Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Daryl Metcalf is on record saying the state shouldn't care if men are killed in domestic violence incidents.

Metcalf made those remarks after he single-handedly derailed the usually non-controversial State House resolution recognizing Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Metcalf’s only objection was to one part of the resolution that lists the frequency of domestic violence against men and women, for instance that, “One in every four women and one in every nine men will experience domestic violence in his or her lifetime.”

That’s 100% true, and since domestic violence is one of the most chronically under-reported crimes, it’s a statistic that should get more recognition – even from purely symbolic resolutions. But Metcalf, amazingly, objected to that line on the grounds that it “had a homosexual agenda.” When asked to clarify his views, Metcalf made even less sense:

Metcalfe, in an interview yesterday, said he opposed the resolution because it went beyond what he considered traditional domestic-violence programs that help battered women and children.

"It had language woven through it that brought men into the situation," said Metcalfe, who voted for similar resolutions in the last two years. "I don't support the resolution or funding for groups that go beyond helping women."

In other words, Metcalf thinks it is morally wrong to even express concern for male domestic violence victims, such as the 19-year-old Pennsylvania man who was recently murdered by his friend’s ex-fiancé, simply because some of those men might be gay. The bigotry of that point of view is absolutely breath-taking, but it gets worse.

When this story came to our attention, we wondered if Metcalf would also oppose an effort to help female victims of domestic violence. After all, some of those female victims might happen to be lesbians. According to Keystone Progress, Metcalf did just that, and he threw in his own brand of sick humor in the process:

On the same day, also on the House floor, he made matters worse. The House was about to vote on increasing marriage license fees from $3 to $28, with the increased amount going to a fund for victims of domestic abuse. Metcalfe opposed the measure, calling the funding a domestic violence programs “a slap in the face to family values.” The bill passed despite his outrageous claim. [emphasis added]

This is the second time in as many weeks that Republicans have shown how little they care about the devastating problem of domestic violence, and frankly, it’s a story we wish we didn’t have to report.

It is outrageous that representatives of a major political party, in 2009, would treat victims of domestic violence with such utter contempt, and it’s a vivid reminder why that party, the Republicans, simply don’t deserve to govern.

Republican Delegate Steve Landes is starting to feel the heat in his 25th District re-election campaign. After making headlines for saying the Obama administration is acting like Nazi Germany (an accusation he still refuses to walk back), Landes reported pitiful fundraising numbers for July and August – just over $9,000 raised in the period.

Now his Democratic opponent, charismatic doctor and former naval officer Greg Marrow, is returning to the bread and butter issues that brought him into the race – and Landes’ mediocre record on those issues. All the pressure was clearly getting to Del. Landes during a candidates’ forum a few days ago:

“Do we want the same-old, same-old? Einstein once said that the defintion of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result. That’s what we’re getting,” Marrow said. “Del. Landes is now talking about health care for the first time in a long time. He’s talking about job creation in the green sector and alternative fuels for the first time in a long time. I’m very, very happy to see that. But where has he been on those topics the last decade?”

The candidates had agreed beforehand to take one question from their opponent. Marrow asked Landes to detail what he has accomplished in his time in the House of Delegates, prompting a visibly rattled Landes to first promise Marrow that he would give him a copy of his legislative record, then, when it was Marrow’s turn to answer a question from Landes, Landes interrupted Marrow to hand him a red folder with a Landes campaign sticker on it.

“What have you accomplished?” might be the easiest, softball question a politician can ever hope for, so the fact that it “visibly rattled” Del. Landes goes to show how little he’s actually done in his 13 years as a Delegate. Maybe if he spent more time bringing jobs to his district and less time searching for Nazis, Landes would have more accomplishments to talk about.

Dr. Marrow would be a huge improvement, and you can learn more about his campaign here.

Roll Call recently profiled the national strategies of the Democratic and Republican Parties heading into 2011 redistricting. What they found is that both parties are pouring enormous resources into their efforts and relying increasingly on organizations outside the traditional DNC/RNC structure.

Here’s what Roll Call had to say about each of the lead organizations:

• National Democratic Redistricting Trust (D): “’We’re putting together a national legal advisory board along with state-by-state legal teams in cooperation with Congressional delegations and state delegations,’ said Brian Smoot, the trust’s executive director and a former DCCC political director. ‘And we will be undertaking legal research and drafting strategic memos for each state.’”
  
  

• Foundation for the Future (D): “(…) will continue to lead the analytical component of redistricting for the Democrats. The coalition, which includes the Association of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees, the National Committee for an Effective Congress and other Democratic groups, seeks to provide Democratic caucuses in each state with data, mapmaking software and demographic projections.”
  
  

• Making America’s Promise Secure (R): "MAPS, with the help of national Republican data and technology firm Intel360, is looking to take on the laborious and expensive process of analyzing the data. (…) MAPS is also seeking to lead the Republicans’ legal strategy by incorporating many of the party’s attorneys with experience on redistricting, including Ben Ginsberg, Mark Braden and Cleta Mitchell."

The increasing reliance on outside groups is one factor that’s expected to favor Democrats in the actual redistricting process, and it might be one of the last changes to our political system triggered by the McCain/Feingold Act:

Traditionally, the Republican National Committee centralized the GOP effort while Democrats relied on a coalition of outside groups. But passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002 left Republicans scrambling to reconfigure their traditional strategy, since the RNC used to fund the redistricting tasks with soft money. Democrats, meanwhile, because they had not relied on soft money to fund their redistricting efforts in the past, have been viewed as better positioned ahead of the 2011-2012 redraw.

