Monthly Archives: February 2021

Running scared from a tall guy with a tricorn hat, Iowa Republicans are moving to limit competition on the ballot.

The controversial election reform bill that was rushed through the Iowa Legislature last week will, if signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds, make it harder for citizens to vote but also harder for alternative candidates to get on the ballot. The legislation drastically increases the number of signatures required for third-party and no-party candidates.

Republicans who crafted the measure probably have one Iowa man in mind: Bryan Jack Holder, four-time candidate for U.S. House in Iowas 3rd Congressional District.

Holder is a Libertarian from Pottawattamie County in western Iowa, a repeat candidate known for wearing an American Revolution-era hat and a star-spangled necktie. His 15,000 votes in 2020 were more than twice the difference between the Republican and Democratic candidates, earning Holder spoiler status. Democratic incumbent Cindy Axne won reelection against former U.S. Rep. David Young.

The right to petition the government for a redress of grievances by running for public office, as all of you have done, is the foundation stone of our constitutional and democratic republic, Holder said during an Iowa House hearing.

In Republicans imagination, theyre losing close races because Libertarian candidates are siphoning away what would otherwise be GOP votes. Some say Holder cost them the 3rd District election.

Instead of making an effort to win over voters, Republicans want to erect barriers to keep third-party candidates off the ballot.

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Senate File 413 more than doubles the number of signatures required for alternative candidates to get on their candidacy petitions from 1,500 up to 3,500 for presidential, gubernatorial and Senate candidates; more than 1,700 signatures for U.S. House candidates, up from 375.

The legislation also significantly increases the number of counties required to be represented among petition signers. Top-of-the-ballot candidates will be required to have at least 100 signatures from at least 19 counties, while U.S. House candidates will need at least 47 signatures from half the counties in the district.

The new county requirements may be unconstitutional under a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision, according to Ballot Access News. In Moore v. Ogilvie, the high court ruled that Illinois signatures-per-county requirement was a rigid, arbitrary formula that discriminates against the residents of the populous counties in the exercise of their political rights.

Its not the first time in recent history that Republicans who control Iowa State government have stifled ballot access for third-party candidates. In 2019, the Legislature approved and Reynolds signed a law to move the third-party candidates petition deadline up from August to March.

Iowas 2019 law, dubbed the incumbent protection act by critics, is the subject of an ongoing federal lawsuit brought by Libertarian Party of Iowa members.

Under the legislation approved last week in the Iowa Legislature, third-party and no-party candidates will have the same condensed timeline for gathering petition signatures, but with much higher thresholds. The obvious intention is to protect vulnerable Republicans from competition.

The new election bill also tinkers with petition requirements for candidates for office in cities that have primaries or runoffs. The mark increases from 25 signatures to 100 in big cities.

Iowa has a long tradition of inclusive elections. For at least the last 10 general elections, there have not been fewer than eight presidential candidates on Iowa ballots. Back in 1992, there were a whopping 14 candidates on the ballot.

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But Iowa Republicans dont trust voters to make the right choice. They are concocting a system to filter out would-be candidates who might pose a threat to their electoral success. Its a paranoid and insecure look for a political party whose power is only growing in Iowa.

Former President Donald Trump is openly toying with the idea of creating a new political party, which would take on both Democrats and Republicans who are insufficiently loyal to Trump.

During an interview on Iowa Public Radio, Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann was asked about the prospect of a Trump third party. Kaufmann dismissed the notion.

Thats not going to happen. You want Republicans and Democrats to hold hands and sing We Are the World, try introducing a third party and making that third party immediately relevant, Kaufmann said.

The message to third parties is clear: You cant win because we wont let you.

adam.sullivan@thegazette.com; (319) 339-3156

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Threatened by Libertarians, Iowa GOP moves goal posts - The Gazette

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaking at CPAC on Saturday. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The group that puts on the Conservative Political Action Conference is called the American Conservative Union, but the first two days of speeches at this years CPAC in Orlando suggest the right-wing activists who attend the annual conclave have embraced a foreign political ideology.

