Senator Marsha Blackburn Visits All 95 Counties of Tennessee Each Year: The ‘Full Blackburn’ Takes a Page from Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa

Marsha Blackburn

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) joined Friday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss a new bill she and Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) introduced as well as State Representative Gloria Johnson’s (D-Knoxville) recent vote against a bill that would allow prosecutors to pursue a death penalty sentence for convicted child rapists.

Blackburn, who was traveling through Sumner County while on the newsmaker line, first discussed the importance of her annual trips to all 95 Tennessee counties.

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North Carolina May Upend Dems’ Dreams of Redistricting Their Way Back into Power

North Carolina’s recently redrawn congressional map could upend Democrats’ use of redistricting to gain back the House majority ahead of 2024.

The Supreme Court declined to allow Alabama to use its Republican-drawn congressional map in late September, a federal judge is requiring Georgia to redraw its maps to better represent black voters and another case in Louisiana could result in an additional majority-black district. Democrats could lose up to four congressional seats in North Carolina after the GOP-controlled state legislature’s new map was approved last week, which is expected to end up in court, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

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Democratic Virginia Candidates Compete for Primary Wins in Newly Drawn Districts

In yesterday’s General Assembly primaries, competition was fierce among Democrats for unclaimed Senate districts newly defined in Virginia’s last redistricting in 2021. 

Incumbents represented a little more than one-third of the commonwealth’s senatorial candidates. Ten Democratic Senators returned to contend for their seats, with eight competing against newcomers and two squaring off against each other for the up-for-grabs 18th District. Four of the eight incumbent-challenger Democratic races went to the current Senators.

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Far-Left Candidate Janet Protasiewicz Wins Wisconsin Supreme Court Election, Liberals Gain Control

In a nationally watched state Supreme Court race dominated by abortion, bruising campaign attacks and money (lots of money), liberal Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz easily defeated conservative Daniel Kelly in Tuesday’s spring election, handing liberals control of Wisconsin’s high court for the first time in more than 15 years. 

The election seemed over before the shouting. Less than an hour after Wisconsin’s polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, the Associated Press called the contest. At that time, Protasiewicz led by double digits over Kelly, a former Supreme Court justice who lost his seat three years ago to far left jurist Jill Karofsky. 

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Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge Faces Judicial Conduct Complaint

A Wisconsin resident has filed an ethics complaint with the Wisconsin Judicial Commission alleging Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice candidate Janet Protasiewicz violated the state Code of Judicial Conduct 

Randall R. Cook, a citizen and GOP supporter from Barron County, filed the complaint Monday asserting that the Milwaukee County judge has “announced how she will rule on issues that will likely come before the Supreme Court, such as abortion and the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s legislative maps.” 

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Ohio Republican Legislators Appeal Congressional Map Ruling to the Supreme Court

Ohio’s Republican state legislators are in the process of appealing a state Supreme Court ruling on congressional redistricting to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

The state’s high court has repeatedly ruled against maps created by Ohio’s Redistricting Commission. Despite the GOP having a one-seat majority, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor (R) has sided with the Democrats in redistricting cases. (O’Connor, who is 71, is retiring from the court after this year.) 

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Mark Gonsalves Says Lucy McBath Should Return GA-06 Constituent Donations After District Switch

Republican nominee Mark Gonsalves (R-GA-07) criticized Lucy McBath (D-GA-06) for her decision to change from the 6th District to the 7th District in the middle of a congressional cycle when he spoke with The Georgia Star News on Monday.

“In essence it provides a person a credential that they do not deserve or warrant, and there a lot of people that vote and think, ‘oh, well she must have been my Congressperson.’ Well, that’s not true for 86% of constituents. So, I think it’s very deceptive. That’s how I would describe it,” Gonsalves said. 

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Ohio Supreme Court Again Rejects GOP-Drawn Congressional Maps

The Ohio Supreme Court rejected a second Republican-drawn map of congressional districts after previously rejecting the state’s first proposed maps on the grounds they favored the GOP.

Though the court ruled the second set of proposed district lines were fairer to the Democrats than the first, it still ruled 4-3 that they “unduly favored” the Republicans, according to the Epoch Times. The court gave lawmakers 30 days to redraw the maps yet again. The state’s redistricting commission will have 30 days to create a new proposal should lawmakers fail to do so.

