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Published December 24, 2014

TIRANA, Albania Albania's main opposition Democrats have ended a four-month boycott of Parliament in a deal brokered by two European Parliament lawmakers.

The walkout by the center-right party, headed by Tirana Mayor Lulzim Basha, was triggered by a fistfight in Albania's Parliament in July when two governing Socialist lawmakers allegedly attacked a Democrat colleague.

The Democrats started their boycott on Sept. 1 to protest the incident and demand that all legislation of major significance require more than a simple majority of votes.

The impasse was overcome this week by European legislators Eduard Kukan of Slovakia and Knut Fleckenstein of Germany. Senior Democrat lawmaker Edi Paloka said Wednesday the agreement was accepted, but he provided few details.

The government, elected in June 2013, controls 84 seats in the 140-seat house.

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Albania's opposition Democrats end parliamentary boycott after mediation by European MPs

Virginia Democrats have chosen Kevin J. Sullivan as their candidate to replace disgraced Del. Joseph D. Morrissey. But the salacious political circus surrounding Morrisseys seat may not end with the caucus, as allies of the lawmaker plan a lawsuit to challenge the nominating process.

Sullivans experience in this community makes him is a strong fighter for our Democratic values and priorities, Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones, who is also the state Democratic Party chairman, said in a statement.

Morrissey (D-Henrico), who is serving a six-month sentence for a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, was not a candidate in the caucus, which he has criticized as disenfranchising regular voters. However, he could still run in the general election as an independent, a move that would once again force Democrats to contend with a politician whom they would rather see disappear from public life.

Unofficially, about 40 people participated out of a pool of about 100 qualified Democratic committee members in the Richmond area. Twenty-four voted for Sullivan.

A retired brewery worker and Teamster who now runs an alpaca farm with his wife, Sullivan beat out Henrico County School Board member Lamont Bagby and former state delegate Floyd Miles Sr. for the Democratic nomination.

After his conviction on the misdemeanor charge, Morrissey announced last week that he would resign from office effective Jan. 13 but would run again for his seat in the special election. He contends that he is innocent of all charges stemming from his relationship with a 17-year-old receptionist and says he pleaded guilty only to avoid a possible decades-long prison sentence. He and the teenager were framed, he said, by her jealous ex-girlfriend.

A work-release agreement allows Morrissey both to campaign and should he be elected to serve in the legislature by day and be in jail at night. However, the future of that arrangement is in doubt after the lawmaker violated its terms by arranging a news conference without alerting the sheriffs office. A hearing on the issue will be held this week.

With only a few days between Morrisseys resignation and a Tuesday deadline to choose a nominee, Democrats limited Monday evenings caucus to party committee members who live in the Henrico County district.

Morrisseys law partner, Paul Goldman, has said a lawsuit will be filed challenging the constitutionality of the caucus.

Party leaders, Goldman said, would do anything to stop Joe Morrissey from getting nominated. For that reason, he added, he advised his partner not to participate in the caucus.

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Democrats pick new candidate for Morrisseys Henrico County House seat

Democrats said Tuesday that House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) should pressure Rep. Michael Grimm (R., N.Y.) to resign following reports that the lawmaker is expected to plead guilty to a felony tax-related charge.

Now that the election is over, Congressman Grimm is finally admitting the truth to his constituents, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said in a written statement Tuesday. Clearly, Speaker Boehner must insist that Congressman Grimm resign immediately.

We wont have any announcements until the speaker discusses the matter with Mr. Grimm, said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner. It was not immediately clear when the two would meet. A spokesman for Mr. Grimm did not immediately return a request for comment.

Mr. Grimm, who represents Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, is expected to appear in federal court Tuesday at 1 p.m., according to the Brooklyn U.S. attorneys office.

A former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who served in the Marines, Mr. Grimm was indicted after federal investigators spent more than two years looking into his political and business dealings. He was charged with evading taxes, perjury, obstruction and wire and mail fraud from his time as the co-owner of Healthalicious, a now-closed restaurant on Manhattans Upper East Side.

Mr. Grimm has called the charges a vendetta against him, and his backers have often noted that none of the charges relate to his official role in public office. Mr. Grimm won a second term in the House last month despite his indictment in April. He has said previously he would resign if convicted, though a person familiar with his thinking said that an immediate resignation would be unlikely.

Democrats said it was Mr. Boehners responsibility to oust Mr. Grimm.

