Justin's Political Corner

Television personality Pat O’Brien said Tuesday that he’s open to pursuing public office in his native South Dakota, the Argus Leader reported.

O’Brien raised the possibility during an interview on comedian Adam Carolla’s podcast, saying that one of his political science professors at the University of South Dakota long encouraged him to run for office, which he said he “still may do.”

He did not specify which office he may pursue. South Dakota has both an open U.S. Senate race and a gubernatorial election next year. 

h/t: TPM Livewire

Ann Callis also announced at the meeting that she is stepping down to run for a seat in the new 13th Congressional District. She will make a formal announcement on Monday. Hylla, who was elected chief judge this week after a vote by the other circuit judges, has chaired the circuit’s Mediation Committee that focuses on medical malpractice reform. He is also co-chair of the Mental Health Task Force.

Hylla became a judge in 2006, running on a slate with Callis, and judges Barb Crowder and John Knight. The four were up for retention last November and faced pressure from a grass-roots group known as Citizens for Judicial Integrity. All four were retained.

Also running for the Dems in IL-13: George Gollin.

h/t: The Edwardsville Intelligencer

Moments ago, Gary Peters announced that he will run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Carl Levin in 2014.

h/t: eclectablog.com

EDWARDSVILLE - Chief 3rd Circuit Judge Ann Callis plans to resign soon to begin a run for Congress in 2014, sources say.

The decision would place her as a potential Democratic challenger to incumbent U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, a Taylorville Republican who was elected from Illinois’ 13th Congressional District in November.

Callis declined to comment. The Illinois Judicial Code of Conduct requires a judge to resign office upon becoming a candidate for a non-judicial office, either in a primary or general election.

She briefly had considered a run in the 12th Congressional District last fall before party chairmen nominated Bill Enyart of Belleville, who went on to win election.

Callis is a former assistant state’s attorney in Madison and St. Clair counties. She was an associate judge from 1995 to 2001 and has been a circuit judge since 2001.

Her legal career began as a prosecutor in the state’s attorney’s offices in both Madison and St. Clair counties.

In 2002, she became the first woman ever elected a circuit judge in Madison County and primarily has worked as a criminal court judge, hearing dozens of major criminal cases. In 2006, she became the first woman elected chief judge of the circuit. She now is in her fourth term as chief judge.

She was retained by the voters last November.

H/T:  The Alton Telegraph

The Republican Party is losing one of its potential front-running candidates for governor.

U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock has opted not to seek the governor’s mansion, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The young GOP rising star is expected to make a formal announcement Friday.

“He said back in the fall he was going to see whether he thought he could do more good running for re-election for Congress or running for governor,” Schock aide Steve Shearer told the Peoria Star late Thursday.

Schock, 31, ultimately decided to remain on Capitol Hill, where he serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, said Shearer, Schock’s chief of staff and campaign manager.

But the young third-term Peoria congressman also faced the reality of a crowded GOP field — and a tough general election race if he prevailed.

Republicans still potentially in the running include state Treasurer Dan Rutherford; state Sen. Kirk Dillard, of Hinsdale; state Sen. Bill Brady, of Bloomington; Winnetka millionaire Bruce Rauner, and WLS-AM (890) radio talk show host Dan Proft.

Rauner has already formed an exploratory committee stocked with business leaders capable of raising money to add to contributions Rauner can make from his own fortune.

“Aaron realized he is only 31 and is not willing to risk everything against Rauner’s millions and probably Lisa Madigan,” said one state House Republican familiar with Schock’s thinking.

Madigan, the Illinois attorney general and daughter of state Speaker Michael Madigan, is eyeing a primary run against Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. Former Commerce Secretary William Daley also is a possible Democratic candidate.

h/t: Chicago Sun-Times

AP sources tell @donnacassataap that Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, Finance committee chairman, to retire apne.ws/10b6315#MTSEN

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) April 23, 2013

H/T: Jed Lewison at Daily Kos

Former Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) acknowledged over the weekend that she is mulling the possibility of running in South Dakota’s open 2014 U.S. Senate race.

No Democrat has declared in the race for the seat currently held by Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), who announced last month that he will not seek re-election next year. Former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds (R) is the lone Republican to declare, although there is plenty of speculation that Rep. Kristi Noem (R-SD), the tea party favorite who unseated Herseth Sandlin in 2010, may toss her hat in the ring as well. Brendan Johnson, a U.S. attorney and son of the retiring senator, is also said to be considering a run in the race, but Democrats in the state are desperate to avoid a primary. 

