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. 

Democrats’ Election Night 2011 just keeps getting better.

You’ve already heard about Democrats’ epic wins tonight in Ohio, Maine, and Iowa.

Victory in a Wisconsin Assembly special keeps Democratic momentum in that state going.

Despite aggressive GOP spending, Democrats expanded our majority in the New Jersey Assembly.

Arizona voters responded to Gov. Brewer’s recent redistricting power-grab by recalling tea party leader and GOP state Sen. Russell Pearce.

Michigan voters recalled a notoriously anti-teacher Republican state Representative.

And despite spending millions and millions of dollars on the effort, the GOP failed to take the majority in the Virginia state Senate.

Democrats even kept the Governor’s mansion in Kentucky.

Well, we’re not done yet.

Today we learned we can add a Washington special election to the Democratic win column.

Democratic state Rep. Sharon Wylie won the seat to which she was appointed earlier this year, soundly defeating her well-known GOP opponent.

This big night for Democrats is more than a sign that the GOP wave of 2010 has receded.

Voters are rebuking GOP candidates and policies all over the country. Republicans exploited their opportunities to legislate by forcing extreme policies through their statehouses, and voters aren’t standing for it. Even millions of dollars in GOP spending can’t obscure the truth:

In 2011 and 2012, Republicans just aren’t a sound investment. 

You’ve already heard about Democrats’ epic wins tonight in Ohio, Maine, and Iowa. Well, we’re not done yet. 

In Wisconsin, Democrats have dominated yet another special election there. Democrat Jill Billings has won the 95^th Assembly District with a whopping 72 percent of the vote. 

Arizonans have responded to Gov. Jan Brewer’s recent redistricting power-grab by recalling one of her GOP accomplices in that partisan coup. Republican Sen. Russell Pearce, author of the notorious and virulently anti-immigrant SB 1070, has fallen in a recall election. 

Despite Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s best efforts, Democrats have successfully retained majorities in both legislative chambers in New Jersey. 

In Michigan, anti-teacher GOP Rep. Paul Scott became the first legislator in the state to be recalled. An election to replace him will be scheduled for next year. 

And finally, despite the millions of dollars state and national Republican and outside interest groups poured into taking the majority in the Virginia Senate, the GOP came up short. Republicans might be excited about the prospect of a tied chamber, but the one outstanding seat, SD 17, remains too close to call. Wednesday morning canvasses have yet to be held, and provisional ballots throughout the district have yet to be counted.  Also, some reported incidents during Tuesday night’s tabulation deserve further attention during the canvassing and certification process. We look forward to monitoring this situation throughout to ensure that every vote is fairly and accurately counted. We expect that Senator Edd Houck will ultimately prevail in the final outcome and that Democrats will continue to hold a majority in the Virginia Senate.

Whatever masks or costumes Wisconsin Republicans opt to don this Halloween, they won’t be able to conceal their naked desperation. 

Desperation is clearly behind the state GOP’s latest antics. In a brazen power play, Wisconsin Republican state senators are attempting to rig the rules in their favor for the next round of Senate recall elections, likely to occur next spring. 

Early Friday evening, Republicans sneakily posted a notice for public hearing for a series of bills for Monday afternoon—today. Included in this list are two bills designed to directly affect any recalls that may occur before the next general election. 

One bill will require those who circulate petitions gathering the signatures required to trigger recalls to have their own signatures notarized, so as to verify their own identities. This measure will add a burdensome procedural hurdle to the process of circulator certification of petition signatures. Additionally, since circulators are already punishable under existing Wisconsin law for falsifying their required circulator certifications, this bill seems unnecessary and redundant. 

The more troubling of the two bills receiving abrupt hearings this afternoon is the one that seems specifically designed to undermine a recent decision of Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board that didn’t work out in the GOP’s favor. 

Kevin Kennedy, director of the Government Accountability Board and the state's top election official, has determined lawmakers now represent the new districts but that any recalls before November 2012 would be conducted in the old districts. He said it was clear from the way GOP lawmakers wrote the legislation enacting the maps that they were not to take effect for elections until next fall. 

