Politics: 2020 Attorney General Elections

While I once thought that I would only do one post on one attorney general race throughout all of my blogging time, this will not be the case after all. There is a lot to say about this important but often overlooked office. If you want to know why I’m doing this post, it relates entirely to the upcoming Supreme Court case called California v Texas. The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg has made me out for blood (figuratively, of course). For more information on the races for this office this year, read this.

Link: https://ballotpedia.org/Attorney_General_elections,_2020

The elections for attorney general this year are in Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia. I do not think that there are any more that are happening that voters can’t vote on. But I do know that there are a lot of the state races where one can vote if one can vote in that state.

The states with attorney generals in favor of Obamacare that are up for reelection this year, according to the litigation for the upcoming Supreme Court case that I told you about, are North Carolina, Washington, Oregon, and Vermont. Would I blindly want these people to stay in the office that they currently have? Maybe. It is hard to be out for blood without blind vengeance.

The states with attorney generals against Obamacare that are up for reelection this year are Missouri, Indiana, Utah, and West Virginia. This does lead to a bit of an interesting thing to note with one of the states. I’ll get to that later. Am I blindly against all of them? No. I do know enough about Missouri’s current attorney general to know that I’m against him in not a blind way at all. And one of them is on their way out now anyways.

It is also important that is seems the attorney generals of the states of Pennsylvania and Montana do not have any role in the Supreme Court case. Thus, there isn’t as much to add about them just yet at the moment. They aren’t the only states not involved in the case.

What’s interesting is that when it comes to the Indiana attorney general race, the incumbent had lost renomination after a scandal which got him disbarred for a month. Thus, Curtis Hill will not be the nominee for the Republican Party as Todd Rokita will be instead. As for the Democratic side, Jonathan Weinzapfel is the nominee. Neither party of that state let the voters pick who would win the primary as that was up to party insiders at a convention.

In Missouri, the attorney general used to be Josh Hawley, but he got elected senator and had to resign from the office as a result. Thus, Eric Schmitt was appointed to the vacant seat. He is a Republican. I don’t like him for a lot of reasons. In addition to the Obamacare issues, he also wants to change the law to allow people to sue China over coronavirus, which is a terrible and short sighted idea. The Democrat in the race is Richard Finneran.

In Montana, the Democratic candidate is Raph Graybill while the Republican one is Austin Knudsen. The Republican incumbent is not in the race itself. That is because this person ran for higher office, but lost the primary.

In North Carolina, the Democratic candidate is incumbent Josh Stein. Meanwhile, when we get to the Republican candidate, it is Jim O’Neill. I feel that Josh should be reelected. He has done other good too such as trying to punish JUUL, prevent robo calls, deal with price gouging, and protect the elderly from scams.

In Oregon, the incumbent is Democrat Ellen Rosenblum. The Republican in the race is Michael Cross. Ellen has done a lot of good, such as working to investigate the illegal “police” that were occupying Portland that I need to do more research into.

In Pennsylvania, the incumbent is Democrat Josh Shapiro. The Republican in the race for this office is Heather Heidelbaugh. I have no investment in this race one way or another. Maybe I should care, but I don’t. But do I really want to learn about this state’s politics? Maybe I would in other races, but not this one.

In Utah, the incumbent is Republican Sean D Reyes. The Democrat in the race is Greg Skordas who I have to endorse since he is not against the Affordable Care Act. I can’t find as much info about Greg as I would like easily.

In Vermont, the incumbent is Democrat T.J. Donovan. The Republican is H Brooke Paige. I am not just in favor of T.J. because of his support of Obamacare, but also because he knows how to improve the law to be in favor of everyone and not just the less fortunate.

In Washington, the incumbent is Democrat Bob Ferguson. The Republican is Matt Larkin. Bob was once on the Time 100. It is hard to say much about the candidate I support named Bob. But one should vote for him.

In West Virginia, the incumbent is Republican Patrick Morrisey. The Democrat is Sam Petsonk. While I can’t find as much information as I would like quickly about Sam, I’d still have to support him in the general election as Patrick is against the ACA.

