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MADISON (WKOW) -- On Tuesday, Speaker Robin Vos held a press conference announcing that Wisconsin's Republican-led Assembly was moving forward with a vote on a bill mimicking Iowa's nonpartisan redistricting model.

The announcement came sometime after Wisconsin Republicans floated threats to impeach Justice Janet Protasiewicz if she chose not to recuse herself from a lawsuit challenging the state's electoral maps, claiming Protasiewicz had a vested interest in the case after calling the maps "rigged."

Vos said the plan would serve as an alternative to impeachment and that Democrats should support the bill as it meets their demands for a more fair redistricting process.

Democrats immediately spoke against the bill, Governor Tony Evers among them, arguing that the state's Republican legislature could not be trusted to oversee the process and its decision to introduce the bill now raises flags.

The bill lacks a provision of the Iowa model that would allow the Supreme Court to draw the maps if the legislature can't agreea move motivated by the court's now-liberal majority.

"Of course, the red herring that they are throwing out is that this takes the Supreme Court out of the mix. That's actually not true, because we know under any circumstance, unfortunately, Wisconsin has been fairly commonplace that if the legislature and the governor can't agree to a map, it goes to the court", said Vos.

Vos clarified he never said he wanted to impeach Protasiewicz, stating the new bill was an opportunity to avoid wasting taxpayer dollars by bringing the lawsuit to trial.

However, on Wednesday, Vos contradicted himself, confirming he had developed a counsel of former Supreme Court justices to advise him on the possibility of impeaching Protasiewicz.

27 News spoke with Republican Representative Todd Novak about that decision, who said the Democrats' response contradicted their demands but said there would be time to get some members on board.

"Why bring the Supreme Court in. I think everybody's getting confused as the Iowa Constitution says the Supreme Court, our Constitution says the legislature does not involve the Supreme Court, and that was a recommendation from Legislative Reference Bureau to make it match our Constitution," said Novak.

Once the Assembly votes on the bill, it will go to the Senate for a hearing.

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Wisconsin Assembly to vote on Republican Iowa-style redistricting bill - WKOW

Your blatant efforts achieved your goal as the U.S. Attorney in Delaware today filed gun charges against our client charges that are unprecedented when not part of some other criminal conduct and have been found unconstitutional by a federal court of appeals and who reversed his earlier decision that such charges were not warranted, Lowell wrote. Your improper interference now affecting a federal prosecutor is a much greater threat to society than the 11 days that Mr. Biden possessed an unloaded gun.

The letter marks a major escalation in the fight between the presidents son and the Hill Republicans who have made him a focus of their recently announced impeachment inquiry targeting the president.

The letter also accuses the committees witnesses of violating federal laws protecting grand jury and tax information, and accuses Republicans of misusing their investigation to dump wholesale protected tax information about Mr. Biden into public view.

Tristan Leavitt, an attorney with the nonprofit group Empower Oversight, who represents one of the IRS whistleblowers, defended his client in a statement to POLITICO.

Here we go again, he said in a statement. Hunter Bidens attorneys have already made this argument to Judge Maryellen Noreika, who reviewed the whistleblower materials and rejected defense counsels baseless allegations, including their claims about grand jury secrecy violations. Taxpayer privacy laws are written by Congress, and it gave itself authority in those laws to hear disclosures about taxpayer information. Whether Congress decides to make that information public pursuant to its statutory process is up to them.

Spokespersons for the Republican chairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nor did a spokesperson for Bidens legal team.

The tranche of material sent to the three committee chairs included a letter that Lowell sent on Aug. 14 of this year to prosecutors working on the Hunter Biden investigation, including the U.S. Attorney supervising the probe. That letter accused two IRS whistleblowers who worked on the investigation of illegally sharing information about the probe with Congress and the public, including in media interviews. That letter included exhibits containing multiple other communications that Hunter Bidens legal team sent to Justice Department officials over the course of the last year.

Lowell also said that the actions of the two IRS agents pressured the Justice Department to change its position in plea deal negotiations. Before one of the whistleblowers discussed the case on a national TV interview, the Justice Department was weighing a consensual non-prosecution resolution to all conduct under investigation, where the resolution proposed by both sides did not include any guilty plea, Lowell wrote. But one day after the interview aired, he added, prosecutors said they would require Biden to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax charges.

Link:
Hunter Biden's lawyer accuses House Republicans of ... - POLITICO

Today, the Florida Department of Law Enforcementannouncedthe arrest of Miami City Commissioner Alex Daz de la Portilla, a former Republican Majority Leader in the Florida Senate, on charges including money laundering, bribery, and criminal conspiracy. In response, the Florida Democratic Party has issued the following statement:

The corruption that Alex Daz de la Portilla is accused of is truly staggering, and shatters the trust voters have in elected officials, said FDP Chair Nikki Fried. There is no place for that kind of behavior in our democracy. We challenge our Republican counterparts to join us in a forceful condemnation of government corruption, regardless of political party.

Our political leaders have a responsibility to serve the public with integrity something that Commissioner Daz de la Portilla has failed to do. In light of the severity of these charges, the Florida Democratic Party calls for Commissioner Daz de la Portillas immediate resignation.

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Florida Democrats Respond to the Arrest of Republican Miami City ... - Florida Democratic Party

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has called out members of his own party for putting their political ambitions ahead of the best interests of the nation.

And theres one GOP lawmaker in particular he seems to have special disdain for.