A survey from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling last month showed Herseth Sandlin locked in tight races with Rounds and Noem in hypothetical general election matchups. 

H/T: TPM LiveWire

By Christie’s deeds and his words, he is clearly committed to the death of the labor movement and every other sort of social progress.

Two years ago, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin introduced his falsely-named “budget repair bill.”  In doing so, he transformed himself from an obscure Midwestern Governor to the personification of a nationally-orchestrated, well-funded right-wing movement that was more – much more - than just an attempt to balance the budget on the backs of public service workers. His plan, concocted in quite public collaboration with the Koch brothers, was to gut public sector collective bargaining rights altogether.

The right had a new champion. Having weakened and nearly destroyed the private sector union movement in America over the last 30 years, it was time to hone in on a new target: public sector unions and, in fact, the very idea that a fair society requires a robust public sphere. (Hint: this is true for the non-wealthy, less so for people who can buy their way into private schools, private beaches, private jets and so on…).

As everyone knows, the people of Wisconsin fought back. Madison became our Tahrir Square. It was thrilling to watch, and the entire labor and progressive movement understood how important a battle it was. Tactics included civil disobedience on a scale rarely seen in the U.S. and an ambitious electoral recall of a handful of Republican State Senators and Walker himself. Several Senators lost their seats in the recall, but Walker won. Unfortunately, too many union members themselves voted for Walker, despite an enormous groundswell of progressive labor mobilization in the recall.  Walker’s re-election campaign in 2014 will be another “all or nothing” moment for labor and progressive forces as we learn whether Walker-Koch conservatism is here to stay.

Before we get to the 2014 re-match, however, there’s another Governor up for re-election in 2013 who is also in the public eye. I’m referring to the East Coast’s own version of Scott Walker. No one would confuse Chris Christie’s brash {pugilistic?} demeanor for that of a polite Midwesterner. But when it comes to strict adherence to right-wing ideology, Christie is every bit the match for Scott Walker — and in some cases, even worse. I’m from New Jersey, and it’s astonishing to me that someone this awful is the Governor of my home state. .

Before the dust had settled in Madison, Christie was pushing a similar package of collective bargaining “reforms” in New Jersey. Christie frequently made the comparison himself. During a series of press events in Wisconsin during the recall campaign, Christie rallied support for Walker by comparing and celebrating what he and Walker had done.The New Jersey Star Ledger reported it this way in May 2012:  

The Republican governor [Christie] drew no distinction between the pension and benefit reforms pushed through New Jersey’s Democrat-controlled Legislature and Walker’s near-elimination of collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions — actions that flooded the Madison statehouse with protesters and could make him Wisconsin’s first governor to be dumped during his term.

“You see what I’ve been able to do is give Scott and the people of Wisconsin a little preview of what good conservative governance can do for states,” Christie told several hundred people at a landscaping equipment maintenance shop near Milwaukee.

But Christie isn’t just hostile to working-class organizations. He has an all-encompassing right-wing philosophy that seeps into every aspect of his agenda. No matter the issue – minimum wage, marriage equality, climate change, directing public money to private corporations, lowering taxes on the rich – Chris Christie is a hard-right Republican. He may be a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen, but I can guarantee that Springsteen is not a fan of his.

So, as a public service for any progressive or labor-friendly voter who might have been disoriented by Christie’s post-Hurricane Sandy photo opportunities with President Obama, here’s a short dossier on why we should not be confused by this guy. Sadly, some New Jersey-based building trades locals have already endorsed Christie in his 2013 re-election bid. But hopefully everyone else will line up with his Democratic opponent, State Senator Barbara Buono. Christie is clearly the odds on favorite in the race– he’s got a ton of cash, his opponent is relatively unknown, and he taps into a deep well of suburban anger about stagnant wages and soaring property taxes. But he is in fact as bad as Scott Walker.  Period.

He’s firmly on the side of the 1%.

Last year, Governor Christie proposed a $1.2 billion tax cut, with the bulk of the cuts going to the top, even though the state faced enormous budget gaps. He has repeatedly vetoed Democratic legislative efforts to close those gaps by raising taxes on millionaires.  Romney would be proud, and surely, Christie’s wealthiest donors are too.

But here’s where it gets even more unbelievable.  Since taking office, Christie has awarded more than $2 billion in tax breaks to huge corporations like Prudential Insurance, Panasonic, and Goya Foods. They promise new jobs, but in fact just shuffle around existing ones. Prudential got a quarter billion just to move its headquarters a few blocks in Newark. Instead of investing precious tax dollars in actual job creation, New Jersey wastes it on hand-outs to well-connected corporations.

