Archive for the ‘State Legislature News’ Category
Dems Fail to Field Candidates in Mississippi
Last Updated on Thursday, 3 March 2011 11:48 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 3 March 2011 11:48
From ClarionLedger.com:
In a hopelessly upbeat tone, a woman answered the phone at the Mississippi Democratic Party headquarters Tuesday evening: “It’s a great day to be a Democrat. How may I help you?”
But by most estimations, Tuesday’s qualifying deadline day was not a great day to be a Democrat in Mississippi.
Though party insiders dangled the anticipation until the last minute – even former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove was floated as a potential candidate for lieutenant governor (he did not file) – Democrats failed to field candidates for three of eight statewide positions and offered up few last-minute surprises.
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IN: Democrat Leader Returns to State to Speak with Speaker Brian Bosma
Last Updated on Wednesday, 2 March 2011 02:05 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 2 March 2011 02:05
From ibj.com:
The leader of House Democrats who left Indiana over bills they disagreed with has returned to the state and met with the Republican House speaker — but their talks ended with no agreement on ending the weeklong Statehouse standoff.
House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer drove back from Illinois and met with Speaker Brian Bosma for 50 minutes Wednesday in the GOP leader’s Statehouse office. Bauer had two other House Democrats with him in the meeting, which also was attended by four other majority Republicans.
Most House Democrats have been staying in Urbana, Ill., since last Tuesday, when they began boycotting the House to derail labor and education bills they’re against by denying the House the quorum needed to conduct business. The boycott already killed a “right-to-work” bill that unions opposed.
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RSLC Will Defend Incumbent Republicans in Wisconsin
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:38 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 2 March 2011 01:29
From The Hill:
The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), the group chaired by former Republican National Committee head Ed Gillespie, is preparing to jump into the ongoing budget battle in Wisconsin.
With activists on both sides already starting to organize recall efforts for members of the state Senate, RSLC president Chris Jankowski told The Ballot Box the group will do “whatever it takes to protect our incumbents.”
He said the RSLC, which spent millions in 2010 to help Republicans win control of more than 20 legislative chambers across the nation, will fund efforts to defend Republican state senators who may become recall targets, and that it will go on offense — supporting efforts to recall Democrats with paid media campaigns.
Currently, as many as eight of the Democratic state senators who have fled Wisconsin in the budget standoff, could be recall targets, with a Utah-based conservative group already organizing toward that goal.
“You can expect to see some aggressive radio, TV and mail campaigns from us,” Jankowski said.
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Washington Post: RSLC efforts and the GOP Revolution
Last Updated on Monday, 28 February 2011 01:21 Written by rslcpol Monday, 28 February 2011 01:13
Great article highlighting the GOP and RSLC’s unprecedented efforts and success on the state level.
From Washington Post:
The spectacle of Democratic state legislators from Wisconsin and Indiana washing their underwear in motel sinks across state lines in order to avoid casting their votes back home is extraordinary. These desperation tactics highlight the precarious state in which Democrats find themselves in state capitols across the country. Voters drove so many Democrats out of state office last fall, it seems the only way the remaining Democrats can stop Republicans from enacting conservative reforms is to go on the lam to deny them a quorum.
Republicans made historic gains on the national level in November, securing the largest turnover of seats in the House of Representatives since 1948.
But these gains pale in comparison with those Republicans made at the state level. Backed by an unprecedented $30 million effort by the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), headed by former national GOP chairman Ed Gillespie, the GOP picked up 690 seats in state legislatures in 2010 – outpacing the previous record of 628 seats won by Democrats in 1974 following the Watergate scandal.
Republicans wrested 20 state legislative chambers from Democratic control and now have majorities in both legislative chambers in 25 states (up from 14 before Election Day). There are now more Republican state legislators in office than at any time since 1928.
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Recall process Begins in Wisconsin for Seven Democrats
Last Updated on Monday, 28 February 2011 01:58 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 24 February 2011 02:55
From JSOnline:
The groups need about 16,000 signatures to force a recall election for a senator, Magney said. The exact number will vary from 11,000 to 21,000 signatures, he said, depending on how many votes were cast in the 2010 governor’s race in the targeted district.
All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois last week to prevent their Republican colleagues from being able to push through Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill. That measure would curb collectiv-bargaining rights for state workers and require them to pay toward their retirement and health care costs.
