Archive for the ‘Republican’ Category

Republican interest in spending on law enforcement surged 34 percent from 2014 to 2016 – Washington Post

Central to Donald Trumps presidential candidacy was the idea that the United States was beset by all manner of threats: terrorists pouring over the border, immigrants undercutting the economy and crime spiking. The first task for our new administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threatens their communities, Trump said during his convention speech and, despite deaths from terrorism being rare in the United States and the violent crime rate being lower now than it was when Barack Obama took office, the message clearly stuck.

Every two years, a national survey of political and social attitudes is conducted, called the General Social Survey. When it was conducted in 2014, 46 percent of respondents felt as thought the country was spending too little nationally on law enforcement. That figure had been trending downward since 2006. But in 2016, a spike back up, over the 50 percent mark.

Why? To some extent because of independents who indicated that they felt America should spend more on national law enforcement efforts. (Among independents, the figure topped 50 percent for the first time since the 1990s.) But mostly it was Republicans. The percent of Republicans saying that they felt as though too little was being spent on law enforcement surged 18 percentage points up 34 percent since the 2014 survey.

The figure in 2016 among Republicans was above the previous high-water mark, set in 1994.

In 1994, the national violent crime rate was 713.6 incidents per 100,000 residents. In 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, it was 372.6 just over half the 1994 rate.

How much of this is attributable to Trumps rhetoric isnt clear. Trump deftly seized upon issues that were already of concern to conservative Republicans over the course of his campaign, so he may have been trailing the trend, not leading it. Whats more, the issue of law enforcement became heavily politicized over the past two years, as high-profile incidents of police shooting criminal suspects and innocent people polarized the issue.

Interestingly, the number of people who want to spend more on law enforcement consistently trails the number interested in spending to fight crime. (The latter question has been asked for longer.)

Theres no real difference on that question when it comes to politics; Republicans and Democrats both are about as likely to say were spending too little in that regard. (Notice the change to the vertical axis on this graph.) Theres been an upward trend among each political group for the past several surveys.

Where theres a split is on race. Black Americans are far more likely to say that we should spend more on fighting crime than are whites.

Yet they are no more likely to say that we should spend more on law enforcement.

Republicans are the only group to think were spending too little on law enforcement and on crime to the same extent. Among no group is the gulf of opinions on that spending wider than among black Americans, who are 26 percentage points more likely to say were spending too little on crime than on law enforcement.

That black Americans should be more skeptical of law enforcement two years after the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement isnt surprising. That said, the percentage of black Americans who think too little is spent on national law enforcement didnt decrease since 2014, but instead stayed flat.

Trump has apparently made his priority here clear. His recent budget proposal focuses on adding new national law enforcement in the form of Border Patrol agents. Funding for efforts to reduce crime through preventive measures were, like many other line items, slashed.

The General Social Survey was funded primarily by the National Science Foundation and conducted through in-person interviews with a random national sample of roughly 1,900 adults in the spring of 2016. Overall results carry a margin of sampling error of roughly 2.5 percentage points; the error margin for subgroups is larger.

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Republican interest in spending on law enforcement surged 34 percent from 2014 to 2016 - Washington Post

Republican Governors Keep Vetoing Legislation That Would Make Voting Easier – Huffington Post

WASHINGTON On March 21, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) vetoed legislation that would have automatically registered eligible voters when they sought services from the Department of Motor Vehicles. The veto made Sandoval the third Republican governor to sink automatic voter registration legislation and all three of them have seats that will be up for grabs in the next two years.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) vetoed similar legislation twice once in 2015 and again in 2016. Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) also vetoed legislation in 2016. Christie, the most unpopular governor in the country, is term-limited and will not be on the ballot again this year. Sandoval will be term-limited out of office in 2018, while Rauner is up for re-election next year.

Its not surprising that Republican governors in those states lack enthusiasm for automatic voter registration, which tends to benefit Democratic candidates. Hillary Clinton won all three of those states in the 2016 election, and Democrats see them as top targets for next years midterms. New Jersey will vote for a new governor this November, and Democratic candidate Phil Murphy, a Goldman Sachs banker who has endorsed automatic registration, is currently leading the polls.

The issue is also a priority for Democrats in states where they are looking to consolidate power in 2018. Thirty-eight Republican governorships are up for election next year, including six in states Clinton won last fall. Democrats hope that President Donald Trumps poll numbers will remain low and help drag down the partys candidates. In states like Washington, Democrats just need to win a small number of seats to get full control of the state legislature. While automatic voter registration may not be at the top of voters minds, Democrats will almost surely advance the issue anywhere they claim a governors house and legislature next year.

