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Kelly Schulzs campaign for the Republican nomination for governor is warning its supporters that Democrats may soon be meddling in their primary.

In one letter to supporters, Schulz senior campaign advisor Doug Mayer suggested that the Democratic party has focused advertisements against more moderate players instead of fringe Republicans who would have no chance during a general election in November.

The Democratic Governors Association, also known as the DGA, has spent $12 million in Illinois on attack ads to stop a Black Republican U.S. Army veteran from battling the incumbent in the fall. His competition in Illinois has already touted allegiance to former President Donald Trump.

Maryland could be next on the DGA hit list to make Trump-backed Dan Cox the GOP nominee, warned Schulzs campaign advisor.

All of which is to one end goal, which is to defeat Kelly Schulz, so they can end up facing a very fringe Republican in the general election, Mayer said.

The idea is nothing new, both parties have been doing it for decades. But in this case, it has gathered considerable steam and financial support, Mayer said.

But it's unclear whether thats the plan in Maryland.

Brandon Stoneburg, the Democratic party spokesperson, said his party is focused on their primary.

We have a lot of talent and character among our candidates and we're confident we're going to win in November no matter who the Republicans send out there, he said.

Sam Newton, the DGAs deputy communications director, pointed to a recent internal poll that he said found Schulz failing to gain momentum against Cox.

Its telling that her campaign is already looking for excuses, Newton said in a statement.

That poll found Cox defeating Schulz by a wide margin when GOP voters were told of Trumps endorsement of Cox and Gov. Larry Hogans endorsement of Schulz, who served in his cabinet for seven years.

A recent Baltimore Sun-University of Baltimore poll found Schulz leading Cox by six points with about 43 percent of Republican voters remaining undecided.

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Could Maryland Democrats tip the scales during the GOP governor's primary? - WYPR

There was plenty of powerful evidence presented during Day 4 of the House select committee hearings on Jan. 6, showing how President Trump and his allies coerced, bullied and schemed at the state level to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Using the same formula that has made much of the previous hearings must-see TV, the committee on Tuesday again wove a narrative culled from its 10-month investigation.

But between all the bombshells, something else remarkable emerged from the smoke: the sight of Republicans and Democrats treating one another with civility and respect on a public stage, no matter the radioactive material that brought them together.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) questioned Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, about the pressure he was under from Trump and lawyer Rudy Giuliani to help them put a thumb on the scale for the former president. Schiff and Bowers addressed one another respectfully. They allowed one another to finish their thoughts. And above all, they were working toward the same goal: debunking dangerous lies and schemes to protect the future of American democracy.

Bowers testified for about 40 minutes, recounting how he was pressured to challenge the election results: I will not break my oath of office, he told Giuliani. He came off as a reliable and genuine witness whose potent testimony included straightforward statements about the seriousness of his position in the face of corruption and the emotional hardship his family faced after Trump and his allies applied public pressure. He said followers of the president camped outside his home and drove by in video-paneled trucks, with bullhorns, declaring him to be a pedophile. He spoke of an armed man who argued with his neighbor and the distress experienced by his gravely ill daughter due to the harassment.

Like Bowers, nearly every witness who has given testimony about Trumps role in the Jan. 6 insurrection has been a Republican or avowed conservative. And they have regularly been questioned by Democrats, who have a 7-2 majority on the committee. In a hyper-partisan political environment, the faint glimmers of bipartisanship on display with Democrats and Republicans managing to work together, under duress, without bringing the building down are one of the hearings biggest revelations of all.

When was the last time you can remember the two parties sitting anywhere in Washington, D.C., together, and engaging in calm, controlled, professional discourse? As viewers grow accustomed to the rhythm of the proceedings, this courteousness and mutual respect between red- and blue-state officials remains refreshing to see, even if the snippets from depositions of Bill Barr, Ivanka Trump and others tell a tale of putting party, and power, over country..

It appears the livestreams, news coverage and memes coming out of the hearings are having an impact, too: An ABC News/Ipos survey published on Sunday found that 58% of respondents believe that Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in the Jan. 6 attack, up from 52% in an earlier ABC/Washington Post poll this year.

