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A survivor of the deadly 2017 home explosion in Firestone caused by a leak from a nearby oil and gas well is calling on the National Republican Senatorial Committee to immediately take down an ad that uses the blast to attack former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Erin Martinez, whose husband, Mark, and brother, Joey, were killed in the explosion called the ad horrifying.

My family and I have worked extremely hard to create positive changes that will keep my story from happening to anyone else and in doing so, honoring the memories of Mark and Joey, Martinez said in a written statement. Not a single day goes by that we are not heartbroken and struck with unimaginable grief. This ad uses my story in a negative light and disgraces the memory of Mark and Joey.

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The NRSC, which is spending millions in Colorado to reelect Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, says it wont take the ad down. Hickenlooper is running to unseat Gardner.

The kind of grief Ms. Martinez and her family have survived is unimaginable, and their public fight to keep other Colorado families safe is incredibly important, said Joanna Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the NRSC. John Hickenlooper said he was going to do the right thing to protect Colorado families right after the explosion, but then a private donation to his office from the gas company responsible changed that.

The 30-second ad lacks context.

It accuses Hickenlooper of not doing more to sanction Anadarko, the company that owned the leaky well, because his office took a donation from the driller after the blast. While its true that Hickenloopers office accepted the money weeks after the Firestone blast, there isnt proof that his office wasnt tougher on Anadarko because of it.Hickenloopers office also accepted money from Anadarko before the fatal blast.

The ad also says that no one went to jail and there were no fines issued under Hickenloopers administration. Both claims are true, but state regulators were waiting to pursue fines until after the National Transportation Safety Board finished its investigation. The explosion was caused by a pipeline that was severed during construction of the home.

The pipeline was attached to a well that was dormant until a few months before the incident. When it was restarted, raw natural gas leaked into the house.

The NTSB investigation wasnt released until October 2019, long after Hickenlooper left office. Four months later, Occidental Petroleum, which acquired Anadarko, was hit with an $18.25 million fine.

The ad does not name Martinezs family, but it does use images of their home engulfed in flames.

Hickenloopers campaign also called for the ad to come down. Erin Martinez is absolutely correct Washington Republicans must take down their horrifying and false attack and stop exploiting this tragedy and distorting the facts to score political points, said Melissa Miller, a spokeswoman for Hickenlooper.

She also pointed out that Hickenlooper took a number of actions after the blast, including calling for pressure testing of pipelines near homes.

A spokesman for Gardners reelection campaign declined to comment.

Both Hickenlooper and Gardner have faced criticism for their ties to the oil and gas industry. Anadarkos political action committee has donated $10,000 to Gardners 2020 reelection effort, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Erin Martinez has pushed for stricter regulations on the oil and gas industry in the wake of the explosion. She was instrumental in the passage last year of Senate Bill 181, which dramatically shifted Colorado laws around drilling, but she has mostly stayed away from partisan politics.

MORE: Colorado lawmakers are using the deadly Firestone explosion as a fulcrum for change just as Erin Martinez wanted

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Martinezs son also survived the 2017 blast.

The NRSC has booked or spent $4.9 million in Colorado for the election cycle, including $1.3 million this month alone.

Colorado Sun correspondent Sandra Fish contributed to this report.

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Republicans are using the 2017 Firestone home explosion to attack Hickenlooper. A survivor demands they stop. - The Colorado Sun

Gov. Phil Murphy approved a bill Thursday evening allowing the state borrow up to $9.9 billion to aid its COVID-19-ravaged budgetonly for the state Republican party to file suit soon after, arguing that the move is unconstitutional.

GOP lawmakers and the states Republican Party filed the suitThursday evening at the Mercer County Superior Court. It lists the New Jersey State Republican Committee and GOP lawmakers from both the Assembly and Senate.

The borrowing plan would sidestep voter approval typically required when the state bonds money and could leave New Jerseys taxpayers on the hook for upward of 35 years.

Under the deal that Murphy struck last week with Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-19th District, and Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-3rd District, the state would bond up to $2.7 billion through September the end of the three-month extension of the current budget and another $7.2 billion between Oct. 1 and the end of June 2021.

The pandemic has ground economic activity to a halt, causing billions of dollars in state tax revenue to dry up. Murphy plans to cut or delay $5.3 billion through Oct. 1, and the state is facing a $7.2 billion budget hole.

