Mediaboss Marketing

SACRAMENTO In a leadership shakeup linked to last months bipartisan climate deal, Assembly Republicans on Thursday voted in a closed-door meeting to replace Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes with their colleague Brian Dahle, a farmer from Lassen County.

Mayes, a Yucca Valley lawmaker who has led the caucus since early 2016, withstood a leadership challenge this week by some members of his caucus, but said the group would hold an election on Tuesday. Instead, the 25-member caucus met Thursday and quickly emerged with a unanimous decision to elect Dahle. Mayes who supported Dahles bid will remain leader through the end of the legislative session, Sept. 15.

The Republican caucus just elected a new Republican leader, Mayes announced on the floor. That leader is from the major metropolis of Bieber in the North State. Please welcome Assembly Republican Leader, Assemblymember Brian Dahle.

Dahle represents a swath of rural Northern California, a district that includes parts of Lassen, Modoc, Klamath and Plumas national forests. He lives in Bieber, population 300, with his wife and three children.

Chad Mayes did an outstanding job as our leader, Dahle said Thursday in a statement from the caucus. I look forward to picking up where he left off and continuing the fight to articulate conservative principles in a way that resonates with everyday Californians.

The overthrow of Mayes is not shocking, said Bruce Cain, a political scientist and director of Stanford Universitys Bill Lane Center for the American West.

The problem for the California Republican Party, Cain said, is that pressure to adhere to party principles even at the expense of pragmatism and bipartisanship and align with the national GOP has forced it to be way more conservative than the California electorate.

As a result, they get in a deeper and deeper hole, Cain said. The Republican party has never been as marginalized since the Depression as it is right now.

Stephen Woolpert, a political science professor at St. Marys College, said the penalty Mayes paid for bipartisanship shows how politically risky compromise has become.

This is a bill that should have been seen as common ground in California, where there is strong support for climate change policies, Woolpert said.The party is in such a double-bind. If it tries to broaden its base, which in some ways it has to do, it risks alienating the Republican activists who think that bipartisanship is betrayal.

Dahle, a conservative, does have a reputation for working across the aisle. But, like most of his colleagues, he voted against the bill to extend cap-and-trade through 2030. The market-based program is designed to prod industry to emit less global-warming greenhouse gases by forcing them to acquire a steadily shrinking number of permits per ton of carbon released into the atmosphere.

Mayes has argued that embracing climate-change action and other issues important to Californians is the only way forward for a party that has watched its base grow ever smaller. He and six members of his caucus voted for the business-friendly deal they helped to negotiate and which Big Oil and other major industry groups supported pushing it to victory.

But, as Mayes discovered, helping Democrats on the controversial bill and celebrating its victory afterward was a bridge too far for party activists, who circulated chummy photos of him with Democratic Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and others. He said this week that he was surprised by the intensity of the backlash. But until Thursday morning, it appeared that he would try to keep his post.

State party leaders took the unusual step last week of calling for his replacement, a motion brought by Republican National Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco lawyer who accused Mayes of trying to make the state party Democrat lite.

Im relieved I wont call it a victory or a celebration that the struggle has come to an end in a positive way, with a unanimous vote, Dhillon said Thursday afternoon.

Rendon, D-South Gate, injected a lighthearted note in his statement about the leadership change, alluding to his well-known, across-the-aisle friendship with Mayes.

Chad Mayes is a good man who worked hard to balance doing what was right for California and meeting the needs of his caucus. Personally, I will miss working with Chad as Republican leader, Rendon said. But make no mistake, the bromance will endure.

Gov. Jerry Brown, who spearheaded the cap-and-trade negotiations, bemoaned the Mayes ouster. Sad day, he tweeted Thursday, when the Grand Old Party punishes a leader whose only flaw was believing in science & cutting regs, costs & taxes for Californians.

Link:
California Republican lawmakers vote to oust Chad Mayes, elect new leader - The Mercury News

A month after publicly denouncing a health care bill that the president was desperate to pass, Senator Dean Heller sat uncomfortably alongside President Donald Trump in front of rolling cameras. Holding the floor, Trump did not disappoint, addressing the awkwardness head onwith a veil of humor so thin it stood no chance ofobscuring anyone's view of the true threat at its heart.

Look, he wants to remain a senator doesnt he? Trump said with a smirk.

Heller rocked his head back and initially burst into a laugh. But, with a subtle yet significant hand on hisarm, Trump let him know that the warning was not to be taken lightly.

Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now

And I think the people of your state, which I know very well, I think the people are going to appreciate what you hopefully will do, the Republican president added.