But the Wisconsin GOP, apparently fearful of more Democratic wins, seem desperate to hold any further recall elections in the hyper-gerrymandered districts they drew for themselves (and rammed through the legislature with unprecedented speed prior to last summer’s recall elections). Only a few days after the GAB rendered their decision, a Senate Republican produced a new bill effectively “changing the rules of the game a few days before the game starts,” as a Milwaukee attorney described it. The bill applies the new, GOP-friendly map only to state senators, effectively setting up different recall rules for each legislative chamber. 

This bill is so outrageous that Senate Republicans already seem to have lost a key vote on the bill. The AP reports that GOP state Sen. Dale Schultz plans to vote against the measure, which likely spells the bill’s death in a chamber narrowly divided between seventeen Republicans and sixteen Democrats. 

Wisconsin GOPers know their razor-thin Senate majority cannot survive another round of Democratic victories in recall elections. Unconcerned about the state Assembly, Republicans senators are flailing frantically for ways to protect themselves. Their tricks reek of desperation, and we expect Wisconsinites to see right through their flimsy disguises.

The battle for control of the Virginia state Senate continues to intensify. 

This week, Republican Governors Association chair Bob McDonnell threw his national-level weight behind two of the most extreme candidates in the Commonwealth. 

Yet he gave that weight as though trying to cross a frozen Virginia river: tentatively. And with these two candidates’ extreme backgrounds, it’s no wonder. 

Former GOP Delegate Dick Black (of plastic fetus fame) proudly posted Gov. McDonnell’s endorsement on his website. 

Dick Black is an excellent candidate for Senate in the 13th District. As a Member of the House, Delegate Black played a major role in making dramatic traffic improvements on Rt. 28 and Rt. 15. 

That’s right: Del. Black championed some of the most extreme right-wing legislation ever seen in Virginia’s General Assembly and was best known for his crusades against choice and gay rights, and all Gov. McDonnell can say is, Hey, good job with those roads. 

(By way of contrast, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s endorsement makes direct reference to Black’s conservative bona fides.) 

Virginia’s Republican Governor is scheduled to host a fundraiser for Black at the end of October… which is more than he’s apparently willing to do for his other recent endorsee, former Republican Party of Virginia chair and Del. Jeff Frederick. 

Del. Frederick, who famously compared then-Sen. Obama to Osama bin Laden in 2008, was ousted from his position as state Party chair after ignoring public calls to resign from McDonnell and other state Republican officials. 

Gov. McDonnell may have had a change of heart towards Frederick. In an email to supporters on Monday, Frederick announced McDonnell’s endorsement. The endorsement itself made no reference to any accomplishments Del. Frederick may have had during his House tenure; it was just boilerplate GOP blandishments about how Frederick will help improve the economy and stuff if elected. 

Unlike Black’s, Frederick’s endorsement apparently doesn’t come with a fundraiser attached. According to McDonnell’s political adviser, the Governor has no appearances with Frederick scheduled. 

Are Dick Black and Jeff Frederick just too extreme even for Bob McDonnell’s conservative palate? As much as the Governor would like to see more Republicans elected to the state Senate, Black and Frederick may be bitter pills for him to swallow.

The Pennsylvania lawmaker behind the sudden push allocate that state’s electoral votes by congressional district suffers no loneliness as he promotes his plot. 

GOP Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi’s proposal to gerrymander the Electoral College is also being pushed by All Votes Matter, a Pennsylvania nonprofit. 

According to Pennsylvania’s Capitolwire (subscription required), All Votes Matter says it has already spent $180,000 to support Sen. Pileggi’s proposal. A spokesman for the group added that AVM will spend at least another $100,000—more if they feel the need to mount a broadcast ad campaign to support the measure. Two groups with close ties to state Senate Republicans also will be lobbying for the bill. 

All Votes Matter is reportedly working to line up “prominent academics and Pennsylvanians” to support the bill—and perhaps even testify at the October State Government Committee hearing. Sen. Pileggi plans for the bill to pass through the legislature by the end of the year, enabling it to take effect in time for the 2012 presidential election. 

While GOP lawmakers aren’t necessarily falling into line behind their legislative leaders, several have indicated a level of openness to being lobbied. 