That is all for this post. If I endorsed a candidate, I urge you to vote for him if you can. If I didn’t, then make whatever decision you want. I’m sorry that I don’t know as much info as I’d want to on some of the candidates, but I can’t care. This is an important, but overlooked job. Thus, one much make sure one knows about these races.

Politics: 2020 Minnesota Senate Race

This may not be the last time that I do a post about a specific senate race this year, but this should be the last time that I feel that I have to do one this year. There is a lot to cover still and some more specific posts might not come up until after the election as I seek to find a whole lot of things to cover in terms of elections for this blog. Now when it comes to who one should vote for in the South Carolina senate race this year, the choice to me are relatively clear. But let me get to this post now anyways.

Incumbent Democrat Tina Smith has done a lot so far with her career. She used to be the lieutenant governor of Minnesota until Al Franken announced his resignation. During this time, she was appointed to the vacant seat and won the special election to said seat a mere two years ago. She has done a lot of good with Democratic issues, although it might take too long to mention all of them right now.

As for her challenger, Republican Jason Lewis, it can be hard to find people this bad in life. I mean, I’m going to spare you repeating the exact things that he’s said, but you should know that he has made sexist comments on radio show and has said various other horrible things as well. Somehow, he held office for a term in the US House from 2017-2019. Hopefully, he can stay out of future office.

The choice is a no brainer. If you want to have a horrible man who continues to give all men a bad name while causing further proof of the deterioration of the Trump Party, I mean, wait, no, I got it right, then vote for Jason Lewis. Meanwhile, if you want a good senator who could do even more good than she already has, then vote for my endorsement of Tina Smith for senator.

Politics: 2020 Michigan Senate Race

I miss being able to talk some about important political things like I did in my Madam Secretary blog or other blogs. You might have gotten the point that I cared about some elections than I did others and you’d be right. I am constantly adding more and more that I care about. Thanks to the Midwestern governor alliance, I am adding Ohio, Minnesota, and Michigan to a previously unnamed and unranked priority two of elections that I care about. I doubt that I can get all of what I need to in for each election cycle unless or until I do posts on episodes of this show again at some point. But you know from the title of this post what I’m covering and I don’t think that there is much to explain about why I’m covering this so I might as well get this done.

Let’s start with the incumbent Democrat in the race who is a man named Gary Peters. He is in a bit of danger as Michigan went to Trump in 2016, a fact that applies to only one Democrat up for reelection this cycle in the senate and he is the only one who was elected six years ago since Doug Jones wasn’t elected until 2017 and only because a seat was vacated during that time. It did not seem too likely last I checked that he would lose, but it is possible.

The Republican challenger is John James. He is a black Republican so that could prove to be a bit of an advantage, but maybe not much of one. He is against the ACA, which becomes more and more of a ridiculous thing to want to get rid of during a terrible pandemic that has been only been doing better in states like this one due to resources needed by things that it provides.

The endorsement in the race couldn’t be clearer to me. Gary Peters is the best candidate in the race. He has done a lot of good in the senate and can continue to do more good if people vote for him again. I realize that a lot of early voting is under way in this country. So if you can vote for Michigan and haven’t already voted, then vote for Gary Peters for senate.

Politics: 2020 Iowa Senate Race

Since this post isn’t on the usual day, then I might as well get to three things. You will need first an explanation then both good news and bad news. The explanation is simple. I have a cheat that means a blog must be updated on a specific date. It was in the TV blog then moved to the Madam Secretary blog. With both of those blogs alternating Thursdays and this date being the date that needed used next, that cheat will mean that this blog will now get those updates. This leads to the good news. Because of the sheer number of these cheats that I have, this will mean that this blog will now be posted more than once a month for quite a while. The bad news is that this will no longer be on set days of the week and updates will be random at times or at least seem that way in the end.

Now for the actual post of this blog, it’s time to talk about the Iowa race for senate this year. This seat has been held by Democrats in the recent past and some sources are saying that this could be one of them that could flip back. The race is between Republican incumbent Joni Ernst and Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield. Theresa may not have as much experience as I would like, but she is better than a yes man, err, woman.