Its not that the event wasnt patriotic. Each day began with the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem and countless speakers professed their love of country. Instead, it marked the further transition of the American right away from its libertarian roots to a more European model of populist politics. Government no longer was the enemy, but instead a tool to combat threats like big tech and cancel culture.

This political shift was most notable in what was not mentioned onstage. While the House of Representatives was passing a $1.9 trillion COVID bill that would, if enacted, be the most expensive piece of legislation in American history, there was little discussion of it or the national debt or a host of other former right wing bugaboos. When speaking onstage about the legislation, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was riled that spending in the legislation was misdirected in his view. He didnt criticize the underlying cost but instead waste like what he termed a Silicon Valley subway, a provision to extend a mass transit line from San Francisco through to San Jose.

Instead, the focus was on the type of culture-war red meat that had been a staple of Trumpism. There were strident warnings about Marxism and Black Lives Matter, hardline stances set out on immigration and the rise of China and newfound zeal to combat and regulate social-media companies.Politicians took turns touting their willingness to take on the left as they all tried to tap into the but he fights ethos that fueled Trumps rise.

This is not to say that libertarian tendencies disappeared. The mandate that all attendees at the event wear masks provoked ire among some attendees and required prominent signs and a reminder onstage. Speaker after speaker celebrated that they were in Florida, a state with relatively lax restrictions in place due to the coronavirus. Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, heralded her states approach to COVID, saying proudly that she never mandated masks or ordered a single business or church to close to loud applause. More than 1 in 500 South Dakotans have died of COVID-19 in the past year and the state has the second highest rate of cases in the country.But as COVID restrictions have become a culture war battleground and mask-wearing a political signal almost as potent as a hybrid Subaru or a pair of cowboy boots, these attitudes seemed to be as much about owning the libs as libertarianism.

Another sign of the Europeanization of the American conservatism was the growing presence of the international far right at the conference and even the looming specter of white nationalism. There were recorded video messages from Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, as well as hard-right politicians in Spain and Croatia.During breaks in the conference, a video from samurai futurologist Gemki Fuji repeatedly played proclaiming Trump to be a real American samurai while a right-wing South Korean politician claimed his country saw left-wing voter fraud too.

Perhaps most unsettling was the appearance of Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona on Saturday. Gosar, a hard right-wing backbencher who touted false claims of voter fraud before the assault on the Capitol on January 6, appeared on a panel on immigration less than 12 hours after appearing at a separate white-nationalist event sponsored by those who found CPAC full of squishy sellouts.

At that gathering, the six-term Arizona Republicans speech was followed by remarks from a Holocaust denier who said America needed to protect its white demographic core and called the attack on the Capitol awesome. While onstage at CPAC, Gosars first remarks, without prompting, were I want to tell you, I denounce ... white racism before shifting to the topic at hand.

Gosar is still an outlier at CPAC, but the annual event traditionally follows where conservative activists lead it, and the new nationalism of politicians like Josh Hawley has clearly replaced what Florida governor Ron DeSantis derided as the failed Republican Establishment of yesteryear. The party of Lincoln is looking more and more like the party of Le Pen.

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The New Foreign Flavor of CPACs Red Meat - New York Magazine

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who opened his remarks with a joke about his much-criticized trip to a Cancn resort, cast conservatives as Jedi rebels against the rigid conformity of the socialist left a call to arms at an event steeped in complaints of cultural victimhood. This years conference is titled America Uncanceled.

But Mr. Cruz also had a message for members of his own party.

Theres a whole lot of voices in Washington that want to just erase the past four years, want to go back to the world before, he said. Let me tell ya right now: Donald J. Trump aint goin anywhere.

Josh Hawley, a junior senator from Missouri, after defending his efforts to contest the election results as taking a stand, proclaimed a new nationalism that included breaking up technology companies, standing up to China and tightening borders. The oligarchs and corporate media, he said, want to divide Americans with lies like systemic racism. Hours before his speech, Mr. Hawley announced legislation requiring a $15 minimum wage for corporations with revenues over $1 billion.

