partisans fear blowback if they advertise their support.

Patti Haugen has signs in her front lawn for Roy, Allison and Trish DeBerry, the Republican candidate for Bexar County Precinct 3 commissioner. But she worries her home and family would be targeted if she stuck a Trump sign in the yard.

Im not going to advertise it, Haugen said.

Nancy Garrett, a 79-year-old former USAA employee, knows about how people react to public displays of support for Trump. For years, she has hung homemade signs backing Trump from her house on North New Braunfels Avenue angering many passersby, some of whom made obscene gestures..

I got so sick and tired of it that I started yelling back, Drop your drawers. Of course, I didnt mean it, Garrett said. But it was irritating. Thats slowed down and we get a lot of thumbs up now.

Garrett voted for Trump in 2016 because he wasnt a politician and plans to do so again. She backs Trumps wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, opposes the notion of spending less on police and more on social services, and feels that Democratic leaders including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have unfairly maligned the president throughout his tenure.

Theyll spread any lie they can think of, Garrett said. They blame him for everything.

But, Garrett admits, Maybe he shouldve worn a mask more so that people would. But I like him.

On ExpressNews.com: In uncharted waters of competitive Texas politics, can the polls keep up?

Shes not the only one. To date, about $1.4 million has flowed from 78209 residents to a trio of funds backing Trumps re-election bid, raised from nearly 2,300 individual donations. In 2016, Trump raised more than $573,000 from 665 donors.

But fundraising among 09 residents for both sides has surged this election. During the 2016 cycle, the ZIP code accounted for just shy of 20,000 donations to presidential and congressional campaigns, totaling a little more than $5 million.

For all races on the Nov. 3 ballot, residents so far have pumped more than $11 million into campaign coffers, totaling more than 44,000 donations.

Bidens fundraising in the area hasnt been as robust as Trumps. Hes raised about $316,800. But hes amassed that amount from more donors 3,074.

And Democrats in the area are more energized than in 2016. Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue recorded nearly 9,200 contributions back then from 09 residents totaling $194,000, campaign finance records show.

This go-round, ActBlue already has racked up more than 25,000 donations totaling $902,000 and theres still nearly two weeks to go.

Democrats hope they can convince Republicans on the fence about a second Trump term to reject the GOP entirely.

What you see is a lot of those people are turned off by the current Republican Party, the Trump party, Democratic strategist Demonte Alexander said.

In the race to replace outgoing Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff, Democratic candidate Christine Hortick has seized on Republican opponent DeBerrys $1,000 contribution to Trumps re-election bid to try to discourage ticket-splitters.

Jelyn Pizzitola, a lawyer who lives in Alamo Heights, plans to vote for Biden and DeBerry but bristles at DeBerrys Trump donation.

As a female, it kills me, Pizzitola said of DeBerry. But I think sometimes you have people that have to play by the party rules.

DeBerry recently has tried to distance herself from the president while insisting she believes in traditional Republican values.

The DeBerry camp has worked to remind Alamo Heights voters of her community ties including her work for the Alamo Heights School Foundation and Davids Legacy Foundation, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of cyberbullying.

There may be a certain percentage of folks who just say, You know what, I cant go for the antics, said Thomas Marks, a local GOP strategist and DeBerrys campaign manager. So yeah, they may split their ticket.

On ExpressNews.com: I want my vote to count By the hundreds, voters are hand-delivering their mail-in ballots to Bexar Countys elections office. They dont trust the Postal Service.

What drove 78209 resident Monica Flynn to plant a Republicans for Biden sign in her front yard was the U.S. Postal Service.

Flynn had to close her Alamo Heights dental practice for weeks to abide by Gov. Greg Abbotts coronavirus pandemic protocols.

When Abbott allowed dentists to reopen in May, Flynn found medical-grade masks she needed to safely resume her business were scarce and expensive. But the governor made some available for Texas doctors.

I signed up and ordered mine in May, Flynn said.

