RandySF
RandySF's JournalVT: David Zuckerman (D) is seeking reelection to lieutenant governor's office
Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman wants to hold onto his gig.
The Hinesburg Progressive/Democrat announced his bid for reelection to the state’s second-highest executive office in a press release Thursday morning, writing that he is “not done fighting for Vermonters.”
“This is a critical moment for our state,” the longtime farmer-politician continued, pointing to Vermont’s worsening affordability, health care costs, housing crisis, climate change and “rising regressive property taxes that are crushing working class people.”
Zuckerman stepped back into the role of lieutenant governor last election cycle. Prior to his current tenure, he served in the job for two terms, from 2017 to 2021, before leaving the post to unsuccessfully challenge incumbent Republican Gov. Phil Scott for the state’s top job.
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/david-zuckerman-seeking-reelection-lieutenant-governors-office
Noem's dog killing was bad, but to really understand her, consider the goat
Sure, it chased children, butted them, and smelled bad. “So, a goat,” Stephen Colbert deadpanned during his Monday monologue on “The Late Show,” speaking for everybody who’s ever been around goats. If those traits meet the legal definition of “dangerous, a threat, or injurious to life, limb, or property,” killing any goat would always be legally justified.
In reality, what Noem did to the goat — dragging it to a gravel pit, tying it to a post, shooting at it once, leaving to get another shell, and shooting it again — sounds an awful lot like the legal definition of animal cruelty. That definition in South Dakota law is “to intentionally, willfully, and maliciously inflict gross physical abuse on an animal that causes prolonged pain, that causes serious physical injury, or that results in the death of the animal.”
Alas, cruelty to animals is a Class 6 felony, and lower-class felonies like that carry a seven-year statute of limitations in South Dakota. We don’t know exactly what year it was when Noem shot her dog and goat. She gave a clue in the book when she wrote that her children came home on the school bus the day of the killings and one of them asked, “Where’s Cricket?” Noem didn’t say how she responded, and all of her children are now grown.
If that was more than seven years ago, the goat killing is probably not prosecutable. But no prosecution could do more damage to Noem’s reputation and career than she’s already done to herself by writing about her animal bloodthirst.
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/noems-dog-killing-was-bad-really-understand-her-consider-goat
OH: Procter and Gamble descendant proposes bill to stop the type of animal testing P&G has done
A descendant of the founders of Procter and Gamble, a multi-billion dollar consumer goods company, is proposing legislation in the Ohio House to stop cosmetics testing on animals. P&G, although saying they are mainly cruelty-free now, continues experimenting on animals.
Plenty of makeup is tested on animals like rodents — and dogs and cats — something state Rep. Sara Carruthers (R-Hamilton) wants to change.
“Some of this stuff is just inhumane, sick and unnecessary,” Carruthers said. “A lethal dose test involves forcing rats to swallow large amounts of chemicals until the subject dies, so that you can determine the dose that causes death.”
She and state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Cleveland) introduced House Bill 495, which would stop the majority of animal testing for cosmetics sold in Ohio.
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/procter-and-gamble-descendant-proposes-bill-stop-type-animal-testing-pg-has-done
NC-AG: Dan Bishop (R) said the 2020 election was stolen. Now he wants to be NC's attorney general.
After the 2020 election, U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina became an outspoken proponent of the lie that Democrats had rigged the results. He accused the rival party of running a national campaign to tie up the courts and disrupt the election’s administration, announcing that he would contest Electoral College votes in four states that were key to Joe Biden’s victory.
“The Democrats’ objectives were to weaken ballot security, undermine positive identification of voters, and provide opportunities for post-election ballot-box stuffing,” Bishop said at the time. “This has been a national, partisan attack on the Constitutional delegation of authority to regulate elections specifically to state legislatures.”
Bishop has expressed skepticism about the outcome of elections in other states but not the ultimate results in North Carolina, which Donald Trump won in 2016 and 2020. But just before Election Day 2020, Bishop criticized North Carolina’s governor, attorney general and “national Democrat operatives” for what he saw as partisan attacks on the integrity of the election.
Now, Bishop is running for state attorney general, an office that would give him immense power in safeguarding North Carolina’s “election integrity” — and in determining its future on voting rights.
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/dan-bishop-said-2020-election-was-stolen-now-he-wants-be-ncs-attorney-general
NJ: Elections watchdog asks for Daniel's Law tweaks, more time to investigate
New Jersey’s campaign finance watchdog recommended lawmakers provide them more time to probe violations, expand reporting requirements for independent expenditure groups, and reconcile a state law that shields some addresses from disclosure with a statute requiring they be reported.
The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission’s recommendations follow the enactment of the Elections Transparency Act last year. That law sharply increased campaign contribution limits — doubling them in most cases, with larger increases for some groups — cut the statute of limitations on campaign finance violations from 10 years to two, and preempted local pay-to-play laws, among other things.