Ultimately, early positioning is just one of many advantages each side will have in the upcoming redistricting battle. The most important factor will be which side controls each state’s legislature, especially in the 36 states where the legislature is primarily responsible for drawing Congressional districts.

The DLCC is working closely with Foundation for the Future and the National Democratic Redistricting Trust to ensure we are ready for 2010.

In one fell swoop, Republican State Rep. Brian Kelsey has wasted $75,000 of taxpayers’ money, left his constituents in the lurch, and made himself look extremely foolish in the process.

Kelsey is running in the special election to fill the vacant 31st district Senate seat of Republican Paul Stanley, who resigned because of a sex scandal, but Kelsey had a problem: if he won that race, he'd have to resign from the State House.

In order to ensure that the Shelby County Commission did not appoint a Democrat as his replacement to the House, Kelly decided to step down immediately.

Late last week, Kelsey announced his resignation to local media.

But the Representative had a poor grasp of either the election law or basic arithmetic (or possibly both) because his staff later sent out a frantic email rescinding the announcement.

Then this week, Kelsey reversed himself and resigned –- again.

By choosing to resign instead of allowing the Commission to make an appointment,
Kelsey is going to cost the state about $75,000.

Now, Kelsey’s Democratic opponent in the Senate special election has blasted him for wasting taxpayers’ money, but so has the Republican County Commission Chair:

[Democratic candidate Adrienne] Pakis-Gillon criticized Kelsey's decision to resign now. "We cannot keep wasting money like this. Mr. Kelsey claims to be an agent of fiscal responsibility, but by throwing extra cost on the taxpayers, his actions are speaking much louder than his words," she said in a press release.

(…) Shelby County Commission Chairwoman Joyce Avery, a Republican, also feels it would be better if the county's legislative body named a successor. "It may be state dollars (paying for a special election) but they are still tax dollars," she said.

In addition to the wasted time, wasted money, and the embarrassing way he quit his old job, Kelsey also left his current constituents in the lurch. Because half of Kelsey’s old House district is also in the vacant 31st Senate district, none of those constituents have a sitting state legislator to represent them. Between now and December, if any of those citizens need help navigating state government bureaucracy or want the legislature to address a local issue, they’ll have nowhere to turn.

Kelsey, of course, is still out campaigning for a promotion to the State Senate – a promotion he clearly hasn’t earned. You can learn more about Adrienne Pakis-Gillon at her website.

Endorsements and scandals are flying fast and furious now in the Virginia Delegate races; here are some of the biggest stories we’ve noticed lately:

• HD-8: Democrat Carter Turner, who stepped up to challenge Republican Delegate Morgan Griffith in July when the original nominee withdrew, continues to rack up key endorsements. In addition to Independent Mayor Randy Foley of Salem (the district’s population anchor), Turner has now been endorsed by two former Salem mayors – Democrat Howard Packett and Republican Sonny Tarpley. That sort of crossover support will be crucial for Turner in this fairly conservative district.
  
  

• HD-51: A group of Virginia military veterans has stepped forward to support Democratic Delegate Paul Nichols’ re-election campaign. The group, headed by Korean War veteran Bruce Holley, specifically cites Nichols’ co-sponsorship of the “Military Service Personnel Bill of Rights.” Among other benefits, the bill would provide “tax and insurance benefits as well as providing supplemental pay to state employees called up to active duty if their military compensation was less than their civilian wages.”
  
  

• HD-93: Republican Delegate Phil Hamilton just can’t catch a break in his ongoing pay-for-play scandal with Old Dominion University (backstory here). An internal audit by ODU found "’very little documentation’ of any services Hamilton provided for the $40,000 a year he was paid.” The audit also found that the teacher training center that employed Hamilton – and was funded annually by a $500,000 state earmark secured by Hamilton – “had no true employees of its own, and its Peninsula office sat unused for much of the past two years.” This story just keeps getting shadier and shadier…
  
  

• Statewide: National Republicans’ newest cult hero, South Carolina Congressman Joe “You Lie!” Wilson, is looking to stir up trouble in Virginia’s Delegate races. Wilson sent out a fundraising email for Speaker Bill Howell’s leadership PAC, the proceeds of which will likely be used to attack Democratic candidates. House Republicans choosing Wilson as their spokesperson is, sadly, not surprising – he’s a perfect example of the slash-and-burn politics Howell and the Republicans practice in Richmond.

Fall 2009 is turning into a busy time for Tennessee special legislative elections. Today we have a quick roundup of upcoming action across the state:

• HD-62: The heavy hitters are out in force in this mostly rural, heavily conservative seat in central Tennessee. Last Thursday, Governor Phil Bredesen held an event with Democratic nominee Ty Cobb, who’s running for the seat vacated when his brother, Democratic Rep. Curt Cobb, resigned to accept a county clerk position. Republican Pat Marsh followed that with a campaign appearance by Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker.
  