The cuts in mail service ordered by Postmaster-General Louis DeJoy, a Trump appointee and megadonor, caused delays in mail delivery. Flynn said the masks didnt arrive until August.

Meanwhile, in July, Trump commuted the sentence of longtime associate Roger Stone, who had been convicted of seven felonies for impeding a congressional investigation into the 2016 Trump campaigns possible ties to Russia. Trump acted days before Stone was to begin serving a 40-month prison term.

Flynn was appalled.

A presidential pardon I think of as something you do for some old guy who was in prison because he stole a loaf of bread, she said, not for someone who is in prison because they were convicted of a crime that was directly related to what they did or were accused of doing that in some ways related to the president, she added.

Flynn became more vocal about her plan to vote for Biden. But that doesnt mean shes thrilled about the former vice president or that she plans to back Democrats up-and-down the ballot.

My vote is a vote against Trump, not a vote for Biden, Flynn said.

Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Joshua, become a subscriber. jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports

Originally posted here:
I want to see them burn to the ground Democrats angry with Republicans turning San Antonios 78209 into battleground - San Antonio Express-News

Local newspapers in Ohio have exposed a plot led by Republican activist Renea Turner to build a posse to kidnap and murder the states governor, Mike DeWine. Though DeWine is a Republican and a Trump supporter, he was evidently targeted for implementing mild restrictions to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed over 5,100 Ohioans.

Turner confirmed in a Friday interview with Cleveland.com that she was trying to recruit people to place the governor under house arrest. The plan was revealed when an individual she attempted to recruit filed a police report last week. State police then visited Turner but did not make an arrest. As of this writing, not a single national news publication had reported the Ohio developments.

Though it is not known how far advanced this particular plot was or how many people were involved, it comes just over two weeks after federal officials arrested over a dozen fascists who planned to kidnap and kill Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and also discussed targeting Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. Trump has made no secret of his plans to mobilize far-right supporters to invalidate the popular vote and attempt to remain in office. This strategy is focused particularly on battleground states like Ohio and Michigan.

Turner is a Trump supporter who has connections to a group of Republican state legislators who have been calling for DeWine to be arrested for the damage to business interests caused by statewide lockdown measures.

State Representative John Becker, one of this group, told the Dayton Daily News on Friday that he personally met with Turner two weeks ago. In a short video responding to the revelations, Becker said Turner was building a posse whose plan was to arrest the governor at his home, put him on trial for tyranny and with the potential for that being either execution or exile.

Six weeks ago, Becker petitioned a prosecutor to file criminal charges against DeWine for terrorism, inducing panic and other crimes related to the lockdown. In the same YouTube video announcing his awareness of the plot against DeWine, Becker provocatively repeated calls for viewers to submit affidavits in support of his effort to arrest DeWine. Earlier this autumn, Becker cynically declared: When Gov. DeWine is arrested, I sincerely hope that he is wearing a mask and doesnt get tasered.

In a press conference held Friday to address other matters, DeWine responded to a question about the plot by saying he had not been previously briefed by police or federal officials.

He indicated that he took the plot seriously: Look, we have people in every state who believe that they can take the law into their own hands. We have people who believe the governments illegitimate and they have every right to go and basically overthrow the government in one form or the other. I think its incumbent upon all of us to denounce that and say thats wrong.

On Thursday, the day before details of the plot emerged, Turner traveled to the state Capitol and held a swearing-in ceremony for herself, claiming she was the legitimate governor, and presented a notarized oath of office signed by several supporters. In a Facebook post about the swearing-in, Turner said, Governor Mike DeWine has become concentrated, grown and has become a Tyrant and will be held accountable immediately. He will receive a Tyrants punishment.

Turner acknowledged on Friday that state police visited her after reports of the plot surfaced and treated her in a friendly manner, telling Cleveland.com that one policeman said he was just there to check out my temperament and what my plans are.

Another state legislator seeking to oust or arrest DeWine, State Representative Nino Vitale, claims the coronavirus was created by Bill Gates. Vitale led efforts earlier this year to force the resignation of Dr. Amy Acton, the director of the Ohio Department of Health and leader of the states coronavirus response, who stepped down in June due to death threats.