Of all the possible reforms meant to increase voter registration and participation, few have taken off in the past three years as dramatically as automatic voter registration. Since 2015, six states and the District of Columbia have enacted automatic voter registration. Oregons state legislature approved it first, followed by Californias just seven months later. In 2016, West Virginia, Vermont and Washington, D.C., enacted the reform through legislation as well, while Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill worked out an agreement with the state DMVto begin automatically registering voters. Alaska voters approved a ballot initiative making registration automatic last November.

Bills have been introduced in at least 30 states in the past two years. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced federal legislation in 2015 to mandate automatic registration nationwide, though that never went anywhere. Both Clinton and then-President Barack Obama endorsed the reform in 2016. And progressive policy groups like the State Innovation Exchange and the New York-based nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice are working to advance legislation across the country over the next two years.

Really, in two years time this has gone from nowhere to quite a few states, Jonathan Brater, counsel for the Brennan Centers Democracy Program, told The Huffington Post. And theres even more legislation on the horizon.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Illinois, despite Rauners previous veto, top the list of states where legislation could be passed and signed into law. In Nevada, the issue is still alive, as Sandovals veto means the legislation will go directly before state voters on the November 2018 ballot. Colorado, like Connecticut, has already started the administrative process of moving to automatic voter registration.

The rapid rise of automatic registration as a high-profile issue stems from both partisan politics and structural changes that previous voting reforms brought about.

On the partisan side, Democrats feel the need to press reforms to make it easier to vote due to an earlier wave of Republican measures that sought to make it harder to vote, such as voter identification requirements, after the GOP won full control of 21 states in 2010.

If automatic voter registration leads to increased turnout, it would likely be a boon for Democrats in states with large numbers of unregistered eligible voters particularly younger people, Latinos and African-Americans, who tend to lean Democratic.

Brian Snyder / Reuters

When you expand the electorate, particularly when you expand the electorate among poor communities, communities of color, English as a second language speakers that tends to benefit progressive candidates, said Sam Munger, director of strategic engagement and senior adviser at the State Innovation Exchange.

Allegra Chapman, director of voting and elections at Common Cause, a nonpartisan election reform nonprofit, said, I think this is one of the ways that we ensure that instead of making it harder for people, trying to keep people who are eligible from voting, we really need to be offering greater access.

Advocates argue that automatic voter registration shouldnt be seen as a wholly partisan issue, pointing to its enactment in Republican-leaning Alaska and West Virginia, and the strong bipartisan support it has in the Illinois legislature.

The policy is also fairly easy to implement because it builds on previous voter registration reforms. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, known popularly as the motor voter law, required all state DMVs to provide voter registration services for anyone coming in to get a new license, pay a ticket or receive any other service. And the Help America Vote Act, passed in 2002 after the Bush-Gore election debacle, provided funds for states to upgrade their voting infrastructure and create a centralized electronic voter database.

The changes made in response to those two laws have enabled most states to transfer an individuals registration information securely and electronically, which has made the process of moving to automatic voter registration much easier from a nuts-and-bolts perspective, Brater said.

Thats the main reason Oregon was able to implement the policy so rapidly after it passed in 2015, automatically registering 225,000 new votersin time for the 2016 election. Nearly 100,000 of those newly registered voters cast ballots in November.

But even states that dont have that infrastructure in place can still make advances. Connecticut, for example, never completed the Help America Vote Act reforms. When Merrill, Connecticuts secretary of state, began making changes to fulfill those old requirements in March 2016, state officials decided to go ahead and adopt automatic voter registration as part of that process.

Opposition to automatic voter registration has largely come from proponents of voter identification laws the same people who make unverified claims of widespread in-person voter fraud. Former Federal Election Commission memberHans von Spakovsky wrote in 2013 that automatic registration would threaten the integrity of elections and that it would violate [voters] basic right to choose whether they wish to participate in the U.S. political process.

Christie echoed this sentiment last year when he vetoed automatic voter registration legislation for the second time, calling it a cocktail of fraud. And when Rauner vetoed similar legislation in Illinois, he said the bill would inadvertently open the door to voter fraud.

