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March 17, 2022

In this issue: Rep. Rice criticizes Trump after S.C. rally and late Rep. Hagedorns wife enters special election

U.S. Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) criticized former President Donald Trump (R) on March 12 after Trump hosted a rally supporting Russell Fry. Fry is one of 11 challengers to Rice in South Carolinas 7th Congressional District Republican primary.

Rice was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the U.S. Capitol breach on January 6, 2021. Of the seven who are running or may run for re-election, Trump has endorsed challengers to six.

Rice said, Trump is here because, like no one else Ive ever met, he is consumed by spite. I took one vote he didnt like and now hes chosen to support a yes man candidate who has and will bow to anything he says, no matter what. If you want a Congressman who cowers to no man, who votes for what is right, even when its hard, and who has fought like hell for the Grand Strand and Pee Dee, then I hope to earn your vote.

At the rally, Trump said, Right here in the 7th Congressional District, Tom Rice, a disaster. Hes respected by no one, hes laughed at in Washington, he was never thought highly of in Washington. And he was just censured by your great South Carolina GOP. Tom Rice joined the Democrats deranged impeachment witch hunt its all turned out to be a hoax.

Fry thanked Trump in a tweet and said, Conservatives are ready to replace Tom Rice and send a committed conservative to Washington. June 14 comes soon! Its time to #FrytheRice

Rice was first elected in 2012. Fry is a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and was first elected in a 2015 special election.

Cassy Garcia picked up endorsements from four of the five unsuccessful candidates in the Texas 28th Congressional District primary. Garcia faces Sandra Whitten in the May 24 runoff.

Garcia received 23.5% of the primary vote to Whittens 18%.

Garcia was a deputy state director for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Whitten is a preschool director and was the districts Republican nominee in 2020, running unopposed in that years primary. Whitten lost to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D) 39% to 58%.

Cruz spent $137,000 from his campaign fund in independent expenditures supporting Garcia ahead of the March 1 primary.

Cuellar and 2020 Democratic challenger Jessica Cisneros are also in a primary runoff on May 24. The Cook Political Report and Larry J. Sabatos Crystal Ball moved the general election from Lean Democratic to Toss-up following the primary.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court will hear arguments on March 23 in a case seeking to delay the U.S. Senate special election in Oklahoma. Attorney Stephen Jones alleges in the lawsuit that the state would violate the 17th Amendment by holding the special election before Sen. Jim Inhofes resignation is effective on Jan. 3, 2023. Jones represented Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing trial.

Inhofe (R) announced in what he called an irrevocable pledge on Feb. 28 that hell retire in January, four years before his term expires. According to state law, a vacancy or irrevocable resignation for Senate taking place on or before March 1 in an even-numbered year is to be filled by special election at the time of the next regularly scheduled statewide election. The special primary and general elections for Inhofes seat are set for the same dates as this years regular elections.

The 17th Amendment states, When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

Joe Thai, a constitutional law professor at the University of Oklahoma Law School, said, If you look at the text of the 17t [sic] Amendment, it talks about vacancies in the present tense. Jones has an argument there; that the legislature is getting ahead of the ball.

James Davenport, a Rose State College political science professor, said the case hinges on whether an irrevocable resignation creates a vacancy: The court would have to find something that would be fairly clear in striking that process (the irrevocable resignation) down. Additionally, the court would need to make a decision quickly, they dont have a whole lot of time.

The filing deadline is currently set for April 15 and the special primary for June 28.

As of the end of Februaryeight months before the general election45 members of the U.S. House had announced they would not seek re-election. At the same time in the 2020 election cycle, 34 representatives had announced they wouldnt seek re-election. That number was 46 in 2018.

Former Minnesota Party chair announces campaign for late husbands district

On Monday, former Minnesota Republican Party Chair Jennifer Carnahan announced her GOP primary bid for the special election in Minnesotas 1st Congressional District. The previous incumbent and Carnahans husband, Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R), died of cancer on Feb. 17.

Carnahan served as Minnesota Republican Party chair from 2017 to 2021. Carnahan resigned in August after an associate and GOP donor, Anton Lazzaro, was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges. Four former state party executive directors also said Carnahan fostered a toxic work environment.