  

• SD-31: Republican State Rep. Brian Kelsey is having a rough week in his bid to replace Sen. Paul Stanley of suburban Memphis, a Republican who resigned under a sudden flurry of sex scandals. Kelsey’s biggest campaign issue so far seems to be… figuring out when to quit his old job. Last Friday, Kelsey emailed a resignation announcement to local media, claiming that an early resignation would allow a special election to fill his House seat (and prevent the Democratic-controlled Shelby County Commission from appointing a placeholder). But Kelsey apparently misread the election calendar, because he quickly rescinded his resignation announcement. SD-31 is another strongly conservative district, but Kelsey’s antics so far have probably not inspired much confidence by the district’s voters.
  
  

• Nashville Elections: The new GOP majority on the Davidson County Election Commission has announced a city-wide effort to pack the ranks of election volunteers with Republican activists. The newest Republican commissioner claims he’s just seeking more “balance,” but it’s still extremely disturbing to see public election officials with their fingers on the partisan scale in any way.

Early voting begins on Wednesday for the HD-62 race, with Election Day on October 13th. The SD-31 primary is October 15th, and the general election is December 1st.

California Republicans have officially gone off the deep end.

Last week, State Senate Republicans helped shut down dozens of domestic violence shelters in retaliation for alleged sleight of hand by Democrats.

The Democrats’ offense, supposedly, was their refusal to cancel a program that helps low-income Californians do their taxes. Democrats promised to consider the move, but the caucus ultimately kept the program going. In response, Republicans blocked more than twenty bills that required 2/3 support:

Other casualties included bills to keep dozens of domestic-violence shelters from closing, to help cities and counties borrow while the state raids their treasuries, to distribute federal money to counties for swine flu treatment, and to implement a new hospital fee that would qualify the state for $2 billion in federal money.

Six of those shelters have already been forced to close. Amazingly, Senate Republicans continue to defend their actions. But as they’re quickly finding out, there really is no defense:

[Senate Republican leader Dennis] Hollingsworth contended that "the Democratic leadership did not uphold their previous budget agreements."

But the minority leader wasn't available to discuss exactly which agreements he thought had been broken, and his staff said it didn't know.

This is typical behavior from California Republicans -- always blaming everyone else, and always playing the victim.

But now real victims of domestic violence have nowhere to go to escape their abusers. And the truly sick part about this is that Senate Republicans freely admit they held the shelters hostage in order to feel powerful, with one senator bragging that "This was an opportunity for Republicans to have some leverage."

I hope they’re proud of themselves -- because no one else is.

Candidate financial disclosure reports for July and August were filed on Tuesday, and we decided to take a look at a few key races to see how the money race is going:

• HD-13: Democratic challenger John Bell significantly out-raised Republican Delegate Bob Marshall, $85,920 to $53,808. Marshall still holds a slim cash-on-hand advantage of $101,549 to $86,414, but Bell’s consistent fundraising and relentless field program have to have the Marshall campaign nervous.
  
  

• HD-17: Democrat Gwen Mason continued to rack up a huge fundraising advantage against Republican Bill Cleaveland in this Roanoke-based open seat. Mason outraised Cleaveland $76,304 to $27,315 in the period and holds a cash-on-hand lead of $83,141 to $34,632.
  
  

• HD-34: Democratic Delegate Margi Vanderhye has her hands full in her race against former Bush administration official Barbara Comstock. Vanderhye raised $54,788 to Comstock’s $60,422, and she also narrowly trails Comstock in cash-on-hand ($132,578 to $158,215). In addition to her normal Bush connections, Karl Rove has been hosting fundraisers for Comstock’s campaign – which tells us all we need to know about what kind of Delegate she’d make.
  
  

• HD-42: Democratic challenger Greg Werkheiser doubled up on Republican Del. Dave Albo (of abusive driving fee infamy), raising $114,207 in the period to Albo’s $53,726. Werkheiser still faces a cash-on-hand deficit against Albo ($80,156 to $144,813), but Werkheiser should close the distance quickly if he can keep up this pace.
  
  

• HD-93: Republican Delegate Phil Hamilton, who was one of the most powerful Delegates in Richmond before he was engulfed in a pay-for-play scandal, is still raking in campaign cash. Hamilton raised $137,302 in July and August, and has $207,209 cash-on-hand. Democrat Robin Abbott is also running a very strong campaign, raising $68,833 and ending with $108,372 on hand, but she knows she’s got a tough fight against Hamilton’s fundraising machine.

These were just a few of the close races in Virginia this year, and there are many more highly-competitive campaigns in the state. More finance reports are available at the Virginia Board of Elections website.

Overall, Democratic and Republican candidates raised about $2.3 million in July and August, with the Republicans raising slightly more. However, the Democrats’ parity is encouraging, especially since the Republicans are in the majority and have more incumbents raising money.

In 2005, Indiana became the first state in the country to require voters to present government-issued identification before casting a ballot.

That law -- pushed by Republicans -- has been the subject of numerous legal challenges, eventually making its way to the US Supreme Court last year, which upheld the requirement.

A state court, however, has now ruled that the law violates Indiana's state constitution:

The decision said the voter ID law is not applied in a "uniform and impartial" manner for two reasons:

It doesn't require mail-in absentee voters to produce a photo ID.

It exempts residents of state-licensed care facilities from the ID requirement if their facility serves as a polling place.

The decision will not be applied to any elections until the state Supreme Court has a chance to weigh in on the new ruling.

Across the country, lawmakers are using new media tools like Twitter to broadcast their views, engage with constituents, and share interesting information.

But it's becoming clear that in the rush to embrace the technology, some have absolutely no idea what they're doing.

