TruTV certainly didn’t shortchange Tea Party state legislators when they published their list of the “50 Worst Politicians in America.” Their list takes plenty of shots at both parties, but when it comes to America’s 7,000+ sitting state legislators, five prominent Republicans were the only ones judged “worthy” of this dubious honor:

• Arkansas — Loy Mauch
  The newly elected state lawmaker says the Confederate flag is "a symbol of Jesus Christ above all else." He's also in the League of the South, a group that advocates for Southern secession [and is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center].

• Idaho — John McGee
  After getting drunk at a golf clubhouse, the state's Majority Caucus Chairman went on a wee-hours barefoot walk when he happened on a Ford Excursion with a travel trailer attached and the keys inside. Police alleged he hopped in and took a joy ride, only to botch a k-turn and jackknife the truck in someone's driveway. The cops were called and the politician was arrested for grand theft and driving under the influence. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail for DUI, but the theft charges were dropped. But it wasn't over yet: he was censured in the state legislature for blocking an investigation into his medical claims... and then sending it to die in a committee... which he also chaired.

• Oklahoma — Sally Kern
  Arguing in support of a 2011 bill to end affirmative action, the state representative said women usually don't want to work as hard as men because they want to stay at home and that prisons have a high percentage of blacks because they didn't want to study hard in school. Fortunately, she's used to the flavor of her own foot, as she first gained notoriety in 2008 for saying gay people posed a greater risk to the country than terrorism.

• South Carolina — Jake Knotts
  The state senator said this of then-candidate/now Governor Nikki Haley: "We already got one raghead in the White House, we don't need a raghead in the Governor's Mansion." Haley immigrated to the U.S. from India as a child, while Knotts clearly immigrated up his own butt.

• South Dakota — Hal Wick
  The state representative introduced a bill that would require anyone over 21 to buy a gun. But it was just a stunt masterminded by the rascally Republican to prove the government can't force you to buy health care. (No word on his feelings about car insurance… or about the state being burdened with the costs of treating the uninsured.)

The list, appropriately categorized in the “conspiracy” section of TruTV.com, leaves out at least a few of the biggest names in right-wing craziness. Bill O’Brien is an excellent possibility – in fact, New Hampshire GOP legislators probably could have filled about a dozen spaces all by themselves. And no list like this one is complete without at least one dishonorable mention of Virginia’s Bob Marshall.

But one thing’s for sure: when it comes to cataloging the misdeeds and outrageous antics of politicians over the past year, 2011’s statehouse Republicans are providing an embarrassment of riches for political writers – and an embarrassment, period, for the voters back home.

Minnesota Republicans are having a rough month. 

Just a few weeks ago, the state Republican Party Chairman resigned, reportedly leaving the party more than $1 million in debt. Soon after, a leading candidate to take the helm of the Minnesota GOP ended his bid after a confrontation with airport authorities over unpaid vehicle license tabs and reports of a “previously settled sexual harassment allegation.” 

Late last week, the then-Majority Leader of the Minnesota Senate abruptly resigned from her leadership position and announced she would not run for reelection. Shocking details surrounding Republican Sen. Amy Koch’s stunning announcement surfaced
quickly. 

The party was still adjusting Friday to Thursday's news that Sen. Majority Leader Amy Koch had resigned her leadership position when it was disclosed that the resignation came shortly after fellow legislators confronted her about allegations that she'd had an improper relationship with a male staff member who she supervised directly. That same day, Michael Brodkorb, a former deputy party chairman and Koch's communications chief, abruptly left his Senate post. Senate leaders wouldn't say whether the two resignations were linked. 

Sen. Koch has a husband and a daughter, but her Senate colleagues are most concerned about the implications and ramifications of carrying on an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. 

Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, a member of the Senate subcommittee on ethical conduct, said he takes seriously the issue of inappropriate relations with subordinates. He said Koch's alleged relationship could become a matter for the subcommittee to look at. 

As a former Douglas County sheriff, he said, he was instructed on the serious legal ramifications when a supervisor has a relationship with someone under their command. 

