Somehow September’s already more than half over.
Weird, right? Feels like it just started.
But, well, with just 47 days to go until Election Day, there’s no time to waste.
… unless you’re a Republican state legislator trying to hold on to legislative chamber majorities.
They’ve been acting like they have all the time in the world.
Time Is On My Side: In Minnesota, where Democrats need to flip just two state Senate seats to win a governing trifecta (House, Senate, governorship), Republicans are straight-up saying the quiet part loud … except they didn’t mean for anyone else to hear.
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- In an email intended for his GOP colleagues, Assistant House Minority Leader Jon Koznick advised that “COVID issues are not our winning message” and advised Republicans “to stay on message” by fear-mongering about crime and “PUBLIC SAFETY” in the state’s major cities.
- Too bad he sent the message to the entire Democratic caucus in advance of Friday’s meeting of the legislature to deliberate Gov. Tim Walz’s emergency coronavirus mitigation policies.
- Apparently the message did eventually make its way to his fellow Republicans, because they spent the day mostly just making up lies about supposed rapes and carjackings and murders in Minneapolis (which has been a favorite pastime of Minnesota GOPers for a while).
- One GOP representative did indulge in some COVID-19-focused Waltz-bashing, accusing the Democrat of engaging in “fear porn” to fight the pandemic.
- And let’s not forget that Minnesota Republican lawmakers also boast among their ranks an actual doctor who came under investigation by the state medical board by claiming on Fox News and other media outlets that states were being coached by the federal government to inflate their coronavirus death tolls and for providing “reckless advice” by comparing the illness to the flu.
- Needless to say, this nonsense went completely, ah, viral among COVID-19 conspiracy theorists and the right-wing media ecosystem.
Wasted Time: In Arizona, Republicans running for the state legislature have been … busy.
Just the kind of person you want in your government making laws
Big Time: Another GOP candidate in the Grand Canyon State had a busy summer, apparently, and not because he was running for the state House (LD-12).
- Republican Jake Hoffman heads a digital marketing company in Arizona called Rally Forge.
- And Rally Forge was paid over the summer by a pro-Trump conservative youth group to hire teens to pump out spammy social media posts supporting the president’s reelection.
- This week, the Washington Post reported that Turning Point Action used Rally Forge to run its program focused on generating often false and misleading messages regarding COVID-19, election integrity, and other pro-Trump and anti-Biden talking points via social media.
- The home-grown troll farm is similar to such efforts employed by Russian troll farms in support of Trump prior to the 2016 presidential election.
- The “sprawling yet secretive campaign” appears designed to evade measures put in place by various online platforms to combat online disinformation.
- When asked to respond to the Post story, Hoffman defended the online spam campaign by comparing it to phone bankers working off a common script.
Great
Time Of The Season: We’re not just in the thick of election season right now; it’s also disaster season, when wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and more threaten huge swaths of the country.
- In Oregon, GOP state Sen. Fred Girod has tragically lost his home to one of the wildfires sweeping the West Coast. (He’s fine, though!)
- But Girod also ironically lost his home to the wildfire.
- You see, Girod was one of the GOP lawmakers who participated in multiple GOP walkouts in the Oregon Senate aimed specifically at blocking landmark environmental legislation.
- Two years in a row!
- Because, despite the fact that voters gave Democrats supermajorities in both chambers of the Oregon legislature, they didn’t give Democrats quorum-proof majorities.
- At least two Republicans must be present for lawmakers to have a voting quorum in the state House and in the Senate.
- So they walked out and prevent any and all votes on everything just to block these environmental bills.
- Because, as we know all too well from the past decade of gerrymandering across the country, Republicans will do anything and everything they can to prevent an actual majority of Democrats from exercising power.
- So yes, Girod was one of the Oregon Republicans who blocked votes on watershed cap-and-trade bills.
- But if you think Girod has learned a damn thing from the impacts of climate change coming home to, ah, roast (… sorry), you’d be mistaken.
- Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus that the frequency and ferocity of these fires are increasing because human activity is increasing global temperatures, Girod blames the flames that consumed his home not on climate change, but on … environmentalists.
- “Climate change is not the problem,” he said this week.
- According to Girod, “environmentalists make it so you can’t harvest any trees,” thus “load[ing] up the timber area with nothing but fuel.”
- While forest management does matter, believing it to be the sole cause of his misfortune is … well, right in line with his career in the legislature.
- While Girod is up for reelection this fall, he’s likely to win another term; his SD-09 is heavily Republican and went for Trump 62-31.
One More Time: Last week in this space, I discussed the disturbing number of state legislative candidates who subscribe to absurd, racist, totally false, utterly delusional, deeply paranoid QAnon conspiracy theories.
Weirdly, some people who publicly share QAnon-related websites and falsehoods don’t appreciate being called out on it.
- Such seems to be the case with Washington Rep. Jenny Graham.
- In a story in a local newspaper late last month, Graham admitted to sharing articles and website that reflect QAnon beliefs.
- She claimed to be “unaware of the weirder views on those sites” but expressed no regret about sharing these links via her Facebook page.
- So it makes perfect sense that Graham followed up by leaving the reporter who interviewed her and wrote the piece an “explicit and threatening” 90-second voicemail.
- She’s refused requests for comment on the matter from the original reporter and multiple others.
This person makes laws
Welp, that’s a wrap for this week.
Whether the weather is delightfully autumnal or smokily hazy or generally hurricaney, I hope you’re hanging in there.
You’ve gotta look after yourself, after all. Even if everything is terrible.
Hell, because everything is terrible.
You’re important.
The election is nigh.
And we need you.