The commission asked legislators double the statute of limitations to four years, noting that while resolutions in routine cases have become faster since the law sunset roughly 80% of ELEC’s active cases, it could lead to errors in ones involving complicated or voluminous disclosures.
“The two-year statute of limitations would be fine if all we had to do were routine cases,” said Joe Donohue, ELEC’s acting executive director. “The problem is some of these take a lot of work among our investigators and our lawyers. It’s much more preparation. Much more legwork has to be done.”
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/elections-watchdog-asks-daniels-law-tweaks-more-time-investigate
MA: Lawmakers have no love for ballot questions, particularly the one calling for audit of Legislature
A SPECIAL COMMITTEE of eight House and Senate lawmakers on Wednesday issued a series of reports on the state’s pending ballot questions and in each case determined that the proposals ought not to be approved as new laws by the Legislature.
Most of the reports recounted familiar arguments and laid out the committee’s position on the issue. The report dealing with state Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s bid for the power to audit the Legislature was more pointed and personal, calling out the auditor for allegedly making misleading statements and showing bias.
“Auditor DiZoglio lacks the objectivity required to audit the Legislature in accordance with the Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards, also known as the Yellow Book, due to the auditor’s recent service in the Legislature as well as the clear prejudice that the auditor has publicly expressed against the Legislature,” the lawmakers said in their report.
The report did not elaborate on how DiZoglio’s service in the House and Senate compromised her objectivity or exhibited prejudice.
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/lawmakers-have-no-love-ballot-questions-particularly-one-calling-audit-legislature
MD-06: Candidate (D) with unorthodox background seeks working-class support for his bid to succeed Trone
Altimont Wilks wants to debate.
The small business owner running as a Democrat in the 6th congressional district said he could “crush” the other 16 candidates — including 12 Democrats — in a debate.
“Every issue they say they stand on, I either basically helped them craft that issue. Or I am the poster child for that issue when it comes to criminal justice reform, economic development, you name it, ” Wilks said.
Yet when the Women’s Democratic Club of Montgomery County held a forum for 6th District candidates on April 28, Wilks did not appear.
Still, as a man who spent 13 years in prison on a drug charge, he’s one of the more unorthodox candidates seeking to replace U.S. Rep. David Trone (D-6th). The congressman is moving on to run for the U.S. Senate in a bid to succeed Sen. Ben Cardin (D), who is retiring.
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/candidate-unorthodox-background-seeks-working-class-support-his-bid-succeed-trone
LA: 'They made it up': Landry's juvenile justice nominee rejects abuse claims at facility he ran
Gov. Jeff Landry’s controversial pick to run state juvenile justice services declared a news investigation that exposed dozens of allegations of abuse and violence at the juvenile detention center he ran for decades was full of lies.
“I wish I could erase that article, but I can’t,” said Kenneth “Kenny” Loftin, during his preliminary confirmation hearing before the Louisiana Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday. “That’s a flat out lie. That did not happen.”
In 2022, The New York Times and the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism published a lengthy article describing rampant child abuse and neglect at Ware Youth Center in Coushatta over decades.
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/they-made-it-landrys-juvenile-justice-nominee-rejects-abuse-claims-facility-he-ran
LA: Voting irregularities lead to passage of bill targeting gov't employee unions
State Rep. Jerome “Zee” Zeringue, R-Houma, flashed a thumbs-down Wednesday while away from the voting machine on his desk, indicating to the House speaker he was voting no on a controversial bill restricting union activities among government workers. The speaker acknowledged his vote, and his name lit up in red on the tally board.
Moments later, it flashed to green. The bill passed 53-39, barely clearing the 53-vote threshold to pass the House.
House Bill 571 by Rep. Raymond Crews, R-Bossier City, prohibits public sector union members, except for police and firefighter unions, from discussing or organizing union activities while working or on paid leave. It also nullifies any employment contracts that provide compensation, including paid leave, for the performance of such activities.
Crews’ bill is opposed by several labor organizations, who have raised concerns that the bill violates the First Amendment. The bill would allow citizens to sue and be awarded costs for catching violations of the prohibition. The attorney general or a district attorney could also bring enforcement action.
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/voting-irregularities-lead-passage-bill-targeting-govt-employee-unions
Candidacy challenge against Louisville Democratic lawmaker dismissed
LOUISVILLE — A Jefferson County Circuit Court judge has dismissed an eligibility challenge to sitting Democratic State Rep. Nima Kulkarni’s appearance on the primary May ballot.
Kulkarni is running for a fourth term to represent the 40th House District in Louisville.
The opinion, rendered by Judge Mitch Perry, said the challenge to Kulkarni’s eligibility “fails to establish the heavy burden required to disqualify a candidate from the ballot.”
“While it is true that Ms. Kulkarni should have been more diligent in preparing the paperwork, she also took immediate action to correct the issue when she learned of it,” Perry wrote. “Notably, the issue was resolved shortly after Ms. Kulkarni’s discovery of it.”
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/candidacy-challenge-against-louisville-democratic-lawmaker-dismissed
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