Another Alaska Attorney General Resigns

Acting Alaska Attorney General Ed Sniffen’s abrupt resignation was announced Friday as the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica were preparing an article about allegations of sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old girl three decades ago.




https://politicalwire.com/2021/01/30/another-alaska-attorney-general-resigns/

Bannon urging Trump to testify before Senate.

Louisiana Republican Party struggles with counting votes in chairman election

The Louisiana Republican State Central Committee upheld an election for state GOP chairman Saturday (Jan. 30), even though there was confusion over whether everyone who cast a ballot was eligible to vote.

Louis Gurvich easily beat state Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, on an 134-61 vote to remain chairman for another term. There were 195 votes cast in the election, though state party officials initially said there were only 190 eligible votes for the contest.

“It didn’t matter to the result of the election, so we just accepted the outcome,” Gurvich said of the vote discrepancy in an interview after the meeting.

In the next contested race, for GOP party secretary, Republican committee members were asked to come up one-by-one to cast their votes in order to avoid having too many ballots again. They also didn’t initially announce the results of the chairman election, only saying that Gurvich won by a “substantial margin.”

Then, GOP officials retroactively changed the number of people who could vote in the chairman’s race — from 190 to 195 — such that it matched the number of ballots tallied.

The 230 members of the Republican State Central Committee are qualified to cast ballots in the chairman election. The central committee members are elected by registered Republican voters in districts that span the state. If they cannot attend a committee meeting in person, some committee members are eligible to tap others to vote on their behalf. Members said that accounted for the confusion.





https://lailluminator.com/2021/01/30/louisiana-republican-party-struggles-with-counting-votes-in-chairman-election/

Two of Trump's impeachment defense attorneys leave team less than two weeks before trial

(CNN)With a little more than a week before his impeachment trial is set to begin, President Trump's legal team is in tumult.

Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were expected to be two of the lead attorneys, are no longer on the team. A source familiar with the changes said it was a mutual decision for both to leave the legal team.

"The Democrats' efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country. In fact, 45 Senators have already voted that it is unconstitutional. We have done much work, but have not made a final decision on our legal team, which will be made shortly," former Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller told CNN.

Bowers, a respected lawyer from Columbia, South Carolina, once worked in the Justice Department under President George W. Bush.
Barbier, a South Carolina litigator, worked closely on several high-profile cases and was a former federal prosecutor for 15 years in the state before opening up her own boutique criminal defense firm.




https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/politics/butch-bowers-deborah-barbier-trump-impeachment-team/index.html

Anti-Vaxxers and Right-Wingers Shut Down Dodgers Stadium Vaccine Site

Dozens of anti-vaccination activists and right-wing protesters blocked the entrance of Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon as hundreds of people waited in line for the coronavirus vaccine, stalling the queue of cars and prompting the the Los Angeles Fire Department to close the mass vaccination site around 2 p.m. Authorities reopened the site around 3 p.m. The stadium shifted from providing COVID-19 tests to vaccination appointments roughly three weeks ago. German Jaquez, a man in line for an appointment that was canceled, told The Los Angeles Times that the protesters were telling drivers the coronavirus pandemic was not real and that the vaccine was the real danger. Video showed demonstrators holding signs that read “COVID=SCAM” and “Tell Bill Gates to vaccinate himself.” (Gates has vaccinated himself on camera.) According to one reporter on the scene, the organizer of the event referred to Bill Gates, a frequent target of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, as “a satanic pedophile eugenicist.”




https://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-vaxxers-and-right-wingers-shut-down-dodgers-stadium-vaccine-site

Senate Democrats reintroduce DC statehood bill

A group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) reintroduced legislation to give Washington, D.C., statehood on Wednesday, marking the first major effort to push toward statehood since the Capitol riot earlier this month.

The bill, which was first introduced in 2013, would give citizens of the District full authority over local issues, as well as grant them full representation in Congress.

"This isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue; it’s an American issue because the lack of fair representation for D.C. residents is clearly inconsistent with the values on which this country was founded," Carper said in a statement.

