Guber Quick Hits – 2/18/13
By · Feb,18 2013 CommentsCALIFORNIA: California’s public-worker unions were a powerful and integral partner in helping Gov. Jerry Brown persuade voters to pass his tax hikes last November. The Golden State’s finances are now on a much firmer footing. As he prepares to enter contract negotiations with these workers, will he be able to withstand the unions’ desires to receive an increased share of the state’s treasury?
FLORIDA: Following the death of her husband Bill McBride, it doesn’t look like 2010 Democratic guv nominee Alex Sink is interested in a rematch against Rick Scott.
ILLINOIS: With a recent poll showing incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn languishing at 23% support among Democratic primary voters (and trailing AG Lisa Madigan by 9 points), it shouldn’t be a surprise that a bipartisan roster of big name Illini politicos are lining up to replace him. The most devastating development may be the desertion of his running mate, Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon who doesn’t want to be on the ticket with him. Will anyone?
LOUISIANA: Another day, another quote from Bobby (the intern who wants to be president) Jindal on what ails the Republican Party.
NEBRASKA: Sen. Mike Johanns’s retirement announcement after a single term in DC positions term-limited Governor Dave Heineman as the early front-runner, but don’t be surprised if there’s a contentious GOP primary battle.
NORTH CAROLINA: Pat McCrory, the Tar Heel state’s first Republican governor in two decades (and the first to have a GOP-controlled legislature),will deliver his first State of the State speech tonight. Will he deliver a conservative wish-list or will he attempt to moderate the Tea Party-fueled extremism that fueled legislation in the most recent session?
PENNSYLVANIA: The conventional wisdom is that Rep. Allyson Schwartz is all but certain to jump into the race to challenge embattled Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. Fueled by a DGA poll showing the Democrat leading the incumbent by 8 points and sitting on top of pile of campaign cash put her in a strong position to make Corbett a one-term wonder.
TENNESSEE: Last December, Mother Jones named Tennessee’s GOP-dominated state legislature the nation’s worst (and let’s face it, there was a TON of competition). This year, it seems they want to hold onto the dubious title, as Republican legislators have filed a bevy of states’ rights bills in Nashville.
TENNESSEE II: Gov. Bill Haslam’s school voucher bill is getting mixed reviews.
TEXAS: Every time I see one of these stories about Rick Perry’s extremely cozy relationship with the business community I wonder why there isn’t sustained outrage over his lavish lifestyle, especially if it’s financed with taxpayer money.
WISCONSIN: An editorial from The Cap Times points out that when Scott Walker opted out of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion last week , he claimed his move would help nearly a quarter of a million Wisconsinites find health insurance coverage and cut the state’s uninsured population by nearly 50%. But the biggest (and cruelest) lie of them all is that he claims that under the health insurance exchanges will be available for $19 a month???!!
EJ Dionne: When Republicans were problem-solvers
On the 2016 trail: Bobby Jindal in St. Louis
Guber Quick Hits, 2/3/11
By · Feb,03 2011 CommentsCalifornia: Gov. Jerry Brown’s strategists are considering pursuing holding his proposed special election to extend taxes exclusively by mail. It’s not clear whether ‘going postal’ would help or hurt the chances of winning.
Florida: Politico writes about Gov. Rick Scott’s desire to muzzle the media.
Iowa: Of the nine finalists nominated to fill the three Supreme Court vacancies, one donated to Gov. Terry Branstad’s winning campaign while another made a contribution to Chet Culver.
New Jersey: Gov. Chris Christie, the darling of small government tea partiers, has signed two bills that “increase his dominion” over recession-ravaged Atlantic City.
Texas: Gov. Rick Perry is delivering the keynote address at next week’s CPAC gathering.
Texas II: Could the budget hole be so deep that it threatens funding for high school football?
Virginia: Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has requested an expedited Supreme Court review of Virginia’s challenge to the federal health care law. Since most legal observers expect a denial from the high court, you have to wonder about Cuccinelli’s motivation. Keeping his name in the headlines on this issue positions him as the GOP front-runner for the 2013 gubernatorial race.
Wisconsin: Gov. Scott Walker declared a state of emergency due to the blizzard yesterday, urging motorists to stay off the roads and closed state offices to the public, but then told state workers they had to come to work or take a vacation day.
