A few small victories to brighten your day
Ron DeSantis kinda caved!
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Late last night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis acquiesced and finally scheduled special elections in three south Florida legislative districts that currently lack representation. The primary is slated for January 11th and the general election will take place on March 8th.
DeSantis was sued by the Harvard Election Law Clinic on behalf of residents in Palm Beach and Broward County after he’d refused to schedule special elections the empty seats in State Senate District 33 and State House Districts 88 and 94. Had he not done so, residents of those districts ran the risk of not having any representation for an entire year. That the districts are predominantly Black comes as no surprise, as it fits right in with DeSantis’s record of disenfranchising Black voters.
The lawsuit was organized by Elijah Manley, a remarkable young activist and candidate in House District 94. Manley told me today that DeSantis had initially lawyered up for a legal fight over the issue but finally did an about-face and scheduled the elections. Manley also said DeSantis never contacted him, any of the other candidates, or their lawyers about the challenge. The murder-happy sociopath governor also never bothered to issue a press release either in response to the suit or to announce the election dates.
Unfortunately, this is hardly a total victory. The regular Florida legislative session runs from January 11 through March 11, meaning that if a Republican or independent candidate decide to run in any of the elections, that district’s residents will have no representation during the crucial period of the legislature. Republicans have no chance of winning any of these districts, but that’s hardly the point — they may just deny these residents representation because they can.
DeSantis could have easily scheduled the elections to coincide with the special Congressional election, but because that would have been the decent thing to do, it was a nonstarter for him.
And now for the premium member content…
Heroes
Kirsten Gillibrand: Joe Manchin steadfastly refused to include paid family leave in the Build Back Better package, which given Democrats’ extreme deference to the West Virginia coal baron, would seem to spell its doom. But New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the chief sponsor and champion of the provision, is not giving up so easily.
Gillibrand has been my senator for a decade now and I’ve never really had much of an opinion on her either way, but I give her credit for going to the mat for a policy that was central to Democrats’ campaigns and is so important for tens of millions of working people across the country.
Katie Porter: The master of shaming and schooling shady, greedy corporate executives struck again today at a House oversight hearing with oil and gas company execs.
Notice the OVRSITE vanity plate. The only cool minivan in the world.
NLRB: Up until last week, an interim regional director considered somewhat hostile to union rights was making life hell for a group of Buffalo, NY Starbucks workers trying to form the first union in company history. Last week, the NLRB replaced the interim regional director with a more fair-minded one, and tonight, they issued a key ruling in favor of the organizing baristas.
Starbucks was trying to force a union vote that covered all 20 Buffalo-area stores instead of the few that initially filed for an election, a common union-busting tactic known as expanding the voting pool. By expanding the pool, they could harass workers in other locations, inundating them with anti-union propaganda and threats and thus dilute the power of union supporters — something the company did relentlessly for the entire month that the former NLRB official sat on the case. This new ruling allows the workers at the three strongest pro-union stores to vote in small units that are more likely to ratify the representation.
I’ve been reporting on this story for a few months now — we actually put out our new piece on the union-busting activity less than an hour before tonight’s decision was handed down. The video is still entirely relevant and fresh, so watch this knowing that things may well get better:
Stay tuned for more…
Villains
Andrew Cuomo: The disgraced former New York governor may have wriggled out of impeachment, but he may well wind up standing trial anyway. Tonight, Cuomo was hit with a criminal summons by the Albany County Criminal in connection with allegations of “forcible touching” against him by former aides and interns. He could be arrested next week.
WTF?
Barf: I gave up on Ted Lasso this year because the second season felt way too saccharine and lacked any of the first season’s tension and (gentle) satire. I feel vindicated by this atrocity:
Now, to be fair, it’s not totally off the mark. Kyrsten Sinema is playing a character named Rebecca, who tries to tank her own team and loves hobnobbing with elites across Europe.