“I have no firm opinion at this point.  I think it’s fascinating but I think we need to continue that discussion,” said [Republican state Senator Edwin] Erickson. 

… 

State Rep. Todd Stephens (R-Montgomery) told the Glenside News Globe Times Chronicle that he also needs to mull over the plan before making a decision for or against it. 

Republicans outside of the statehouse are less receptive. Several Republican members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation have expressed dismay over the electoral vote proposal, fearful that its implementation would lead to Democrats working harder to win their marginally Republican House districts. 

Republican state leaders have given no indication that these members’ concerns are swaying them in the least. What political capital these Representatives have with their GOP state legislators is probably already being spent on redistricting. State lawmakers owe their members of Congress precious little… if anything at all. If this proposal fails, Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation will be able to take scant credit. 

As we await the production of the actual legislation that would codify this electoral vote-rigging scheme (with a hearing set for October, a bill will emerge any day now), another Pennsylvania politico weighed in on the proposal. 

Dave Weigel caught up with Pennsylvanian and presidential candidate Rick Santorum this week and asked for his thoughts on the Republicans’ proposal to give some of the state’s electoral votes to candidates winning individual congressional districts. Santorum’s response clearly demonstrated his understanding of how GOP gerrymandering impacts such a system. 

"Certainly, from the standpoint of a Republican, it's a winner," Santorum said. "Republicans will come out ahead in Pennsylvania in every election. The way Democrats win, they have two big cities with huge concentrations of voters -- and then overwhelm the rest of the state." 

This is true! Because the votes of urban Democrats count as much as the votes of suburban Republicans, Democrats are often able to win Pennsylvania by getting more people to choose their candidates. Santorum, musing a bit about ways to gerrymander the state, pointed out that the current district map included a lot of swing seats. Republicans could maximize their vote by pouring all urban Democrats into a few districts. 

"All of a sudden, a Republican can win -- and would probably routinely win -- all but three or four congressional districts in Pennsylvania," he said. "It would turn it from a state Democrats rely on, as part of the base, to a state that they're gonna lose under almost any scenario." 

So with hundreds of thousands of dollars of lobbying and support behind it and few GOP state legislators staunchly opposed to it, the Pennsylvania Republicans’ proposal to double their gerrymandering fun could actually become the law. As the statehouse GOP redraws congressional districts to give as many seats to Republicans as possible, they may also be determining how many electoral votes their presidential candidate receives. 

Meanwhile, the Nebraska GOP works to ensure that their state never gives an electoral vote to a Democrat again, and Republican legislatures across the country promote voter suppression. We have to wonder if there’s any length to which statehouse Republicans won’t go to rig next year’s election.

As one of the few states with off-off-year elections, Virginia steps into the spotlight in the fall of odd-numbered years. 

Virginia is ready for its close-up, particularly as the GOP attempts to wrest control of the state Senate from the Democrats, who have held the majority since 2007. 

But when some of the GOP’s candidates for state Senate are held up to the light, it becomes impossible to ignore their less attractive characteristics. 

One Virginia columnist described former Delegate Dick Black, running in Northern Virginia’s District 13, as “best known for bashing gays, thundering about pornography and handing out life-size plastic likenesses of fetuses as testimony to his opposition to abortion.” (In case you need a visual for that last bit, a VCU photographer immortalized the stunt here.)

Former Delegate Jeff Frederick, who failed to receive the endorsement of GOP U.S. Senate candidate George Allen in the District 36 primary, gained some national notoriety when he compared Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden during the 2008 presidential race—and encouraged GOP volunteers to spread that characterization around. He’s not too keen on evolutionary theory, a scientific doubt which likely contributed to his 0 percent rating from the Virginia Education Association in 2008. The Virginia GOP also ousted him as state chair after he ignored public calls for his resignation from almost every top-ranking officeholder in his Party. (Here’s a fun video retrospective.)

Ben Loyola, who’s running in the Eastern Shore-based 6^th District, is a proud Tea Party endorsee. He believes in getting rid of all taxes on wealthy corporations, as well as the income tax generally, and he’d like to do away with the Department of Education while he’s at it. 

