RandySF
RandySF's JournalTX-SEN: Talarico Leads Crockett for Democratic Senate Nod
A new Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media poll of the 2026 elections in Texas finds James Talarico leading the Democratic Primary for US Senate with 47%, followed by Rep. Jasmine Crockett at 38%, with 15% undecided.
https://politicalwire.com/2026/01/15/talarico-leads-crockett-for-democratic-senate-nod/
ICE error meant some recruits were sent into field offices without proper training, sources say
As Immigration and Customs Enforcement was racing to add 10,000 new officers to its force, an artificial intelligence error in how their applications were processed sent many new recruits into field offices without proper training, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the error.
The AI tool used by ICE was tasked with looking for potential applicants with law enforcement experience to be placed into the agency’s “LEO program” — short for law enforcement officer — for new recruits who are already law enforcement officers. It requires four weeks of online training.
Applicants without law enforcement backgrounds are required to take an eight-week in-person course at ICE’s academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, which includes courses in immigration law and handling a gun, as well as physical fitness tests.
“They were using AI to scan résumés and found out a bunch of the people who were LEOs weren’t LEOs,” one of the officials said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/ice-error-meant-recruits-sent-field-offices-proper-training-sources-sa-rcna254054
Here's what's coming to SF ballots this year
The coming year in San Francisco politics will be a full one — a June primary election followed by a November general election, multiple controversial potential ballot measures in the works, and seats on the Board of Supervisors, in the state Assembly and in Congress at stake, among others.
First up, there could be hot battles over potential ballot measures in June, including some with big implications for The City budget that would raise or lower business taxes. Another could reopen a portion of Great Highway, which voters in 2024 decided should be closed to make way for a park.
The union-backed Stand Up for SF coalition has been collecting signatures for a measure intended to raise about $200 million per year for government services by raising The City’s Overpaid Executive Tax. That levy is currently imposed on companies at which the highest-paid managerial employee, within or outside of The City, earns more than 100 times the median compensation of employees based in San Francisco. The measure would also require consideration of employee wages outside The City.
Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and an affiliated political-action committee have contributed more $1.34 million to the campaign.
https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/politics/2026-sf-elections-key-contests-to-watch-at-polls-this-year/article_3518da26-7ae0-4f87-bd79-a508d262d292.html
Supe's Great Highway ballot measure fails to qualify
Newly appointed District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong did not meet a Tuesday deadline for getting the three signatures from fellow supervisors he needed to qualify a June ballot initiative seeking to reopen Great Highway to vehicular traffic during weekdays.
The lack of buy-in from colleagues came despite Wong making public appeals for support, including at a press conference Tuesday afternoon in which he reiterated claims that some dispute that traffic injuries have increased in his district since a stretch of Great Highway was turned into Sunset Dunes park.
Wong’s district includes the Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods west of 19th Avenue. Mayor Daniel Lurie appointed Wong on Dec. 1 to fill the vacant seat previously occupied by former Supervisor Joel Engardio, who was recalled for sponsoring Prop. K.
The only colleagues to support Wong were Supervisor Connie Chan — who represents District 1, where just as in Wong’s neighboring district voters strongly opposed Proposition K, the 2024 measure that closed Great Highway — and District 11’s Chyanne Chen, where 58.4% of cast ballots voted against Prop. K.
https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/politics/great-highway-june-2026-ballot-measure-fails/article_69e0e3fa-c170-4f40-afa6-a5535a191c42.html
SF supervisor candidates race towards 2026 elections
The year 2026 is young, but the candidates for five San Francisco supervisorial seats are already well off to the races.
Two positions occupied by midterm appointees will be up for grabs in June and again in November, at which point three more will be on the ballot as well.
Because the incumbents in District 2 and District 4 were both appointed to fill vacancies, they must stand for election in June to finish out the terms of their successors. If they win, they must run again in November to win full terms in office.
Both June contests have featured classic San Francisco debates about growth and how much is too much.
https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/politics/sf-board-of-supervisors-2026-election-candidates/article_e0b5bd6d-0063-4de8-9707-0bd31ba0315a.html
NY-13: Congressional Black Caucus endorses former rival Rep. Adriano Espaillat over Black primary challenger
NEW YORK — The Congressional Black Caucus’ political arm is endorsing Rep. Adriano Espaillat over a democratic socialist, Afro-Latina primary challenger — about a decade after the group rejected Espaillat’s efforts to join its ranks.
Espaillat, who represents Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx, is facing a primary challenge from Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old pro-Palestine organizer who led Columbia University’s protest encampment in 2024. Her candidacy is part of a wave of left-leaning primary challenges against pro-Israel incumbents in New York and beyond.
Espaillat’s rocky history with the Congressional Black Caucus predates his election to Congress. He rankled members of the group in 2012 and 2014 when he waged unsuccessful efforts to unseat Rep. Charles Rangel, a founding member of the CBC.