Case in point? Republicans in Colorado are racing to ban 'liberal' followers on Twitter:

Apparently the word went out over the weekend that "liberals" are attempting to "follow" Republicans on Twitter. This is being interpreted as a bad, nefarious thing, needing to be stopped, although "following" on Twitter is in most other circles considered desirable.

GOP Senator Dave Schultheis is one of the conservatives who sprung into action, telling his followers that he had blocked three "liberals" on Monday.

The issue here is visible to everyone, correct?

Twitter is designed to be a public forum. All of us 'liberals' can still view Schultheis' feed online, whether we're following him or not.

Twitter: you're doing it wrong.

The New Jersey Legislature has passed an important new bill to help ease the transition for military veterans in the state’s colleges and universities. Approved unanimously in both legislative chambers and signed by Gov. Corzine this week, the plan establishes the Troops to College program, providing veterans’ assistance officers on each campus to help returning veterans access financial aide, navigate their schools’ bureaucracy, and adjust to life on a bustling campus.

So far, many New Jersey veterans are excited about the program:

"It's not easy to get on your feet and back into school," said New Jersey National Guard Army Sgt. Marie Exley, 30, of Voorhees, who served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and from 2007 to last year.

"This program sounds like it would make the transition easier. You wouldn't get discouraged and lost in the shuffle."

Soldiers' feelings of isolation are common after combat tours, making adjustment to busy campus life particularly difficult, said former Army Spec. Bryan Adams, 25, of Palmyra, who was shot twice in Iraq during a tour from 2004 to 2005.

"The legislation is excellent; every university should have" a veterans' assistance officer, said Adams, a pre-business major at Rutgers University in Camden. "When we come back, we face a unique set of issues - obstacles that [the] average student doesn't have to worry about.

Troops to College follows in the wake of the federal 21st Century G.I. Bill, passed in 2007, which significantly expanded the educational benefits available to soldiers, guards, reservists and their families. With the number of returning veterans enrolling in college expected to rise, New Jersey is doing its best to be ready for them.

Iowa Republicans recently unveiled a largely ineffective scheme to improve public education by adding yet another layer of testing – this time just before students’ high school graduations. After reading the Republicans’ “plan,” Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, who’s also Chair of the DLCC’s Board of Directors, was not impressed:

The Democratic leader of the Iowa Senate on Wednesday rejected a Republican plan to increase testing of students and teachers, calling it "a tired old idea" that wouldn't improve education in the state.

Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal belittled the Republican proposal to expand testing and issue annual report cards for local schools. He said the plan wasn't needed and wouldn't move through the Legislature convening in January.

"This seems like a tired old idea they had back in the '90s when they were fighting with (former Republican Gov. Terry) Branstad over education," said Gronstal, of Council Bluffs.

But Gronstal wasn’t content to simply criticize – he also reiterated legislative Democrats’ plans to improve public education, focusing squarely on Iowa classrooms:

"What's the point of testing a kid when you're done with him at the end?" said Gronstal. "The point is to make sure that kids are learning along the way."

Gronstal said Democrats will focus on raising Iowa teacher pay to the national average and refining curriculum that schools must offer.

"We're going to continue to struggle to find resources to make sure we don't lose ground on teacher pay," said Gronstal.

Like most states, Iowa’s state budget has been hard-hit by global recession, but Gronstal and Iowa’s legislative Democrats have been instrumental in protecting the state’s public schools from the most devastating budget cuts.

When Virginia Republicans voted to block the state from accepting $125 million in federal stimulus money for unemployment benefits, we warned that the move would cause a tax hike for businesses in the state – and it turns out we were right.

With Virginia’s unemployment trust fund nearly broke, Gov. Kaine has been forced to ask the federal government for a loan to keep the system afloat. That, in turn, will trigger an automatic tax increase on employers:

If the state has an outstanding federal loan on the first day of two consecutive calendar years — which Virginia will in 2010 and 2011 — employers will pay an additional $21 per employee in 2011.

Virginia’s request for aid brings back into the spotlight the House of Delegates April 8 rejection of $125 million in federal stimulus money that would have provided unemployment benefits to the state’s jobless.

The house rejected the bill in a 53-to-46 vote because it made part-time workers and those in approved job training programs eligible for the benefits.

Had the house approved the measure, Kaine’s office said Virginia would not have needed to request a federal loan until after Jan. 1, 2010, which, in turn would have pushed the $21-per-employee fee until 2012, when the economy is likely to be more stable.

Republican Delegates, however, still insist that rejecting the money was a good idea, oblivious to the fact that they’ve just turned down the money they need only to take out a loan from the very same source –- the federal government. Now, not only will that money have to be paid back, but the Republicans have forced businesses in the state to bear the cost.

Thirty years after Maryland imposed an elaborate system of price controls for medical procedures, not only have the state’s hospital costs sunk below the national average, but hospitals are more consistently profitable than elsewhere in the country. Is this an example of a functioning command economy, or simply proof that health care behaves much differently than a traditional free market?

Maryland’s experience began in 1977, when Maryland hospital costs were 25 percent higher than the national average. That year, the state established the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission, which sets the rates specific hospitals may charge for specific procedures. Rather than setting a blanket rate for every procedure, the Commission creates a separate rate structure for each hospital, adding flexibility to the system to accommodate local conditions at each hospital.