Joni is against Obamacare, EPA, and the Department of Education. She votes with Trump a lot. It is a bit over 90% of the time that she votes with him. That gives her the potential to be turned on since it might not be enough (Remember Mark Sanford?). She is also against the scientific consensus of climate change because why admit that a problem exists and needs solved?

When she was running in the primary back in 2014, she was criticized for missing votes to the point of being called AWOL. She shot back at that term and I agree that it was not the right term to use with a military person. But she did miss a lot of votes and not all of them were due to serving in the National Guard at the time.

So many people still don’t believe the severity of coronavirus and Joni is one of them as she thinks that the numbers are higher than they are in reality. She even siding with the QAnon conspiracy theory which she thinks proves her point about it.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/2/1974453/-Joni-Ernst-goes-QAnon-suggests-Iowa-healthcare-workers-are-bilking-the-system-with-COVID-19

What’s worse than her dismissal of the current pandemic was her treatment of Obama during the Ebola outbreak. Only two Americans died during that which is still two too many, but she seems to be completely fine with what I’m sure will be hundreds of thousands of deaths before this year is over, thinking that Trump is actually leading the way with what should be done.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/5/1958389/-Sen-Joni-Ernst-says-130-000-American-deaths-show-Trump-is-stepping-forward

After voting to acquit the guy in the White House of the Ukraine scandal, she became part of the dangerous belief that it is Biden and not Trump who was doing wrong in this scandal even though there has yet to be any proof of wrongdoing by Biden. She wants to impeach Biden despite criticizing the Democrats for what would effectively be the same thing that she thinks that they were doing during Trump’s impeachment.

https://www.axios.com/ernst-biden-impeachment-trump-iowa-2e633d71-2782-4daa-bd75-1e22b8a1ae7a.html

Joni seems to have a complicated history with rape. She says that it happened to her and there was an emotional scene displayed by her when a story about it was leaked, if I have my info about it right. She rightfully called out issues with the military when they had scandals with it. But she also voted to confirm someone accused of attempted rape to the Supreme Court and she isn’t in favor of voting for the Violence Against Women Act. What gives?

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/17/1919825/-Survivors-call-out-Joni-Ernst-for-sticking-with-the-NRA-to-block-the-Violence-Against-Women-Act?detail=emaildkre

Honestly, I know that Joni isn’t a good senator to most people. She might be one to Republicans that like her support of the guy in the White House, but not to Independents and certainly not Democrats. Thus, the vote is clear. If you can vote in Iowa, then vote for Theresa Greenfield for senate this year.

Politics: 2020 Missouri Governor Race

As we get to another upcoming election that I’m blogging about, I might as well skip the part where I explain why I’m blogging about it and just switch to the part where I explain the race in question. The incumbent governor of Missouri is Republican Mike Parsons. He is running for reelection. He is being challenged by Democrat Nicole Galloway.

Mike Parsons was not elected governor of Missouri. But he was elected lieutenant governor. After the previous governor, Eric Greitens, had numerous scandals and ultimately resigned from office, Mike took over. I forget what else he’s done offhand.

Of course, we should get to any issues that he has. There was a possible tax credit controversy that I don’t quite understand. He might have benefited from it going one way and just happened to get what he needed to when things went a certain way. I didn’t quite understand it.

There was also an appointment controversy over the fact that he appointed a new lieutenant governor when it seemed like it was outside of his power to do. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in his favor to make a new number two despite the fact that it would seem the constitution of the state stated that this wasn’t allowed. What is worth noting is that you’d think there would have been enough time to do a special election for it since he took office in June and the primary in 2018 wasn’t until August that year, which would have given plenty of time for all sorts of candidates to come into the race.

Now there may come a time when I start doing an analysis of various governors after they have left office in a different political blog. The main reason for that is so I can talk about all of the men and women who were governors during the coronavirus. Now, Mike wasn’t doing stay at home orders at first due to, I’m not sure. Maybe he just didn’t want to. He eventually caved in after numerous cities did what he wasn’t doing. But he fails to reign in the issues that constantly are happening at Lake of the Ozarks. I forget if Missouri is doing badly compared to other states in terms of coronavirus which could be due to the fact that less people live there.

