Mediaboss Marketing

Elected Republican officials in a conservative Michigan county who gave themselves bonuses totalling $65,000 with federal Covid-19 relief funds said they would return the money following days of criticism.

The Shiawassee county commissioners acted after a prosecutor said the payments were illegal, the Argus-Press reported.

The Michigan state constitution bars additional compensation for elected officials after services had already been rendered, prosecutor Scott Koerner said.

The commissioners voted on 15 July to award themselves $65,000 as part of a plan to give $557,000 to 250 county employees as hazard pay for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

The smallest amounts for recipients were $1,000 to $2,000. But the chairman of the county board, Jeremy Root, got $25,000. Two commissioners received $10,000 each, while four received $5,000 each.

The vote was 6-0 with one commissioner absent.

The commissioners awarded money to other elected officials, including the prosecutor, the sheriff and the county clerk all Republicans too. They also said they would give it back.

Since these payments were made, confusion about the nature of these funds has run rampant, a statement said.

[We] deeply regret that this gesture has been misinterpreted, and have unanimously decided to voluntarily return the funds to the county, pending additional guidance from the state of Michigan.

One commissioner, Marlene Webster, insisted she had no idea she had voted to pay herself. She returned the money last week, posting a copy of the check on Facebook. She criticized the latest statement, saying there was no misinterpretation.

Thats an insult to the citizens of Shiawassee county, Webster said.

Two Michigan congressmen, a Democrat and a Republican, said federal virus aid was not intended to reward elected officials.

A judge set a hearing for Monday in a lawsuit aimed at rescinding bonuses for the officials, filed before the latest action.

Original post:
Michigan Republicans will return Covid relief funds used to pay own bonuses - The Guardian

PHOENIX Donald Trump came to Arizona over the weekend to praise Republicans in the state Senate for their insistence on an election audit. Now there are calls from some of those very same senators to shut the audit down.

Scottsdale State Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R ) Scottsdale District 23 tweeted, it's become clear that the audit has been botched. The total lack of competence by @fannkfann over the last five months has deprived the voters of Arizona a comprehensive accounting of the 2020 election.

I would agree with that it's been botched, said State Senator Paul Boyer (R ) Phoenix-Glendale District 20.

Boyer said at the outset he supported the audit but he can't now. A comprehensive review, we were all fine with that. We just didn't think it would be done by a firm that didn't have a clue of what they were doing. That they were partisan with a preordained idea going into what they were going to come up with, Boyer said.

Cyber Ninjas, the company hired to do the audit, consistently fought attempts for an outside review of its ballot counts. Senate liaison Ken Bennett did it anyway, sending 24 boxes of machine-counted ballots to Larry Moore, the retired CEO of Clear Ballot an election technology company that does election audits.

We found of the 24 boxes that were sent, 20 had perfect matches, Moore said. In fact, Moore said the Cyber Ninja numbers and the counties matched 99.9% of the time. If you extrapolate that to the full 2,089,563 count, they would be off by 124 ballots, Moore said.

Bennett told azcentral.com he did the review out of curiosity but said it's premature to draw any conclusions from the sampling.

Still, it's a result that after Saturday's visit by Trump, the Cyber Ninjas and the Republicans pushing stop the steal probably didn't want to hear.

You don't like the third result, well go with the fourth result. When they don't like that, they'll come up with a fifth. Senator Boyer said. Again they are trying to come up with their own preconceived notion of what they want to come up with, they don't know what they're doing.

The auditors have said they should complete their work at the State Fairgrounds this week.

Late Monday afternoon the state Senate issued new subpoenas to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. The state Senate wants routers and other election data as well as the county's voter registration rolls.

Original post:
Some Republican state senators having second thoughts on election audit - ABC15 Arizona

In the 2020 election cycle, the rightwing, corporate American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) gave its 2,000-plus members sophisticated partisan voter management and campaign software worth more than $6 million, according to a complaint filed by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and the Common Cause Wisconsin with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission on July 20.

The group dubbed its software ALEC CARE.

A separate complaint is also being filed by CMD with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblower complaint office. Both are also filed in 14 other states whose members allegedly received this contribution. The software, the complainants state, is linked to the Republican National Committee (RNC). Common Cause and CMD are filing complaints in the other states as well.

The ethics complaint explains that ALECs tax status is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation, and thus is barred from engaging in electoral activity under federal law and in violation of Wis. Stat. 11.1112 and 11.0103. A violation of its permitted activity under its tax status could result in ALEC, which drafts model legislation, losing its tax-exempt status. ALECs nominally, but required nonpartisan status has led to some Wisconsin Democratic legislators joining the group in the past, just to attend the conferences to learn more about what U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan described as a speed dating service for corporations and the Republican state legislators who introduce that legislation in their states.

The complaints seek to strip ALEC of its nonpartisan, nonprofit tax status and fine the group.

The people of Wisconsin deserve to know who is trying to influence our elections, said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin in a statement announcing the complaints. Without tougher transparency and disclosure laws that allow voters to follow the money, illegal schemes like ALECs will continue unabated. We hope this complaint moves the state legislature to take a renewed focus on strengthening Wisconsins transparency and disclosure laws so our government is accountable to the people, not special interests.