The system has fundamentally changed the way Maryland hospitals charge their patients and created significant cost savings through greater efficiency:

Private insurers aren't allowed to bargain for discounts on hospital payment rates, though patients may not notice the difference. But that isn't the case for the uninsured. In other states, hospitals typically charge the uninsured steep prices that no insurer actually pays, forcing the hospitals to write off the charges they can't collect payment for. In Maryland, where hospitals know they will get reimbursed for charity care, hospitals charge the same rate whether a patient has insurance or not.

The system has largely reined in hospital costs. In 1976, Maryland hospital costs were 25% more per case than the national average; by 2007, the latest year for which data are available, Maryland's costs were 2% less than the national average. Maryland also saw the nation's second-slowest increase in hospital costs during the same period, said Robert Murray, the commission's executive director.

On average, Maryland hospitals charged patients 20% above the cost to treat them in 2007, compared with a national average of 182%, according to the American Hospital Association.

But what consequence do these savings have for the hospitals themselves and their bottom line? According the president of the Johns Hopkins Health System, Maryland Hospitals are doing quite well under the Commission’s rates, perhaps because revenue streams are more predictable:

Maryland hospitals have a steady profit margin, unlike hospitals in other states that often make more money during boom years and less during a recession. For Johns Hopkins Hospital, the profit margin from operations is consistently between 2% and 4%, Mr. Peterson says. Statewide, the commission says the profit margin averages about 2.5% to 3%; before the commission was established, Maryland hospitals were losing money covering the uninsured.

Unlike employer mandates, preventive care, and other reform ideas states have experimented with, price controls have not been a major part of the national healthcare debate this year. And maybe they shouldn’t be –- a commission like the one in Maryland might not work as well on a national scale. But the idea of hospitals charging insured and uninsured patients the same rates could be promising, and like all state-level healthcare reform experiments, national policymakers would do well to take a closer look.

Several states that potentially stand to lose congressional seats after the 2010 Census are putting their finishing touches on multi-million dollar outreach campaigns designed to boost Census participation among traditionally under-counted communities. The Census Bureau itself has budgeted nearly $300 million for a nation-wide campaign, but individual states are hoping their own efforts will move the final numbers in their direction:

Minnesota lawmakers have devoted $720,000 to their state's 2010 census campaign, even as they cut budgets for colleges, health programs and most state agencies in the face of multibillion-dollar deficits. Massachusetts, New York and California are poised to spend $2 million apiece.

(…) California Complete Count Committee spokesman Eric Alborg said the state is seeing foundations and local governments step up more with time and money.

For example, San Francisco supervisors allocated $870,000, or about $1 per county resident, for census promotion. And last month, the private California Foundation committed $4 million for outreach among hard-to-count immigrant and low-income populations, building on a nonprofit's recent $1.5 million pledge. In some places, promoters hope to persuade ethnic markets to print information about the census on grocery receipts.

In Minnesota, Dolan's team held 25 town halls this year and crafted public service announcements for radio and television in English, Hmong, Somali and Spanish. At the just-concluded state fair, volunteers put a special focus on retirees who spend their winters in the South, telling them that their census forms could arrive before they return home.

In addition to protecting their congressional clout, maximizing Census participation would ensure that these states receive their fair shares of federal funding for education, healthcare, and other services over the next decade.

With Election Day less than two months away, here are some of the Virginia Delegate races making headlines this week:

• HD-09: Independent Green Party candidate Sherman Witcher is criticizing Virginia school districts that refused to show President Obama’s speech to students real-time, calling it “a slap in the face of the president.” Witcher is the only candidate running against Republican Delegate Charles Poindexter in this staunchly conservative district south of Roanoke.
  
  

• HD-15: Democratic candidate John Lesinski recently unveiled a comprehensive plan to improve freight rail infrastructure in the Shenandoah Valley. Lesinski points out that a rail corridor would be cheaper to build than an expansion of Interstate-81, would reduce highway truck traffic, and could potentially encourage new business development in the region. Lesinski is challenging Republican Delegate Todd Gilbert.
  
  

• HD-25: Democratic challenger Greg Marrow is criticizing Republican Delegate Steve Landes for saying the White House political operation “reminds me of what went on in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.” Landes’ specific complaint, as explained by the Waynesboro News Virginian, is that “groups related to and in the White House are tracking what is being said about the White House.” Now, it’s a pretty safe bet that people related to and in the Steve Landes campaign are tracking what is being said about Steve Landes, but that doesn’t make Del. Landes a Nazi. It does, however, make him an idiot.
  
  

• HD-42: The Fairfax Times recently profiled Democratic challenger Greg Werkheiser, who’s running against Republican incumbent Dave Albo of Fairfax County. Albo is most infamous for supporting the abusive driving fees that briefly charged some drivers thousands of dollars for routine traffic tickets, but the Times focused on each candidate’s plans for transportation, education, and the budget.
  
  

• HD-86: A local newspaper in Herndon, VA has taken notice of Democratic candidate Stevens Miller’s recent decision to cut his own salary as a Loudon County Supervisor to help balance the county budget. Miller was the only supervisor to make that offer, noting that "With the budget cuts that we were making, [Loudoun County] was asking a lot of people to operate on a leaner basis. My wife and I talked about it and we decided we could do the same." Miller is challenging Republican Delegate Tom Rust in this Loudoun and Fairfax County district.

