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Republican candidate has lead in fundraising for SC's 5th District special election Wichita Eagle A Republican former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and a Democratic former Goldman Sachs senior adviser have raised the most money so far in the race to fill Budget Director Mick Mulvaney's former 5th Congressional District seat ... Chad Connelly Raking In Republican Party Cash (Still) | FITSNewsFITSNews all 2 news articles »

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Republican candidate has lead in fundraising for SC's 5th District special election - Wichita Eagle

I cant remember agreeing with Greg Millera Republican who runs a charter school and is ex-president of the Arizona Board of Educationbefore. But an op ed he wrote for the Capitol Times, GOP support of voucher expansion bill an insult to most students, is an exception to the rule. It begins, As an advocate for education reform for the past 35 years, a co-founder of a very successful charter school, a lifelong Republican, and the most recent past president of the Arizona State Board of Education, I have never been more embarrassed, outraged, disappointed, and angry to call myself a Republican. How on earth do the Republicans in the state Legislature who voted for the Empowerment Scholarship Account (voucher) bill, or our governor, who signed it, look in the mirror and in good faith, not understand what they have just done. Miller continues, Public education has been the equalizer for 150 years of economic growth and assimilation of immigrants into the culture that we enjoy today. This is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of students who do not have the resources to pay the additional thousands of dollars for the tuition these private schools will be charging above the state subsidy, and without the opportunity of a quality education provided in their local schools where due process and common goals of expectation drive the continued development of economic expansion for everyone, not just a privileged few. He ends by saying voters need to kick out the ESA expansion supporters in 2018. All Republicans that share this view [against voucher expansion] use your vote in next summers Republican primary to replace anyone who supported this transfer of economic wealth from our public school system to the private schools of the wealthy. Ill take exception with Miller here and say we need to kick out the anti-education Republicans and replace them with some pro-education, pro-child Democrats, but hey, we can agree to disagree on that one.

It looks like the negative reaction to the ESA expansion by Miller and some other reliable Republican supporters caught pro-voucher Republicans by surprise. Theyve been patting themselves on the back for a job well done and basking in the praise theyve received from privatizers around the country, but thereceptionhavent been quite as cheery as they'd hoped on the home front. Witness this sudden change of plans. ESA expansion supporters were all ready to take a victory lap Thursday in the form of a free "Thank You to the Legislators" lunch at the Capitol paid for by the American Federation for Childrenthats U.S. Ed Head Betsy DeVoss education privatization group, which pours money into the campaign coffers of right-thinking candidates in Arizona and around the country. At the last minute, speaker of the House J.D. Mesnard called off the celebration because he thought, according to an Associated Press article, it was ill-timed and emotions are still running high at the Capitol.

Seeing as how Republicans never worry about the feelings of Democrats, who they ignore whenever possible, those cant be the folks Mesnard is worried about. Hes still got a budget to pass, and he doesnt need to alienate dissenting Republicans any further by rubbing the ESA victory in their faces. Then there are the sizable number of Republican parents who send their kids to district and charterschools and agree with Democrats that more money for their schools, including raises for their children's overworked, underpaid teachers, ismore important than helping send other people's kids to private schools.

Meanwhile, House Democrats arent letting Mesnard, Ducey, & Co. forget the vote either.

See original here:
Trouble in Republican City Over Voucher Expansion? - Tucson Weekly

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has come to Exxons defenseagain. AP Photo/Eric Gay,File

Citing Exxon Mobils right to free speech, 11 state attorneys generalall Republicansfiled in court this week to stop an investigation into the oil and gas giants decades-long history of climate denial.

The attorneys generalfrom Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsinfiled a brief to support Exxons request to stop the so-called Exxon Knew investigation, arguing that there is a public policy debate over climate change and that the investigation is an unconstitutional abuse of power.

The Constitution was written to protect citizens from government witch-hunts such as this one, where officials use their authority and the threat of criminal prosecution to try and suppress speech on a viewpoint they disagree with, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.

This isnt the first time Texas has intervened in the investigation on behalf of the states largest company. Paxton and his counterpart from Arkansas filed on behalf of Exxon in May of last year when it challenged a Virgin Islands subpoena. Paxton has said the investigations are ridiculous.

The investigation, now spearheaded by Democratic state attorneys general Eric Schneiderman of New York and Maura Healey of Massachusetts, was prompted after the Los Angeles Times and InsideClimate News independently discovered that, as far back as the 1970s, Exxon scientists were aware of the role burning fossil fuels plays in climate change. Exxon subsequently funded organizations that publicly deny the science behind human-caused climate change.

As a publicly traded company, Exxon has a legal requirement to disclose risk; therefore, prosecutors are investigating whether the corporation knowingly misled investors over the long-term risk of climate change. The federal Securities and Exchange Commission was also reportedly investigating as of last year.

Exxon filed its lawsuit challenging the investigation in Texas last year, but recently the judge in the case opted to move the suit to the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. After challenging the New York and Massachusetts subpoena, Exxon was ordered to hand over emails and documents related to climate change communications.

