First off, Federal court strikes down the Republican attempts at Gerrymandering in Texas. Since the State government can't do it, Federal Judges will be drawing up the district maps. The reaction has been weeping and gnashing of teeth, reports of small violins being played are as of yet, unconfirmed.
Court Said NO!
Next drifting up north, in Ohio... The governor tried to set in the same anti-bargaining laws as Wisconsin did. Only in Ohio that shit goes to referendum... It didn't go well for the union busters.In a boost to Democrats’ chances of retaking the House next year, federal judges in Texas will draw a map for the state’s 2012 congressional races.
A Washington, D.C., federal court on Tuesday declined to sign off on redistricting plan spearheaded by the state Republican Party. The D.C. court ruled that the Republican line-drawers “used an improper standard or methodology to determine which districts afford minority voters the ability to elect their preferred candidates of choice.”
The decision means the issue is headed for a lengthy court battle, which, in turn, means the map won’t be ready in time for the 2012 election. Because of this, the DC court tasked a panel of federal judges in San Antonio to draw an interim 2012 map — which could lead to significant Democratic gains — by the end of the month.
“This most likely means three additional Democratic seats in Texas,” said former congressman Martin Frost (D), a victim of the GOP’s last redistricting map. “The GOP overreached one time too often in Texas.”
Republicans had drafted a map on which they would likely win three of the four new seats the state is gaining in reapportionment — despite already having a 23-to-9 edge in the state’s congressional delegation and much of the state’s growth over the last decade occurring among minority communities.
Democrats say a court-drawn map could net them an extra two or three seats in Congress, bringing their gains to three or four seats and reducing GOP gains to one or zero seats. Republicans expect the new map to include one new GOP seat and three new Democratic ones.
Democrats nationally need to win 25 seats to retake the majority.
Redistricting plans in many southern states are required to get “preclearance,” usually from the Justice Department, to verify that the state abided by sections of the Voting Rights Act that aim to protect minority groups.
Texas tried an alternative, though, seeking preclearance in the courts and hoping for a better result. Instead of going to a Justice Department serving under a Democratic president, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) filed in D.C. court, where the Justice Department decided to fight against the Texas map.
Texas Republicans also ran into trouble in 2006 when their mid-decade redistricting map was partially struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Part of the map had to be redrawn, and Democrats won a seat in that part of the state later that year.
Republicans, presuming they are still in the majority in Texas after the 2012 election, could draw a new map for 2014.
CNN
Bouncing back south again, Arizona the writer of the ever popular immigration bill (the one that got us on the Daily Show YAY!), has lost his job as a State Senator, being voted out in a recall. No word if his replacement white Republican Jerry Lewis is an illegal immigrate from France.Ohio voters will repeal a controversial law Tuesday limiting the collective-bargaining rights of public workers, CNN projects based on reported results.
With 28% of precincts reporting, 62% of people voted for repealing the law, while 38% voted to keep it, according to the office of the Ohio Secretary of State.
The measure was a referendum on state Senate bill 5, the latest in a showdown between union groups, business leaders and lawmakers over the ways state governments negotiate with their employees. It was seen as a barometer for next year's general election in the key battleground state.
The bill passed the Republican-controlled state legislature in March and would have limited the bargaining rights of public workers -- including police, teachers and firefighters -- to salaries, workplace conditions and hours.
"Tonight Ohioans have spoken, and spoken freely," said Courtney Johnson, a teacher in Hilliard, Ohio, who spoke at an election night rally. "We don't turn our backs on the people who watch ours."
The law would have also prohibited strikes and promotions based exclusively on seniority, and required public employees to contribute at least 10% of their income toward their pensions. It would have required workers to cover at least 15% of their own health care premiums.
Republican Gov. John Kasich signed the measure into law in March, but it was held from going into effect pending the results of the referendum.
On Tuesday, he congratulated his opposition.
"It's clear that the people have spoken," the governor said. "Part of leading is listening to and hearing what people have to say to you."
Wisconsin passed a similar measure in March, igniting a firestorm of political activism that drew thousands to the state capital in protest.
In perhaps the most visible confrontation of a debate being played out in states including New Jersey, Michigan and Indiana, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's controversial bill pitted unionized labor against statehouse Republicans and raised broader questions about the long-term fiscal health of state and local governments.