And from beyond the StateHouses:
Are we heading for a fourth wave election? One prognosticator thinks the Dems may be able to catch a wave in 2012.
With the Census Bureau reporting that racial minorities accounted for 85% of the nation’s population growth over the past decade, Latino activists expect “a minimum of nine additional Latino-majority House seats” when redistricting is said and done.
Is there room for two Mormons in the 2012 GOP presidential primary?
CA: Brown’s Austerity Plan to Include Spending Cuts and 5-Year Extension of Taxes
By · Jan,10 2011 CommentsToday’s the day Jerry Brown lets Californians in on the specifics of his budget framework to pull the nation’s largest state back from the financial brink. The SacBee reports that the blueprint includes reducing public employee salaries by 8-10% and across-the-board budget spending cuts but appears to be contingent on California voters approving higher taxes in a special election to be held in November.
Will Jerry have better luck with ballot initiatives than the Governator did during his term?
Brown’s press conference is streaming live now at calchannel.com
Draw the Lines: When a Delegation Shrinks
By · Dec,29 2010 CommentsRep. Peter King, the dean of the Empire State Republican congressional delegation (actually the only member of the GOP caucus prior to the November elections), shared some political insights with his newly-elected colleagues about the ways of Washington. But, according to the New York Times, it’s Albany and the intrigue in the state capital that these new congress-critters need to keep an eye on.
Mr. King, a Republican from Long Island, talked to them about the importance of sticking together and about difficult votes ahead.
But then he turned to a subject that the rookies in the room had thought little about: redistricting. In a few weeks, lawmakers in Albany will begin talks on how to redraw New York’s Congressional map and eliminate two districts.
It was clear that these fresh-faced politicians were not prepared for what may be the ultimate insiders’ game.
“I told them to get ready,” Mr. King said, recalling the meeting. “That process turns friend against friend.”
The redistricting battle is looming as an early test of the anti-establishment sentiment that carried many novice politicians to victory in the 112th Congress. While more senior House members are already working their ties in statehouses back home to protect their districts, many freshmen are just waking up to what is coming.
Are they really? Is their knowledge about civics so limited that they don’t understand what the Census does every decade?
PollWatch: PPP Ranks the Gubers
By · Dec,29 2010 CommentsPublic Policy Polling provides a run-down of the gubernatorial polling they’ve done throughout 2010.
The nation’s most popular (of the 30 polled by the PPP gang) is West Virginia’s Joe Manchin – who’s now ducking votes as a Senator in DC. The least popular is California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has been making noise about wanting to move east to work on green issues at the federal level.
Of the governors up for re-election in 2011-12, Democratic incumbents Steve Beshear (KY) and Jay Nixon (MO) are looking pretty good at this point, as is Republican Bobby Jindal (LA). North Carolina’s Bev Perdue could be facing a tough reelection battle, especially considering how the GOP flipped the state legislature in the 2010 GOP tsunami.
Looking back, it could be argued that unpopular incumbent governors could’ve been a drag on their party’s nominees in the 2010 contests. PPP observes:
-Four Governors ended the year (and their terms) in the under 30% approval club. The least popular in the country at least in our polling is Arnold Schwarzenegger at a -38 spread (25/63). The other folks reaching this unwelcome unpopularity level are Bill Richardson at a -37 spread, Jim Gibbons at a -36, and John Baldacci at -29. It’s not a coincidence that 3 out of 4 of these guys saw the Governor’s office in their state flip to the other party last month.
MIA – Chris Christie’s Failure to Deliver
By · Dec,29 2010 CommentsRegardless of political ideology, there are a few tasks Americans expect their government to perform – and perform well.
Whether it’s battling wildfires out West, cleaning up after tornadoes in the Plains, or digging out from snowstorms in the Midwest and East, most Americans expect a quick and efficient response from all levels of government. When the response is inadequate (think Bush and Katrina), there are often political consequences for elected officials.
This week’s paralyzing blizzard that left some Jersey Shore residents stranded without heat and food could cause serious political damage to New Jersey’s Chris Christie. The darling of national conservatives for his ‘take-no-prisoners’ approach to governing went on vacation (as did his Light Gov) despite worsening weather forecasts. Poll numbers were already showing Christie’s home-state popularity declining. Going AWOL during a crisis can’t help. It’s unlikely voters will quickly forget that their leaders were vacationing while they and their neighbors spent days digging out from under the snow drifts.