Carnahan said, Strong leaders frequently end up with enemies. You could pick almost any Member out of the Congressional register and come up with similar attacks. Carnahan said she condemned Lazzaro after the accusations were made public and that Lazzaro also donated to other Republicans. This is clearly a double standard. Its time to move on.

Former Minnesota Republican Party Deputy Chair Michael Brodkorb said, I think [Carnahan] has a lot of unresolved political baggage that will put the congressional district in play for the Democrats.

The primary field includes at least nine other candidates.

Among them is Brad Finstad, a former state representative who served as director for USDA Rural Development in Minnesota during the Trump administration. U.S. Rep. GT Thompson (R-Pa.) endorsed Finstad. Thompson is the Republican leader on the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, on which Hagedorn previously served.

Also running is state Rep. Jeremy Munson, co-founder of the New House Republican Caucus, a group of four state House members who split from the Republican caucus in 2019 after disagreements with party leadership. All four caucus members called on Carnahan to resign as party chair in August. U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), the House Freedom Caucus chair, endorsed Munson.

Recent elections in the district have been close. Current Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who represented the district from 2007 to 2019, defeated Hagedorn in 2016 50.3% to 49.6%. In 2018, Hagedorn defeated Democrat Dan Feehan 50.1% to 49.7%. Hagedorn defeated Feehan again 48.6% to 45.5% in 2020.

The special primary is scheduled for May 24. The special general election will be Aug. 9. A regular election for the district takes place Nov. 8.

A bill Trump endorsed that would have changed when voters could switch their party affiliation before a primary died in the Wyoming House of Representatives last week.

Politicos Meridith McGraw wrote that Trump and his allies [had] been privately lobbying Wyoming lawmakers to change the states election laws as part of an effort to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Trump publicly endorsed the bill, saying, This critically important bill ensures that the voters in each party will separately choose their nominees for the General Election, which is how it should be!

Currently, Wyoming primary voters can switch their party affiliation on the same day as the states primary elections. SF0097 would have changed the deadline to before the start of the candidate filing period, which falls in May this year. The primary is scheduled for Aug. 16.

The Hills Reid Wilson reported, Supporters of the bill said making the change would prevent Democrats or independent voters from casting a ballot in the Republican primary presumably, voters who would be more likely to favor Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump and who sits on the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump endorsed Harriet Hageman in the primary in September, calling Cheney a warmonger and disloyal Republican and the Democrats [sic] number one provider of sound bites.

The Wyoming Senate passed the bill 18-12 on Feb. 25. On March 7, the House Appropriations Committee recommended that the bill not pass. According to the Casper Star-Tribunes Victoria Eavis, the House adjourned without considering the bill by the March 8 deadline. Wyomings 2022 legislative session ended on March 11. The GOP has a 28-2 majority in the state Senate and a 51-7 majority in the House.

According to the Associated Press Mead Gruver, Similar measures have failed in the Wyoming Legislature in recent years amid concern that narrowing the dates in the law could dampen turnout.

Read more:
Heart of the Primaries 2022, Republicans-Issue 14 Ballotpedia News - Ballotpedia News

As the far right in America seeks to increase its political influence, including by seeking elected office, one figure is emerging as potentially its most powerful figure: Idahos lieutenant governor, Janice McGeachin.

McGeachin is running for governor of the state and building a coalition including white nationalist and far-right militia backing, in what she tells her supporters is the fight of our lives.

Last month at the America First Political Action Conference, a white nationalist conference, McGeachin praised attendees: Keep up the good work fighting for our country, she said in a pre-taped address.

I need fighters all over this country that are willing stand up and fight, McGeachin continued, urging attendees to push out moderates in the Republican party. Even when that means fighting amongst our own ranks because there are too many Republicans who do not exhibit the courage that is needed today for us to fight and protect our freedoms and our liberties. We are literally in the fight for our lives.

Three years after attending the the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, the far-right provocateur Nick Fuentes created the white nationalist conference AFPAC in the hopes of branding it a far-right alternative to the more mainstream conservative gathering CPAC. Fuentes is a well-known white nationalist and notorious antisemite who mocks how Jews were murdered in the Holocaust while also denying the Holocaust occurred.