… and not the 99%

Meanwhile, he did raise taxes on one group: the working poor. Christie cut the Earned Income Tax Credit, a program with a long record of bipartisan support that puts more cash in the pockets of struggling families. And just for good measure, Christie also vetoed a modest $1.25/hr increase in the minimum wage.

Need to keep the beer cold?  As Jim Hightower would say, put it next to Chris Christie’s heart.

But isn’t he a social liberal?

People sometimes get the idea that Northeastern Republicans are “fiscal moderates and social liberals.” Not Christie.

On Marriage Equality: Christie is not only against same-sex marriage, he vetoed a bill that would have given equal rights to same sex couples.

On the DREAM Act: He killed it. This was a bill to allow the children of immigrants who graduated high school in New Jersey to attend state colleges at in-state tuition rates.  

On women’s health and abortion rights: He eliminated all funding for women’s health, cutting $7.4 million to Planned Parenthood and other clinics that offer contraception, cancer screenings and other essential services.

That’s not all.

Christie’s blind faith in trickle-down economics has left New Jersey with the seventh highest unemployment rate in the country (9.3%). Yet Christie single-handedly killed the biggest public infrastructure project in the country. The ARC tunnel would have connected New Jersey to New York and created 45,000 permanent jobs, but Christie blocked the project. He’s like one of those moronic Republican Governors who turned down high-speed rail money from the Federal Stimulus Act in Florida or, you guessed it, Wisconsin.

He’s also endangering New Jersey’s reputation as a state that cares about education. In his first year in office he cut $1.2 billion in state aid to public schools. The cuts were so deep that the state Supreme Court found they violated students’ rights. As a candidate, Chris Christie pledged to increase funding for higher education. But then he was elected. And he turned around and cut higher education funding 15%.  All the while, referring to the leaders of the state’s teachers’ union as a “group of political thugs” for opposing these policies.

But what about that great moment after Sandy? Doesn’t that mean anything?

No. Not really. Christie said he didn’t ‘give a damn’ whether global warming contributed to the storm. And while climate scientists agree that climate change will produce worse and worse storms, Christie pulled New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The RGGI is a compact among the northeast states to limit carbon emissions, and is widely seen as a very smart policy. .

Christie is up for re-election this November. It will tough to defeat him, even as he richly deserves to go down. The media like him, and some Democrats in the State Legislature have on occasion made it too easy for him to look effective and far-sighted. If we tell the truth to ourselves, the truth is – right now, Christie is popular. The latest polling has him ahead of his likely Democratic opponent by 35 points. And he has a huge financial advantage.

Still more alarmingly, Christie has somehow secured support from some segments of organized labor, notably the laborers and plumbers unions. No doubt the leaders of these unions see themselves faced with a difficult choice. With Christie so far ahead in polls, it’s tempting to play the percentages and bet on the likely winner in the hopes of securing some small advantage for your members. Pragmatism has its place in politics. We get it.

But in this case, it’s deeply troubling.  

Sometimes, even when the odds are bad, you have to fight. The alternative is simply making an enemy stronger.

This isn’t the first time labor has made this mistake. There are many famous examples of letting short-term pragmatism blind you to a longer term reality. The Air Traffic Controllers backed Ronald Reagan for President in 1980, and he turned around and crushed them. Richard Nixon was backed by many construction unions in 1968 and 1972, and he then worked to undermine them. And of course in Wisconsin, the police and firefighters unions endorsed Walker in his first campaign, and have to know what a gigantic mistake that was.

Christie’s record speaks for itself, and his kind words for Scott Walker should erase any doubt: Christie is no moderate. His worldview should be an anathema to progressives everywhere.  He’s also dangerous, because he’s popular and is a strong contender for the Republican nomination in 2016. A landslide victory in 2013 will be a launching pad for his 2016 race—“I won a bi-partisan landslide in a blue northeastern state (one that Barack Obama won by 18 points and Bob Menendez won by 20 points), I tamed the unions, and I can make a conservative message work everywhere from New Jersey to New Mexico.”  Being able to point to labor support will only bolster his case.

h/t: AlterNet

Ashley Judd declared on Wednesday that she’s decided against a run for Senate in Kentucky against Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

(Reuters) - Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, does not plan to run for re-election when his current term ends in 2014, sources close to the matter and key Capitol Hill staffers said on Monday.

Johnson, 66, joined the Senate in 1997 and has been widely expected to retire at the end of his term. He plans to make the announcement on Tuesday, the sources said. Johnson’s staff said that he will hold a press conference at the University of South Dakota on Tuesday.

