Last night, The Daily Show skewered Florida state Rep. Scott Plakon (R-Hypocrisyville) for pushing a policy requiring welfare applicants to be tested for drugs while failing to subject other Floridians who receive taxpayer dollars – like state legislators – to the same level of scrutiny.

Although this drug testing program has cost Florida taxpayers $200,000 and has been halted by a federal judge, many other states are scrambling implement similar rules. Last year, bills requiring drug screenings for welfare recipients were filed in 36 states, but passed in only Florida, Arizona, and Missouri. This year, states already hearing legislation on the matter include Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, to name only a few. 

Some of the Republicans in state legislatures considering welfare drug testing bills may find themselves on the other end of the plastic cup, so to speak. Some Democrats are objecting to the singling-out of only one of the many groups who receive taxpayer money by broadening the application of this principle. 

In Tennessee: 

G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, said lawmakers should have to take the same drug test that a new law would require for welfare recipients.

Hardaway said he has heard from his constituents and some have asked how the public can be sure that lawmakers are not on drugs.

He said the voter had a valid point, and he plans to file his General Assembly drug test bill if the welfare drug test issue surfaces before lawmakers. 

In Georgia (where a sponsor of that state’s welfare drug testing bill has been charged with a DUI, interestingly):

[Democratic state Rep. Scott] Holcomb’s bill, HB 677, would require anyone elected to serve in the General Assembly to undergo mandatory drug testing within three months of taking office or beginning any subsequent term. Failing would mean removal from office. “[W]e should lead by example,” Holcomb said, and “shouldn’t expect others to live by standards that we don’t uphold ourselves.” 

In Indiana, a bill that would require drug testing of both welfare recipients and state legislators is actually moving forward. 

[GOP state Rep. Jud] McMillin initially proposed a pilot program for drug testing only welfare applicants, but last week state Rep. Ryan Dvorak (D-South Bend) amended the bill to include drug and alcohol testing for lawmakers. … Indiana is the first state where lawmaker drug testing has actually advanced, though the measure's fate in the state senate is uncertain. 

Even some Republicans in the Missouri legislature have gotten on board with the drug-testing-of-state-legislators thing, judging by a bill filed last month. 

Bills targeting the needy for expensive, unnecessary, and invasive testing betray an ugly stereotype too many GOP legislators seem to hold. Assuming that citizens with extremely low -- or no -- income have substance abuse problems or are somehow “criminal” and “undeserving” of public assistance is a brand of bigotry that has no place in any state of our great nation. 

Governing magazine’s Louis Jacobson pays special attention to state legislatures across the country, and he’s out this month with a review of a dozen legislators to watch – six from each party – just in time for the New Year.

Some of the Democratic names may be familiar to you because of the leadership they’ve already shown in 2011 and in recent years:

• Stacey Abrams - Georgia House (D)
  House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, who is the first woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly, earned degrees from Spelman College, Yale Law School and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. She’s a tax attorney and a former deputy city attorney for Atlanta. Despite being in the minority in the Legislature, observers credit her with winning concessions from freshman Republican Gov. Nathan Deal on a revamp of the HOPE scholarship program, a merit-based higher education fund for Georgia residents, and for putting up a strong fight against a GOP tax plan….
  

• Reuven Carlyle - Washington House (D)
  …After a career in the cellphone and software industries, Carlyle won an open seat in 2008 representing a trendy area of Seattle. He has made a point of crossing party lines and taking on figures in his own party. “I believe the people of our district elected me in 2008 to vigorously seek intellectual and moral independence from old-fashioned orthodoxies,” he wrote on his campaign website. “We live in a 21st-century global community and stereotypical positions -- liberal, conservative, Democrat and Republican -- have little bearing on our children’s future…”
  

• Wendy Davis - Texas Senate (D)
  …Sen. Wendy Davis, who represents Fort Worth, used the limited tools available to her to achieve spectacular results. Hours before last year’s session was to end, Davis filibustered a bill that included $4 billion in school cuts. That forced Republican Gov. Rick Perry -- who was on his way to becoming a presidential candidate -- to call a special session. It also turned Davis into “an icon among Democratic activists in Texas,” says Mark P. Jones, a Rice University political scientist….
  

