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RandySF's JournalTunisian opposition boycotts presidential elections due to repression under Kais Saied
Tunisia's main opposition coalition has announced a boycott of the presidential elections unless political opponents are released and judicial independence is reinstated.
"The Front rejects participation in any electoral charade due to the absence of conditions for fair and democratic elections," said Ahmed Najib Chebbi, leader of the National Salvation Front, during a press conference in Tunis on Tuesday.
Chebbi stated that the National Salvation Front, comprising major opposition parties including the once-influential Islamist movement Ennahdha, will not nominate any candidates for the presidential elections from "within or outside its ranks."
Over twenty political opponents have been charged or imprisoned since Saied consolidated power in 2021 by suspending parliament and rewriting the country's constitution in a referendum with a low turnout.
https://www.newarab.com/news/tunisia-opposition-boycotts-presidential-elections
SF: A political melee is brewing over Breed's $360M bond measure
A $360 million bond measure could ignite a political firestorm between Mayor London Breed and one of her chief political rivals as the race for the city’s top seat nears.
On Monday, Breed laid out an ambitious plan to pay for infrastructure improvements, including $167 million for the city’s hospital systems, $50 million for family homeless shelters, $70 million for street safety and paving, and $25 million for the upkeep of city plazas. The plan needs eight votes at the Board of Supervisors before it's placed on the November ballot.
But Board President Aaron Peskin—who’s challenging Breed in November’s mayoral race—pilloried the mayor’s proposal on Monday, accusing her of putting money into projects as a way to simply grab votes.
In an interview on Monday, Peskin said that the focus of the bond measure should be the hospital systems—and cast the other funding proposals as window dressing.
https://sfstandard.com/2024/04/29/san-francisco-ballot-measure-infrastructure-breed-peskin/
SF: Mark Farrell's mayoral campaign gets cozy with rich political group
How close is too close in the famously incestuous world of San Francisco politics?
One political operative is testing those boundaries.
Jay Cheng, the executive director of the moderate political action committee Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, apparently spent time earlier this year moonlighting as a recruiter for the mayoral campaign of Mark Farrell.
Text messages shared with The Standard—first reported in a San Francisco Chronicle story on moderate political influence in the city—show that Cheng attempted to facilitate the hiring of a Farrell campaign staffer for a tidy $15,000 a month salary about two weeks after Farrell declared his candidacy.
“The offer is open!” Cheng wrote. “We’ll hold the position for you as long as you need.”
https://sfstandard.com/2024/04/30/san-francisco-mayors-race-neighbors-pac-mark-farrell/
After spending millions, San Francisco political group abandons push to empower mayor
After spending a whopping $3 million to put two charter reform measures on the November ballot, political group TogetherSF Action announced that it is dropping an effort to strengthen the mayor’s powers due to uncertainty around who will be elected.
Kanishka Cheng, the head of TogetherSF Action, said the group was hitting the pause button to avoid wasting more resources because of a “lack of clarity in voters’ mind around who is going to be mayor.”
The group’s committee has already spent more money on potential ballot measures than any other efforts for the fall, with $1 million going out the door just between mid-March and mid-April. The San Francisco Examiner was first to report the abandoned ballot measure.
TogetherSF Action receives funding from Michael Moritz, who is also the chairman of The Standard.
https://sfstandard.com/2024/05/01/san-francisco-together-sf-ballot-measure-mayor-abandoned/
William and Kate 'Going Through Hell,' Says 'Heartbroken' Confidante
The woman behind the classic-inspired look featuring long socks, smock dresses and pleated shirts with scalloped collars often worn by the Wales children at formal events has opened up about her famous clients’ health struggles.
“I’m heartbroken at the moment, I think they are going through hell, I hope they will be back. It’s really personal,” she said.
Arrieta’s apparently unguarded remarks about the couple, which hint at the seriousness of Kate’s condition, are unlikely to please the palace, as the Waleses have closely guarded their privacy in recent months, with few updates about the family. However if there is one group of people who get a pass for occasional missteps it’s the wardrobe department; Angela Kelly was even given permission to write books about her relationship with the queen.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/william-and-kate-going-through-hell-says-heartbroken-confidante?ref=home?ref=home?ref=home
RI: Legislators propose giving 16- and 17-year-olds right to vote in school committee elections
They can serve as pages in the General Assembly. They can drive a car. They can give blood. They can consent to medical care, or sex. They can work 48 hours in a week and pay taxes on these earnings. They can put that money in a savings account they’ve opened.