The lack of plows and passable streets serve as a vivid illustration of what happens when governments slash spending and cut public payrolls. The government (and the cut-and-run governor) won’t be able to help.
A Bigger House?
By · Dec,27 2010 CommentsThe prevailing anti-government, Tea Party-fueled ‘take back America’ political climate might make arguing for an expansion of the US House of Representatives a political non-starter, especially among conservatives. But here’s conservative syndicated columnist Jeff Jacoby making the argument (and citing the Founding Fathers) that the current system is inherently undemocratic.
According to the Census Bureau, there are now 710,767 Americans in the average congressional district. But with every state constitutionally entitled to at least one House seat, and with the membership of the House frozen at 435,districts can deviate widely from the average. Wyoming’s single US representative has just 568,000 constituents; the member from neighboring South Dakota has 820,000. That means a vote cast in Wyoming has nearly 1.5 times the impact of a South Dakotan’s vote.
An even more egregious violation of the “one man, one vote’’ principle is the inequality between Rhode Island’s two congressional districts, with 528,000 voters each, and Montana’s lone district, with 994,000. So great is that disparity, observes Scott Scharpen, the founder of an organization called Apportionment.US, that it takes 188 voters in Montana to equal 100 voters in Rhode Island.
It’s more than the increasing inequality that occurs every decade. The static size of Congress also contributes to the alienation between Representatives and the citizenry.
The larger districts grow, the less representative lawmakers become. Since 1910, the average number of constituents per House member has climbed from 210,000 to more than 710,000. Over the same span, members of Congress have grown more remote, more undefeatable, more beholden to special interests, and less capable of reflecting the diversity of their districts’ values and views. Smaller, more numerous districts, would be far more democratic, more accessible to new blood and new ideas, and more difficult to gerrymander.
Congress worked better when the size of the House was elastic. The Framers reckoned congressional districts should contain about 30,000 constituents; districts comprising nearly three-quarters of a million would have struck them as ludicrous.
Draw the Lines: Will Washington’s New 10th be Another King County seat?
By · Dec,27 2010 CommentsUniversity of Washington geographer and demographer Dick Morrill observes that the ‘surprising historical accident’ that four incumbent Washington House members reside at the edges of their current districts might dictate that the brand-spanking new Tenth Congressional district be carved out of northeastern King County:
So if we look at the area with the largest population with no incumbent representative to protect, we find it is northeastern King County. This area, with almost 2 million people, has only two representatives within its borders, so no one would be squeezed out. Thus a logical alternative for the 10th district is indeed King County, which has almost enough population for district 7 (McDermott, Seattle), 8 (Reichert, Eastside and south King County), and a new 10th (northeastern King).
This would in turn make the 9th (Smith, Tacoma) mainly a Pierce County district, and put Olympia in the 6th (Dicks, Belfair).
There is one caveat. If Jay Inslee opts to run for the open governor’s chair in 2012, the lack of an incumbent in his First District could provide the mapmakers to freedom to make a more radical redraw that would still protect the remaining incumbents.
And the Census Says…
By · Dec,21 2010 CommentsNo huge surprises in the Census’ reapportionment announcement this winter solstice. Republicans stand to gain electoral votes in 2012 simply by winning where they typically win, while Democrats are hampered by the midterm shellacking and their banishment to the redistricting sidelines in many state capitals.
The real redistricting battles will take place across the Rust Belt – from New York through Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Missouri.
SC: AdMonitor – Sheheen Hits Haley (Again)
By · Oct,23 2010 CommentsA series of bad headlines for Mama Grizzly Nikki Haley the polls in her guber contest against Democrat Vincent Sheheen have shown a much closer-than-anticipated race where the Democrat is within striking distance.
Sheheen, who’s been hammering away at the frontrunner on the TeeVee, comes out with yet another ad highlighting Nikki’s habit of “misleading” voters and finally comes right out and calls her a liar. Despite using that four-letter word, the Sheheen camp manages to end the ad on a positive note. The compare/contrast between the two candidates is pretty clear.
“With Nikki Haley, the more we learn the worse it gets…