• Ted Lieu - California Senate (D)
  ...Before election to the Senate in 2011, Lieu chaired the Assembly’s Rules, and Banking and Finance committees, where he was a key mover of legislation on such topics as foreclosure prevention, child sex offenders, domestic violence, cyberbullying, sewage spills and health insurance.
  “Ted Lieu is that rare Democratic political figure who combines it all,” says California-based Democratic strategist Garry South. “He’s smart and well educated, articulate, pleasant and professional to deal with, center-left while also being a former JAG and current reserve officer in the Air Force, has a photogenic young family, and is part of the fastest-growing ethnic group in the largest state....
  

• Vincent Sheheen - South Carolina Senate (D)
  Sen. Vincent Sheheen exceeded all expectations in his 2010 race for governor. Running in a strongly Republican state in a strongly Republican year, he lost to Nikki Haley -- who attracted considerable national media attention -- by just four percentage points. An effective legislator, he had sponsored 18 bills that became state law prior to his gubernatorial campaign….
  

• Darrin Williams - Arkansas House (D)
  Rep. Darrin Williams was adopted and raised in Little Rock. He’s a second-termer in a state with a three-term limit for state representatives, so he’s positioned to become a strong contender for speaker -- which would make him the first African-American to hold the position. He has already chaired the House Judiciary Committee, where he won a measure of bipartisan support for legislation….
  

Please read the full column for longer profiles of each legislator. We expect big things from all six of them, in addition to the many accomplishments they've already racked up.

The thoroughly debunked, racially charged conspiracy theory of “birtherism” has its roots in the 2008 presidential election. Fringe elements of the Republican Party fixated on the false notion that Barack Obama was not eligible to be president of the United States because he supposedly was born in another country. No major GOP candidates promoted this lie at the time, and birthers continued to scratch at the fringe of the Republican Party for a couple of years.

In the year following President Obama’s inauguration, it seemed as though birtherism would remain the purview of ultra-conservative media personalities like Jerome “Swift Boat” Corsi and Rush Limbaugh. But the nature and scope of birtherism have since changed dramatically.

Just a few months ago, Republican state legislators began working feverishly to mainstream the birther lie. Supporters of “Birther Queen” Orly Taitz ascended to leadership positions in their caucuses. Legislation based around the notion that Obama’s presidency is illegitimate began popping up in statehouses. With slight variations here and there, these “birther bills” question the validity of President Obama’s Certification of Live Birth by requiring presidential candidates to provide various documents proving they were born in the United States in order to qualify for a state’s ballot.

Birther bills have been filed in legislatures all over the country this year, and not just in “red” states. While this list may well continue expanding, it currently includes

• Arkansas
• Arizona (GOP Gov. Brewer just vetoed this birther bill.)
• Connecticut
• Georgia
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Louisiana*
• Maine
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• New Hampshire
• Oklahoma
• Tennessee
• Texas

*Republican Governor Bobby Jindal has stated publicly that he would sign a birther bill, should the Louisiana legislature send one to his desk.

Meanwhile, on the federal level birtherism began attract renewed attention as the potential 2012 GOP presidential field addressed the “issue.”

Enter Donald Trump.

Shortly after announcing that he may launch a long-shot run for the GOP presidential nomination, Trump began pushing birtherism in a big way.

Why?

Months of Republican state legislators’ attempts to legitimize the birther lie through legislation has helped validate the GOP base’s suspicions that President Obama is not “one of us.” This cementing of conservatives’ views on the issue is demonstrated by polling that reveals 45 percent of Republicans believe he was born in another country, as The New York Times reported yesterday. Last July, a poll revealed that 41 percent of Republicans believed President Obama was “probably” or “definitely” born in another country.

Republican state legislators helped provide Donald Trump with a path to credibility with the conservative base.