Schneidermans office reached a settlement in 2015 with Peabody Coal, after a multi-year investigation found that the company had violated state law by misleading shareholders about the risk to the company of climate change and efforts to stop climate change.

A spokesperson for the New York Attorney Generals Offices said Exxons lawsuit would not deter the current investigation.

We will continue to pursue our fraud investigation under New York law, despite attempts by Exxon and Big Oils beneficiaries to delay and distract from the serious issues at hand, Amy Spitalnick told ThinkProgress in an email.

Environmental groups were not quite as diplomatic. Responding to a line in the brief suggesting that climate change is the subject of legitimate international debate, Climate Hawks Vote, a California group that has pressed the California attorney general to also pursue an investigation into Exxon, issued the following statement:

What f*cking debate?!?

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11 Republican AGs file on behalf of Exxon, claiming climate ... - ThinkProgress

As Georgia secretary of state, Karen Handel was, as Ian Millhiser reports, a real pioneer in Republican voter suppression.Handel didnt just push a voter ID law. She really explored the full range of options available to a Republican elections official who wants to keep peopleespecially possible Democratsfrom voting. She encouraged voters to challenge one anothers qualifications to vote, an intimidation tactic often employed by Republicans. She tried to purge thousands of new citizens from the voter rolls. And she didnt just go after voters, she went after ballot access for Democrats:

In the middle of an election cycle, Republican state Sen. Joe Carter decided to withdraw from his reelection race and run for a judgeship instead. Carter was slated to run unopposed, which meant that there would be no candidates for his soon-to-be-vacant seat.

According to the Atlanta-based alt-weekly Creative Loafing, Handel solved this problem by allowing new candidates to qualify to appear on the ballot but only if they were Republicans. Democrats, the alt-weekly reported, werent given the chance to field a candidate for the newly open seat.

And this was not an isolated incident. On the day before a primary election for a state house race, Handel ruled that the lone Democratic candidate must be removed from the ballot because he didnt qualify as a resident of the district. She also did not allow Democrats to submit a new candidate.

Its incredibly apt that Georgia officials aretrying to prevent newly registered votersfrom voting in the June run-off election.

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Karen Handel is a longtime soldier in the Republican war on voting - Daily Kos

David Goldman/AP

Democrat Jon Ossoff nearly won the US House seat vacated by Trump's Health and Human Services secretary, Tom Price, in what Mother Jones dubbed the "First Real Battle Between Millennials and Trump." Ossoff, however, fell about 2 points short of the 50 percent he needed in Tuesday's vote to avoid a runoff in the crowded Georgia race. That's a bummer for Democrats, as the runoff is expected to be a much harder battle for Ossoffin a district that was considered safely Republican. Even though Hillary Clinton nearly won the district in November, now theRepublicans will unite behind a single candidate who picked up about 20 percent of the vote.

That candidate is Karen Handel, who once served as Georgia's secretary of state and chaired a county board of commissioners. She also ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2010 and US Senate in 2014. In a campaign blog post during her 2010 campaign, Handel lauded so-called "crisis pregnancy centers," which exist primarily to convince pregnant women not to get abortions, and pledged to eliminate grants to Planned Parenthood. But Georgia Right to Life questioned her anti-abortion credentials and refused to endorse Handel because she supported exceptions for rape, incest, and instances when the mother's life is in danger. "My husband Steve and I tried for nearly ten years to have children," Handel explained during the campaign. "It is the single greatest disappointment in my life, and I can say with certainty that no one in this race cherishes human life more than I do." In response, the president of Georgia Right to Life called her "infertile" and "barren."

Since that race, Handel has become a significant player in anti-abortion politics. In 2011, Handel joined breast cancer nonprofit Susan G. Komen Foundation as vice president for federal affairs less than a year before the group announced it would cancel hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of grants to Planned Parenthood. She is said to have pushed the conversation that ultimately led the organization to stop funding breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics. The backlash against the Komen Foundation was swiftcorporate sponsors expressed concern, there was a deluge of outrage on social media, and the employee overseeing the grants quit in protest. Handel resigned shortly after the controversy surfaced and the foundation quickly backed away from the move, but the damage had already been done. Handel went on to write a book called Planned Bullyhood, in which she characterizes Planned Parenthood as "a bunch of schoolyard thugs."

The race for Price's house seat may be Handel's opportunity to finally break into higher office. Her anti-abortion advocacy and the stain she left at the Komen Foundation will likely benefit her in this race, given the eagernessRepublicans and Tom Price sharefor defunding Planning Parenthood. Republicans in both Washington and Georgia are expected to pour significant resources into the Georgia runoff in an effort to keep the seat in Republican control. "Tomorrow, we start the campaign anew," Handel said after the election results came in on Tuesday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Beating Ossoff and holding this seat is something that rises above any one person."

More here:
The Republican in Georgia's Runoff Election Has an Alarming Past - Mother Jones