McGeachin has a history of giving speeches and mingling at far-right rallies, often riding the wave of the latest rightwing outrage. Last year at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, McGeachin gave a rousing speech at a mask-burning event on the Idaho capitol steps, where children burned masks in front of their parents.

The Guardian reported last year on the growing civil war inside the Republican party in Idaho, when McGeachin imposed a ban on masks while the governor was out of state. McGeachin also created a taskforce to look into claims of indoctrination in schools in order to project children from the scourge of Critical Race Theory, socialism, communism and Marxism according to documents obtained by the Idaho Statesman newspaper.

This month McGeachin also jumped on the cause of the trucker convoy protest, speaking at a locally planned convoy rally in Idaho. According to local TV station KTVB about 500 people showed up to protest against Covid-19 mandates, though Idaho has none. McGeachin told the crowd Sometimes they refer to us as being extreme for our views, before reading out loud a quote from Barry Goldwater defending extremism in pursuit of liberty. We are a free nation and it is so important that we stand now and continue to fight for that freedom and that liberty that makes this country so great, she said.

McGeachin has also attended a gathering where she was endorsed by a rightwing militia figure whom she had apparently made political promises too. In a video previously obtained by the Guardian Eric Parker who was charged over his role in the standoff in 2014 at Bundy Ranch in Nevada where he was pictured pointing an assault rifle at federal agents reminded McGeachin that she once told if I get in, youre going to have a friend in the governors office.

Experts who follow the far right in the US believe McGeachin represents a serious threat, especially as more militia-affiliated groups have started to enter local government in the US, such as in Californias Shasta county.

From her recent speech at AFPAC, continued embrace of white nationalism and endorsements from prominent antisemitic leaders to her longstanding ties with paramilitaries, it couldnt be clearer that McGeachin is a danger to the rule of law, Idaho communities and democratic institutions, said Amy Herzfeld-Copple, deputy director of programs at Western States Strategies, a non-profit that works for inclusive democracy through nonpartisan education and advocacy.

A total of 31 faith leaders in Idaho recently signed an open letter calling for McGeachin to resign. Rabbis, reverends, pastors and others of different faiths across the state warned in the letter of the staggering consequences of ignoring extremism and describe a rising tide of antisemitism here in Idaho.

The letter cited recent acts of vandalism including at the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise. It said: By associating with alt-right actors and groups like AFPAC in addition to your ties to militia groups that advocate for political violence and harassment in Idaho, you have proven you are not fit to hold elected office, let alone serve a heartbeat away from becoming Idahos next governor.

Rabbi Dan Fink of Ahavath Beth Israel in Boise, who co-signed the letter, said in an interview with KTVB that he was courted by McGeachin earlier this year, to help with a campaign against antisemitism.

The dissonance was so extraordinary. I both hurt and at some level, had to laugh because it was surreal, Fink said in the interview, appalled that McGeachin would share a stage with a Holocaust denier while trying to enlist a rabbis help. That you have the chutzpah to reach out to me and say help me on antisemitism while going out and glorying in the presence of antisemites is extraordinary, Fink said.

Herzfeld-Copple said it was not clear how deep McGeachins popular support was in Idaho.

McGeachin is a troubling anti-democracy figure in our region seeking to build a national profile with violent and bigoted social movements that increasingly see her as their access to power. But we know these extremists are a minority and Idahoans have routinely rejected those who court white nationalists, said Herzfeld-Copple.

But far-right controversy is never far away from McGeachin and this week she took the highly unusual step of intervening on behalf of a far-right group in a child welfare case involving a 10-month old baby who is the grandson of a campaign consultant for the militia leader Ammon Bundy, founder of the far-right group Peoples Rights.

The child had been taken away from the parents after officials determined the child was suffering from severe malnourishment and in imminent danger. But the Idaho Statesman obtained text messages between McGeachin and Governor Brad Little showing McGeachin seeking to intervene in the case. Is this true? Call off this medical tyranny tell the hospital to release the baby to his parents, she wrote.

Bundy himself was subsequently arrested this week for trespassing at St Lukes hospital, where he went to protest with scores of supporters over what he called a medical kidnapping.

