Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

From PressofAtlanticCity.com:

State lawmakers working to increase public workers’ payments toward pensions and health insurance removed a controversial provision from the draft law that would have set restrictions on out-of-state health coverage Monday.

That was enough to win the pension-reform bill approval by the full Senate and by an Assembly subcommittee, setting up a vote Thursday by the full Assembly before the legislation heads to Gov. Chris Christie’s desk.

As 1,000 union members converged on Trenton with tents and signs for an all-day protest of the bill, state Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Salem, Gloucester, Cumberland, and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, D-Essex, Passaic, agreed to remove the restrictions on out-of-state health care. Party leaders saw the move as necessary to win over skeptical Democrats and at least one skeptical Republican assemblyman, Atlantic County’s Vince Polistina, whose combined votes are seen as vital to passing the legislation.

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Check out new RSLC Political Director Matt Walter on Capitol Tonight in New York:

From LaCrosseTribune.com:

All three Democratic state senators targeted for recalls will have to stand for election this summer after the board that oversees elections declined on Wednesday to invalidate petitions circulated against them, even though it found evidence of fraud.

The Government Accountability Board voted to reject thousands of signatures it determined were either fraudulent or collected by circulators through misleading means, such as saying the petition was for something other than recalling the Democrats.

But even after those signatures were tossed, more than enough remained to force recall elections for Sens. Jim Holperin of Conover, Dave Hansen of Green Bay and Bob Wirch of Pleasant Prairie.

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Alexandria, Va. (June 8, 2011) – The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) announced, today, the further expansion of their political team with the hiring of Matt Walter as the Committee’s Political Director. Walter previously served as an outside consultant to the RSLC’s successful $1.4 million effort to regain the New York State Senate for Republicans in 2010 and has extensive state legislative and campaign experience.

As Political Director, Walter will play a key role in directing all RSLC political expenditures, expected to exceed $21 million for the cycle, in races for Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State and state legislature.

“Matt is an experienced political professional who is ready to continue the RSLC’s groundbreaking success and take the point for the Committee’s efforts electing Republicans to state office across the country,” said Chris Jankowski, RSLC President.

Walter has more than 15 years of experience in New York State where he served as Executive Director of the New York Republican Party from spring 2008 through fall 2009 as well as serving as Communications Director and Director of Strategic Planning. As Executive Director, Walter raised and managed a $3 million budget. His extensive campaign experience includes recent service as Campaign Manager for Lazio for New York Governor and GOTV Operations Director for Chris Gibson for Congress. He held a variety of communications and political positions with the New York Senate Majority, including serving as a Senate spokesperson during the 2000 redistricting cycle. Matthew is a graduate of the RNC’s 2010 Redistricting Conference and Training Seminar as well as the 2009 Executive Director’s Comprehensive School.

The RSLC raised more than $30 million for the 2009-2010 cycle as part of an effort that picked up 20 legislative chambers, six Attorneys General, three Lieutenant Governors and seven Secretaries of State. The RSLC is the largest caucus of Republican state leaders and the only national organization whose mission is to elect down ballot, state-level Republican office-holders. Since 2002, the RSLC has been working to elect candidates for the office of Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State and State Legislator. The RSLC has more than 100,000 donors in all 50 states.

From DeseretNews:

The first economic outlook for Salt Lake County prepared by the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce paints a picture of a state that’s on the up and up, economically speaking, but not completely out of the weeds.

“Although improvement has been gradual, Utah is among a handful of states leading the nation’s economic recovery,” the report states.

The report, released Thursday, includes data from state, federal and private entities, as well as analysis from the chamber.

The stable housing market has been a key component to the county’s economic recovery, the report states, though home prices could continue to decline as the market is slow to absorb excess homes for sale.

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From USA Today:

But the Republican lawmaker has no opponent. His would-be rivals, it seems, are waiting for the Legislature to complete the once-every-decade process of redrawing political boundaries before they decide whether to challenge him in 2012.

Similar phantom campaigns are unfolding in other states where district lines and potential candidates have been slow to emerge. States are in the midst of drawing new political maps for congressional and legislative districts based on the 2010 census. The uncertainty surrounding the final lines is delaying candidates from jumping in to races on the ballot in November 2012.

“I have basically tried to keep whatever options I have open,” says Danny Tarkanian, a tea party supporter who lost the GOP Senate nomination in Nevada last year but is expected to run for Congress.

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From CBSnews:

Eleven years ago, White House staffers thought Al Gore was weird for texting Tipper. But, the political times, they are a changin’.

