“A judge has issued a temporary injunction blocking Wisconsin Republicans’ contentious lame-duck laws limiting the powers of Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul, both Democrats,” the AP reports.
“Republicans passed the lame-duck laws during an all-night extraordinary session in December just weeks before Evers and Kaul took office. An extraordinary session is a previously unscheduled floor period initiated by majority party leaders.”
During a hearing last week over whether incarcerated citizens should be guaranteed access to basic menstrual hygiene products, Maine state Rep. Richard Pickett (R) cautioned that such a rule might make the prison system seem too much like a “country club,” the Maine Beacon reports.
Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Ellis (R) resigned on Monday, six days after a woman accusing him of sexual assault filed a formal complaint with the majority House Republicans, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) “is putting a moratorium on the death penalty in California, sparing the lives of more than 700 death-row inmates,” the Sacramento Bee reports.
“Newsom plans to sign an executive order Wednesday morning granting reprieves to all 737 Californians awaiting executions – a quarter of the country’s death row inmates.”
“The Tennessee House of Representatives passed a controversial bill Thursday that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, legislation that could become among the most restrictive in the nation,” the Tennessean reports.
“The 99-member House took up the bill… though some members of the House Republican caucus ahead of the vote remained hesitant about moving forward with the legislation as it is currently written.”
“Most of the GOP caucus ultimately voted for the bill.”
Phillip Wheeler (R) won a special election to fill a vacancy in Kentucky’s 31st state Senate district, WSAZ reports.
Wheeler will replace former state Sen. Ray Jones (D), a Democrat who resigned his seat for another office.
The Hill: “The district reflects the remnants of historically Democratic coal country that, over the course of the last two decades, has slowly inched to the right as unions have lost power and the coal industry has struggled. More than 6 in 10 voters in the district are registered Democrats, and Jones never had trouble holding his seat — even though President Trump won almost 80 percent of the vote there in 2016.”
Politico: “After simmering behind the scenes for months, the conflict came to a boil when Scott accused Gaetz of witness intimidation for threatening Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer-turned-congressional-informant, via Twitter.”
“Once a semi-secret rivalry, the relationship changed in January after Gaetz helped lead the transition team for Scott’s successor, Gov. Ron DeSantis, and publicly criticized Scott for being disrespectful of the new GOP leader in Tallahassee.”
House Speaker Jose Oliva (R) repeatedly described pregnant woman as a “host body” in an interview with CBS News.
Said Oliva: “As technology moves along, a human body can exist outside of its host body earlier and earlier. And so then one has to think, until what time does the host body have veto power over this other life? … The question is: What is the value of that life? And is it subordinate to the value of its host body?”
The Orlando Sentinel reports Olivia later apologized.
“It’s musical chairs this year in the Michigan Senate, where state Sen. Rick Outman (R) won election to replace his term-limited boss and then hired her on staff,” the Detroit News reports.
“Then-Sen. Judy Emmons (R) had hired Outman as a district liaison aide after he was termed out of the state House at the end of 2016. The Six Lakes Republican would have earned a $69,500 annual taxpayer-funded salary in 2018 but resigned part way through the year to run for the 33rd District seat Emmons was being term limited out of. Back in the Legislature and now making $71,685 a year as a state senator, Outman turned to Emmons, hiring the Sheridan Republican to his old job as a district liaison.”
“Idaho has the highest rate of child marriage in the U.S.,” the Idaho Statesman reports.
“This statistic isn’t likely to change soon because the House of Representatives on Thursday voted to kill a bill that would end child marriage in Idaho.”
“From 2000 to 2010, 4,080 children in Idaho were married, according to data compiled from 38 states by Unchained at Last, a national advocacy group working to end forced and child marriages in America. The youngest minor wed in Idaho was 13.”
“A Virginia state employee has complained that her eighth-grade daughter was upset during a tour of the historic governor’s residence when first lady Pam Northam handed raw cotton to her and another African American child and asked them to imagine being enslaved and having to pick the crop,” the Washington Post reports.
“Northam’s office and one other parent of a child who was present said the first lady did not single out the African American students and simply handed out the cotton to a group. But the incident highlights the scrutiny and doubt that envelope the governor as he tries to push past racist incidents from his past and ignore continued calls for his resignation.”
“As governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott doesn’t flash the White House ambitions of his predecessors or their big personalities. But in just five years he has quietly built his own distinction: Taking in more cash from donors than any governor in U.S. history,” the AP reports.
“Few others even come close. Since first running in 2013, Abbott has accepted more than $120 million in political contributions… He has been showered with big-donor money on a scale that is prohibited in most states and far beyond limits for members of Congress — more than 200 times receiving contributions of $100,000 or more.”
“Embattled Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) compared himself to Jim Crow-era lynching victims in a surprise speech Sunday, as he resists widespread calls to resign prompted by allegations of sexual assault,” the AP reports.
Said Fairfax: “I’ve heard much about anti-lynching on the floor of this very Senate, where people were not given any due process whatsoever, and we rue that. And we talk about hundreds, at least 100 terror lynchings that have happened in the Commonwealth of Virginia under those very same auspices. And yet we stand here in a rush to judgment with nothing but accusations and no facts and we decide that we are willing to do the same thing.”
“When he finished his five-minute impromptu speech, stunned senators sat in awkward silence.”
Politico: “Of course, every state is in better economic shape than it was during the Great Recession, but California has enjoyed its renaissance while pursuing policies Republicans associate with economic ruin. It has an $11-an-hour minimum wage, scheduled to rise to $15 by 2023. Its unusually aggressive implementation of Obamacare since 2013 has reduced its uninsured rate from 17 percent to just 7 percent.”
“Its ambitious clean energy and climate policies in many ways inspired the Green New Deal; the state is committed to generating 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2045, and its stringent fuel-efficiency standards help explain why it’s home to half the nation’s electric vehicles. In general, California is flourishing while pursuing the exact opposite of the policies Trump is pursuing in Washington.”
Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Jonathan Brostoff (D) has not cut his hair since last February, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“And he’ll keep growing the bushy black mane until he gets a bill passed that would improve life for the deaf community and the sign language interpreters they need.”
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) “appears to have quelled any widespread public clamor for his resignation in the wake of his blackface scandal,” Politico reports.
“Two new polls out Wednesday show pluralities say the Democrat should not quit or be forced out over a racist photo that appeared on his medical-school yearbook page 35 years ago. Most African-American voters agree that he shouldn’t go, according to one of the surveys.”
“Republican lawmakers in at least six states are pushing to eliminate the death penalty, signaling a broader reversal by many conservatives on an issue that has long been a bedrock for their party,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“In Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana and Wyoming, Republicans in legislatures controlled by their party have sponsored bills this year to end capital punishment, citing fiscal and moral concerns. Some Republicans in New Hampshire, where Democrats dominate the statehouse, are backing a similar proposal.”
“The about-face on an issue that has long been key to the GOP’s tough-on-crime credo is the latest sign of a nationwide, bipartisan shift on criminal justice reform.”
Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) and his staff racked up more than $20,000 in costs in 2017 and 2018 staying at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., the Portland Press Herald reports.
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.
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