The Columbus Dispatch reported that in May, protesters, some armed, showed up at her Bexley home several times. Acton was given security detail, an unusual step. At the time, an ABC affiliate in Cleveland wrote, Neighbors reported several men walking up and down the street with assault weapons stating that there will be no violence for now.

Representative Vitale referred to Acton, who is Jewish, as a globalist and a medical dictator. Thirty-two Republican state legislators, including Vitale and Becker, signed a declaration demanding DeWine reopen the state immediately.

Earlier this year, Vitale and other state legislators said DeWine was attempting to set up concentration camps in the state. If your child tests positive for COVID they will remove your child from your home, Vitale said on Facebook. His claims were also picked up by the Breitbart-linked Ohio Star, which published an article titled Ohio FEMA CampsStill More Questions than Answers on September 4.

A report in the Ohio Capital Journal raises questions about Vitales possible ties to Turner herself, but makes clear that she was at the very least motivated by his incendiary statements: Turner shared one post by Vitale from May 18, in which he accused DeWine of giving himself total dictatorial power. Vitale also falsely suggested the governor knew about the virus in March 2019, many months before the novel coronavirus was ever discovered.

It is not known if Turner has met with more legislators beyond Becker, including Vitale or the other Republican legislators sponsoring the impeachment effort: Paul Zeltwanger and Candice Keller.

There are also questions as to Turners possible ties to the Trump campaign.

When Turner ran for governor in 2018 as a Republican write-in candidate, her running mate for Lt. Governor was Keith Colton, who earlier in 2018 had been a candidate in the Republican primary for Congress in the states ninth congressional district. Colton won roughly a quarter of the primary vote, or 6,263 votes, indicating substantial institutional support.

Colton claims to have been a fairly prominent member of Trumps 2016 campaign, claiming to have worked in West Virginia, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, and Ohio.

In depth

The fascist coup plot in Michigan

The exposure of a plot to assassinate Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has uncovered the existence of a nationwide underground far-right terror network.

It appears this claim has some validity, since Coltons campaign website featured a photo of him with Donald Trump from 2016. An AP photograph from 2017 also shows Colton attending the presidential inauguration ball in Washington D.C.

Video of a 2018 campaign event shows Colton saying he had the Trump staff living with me for 3 months [in Ohio] before the election. I was pretty much involved in all the Trump events on the north coast, from Toledo, Cleveland, Akron. I did a lot of VIP seating, he claimed, adding that he got a secret security clearance and picked up the vice president on one occasion, as well as driving around a Trump campaign spokeswoman, Katrina Pierson.

Ohio is also a hotbed of militia activity. The Michigan plotters met in Dublin, Ohio in June, and FBI agent Richard Trask indicated that representatives of militia groups from several states were present.

After the arrests of 14 Michigan plotters earlier this month, the Columbus ABC affiliate reported: In Ohio, a dozen militia groups have either started or have been active on the website MyMilitia.com since March when Governor Mike DeWine ordered people to stay in their homes due to the coronavirus.

As in Michigan, the anti-lockdown rallies earlier this year provided the basis for far-right groups to meet and plan. Many well-funded right-wing groups were involved in planning the anti-lockdown rallies that took place at the Ohio state capital in April.

The event was sponsored by FreedomWorks, a subsidiary of a group funded by the billionaire Republican Koch brothers. The Ohio Liberty Coalitions president is John McAvoy, who the Center for Media Democracy explains is on the board of the Northwest Ohio Conservative Coalition.

While many questions remain about Renea Turners connections and about how far advanced this particular plot was, what is clear is that the Trump administration has created a climate so toxic and violent that plots like this one became inevitable. This is not an accident, it is a critical element of his political strategy. The Democratic Party has remained completely silent on these dangerous developments in Ohio.

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Activist with ties to Ohio Republican legislators plotted to kidnap and kill Governor Mike DeWine - WSWS