RandySF
RandySF's JournalPA-10: Scott Perry's Democratic opponent Janelle Stelson thinks she can get support from Republicans.
Former news anchor Janelle Stelson, the Democratic nominee for Central Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District, said the primary did exactly what it was supposed to do.
After winning a six-way Democratic primary last week, she will face Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, the former leader of the Freedom Caucus who tried to throw out Pennsylvania’s electoral votes in the 2020 election.
“What it did, first of all, shows the desire to unseat Scott Perry, that so many people are willing to do such a hard thing,” she said of the crowded primary field. “And it also makes you stronger, harder, faster, which is absolutely what is required to take on Scott Perry.”
Although Stelson had a strong primary win, it’s hard to unseat an incumbent member of Congress. Perry is seeking a seventh term representing the district, where 44.4% of voters are Republicans and 38.5% are Democrats. Stelson herself was a Republican until last year, when she changed her party before launching her campaign. While she faced attacks about her past party affiliation during the Democratic primary race, she could use it to attract bipartisan support in November.
Stelson, 63, is counting in part on name recognition in the district to give her a boost. She left her job at Lancaster-based WGAL to launch her campaign last fall and lives in Lancaster, where she is a ”single mom” to three rescue cats and also takes care of strays. She lives outside of the 10th Congressional District, which includes Dauphin County and parts of York and Cumberland Counties. She said has previously lived in various parts of the district and would move back if she wins in November.
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/janelle-stelson-republican-scott-perry-20240501.html
NH: House Republicans recommend eliminating most of anti-hunger bill
House Republican lawmakers are moving to strip out major portions of a bipartisan bill aimed at addressing child hunger, arguing they are costly and unnecessary, in a decision that drew sharp criticism from Democrats and advocates.
The House Finance Committee Division III voted Monday to recommend eliminating most of House Bill 499, an omnibus bill that would create a program to provide families meal assistance in the summer as well as new programs to encourage breakfast take-up in school.
Sponsored by Sens. Becky Whitley, a Hopkinton Democrat, and Denise Ricciardi, a Bedford Republican, the bill passed the Senate unanimously. But the proposed House amendment would eliminate most of those programs from the bill, including the summer meal program, which would allow the state to receive about $4.5 million per year in federal funding to distribute in the summer to families who qualify for free or reduced-price meals at school.
House Republicans have raised issues with required startup costs for the program: The state would need to provide $1.2 million in its first year for administrative expenses, and then about $259,000 every year after. That represents half the cost; the federal government would provide an equivalent in matched funds.
https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2024/05/01/house-republicans-recommend-eliminating-most-of-anti-hunger-bill/
WI: Voting rights advocates push for removing Spindell (R) from elections commission
Controversy continues to swirl around Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Robert Spindell. On Tuesday, a gathering of voting rights advocates on Milwaukee’s predominantly African American North Side denounced Spindell as a danger to democracy and called for his resignation. The groups, including Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC), Souls to the Polls, and other allied organizations, announced that they are circulating a petition in the community to show support for Spindell’s removal.
After the election of 2022, in which Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was reelected while his former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes was defeated by less than 1 percentage point in his effort to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, Spindell sent an email to members of the 4th Congressional District Republican Party celebrating a drop in turnout within minority communities.
“… we can be especially proud of the City of Milwaukee (80.2% Dem Vote) casting 37,000 less votes than cast in the 2019 election with the major reduction happening in the overwhelming Black and Hispanic Areas,” Spindell wrote in the email.
“We’ve been busy,” said Angela Lang, executive director of BLOC in Milwaukee, during the press conference Tuesday. BLOC knocks on doors year round and engages with citizens, giving members opportunities to take the temperature of community sentiment. “People are seeing what’s happening,” said Lang. “When we talk to voters, they are disappointed that there are people that continuously try to take away and provide obstacles for their ability to vote.”
https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2024/05/01/voting-rights-advocates-push-for-removing-spindell-from-elections-commission/
WI: Who counts as an election official? Dane County asks AG to clarify constitutional change
Dane County is asking the state’s attorney general to weigh in on the meaning of a newly adopted constitutional amendment, which limits how elections can be run going forward.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, plans to release an opinion in response to the request, a spokesperson said Tuesday. His office is accepting public comment on the issue through May 13.
Wisconsin voters approved an amendment on April 2, which says “No individual other than an election official designated by law may perform any task in the conduct of any primary, election, or referendum.”
But, in a letter sent to Kaul’s Department of Justice last week, Dane County Corporation Counsel Carlos Pabellón wrote that the new language leaves room to interpret exactly who counts as an election official and exactly what counts as an election-related task.
https://www.wpr.org/news/who-counts-as-an-election-official-dane-county-asks-ag-to-clarify-constitutional-change
If Arizona Democrats Succeed in Repealing 1864 Ban, Unpopular 15-Week Abortion Ban Will Remain Law in Arizona Thanks to
ARIZONA – Democrats in the Arizona legislature are expected to succeed in pushing the GOP-controlled legislature to repeal the 1864 total abortion ban today, but an unpopular 15-week abortion ban will remain the law of the land in the Grand Canyon State after its repeal.
Republicans in Arizona have been extreme on abortion even before Roe was overturned. In 2022, months before the Dobbs decision left abortion up to the states, the GOP legislature passed the current 15-week ban, which makes no exceptions for rape or incest. Arizona’s Republican majorities penned the 15-week legislation to explicitly state that it did not overrule any prior law, which would include the 1864 ban and are the reason for the archaic ban that has caused chaos and confusion since the state supreme court reinstated the outdated law.