ALEC gave the software to the following Wisconsin legislators, according to the complaint:Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater)

Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma)

Rep. Mike Kuglitsch ( R-New Berlin)

Rep. Tyler Vorpagel (R-Plymouth)

All four offices stated they have not used ALEC CARE.

Kuglitsch responded, My staff and I have never used ALEC CARE for any purposes. Felzkowski staffer Stamena Ivanov responded for the senator saying, Neither Senator Felzkowski nor anyone on her staff has ever used the ALEC CARE database/system and we are unfamiliar with it. From Vorpagel: Neither I or my staff have utilized this software for any official or outside of the building purposes.

Nass Chief of Staff Mike Mikalsen responded, Senator Nass has never accepted or used the ALEC CARE database either in his state office or as a part of his campaign activities. He is not aware of any Wisconsin ALEC member utilizing that database. Nass staffer Mikalsen added his take on the complaints, The complaint filed by two liberal groups is simply more politically inspired harassment of conservatives by organizations that have been funded by George Soros and other extreme leftwing groups.

Vorpagel has not responded to a request for comment.

The ALEC CARE software was valued by ALEC at $3,000 per legislator. The company that produced the software, say the complaint-filing organizations, is Republican data firm VoterGravity, which is run by conservative activist Ned Ryun, who is also the founder and president of American Majority, which trains far right Tea Party candidates and American Majority Action, which owns 84% of Voter Gravity according to its IRS 990 tax filing. The groups share a Virginia post office box. The campaign software was simply white labeled (re-labeled) as constituent software and marketed by ALEC.

ALEC is also required under its tax status to be nonpartisan. Its spokesperson Alexis Jarrett responded to a question from the AP with this statement: ALEC data is not shared with any political party and no political party shares data with ALEC. She added that the login page asks members to agree not to use it for campaign purposes.

However, leaked documents from an anonymous ALEC member to The Associated Press show that the member received access to Voter Gravitys database and discovered that it only contained information on registered Republicans and voters in past GOP primaries.

The complaint asks not only for an investigation, but for subpoena powers to be used to ascertain precisely who received the software, since it may have gone to more Wisconsin officials than just the four legislators mentioned. It also asks that the Ethics Commission to investigate whether the software was used on official business in state offices or on state time by the legislators or their staff.

It is crystal clear from CMDs investigation and internal ALEC sources that the CARE program provided by ALEC is just a repackaging of VoterGravitys highly partisan campaign software, designed to help Republicans win and retain elected office, said CMDs executive director Arn Pearson. ALEC CARE is a brazen scheme to help ALECs overwhelmingly Republican members win reelection.

The whistleblower law firm Constantine Cannon filed the IRS complaint on behalf of CMD. One of its attorneys Eric Havian accused ALEC of having abused its tax-exempt status for years.

I can only hope that we have not become too accustomed to fraud in plain sight, and that the IRS will finally take action to stop taxpayers from subsidizing ALECs partisan electioneering and lobbying, Havian said.

In Constantine Cannons highlighting of the complaint, its attorneys point to all the features of the program that are usable on a campaign, such as geomapped walklists, door knocks, voter data and a strikelist feature that will alert campaigns to who has not voted on election day. In a blog post, the company states that this enables the campaign to contact any supporters who havent voted yet and track strikelist progress as it happens.

These functions caused Max Voldman, another associate at Constantine Cannon to declare, There is no universe in which ALEC CAREs features could be considered constituent service. This is campaign software, plain and simple, and as such an illegal contribution to these campaigns in violation of ALECs 501(c)(3) tax-exemption.

While the campaign software was repackaged and provided free of charge as a so-called constituent management tool to select elected officials, it counts as a contribution to those legislators because the repackaging does not reduce its campaign value, according to the complaint;. it comes fully loaded with campaign data and any data added by members also gets added to the RNCs database.

Voter Gravitys website states that the company turns data into votes by offering targeted, insightful and immediate information about voters, donors, and activists that mean the most to a campaign. Easily access all of the voter data you need and turn that data into votes.

Past agendas from ALEC conferences included demonstrations of this game-changing program. And, the group added, some ALEC members consider this one of the most valuable benefits of membership. ALEC advertises the program on its YouTube channel in a video that talks about walk lists, which are generally used only in campaigns.

It concludes: Come see how ALEC CARE can benefit you.

THE MORNING NEWSLETTER

Subscribe now.

Read more:
Is ALEC helping Republicans campaign in violation of its tax status? - Wisconsin Examiner

GETTY IMAGES

Do you see yourself as a political anomaly?

In todays politics, certain voting groups are often portrayed as monolithic, or only voting one way, even though thats never the full story. We want to interrogate that narrative and talk to people who dont believe they check a set box.

Think you might fit the bill? Here are some of the types of people were interested in talking to: Gen Zers (or young millennials) who backed former President Donald Trump last year; older, Black progressive voters; and Democrats who live in more rural areas of their state. But were not stopping there. There are tons of identities worth exploring, and were interested in unpacking the many divides in groups of voters often portrayed as homogeneous.