When Rangel retired, Espaillat ran for the seat a third time and again found himself at odds with the caucus, which endorsed then-state Assemblymember Keith Wright, Rangel’s handpicked successor. Wright, currently the leader of the Manhattan Democratic Party, lost to Espaillat, and the two now helm warring political factions in New York politics.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/15/congressional-black-caucus-espaillat-primary-00728543
Police-backed GOP bill would shield license plate reader data from public review
A Republican bill that claims it will help prevent “government overreach” related to police use of controversial license plate reader technology would actually do the opposite, according to privacy advocates.
“This is among one of the weakest bills I’ve seen when it comes to regulating license plate readers,” Dave Maass, director of investigations at EFF, told the Arizona Mirror.
The proposal by Sen. Kevin Payne, R-Peoria, would codify certain standards into state law on how automated license plate readers, commonly referred to as ALPRs, are used. Senate Bill 1111 is backed by the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police and the Arizona Police Association.
ALPRs, specifically those made by the company Flock Safety, have been a source of controversy, both for the wide-ranging network of cameras — the company claims to have more than 80,000 AI-powered cameras in over 5,000 communities across 49 U.S. states — and how law enforcement uses them. In one instance, police in Texas used the system to search for a woman who had received an abortion in a state where it was legal.
https://azmirror.com/briefs/police-backed-gop-bill-would-shield-license-plate-reader-data-from-public-review/
Montana Dems hire former PA mayor as executive director
The Montana Democratic Party announced the hiring of Emily Marburger, a Pennsylvania political operative, as the party’s new executive director.
In a statement on Wednesday, party chair Shannon O’Brien said Marburger will bring a strong background in “organizing and grassroots leadership,” to the job, as well as a passion for “fighting for affordability and working families.”
“Emily offers a fresh perspective and a proven track record of engaging voters, and we’re confident she will help lead the charge forward and help reconnect the party with rural Montana during this critical turning point in Montana politics,” O’Brien said in a statement.
According to the party press release, Marburger comes from a political career in Pennsylvania, where she worked on numerous campaigns including helping flip the Pennsylvania State House Majority.
https://dailymontanan.com/briefs/montana-dems-hire-former-pa-mayor-as-executive-director/
Americans by name, prosecuted for voting in Alaska
Unbeknownst to Smith at the time, she had no right to vote in Whittier elections, much less run for office. Though she was born in a U.S. territory, and has a U.S. passport and Social Security number, she is not a U.S. citizen. American Samoa is the only U.S. state or territory where people are born without automatic citizenship, and without the right to vote in state, federal, and most local elections anywhere outside of American Samoa.
Unlike people born in the other U.S. territories of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoans are classified simply as “U.S. nationals”—a sort of limbo state that acknowledges they are American by birth, but still denied the full rights and privileges of citizenship.
Even though they pay taxes, owe “allegiance” by law to the United States, and can join or be drafted into the military—American Samoans have long served in and died for the U.S. military at exceptionally high rates—non-citizen American Samoan nationals cannot register to vote, run for office, serve on juries, or hold any job requiring citizenship. Unless they can claim citizenship through a parent or grandparent, American Samoan nationals must apply for citizenship as though they were immigrants. That process can be costly, confusing, and long.
As non-citizen nationals, they exist in a formal underclass of democracy that precludes them from, for one, running for a local school board.
https://alaskabeacon.com/2026/01/14/americans-by-name-prosecuted-for-voting-in-alaska/
Colorado appeals court panel questions severity of Tina Peters' sentence
A trio of Colorado judges in a hearing Wednesday brushed aside the most sweeping arguments made by attorneys for former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters in her appeal of her criminal convictions — but the panel expressed serious concerns about a procedural error in one of her felony charges and the overall fairness of her sentence.
The oral arguments presented by Peters’ attorneys and the state attorney general’s office to the Colorado Court of Appeals, the state’s second-highest court, were the latest episode in a scattershot campaign of legal maneuvering and political coercion seeking the release of the prominent election conspiracy theorist, who is serving a nine-year sentence in state prison for her role in a 2021 breach of her office’s secure voting equipment.
A Mesa County jury convicted Peters on multiple felony counts in a 2024 trial during which the county’s former top elections official continued to spread conspiracy theories about voting machines, including in a rambling 40-minute statement just before her sentencing.
But Judges Craig Welling, Ted Tow III and Lino Lipinsky de Orlov of the appellate court raised concerns about that trial during Wednesday’s hearing, questioning whether an improper jury instruction led to Peters’ conviction on a felony charge despite drawing language from a misdemeanor statute. More broadly, the panel appeared sympathetic to arguments made by Peters’ attorneys that her sentencing — which followed statements made by presiding District Court Judge Matthew Barrett calling Peters a “charlatan” who peddled “snake oil” — violated her right to free speech.
https://coloradonewsline.com/2026/01/14/colorado-court-tina-peters-sentence/
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Current location: San Francisco, CA
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