These are some things 17-year-olds can do in Rhode Island, and a few apply to 16-year-olds as well. A recent pair of bills brought to the State House would give older teenagers one more privilege: the ability to vote in elections for their local school committees.
“Students go to the meetings, they can talk at the meetings, they can give all the ideas that they want,” said Henry Siravo, 17, a senior at Smithfield High School. “But at the end of the day, how often do they get listened to? We get brushed off as kids.”
A pair of bills sponsored by two Democratic lawmakers — H8046 by Rep. Leonela Felix of Pawtucket and S2895 by Sen. Tiara Mack of Providence — would make it harder to brush off kids.
https://rhodeislandcurrent.com/2024/05/01/legislators-propose-giving-16-and-17-year-olds-right-to-vote-in-school-committee-elections/
California politicians face rampant threats. Some want to use campaign cash for protection
Last spring, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan received a letter calling for him to be lynched because of a bill he introduced to change how ballot measures are presented to California voters.
It’s not the only time he’s been subjected to threats or harassment. Bryan said he and fellow Assemblymember Mia Bonta received hundreds of threats when they didn’t vote in a committee on a bill increasing penalties for child trafficking, until it added language that he said would protect victims.
“The one that I’ll probably forever remember is a suggestion that my fiancé and mother should be human trafficked so that I understand how serious this is — which, for a legislator who travels four days out the week and leaves my loved ones at home, you know — that was not taken lightly,” Bryan told CalMatters.
Currently, to use campaign funds, lawmakers have to file a police report. But threats happen “all the time,” Bryan said, and legislators just need “basic security…protection that you need to do this job.”
https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/05/political-violence-california-campaign-security/
Indivisible Arkansas garners 1,800 signatures on ballot initiatives for November election
The Little Rock chapter of activist group Indivisible helped gather more than 1,800 signatures for five Arkansas voter initiatives last month and plans another signing event this weekend.
The ballot initiatives include proposed amendments to the Arkansas Constitution on abortion, education, the public’s right to information and expanded access to medical marijuana. Two other citizen-initiated proposals would amend the state’s Freedom of Information Act and eliminate the sales tax on feminine hygiene products.
Constitutional amendments need a total of 90,704 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Initiated acts require 72,563 signatures and must be collected from at least 50 of the 75 Arkansas counties according to Act 236. The groups sponsoring the ballot initiatives have until July 5 to collect the requisite signatures. If the measures meet the requirements, they will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Indivisible Little Rock and Central Arkansas board member Alison Guthrie said each proposed measure is about providing access to things people need.
“Whether that’s education or sterile products or essential healthcare, to being able to find out what our government officials and entities are doing,” she said. “These are about access for the public and for people who need it the most.”
https://arkansasadvocate.com/2024/05/02/indivisible-arkansas-garners-1800-signatures-on-ballot-initiatives-for-november-election/
Anti-abortion groups say more aggressive approach necessary to stop Missouri amendment
Wednesday’s Midwest March for Life at the Missouri Capitol had a different tone this year. It was about fighting.
Nearly two years ago, the crowd celebrated Missouri becoming the first state to ban abortion after Roe V. Wade was overturned. But on Wednesday, a new worry loomed over the annual event: Abortion could soon be enshrined in the Missouri Constitution.
“If God doesn’t intervene in this process,” Paul Shipman, with the Christian radio program Bott Radio Network, said at a rally on the statehouse steps Wednesday, “it just kind of shows you the direction where the nation is going and the direction where the state of Missouri is going.”
After recent losses in states like Kansas and Ohio, anti-abortion activists say they must take a more aggressive approach in Missouri, using a low-budget grassroots strategy to convince Missourians not to sign the initiative petition that would put a constitutional right to an abortion in the hands of voters.
https://missouriindependent.com/2024/05/02/missouri-abortion-amendment-march-life/
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