ButMurphy has indicated its too early to tell how the borrowed money would be spent.

A four-person panel in the state Legislature would have to okay any borrowing and accompanying spending that Murphy wants to pursue.Coughlin and Sweeney will likely be two of the members, along with Senate Budget Chair Paul Sarlo, D-36th District, and Assembly Budget Chair Eliana Pintor-Marin, D-29th District.

Gov. Phil Murphy speaks at his daily COVID-19 press briefing at the War Memorial in Trenton on June 3, 2020. RICH HUNDLEY, THE TRENTONIAN

The passage of this legislation is an important step in New Jerseys recovery from the economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Murphy said in a Thursday evening statement, hours after the Legislature sent him the bill. While this is by no means a silver bullet, the ability to responsibly borrow is essential to meeting our fiscal needs in the coming year.

Parts of the borrowing, done under a Federal Reserve program, would be paid back in between three to five years; bonding through the private market could take decades to pay back.

The measure was passed in the Assembly hours after the Senate approved it, along party lines in both houses, with the Democratic majority supporting the bill, aware of the looming legal challenge.

Proponents argue that the plan is necessary to keep afloat a vast array of public and social service programs, ranging from K-12 education to police and emergency services, teachers, and the states pension payments.

But according to one report from the state Legislatures nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services, the state could not bond out money to use for general operating expenses, and doing so would be unconstitutional.

The Republican legal challenge cites thatOLS opinion, as well as a 2004 state Supreme Court case limiting how the state could use borrowed money.

The Constitution of the state of New Jersey does not allow you to do what youre proposing to do, Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-26th District, said during the Thursday floor debate in the lower house.

Republicans also worried that the bill would lead to tax increases, and the legislation does in fact allow for the state to increase the property and sales tax rates if it cannot come up with the money to finance the debt.

Pintor Marin

Sarlo assured on Thursday and during a Senate hearing earlier in the week that tax increases, at least for now, are being kept off the table.

Still, Murphy and Democrats in the Legislature argue that the state constitution will be on their side in this matter, with Pintor-Marin, during the Assembly session, citing a legal opinion from the state attorney generals office that backs the plan.

[W]hats your plan B, folks out there? What else do you think we should be doing? Its just ridiculous the absence of viable alternative public policy from folks who are whining about this, Murphy responded earlier this week.

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Murphy signs $9.9B borrowing bill, NJ Republicans sue in court to block it - NJBIZ

* President Trump's ratings on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic continue to collapse. In a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, just 38% approved of how Trump has dealt with the virus while 60% disapproved. Back in March, 51% approved of how Trump was handling the pandemic while 45% disapproved in that same poll. As the public has soured on Trump's ability to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, it has also moved heavily in Joe Biden's favor in general election polling. The former vice president leads Trump by 15 and 11 points in two new national polls released this week.

* Democrats have a double-digit lead in party identification. In a new Gallup number, 50% of Americans identify as Democrats or Democratic leaners while 39% describe themselves as Republicans or Republican leaners. That's a major shift from January when Republicans had a 47% to 45% edge on party ID in Gallup polling and a rapid acceleration of Democrats' advantage since even May when Democrats had a 3-point edge on the party ID question.

"That fundraising difference is even larger in swing districts currently held by well-funded Democratic incumbents.

"Recent filings show that Democrats are widening the gap. In 13 races holding primaries in June and July that are considered competitive by the Cook Political Report, incumbent Democrats have 9 times more money in the bank -- $40 million to $4.5 million -- than the best-funded Republican challengers."

Political handicappers are taking notice.

"President Trump's abysmal polling since the pandemic began is seriously jeopardizing down-ballot GOP fortunes. We may be approaching the point at which dozens of House Republicans will need to decide whether to cut the president loose and run on a "check and balance" message, offering voters insurance against congressional Democrats moving too far left under a potential Biden administration....

"...Republicans began the cycle hoping to pick up 18 seats to win the majority back. Now they're just trying to avoid a repeat of 2008, when they not only lost the presidency but got swamped by Democrats' money and lost even more House seats after losing 30 seats and control two years earlier. For the first time this cycle, Democrats have at least as good a chance at gaining House seats as Republicans on a net basis."