And with that, the uneasiness of being a Republican in the era of the most unpredictable and self-serving president in modern history was laid bare in a few seconds of rapidly unfolding facial expressions.Just weeks after that exchange, Heller, the only Republican senator up for re-election in 2018 in a state carried by Democrat Hillary Clinton, learned his re-election hopes had become yet more perilouswith the emergence of a primary challenger accusing him of obstructing the president's agenda.

Having unexpectedly gained control of the White House and both Houses of Congress, this should have been a time for Republican rejoicing on Capitol Hill, after having been blessed with the opportunity to advance alegislative agenda crafted through eight long years of frustration during Democrat Barack Obama's presidency. Instead, just seven months in, Congress and the White House are locked in aprivate as well as an increasingly public conflict that has the potential to both scupper their hopes in the 2018 midterms and shift the party yet further to the fringe right.

In Trump, Republicans have come up against a president who refuses to tolerate any semblance of opposition, even for the greater good of the party. Having leeway to vote against the president on certain issues in order to preserve voter support back home has been common under past administrations. According to Larry Sabato, director for the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, there's good reason for that.

Its practical, Sabato told Newsweek last week. Its the obvious thing to do. Other presidents have had good sense, He doesnt have good sense, he doesnt understand politics.

Last week, Trump delivered his most stinging rebuke yet to a Republican who dared to cross him. In a sharply delivered tweet, he described Senator Jeff Flake as toxic and, to the dismay of the Republican establishment, threw his support behind the Arizona senator's primary opponent.

In Nevada, too, Trump's influence is already being felt. Two weeks ago, Las Vegas resident Danny Tarkanianthe son of a famed University of Nevada, Las Vegas basketball coach and a five-time defeated candidate for political officeentered the fray, pitching himself as someone who would bring the kind of loyalty to the president that Heller has lacked.

Ive gotten so many calls, emails, texts encouraging me to run against Dean Heller, he told Newsweek on the day of his announcement. They all were telling me, 'Hey, were never going to get President Trumps "America First"policies passed unless we get senators in office who are going to support the presidents policies.'

Backing up those comments, Tarkanian last week launched the website NeverHeller.com, which is composed solely of quotes and other purported evidence that the Nevada senator was never Trump.

While a fillip for Trump, Tarkanian's entry into the race is also a boost for Democratscurrently represented in the race by U.S. Representative Jacky Rosen, who defeated Tarkanian in winning her House seat in 2016. As they aim to grab a seat that is surely a must-win if they are to have any hope of taking back the Senate andobstructing Trump's agenda, Democrats are eager to capitalize on the Republican infighting.

Its going to make this incredibly tough for Heller, Stewart Boss, communications director for the Nevada State Democratic Party, told Newsweek last week. Hes going to have to thread this needle for the next year of trying to appease a Trump base in Nevada that doesnt trust him while hes definitely going to face a tough general election.

President Donald Trump gestures toward Senator Dean Heller (R-NeV.) while delivering remarks on health care and Republicans' inability thus far to replace or repeal the Affordable Care Act, during a lunch with members of Congress in the State Dining Room of the White House on July 19, in Washington, D.C. Michael Reynolds - Pool/Getty Images

The signs are that Heller and Tarkanian could be set for a near repeat of last weeks special election in Alabama, in which the three leading Republican candidates to take now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions's old Senate seat were fighting in an attempt toportray themselves as the most pro-Trump.

In Nevada, though, that would be a perilous strategy. The state is trending blue, and in 2016 not only voted for Clinton but returnedDemocrats to majority control of both houses of the state legislature. In the first half of 2017, Trump has an approval rating of 44 percent in Nevada, which, while higher than he has recorded nationally, is not exactly something to trumpet. Heller encountered some of his states most vicious opposition to Trump first-hand, when a note threatening to kill the senator over his health care vote was taped to the door of his Las Vegas office.

Toward the end of June, Heller held a press conference with Nevada GovernorBrian Sandoval during which he made it clear he would not support the GOP health care bill. A month later, though, following Trumps very public threat and attack ads run against him by a pro-Trump group, he voted in favor of Republicans much-maligned skinny repeal of Obamacare, which was eventually defeated by a single vote.

You had to take a positon on that, you just had to, Sabato said. Do your best to argue for it and people might at least respect you a little. When you voted in prior times to abandon Obamacare and replace it and then you cant decide what you want to do and then Trump kind of embarrasses you and sure enough you vote with him. I just think he looked like a human piece of marshmallow.