Will Trump’s next issue position involve union-busting? Perhaps he’ll take a stand against the non-existent problem of sharia law. Or maybe he’ll advocate for the use of gold and silver as currency.

Whatever Trump’s next political move may be, look for its roots in GOP statehouse crazy.

The GOP’s war on workers has dominated recent national media coverage, with two states in particular getting most of the attention. Unfortunately, this means that some other truly loony Republican actions didn't receive the attention they deserved.

So we’re taking a moment today to revisit some of the things you may have missed in the last few weeks.

The New Hampshire House is quickly gaining a reputation as the nation’s Petri dish for right-wing buffoonery. We’ve already discussed recent GOP efforts there to abolish universal kindergarten, declare technology training irrelevant to an adequate education, and block U.S. efforts to combat piracy. But did you know that GOP state Representatives have also proposed ordering TSA agents to register as sex offenders (he calls it the “Don’t Touch My Junk” bill) and shipping the mentally ill to Siberia?

The latter idea, proposed by GOP state Rep. Martin Harty, prompted Harty to resign a few days later (not out of shame, according to him, but because "So far I really don't know what I'm doing" - a mystery most of New Hampshire still grapples with). Amazingly, GOP Speaker Bill O’Brien declined to clearly condemn Harty. Instead he simply said that Harty "has earned the right to say what he thinks."

Meanwhile, at the other extreme, New Hampshire state Rep. Kenneth Weyler implied during a committee hearing that mental illness was no more than an elaborate racket, and that “by cutting the amount of help we're willing to offer, we'd like them to discover that some of these people can be cured.”

Moving on to the Iowa House, GOP state Rep. Chris Hagenow has filed legislation that would allow private security officers (like the ones in shopping malls) to carry “offensive weapons.” Existing Iowa law, in turn, defines “offensive weapons” to include “a bomb, grenade, or mine, any rocket having a propellant charge of more than four ounces, certain rockets, missiles, and other similar devices.” Perhaps Rep. Hagenow thinks mine fields would deter shoplifters.

Or maybe Hagenow was simply panicked by his GOP colleague across the hall in the Iowa Senate, state Sen. Mark Chelgren, who argued that universal preschool was nothing more than a cover for Nazi indoctrination sessions (audio here).

Continuing the theme of compassion for children, Maine Republicans are picking up an idea first proposed by Missouri GOP state Sen. Jane Cunningham, who tried to repeal most child labor laws in that state. Similar legislation has now been filed in both the Maine House and Maine Senate.

In the Kansas House, GOP state Rep. Connie O’Brien first said she could determine if people were illegal immigrants or not based on whether they “had the olive complexion.” A few weeks later, GOP Rep. Virgil Peck suggested that shooting illegal immigrants from helicopters would be an effective policy.

Georgia state Rep. Bobby Franklin, who last made headlines for trying to label rape victims as "accusers" in all Georgia court proceedings, is back in the news after he compared the United States to the oppressive regimes in Egypt and Libya, declaring that “Americans are the most delusional people in the world.”

And speaking of GOP efforts to blame the victim in rape cases, debate over a school dress code bill in the Florida House was marred by GOP state Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, who spoke in favor of the bill because “There was an article about an 11 year old girl who was gangraped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed up like a 21-year-old prostitute.”

A bill in the Montana House would have eliminated all educational requirements for the State Superintendent of Instruction – an elected position. Forty-six House Republicans apparently thought that was a great idea, because why would we want the person responsible for education to be, you know, educated?

And finally, Arizona Senate Majority Leader Scott Bundgaard recently invoked his state constitution’s legislative immunity clause to avoid a domestic violence charge after he was accused of hitting his girlfriend on the side of the road. Amazingly, now that Bundgaard has used the loophole himself to avoid the charges, he wants to repeal it so no one else can follow his example.

[hat tips: Blue Hampshire, Dirigo Blue, Montana Cowgirl Blog, Under the Golden Dome, and Think Progress]

In recent days, we’ve reported on the GOP’s drive to repeal a Minnesota law that prevents pay discrimination against women in the public sector, and we broke the news that a Republican legislator in Georgia seeks to reclassify victims of rape, stalking, and domestic violence as “accusers.”

