Republican state houses

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama on Friday refused to create a second majority-Black congressional district, a move that could defy a recent order from the U.S. Supreme Court to give minority voters a greater voice and trigger a renewed battle over the state’s political map.

Lawmakers in the Republican-dominated House and Senate instead passed a plan that would increase the percentage of Black voters from about 31% to 40% in the state’s 2nd District. The map was a compromise between plans that had percentages of 42% and 38% for the southeast Alabama district. GOP Gov. Kay Ivey quickly signed it.

State lawmakers faced a deadline to adopt new district lines after the Supreme Court in June upheld a three-judge panel’s finding that the current state map — with one majority-Black district (14% - TG, two would be 28%) out of seven in a state that is 27% Black — likely violates the federal Voting Rights Act.

Trapper Gus wrote:https://apnews.com/article/alabama-legislature-redistricting-voting-rights-e2fc7c7550e10da353b72bafc3fb6604

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama on Friday refused to create a second majority-Black congressional district, a move that could defy a recent order from the U.S. Supreme Court to give minority voters a greater voice and trigger a renewed battle over the state’s political map.

Lawmakers in the Republican-dominated House and Senate instead passed a plan that would increase the percentage of Black voters from about 31% to 40% in the state’s 2nd District. The map was a compromise between plans that had percentages of 42% and 38% for the southeast Alabama district. GOP Gov. Kay Ivey quickly signed it.

State lawmakers faced a deadline to adopt new district lines after the Supreme Court in June upheld a three-judge panel’s finding that the current state map — with one majority-Black district (14% - TG, two would be 28%) out of seven in a state that is 27% Black — likely violates the federal Voting Rights Act.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, who became Democratic heroes as members of the “Tennessee Three,” reclaimed their legislative seats Thursday after they were expelled for involvement in a gun control protest on the House floor.

The young Black lawmakers were reinstated by local officials after being booted from the GOP-dominated Statehouse, but only on an interim basis. They advanced Thursday through a special election to fully reclaim their positions. Both faced opponents in districts that heavily favor Democrats and easily defeated them according to unofficial results from the Tennessee’s Secretary of State’s office.

Last Saturday, Republican leaders in Alabama illustrated that their ideology means they reject democracy. After the Supreme Court agreed that the congressional districting map lawmakers put in place after the 2020 census probably violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a lower court ruling that required a new map went into effect. But Alabama Republican lawmakers simply refused.

Alexander Willis of the Alabama Daily News reported that at a meeting of the Alabama state Republican Party on Saturday, the party’s legal counsel David Bowsher applauded the lawmakers, saying, “House Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy doesn’t have that big a margin, that costs him one seat right there. I can’t tell you we’re going to win in this fight; we’ve got a Supreme Court that surprised the living daylights out of me when they handed down this decision, but I can guarantee you, if the Legislature hadn’t done that, we lose.”

Paul Reynolds, the national committeeman of the party, went on: “Let me scare you a little bit more; Texas has between five and ten congressmen that are Republicans that could shift the other way,” he continued. “How could we win the House back ever again if we’re talking about losing two in Louisiana, and losing five to ten in Texas? The answer’s simple: It’s never.”

Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall added: “Let’s make it clear, we elect a Legislature to reflect the values of the people that they represent, and I don’t think anybody in this room wanted this Legislature to adopt two districts that were going to guarantee that two Democrats would be elected…. What we believe fully is that we just live in a red state with conservative people, and that’s who the candidates of Alabama want to be able to elect going forward.”

The determination of Republican officials to hold onto power even though they appear to know they are in a minority is part of what drove even Republican voters in Ohio to reject their proposal to require 60% of voters, rather than a simple majority, to approve changes in the state constitution.

If you live in the Blue part of a Red state, Republicans don’t want you to vote. And their latest strategy is their most brute-force method: simply remove you from the voting rolls.

A shocking new study from Demos lays out the dimensions of this voter purge crisis of democracy brought to us by an increasingly desperate GOP.

Republicans are doing this because they know that their policies are unpopular: most Americans aren’t fans of tax cuts for billionaires, more pollution, deregulation, high-priced drugs, privatizing Medicare, ending Social Security, criminalizing abortion and birth control, student debt, hating on Black and queer people, and the GOP’s war on unions and working people.

So, the GOP does everything they can to make voting difficult or even impossible, particularly for people in heavily Democratic neighborhoods (which are usually college towns, big cities, and Black neighborhoods).

When Republicans run elections in such areas (typically Blue cities in Red states), they’ll close or change polling places at the last minute to sow confusion and cause people to give up when they show up at their normal polling place and find it closed.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The conservative chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday told the new liberal majority in a scathing email that they had staged a “coup” and conducted an “illegal experiment” when they voted to weaken her powers and fire the director of state courts.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama legislator was arrested Tuesday on felony voter fraud charges accusing him of voting in a district where he did not live.

Republican Rep. David Cole of Huntsville was arrested on charges of voting in an unauthorized location, according to Madison County Jail records. The details of the charge were not immediately available in court records, but the arrest comes after accusations that Cole did not live in the district in which he was elected.

Cole, a doctor and Army veteran, was elected to the House of Representatives last year.

The Tennessee special session on public safety ended in chaos on Tuesday. A physical conflict broke out between House Speaker Cameron Sexton and state Rep. Justin J. Pearson while citizens in the gallery chanted for Republicans to be voted out of office. After Monday saw Republicans vote to silence Rep. Justin Jones before he could call for a vote of no confidence in the speaker, the Republican-controlled legislature forced through an adjournment of the House sine die on Tuesday. The General Assembly isn’t currently scheduled to reconvene until January 2024.

As Sexton made to exit the chamber, Jones and Pearson stood on opposite sides of him, holding small protest signs. Sexton tried to slip past a throng of lawmakers and dropped his shoulder into Pearson. Multiple men then moved between Pearson and Sexton as the two lawmakers got into a shouting match, with the speaker pointing his finger threateningly at Pearson. WKRN News 2 provided video of the disorder.

GRR Spartan wrote:When all else fails threaten “Civil War”.

Looks like the arrest of former MI GOP Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock in the fake elector scheme struck a nerve with her husband MI State Rep Mike Maddock (R-MI 51).

GOP lawmaker warns of civil war

n made to exit the chamber, Jones and Pearson stood on opposite sides of him, holding small protest signs. Sexton tried to slip past a throng of lawmakers and dropped his shoulder into Pearson. Multiple men then moved between Pearson and Sexton as the two lawmakers got into a shouting match, with the speaker pointing his finger threateningly at Pearson. WKRN News 2 provided video of the disorder.