Joe Raedle via Getty Images

Proponents argue that states can and do take steps to make sure non-eligible voters arent registered. In California, where undocumented immigrants can obtain drivers licenses, the state DMV already has a separate process to prevent non-eligible applicants from registering to vote. And residents who are not eligible to vote will be separated in advancewhen the state implements its automatic registration system.

Despite Rauners complaints of potential fraud, automatic registration proponents in Illinois think he will eventually sign legislation this session. A handful of Republican state legislators rolled out their own bill after Rauner vetoed the original legislation, and activist groups like Illinois Public Interest Research Group have decided to embrace the changes made in that replacement.

Illinois state Rep. Mike Fortner (R) explained in an op-edlast year that the new legislation would provide an upfront opt-out provision for anyone who does not want to be registered to vote (as is provided by every other state with automatic voter registration except Oregon). The new bill would also require voters to attest that they are indeed eligible to vote, as required by the National Voter Registration Act. Democrats have already passed a bill out of committee in the Illinois Senate that incorporates the new elements from the Republican bill.

Abe Scarr, the head of Illinois PIRG, says the main sticking point right now is whether automatic voter registration will be implemented before the 2018 election, as Democrats and supporting groups want, or whether it will begin in 2019, which is what Rauner and his fellow Republicans want.

Itll happen, Scarr said. The question is whether we are able to build enough support to get the governor on board before the end of the legislative session.

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Republican Governors Keep Vetoing Legislation That Would Make Voting Easier - Huffington Post

Letter: Republican Party’s backroom dealings | Northwest Herald – Northwest Herald

To the Editor:

McHenry Township voters, your votes were stolen by the group calling themselves Republicans. Another name is more appropriate considering how your votes were snatchedby their back-room deals.

Holding a caucus is within their rights, but its dubious when their rules night is scheduled, inconveniently, the night before Thanksgiving. Their rules meetings created a rule providing a committeemans vote the same weight as that entire precincts most recent vote total.

They held their public vote among themselves and created new Republicans. Snaring the Republican name gave them credibility, in name only.

Sound like something done in the back rooms by Washington Democrats? No, this was done by your McHenry Township Republican Party. Their green signs say they will cut taxes. Who believes them, considering their actions to underhandedly eliminate the current Republicans? This type of conduct has no place in McHenry.

The Independent candidates have real experience and qualifications and deserve your vote.

Amy Mercurio

McHenry

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Letter: Republican Party's backroom dealings | Northwest Herald - Northwest Herald

Trump tweets about love in the Republican Party – CNET

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.

A message of love.

The Sunday sermon from Donald Trump was all about what brings us together.

The president's idea of love has grabbed some deeply. Others, sadly, have wondered whether -- in the president's case -- love don't live here anymore.

So on Twitter, Trump made it very clear.

"Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party!," he tweeted.

It is love, you see, that will ensure -- one way or another -- that the Satan of social support known as Obamacare will be vanquished.

Some will wonder what happened to that love when the 29 members of the so-called Freedom Caucus expressed their freedom (and strength) by refusing to support the Trumpcare bill.

One or two might also mutter that the president didn't seem to show much love when he threatened this caucus on Twitter just last Thursday.

Perhaps Trump is simply talking about tough love here, the slow process by which the less enlightened finally witness the correct path.

On Sunday, the president explained: "Talks on Repealing and Replacing ObamaCare are, and have been, going on, and will continue until such time as a deal is hopefully struck."

Yes, not only is there love all around, but there's hope too.

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Trump tweets about love in the Republican Party - CNET

Trump talks health care with Republican critic on golf course – Daily Republic

Senator Rand Paul and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney joined the president at Trump National Golf Club outside of Washington.

The trio were "discussing a variety of topics, including health care," said White House Deputy Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham.

The outing came hours after Trump tweeted that talks to rework the nation's health care law were still underway.

"Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party!" Trump tweeted early on Sunday.

"Talk on Repealing and Replacing ObamaCare are, and have been, going on, and will continue until such time as a deal is hopefully struck," he added in a second message.

Republican-led efforts to replace Obama's health care law were thrown into disarray 10 days ago after Republican leaders in the House of Representative had to withdraw their own legislation ahead of a vote due to insufficient support from conservative and moderate members of their own party.

Trump had worked toward the bill's passage, but Paul had been a prominent critic and had aligned himself with the conservative House Freedom Caucus, a group that helped torpedoTrump's first major legislative effort.

On Thursday, Trump had threatened to defeat members of the group in next year's congressional elections if they continued to defy him.

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Trump talks health care with Republican critic on golf course - Daily Republic