This month, the California legislature passed a reform measure that would limit the ability of health insurance companies to drop patients who have been diagnosed with serious illness:

The proposal, pushed by the California Medical Assn. and other advocacy groups, would allow regulators to block the rescission of coverage unless they find that a patient intentionally lied to the company about preexisting conditions.

Government officials believe that the practice -- officially known as rescission -- has allowed insurance companies to cancel coverage for thousands of California citizens and rescission has been the focus of investigation by law enforcement agencies in California

The measure has been passed by both chambers and will head to the governor after the Assembly considers a handful of changes.

Tort reform, specifically for medical malpractice cases, is growing more important in the national healthcare debate – especially after President Obama talked about it in his prime-time speech on Wednesday. But just like with preventive care, health insurance exchanges, and employer mandates, states are providing a crucial testing ground for tort reform ideas as well.

The University of Michigan’s hospital system has found that a basic shift in its doctors’ and hospitals’ approach to medical errors can significantly reduce the amount of lawsuits they face:

The move to an early error-disclosure system in 2002 has paid dividends at the University of Michigan Health System, said Richard C. Boothman, the hospital's chief risk officer. Prior to 2002, the culture was to fight every case, he said. "Nobody said, 'what should we have learned from this?' "

Today the hospital encourages employees to report mistakes, and also to report issues that might lead to mistakes. A committee of peers reviews serious incidents. If the panel determines that a mistake has occurred, the hospital and doctors apologize. In addition, the University of Michigan compensates the patient or the family.

The costs to such a review are high, said Mr. Boothman. They are included in the hospital's risk-management budget, which has grown to more than $3 million annually, up from $500,000 in 2001. But claims against the hospital have been reduced to 106 in 2008 from 121 in 2001.

A stricter reform idea in Georgia, Florida, and Illinois requires malpractice plaintiffs to seek written declarations from medical experts that their lawsuits have merit. Though an expensive requirement (sometimes prohibitively so), the rule helps ensure that plaintiffs and their attorneys have expert opinions informing their cases. It also makes it more difficult for purely frivolous claims to reach the courtroom.

Until we see more data from these experiments, we won’t know for sure how effective – or even counterproductive – these ideas may be. But it still amazes us to see that once again, as on so many issues, the most ground-breaking reforms are happening in the states.

In a fight between local residents and one of the richest people in the world, one Michigan legislator put her seat on the line to protect the health of her constituents.

12th District Representative Rashida Tlaib represents part of downtown Detroit, and her residents have long suffered health problems and traffic jams caused by the Ambassador Bridge, linking Detroit to Canada. The bridge’s owner, billionaire Manuel Moroun, wants to build a second bridge nearby, but he’s refusing to do an environmental impact study to find out if vehicle fumes from the new bridge would worsen asthma and other health problems in the area.

Twenty percent of children in the neighborhood have asthma, including Rep. Tlaib’s four-year-old son, and local activists are convinced the new bridge would worsen the problem. Moroun, however, doesn’t seem to care one way or another, as he made clear in a meeting with Tlaib:

Despite rumors that she and Moroun were personally close, she said she has only met him once, at a meeting with another legislator. She asked him why he was resisting an environmental impact study for his proposed second span — a project the government of Canada opposes.

"I don't come in and tell you what to do in your back yard," he said.

She was repelled by the arrogance, not to mention what increasing truck traffic would do to her people's health.

Despite Moroun’s influence, his money, and his long history of political involvement (including donations to Republican committees in over a dozen states since 2004), Tlaib stood firm and threw her support behind a competing project to build a publicly-financed bridge a mile downriver. With better spacing, Tlaib reasoned, both the traffic and health problems would be reduced for everyone.

Tlaib’s stand won heavy praise from district residents, but Moroun was furious. So he did his best to destroy the duly-elected Representative. One of his political allies launched a series of recall petitions against Tlaib, seeking to remover her from office over her support for the competing bridge project. Tlaib still refused to back down, and the Wayne County Election Commission ultimately struck down the recall petitions as unlawfully vague.

Throughout the fight, Tlaib has remained wildly popular in her district, which she won with 90 percent of the vote in 2008. Nearly a hundred Tlaib supporters converged on the Wayne County Election Commission offices on the day of the recall hearing – a huge turnout for a regular municipal meeting.

But most importantly, Tlaib appears to be winning the fight for her constituents. The rival bridge project she supports continues to move ahead, with the Canadian government purchasing land for the project downriver from the Ambassador Bridge in Tlaib’s district. And the billionaire Moroun, for now at least, has been stymied.

Should your state forge its own path to universal health care? How much should we invest in education? Are renewable energy projects a wise use of your tax dollars?

Right now, more than 4,000 Democratic state senators and representatives around the country are struggling to answer those questions, and we want to tell them what you think. That's why we hope you'll participate in our 2009 Legislative Priorities Survey.

The questions are quick and easy, and they are a great way to make your voice heard by your lawmakers. With the recession squeezing every state's budget, it's never been more important to tell our elected officials how we feel about the critical issues we face. In the coming months, legislators will have to choose between improving our schools and making health care more affordable; promoting renewable energy and adding new road and rail lines.

They need to hear from us.

Take a minute to fill out the 2009 Legislative Priorities Survey, and show your legislators what it is that you care about.

