Iowa state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann (R) “gave the finger” to those he described as political opponents during a rally at the statehouse on Tuesday, WHO reports.
Said Kaufmann: “When it comes to these gun-grabbing, freedom-hating, over-regulating, civil liberty-violating tyrants. Here’s my message…(holds up both middle fingers) thank you.”
“Governors across the country are sitting on mounds of cash just when they need it most: election season,” Politico reports.
“After suffering through the bleakest of deficits during the early days of the pandemic, many governors now get to spend record sums, thanks to massive aid packages from Washington and booming tax revenues. More than two dozen governors are up for reelection this fall, and they couldn’t ask for a better cash situation at their disposal.”
“Sheldon Silver, the Democratic powerhouse who ruled Albany until he was convicted on federal corruption charges in a stunning fall from grace, has died,” the New York Post reports.
“The top staff investigator on the House committee scrutinizing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has been fired by the state’s new Republican attorney general from his position as the top lawyer for the University of Virginia, from which he was on leave while working on the congressional inquiry,” the New York Times reports.
“The office of the attorney general, Jason S. Miyares, said the firing of the investigator, Timothy J. Heaphy, was not related to the Jan. 6 investigation, but the move prompted an outcry from Democrats in the state, who accused him of taking the highly unusual action as a partisan move to further former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to undermine the committee’s work.”
“The big unknown about Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) as he ran for office last year — apart from the exact size of his vast fortune — was just how red the political newcomer really was behind that easygoing demeanor,” the Washington Post reports.
“One week into his term: Mystery solved.”
“Youngkin stormed into Richmond with an assertion of executive power that has thrilled the GOP base but caught even some allies off guard, and he has made clear that he views his two-point margin of victory as a mandate for conservative change.”
Wisconsin state Rep. Elijah Behnke (R) was recorded on video saying that Republicans need to “cheat like the Democrats” to win elections and that he’d like to punch Gov. Tony Evers (D) over pandemic restrictions, the AP reports.
Behnke also disparages Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) as a “swamp creature” and supports debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was again asked whether he’s received his Covid-19 booster shot but refused to answer.
Said DeSantis: “So that’s something that I think people should make their own decisions on. I’m not gonna let that be a weapon for people to be able to use. I think it’s a private matter…”
After testing positive for Covid-19 last week, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams (R) “opened the 2022 session unmasked, conducting business as normal and trying to reassure senators and the public he was fully recovered,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
“Adams initially said he’d tested positive twice for COVID-19 since yesterday but backtracked seconds later. ‘I tested negative twice,’ he said, joking that he’d misspoken to make sure people were listening.”
“In reality, the senator had indeed tested positive twice Tuesday morning.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has tested positive for Covid-19, the Texas Tribune reports.
It’s not known whether Paxton was vaccinated but he has used to office to fight against federal vaccine mandates.
“South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) on Wednesday slammed how fellow Republicans are handling an impeachment probe of the state’s attorney general for his role in a fatal car crash, alleging members of a House investigative committee are questioning law enforcement rather than focusing on the official’s conduct,” the AP reports.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) “named Angela Sailor, a policy expert at the Heritage Foundation who has criticized school lessons on systemic racism in the U.S., as the state’s new director of diversity, equity and inclusion,” the Richmond Times Dispatch reports.
Youngkin also issued an executive order to refocus the office to promote “free speech and civil discourse” at colleges and universities, and ensuring that the state’s history curriculum is “honest, objective, and complete.”
A life-size cutout of former President Trump reportedly greeted Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) when he entered his office on his first day of work — one of several pranks left by former Gov. Ralph Northam (D), the Washington Post reports.
Northam also left a blue fleece hanging up in the closet with the embroidered message: “Top State for Business.”
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) immediately issued executive orders scrapping mask mandates in schools and COVID-19 vaccine requirements for state workers, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
Youngkin’s very first executive order bans the teaching of “divisive concepts” in schools, including “critical race theory,” a term Republicans use to refer to lessons on systemic racism.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) has pardoned state Sen. Joe Morrissey (D) “for a misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor related to his relationship with a 17-year-old assistant who later became his wife,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
“Morrissey, then a delegate, was convicted in 2014. He and his wife Myrna are now raising four children.”
“The Treasury Department told Arizona officials on Friday that it could claw back some of the state’s pandemic aid and withhold future payments if the state did not halt or redesign programs that use the money to undercut mask requirements in schools,” the New York Times reports.
“A new measure aimed at eliminating critical race theory in Virginia schools proposes teaching students about key documents in American history — including a debate between President Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionist Frederick Douglass that never happened,” The Hill reports.
“The bill, introduced this week by freshman Delegate Wren Williams (R), appears to confuse Frederick Douglass with Sen. Stephen Douglas (D), who battled Lincoln for a seat in the Senate in 1858.”
“The Travis County district attorney has determined that Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) violated Texas’ open records law by not turning over his communications from January 2021, when he appeared at the pro-Trump rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol,” the Austin American-Statesman reports.
“Gov. Ron DeSantis has become arguably the most powerful governor in Florida’s history,” Politico reports.
“With one year left in his first term in office, DeSantis’ consolidation of power has become clear: Democrats, who are in the minority, are unable to stop him. And Republicans in the Florida Legislature are enthusiastically carrying out his wishes or are unwilling to buck him.”
Said one GOP legislator: “They are not going to embarrass Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis is essentially the speaker of the House, the president of the Senate and the chief justice of the Supreme Court right now.”
Said a former legislator: “There are no second chances. It’s well known you can’t go against him. If you cross him once, you’re dead.”
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.