Nearly every day, McGeachins actions become more dangerous. She contradicted pleas from law enforcement and hospital officials and used her government Facebook page to discuss a confidential child welfare case, contributing to a mob of Ammon Bundy supporters that caused a lockdown at Idahos largest hospital, compromising delivery of patient and emergency care, said Herzfeld-Copple.

Experts who monitor the far right note that while there is a growing number of far-right legislators at the state and federal level, such as the Arizona state sentator Wendy Rogers, who has admitted to being a member of the Oath Keepers militia, or the Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who spoke at the same white nationalist conference as McGeachin amid chants of support for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

If McGeachin were to win the race and become governor in Idaho it would be a major victory for far-right politics in America.

There are a lot of implications for having someone in the executive branch giving the stamp of approval to far-right paramilitary groups and white nationalists, said Devin Burghart, executive director of Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights.

In recent years it is unprecedented to see a lieutenant governor doing things like participating in a white nationalist conference or weighing in on a far-right-driven child endangerment issue, we havent seen that high a level of support for the far right since the days of the Council of Conservative Citizens, the lineal descendants of the White Citizens Council in the south. said Burghart.

Burghart warned that state politics and far-right extremism in the sparsely populated west of the US is often forgotten in the national political conversation, but it can have major consequences.

What happens out here in the west becomes a model, a testing ground for far-right activism. And what happens out here in the west doesnt stay in the west, it migrates around the country, said Burghart.

See the original post here:
Republican hopes to ride far-right rage into Idahos governors office - The Guardian

Madison Cawthorn didnt get the memo.

Sometime in early March, the extremist Republican congressman from North Carolina decided to go off on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Remember that Zelenskyy is a thug, Cawthorn told supporters. Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.

If Cawthorn had spoken, say, a month earlier, he might have earned the praise of former President Donald Trump and gotten invited to trash Zelenskyy some more on Tucker Carlsons Fox News program. But that was before Zelenskyy had emerged as a heroic figure, standing up to Russias invasion of his country with a combination of eloquence and courage. I need ammunition, not a ride, he said to those who thought he should flee.

So former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, the sort of establishment Republican who was frozen out during the Trump era, used his Wall Street Journal column to let his readers know that Republicans like Cawthorn and Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance (I dont really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another) are outliers and that the party is oh-so-very supportive of Zelenskyy. Republican members of Congress, candidates and commentators echoing Mr. Trumps isolationism and Kremlin apologetics are out of sync with GOP voters, Rove wrote.

WRAL.com of North Carolina, which obtained video of Cawthorn taking the Kremlin line, pushed that message even harder, stressing in its lead that Cawthorns vile rhetoric was at odds with his party and calling it a comment that runs counter to the overwhelming share of Republicans with a favorable view of the leader fending off a military invasion from Russia.

Oh, please. Can we get real for a moment? Yes, Rove and WRAL cited poll numbers that show Republicans, like most Americans, are now pro-Zelenskyy and support Ukraine in fending off the massive Russian invasion. But that is an exceptionally recent phenomenon.

In January, for instance, a poll by The Economist and YouGov found that Republicans viewed Vladimir Putin more favorably than President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hardly surprising after years of pro-Putin pronouncements by Trump.

No wonder former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, whod like to run for president, told Fox News that Putin is a very talented statesman with lots of gifts who knows how to use power, as Eric Boehlert, who tracks conservative bias on the part of the mainstream media, took note of.

Now, some of this reflects a split between the Republican Partys right wing and its extreme right wing. Way out on the authoritarian fringes, figures such as Carlson and Steve Bannon have long admired Putin for his unabashed, anti-democratic espousal of white Christian dominance and attacks on LGBTQ folks. Politicians such as Cawthorn, Vance and Pompeo, rather than standing up for principle, are trying to thread the needle.

Meanwhile, their less extreme counterparts, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have flipped from coddling Trump, Putin and Russia to claiming that Biden is to blame for the invasion and the high gas prices it has led to.

All of this has a historical context. As everyone knows, or ought to know, Putin has represented an existential threat to Ukraine since 2014, when he invaded the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and incorporated it into Russia. Putin appears to be gripped by the idea of a Greater Russia, of which in his mind Ukraine is a part. Ukraine was a Soviet republic, and Putin has always expressed nostalgia for the U.S.S.R. But the two countries ties go back centuries, and apparently no one cares about that more deeply than Putin.