A decade or so later, any politician who isn’t tuned into her email on a smartphone or doesn’t monitor what the media and voters are saying about him on social media platforms risks being judged out of step – or, worse, viewed as running behind on a crucial new item.

In 2011, in other words, the use of social media in government is no longer novel. Tweets, updates and viral videos matter. The Red Cross, Federal Emergency Management Agency and first responders have testified in front of the United States Senate on the role of social media in crisis response.

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From the Wall Street Journal:

The number 270 will come to dominate almost every waking moment for the Obama re-election high command in Chicago—as well as for their counterparts in the headquarters of the GOP nominee next year.

Two hundred seventy is the number of Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. Strategists on both sides will obsess on how to cobble together enough states to reach that total.

Since the 2008 election, 18 states have experienced a change in their number of electoral votes because of the decennial census. Some (mostly red ones) have gained electoral votes and some (mostly blue) have lost electoral votes. John McCain would have closed the gap by 14 electoral votes in 2008 if the contest had been run under the 2012 Electoral College distribution.

Most states are not in play. Mr. Obama will not win Utah and Wyoming, and the Republican nominee will not carry the District of Columbia or Rhode Island. But right now 14 states (with 172 electoral votes) are up for grabs.

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Check out the recent Letter to the Editor written by Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann:

Dear Fellow Mississippians–

As a fervent believer in State’s rights and the State Constitution, it is incomprehensible to me that the State of Mississippi would willingly toss Redistricting, such an important issue to all Mississippians, into Federal Court. Redistricting is the cornerstone of determining who represents your interests. It is key to your representation and your voice in government. Now, some individuals seek to limit your ability to have a voice in your elected leadership by pitching the responsibility to the Federal Court system in the form of a lawsuit, rather than follow a process clearly outlined in the State Constitution.

The State Constitution states, “Should the Legislature adjourn, without apportioning itself as REQUIRED hereby, the governor by proclamation shall reconvene the legislature within thirty (30) days in a special apportionment session…and it shall be the MANDATORY duty of the Legislature to adopt a joint resolution of apportionment. Should a special apportionment session not adopt a joint resolution of apportionment as REQUIRED hereby, a five-member commission consisting of the chief justice of the Supreme Court as chairman, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the speaker of the House of Representatives and president pro tempore of the Senate shall immediately convene within one hundred eighty days (180) of adjournment of such special apportionment session apportion the legislature…”

The State Constitution, the foundation of our State’s rights, provides a clear roadmap for redistricting. Legislators were elected by their fellow citizens to perform this important task every ten years following the decennial census. Legislators failed to accomplish redistricting this year, but the State Constitution gives lawmakers another year to approve new lines. Redistricting should be completed by representatives and senators elected on the STATE level by citizens of this STATE and in accordance with the State CONSTITUTION.

The NAACP v. Barbour, Hood, Hosemann, et.al, lawsuit was filed only 42 days AFTER the census was delivered to the Legislature and BEFORE the Constitutional process was exhausted. In an attempt to skew the lines in their favor, individuals sought federal intervention to place what is clearly a state issue into the hands of the United States government.

So what is a REASONABLE time for the Legislature to finish the redistricting process? Article 13, Section 254 clearly says, “The Legislature shall, at its regular session in the SECOND year following the 1980 decennial census and every ten (10) years thereafter…apportion the state in accordance with CONSTITUTION of the state and of the United States…”

What other parts of the Constitution will be IGNORED for political expediency by a group seeking advantages for their own political agenda?

When we lose the roadmap of our Government (the Constitution), we lose our direction as a State.

Sincerely, Delbert

From Time Magazine:

Republican gains in last November’s Congressional elections were minor compared to the rout the party engineered in statehouses around the U.S. The GOP won a net gain of nearly 700 state-legislature seats on Nov. 2, wresting away control of 19 chambers. It was the biggest landslide in decades, dwarfing the “Republican revolution” of 1994. “As we enter a time with huge policy and political implications,” Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican State Leadership Committee, wrote in a congratulatory note Nov. 3, “new Republican officeholders will be given an opportunity to demonstrate common-sense conservative leadership and implement solutions that promise real results and positive change.”

?Since then, however the party has marshaled its manpower in state capitals to advance a conservative agenda that goes far beyond its stated goal of creating jobs. The battle over public-sector unions in Wisconsin was the first in a nationwide war over local government wages, pay and bargaining rights, with fronts in more than 20 states, including Indiana and Michigan. A number of other states have pushed to limit abortions. Thirty states have considered omnibus bills cracking down on illegal immigration, according to the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

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