A reminder: A 15-week abortion ban is massively unpopular, with Virginia Republicans running on a similar ban before losing to the DLCC in Virginia’s 2023 legislative elections and polling indicating that a majority of Americans still disapprove of the ban.
Arizona Republicans have made clear they will undermine abortion access at every turn. A 15-week abortion ban is still extreme, devastating for reproductive health care, and unpopular with voters. Flipping control of the Arizona state legislature has never been more important. Arizona legislative Democrats are on the frontlines of protecting abortion access – building Democratic power in the state is the best defense against threats to reproductive freedom.
https://dlcc.org/press/if-arizona-democrats-succeed-in-repealing-1864-ban-unpopular-15-week-ban-will-remain-law-in-arizona-thanks-to-republicans/
MI: Former prosecutor (R) convicted of drunk driving files for election
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MI -- Three candidates with a history at the St. Joseph County prosecuting attorney’s office are running to be the prosecutor.
John McDonough is among those seeking election, running for the office he lost in 2020 after an alcohol-related crash.
The current prosecutor, David Marvin, defeated McDonough for the office in 2020 and is running for reelection this year.
A third candidate, Deborah Davis, was recently fired from the prosecutor’s office amid allegations of making false statements.
The St. Joseph County Clerk’s Office confirmed the three Republicans have filed to face off in the August 2024 primary election. No Democrats have filed to run for the office, meaning the winning Republican candidate will have an easy path to victory in November, barring any write-in victory.
https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2024/05/i-want-a-second-chance-former-prosecutor-convicted-of-drunk-driving-files-for-election.html
Arizona Democrats to make final push to repeal near-total abortion ban
Democrats in the Arizona legislature are expected to make a final push on Wednesday to repeal the state’s near-total ban on abortions.
Fourteen Democrats in the state senate are hoping to pick up at least two Republican votes to win final approval for a bill repealing the ban, which narrowly cleared the Arizona house last week and is expected to be signed by the Democratic governor.
The near-total ban, which predates Arizona’s statehood, permits abortions only to save the patient’s life – and provides no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. The law had been on the books since 1864, but had been blocked since the US supreme court’s 1973 Roe v Wade decision guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion nationwide.
In a ruling last month, however, the Arizona supreme court suggested that following the US supreme court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v Wade, doctors could be prosecuted under the civil war-era law. Under the law, anyone who assists in an abortion can be sentenced to two to five years in prison.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/may/01/democrat-close-repeal-arizona-abortion-ban
South Dakota abortion rights groups collect enough signatures to advance ballot measure
A proposed amendment to enshrine abortion access in South Dakota’s constitution is one step closer to appearing on the November 2024 ballot, after a coalition of reproductive rights advocates submitted the required number of signatures on Wednesday.
Dakotans for Health, the group leading the ballot effort, announced it had collected the signatures of more than 55,000 registered voters — far more than the 35,000 needed to move forward with the process of getting their proposal on the ballot.
Officials with the group told NBC News they had anticipated significant resistance from abortion rights opponents in the red state, and aimed to collect far more signatures than were required by the May 7 submission deadline. The group said it had already collected 50,000 signatures of registered voters by December 2023.
The group is seeking to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the general election ballot in South Dakota that would make abortion legal in all situations in the first trimester of a pregnancy.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/south-dakota-abortion-ballot-measure-rcna150193
MI-SEN: A new house is being built for Mr. Rogers (R) in his not-yet-neighborhood
The White Lake Township home owned by GOP former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who’s running for U.S. Senate, has been demolished, with a new home under construction in its place.
The one-bedroom, 728-square-foot home, purchased by Rogers and his wife, Kristi, for $295,000 in July 2023, became a focus of questions about Rogers residency in January when the Michigan Advance first reported that he had never actually resided at the White Lake property. Instead, Rogers said he was living at his sister-in-law’s Genoa Township house, near Brighton, where he was also registered to vote.
At the time, Rogers’ campaign provided copies of Oakland County permits to plug an onsite well and install a new one at the home, which had undergone $100,000 in renovations prior to its sale. But as of Tuesday morning, the old house was gone and the cement foundation for a new structure was in its place. There were no workers or active construction visible at the time. A sign on the property indicated the construction was being handled by EBI Inc., a home building company owned by Rogers’ brother, Bill Rogers.
Mike Rogers campaign spokesman Chris Gustafson confirmed for the Advance that Rogers was still staying at the Genoa Township home of his sister-in-law with plans to move into the White Lake Township home once it was completed, although no timeline was provided.
https://michiganadvance.com/2024/05/01/a-new-house-is-being-built-for-mr-rogers-in-his-not-yet-neighborhood/
Abortion-rights groups have never faced a state like Florida
President Joe Biden and Florida Democrats have made a lot of noise about trying to reverse the state’s six-week abortion ban, which went into effect on Wednesday.
But Florida presents a significant — and unusual — hurdle for a ballot referendum that could deal the pro-abortion-rights movement their first electoral loss since the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Abortion rights have been on a winning streak with voters ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe. In both blue and red states, in every statewide referendum, the pro-abortion rights side has won. Florida, however, requires ballot measures to get 60 percent voter support to pass. Reproductive rights groups have hit that mark in liberal bastions of California and Vermont — and fallen short of that elsewhere, from swingy Michigan to red-leaning Ohio and Kansas.
“It won’t be easy,” state House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said of the threshold during a Biden campaign stop at the end of April. “We will need Floridians from across the political spectrum to speak up and we will need allies bringing attention to our fight here in Florida.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/01/florida-abortion-rights-ballot-measure-00154944
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