Wonk Stuff
Domino’s has this feature on its website that allows you to follow your food on its journey from its inception as a mere lump of dough in the store kitchen all the way through its arrival at your front door. It’s pretty useless information and doesn’t at all impact the final product (other than forcing employees to maybe rush), but it feels important and maybe even mildly thrilling to keep tabs on it nonetheless.
The breathless coverage of Democrats’ infrastructure and social spending bills is increasingly reminding me of the Dominos’ tracker site, all the way down to the decisively mediocre result that will leave us with heartburn and low-key nausea. The final version of the Big Back Better bill was likely pre-ordained, but because we’ve been getting play-by-play updates on the negotiations, it feels as if there has been an immense amount of news over the past few days. But no actual deal has been hammered out yet, much less agreed upon by all sides, so we’re right now just waiting for our mediocre pizza.
Still, to stretch this metaphor even further, we do know the basic ingredients of the mediocre pizza and which toppings are likely to make it to the final pie. Here are three items that caught my eye:
PRO Act: There were a number of elements of the flagship workers’ rights bill included in the initial reconciliation framework back in August, but it was unclear if any of them would make it into whatever mangled form the ultimate Build Back Better bill would take. Today, word broke that some of the elements initially included have made it through the grinder into the next round, including one that would empower the NLRB to fine firms up to $100,000 per labor law violation.
It remains to be seen whether these provisions will be approved by Senate parliamentarian, whose indifference to Democratic priorities have made her a foil to progressives and quiet savior to conservatives that don’t want to be forced to vote against things they secretly don’t support.
Medicaid: Joe Manchin has steadfastly refused to allow the federal government to expand Medicaid to the more than two million Americans in the dozen GOP holdout states. After all, Manchin does not want to have any part in creating an “entitlement society”… unless, evidently, that entitlement is going to health insurance companies. As revealed earlier today, the Build Back Better does provide for health insurance for those people, just through tax credits for private plans on the Obamacare exchange.
Childcare: Manchin got his work requirements, just not in the marquee child tax credit (still a terrible name). Instead, they’re in the child care subsidy plan.
Policy updates
Ohio: A few weekends ago, I took a dive into the right wing’s assault on school boards and the particularly intense version of this racist paranoia charade going down in Ohio. One of the more notable examples was the Ohio School Board’s decision to rescind a simple anti-racism resolution that it passed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent month of Black Lives Matters protests.
The decision to rescind that resolution was hardly unanimous, and today, the president of the State Board of Education, who was against caving to racism, tendered her resignation at the request of Gov. Mike DeWine. In essence, she was canceled for not being racist.
South Dakota: Now that the State Supreme Court has killed last year’s successful legal marijuana ballot initiative, Republicans in the legislature are putting together their own weed legalization bill. They’re not doing it to be nice — activists are gathering signatures for another initiative that would likely be more progressive than anything the GOP passes.
Elections
Pennsylvania: Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is still way out in front in the latest Democratic Senate primary poll. The big guy boasts a 22-point lead over his closest rival, Rep. Conor Lamb.
Voter Suppression and Redistricting
Georgia: Voters are no longer permitted to request absentee ballots online, as they are now required to print out, sign, and send hard copy of their application to their local election board. This should disenfranchise the disabled, elderly, and poor — and who knows, it could backfire on the GOP.
Michigan: Republican true believers are causing havoc on election systems across the country, and in rural Michigan, a local official and open Qanon whacko has stolen a voting tablet machine instead of surrendering it to the county for routine maintenance. The whole sordid saga is worth reading — and remember, stuff like this is happening across the country. If only there were some legislation that could protect our elections!
Colorado: I’m in favor of independent redistricting, but as we’re seeing in Colorado, Democrats giving up their power to maximize their seats while Republicans refuse to do so is not equitable or productive. The way the commission here sliced up Latino communities may end up scuttling the maps, but the same sort of imbalance is happening in Virginia, which has gone far more blue than the districts that will be produced by the state Supreme Court are likely to reflect.
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