Indeed, Hellers flip-flopping is now set to be a focal point of the campaign against himfrom both the right and the left.

A big emphasis on our part is going to be pointing people back to not what he says but what he does and how he votes, Boss said of the Democratic campaign against Heller, which not coincidentally is probably going to be Danny Tarkanians message, too.

Were Trump to makethe same direct intervention in the Nevada election as he has in Arizona against Flake,it would further fracture the relationship between the president and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Amid the dramatic failure of the health care effort, Trump lashed outnot only at Heller and Flake, but by publicly slamming McConnell.

Such a rift between the president and the man charged with rallying support in the Senate presents an unhelpful roadblock to hopes of advancing both a Republican and a Trump agenda. More trouble could yet await the president. Following his much-criticized comments about violence at a white nationalist rally earlier this month in Charlottesville, Virginia, and with his approval ratings at historic lows, Republicans are feeling emboldened to criticize Trump in a manner they have shied away from since he entered the White House.

And yet any obituaries of the Trump presidency may have to wait a while.Through a pure dose of election mechanics, rather thanany inspired political maneuvering, Trump has an avenue to actually come out of the 2018 midterms in a stronger position.

Thanks to Democrats' success in 2006 and 2012, the 2018 map will see them defending 25 seats, compared to the Republicans eight. Whats more, 10 of the Democrats up for re-election are in states carried by Trump in 2016;five are in states he won by landslides.

Let's suppose Republicans add net two or three seats," said Sabato,"then they're set in the Senate, they can lose Heller, loseFlake add net two or three seats, they're in a better position and Trump will have sent a message to other Republicans, which is, 'If you cross me, I'll make sure you lose.

Tarkanian, for one,is determined to make that message ring true and ensure that 2018 ends with the battle between the White House and Congress tilted in Trump's favor.

"I believe President Trumps 'America First' policiesare a positive and theyre working," Tarkanian said, "Hes done it without the help of the Senate or Congress. Just think how good we would be right now if we could get more of his policies past the House and Senate."

More:
Trump Is Attacking Republicans Like a Dictator and It Could Tear the Party Apart - Newsweek

The president of a student Republican club at San Diego State University (SDSU) said he receivedanonymous threats of violence and calls for his resignation after he penned a letter asking for the schools Muslim association to condemn the recent terror attack in Barcelona.

The Republican club's president, Brandon Jones,posted the letter to Facebookon Aug. 17 addressed to the SDSU Muslim Student Association (MSA), calling for its leaders to condemn last weeks terror attack or resign.

The letter referred to as a formal request calls for the MSA to abide by its mission statement, which the letter claims reads: The Muslim Student Association is an organization dedicated to creating a sense of community and an inclusive environment for ALL students on campus

But the group lists adifferent mission statement online.

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS SAY THEY WERE HARASSED AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY FOR WEARING PRO-TRUMP GEAR

Jones letter stated that the campus community cannot move forward in creating an inclusive environment for all students on campus until the Muslim organization condemns the Barcelona attack.

The letter continued, stating that if leaders of the MSA dont condemn the attack and similar radical Islamic terrorist attacks, the College Republicans would ask for the resignations of the clubs president and other leaders.

I stand by the statement we made, Jones told Fox News. He said his letter has the support of SDSUs College Republicans, and that fellow college Republican organizations across the nation have come out in support.

The MSA didnt respond to a request for comment, butwrote on Facebookthat the MSA expresses its support for victims of white supremacy, nationalism, and terrorism. Our solidarity is what makes us strong and we must continue to work together to make our college campus a safe place for all students.

Other groups on campus the Young Democratic Socialists and Transfronterizo Alliance Student Organization, neither of which responded to requests for comment by Fox News have taken to Facebook to condemn the letter by College Republicans.

TheYoung Democratic Socialistscalled Jones letter a cruel and bigoted attack against the MSA, and claimed the College Republicans group was making Muslim students feel even more unsafe on their own campus by suggesting MSA members will be considered terrorist sympathizers unless they condemn an attack they had nothing to do with.

COLLEGE CLEARS PROFESSOR'S CONTROVERSIAL FACEBOOK POSTS

A statement bythe Transfronterizo Alliance Student Organization calls for the immediate removal of Jones as club president, because they claim he has shown an extremist nature in his leadership style. It also calls for the leadership of the College Republicans to be held under probation.

The group claims it aims to create an inclusive campus environment for SDSU students who live a transborder lifestyle, as noted byThe College Fix.

Jones said hes received threats of violence anonymously, and hes even heard he might be the subject of a protest at SDSU this week.