Adam Light, running in the southwestern Virginia-based 38^th District, has advocated ending Social Security and Medicare, programs relied on by thousands of the Virginians he hopes to represent. 

Tom Garrett, who proudly touts himself as a “Cuccinelli conservative” and is running in central Virginia’s 22^nd District, wants to obliterate Virginians’ right to privacy by instituting mandatory drug testing for those who receive public assistance. He also supports eradicating protections for Virginia’s natural resources and abolishing the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. 

This is a whole lot of crazy to keep straight. You might find this brief video helpful. 

This fall we’re clearly fighting to prevent the brand of GOP extremism that’s taken hold across the country from taking control of the Virginia legislature. If these right-wing zealots win, all Virginians lose. 

Even as the Pennsylvania GOP pushes its proposal to gerrymander the Electoral College by allocating electoral votes according to gerrymandered congressional districts, Nebraska Republicans are demonstrating the naked partisanship of this measure by pushing for just the opposite. 

The GOP in Nebraska is trying to return to a winner-take-all system after President Obama became the first Democrat in 44 years to take one of the state’s electoral votes. Nebraska currently allocates its five electoral votes in the manner Pennsylvania Republicans are proposing, three by congressional district and two to the winner of the state’s popular vote. 

Nebraska Republicans attempted to make the switch earlier this year, but the bill stalled in committee after one GOP legislator opposed it, resulting in a tie vote. Now the state GOP leadership is trying to pressure him—and any other opponents—by threatening to withhold support in the next election. 

The Nebraska Republican Party is showing a startling new level of desperation in its efforts to force the Nebraska Legislature to change the state's [E]lectoral [C]ollege vote during the 2012 legislative session.  At the September meeting of its State Central Committee, a resolution is being proposed that would block any support for State Senators who vote against changing the casting of Nebraska's electoral college votes to "winner-take-all." 

Objective Conservative recently published the language of this resolution:  

Whereas Nebraska is one of only two states that award electoral votes based on the presidential winner of congressional districts,.... 

Whereas it is of the highest priority and interest to the Nebraska Republican Party and the citizens of Nebraska that the state returns to a "winner-takes-all" electoral vote plan, 

Whereas the Nebraska Republican Party supports legislation that returns the state to the "winner-takes-all" basis, 

And, whereas the Nebraska Republican Party believes that the "winner-takes-all" issue is a litmus test for those who would claim to be Republicans and seek the support of the Nebraska Republican Party, 

Be it resolved that the Nebraska Republican Party will not support in any manner, financial or otherwise, any state senator who opposes the return of the state to the "winner-takes-all" electoral vote plan either by failing to vote for such in committee or on the floor of the legislature. 

The measure will be presented and voted on at the State Central Committee meeting this Saturday, September 17. 

Pennsylvania Republicans are tossing around claims of “fairness” and “reform” as they attempt to deliver electoral votes to a Republican in a state that’s given them to Democrats since 1992. But the Nebraska GOP’s visceral reaction to giving just one of their electoral votes to a Democrat in 2008 reveals Republicans’ true motives: to funnel as many electoral votes the GOP presidential candidate as they possibly can, by any means necessary. 

The Pennsylvania GOP’s proposal to allocate its electoral votes by congressional district may sound outrageous, even absurd. 

Splitting Pennsylvania’s electoral votes flies in the face of more than 200 years of political history. It’s an obvious and desperate attempt by the state GOP to deliver some of the state’s electoral votes to the Republican nominee for the first time since 1988, even if President Obama wins a majority of the state’s popular vote. 

And it may very well come to pass. 

Despite some shouts of Republican discontent, the GOP leaders of the state House, the state Senate, and Republican Governor Tom Corbett are all publicly endorsing the measure. 

Legislation is forthcoming. GOP Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi has already sent a memo to his fellow senators requesting co-sponsorship of the bill. 

A simple majority vote in each chamber would pass the measure on to the Governor’s desk for signature. A law allocating electoral votes by congressional district could be on the books by Halloween. 

A haunting prospect, indeed. Nick Baumann explains. 