"There's a real difference between that and just having some kind of affair, if you will,'' Ingebrigtsen said. … 

If the allegations are true, he said, Koch should resign from the Senate. "I seriously feel I certainly would step down,'' he said. "If it were me, I would in a heartbeat. It's too damaging to the public, first and foremost." 

Some observers point out the hypocrisy inherent in Sen. Koch’s support for Minnesota’s proposed anti-marriage equality amendment, which will appear on the 2012 ballot. Her alleged* affair could undermine conservative claims that the amendment is needed to “protect[] the sanctity of marriage.” 

Next Tuesday, state Republican lawmakers will scramble to replace their leadership and get their political ducks in a row for the legislative session, which convenes just a few weeks later. 

After a year in which the Minnesota GOP shut down state government, found themselves without a single statewide officeholder, have failed to recruit a formidable opponent for Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, and drove their party deeply into debt, this scandal taking down state Senate leadership further damages an already-tarnished Republican brand. The Republican Party may preach the tenets of “fiscal responsibility” and so-called “family values,” but their practice needs a little work.

*Late Wednesday, Sen. Koch admitted to "engaging in a relationship with a Senate staffer."

Many Republicans in Pennsylvania hope to add their state to the growing list of those with strict voter ID policies in place for the 2012 elections. 

Over the summer, the GOP-controlled Pennsylvania House passed HB 934, a stringent voter ID bill. Earlier this week, a Pennsylvania Senate committee finally passed the legislation out of committee. The State Government Committee amended the bill to accommodate a couple of forms of photo ID not permitted by the House version, but it still makes voting in Pennsylvania substantially more difficult for citizens who do not possess state-issued photo identification, who are often poor, minority, or elderly voters. 

Even the Republican Chair of that committee admitted that this voter ID bill addresses a nonexistent problem. 

Senate State Government Committee Chairman Charles McIlhinney said he has seen no proof that people are casting illegal ballots… "It was put upon us and asked for by the governor and by the House, who passed the bill, and they asked me to take it up," McIlhinney, R-Bucks, said after the committee vote. 

After HB 934 passed out of the State Government Committee on Monday, the bill was on track to pass the full Senate before the legislature’s final adjournment for the year. 

But instead of voting on the measure on Wednesday, December 14, the GOP-controlled state Senate punted HB 934 to another committee. 

The Pennsylvania Senate will reconvene on January 3, 2012. According to Sen. McIlhinny, “[s]ending a bill to Corbett's desk by the beginning of February would ensure the changes are in place for next year's general election.” 

Which leaves less than a month for this reprehensible legislation to pass out of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pass the full Senate, then return to the House for a full vote. 

Six states with GOP-controlled legislatures and GOP governors (Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin) passed strict voter ID laws this year, bringing the total number of states that will require a photo ID to vote in the 2012 elections to fifteen, according to NCSL. 

We’ll know by next spring whether Pennsylvania will bring that total to sixteen.

It’s that time of year again. 

Holiday songs saturate the airwaves, everything is suddenly available in eggnog flavor, and we begin to realize… 

It’s time for more Senate recalls in Wisconsin. 

While Wisconsin Senate Democrats were pleased with their two-seat pickup in the August recall elections, they’re not done yet. A Democratic Senate majority is just one seat away. 

The Republican state Senators elected in the GOP wave of 2010 are just becoming eligible for recall, and without that wave to buoy them, many of those Republicans are vulnerable. 

So Wisconsin Democrats are getting back to work. 

The first round of Wisconsin recall elections were the resolution to a saga that began when fourteen state Senate Democrats took a stand for working families and collective bargaining rights by boycotting the legislative session. This extreme measure was the only way to prevent the GOP from forcing one of Governor Walker’s most extreme attacks on working families – his move to crush unions – through the legislature (the Republicans eventually resorted to parliamentary gimmickry to ram the measure through). 

Wisconsin Senate Democrats continued their fight, eventually defeating two Republican Senators in historic elections last summer while defending several of their own members from retaliatory recalls. The “Wisconsin 14” became the Wisconsin 16. 