I dont know that I can disrespect someone more than J.D. Vance, Romney told journalist McKay Coppins during Vances 2022 Senate campaign, according to a book excerpt published Wednesday in The Atlantic.

Romney, who on Wednesday announced he will not seek reelection next year, told Coppins at the time that he was impressed by Vance after reading his book, Hillbilly Elegy.

That changed when Vance went full MAGA and embraced Donald Trump as he ran for Senate.

How can you go over a line so stark as that and for what? Romney said. Its not like youre going to be famous and powerful because you became a United States senator. Its like, really? You sell yourself so cheap?

Romney didnt seem ready to break bread with Vance anytime soon.

How do you sit next to him at lunch? he asked at the time, according to the excerpt.

In response to the excerpt, Vance told reporters Thursday: Its interesting to hear somebody criticizing another for having a change of heart. I think hes had about 35 of those during his time in public life. If hes got a problem with me, he should talk to me, not whine to a reporter.

Vance and Romney teamed up on introducing several bills this year, including legislation to bolster railway safety and hike the minimum wage to $11 per hour.

Romney also called out Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the excerpt for publicly backing Trumps lies about the 2020 election.

They know better! he told Coppins. Josh Hawley is one of the smartest people in the Senate, if not the smartest, and Ted Cruz could give him a run for his money.

He accused the pair of putting politics above the interests of liberal democracy and the Constitution.

Coppins book, Romney: A Reckoning, hits stores Oct. 24.

Read the full excerpt at The Atlantic.

Igor Bobic contributed.

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Mitt Romney Names The Republican Senator He Disrespects Most - Yahoo News

As director of the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver, I sent this survey to roughly 2,600 GOP chairs, one for every county in the country; 108 Republican chairs responded, a bit lower than the number who responded in June, but still enough to do a robust analysis. This is the fourth survey Ive conducted for this project, and the shifts in sentiment are starting to become notable.

The first question I have asked is simply whether the county chairs have committed to supporting a candidate, and if so, whom that might be. When I launched my first survey in February, Trump was looking vulnerable and was roughly tied with DeSantis among those who had committed to a candidate. Then Trump started consolidating more support, largely after the wave of indictments began, and DeSantis began to dip.

The most recent survey, conducted throughout August with responses coming in both before and after the first GOP debate show a slight softening of Trumps support, but still with a substantial lead. As in June, roughly twice as many county party chairs are now committed to Trump (27 percent) than DeSantis (13 percent), and no other candidates had the support of more than 4 percent of chairs.

As Dena Gooch, chair of the Union County, Georgia GOP, told me, Donald Trump demonstrated his ability to govern without influence from the Deep State. He needs to do it again!

Yet roughly half (47 percent) of local Republican leaders, even those who expect Trump to become their nominee, remain uncommitted. Though Trump has been ahead by massive margins in some polls of GOP voters, this survey suggests a key group of grassroots leaders has yet to fully embrace the former president.

The second way Ive gauged candidate support is to ask chairs which candidates they are considering, and they can name as many as they want. DeSantis has been at the top of this measure across all four surveys, but his trendline has been bad dropping steadily from 73 percent in February to 57 percent in August.

Trump has been in second place in all four surveys, and his numbers held steady at 52 percent in August. Scott once again took third place, with 45 percent of chairs saying they were considering him. Haley came in next with 35 percent.

By far the largest improvement was for Ramaswamy, who jumped from being considered by 15 percent of chairs in June to 32 percent in August. The bottom tier was held by Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, notably the only two explicitly anti-Trump candidates throughout this time series.

Finally, I asked the county chairs whom they do not want to see become their partys nominee. Coming in first by this measure in August, as with all previous months, was Christie; upwards of 55 percent of chairs have ruled him out in all four waves. Not surprisingly, Christie was followed closely by Hutchinson.

Interestingly enough, then came Trump and Mike Pence, with 44 percent ruling out Trump in August and 43 percent ruling out his former vice president.

Taking these two measures the percent of chairs considering a candidate and the percent of chairs who dont want a candidate in combination, we can get some sense of how perceptions about them are changing.

Trump has the singular position of high positives and high negatives, which is consistent with his legacy throughout his time in politics. He has many devoted fans and detractors. Then there are candidates like Christie, Pence and Hutchinson who have few supporters and a great many opponents. Their path to the nomination is extremely fraught.

But perhaps whats most significant and a potential warning sign for Trump is the fact that several candidates are being considered by many local party leaders but, at least so far, dont have many detractors. This group includes DeSantis, Scott and, most recently, Haley.

Indeed, by these measures, Haley had the best performance between June and August, jumping from 31 to 35 percent in terms of chairs who are considering her, and dropping from 32 to 21 percent in terms of opposition. (Notably, while this survey did include the Aug. 23rd GOP debate in its time range, her performance in that was not the chief cause of her improvement in this measure; 37 percent of chairs said they were considering her in the August wave prior to the debate.)

DuWayne Wilson, chair of the Republican Party of Daniels County, Montana, captured the sentiments about Haley as being about both her and Trump: She seems to be level-headed. I am so opposed to Trump that ANYONE else is an option.

Trump, by contrast, lost some chairs who were considering him while increasing the percent who are actively opposed to his bid.

Until Haley or DeSantis or another candidate can turn a chairs general openness toward them into a firm commitment of support, its not going to be enough to defeat Trump. Still, it is notable how many chairs remain hesitant to come off the fence for a candidate and how many are still open to a Trump alternative.

Originally posted here:
A New Survey Shows Key Republicans Are Open to a Trump ... - POLITICO