Republicans, like most Americans, are now pro-Zelenskyy and support Ukraine in fending off the massive Russian invasion. But that is an exceptionally recent phenomenon.

Into this box of dry kindling came the spark of Trump in 2016. His numerous statements of support for Putin and pro-Russia actions couldnt possibly all be listed here, but a few that pertain to Ukraine stand out. One of Trumps campaign managers, Paul Manafort, had worked for a pro-Russian political faction in Ukraine and, upon being forced out, offered his services to Trump free of charge. You may also recall that a plank in that years Republican platform guaranteeing Ukraines security was mysteriously watered down and a delegate to that years convention later said she was asked directly by Trump to support the change. (Manafort later went to prison for financial crimes he committed in Ukraine, only to be pardoned by Trump.)

That was followed by revelations in the fall of 2019 that Trump, in a phone call to Zelenskyy, demanded dirt on Biden in return for military assistance assistance that Ukraine needed desperately to deter Russian aggression. Trump was impeached over that massive scandal. Yet not a single Republican House member (not even Liz Cheney) supported impeachment, and only one Republican senator Mitt Romney voted to remove Trump from office.

As detailed a month ago by The Washington Post, Trump has continued to praise Putin, hailing his war against Ukraine as genius and savvy, while Trumpers like U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona sneer, We should just call ourselves Ukraine and then maybe we can get NATO to engage and protect our border.

Mother Jones reported over the weekend that Russian media outlets have been ordered to quote Tucker Carlson as much as possible. Joe Kent, a Trump-endorsed Republican congressional candidate in Washington state, endorsed Cawthorns eruption this past Saturday and went him one better, tweeting: Zelenskyy was installed via a US backed color revaluation [sic], his goal is to move his country west so he virtue signals in woke ideology while using nazi battalions to crush his enemies. He was also smart enough to cut our elite in on the graft. @CawthornforNC nailed it.

There was a time when, as the old saying went, politics stopped at the waters edge. That wasnt always good policy, as elected officials came under withering attack when they dared to criticize misbegotten actions such as the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. But there was a virtue to it as well. When we go to war or, in the case of Ukraine, engage in high-wire diplomacy aimed at ending a war, its that much harder when critics are sniping at our leaders. Can you imagine if Republicans had gone on television in 1962 to say that Nikita Khrushchev was right to place Soviet missiles in Cuba?

Claiming that Republicans are united in supporting Ukraine doesnt make it so. Some are, some arent. Its shocking that a few fringe figures like Cawthorn and Kent are openly criticizing Zeleneskyy even now but its just as shocking that praise for Putin was a mainstream Republican position as recently as a month or so ago.

Unfortunately, the medias tendency to flatten out and normalize aberrant behavior by the Republicans will prevent this from growing into an all-out crisis for the party. Well move on to the next thing, whether it be expressing faux outrage over Vice President Harris and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigiegs touting electric cars while gas prices are high (what better time?) or Bidens latest miserable polling numbers.

Anything that enables our feckless media to cover politics as the same old both-sides game that it used to be.

GBH News contributor Dan Kennedys blog, Media Nation, is online at dankennedy.net.

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Republicans have a Putin problem and the media need to stop glossing over it - GBH News

Alex Roarty and Bryan Lowry / McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON Former President Donald Trump spent an hour channeling the mood of conservative voters last week when, during a free-wheeling rally in South Carolina, he riffed on favorite subjects ranging from Ukraine to Mark Zuckerberg.

Entirely absent during his hour-long appearance? Any mention of would-be Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Hes not the only Republican whose attention is elsewhere right now.

Less than a week before Jackson is set to begin confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, the Republican Party and broader conservative movement are signaling theyre not interested in a knock-down, drag-out fight over the nomination. Most Republicans have avoided sustained personal attacks, TV ad campaigns have run dry, and even leading Republican media figures on Fox News and other outlets have largely focused on other topics.

Their lack of focus has transformed what many once expected to be a marquee ideological fight over the Miami-raised judge into a relatively subdued process, at least thus far. And even Republicans acknowledge thats indicative of the fact that Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to serve on the Supreme Court, is likely to win confirmation.