His retirement would leave a vacant seat in a conservative-leaning state that could be difficult for Democrats to defend as they try to protect their majority in the Senate.

Political analysts expect Johnson’s son, Brendan Johnson, who is South Dakota’s U.S. attorney, to emerge as a potential Democratic candidate in the 2014 election. The younger Johnson has not announced any formal plans to seek the Senate seat.

Former Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, who lost a bid for reelection in 2010, is another leading choice to run if the incumbent senator retires.

Johnson’s exit from Congress would also create an opening at the top of the banking committee, which he has led since 2011. Currently, Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed is the second-ranking Democrat on the panel.

h/t: HuffPost Politics

AUSTIN, Texas—Big in all things, Texas leads the nation in failing to provide health insurance. About one in four Texans are uninsured, the highest percentage in any state. That’s some 6 million people, the total population of Missouri.

Yet Gov. Rick Perry, back from his stumbles in the 2012 GOP presidential race, has insisted that Texas will not accept the federal money provided by President Obama’s health care law to expand Medicaid coverage. As Republican governors from Arizona to New Jersey have joined the program, Perry has amplified his opposition. In a bristling speech to conservatives last week, he said governors who accepted the money had “folded in the face of federal bribery.”

In no state does the decision to expand present such profound political and policy issues as in Texas. Whatever Perry decides, many Texans will benefit from the subsidies in the 2010 law that help the uninsured in lower-to-middle-income families purchase private insurance on health care exchanges. Perry has also refused to establish such an exchange, but the law allows Washington to step in, and Texans who qualify will receive those dollars. Rice University demographers Steve Murdock and Michael Cline recently projected those exchanges will cover up to 1.7 million of the state’s uninsured.

The law’s other mechanism for increasing coverage is to broaden Medicaid eligibility for adults near poverty, but Washington can’t mandate this expansion if states refuse it. Murdock and Cline project that another 1.5 million to 2 million Texans would receive coverage if the state participated.

The state medical establishment, reluctant to cross the governor too publicly, has been restrained in pressing for expansion. But Republican state Rep. John Zerwas, a health care leader who represents a district outside Houston, says legislators are getting an earful at home from providers and local officials worried about the state rejecting the money.

Key state Senate Republicans, though, are striking a harder line. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Williams says he will support enlarging Medicaid only if Obama allows Texas to transform the way it delivers Medicaid, not only to the expansion population but also to the current recipients. “The existing program is not sustainable,” Williams says.

That’s a hardball position, but not necessarily disqualifying: The administration has reached an agreement in principle with Florida, for instance, to move more Medicaid recipients into private managed care. Many here, though, wonder if Perry would take any deal. The widespread belief is that he intends to seek the GOP presidential nomination again in 2016, and accepting more Medicaid money would smudge his image of Alamo-like resistance to Obama.

Rejecting the federal money might not pose an immediate political threat to Texas Republicans, whose coalition revolves around white voters responsive to small-government arguments. But renouncing the money represents an enormous gamble for Republicans with the growing Hispanic community, which is expected to approach one-third of the state’s eligible voters in 2016. Hispanics would benefit most from expansion because they constitute 60 percent of the state’s uninsured. A jaw-dropping 3.6 million Texas Hispanics lack insurance.

Texas Democrats are too weak to much affect the Medicaid debate. But if state Republicans reject federal money that could insure 1 million or more Hispanics, they could provide Democrats with an unprecedented opportunity to energize those voters—the key to the party’s long-term revival. With rejection, says Democratic state Rep. Rafael Anchia of Dallas, Republicans “would dig themselves into an even deeper hole with the Hispanic community.”

In 1994, California Republican Gov. Pete Wilson mobilized his base by promoting Proposition 187, a ballot initiative to deny services to illegal immigrants. He won reelection that year—and then lost the war as Hispanics stampeded from the GOP and helped turn the state lastingly Democratic. Texas Republicans wouldn’t be threatened as quickly, but they may someday judge their impending decision on expanding Medicaid as a similar turning point.

H/T: National Journal

The North Dakota legislature has placed a “personhood” amendment on the ballot in 2014 so voters can decide whether to adopt the most sweeping abortion ban in the country, according to media reports.

The personhood measure, which cleared both houses of the legislature on Friday, would guarantee “the inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and protected.” Opponents say it would prohibit all abortion in the state and may also outlaw birth control.

“The North Dakota legislature has taken historic strides to protect every human being in the state, paving the way for human rights nationwide,” said Keith Mason, the president of Personhood USA, which supports the amendment.

Abortion rights groups swiftly criticized the move.

h/t: TPM LiveWire