One reason the hearings havent devolved into a prime opportunity to humiliate the opponent may be the fact that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) already withdrew all of his appointees to the committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) rejected Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who had spread disinformation, and Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who was directly involved in the push to change the outcome. So there are no Trump apologists on the panel, just two Republicans of conviction and courage: Vice Chair Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), both victims of the very sort of harassment that witness after witness attested to Tuesday.

What was it like to compete with a president who had the biggest bully pulpit in the world? Schiff asked Georgia election official Gabe Sterling, who is known for his late 2020 press conference pleading with Trump to Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someones going to get shot, someones going to get killed. " Trying to counter the misinformation was like a shovel trying to empty the ocean he said. Testimony also came from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who Trump famously asked to find enough votes to overturn Bidens victory in a recorded phone call.

Fulton County election worker Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman were publicly accused by Trump and his cohorts of participating in a ballot fraud operation. Except the nefarious USB stick that Giuliani claimed was passed between mother and daughter was in fact a ginger mint. They too were harassed by Trump apologists. Moss teared up on the stand when she testified that her life has been affected in major ways, every way, all because of lies.

There is nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere, said Freeman, who described herself as a small business owner, a mother, a proud American citizen. Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you?

Schiff gave Freeman the last word before apologizing to her and Moss for their ordeal. In his closing remarks about the importance of defending democracy, he quoted George Washington and only one modern-day president: a Republican. He said Ronald Reagan was right when he described Americas peaceful transfer of power as a kind of miracle in the eyes of the world.

The bipartisanship of the Jan. 6 hearings has felt like a miracle in its own right.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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The real 'miracle' of the Jan. 6 hearings? Republicans and Democrats working together - Lookout Santa Cruz

The 2022 legislative session began with universal bipartisan agreement that public safety and tax relief were the top priorities for lawmakers. Both parties held news conferences and sent out constituent e-mails pledging to take action on public safety and to use the state's record-setting surplus to cut taxes for Minnesota families struggling with inflation and gas prices in the Biden/Walz economy.

We Minnesota Republicans were ready to roll up our sleeves and tackle those two critical issues. We pushed for billions of dollars in tax cuts the largest proposal in state history that would have added hundreds of dollars to Minnesotans' paychecks each month by cutting the lowest-income tax bracket and permanently ending taxes on Social Security.

Republicans also introduced dozens of concrete proposals to boost funding for law enforcement, raise criminal penalties for carjackings and stop the revolving door that has fueled years of increased crime.

At any point during the session Gov. Tim Walz and fellow Democrats could have pushed one of the many bipartisan bills that had passed the Senate, like a Social Security tax cut or increased penalties for fentanyl the deadly drug that's fueling a spike in drug overdoses.

But they didn't.

Throughout the session, Democrats repeatedly blocked tax cuts and tougher penalties for criminals while pushing for more expungements and funding for unaccountable nonprofit "violence interrupters" instead of local police.

So why did broadly bipartisan tax relief and public safety proposals fail? It's simple: House Democrats and the Walz administration simply don't support permanent tax cuts, increased funding for law enforcement or tougher penalties for criminals. When given the opportunity to vote on these issues, Democrats voted no and blocked the bills from even being talked about on the House floor.

This summer, House Republicans will be out on the campaign trail making the case that we can do better than the failed leadership we've seen from Democrats and Walz.

Next year, House Republicans will use government's unprecedented budget surplus to pass a record-setting tax cut, putting hundreds of dollars in the pockets of families and permanently ending all taxes on Social Security benefits for our seniors. With inflation at levels not seen in 40 years and gas prices reaching all-time highs, this should be one of the first bills passed in 2023.

The 2023 session will also be about restoring public safety and making sure communities have the resources to combat violent crime. For years, House Republicans have put forward detailed proposals aimed at recruiting and retaining police officers, strengthening consequences for repeat and violent criminals, and building on successful community programs like the COP House in St. Cloud. Those often bipartisan bills have repeatedly run into resistance from Democrats in the House.

Minnesotans have seen what Walz and Democrats would do if they stay in control 70% gas tax increases and billions in tax hikes. Reduced funding for police, softer penalties for criminals, and allowing a mob to burn down a police precinct. Energy policies that will keep driving your electric bill higher and higher. Lower test scores in math, reading and science for our students. Skyrocketing health care premiums.