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Ohio Secretary of State Announces Board of Education Districts; Democrats Object

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) announced this week that the state Board of Education district boundaries will conform to the plan Gov. Mike DeWine (R) issued in January, spurring objections from Democratic lawmakers.

Nineteen individuals sit on the state Board of Education, with 11 of them standing for election. Five of the elected seats are up in this fall’s general election and those wishing to run must file by August 10.

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Vulnerable Democrat Congressman Tom O’Halleran Receives Funding Boost from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Super PAC

Congressman Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ-01), who is facing an uphill battle to re-election in a newly-drawn congressional district, received a funding boost from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

According to financial disclosures from the Federal Election Commission, Pelosi’s superPAC, PAC to the Future, sent O’Halleran a check for $5,000. 

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Federal Court Imposes Unconstitutional Maps for Ohio State Legislative Primaries

Federal judges made good on a promise at midnight Saturday by implementing Ohio state legislative district maps that were previously ruled unconstitutional twice by the Ohio Supreme Court.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, by a vote of 2-1, also ordered the state to hold its second primary Aug. 2.

“Given the factual record before us, two reasons justified our approach. First, no map had wo the approval of both the Commission and the Ohio Supreme Court. And second, Map 3 gave the state the most time to fix its own problem. That broke the tie,” the order, signed by judges Amul Thapar and Benjamin Beaton, read.

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Democrats’ Dreams Turn to Dust as Adjudicated Redistricting Maps Set the Stage for Large Republican Gains in 2022

The Democratic Party’s hopes of gaining seats from redistricting have been crushed as court decisions and an increasingly aggressive GOP produced more Republican-friendly maps.

Democrats were initially optimistic that they could mitigate projected midterm losses in the House when it appeared they were poised to score wins in the redistricting process. However, the party’s hopes have been dashed after key losses in major states erased their redistricting advantage.

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Doors Locked at Ohio Redistricting Commission Meeting Room

Democrats on the Ohio Redistricting Commission invited the five Republican members to a commission meeting Monday morning after contacting members several times over the past week asking for the group to reconvene.

When House Minority leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, and Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, showed up to the committee meeting room at the Ohio Statehouse, the doors were locked and no Republican showed up.

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Tennessee Supreme Court Strikes Down Lower Court’s Redistricting Injunction That Would Have Required Drawing New State Senate Districts

The Tennessee Supreme Court struck down a temporary injunction issued by a three-judge panel that would have mandated drawing new state Senate districts.

Originally, a ruling from the lower court forced the legislative body to “fix” the boundaries within 15 days of the decision, or the judicial branch would have created its own map.

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Ohio Congressman Retires amid Redistricting

Bob Gibbs

A U.S. Congressman from Ohio unexpectedly retired from his post Wednesday amid the state’s long and dramatic congressional redistricting saga. 

“These long, drawn-out processes, in which the Ohio Supreme Court can take weeks and months to deliberate while demanding responses and filings from litigants within days, is detrimental to the state and does not serve the people of Ohio,” Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH-07) said. “It is irresponsible to effectively confirm the congressional map for this election cycle seven days before voting begins, especially in the Seventh Congressional District where almost 90 percent of the electorate is new and nearly two thirds is an area primarily from another district, foreign to any expectations or connection to the current Seventh District.”

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Ohio Redistricting Commission Adopts Modified Versions of Thrown-Out Maps

Ohio State House

Republicans on the Ohio Redistricting Commission passed a modified version of state legislative districts previously ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court, bypassing the efforts of two independent map makers it hired last week.

An hour before Monday’s 11:59 p.m. court ordered deadline, the commission voted along party lines, 5-2, in favor of maps drawn by Republicans.

Democrats claimed the approved maps again were drawn in secret while the map makers worked for days in public to develop maps. House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, called it a slap in the face to Ohio voters.

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CT-5 Democrat Incumbent Jahana Hayes Intimates Black GOP Opponent Only Running Because of Race

Democrat Incumbent U.S. Representative Jahana Hayes recently intimated to supporters in a Zoom call that her Black GOP opponent was only in the campaign because of his race.