These are only a couple of the many recent indications that the GOP fails to understand women’s concerns and issues.

But the news for women on the state level isn’t all bad. In fact, during the General Assembly session in Virginia, Democrats have been shepherding legislation forward that will better protect women (and men) from people in their lives who intend to do them harm.

Democratic House Leader (and DLCC board member) Ward Armstrong sponsored a bill that could dramatically improve the effectiveness of protective orders. This legislation would allow judges to require Virginians who have violated a protective order to wear GPS tracking devices set to alert law enforcement and the victim if the violator comes too close to the victim. Giving judges this option will be a valuable means of ensuring the safety of victims who have been subjected to threatening or violent behavior even after a protective order has been issued. After all, protective orders are valuable safety tools, but ultimately they’re just pieces of paper; they won’t stop bullets, knives, or fists. Alerting victims to the proximity of a protective order violator will help ensure that bullets, knives,and fists never get close enough to do any damage.

Delegate David Toscano sponsored legislation to expand the availability and enforcement of protective orders. His bill removes the requirement for a criminal warrant before someone is eligible for a non-family abuse protective order, outlines specific consequences for violations, and prevents violators from receiving an entirely suspended sentence. According to Del. Toscano, the bill “represents a substantial step forward in providing greater protection to individuals in dating relationships from abuse.”

Both bills have passed the Virginia House of Delegates and await action in the state Senate.

Time will tell if the GOP’s apparent tendency towards losing touch with women’s concerns and issues will continue. Meanwhile, watch this space for more updates on what Democratic state legislators are doing to actively address those concerns and issues. 

U.S. House Republicans have received a great deal of attention over the past week since seeking to qualify the crime of rape with the term “forcible” in a high-profile piece of legislation. Such a distinction could create classes of rape victims, with “forcible rape” victims somehow being ordained as worse off than victims of statutory rape, date rape, rape by coercion or deception, rape of the disabled or mentally impaired… You get the picture.

But what if rape victims could no longer be referred to as “victims” at all? What if people who have endured this horrible – and already chronically underreported -- crime could only be called “accusers”?

Georgia Republican state Rep. Bobby Franklin (of gold-standard-wannabe fame) has introduced a bill to change the state’s criminal codes so that in “criminal law and criminal procedure” (read: in court), victims of rape, stalking, and family violence could only be referred to as “accusers” until the defendant has been convicted.

Burglary victims are still victims. Assault victims are still victims. Fraud victims are still victims. But if you have the misfortune to suffer a rape, or if you are beaten by a domestic partner, or if you are stalked, Rep. Franklin doesn’t think you’ve been victimized. He says you’re an accuser until the courts have determined otherwise.

To diminish a victim’s ordeal by branding him/her an accuser essentially questions whether the crime committed against the victim is a crime at all. Robbery, assault, and fraud are all real crimes with real victims, the Republican asserts with this bill.

Rep. Franklin surely is aware that the crimes for which he believes there are no victims are disproportionately committed against women—and are disproportionately committed by men.

When there’s violence against women involved, the rights of the accused clearly are more important to Rep. Franklin than the rights of the victim.

But if there’s no such thing as a victim in cases of rape, stalking, and domestic violence, he may think there’s no need to for him to be concerned with their rights, anyway.

With many state legislative sessions slated to begin in the coming weeks, Republican lawmakers from across the country are providing a steady supply of bills based on conspiracy theories and radical right-wing ideology.

Citing concerns with nonexistent “hyperinflation” (the most current data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index puts the current inflation rate at 1.14%), GOP lawmakers from no fewer than four different states are proposing legislation designed to push the country back towards the gold standard, which often is blamed for prolonging the Great Depression and was abandoned in 1933.

As Think Progress helpfully explains, returning to a gold (or silver) standard would leave our nation completely powerless to control our own monetary policy, often tying inflation rates to completely arbitrary factors such as the rate that gold is mined in South Africa, rather than to the interests of a national economy. It also leaves us without one of our most important tools to push back against economic downturns.