None of the men, its worth noting, made any reference to Mr. Biden, a sign that the party continues to lack any cohesive line of attack against the new administration.

But what was equally striking is how far the speeches differed from traditional Republican ideology. A party that has defined itself as defenders of the free market now believes big technology companies wield too much power and the government needs to put more restrictions in place. Concerns about interventionism abroad have replaced hawkish doctrine as the driving foreign policy force. Nativism has gone mainstream and the politics of cultural grievance, focused heavily around race, dominate among conservatives that once delighted in mocking sensitive liberal snowflakes.

Of course, some of this rhetoric isnt quite accurate. Although pandemic rules vary across the country, stay-at-home orders are lifted in all states and businesses are largely open in most. Even as Republicans fret about being canceled by liberals, local parties in recent weeks have censured members of Congress who strayed from overwhelming support of Mr. Trump.

But Mr. Cruz is correct that there are some Republicans who hope that the party will revert to its pre-Trump policies and rhetoric. After watching the speeches at CPAC, its hard to imagine how the party could have once rallied around a fiscally conservative, hawkish on foreign policy Republican like Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, their 2012 nominee.

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CPAC and the New Republicanism - The New York Times

This week, Connie Lawson (R) announced her resignation as the Indiana Secretary of State. She was first appointed to the role in 2012 to fill the office vacated by Charlie White (R), after he received felony convictions for voter fraud, theft, and perjury.

Lawson will submit her formal resignation once Governor Holcomb selects her successor and the successor is ready to serve, according to a press release.

The mid-term vacancy perpetuates one-party tyranny, and represents an increasingly common practice to disenfranchise Hoosier voters by ensuring that Republican candidates only run as incumbents, said Tim Maguire, Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Indiana. Open races, without an incumbent, are far more competitive and give Hoosier voters a fair fight among the candidates.

In 2018, Lawsons eligibility to run for a second term was contested because she had served nearly 3 years in office to fill Charlie Whites term. Attorney William Barrett represented Lawson before the Indiana Election Commission, saying that Lawson was eligible to run, but she would have to step down when she reached the 8-year mark in March 2020.

Lawson is the longest-serving Secretary of State since Robert A. New first held the office after Indiana gained statehood in 1816. She may surpass News tenure, depending on the timing of her formal resignation.

First, the Libertarian Party of Indiana calls for all elected officials of all parties to uphold the integrity of public office by not violating the law.

Second, the Libertarian Party of Indiana calls on the incoming Secretary of State to publicly declare his or her ineligibility to run for re-election for a second time in 2026.

Third, the Libertarian Party of Indiana calls on the General Assembly to clarify the law so that time in office as a temporary appointee is included in the Constitutional limitation of serving no more than 8 years in any 12 year period.

Fourth, the Libertarian Party of Indiana calls on the General Assembly to amend the Constitution of the State of Indiana so that all gubernatorial appointees of elected offices must receive simple majority approval confirmation by the General Assembly. This rebalances power from the executive to the legislative branch, and better represents the will of the people.

Libertarians work toward smaller government that is accountable to the people of Indiana. These improvements will return power to Hoosiers, the rightful owners of all power, per Article I Section 2 of the Constitution of the State of Indiana: That all power is inherent in the people; and all free Governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness.

The Libertarian Party is the third largest political party in the United States and has been on the ballot in Indiana since 1994.

Libertarian Party of Indiana

Excerpt from:
Libertarian Party of Indiana's response to Secretary of State's resignation - Shelbynews

The Bad Election Bill is here and its bad.

House File 590 and Senate File 413, sponsored by Republican Rep. Bobby Kaufmann and Sen. Roby Smith, would cut early voting mail and in person to 21 days, down from 29 last year and from 40 in 2016.

In response, my senator, Democratic leader Zach Wahls, introduced a bill that would expand the early voting window to 45 days, which is consistent with what overseas voters get under federal law. Its going nowhere, of course, but it makes the point.