Since then, activists in Wisconsin and Ohio have collected thousands of signatures in a bid to pressure state lawmakers into overturning the bargaining restrictions.
"Unlike Ohio, Wisconsin workers do not have the opportunity to put a referendum on the ballot. Thankfully we have the right to recall. Today's win in Ohio has energized and excited Wisconsin workers to recall Gov. Walker and put a stop to his attack on working families," Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin state American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations said late Tuesday.
Tea party activists had lauded the Ohio law as a necessary move to trim government spending, while union groups said it unfairly targeted state workers.
"Although the parts of the law that require public workers to contribute to their retirement and health care costs are popular with voters ... the strong opposition to curtailing collective bargaining and seniority rights apparently is what seems to be carrying the day for the law's opponents," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
But the law's supporters cried foul.
"There is still the opportunity to negotiate contracts (under the law)," said GOP Caucus spokesman John McClelland, ahead of the vote. "But there's a certain level that you should have to contribute."
McClelland pointed to slower population growth and a poor economy as cause for retooling the current system.
"All of this just compounds over time," he said.
Businessweek
Additionally Mississippi voted that the unborn did not have personhood (meaning your unborn kid still have less rights then a corporation) but I'm just being snarky there guys don't read into it.The Senate President of Arizona and author of the state’s hard-line laws against illegal immigration lost a recall election seen as a bellwether on “extreme” politics.
Republican Russell Pearce, lost by 53 percent to 45 percent with all precincts reported, according to the Maricopa County Elections office. Pearce, 64, was defeated by Jerry Lewis, a Republican school administrator who has said he opposes Pearce’s enforcement-only approach to immigration policy.
“There is a deep dissatisfaction in Arizona for what is viewed as politics in the extreme,” said Earl de Berge of the Phoenix-based Behavior Research Center, a nonpartisan polling company. Pearce “symbolizes a very hard-nosed view on conservative policies.”
The loss will show moderates that they can win in the state, de Berge said. “It is going to be a sea change in Arizona,” he said.
Lewis will serve the remainder of Pearce’s term through 2012. He will be required to run again in November of next year if chooses to seek re-election.
Pearce, the first state officeholder in Arizona to face a recall election, became prominent nationally after lawmakers passed an immigration law in 2010 that sparked national boycotts and was emulated by Georgia, Alabama and other states.
Lewis, 54, will be sworn in after the Secretary of State certifies the election results, expected by Nov. 21, said Matt Roberts, a spokesman for the office. A group called Citizens for a Better Arizona circulated petitions to remove Pearce from office.
Two Republicans
The election pitted two Republicans against each other, dividing the heavily Mormon legislative district in Mesa, east of Phoenix, that Pearce represented in the House and then the Senate for 11 years. Both Pearce and Lewis are Mormon.
While the economy often took center stage in the campaign, national groups that backed Pearce warned supporters that the recall was an attempt by pro-amnesty immigration groups to oust the closed-border advocate.
Lewis, a charter-school superintendent, was one of two candidates on the ballot. The other, Olivia Cortes, pulled out after her candidacy was challenged as a sham. A judge found in October that Pearce’s supporters helped get Cortes on the ballot to draw votes that might otherwise go to Lewis. While votes for Cortes didn’t count, ballots had already been printed with her name. She polled about 1 percent of the vote.
Immigration Policies
The recall is seen as part of a backlash against the immigration policies that gained the state and Pearce national attention. Pearce also backed a successful ballot measure in 2004 that banned state benefits for illegal immigrants and required proof of citizenship. He authored a 2007 measure that imposed state sanctions on businesses that hire illegal workers.
Last year, lawmakers passed a bill known as SB 1070, which requires immigrants to carry paperwork and police to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect is in the country illegally, among other provisions. Most of its provisions have been put on hold after being challenged in federal court.
In the spring, Pearce tried to pass another package of immigration measures that included denying state citizenship to children of illegal immigrants and requiring hospitals to report undocumented patients. That measure died after opposition from the state’s business community.
Local races in Arizona were also held today. The City of Phoenix elected a new mayor, Greg Stanton, a former city council member and a Democrat. His opponent, Wes Gullett, a Republican lobbyist, conceded late today in the nonpartisan run-off race.
But yeah anyways that's the GOP's no good, horrible, bad day.