We’ve already mentioned a proposal from GOP state Rep. Norman Tregenza of New Hampshire that would restore gold and silver currency in the Granite State.

In Virginia, Republican Delegate Bob Marshall signals his lack of faith in the U.S. dollar and the Federal Reserve with the filing of companion bills.

The Commonwealth of Virginia would begin minting its own gold and silver coins as an alternative currency to the U.S. dollar under a bill that Virginia Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) says he will file in coming days.

Marshall will ask the General Assembly to consider the idea when it convenes for its annual legislative session Jan. 12. It is a companion bill to a proposal he has already filed to establish a study committee to examine alternative currencies to that distributed by the Federal Reserve System "in the event of a major breakdown of the Federal Reserve System."

Marshall said his intention is to inject competition into the national economy and force the federal government to change monetary policy he believes is leading to hyperinflation.

In Georgia, GOP state Rep. Bobby Franklin is introducing the “Constitutional Tender Act,” which would require all financial transactions with the state, including tax payments, be paid with gold or silver coins (absent a state-granted waiver):

Pre-1965 silver coins, silver eagles, and gold eagles shall be the exclusive medium which the state shall use to make any payments whatsoever to any person or entity, whether private or governmental. Such coins shall be the exclusive medium which the state shall accept from any person or entity as payment of any obligation to the state including, without limitation, the payment of taxes; provided, however, that such coins and other forms of currency may be used in all other transactions within the state upon mutual consent of the parties of any such transaction.

In Utah, Republican state Rep. John Dougall has proposed legislation that goes a step beyond the Constitutional Tender Act by permitting residents to mint their own gold or silver coins.

Imagine paying your next parking ticket in gold Krugerrands or renewing your driver license using American Gold Eagles.

A proposal in the Utah Legislature would require the state to allow just that, requiring government agencies to accept gold for transactions, and creating a parallel monetary policy for intrastate commerce tied to the price of gold.

Under the legislation that has been drafted, Utah residents could mint their own gold or silver coins, a storehouse would be created to stockpile the precious metal and the Utah Defense Force, an arcane state militia that may be called and armed by the governor, would be responsible for securing the inventories.

For the record, the Utah Defense Force doesn’t actually exist.

This week, Congress.org responded to a reader’s question regarding redistricting.

The “nonpartisan news and information Web site” addressed the following inquiry:

"When a state's seats are cut after the census, how do they decide which representative is out of a job?"

Congress.org’s Frances Symes responds (emphases added):

After the census, and after the reapportionment has taken place, deciding how many House seats each state will have, the states step in to draw the district lines.

Because the Supreme Court in the 1960s interpreted the Constitution to require that each U.S. House district have equal numbers of people, any state with more than one district is likely to be required to adjust its district lines after each census to limit the variation in population between congressional districts.

Redistricting plans are drawn up and passed by the state legislatures and approved by the governors. In this way, the party that controls the state legislature essentially controls the redistricting.
…
While many political experts disagree about the importance of redistricting to the outcome of House elections, it is clear that it can be crucial in determining the make up of a state's delegation in the House, and thus the make up of Congress itself.

Certain areas within each state show a long-term preference for one party over the other.

Because these voting habits are well known to political experts in each state it is possible to create a district that is almost certain to favor candidates of one party of another. There are many ways to adjust districts to make them more or less friendly to members of a certain party.

In case you’re wondering about Republicans’ version of “friendly to members of a certain party,” allow me to refer you to the infamous 2003 Texas “DeLay-mander.” Gaining and maintaining majorities in state legislative chambers gives Democrats a seat at the redistricting table, so to speak. This will help prevent the GOP from gerrymandering itself into artificial majorities on both the state and federal levels for the next decade.

Symes goes on to posit the query,

So, what happens to an incumbent whose district disappears?

He or she has to run in a new district (which may or may not include part of his or her old district), possibly against another incumbent.