Hayes also recently told supporters that if she loses her race in November, then Democrats all around the country are in trouble. Sources tell The Connecticut Star that Hayes is feeling the pressure in Connecticut’s highly competitive Fifth Congressional district contest.

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Senator Proposes Changes to Pennsylvania’s Redistricting Commission

Senator David G. Argall

State Sen. David Argall (R-Mahanoy City) last week proposed two constitutional amendments that would affect state-legislative redistricting in Pennsylvania. 

The first reform the senator wants to make would change the process for choosing the chair of the Legislative Reapportionment Commission (LRC), which oversees remapping of the General Assembly’s districts every 10 years. Current law directs the state Supreme Court to pick a chairperson, effectively deciding which party controls the five-member commission on which the Republican and Democratic leaders of the state House and state Senate sit.

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Democrats Currently Lead in National Redistricting Efforts with Four States Still Completing Process

Democrats currently have the lead in redistricting efforts with four states still working on new maps.

Forty states, 46 if the states that have one congressional district are included, have finished the process of drawing new maps for U.S. House of Representatives districts. Only Florida, Missouri, Louisiana, and New Hampshire have yet to finish their redistricting process.

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U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Redistricting Appeals in North Carolina, Pennsylvania

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals from Republicans in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, an attempt to prevent the states’ redistricting maps.

GOP leaders in both states asked the Court for a temporary stay of the two maps in order to block them from being fully enacted. Because the ruling is not on the constitutionality of the maps, litigation can continue while the boundaries are in place.

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Wisconsin Supreme Court Selects Redistricting Maps Proposed by Governor Evers

Tony Evers

The Wisconsin Supreme Court adopted a redistricting proposal offered by Governor Tony Evers, a move less favorable to Republicans.

The ruling was issued on a razor-thin margin, as swing Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote the opinion in the 4 to 3 decision. According to the decision, the justices selected the map by Evers because it proposed “the map with the least change.”

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Connecticut Supreme Court Picked Redistricting Maps That Maintain Partisan Makeup Status Quo of 5th Congressional District

The Connecticut Supreme Court picked redistricting maps that maintain the partisan status quo of the 5th Congressional District.

Prior to redistricting, CT-5 was given a partisan rating by Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight of D+3. The Connecticut Supreme Court approved the state’s new congressional maps on February 10, 2022 and the 5th district’s partisan rating remains the same. The court took control of the process after a bipartisan body of state legislators failed to come to an agreement on the lines.

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Georgia Redistricting Causes Democrat Incumbent U.S. Representative Lucy McBath to Flee the State’s 6th Congressional District

Georgia’s redistricting process has caused Democrat Incumbent U.S. Representative Lucy McBath to flee the 6th Congressional District, leaving an open seat.

McBath has left the race for the Sixth district and is running in the much bluer neighboring new Seventh district, taking on fellow Democrat incumbent U.S. Representative Carolyn Bourdeaux. The new GA-7 has a partisan rating of D+16. According to the FEC, McBath has raised $3,199,954.75 and has a war chest of $2,452,731.80 cash on hand. Bourdeaux has $2,005,771.81 cash on hand and has raised $2,406,048.45 for the 2022 election cycle.

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Pennsylvania Redistricting Results in Slight Democrat Partisan Edge for the State’s 17th Congressional District

The Democrat-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s selection of the state’s new congressional maps has given Democrats a slight partisan edge in the 17th Congressional District.

Prior to redistricting, PA-17 was given a partisan rating by fivethirtyeight of R+2. It is now rated D+1. The Cook Political Report says the race for the seat is currently a tossup.

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Ohio Redistricting Commission Passes Third Set of State Legislative Maps

Robert Cupp and Vernon Sykes

The GOP-dominated Ohio Redistricting Commission has passed its third set of state legislative maps, a week after a court-ordered deadline and with one Republican objection.

The 4-3 commission vote means if the maps are approved by the Ohio Supreme Court, they last only four years rather than the traditional 10 that would have happened with bipartisan support on the commission.

Commission Co-Chair and House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, said the new maps, which were passed late Thursday, met all the constitutional requirements established when voters created the commission and twice when the court ruled previous maps were unfairly gerrymandered to benefit Republicans.

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