This Week in Statehouse Action: Livin' on a Prayer edition

The good news is that we at least have a president-elect now (it’s Joe Biden, in case you haven’t heard).

The bad news is that pretty much everything else still sucks.

Take, for instance, the pandemic.

Which is raging harder than ever, thanks to the fact that Donald Trump would rather tweet election lies and hold superspreader events and, well, do pretty much anything else other than take meaningful steps to combat the coronavirus.

Astronomically high numbers and steep lines on scary graphs are alarming … and yet, they’re somewhat abstract.

Here are some ways COVID-19 is hitting home hard in statehouses across the country.

Bad Medicine: I’m going to break my general rule about not writing about Nebraska (ostensibly nonpartisan legislature, meh) to mention that genius state Sen. Mike Groene (who is, in fact, a Republican despite the fact that the Cornhusker State doesn’t see fit to attach such labels to its lawmakers) “finally got [his] wish” and contracted COVID-19.

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You’re probably asking yourself, Why would would a 65-year-old man of sound mind “wish” to get infected by the coronavirus? 

• Well, Groene wanted “herd immunity.”
  • The thing is, he either fundamentally misunderstands the concept or is totally okay with A LOT of Americans dying unnecessarily.
    • “Herd immunity” is something usually attained through widespread vaccinations against a given disease.
    • Scientists have determined COVID-19 herd immunity is unattainable in the U.S. until around 200 million people have been infected (the U.S. is at about 10 million cases at this point) and immunized against it and would bring “untold death and suffering” without a vaccine.
  • Groene also isn’t so much into mask-wearing, so who knows how many other folks he infected while he had the virus?
• Groene reported his symptoms as “no more than a minor flu” and found a “blessing” in being able to catch up on sleep as he’s recovered.
  • However, his colleague Mike Moser probably didn’t see the coronavirus as much of a blessing when he contracted it back in may.
    • Sen. Moser spent five weeks in the hospital.
    • As of late June, he still hadn’t shaken all of the virus’ ill effects.

In North Dakota, a “Trump Republican” who’d ousted an incumbent in a primary won election to a state House seat last week—despite the fact that he died from COVID-19 in October.

• North Dakota happens to be leading the nation in new daily coronavirus cases per capita.

Wyoming state Rep. Roy Edwards, who had been a vocal opponent of coronavirus-related restrictions, died of COVID-19 the day before the election.

• The Republican had been unopposed and will be replaced by his local GOP committee.

With coronavirus cases skyrocketing across the country and the GOP maintaining its grip on power in most statehouses last Tuesday, expect to see lots more shortsighted, life-threatening pushback on reasonable pandemic safety measures in the weeks to come. 

Wanted Dead or Alive: In Florida, where Republicans managed to actually increase their majority in the state House (78 R/42 D) last week (the Senate held steady at 23 R/17 D), GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing a so-called “anti-mob” proposal that would, among other things, expand the state’s notorious “stand your ground” law.

• The measure would effectively empower anyone with a gun to open fire on anyone suspected of “criminal mischief” who appears to be causing property damage to a business.
  • The measure would also give immunity to drivers who claim to have unintentionally hit a protestor with their vehicle and dramatically expand criminal penalties for protestors involved in “disorderly” assemblies.
  • Also, the proposal would penalize localities that make “disproportionate funding reductions” to their police forces.
• While no formal bill draft has been submitted to either chamber of the legislature, several top GOP lawmakers appeared with DeSantis when he introduced the proposal this week, suggesting that a related bill will have the support of the majority party.

Runaway: So, as I mentioned up top, we have a president-elect, and it’s Joe Biden.

Except Trump won’t concede, which wouldn’t matter if Republican lawmakers in key states weren’t feeding his fantasy of a somehow “failed” election.

Take Pennsylvania, ground zero for the theoretical elector-replacement scheme that surfaced back in September.

• While Republican leadership in the Keystone State has abandoned rhetoric indicating they’d seek to pull extreme shenanigans like concocting an excuse to replace Biden electors with Trump electors, they’re still very much up to no good.
  • Despite the fact that there’s no evidence of any election fraud or malfeasance or anything even remotely untoward, Pennsylvania GOP lawmakers are seeking to push ahead with a “legislative-led audit” before results (read: electors) are officially certified.
    • Pennsylvania’s election results are supposed to be certified on Nov. 23, but Trump’s frivolous lawsuits coupled with Republican lawmakers’ apparent desire to pretend something about the election went awry seems likely to push that date back.
  • The legislative session ends on Nov. 30, which, even with Thanksgiving plunked into the middle of it, gives Republicans an awful lot of time to make some serious messes with this bogus “audit.”

In the end, though, Biden’s electors will be certified and will cast Pennsylvania’s electoral votes on Dec. 14.

But the lasting damage from this is the doubt the GOP wants to cast on the election process itself.

• The baseless allegations Trump and his GOP enablers are throwing around concerning supposed election misconduct will serve as fodder for a slew of voting restriction bills you can bet your ass are coming down the pike next year.
  • In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf can veto them.
  • In other states—think Texas, Georgia, Arizona, Ohio, Iowa, just for starters—they’re going to sail through.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s GOP lawmakers are using the same playbook Pennsylvania Republicans are apparently employing.

• Last Friday, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, despite zero evidence of voting malfeasance, called for a legislative investigation of the state’s election.
  • Despite the fact that Wisconsin’s legislature isn’t currently in session, the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections will meet and—using a power that hasn’t been exercised here in some 50 years—subpoena witnesses.
• But even as Speaker Vos admitted this week that this investigation is unlikely to change the result of the election, one of his Republican colleagues explicitly floated the possibility of using the outcome of this investigation to replace Biden electors with Trump electors or direct electors to cast their ballots for Trump instead.

This is illegal and unconstitutional and all manner of wrong, but the fact that a duly elected member of the state legislature is expressly stating such things is legitimate cause for alarm.

Not necessarily in the outcome of this election—Biden’s got this.

But a lot of laws can get passed in four years.

Including laws that allow the legislature itself to, say, select presidential electors.

Places like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan have Democratic governors now, sure.

But by the time the next presidential election rolls around? Who knows?

And what about those GOP-controlled states that Biden won—Georgia and Arizona, specifically?

What’s to stop those legislatures from giving themselves some form of control or veto power over the state’s electors?

Remember, Article II of the U.S. Constitution specifically says that “the Legislature … may direct” the appointment of presidential electors.

And in the pre-election SCOTUS decision in Democratic National Committee v. Wisconsin State Legislature, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh specifically indicated a fresh level of deference to state’s legislatures when it comes to exercising power over elections.

Do you have any idea what that means for the future of elections in states with Republican-controlled statehouses?

Especially when they’re just about to gerrymander themselves into rigged majorities for the entire next decade?

It’s bad. Really, really bad.

Every dark fantasy Republicans have entertained about making voting more difficult and diminishing the impact of people of color, students, voters in urban areas, and any other group the GOP regards as hostile to its interests might just come true.

And the current U.S. Supreme Court—now with extra right-winginess!—might not only allow them to do it, but could also gut the power of governors and state courts to curb Republicans’ worst excesses.

So yeah, the horror of the Trump presidency may be nearing its end.

But a whole host of fresh election and voting rights horrors may be hot on its heels. 

Source: Daily Kos