"The Senate has been in play for at least nine months, but Democratic chances of winning control of the chamber have improved significantly in the last few weeks....

"...Democrats need a net gain of four seats for a majority, but can control the Senate by gaining three seats and winning the White House. With less than four months to go before Election Day, the most likely outcome is a Democratic net gain of 3-5 Senate seats. Since Biden has a clear advantage in the presidential race, that means Democrats are more likely than not to win control of the Senate."

"Trump is extremely unlikely to win if the polls continue to look the way they do now. And if these numbers represent a new normal, we need to account for the possibility that this election won't be particularly close, and that new states may come into play. In other words, if the national picture remains bleak for Trump, then the slippage he's seen from earlier this year wouldn't just be limited to a handful of swing states."

In short: All the signs are there that this could be a landslide up and down the ballot for Democrats. Yes, things could change between now and November 3. But, given Trump's obstinacy in refusing to admit his errors in dealing with the coronavirus and the current spikes in some of the most populous states in the country, such a turnaround seems very, very unlikely at the moment.

Read more here:
The signs of a Democratic landslide are everywhere - CNN

FILE PHOTO: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing to discuss police brutality and racial profiling, in Washington, DC, U.S. June 10, 2020. Greg Nash/Pool via REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican leader in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation on Thursday that would cut federal aid to state and local governments if they do not protect statues, after protesters attacked monuments to people who owned slaves or fought for the Confederacy.

It is wrong to erase our history, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement, criticizing left-wing mobs who have attacked statues across the United States.

Under his bill, introduced with fellow Republican Representatives Jim Jordan and Sam Graves, some federal funds would be withheld if local governments do not restore order or arrest rioters.

During national - and international - protests against racial injustice sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May some demonstrators have taken down or vandalized statues of historical figures such as Robert E. Lee, who led Confederate troops against the United States, and Christopher Columbus.

Republican President Donald Trump, who is campaigning for re-election in November, has harshly criticized such protesters, and criticized U.S. lawmakers who want to remove monuments to those who owned slaves and fought against U.S. forces in the 1860s Civil War.

Trump has threatened decades-long prison terms for those who deface monuments or statues.

McCarthy introduced his bill as Democrats pushed legislation to remove monuments to slave owners and those who supported slavery from the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

On Thursday, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she expected the House would pass such legislation next week or the week after.

Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Jonathan Oatis

The rest is here:
Top House Republican threatens to cut funding to states, cities that don't protect statues - Reuters

Its not like a QAnon supporter went down a path where they got into George Bush and then started to read Ronald Reagans speeches, and then bought Milton Friedmans Capitalism and Freedom, and then believed in satanic baby eaters, said Joseph Uscinski, a professor at the University of Miami who studies fringe groups. It doesnt work like that.

Mr. Trump won by saying that he wanted to drain the swamp, Dr. Uscinski said. By doing that, he essentially built a coalition of people with anti-establishment views. Those who believe in QAnon, the professor added, are probably the most extreme part of that coalition.

In Western Colorado late last month, Lauren Boebert, a gun-rights activist who has made approving comments about QAnon, beat a five-term Republican incumbent and will now defend the sprawling district in November. In recent weeks she told the QAnon-aligned web show Steel Truth that everything Ive heard of Q I hope this is real.

In a recent interview, Ms. Boebert said she was not a follower of the group. But, she added, I dont believe thats a radical notion to want to get rid of people trying to undermine the president of the United States.

In Southern California, Mike Cargile, who is challenging an incumbent Democrat for a House seat, includes #WWG1WGA in his Twitter bio, a shortened version of the QAnon motto Where We Go One We Go All. He has repeated many of the groups racist theories about Mr. Obama and Black Americans.

In an emailed response to questions, Mr. Cargile said that he sought only to discover the truth and that Americans needed to resist Marxists efforts to deceive and divide.

He said well see what becomes of the QAnon theories. But, he added, all Americans should be alarmed by the efforts of the presidents opponents in Washington, and even more so when we discover that the saboteurs and propagators are the very men and women tasked with safeguarding our system of Justice.

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The QAnon Candidates Are Coming. Are Republicans Ready? - The New York Times