Washington, D.C., is home to roughly 700,000 residents, a population that is larger than both Wyoming and Vermont. However, Republicans argue the effort is a push to expand Democratic interests on Capitol Hill.

Critics also argue that the push goes against the 23rd Amendment, which gives D.C. residents the right to vote in presidential elections, but gives them as much say as the “least populous State.”




https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/536052-senate-democrats-reintroduce-dc-statehood-bill

VA-GOV: Former private equity executive launches bid for Virginia governor

Former private equity executive launches bid for Virginia governor.

Glenn Youngkin, a wealthy former private equity CEO, joined the increasingly crowded field of candidates for Virginia governor on Wednesday.

In an announcement video posted online, Youngkin, a first-time candidate, cast himself as a political outsider with modest roots.

“I’m not a politician. I’ve spent the last 30 years building business and creating jobs, leading a team of nearly 2,000 people who trusted me to get things done,” Youngkin, 54, said in the video.

In launching his campaign, Youngkin joins four other candidates seeking the GOP’s gubernatorial nomination in Virginia. The Democratic side has also drawn five contenders, including former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who’s seeking a second term in the governor’s mansion.



https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/536105-former-private-equity-executive-launches-bid-for-virginia-governor

Georgia state GOP lawmaker introduces bill requiring two copies of ID to vote absentee

A Georgia Republican is introducing a bill requiring voters to send copies of their photo ID to election officials two times before being permitted to cast an absentee ballot.

The legislation would also implement a photo ID requirement for voters sending in absentee ballots from outside the state, requiring them to submit proof of identification when applying for the ballot and when returning it.

Acceptable forms of ID would include a photocopy of the voter’s driver’s license, voter ID card, U.S. passport, government employee ID, military ID card or tribal identification card.

The bill marks the opening salvo of what is expected to be a robust effort by Georgia Republicans to limit absentee voting after President Biden won the state over former President Trump and Democrats swept the Peach State’s two Senate seats in a pair of January runoffs.

While GOP allegations of voter fraud and irregularities have failed to stand up to scrutiny, Republican officials still tout the need to rein in absentee voting after its use was widespread in November and January during the coronavirus pandemic, particularly among Democrats.




https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/536195-georgia-state-republican-introduces-bill-requiring-two-copies-of-id-to

Democrats weigh expanding lower courts after Trump blitz

Democrats are mulling how to reshape the federal judiciary after Republicans moved at record speed to confirm conservative judges over the past four years.

Former President Trump, aided by a GOP-controlled Senate, set the second-fastest pace on record for judicial appointments, allowing him to stack the courts with picks, including three Supreme Court justices, who were overwhelmingly white, younger and ideologically conservative.

President Biden has 50 vacancies to fill: three on the influential circuit courts and 47 in district courts. That number will eventually grow, including an opening on the powerful D.C. circuit court once Merrick Garland is confirmed as attorney general.

As Democrats plot their strategy, they are floating expanding the number of lower court seats, an idea that could have some bipartisan support.

“I have in the city of Buffalo a huge — they don't have enough judges. There's this long line before you can get to court because they don't have enough. So we could expand those,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said during a recent interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.




https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/536583-democrats-weigh-expanding-lower-courts-after-trump-blitz

Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward rejects calls for audit of party elections

(CNN)Kelli Ward on Friday rejected calls for an audit into her recent reelection as the chair of the Arizona Republican Party and other party races, arguing that the state GOP does not have the structure to review them.

"We don't have the structure to be able to do an audit," she said on KFYI's radio show "The Conservative Circus with James T. Harris," adding, "But we welcome their input to make elections bigger."

She added that the structure for an audit "doesn't exist in our process, our procedures, our bylaws, in statute."

Ward, one of the most fervent proponents of former President Donald Trump's false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, claimed not only that an audit was not possible, but that calls for it were being pushed as a way to attack her.



https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/politics/arizona-gop-kelli-ward-audit/index.html