One alleged threat sent anonymously via text message stated, I hope you rot in hell (sic). Were coming for you this week ... Watch ur back every step u take. SDSU campus will be the war zone against u inhuman rats.

Anonymous email and text messages threats Brandon Jones claims to have received. (Brandon Jones)

You are obviously not fit to serve for requesting any such actions from the muslim community, please resign immediately. You sir are a racist, so please when convenient kill yourself, an email threat said.

Jones said he also received an anonymous phone call from somebody who vowed to protest this week for his resignation and expulsion.

Jones said he received a call Wednesday afternoon from campus police, as well the Dean of Students, Dr. Randy Timm, to offer him use of campus safety resources.

When asked to confirm if school officials contacted Jones, SDSU told Fox News that the school "takes seriously the well-being and safety of all our students, faculty, and staff. When alerted to any safety concerns from our campus community, university representatives have standard guidelines and procedures to proactively reach out to individuals and/or groups to discuss their safety and provide guidance as well as support."

SDSU also said there was no confirmation of a protest scheduled on campus this week.

In response to the calls for violence against him, Jones, via online correspondence, said, I think that again it just shows the hypocrisy of the left when it comes to vioelence (sic).

See the original post:
College Republican says he got violent threats after he asked Muslim group to condemn terror attacks - Fox News

To the casual observer, it certainly seems like the Republican Party is in an identity crisis. After years of consensus and sweeping the 2016 national elections on the promise of repeal and replace of Obamacare, Republicans in a stunning 11th-hour failure failed to pass even the so-called "skinny" repeal.

Amid this failure and the apparent chaos in Washington, many have drawn the conclusion that Republicans are in disarray and unable to govern. Others wonder if we are witnessing the end of the GOP. Many people I've met on the campaign trail have asked me why at a time like this I would choose to join the Republican party.

It's a fair question. For years, I was a big-L Libertarian, competing in a crowded field for the party's nomination for the presidency in 2016. Changing parties especially at this time might seem like a counterintuitive move.

But although turncoats like John McCain and Susan Collins have taken center stage and confused the party's image, several Republican leaders remain faithful to basic conservative principles. Leaders like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee in the Senate and the Freedom Caucus in the House have refused to budge on Obamacare and have made their dedication to individual liberty and limited government clear.

I'm running for Senate from Missouri as a Republican in order to work alongside leaders like these. At its core, the Republican Party is supposed to be a liberty party that's why it was the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. For a Republican, so long as you are not violating the lives and liberties of other human beings and that includes the lives of human beings in the womb the government should give you the freedom to do as you see fit. The party strives to put the trust and the power back in the hands of the people instead of handing it over to unelected bureaucrats.

I believe in these core conservative principles. I've spent my whole career speaking on and fighting for freedom the freedom to spend as you see fit, worship as you see fit, study as you see fit, and speak as you see fit. And I'm eager to partner with liberty-loving Republicans and President Trump in restoring federalism, freedom of faith, and fiscal responsibility in this country.

Above all, however, I found that a move to the Republican Party was the move my fellow Missourians wanted me to make. Before launching my campaign, I called hundreds of Missourians to lay out the principles of liberty that form the bedrock of my political beliefs and to ask for their support. Not only did I receive a consistently positive response, but I also was asked by many to run as a Republican instead of as a Libertarian. They want to beat Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., as badly as I do, and what better than to replace a Democrat with a liberty-loving Republican?

Missourians want and deserve the kind of Republican who will stick to his guns, both literally and figuratively. They want a Republican in the model of the Freedom Caucus, Cruz, Paul, and Lee a Republican who has the grit to withstand the pressures of political gamesmanship and special interests and the gumption to vote by principle and for the people every time.

I know I can be this kind of leader, and I'm ready to represent my fellow Missourians faithfully from within the GOP. And I know that by working together, we can bring about real reform.

That's why I'm a Republican. And it's why I'm asking my fellow Missourians to join me in restoring the GOP and returning the country to the constitutional principles of justice and liberty for all.

Austin Petersen is a candidate for the United States Senate. Learn more at austinpetersen.com.

If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions.

Here is the original post:
Austin Petersen: Why I became a Republican - Washington Examiner

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans rebuked him on Wednesday after his threat to shut down the U.S. government over funding for a border wall rattled markets and cast a shadow over congressional efforts to raise the country's debt ceiling and pass spending bills.

"I don't think anyone's interested in having a shutdown," the top Republican in Congress, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, told reporters on Wednesday in Hillsboro, Oregon, where he visited an Intel factory.

