House Incumbents Spending Taxpayer $$’s To Fend Off Primary Challengers?

House Incumbents Spending Taxpayer $$’s To Fend Off Primary Challengers?

26 Comments
It sure looks that way. Both Valerie Longhurst and Dennis E. Williams have sent out official House correspondence to their districts that are little more than taxpayer-funded campaign pieces. There may well be others who have done the same. The supposed deniability comes in that these are allegedly legislative updates to constituents. They are sent on their personal House letterhead, in House envelopes, and likely through state mail. And they are prepared in-house by state employees on state time. They tout the alleged accomplishments of the legislators, and, as campaign pieces are prone to do, try to mislead voters on issues where the incumbents are vulnerable. Oh, and so far, they've only been sent out by incumbent House members facing primaries. When I worked in the Senate, we were forbidden from doing this. During the brief time that I worked for the House, then-Speaker Terry Spence allowed us to send such mailings. Of course, it's likely not coincidence that this policy was set during the election season that the Rethugs were desperately trying to hold onto their majority, and if they did it, he had to let us do it. Truth be told, most of July and August were spent on preparing and sending these mailings. Only one person can authorize such mailings: The Speaker of the House. It's likely legal, as the General Assembly routinely exempts itself from laws that apply to everyone else. In fact, apparently it's technically legal to send out these sorts of mailings up to 35 days prior to an election. But I submit that it's a wasteful misuse of taxpayer funds.

Tuesday Open Thread [8.12.14]

6 Comments
Ed Kilgore suspects that if the GOP does real well in 2014 (i.e. winning the Senate), then they will become overconfident in 2016 and nominate someone who cannot possibly win:
In both 2008 and 2012 the GOP managed to nominate presidential candidates with relatively moderate images and demonstrated swing-voter appeal. In both cases, the nominations were in no small part fortuitous following a demolition derby of more ideologically rigid rivals. The odds of the “most electable” candidates winning a third straight GOP nomination have been diminished by the relatively low popularity of Chris Christie (damaged significantly by “Bridgegate” and already controversial for supporting a Medicaid expansion in his state), Jeb Bush (headed for a direct collision with conservative activists for his championship of Common Core education standards) and Marco Rubio (more distant from conservative sentiment than ever as the prime Senate sponsor of “amnesty” legislation).
Personally, I think no matter how well the GOP does this year, the dye is already cast for 2016. The radical tea bagger base of the Republican Party already thinks that they lost in 2008 and 2012 because the Establishment forced them to nominate two liberals. And of course they lost because their candidate was not conservative enough.

Late Night Video — Robin Williams, RIP

9 Comments
I'm really stunned at this evening's news that Robin Williams died today, apparently of suicide. Many years ago I saw him in a Kansas City club -- the second show. He was on a tear, and the audience was falling off of their chairs laughing. By the time they got to the club's closing time, Williams had a ton of energy and the audience was game to stay -- so the owner closed the club, charged people $5 or something (so he could claim it was a private club since he was keeping the bar open) and Williams went on for at least two hours more. And it was really interactive too -- not only was he conversing with patrons (and then riffing off of the conversations), but he took suggestions for routines. Mostly from Shakespeare. It was utterly hysterical and really smart -- you could tell that he knew the work he was riffing off of. I can't imagine what he has been experiencing, but I know depression can be brutal. Even if you are someone that the world loved so very much.

Monday Open Thread [8.11.14]

5 Comments
So President Obama will take some kind of executive action pursuant to both his executive authority and laws already passed by Congress to address the immigration problem later this summer. Whatever he does, it will be the basis for impeachment proceedings this fall. Greg Sargent, in one of his latest columns, talked to experts about the limits of executive power. One of those experts was attorney David Leopold, who was the “former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and immigration reform advocate who has consulted with the White House on immigration law.” The upshot is, the President has all the authority he needs under existing law to do what he wants to do. But the GOP will impeach him for it anyway. We also have a lot of polling goodness inside...

Saturday Open Thread [8.9.14]

3 Comments
My Delaware season tickets should be coming soon. I better check on that. Especially since Delaware seems to be on the cusp of becoming a Division I school. Over the next few years, they are scheduling more games with the ACC, including games against Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Pittsburgh. Ed Kilgore:
The only thing funnier than those who (despite widespread mockery) continue to support the Green Lantern Theory of Presidential Leadership is the phenomenon of the same people freaking out when the president assumes “leadership” to address a big problem. Nobody is a bigger Green Lanternist than National Journal’s Ron Fournier, for whom the president, like God, is held responsible every time a sparrow falls to the ground. He’s now warning Obama not to take unilateral executive action on immigration policy. The Prospect’s Paul Walman skewers Fournier for blaming the “polarization” that might ensue on Obama alone; we abundantly know by now that savage GOP opposition to Obama will be at maximum levels no matter what he does or does not do.