Every battle you get into you have to measure the cost of the battle and what is to be gained by the battle, said former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. And I dont think theres much to be gained by engaging in a full-scale assault on this nominee.

GOP officials like Santorum caution that even if Jackson is likely to be confirmed by the Senate, shell do so with at most a couple of Republican votes. They warn that her confirmation hearings will still be contentious, as GOP lawmakers zero in on what many of them consider her overly liberal judicial philosophy. And one member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., indicated Wednesday that he was ready to criticize Jackson in more severe terms, accusing her of taking a soft approach on sex offenders.

But compared to the recent marquee ideological showdowns of other Supreme Court confirmations, including those of recently appointed Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, the fight over Jackson has thus far been conspicuously dormant.

Its pretty clear that the Republican establishment has not swung into action in any sort of genuine effort to block this nomination, or even raise serious questions about Judge Jackson, said Clark Neily, senior vice president for legal studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.

President Joe Biden nominated Jackson in February to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. Just a year earlier, Biden had nominated Jackson to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where she won confirmation in the Senate with every Democratic vote and the support of three Republicans: Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

White House officials point to endorsements Jackson has received, including from the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Thomas Griffith, a former circuit court judge appointed by George W. Bush, as proof of the strength of her nomination.

She is deeply qualified for the Supreme Court as Senator McConnell affirmed after meeting with her and her record and approach to cases is defined by respect for our Constitution and non-ideological neutrality, said Andrew Bates, White House spokesman.

Senate GOP Response

Senate Republicans have grumbled about her confirmations quick timeline and scrutinized Jacksons past decisions.

But theres little indication that theyre heading into next weeks hearings with a plan to employ scorched earth tactics to scuttle the nomination.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, one of the Senates foremost firebrands, said this week that viewers shouldnt expect the same level of contention that took place in 2018 with the hearings on Kavanaughs nomination when Democrats on the committee probed into allegations of sexual misconduct.

I am confident we will thoroughly consider every aspect of our record. What we will not be doing is repeating the spectacle of character assassination, Cruz, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told McClatchy.

But a focus on Jacksons record doesnt guarantee civility or a lack of controversy. Hawley, who along with Cruz sought to overturn Bidens Electoral College victory, accused Jackson of being overly lenient in sex offense cases.

Judge Jackson has a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes, both as a judge and as a policymaker. Shes been advocating for it since law school. This goes beyond soft on crime. Im concerned that this a record that endangers our children, Hawley said on Twitter.

He cited out-of-context remarks from a 2012 hearing of the U.S. Sentencing Commission in which Jackson, at the time the bipartisan commissions vice chair, was questioning a witness from the Justice Departments Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section on distinctions between types of offenders.

He also pointed to sentences she had given offenders as a federal district court judge that fell below the recommended federal sentencing guidelines.

Its common for judges to hand down sentences below the recommended guidelines in these cases. A 2021 report from the Sentencing Commission found that in 2019 only 30% of non-production child pornography offenders were charged within the federal guidelines. The commission said technological changes had rendered the current sentencing scheme insufficient for distinguishing between types of offenders.

Courts increasingly apply downward variances in response to the high guideline ranges that now apply to the typical non-production child pornography offender, although sentences remain lengthy, the report said.

Other Republicans appear more likely to use the hearings as an opportunity to reject efforts to expand or reform the court rather than attacking Jackson herself.

In a Tuesday floor speech, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took aim at Demand Justice, a progressive group that advocates for court expansion and was co-founded by former Hillary Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon.

McConnells criticism was similar to a line of attack pushed by the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, which spent millions of dollars in ads in February singling out Arabella Advisors, a liberal group that helps steer money to a network of progressive organizations and causes.

Conservatives say they expect to continue pushing the line of criticism through the confirmation hearings.

During the coming hearing and beyond, JCN will continue to do whatever is necessary to highlight the corrupting influence of Arabella Advisors vast dark money network on the judiciary and the judicial nominations process, said Carrie Severino, JCNs president, in a statement.