As redistricting nears, this issue is gaining some urgency. Some states, such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, are predicted to lose congressional seats to other, more rapidly-growing states, such as Texas and Georgia. Once the congressional district boundaries are redrawn in the states losing seats in 2011, not all of those members of Congress will have a district to represent or a seat to run for in 2012.

With so much of the national pundit focus on the 2010 congressional elections, few are pausing to consider that some of these districts currently of so much concern to the makeup of the 112th Congress soon will simply cease to exist.

We don’t get involved in governor’s races. That’s the Democratic Governors Association’s responsibility, while we focus exclusively on electing Democratic state legislators.

But one Democratic gubernatorial candidate is making his state’s Republican-controlled legislature an issue in his campaign, and he’s taking them to task for having (shall we say) the wrong priorities during this recession. According to the narrator in a new TV ad:

A governor can create jobs by selling the advantages of Georgia to firms looking for a home. But it’s hard for industry to take us seriously when the Legislature attempts to outlaw stem cell research, passes bills about microchips in the brain, and talks about seceding from the Union.

The new ad reminded us about the legislative debate surrounding one of the GOP's misplaced priorities – the microchip bill, which makes it a misdemeanor to implant a microchip in someone without their consent. And when we found the full story, we wondered how on earth we’d missed it the first time.

From a committee hearing about the microchip bill:

“I’m also one of the people in Georgia who has a microchip,” the woman said. Slowly, she began to lead the assembled lawmakers down a path they didn’t want to take. (…)

She spoke of the “right to work without being tortured by co-workers who are activating these microchips by using their cell phones and other electronic devices.”

She continued. “Microchips are like little beepers. Just imagine, if you will, having a beeper in your rectum or genital area, the most sensitive area of your body. And your beeper numbers displayed on billboards throughout the city. All done without your permission,” she said.

It was not funny, and no one laughed.

“Ma’am, did you say you have a microchip?” asked state Rep. Tom Weldon (R-Ringgold).

“Yes, I do. This microchip was put in my vaginal-rectum area,” she replied. [Republican State Rep. Ed] Setzler, the sponsoring lawmaker, sat next to the witness – his head bowed.

One can only hope that the woman was playing some elaborate, Candid-Camera-style joke on the legislators. Nobody thought so at the time, and amazingly, the Republican-controlled State Senate then approved the bill without so much as a second thought.

But the best joke from this whole sorry episode probably comes from the Democratic candidate now making this an issue, who notes in his stump speech, “If somebody holds me down and drives a microchip into my head, it had better be more than just a damn misdemeanor!”

Of all the states where conservative lawmakers are trying to block the new health reform law, Georgia stands out. The Republican sponsor of a state constitutional amendment blocking the individual mandate proposed his own health reform bill three years ago, and it included an individual mandate.

We at the DLCC were shocked, just shocked to discover that there is hypocrisy in the Republican Party:

First they tried to pass a constitutional amendment in the state Senate to declare that no Georgian could be mandated by government to buy health insurance, as if Georgia law could somehow supercede federal law. The amendment failed.

(The amendment was sponsored by state Sen. Judson Hill, who three years earlier had introduced legislation that would have — wait for it — forced Georgians to buy health insurance, even giving state officials the power to garnish wages of those who refused. At the time, Hill attributed the legislation to House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is now one of the sternest critics of “Obamacare”. In other words, mandated health insurance was a good idea until it became part of the Democratic health-reform bill, at which point it became unconstitutional and the most dire threat to American liberty since General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown.)

Frustrated in the Senate, Republicans then tried to pass a similar constitutional amendment in the House.

They failed. Again.

The reason the mandate is so crucial is because it makes it possible to ban exclusions for pre-existing conditions without sending premiums sky-rocketing. That’s why these Republicans thought mandates were such a brilliant idea just a few years ago.

Georgia Democrats saw right through the Republican double-talk and voted against it, preventing the proposed amendment from getting the 2/3 vote necessary to pass. That was a risky thing to do in a conservative state like Georgia, but kudos to both caucuses for standing up for health care for 32 million Americans.