The GOP controls both houses of the state legislature plus the governor's mansion—the so-called "redistricting trifecta"—in Pennsylvania. Congressional district maps are adjusted after every census, and the last one just finished up. That means Pennsylvania Republicans get to draw the boundaries of the state's congressional districts without any input from Democrats. Some of the early maps have leaked to the press, and Democrats expect that the Pennsylvania congressional map for the 2012 elections will have 12 safe GOP seats compared to just 6 safe Democratic seats. 

Under the Republican plan, if the GOP presidential nominee carries the GOP-leaning districts but Obama carries the state, the GOP nominee would get 12 electoral votes out of Pennsylvania, but Obama would only get eight—six for winning the blue districts, and two (representing the state's two senators) for winning the state. 

So even if President Obama wins the popular vote in Pennsylvania, because of 12 gerrymandered GOP congressional districts, he could easily receive fewer than half of the state’s electoral votes. 

For the first time, Republicans are trying to extend the effect of gerrymandering beyond congressional races and into presidential elections. Unsatisfied with gerrymandering the state legislature and their congressional delegation, the Pennsylvania GOP is trying to gerrymander the Electoral College. 

And why couldn’t such a plan be executed in other states with Republican-controlled legislatures and governors’ mansions that tend to give their electoral votes to Democratic presidential candidates? Wisconsin and Michigan come to mind instantly. Wisconsin’s electoral votes haven’t gone to a Republican since 1984, and the last time Michigan electors went GOP was 1988. 

With a razor-thin majority in the state Senate (16D/17R) and the memory of the recalls triggered by previous political overreach fresh in their minds, the Wisconsin GOP seems unlikely to push a proposal as extreme as allocating their electoral votes by congressional district. 

But what’s to stop Michigan? 

Republicans have double-digit majorities in the state House and Senate and control of the governor’s mansion. The new GOP-drawn congressional district map creates as many as nine districts favorable to Republicans. If a Pennsylvania-style electoral vote allocation bill passed in Michigan, President Obama could win a majority of the popular vote, but because of GOP gerrymandering, could only receive seven electoral votes. 

The Michigan situation is purely hypothetical. There’s been no noise from the GOP there to suggest they’re interested in such a proposal—yet. 

But in a close presidential election, the 12-8 electoral vote split in Pennsylvania alone could be enough to sway results. 

And unable to earn it the way candidates of all parties have seen fit for more than two centuries, the Republicans could gerrymander their way into the presidency. 

The Republican leaders of Pennsylvania’s legislature want to change how the state allocates its electoral votes. 

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi wants to allocate the 20 electoral votes Pennsylvania will have in the next election according to who wins each of 18 congressional districts, plus two more for whoever wins the statewide popular vote, rather than the winner-take-all system the state now uses.

…

Asked whether Pileggi's proposal would change Pennsylvania's status as one of the country's biggest swing states, House Majority Leader Mike Turzai said, "There's no doubt about it." 

Still, he's a fan. 

"We think it has a lot of positive merit," said Turzai, R-Bradford Woods. "It's going to be carefully vetted (in the Senate). I myself am very positive." 

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review examined how such an arrangement would have affected the 2008 presidential election. 

In 2008, for instance, when Pennsylvania had 21 electoral votes, Sen. John McCain won 10 congressional districts to then-Sen. Barack Obama's 9, but Obama won the state by 620,000 votes. Under Pileggi's proposal, Obama would've gotten the two statewide electors, for a net win over McCain of one electoral vote.

Currently Maine and Nebraska are the only states that allocate their electoral votes by congressional district. 

Electoral vote proposals like this one have cropped up in states before – and went nowhere. What makes this worth watching is that the majority leaders of both legislative chambers have gone on the record in support of it. 

Pennsylvania’s GOP-controlled legislature is currently in the process of redrawing the state’s 18 congressional districts. The outcome is expected to favor Republicans to the tune of at least 12 GOP-leaning seats, and perhaps going as far as producing 13 or 14 Republican congressional districts. 

So even if President Obama wins a majority of the Pennsylvania popular vote next year, about a dozen electoral votes could still go to his Republican opponent—more than enough to flip an election. 

The potential effect of the Pennsylvania GOP’s electoral vote proposal on the outcome of 2012 is staggering, to say the least.