With our reporting, FiveThirtyEight hopes to show that large groups of voters are not a monolith by highlighting various voting blocs that have interesting tensions within. Were not trying to predict electoral trends and outcomes; rather, we hope to tell stories about how different people are processing politics.

To tell these stories better, we want to hear from you. Fill out the surveybelow and tell us a little bit about yourself and why you think you check a unique box. We might get in touch with you!

See the original post here:
Are You A Gen-Z Republican? A Democrat In A Rural State? If So, You Might Be A Political Anomaly, And We Want To Hear From You. - FiveThirtyEight

Across the United States, Republican state party officials are taking unprecedented steps to discourage or even purge critics of Donald Trump and promote potential allies of the former president.

These efforts are the latest sign of Trumps ongoing stranglehold over areas of the Republican party that are usually neutral and reflect his intense popularity with a wide slice of the Republican base, despite his scandal-strewn four years in power and his loss to Joe Biden in 2020.

Traditionally state Republican parties have taken pains to avoid favoritism within primaries and intra-party battles. The mission of those groups and their members is generally to help get Republicans elected, regardless of which party sect they align with.

In Oklahoma, the state Republican party chairman endorsed a challenger to Senator James Lankford, an incumbent Republican, over Lankfords last-minute decision to not object to the 2020 presidential election results on 6 January.

In Wyoming, a Republican party official sent out a plea to members of Congress to vet primary challengers to Congresswoman Liz Cheney, one of Trumps favorite obsessions since leaving office.

In Alaska, the state Republican party is backing Kelly Tshibaka, the former commissioner of administration, to take Lisa Murkowskis Senate seat about a month after Trump himself endorsed Tshibaka. Some of Tshibakas consultants are high-ranking veterans of Trumps unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign.

These latest moves are a continuation of a trend of activism among state GOP officials to side with Trump and spurn elected officials and prominent Republicans some of whom are otherwise popular who have antagonized Trump. Republican parties in Arizona, Illinois, Maine and Ohio have also censured party members who split with Trump on certifying the election results.

But rank-and-file Republican officials actively working to tip the scales to placate the whims of a one-term president are breaking new ground.

Were in a period now with a former president who has grievances of his own party and hes using his clout and his megaphone and his power to attempt to exact revenge on those individuals. And in certain states where Trump is popular or where an incumbent political figure has taken a deeply unpopular political position, you are seeing some internal opposition, said Matt Mackowiak, the chairman of the Travis county GOP, in Texas.

He added: I think were living in a time now where party officials dont feel as duty-bound to support every member of the party, particularly if theyve gone in a different direction on a fairly important issue.

Suspicions of candidate loyalty within party infrastructure are not unheard of or unique to the Republican party. During the last open race for Democratic National Committee chair in 2017, Democratic activists sometimes theorized that Barack Obama or other establishment state party chairs were subtly trying to support certain candidates and discourage others. But those suspicions only extended so far.

Theres little historical precedent for party chairs intervening in primaries, said Matt Moore, a former South Carolina Republican party chairman. Usually theres great deference given not only to elected officials but also to the state committees that elect chairs.

The impact of the help these state Republican party members provided is unclear.

Alaskas Senator Murkowski, for instance, has survived serious challenges from conservatives in the past and this financial quarter she out-raised Tshibaka a sign that the Trump-endorsed primary challengers chances of winning are not assured. In Wyoming, Cheney is facing a handful of challengers who could split the anti-Cheney vote.

Moore argued that the involvement of officials in Trumps efforts to undermine his opponents could actually undermine the state parties.

I would argue it actually weakens the party in the long term. It reduces the credibility of chairs, especially when they endorse crackpot candidates against serious US senators, Moore said. The big success of the party in the past decade is improved infrastructure, so when sitting US senators dont play ball with the party it reduces the quality of the infrastructure like field programs, data, etc.

Even more unusual, these internal Republican party conflicts have little to do with a broad swath of policy disagreements.Instead they are often about whether a candidate supported Trumps false claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent.

Whats happened is historically odd, Moore said. Weve seen senators over the years attacked by party chairs or the party in general, but never over one vote. Its very strange.

Its now clear that incumbent Republicans who have crossed Trump have done so at their peril. In Georgia for example, the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, the top elections official in the state and a Republican, faces a primary challenge from congressman Jody Hice after refusing to help Trump undermine the 2020 election results.

Across the country Republicans realize that their biggest electoral dangers come not necessarily from a strong Democratic opponent, but from their standing with Trump, even though he is out of office.

Here its a 100% purity test, said state representative Landon Brown of Wyoming.

The Wyoming state party has passed bylaws that bar the state party from giving a lawmaker money unless that lawmaker votes in line with the Wyoming Republican partys platform 80% of the time, Brown said. The Wyoming party gives lawmakers scorecards and lets them know if they are failing. Brown summed up the partys ideology: If you are not aligned with Trump, you are not a Republican.

Read more here:
State Republicans shun lawmakers critical of Trump and his big lie - The Guardian