Democrats and labor unions are also weighing whether to recall up to six Senate Republicans for supporting Walker’s plan. Among those being targeted is Sen. Alberta Darling of River Hills.
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WI: State Troopers search for Missing Democrat Senators
Last Updated on Monday, 28 February 2011 02:02 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 24 February 2011 12:59
From the Associated Press:
Wisconsin state troopers were dispatched Thursday to try to find at least one of the 14 Senate Democrats who have been on the run for eight days to delay a vote on Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to strip collective bargaining rights from nearly all public employees.
Meanwhile, the state Assembly appeared close to voting on the union rights bill after two days of filibustering the measure with a blizzard of amendments. Democrats reached an early morning deal after 43 hours of debate to limit the number of remaining amendments and time spent on each.
Troopers went to multiple homes Thursday morning hoping to find at least one of the 14 Democrats, some of whom were rumored to have made short trips home to pick up clothes and other necessities before again fleeing the state. But they came up empty handed, Senate Sergeant at Arms Ted Blazel said.
“Every night we hear about some that are coming back home,” said Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, who hoped sending the move to send the troopers would pressure Democrats to return.
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CT Republicans Pick up Seats in Special Elections
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 February 2011 01:30 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 23 February 2011 01:30
From CTMirror:
Republican Noreen S. Kokoruda of Madison won in the 101st House District and Republican Len Suzio of Meriden was the upset winner in 13th Senate District, picking up a Democratic seat in each chamber. All nine vacancies were created by the resignations of Democrats, six of whom took jobs with Malloy.
But Democrats were quick to celebrate minimizing their losses in races held just a week after the first Democratic governor in a generation proposed raising a broad array of taxes. In four targeted House races, the GOP hit hard on the tax issue with a flurry of late mailings.
“So much for the referendum on Dan Malloy,” said Roy Occhiogrosso, the governor’s senior adviser. “The Republicans thought they were going to have a good night. Not so much. Give Dan Malloy the credit he deserves.”
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Indiana Democrats Flee to avoid Vote
Last Updated on Monday, 28 February 2011 01:58 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 22 February 2011 12:58
More Democrats are fleeing to the safe haven of a Democrat governor led state. Kentucky and Illinois are the potential hide outs for Indiana Democrats.
From IndyStar.com:
House Democrats are leaving the state rather than vote on anti-union legislation, The Indianapolis Star has learned.
A source said Democrats are headed to Illinois, though it was possible some also might go to Kentucky. They need to go to a state with a Democratic governor to avoid being taken into police custody and returned to Indiana.
The House was came into session this morning, with only two of the 40 Democrats present. Those two were needed to make a motion, and a seconding motion, for any procedural steps Democrats would want to take to ensure Republicans don’t do anything official without quorum.
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Governor: GOP won’t be Bullied by Union Protestors
Last Updated on Friday, 18 February 2011 11:33 Written by rslcpol Friday, 18 February 2011 11:30
From The Hill:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) says his party has been emboldened by massive protests against his controversial budget plan.
Walker said demonstrators who filled the state capitol building in Madison and the boycott by state Senate Democrats — some of whom fled the state in protest — have steeled the resolve of members of his party.
“If anything, I think it’s made the Republicans in the Assembly and the Senate stronger,” he told Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren in an interview Thursday night. “They’re not going to be bullied. They’re not going to be intimidated.”
Walker also fired back at President Obama, who sided with the public employees, saying on Fox News Friday, “We are focused on balancing our budget. It would be wise for the government and others in Washington to focus on balancing their budgets, which they are a long way off from doing.”
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Missing: Wisconsin Democrats Don’t want to Vote on Union bill, Leave State
Last Updated on Thursday, 17 February 2011 03:05 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 17 February 2011 03:05
From Yahoo!:
A Wisconsin state senator says the 14 Democratic lawmakers who are boycotting a vote on a controversial anti-union bill have left the state.
Sen. Jon Erpenbach says the group wants to force negotiations over the Republican-backed bill, which would strip most public employees of their collective-bargaining rights.
Erpenbach told The Associated Press that he and his colleagues had left Wisconsin, but he would not say where.
He said the plan is to slow down the bill because it’s “tearing the state apart.”
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