Now, just one seat shy of a majority in the state Senate, Wisconsin Democrats are setting their sights on four more Senate Republicans. Recall petitions are due in mid-January, and elections could be set as soon as late spring. 

Wisconsin Senate Minority Leader and DLCC board member Mark Miller recently sat down with the Huffington Post to discuss the situation in Wisconsin. 

In Wisconsin, as the state's assembly speaker seeks higher office and several recall elections ramp up, the governor's mansion and control of the state Senate are up for grabs, political procedure threatens to make it difficult for lawmakers to address other issues facing the state next year. 

"I think it's going to be very difficult," Wisconsin Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D-Dane County) told HuffPost, considering the 2012 legislative session.

…

Miller placed blame for the gridlock in state government squarely at Walker's feet, saying the first-term governor and other Republicans have focused on eliminating collective bargaining for public employees, legislative redistricting and voter identification instead of local economic issues. "Our state has been bitterly divided by the governor's agenda," he said.

Miller said Senate Democrats plan to push "fair redistricting," restoration of state aid to local school districts and job creation during the legislative session after Walker and Republicans pushed through a redistricting plan that favors the GOP. Miller also said Democrats are on the lookout for conservative legislation Fitzgerald may push through the Assembly in order to help his Senate bid.

Don’t miss the full article here. 

Today the Virginia Senate Democrats filed suit in Richmond City Circuit Court to prevent the GOP from subverting the will of the voters. 

After November’s elections left the state Senate evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, many thought that the chamber would adopt a “power-sharing” agreement, as they had the last time the Senate was evenly split (1996). A Democratic Lieutenant Governor presided over the chamber, but the parties agreed to split the committees evenly. Committee Chairs were selected from both parties. Judicial selection became a bipartisan affair. 

But the current crop of Republicans would rather throw their partisan weight around than acknowledge that the voters of the Commonwealth elected a bipartisan Senate to govern in a bipartisan fashion. 

And the impending power-grab by the Virginia Senate GOP may not even be legal. Virginia Democrats assert that Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling’s vote should not be cast in organizational matters, a category into which committee makeup falls. To that end, Senate Caucus Chair Donald McEachin has just filed suit on behalf of the entire Caucus. The Democrats seek a declaratory judgment acknowledging that the Lieutenant Governor does not have the constitutional right to cast a vote breaking the expected tie about how the Senate organizes. Additionally, the lawsuit seeks a temporary injunction preventing Bolling from voting on organization until the issue is resolved. 

"The voters elected 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans to the Senate. Yet, in spite of that, the Republicans choose to ignore these results and instead claim absolute power and authority," said Sen. McEachin. "In Virginia, only an elected member of the Senate can vote on the rules of the Senate. The Lieutenant Governor was not elected to the Senate. Unfortunately, the Republicans have not shown any inclination to work with us to resolve this impasse. In a 20-20 Senate, power should be shared, but instead the Republicans insist on an arrogant power grab." 

Senate Democrats aren’t the only ones calling for power-sharing in the chamber. Some Republicans – ones who served in the Senate during the last evenly-split session -- are coming out in support of the arrangement. 

John Chichester, a Republican for whom power-sharing was a steppingstone to the Finance Committee chairmanship, the most influential position in the Senate, all but says his party is guilty of a flip-flop by now claiming the lieutenant governor's tie-breaking vote gives the GOP a lock on power. 

"He's simply a figurehead who breaks ties on legislation and is a member of the executive branch," says Chichester. "It was our view in 1996 that he should not have a role in organizing the Senate. That included committees, the majority leader and president pro tempore."

…

"I thought in 1996 that the power-sharing arrangement, which was good for four years, made for greater harmony in doing the business of the Senate," says [conservative former Democratic state Senator and GOP Congressman Virgil] Goode. "I think such would be true today if a sharing agreement could be worked out." 

Perhaps today Virginia Republicans don’t recall what it’s like to have legislative “harmony” or engage in cooperative lawmaking. For the sake of the Commonwealth, they need to take a serious trip down memory lane and adopt the power-sharing agreement of which they were so fond in 1996.