Other lowlights of the Republican bill include a lot of micromanaging of auditors to address imaginary problems like dead voters or auditors not doing list maintenance.

Voters would be moved to inactive status, the first step to cancellation, after missing just one general election, not two. Skip one governor election, which about 20 percent of voters do, and the cancellation clock starts ticking. And the inactivation happens before youre even notified by mail.

In a nod to the Libertarians, petition requirements to get on the ballot are once again raised. This is about a persistent Libertarian candidate has pulled just enough votes away from Republican David Young to allow Democrat Cindy Axne to win two terms in Congress with under 50 percent of the vote.

Requirements for nominating convention attendance are also increased, to a point where even the major parties would have difficulty seating the 25 delegates that would be required to fill a legislative district vacancy. Ill bet most legislators dont have 25 active county central committee members in their districts.

Satellite voting would, to my surprise, not be completely banned, but auditors could not set sites on their own. Only petitioned sites would be allowed. Thatll increase costs. Often, people ask nicely for a satellite before petitioning, and we schedule the three or four hours they really want. A petition obligates the auditor to six hours.

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The bill would eliminate the use of conventional postmarks to decide if a ballot is on time, and instead would only allow intelligent bar codes. Overseas mail does not have these bar codes.

The first day to request a ballot would move to 70 days before the election, which was the law through 2002. From 2004 to 2016 there was no first day to request a ballot. Then it was moved to 120 days in 2017.

My professional and political feelings differ here. In a college town where every lease turns over on Aug. 1, way-too-soon requests are a problem, and were a big problem in 2004. I was living in a high turnover apartment complex that year, and we were doorknocked in June. People request the ballot then move, and we mail the ballot to a bad address. So I liked the old 70-day law.

But when combined with later laws which require request forms to be handed in within 72 hours, 70 days would kill summer door knocking for absentee requests, which of course (in normal non-COVID years) Democrats rely on more than Republicans.

In an amendment, the bill also closes polls an hour earlier at 8 p.m.

This bill could have been even worse, but its bad enough.

Twenty-one days is bad for in person early voting. It will mean longer lines and bigger crowds; 21 days is absolutely unacceptable for mailed voting. It means anyone who is out of town or shut in who has any kind of problem mail delay, spoiled ballot, any problem at all is just out of luck. Twenty-nine days was barely enough time to fix these problems. We dont even learn about mail delivery problems for several days. Twenty-one days also compresses all the mailing out into a week and a half, burdening both the post offices and the election staffs.

This bill is on the fast track to passage, but there may still be time to get some small improvements. Auditors of both parties across the state are against this. We simply want to do our jobs and help voters, and this proposal makes that harder.

John Deeth lives in Johnson County. He writes at jdeeth.blogspot.com

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Iowa's bad election bill will stifle early voting, micromanage auditors - The Gazette

From: Kathleen Leason

Columbus

Rep. Ryan Lauer, our state representative, co-sponsored and supported House Bill 1005 that expands private school tuition assistance.

The bill increases income eligibility to a family of four earning $145,000 annually in 2022. Its worth noting that contributions to a tax-preferred account can also be used for a childs private school education up to $10,000 per year, further benefiting high-income households.

One argument Rep. Lauer gives to justify his support of this bill is that it will expand school choice for more families.

I have to askhow probable is this statement?

A quick survey of the private schools in Bartholomew County indicates there are roughly 1,500 elementary school students attending private schools. Most of these schools give enrollment priority to households who already have family members enrolled.

So, who will benefit from an expansion of the state subsidy? Will these schools undertake building projects to expand facilities to accommodate all students who wish to enroll? Probably not. It seems that this is purely a deeper subsidy to the families who already have students attending the school.

HB 1005 passed in the House last week and will move to the Senate for consideration next. Lets hope our state senators will see this bill for what it truly is: a welfare program for the wealthy.

Its interesting that Rep. Lauer began his political career as a Libertarian. Primary ideas in the Libertarian platforms are less government and minimal taxes. My, how he has drifted.

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Letter: School voucher programs benefit the wealthy - The Republic