Reasons

But after its February ad blitz, JCN hasnt run an ad that references Jackson or the confirmation fight this month, according to two sources tracking TV ad spending. And officials with the group acknowledge that lockstep Democratic support for her nomination, even from moderate members like Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, makes it unlikely Republicans have a chance to stop it.

Republicans and Democrats say a perfect storm of circumstances explains why Jacksons nomination has yet to galvanize resistance on the right. As Severino mentioned, many of them doubt even a fierce GOP effort would be successful.

Even when theyre critical, most Republicans have carefully worded their statements about Jackson. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said his meeting with the judge did not ease his concerns about her nomination, but in the same statement referred to the judges personal story as inspiring.

And both parties acknowledge that conservatives already hold a six-member majority on the nine-member court, after Republican senators successfully blocked former President Barack Obama from appointing a new justice during the last year of his presidency and Trump successfully nominated three of them: Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Neil Gorsuch. Jackson would replace a liberal in Breyer, lowering the stakes.

There are a variety of reasons beginning with the fact that Republicans know this court has been so tilted toward the right wing, the three most recent appointees and they succeeded unconscionably in blocking Garland, said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. So that may be a factor, but shes a very superbly qualified candidate, and very charming and intellectually impressive, and so I think thats really wowed a lot of Republicans.

Other Republicans speculate that, amid a favorable political climate, party leaders would rather continue keeping the public focus on issues like inflation, rather than their own dug-in opposition to a historic Supreme Court nominee.

And the war in Ukraine, which began the same week Biden nominated Jackson, has also commanded the vast majority of the medias attention, including among conservative networks. When Fox News host Sean Hannity interviewed Rubio on his show Monday, for instance, the topic was not the Supreme Court but Russias invasion of the European country.

Watchers of the network say theyve been somewhat surprised that, while not ignoring Jackson completely, conservative media figures have not led a sustained negative campaign against her.

This is nowhere near the virulence and volume with which weve normally seen, said Sergio Munoz, policy director here at the liberal group Media Matters.

The confirmation hearings are scheduled to be held from Monday to Thursday. Democratic leaders are aiming for a vote before the full Senate before Easter.

Santorum said that he hopes Republicans ask probing, difficult questions of Jackson during the hearings. But barring an unforeseen development, hes not sure the questions or any part of Jacksons confirmation will break through to the public.

My guess is this is going to struggle for airtime, he said.

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'I Don't Think There's Much to be Gained': Most Republicans Back off SCOTUS Fight - Centralia Chronicle

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) Mail-in voting is very popular with the electorate but very controversial for Republican lawmakers who are trying to get it booted. But Act 77, which gave no-excuse absentee balloting, also gave Republicans something they really liked that would be in jeopardy if the law were overturned.

Act 77 giveth vote by mail and taketh away straight-party voting. Where with just one lever on a machine or checking one box on a piece of paper, youve voted for every single office of one party, Christopher Nicholas of Eagle Consulting said.

That one button convenience is a hot button irritant for the GOP. Republicans were so dead set on getting rid of straight-ticket voting that they were willing to give to the governors demands for more ballot accessibility, Former Spokesman for Governor Wolf, JJ Abbott said.

So Republican lawmakers said yes to no-excuse mail-ins 50 days out from an election and relaxed voter registration deadlines. In 2020, as those mail-ins counted, Joe Biden surged to victory. But the states biggest upset was incumbent Democratic Treasurer Joe Torsela losing to unknown and underfunded Republican Stacy Garrity.

Torsellas loss had a lot to do with the elimination of straight-party voting, Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny) said. Republican strategist Nicholas agrees. I havent heard anyone give me a better explanation or better theory, Nicholas said.

Each party won something. Each party lost something. To longtime State Rep. Frankel, thats the way important issues are supposed to be horse traded.

Act 77 was an old school process that I miss and I wish we could get back to so we can move ahead and do the things that are important for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Frankel said.

He also says hed make the deal again. Giving lots more people access is more important than the convenience of straight-party voting. But Republican lawmakers are suing to toss the entire law insisting mail-ins are unconstituional. What were seeing now is complete hypocrisy from those who made that deal now wanting to go back on it, Abbott said.

So will Act 77 stay or will it go? Its fate is in the hands of the State Supreme Court.

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Pa. Republicans weigh haves and have nots with Act 77 - ABC27