Speaker Boehner and Republican leaders continued complicity in letting Michael Grimm stay in Congress despite his guilt of felony tax evasion is a disservice to the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn and a stain on the institution of the United States House of Representatives, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Josh Schwerin said in a written statement Tuesday.

So far Mr. Boehner has declined to say whether Mr. Grimm should resign. In April, Mr. Boehner said the lawmaker made the right decision by stepping down from the House Financial Services Committee.

A guilty plea this week could alter the dynamics on Capitol Hill and increase pressure on GOP leadership to ask Mr. Grimm to resign. If he remains in office, Mr. Grimm would likely continue to face an investigation from the House Ethics Committee, which started probing his activities last year. The ethics panel could make a number of recommendations following its investigation, including expulsion from the House. A supermajority of House lawmakers are required to expel a member.

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Democrats Press for Rep. Grimms Resignation

WASHINGTON For as often as Democrats attack the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch for their heavy spending on politics, it's actually the liberal-minded who shelled out the most cash on the just completed midterm elections.

At least, that is, among those groups that must disclose what they raise and spend.

Among the top 100 individual donors to political groups, more than half gave primarily to Democrats or their allies. Among groups that funneled more than $100,000 to allies, the top of the list tilted overwhelmingly toward Democrats a group favoring the GOP doesn't appear on the list until No. 14.

The two biggest super PACs of 2014? Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC both backing Democrats.

In all, the top 10 individual donors to outside groups injected almost $128 million into this year's elections. Democratic-leaning groups collected $91 million of it.

Among the 183 groups that wrote checks of $100,000 or more to another group, Democrats had a 3-to-1 cash advantage. The biggest player was the National Education Association, at $22 million. Not a single Republican-leaning group cracked the top 10 list of those transferring money to others.

Overall, for the campaign season that just ended, donors who gave more than $1 million sent roughly 60 cents of every dollar to liberal groups. Among the 10 biggest donors, Democrats outspent Republicans by an almost 3-to-1 margin.

"They're total hypocrites when it comes to this subject," said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. "They've made a living off campaign talking points when, in reality, they've been raking in more money from millionaire donors than Republicans for quite a while."

That's true, but only among those groups that have to tell the Federal Election Commission about all the money that's coming and going.

Left undisclosed are the specifics of the fundraising and spending of politically minded non-profit groups, such as the Koch-backed conservative network of Americans for Prosperity or the environment-minded League of Conservation Voters.

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Democrats trump Republicans when it comes to tapping rich for political cash

Kevin Sullivan, a former political coordinator for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, is the Democratic nominee to run for Del. Joseph D. Morrisseys seat in the Jan. 13 special election. He will face Republican candidate Matt Walton, an engineering teacher at Glen Allen High School.

Less than 24 hours before Tuesdays nomination deadline in the 74th House District, Democrats picked Sullivan in a firehouse primary Monday evening a process that has sparked a controversy for its exclusiveness.

Held at two locations, in Henrico County and Charles City County, the primary was open only to about 100 party members in good standing but not to the general public, according to the rules posted Friday by the Democratic Party of Virginia. Of those eligible to vote, only a few more than 40 showed up.

Sullivan defeated two Democratic opponents Floyd Miles, who served as the 74th District delegate from 2002 to 2006; and Lamont Bagby, a Henrico County School Board member. In the final round of voting, Sullivan defeated Bagby 24-16.

Morrissey announced last week that he would resign his House seat Jan. 13 following a misdemeanor conviction on a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He initially said he was seeking to run again in the special election, but he announced Saturday that he would not seek the Democratic nomination in what he called a sham process.

David Lambert, CEO of Lambert Optical and son of the late state Sen. Benjamin J. Lambert III., also decided to withdraw his bid Saturday.

I wouldnt say (the nomination process) was a sham, but it wasnt done in a way that was operable for anyone to get in it, Lambert said Monday, adding that it was also not set up for the people in the district to have a voice for who they want to pick.

But Lambert said he has not changed his plans to run in the June 2015 primary.

Republicans and some Democrats including Paul Goldman, Morrisseys law partner and a former chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia have criticized the nomination process, alleging it was designed to shut out the public.

Goldman had unsuccessfully worked on a last-minute lawsuit to stop the primary. He had also advised Morrissey not to seek the Democratic nomination. Morrissey is now considering a bid as an independent candidate.

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Democrats pick Sullivan as nominee for Morrissey's seat