California Assemblyman Mike “Spanky” Duvall resigned from the Legislature this afternoon after a live microphone recorded him bragging about lewd details of two simultaneous affairs with Sacramento lobbyists. At the time, Duvall was sitting in an Assembly committee room before a public hearing.

OC Weekly viewed the tape and has a comprehensive write-up of Duvall’s remarks and the reaction from inside the Capitol. Some of Duvall’s more cringe-inducing statements include:

"Oh, she is hot! I talked to her yesterday. She goes, 'So are we finished?' I go, 'No, we're not finished.' I go, 'You know about the other one, but she doesn't know about you!'"

For the absolute worst of what Duvall said, you’ll have to read the OC Weekly article –- this is a family blog, after all. Also, KCAL News has been following the story closely.

Duvall, who is married with two children, had been a well-known culture warrior in California politics, and had earned a 100% rating from the conservative Capitol Resource Institute, which promotes “traditional family values:”

"Assemblyman Duvall has been a consistent trooper for the conservative causes," CRI president Karen England announced in March. "For the last two years, he has voted time and time again to protect and preserve family values in California. We are grateful for his support of California families.'"

Indeed –- how will Californians protect their family values without people like Duvall in the legislature?

HD-03: Democratic Delegate Dan Bowling of Tazewell addressed the annual Coal Miners Reunion in Pocahontas, VA on Monday. In recognition of Labor Day, Bowling avoided making a political speech, instead noting that “Today is about working men and women.” He also told the story of how a mine worker helped convince him to make his first run for state Delegate.

HD-47: Democratic nominee Patrick Hope won the Arlington County Democrats’ annual chili cook-off on Monday afternoon. While Hope came out on top, he beat back tough competition from neighboring Delegate Bob Brink of the 48th District and the Virginia Coordinated Campaign, who tied for second place.

HD-74: Henrico County Democratic Delegate Joseph Morrissey used the Labor Day weekend to kick off his re-election campaign in unique fashion – by announcing a 74-mile bicycle tour of his Richmond-area district. Along the way, Morrissey will attend community events, meet with constituents, and reach out to local officials about issues in the campaign.

HD-93: Republican Delegate Phil Hamilton, already facing a state ethics inquiry over a pay-for-play scandal, now has a federal grand jury to worry about. The scandal arose after a Freedom of Information Act request revealed emails from Hamilton seeking a $40,000 job from a teacher training center while he was securing taxpayer funding for the center. The grand jury issued subpoenas over the weekend seeking additional emails related to Hamilton's job request.

State Senate: The fallout from Phil Hamilton’s ethical improprieties has begun to hit other Republican officials. In particular, a Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist has identified three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee who also work for state-funded universities. While there have been no more “smoking-gun” emails suggesting pay-for-play deals, the arrangement clearly raises ethical questions. And one of the Republicans, Tommy Norment of Williamsburg, refused to disclose his job with the College of William & Mary on mandatory financial disclosure documents – a potential violation of House ethics rules.

Republicans currently control majorities in both houses of the Missouri legislature, but both parties are already looking ahead to 2010 as a crucial election.

And for good reason:

The party that holds the majority in 2010 will control any redistricting. And roughly 40 Republicans, who hold majorities in both the Senate and the House, are term-limited, which leaves wide-open races.

Across the state, candidates have already begun to announce their intentions to run.

A prominent supporter of redistricting reform in California has filed a ballot initiative to require a bipartisan commission to conduct congressional redistricting in the state. California voters narrowly approved a similar measure in 2008, establishing the Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw state legislative seats. The new measure would add congressional districts to the commission’s jurisdiction:

Charles T. Munger Jr., son of a billionaire and key supporter of the November 2008 Proposition 11 redistricting initiative, on Wednesday asked the state attorney general's office for an official title and summary for his proposal.

The new initiative, called the "Voters First Act for Congress," is aimed at the November 2010 ballot, and requires permission from the secretary of state's office before circulating signature petitions. The initiative, which would amend the California constitution, needs about 694,000 valid signatures of voters to qualify for the ballot.

Preparations are already underway to form the Citizens Redistricting Commission, and this new ballot measure would apply to the 2010 redistricting process, if approved by voters.

With the filing of this initiative in California, there are now at least three major redistricting reform measures seeking ballot placement in 2010. A Utah initiative would create a bipartisan commission to draw legislative and congressional districts, and a pair of Florida ballot initiatives would require legislative and congressional redistricting plans to adhere to anti-gerrymandering principles such as compactness and respect for political subdivisions.

California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass -- a DLCC board member -- has brokered a deal in the legislature that will keep nearly 700,000 children in her state covered by health insurance through the Health Families program:

Under the rescue effort, Healthy Families will reap $196 million to keep 660,000 children of low-income families from losing health insurance provided by the government program. Much of the money will come from a new 2.35% tax on health insurance companies that will be used to leverage nearly $100 million in federal matching funds.

Speaker Bass said the measure was one of the most heartening votes of the legislative session, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called the compromise that Bass worked out "a great victory for California's kids."

In Mississippi, Republicans are embracing a new effort to enact strict voter ID laws. Because Democrats have been successful at blocking these measures in the legislature, the state GOP is now pushing for a ballot initiative that would put the question to the voters next fall:

In order to get voter ID on the November 2010 ballot, they'll need to fill the petition with the 100,000 signatures by Oct. 1.

On Thursday, Republicans from across the state -- led by Gov. Haley Barbour -- organized a meeting to make their case for the new laws.