These are all things that make your life more expensive or difficult, but they're the core priorities for Democrats and the billionaire donors and dark-money groups funding their campaigns.

For Democrats, high gas prices are the point. Short sentences for criminals are the point. The destruction of private health care is the point.

Minnesota can do so much better. Electing a Republican House, Republican Senate and Scott Jensen as our governor will help us turn the page on the expensive and unsafe leadership we've seen under President Joe Biden, Gov. Walz and House Democrats.

Republicans are ready to deliver record-setting tax cuts. We're ready to get our schools back on track by focusing on academics and student achievement instead of on woke politics.

And perhaps most important, under Republican leadership Minnesota will once again be a state where crime has consequences, and where we have the backs of our law enforcement personnel.

Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, is minority leader of the Minnesota House.

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OPINION EXCHANGE | Minn. House Republican leader Kurt Daudt: Democrats could have helped you this session but declined - Star Tribune

By Nikos Mottas.

The same old fairytale of left-progressive governments is back in the news following the electoral victory of social democrat Gustavo Petro in Colombia, as well as the performance of leftist Jean-Luc Mlenchon in French parliamentary elections.

As it happened last December with Gabriel Boric' victory in Chile, a number of left-wing, opportunist forces in Greece and abroad celebrate the recent results, presenting them as a triumph of the left which can allegedly bring positive developments for the working people.

Historical experience, both in Europe and Latin America, demonstrate that the so-called left governments cultivate and spread illusions about the humanization of capitalism. Nonetheless, the painful reality is that humane capitalism is like Santa Claus; it does not exist. The case of PSUV in Venezuela is an emblematic example of the failure of the opportunist theory of 21st Century Socialism. The examples of Lula-Rousseff in Brazil and Lopez Obrador in Mexico confirmed that no left or progressive government, no matter its intentions, can provide actual and radical solutions to the people's problems as long as the means of production remain in the hands of the capital. In the best of cases, these governments adopted some policies against extreme poverty, but even these measures were subsequently retracted as long as they were incompatible with capitalist economy. After all, the prosperity of the working class is by definition incompatible with the profitability of the monopolies.

Such political forces overlook or underestimate the laws governing capitalist economy, as well as the de facto reactionary character of the bourgeois state. The tragic outcome of Salvador Allende's Popular Unity government in Chile must be a constant reminder that socialism is impossible to come through peaceful ways and parliamentary illusions, but only through the overthrow of the capitalist system and the eradication of monopolies' power.

Is there any particular reason for the working class in Colombia and France to celebrate the electoral achievements of Petro and Melenchon? For us, the answer is pretty clear. The working people must have no illusions. The real way out for the people's interests does not lie in the old and faded fairytales about left governments, but only in the intensification of the organized class struggle against the system of exploitation, capitalism.

* Nikos Mottas is the Editor-in-Chief of In Defense of Communism.

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Gustavo Petro, Jean-Luc Mlenchon and the fairytale of left governments - In Defense of Communism

The government and all the other bourgeois parties, with insignificant individual differences, propose as a solution the strengthening of the market rules in the health system. In other words, they refer to all those tools that on the one hand shaped this miserable public health system and on the other hand formed a robust private business health sector. The only thing they demonstrate is the magnitude of the decay of the capitalist path of development (...)

In our opinion, on the occasion of this publication, the healthcare workers first and foremost but also the people who are concerned about their health and life should take a step further in their thinking, stance, and daily activity.

The KKE wages a daily struggle for staff recruitment, the expansion of benefits to the people, and the increase of the funding from the state budget. It is also charting a path of development that will treat public health as a universal and free right safeguarded by a workerspeoples government and its state. It calls upon the people to rally with the KKE, for the protection of health; for a system without any business activity, where the people will be able to meet their basic and urgent needs with all available means. (...) In the final analysis, science can defeat all this irrationality and obscurantism overwhelming us and its source, that is, capitalist exploitation and barbarism.

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The pandemic revealed the bankruptcy of capitalism - In Defense of Communism