Ryan said building a wall along the country's border with Mexico to deter illegal immigration was necessary, but added that the government did not have to choose between border security and shuttering operations.

Trump in a speech on Tuesday evening threatened a shutdown if Congress does not agree to fund constructing the wall, a signature promise of his presidential campaign, which added a new complication to Republicans' months-long struggle to reach a budget deal.

After Mexico rejected a chief part of Trump's promise - that it would pay for the wall - the president said the United States would fund it initially and be repaid by its southern neighbor. Lawmakers, including many Republicans, have not made that funding a top priority, as some question if a wall is necessary.

Congress will have about 12 working days when it returns on Sept. 5 from its summer break to approve spending measures to keep the government open, while also facing a looming deadline to raise the cap on the amount the government may borrow. Both are must-approve measures.

U.S. stocks and the dollar weakened and investors pivoted to the safety of U.S. Treasury securities on Wednesday after Trump's threat. The S&P 500 Index .SPX closed about 0.3 percent lower, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down by 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC slid 0.3 percent.

Ryan suggested Congress would need to approve a short-term extension, or continuing resolution, of current funding levels so that the Senate could have more time to pass a full spending bill. That would push the budget battle to later in the year and could in turn delay attempts at tax reform, another signature Trump campaign issue.

Friction between Republicans and Trump has grown in recent months, with the president publicly castigating some party leaders, notably Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and expressing infuriation that Congress has not passed any significant legislation since his January inauguration.

McConnell did not take a stand on the border wall issue on Wednesday.

He said in a statement he and Trump were in regular contact and working together on a list of goals that included preventing a government default and funding government priorities "in the short and long terms."

"We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we are committed to advancing our shared agenda together and anyone who suggests otherwise is clearly not part of the conversation," he said.

A White House statement said Trump would hold "previously scheduled meetings" with McConnell once Congress returns to Washington and that Trump and McConnell "remain united on many shared priorities, including middle class tax relief, strengthening the military, constructing a southern border wall, and other important issues."

Congress frequently has to pass funding extensions for a few weeks or months while it hammers out a full budget. Occasionally lawmakers have enter a standoff over a single issue, delaying agreement and forcing a shutdown. The most recent closure, which spanned 15 days in October 2013, was over funding for the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

In opinion polls during and after that shutdown, voters loudly disapproved of the Republican Party, which controlled the House of Representatives at the time.

Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the Republican chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee, said Trump's threatened move could backfire on the party.

When you control the presidency, the Senate and the House, youre shutting down the government that youre running. I dont think its smart politically and I dont think it would succeed practically, he told Reuters in an interview.

The White House stressed on Wednesday that Trump would work with Congress to get funding for the wall.

"The president ran on it, won on it and plans to build it," said White House spokeswoman Natalie Strom.

The party's conservative wing backed the president's call for wall funding, with Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus, telling Reuters any government shutdown would be caused by Senate Democrats.

Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said, however, the threat was "dangerous for our role in the world as we're talking to nations like Afghanistan to say: 'Here's how you govern yourself.'"

He added it could also hurt financial markets' confidence in the United States.

"Trump saying he would be willing to shut down the government over the wall obviously doesnt really inspire much confidence in anyone," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut.

The House passed a spending bill late last month that included funding for the wall. Republicans' slim majority in the Senate means Democrats are needed to pass most legislation and they have opposed including border wall funding in any fiscal 2018 spending bill.

Congress also must periodically raise the debt limit to keep the U.S. government borrowing and operating. Politicians sometimes take advantage of that need to push through policy or spending changes.

The Treasury Department, already using "extraordinary measures" to remain current on its obligations, has said the debt limit must be raised by Sept. 29. Trump has asked Congress to extend the limit with a "clean" bill that excludes any other provisions.

Credit ratings agency Fitch said on Wednesday it would review the U.S. sovereign debt rating, "with potentially negative implications," if the debt limit is not raised in a timely manner.

Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak in New York and David Morgan in Washington; Additional reporting by Karen Brettell, Dion Rabouin, Sinead Carew, Sam Forgione and Richard Leong in New York and Doina Chiacu, Tim Ahmann, David Morgan, Susan Cornwell, Kevin Drawbaugh, Amanda Becker and Steve Holland in Washington; Writing by Dan Burns, Frances Kerry and Lisa Lambert; Editing by Bill Trott and Peter Cooney

See the rest here:
Fellow Republicans rebuke Trump over government shutdown threat - Reuters