The Republican effort in Mississippi is part of a larger national trend by the GOP to require voters to present state-issued forms of identification at polling stations before they are able to cast votes.

As recently as June, the U.S. Department of Justice struck down part of controversial Georgia voter ID effort forced through by Republicans in that state.

At Netroots Nation, I spoke for just about five minutes on why next year's legislative elections will have such a major impact on redistricting. Check out the video below:

To watch the entire panel, click here.

What do our legislators do for a living? How old are they? How many of them are women? How many are racial or religious minorities? Clearly, the number of Democrats and Republicans in elected office is not the only thing that matters, which is why we’re so excited that the National Conference of State Legislatures has created a new tool to help answer those questions and more.

The graphic allows individuals to compare the demographics of their state legislature against any other state, as well as national averages. I was surprised to learn, for instance, that my home state of Louisiana has fewer clergy members serving in its state legislature than New York does, but more than three times as many doctors (by proportion).

Morgan Cullen over at The Thicket took a look at broader trends and sought to explain why such a high percentage of legislators are from the “baby-boomer” generation:

Our analysis of state legislator ages in 2008 shows that 47.9% of legislators presently serve between the ages of 50-64 years of age. This age range accounts for nearly half of all legislators presently serving and is almost two times larger than any other age group.

There are many contributing factors to why a majority of legislators decide to run for elected office during this period of their lives. Candidates running for office from this age group have a broad range of professional experience making them more electable. Family responsibilities have often been significantly reduced since children are often fully grown. And the 50-64 age group is also the most financially stable, a benefit of many productive years in the workforce.

There is a wealth of other data available in the NCSL tool, and we’d encourage anyone to take a minute and check it out.

In the first electoral test of voters’ reaction to the Iowa Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage (and Iowa Democrats’ courageous promise to defend that ruling), Democrat Curt Hanson won a fiercely-contested special election in Iowa, finishing ahead of Republican Stephen Burgmeier by 107 votes in House District 90:

While Hanson will replace Rep. John Whitaker -- another Democrat who left the legislature to take a position with the US Department of Agriculture -- Republicans poured resources and energy into an attempt to pick up the vacant seat.

All of the intangible factors seemed to favor the GOP. Burgmeier had more political experience, and he had a natural base in Jefferson County, the district’s population anchor. He also out-raised Hanson in fundraising by nearly a third. The district itself, though it leans slightly Democratic, is a mostly rural area on the Missouri border -– exactly the sort of district where Republicans expected a major backlash against marriage equality.

Right-wing groups had promised a fight over marriage equality, and they backed that up with hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Iowa Republican Party, the right-wing National Organization for Marriage, and other outside groups:

The National Organization for Marriage has spent more than $80,000 to promote Burgmeier’s opposition to same-sex marriage, for instance, not mentioning Hanson in their commercial at all. Iowans for Tax Relief released a television ad attacking Hanson for being in the same party as Culver and as George Soros, a billionaire businessman who has donated to liberal causes nationally, but who has not been tied to the Hanson campaign in particular.

Republicans were convinced that this race could be nationalized and that would give them an advantage.

It didn't.

For our part, Democrats focused on turning out voters. Hanson was able to build a significant advantage in absentee ballots and won Jefferson County, which both Hanson and Burgmeier call home, convincingly.

As the Iowa Independent reported, "It was a textbook Iowa Democratic campaign, designed to push Hanson across the goal line with little fanfare and a lot of direct contact with voters. And it worked."

As of today, same-sex marriage is legal in Vermont. The state was the first to enact full marriage equality entirely through the legislative process, without any prompting from the courts, but Maine and New Hampshire passed their own marriage equality legislation shortly thereafter.

The implementation of marriage equality in earlier states tended to be big news nation-wide -– most notably in Massachusetts in 2003. But for Vermont, in quiet testament to how far equality has come in the New England region, September 1st will be remembered not only for the extraordinary change that took place, but for the sheer normalcy of the occasion:

In 2000, gay and lesbian couples flooded into Vermont, out-of-state couples made up nearly 70 percent of the 7,000 civil unions performed in the first year.

But the New England gay marriage landscape has altered drastically since then. Five out of six New England states -– Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Connecticut –- have legalized gay nuptials. Even gay couples from New York, Vermont's largest neighbor to its west, where marriage is not available, are unlikely to take advantage of the new law because the option has been available for nearly a year in nearby Connecticut. Other New Yorkers remain hopeful that a widely-supported gay marriage bill held up in the state Senate will finally become law.

“We've got about a dozen gay marriages happening at the lodge between Sept. 1 and the end of the year,” Willie Docto, co-owner of the Moose Meadow Lodge in Waterbury, told the Rutland Herald. “I think a lot of people have already gotten married in Massachusetts or Connecticut over the last few years. … It was a special thing when civil unions came along in 2000.

“We're not expecting a huge rush,” Greg Trulson, Docto's civil union partner, said. “We're not the only place that gay and lesbian couples can have their union legally recognized anymore.”

With or without that sense of normalcy, this is a day all Vermonters can look back up on with pride for their state’s place on the right side of history.

This victory was made possible by Vermont’s Democratic legislators, who successfully overrode Republican Governor Jim Douglas’ veto of the marriage equality bill. The override passed by one vote in the State House, where Democrats had picked up two seats in the 2008 election.