He has made some controversial statements recently. The first one is covered in this article as he wound up telling people not to vote if they felt too sick or worried about going to the polls. He also is not expanding voting by mail, despite the fact that many want to do it during times like these that are going on today.

https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article243081151.html

Another point of controversy with him relates to the couple who were pointing guns at protesters who support the Black Lives Matter movement. He said that he might pardon them and we still don’t know if they will have charges filed against them yet at all.

Perhaps the biggest controversial thing that he has done or said relates to his dismissive way he is treating coronavirus during the school reopening debate. While it might be more like an ordinary sickness in the future, it isn’t like that yet as it is more like the flu when it first spread as a pandemic a century ago near the end of World War I. For one, there is no vaccine yet. For another, the infection rate remains high. This article explains a good deal about why reopening schools is a bad idea while including his ignorant quote about it.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/even-if-school-kids-survive-covid-19-they-won-t-be-spared-contagion-guilt/ar-BB179XHf?li=BBnbcA0&ocid=mailsignout

Now let’s get to Nicole Galloway. She is currently the only woman who holds state wide office in Missouri and the only Democrat as well. (This obviously excludes people who represent only part of the state, unless my information is wrong.) She would be the first female governor of the state of Missouri if she wins the election. She does have experience as she currently holds office and had held others too. I believe that she’s the auditor of the state, whatever that means, but am not sure right now as I forget to note it while preparing this post.

She is not without controversy of her own as there were possible issues with the Sunshine law being broken by her based on something that seems dumb relating to texts she got that were then deleted automatically. Since the Republican Attorney General seemed to clear her of any wrongdoing (and I haven’t even seen this touched upon in ads), then I wouldn’t worry about this being that big of an issue right now.

There is a dumb seeming thread to me among the political ads that I see in Missouri. It seems that all a Republican has to do to win is call an opponent too liberal and this liberal loses. How can they be duped so easily? I can only hope that this fails at some point in time, but am not sure that it will this election since Democrats seem posed to do badly with governor elections this year based on polls last I checked.

Now I might as well close this with the endorsement of who I think should win and thus, who people should vote for in the general election in the state of Missouri. While Mike is currently saying that he won’t run in 2024 if he wins this year, I say that it isn’t worth keeping him around for now. The only good vote of someone who would actually care about Missouri is Nicole Galloway and if you can vote in Missouri this election, then vote for her for governor.

Politics: 2020 Kentucky Senate Race

One of the most pivotal races in 2020 that isn’t for president is the Kentucky race for senate. The man who holds this senate seat has held it longer than I’ve been alive and has gradually gotten worse and worse despite never having been good in the first place. How doomed are we if we don’t ditch Mitch? Well, I might as well get through some of this now.

Mitch has a reputation of being the Grim Reaper. This is a label that he has given to himself. He is the incumbent in the race and is a Republican’t. He is the most powerful and dangerous of all of that party and that includes Trump. Mitch McConnell has only three endorsements, which isn’t much, especially since his challenger has a ton more. Now the Grim Reaper label is one that he calls himself since he causes Democratic legislation to die by not doing anything about it. He also has more ties to Russia than one would originally expect, ties that are certainly not legal, but maybe not something he will ever face repercussions on since people don’t seem to care. He doesn’t want to protect us from more Russian interference and is up for reelection this year. While many don’t like him, he might yet win again. But let’s not rule out his opponent.

The Democratic challenger in the race is Amy McGrath. She has yet to hold political office, but has run unsuccessfully for a seat before. She talked about the need of political investigations into the Iraq War, pointing out that more died in it than the Benghazi attack, yet there were only investigations into Benghazi. She is known for having moderate and even conservative beliefs as she has stated somewhat support of Trump, something she might have to do in order to win in Kentucky, even though you’d think she’d only have to work with him for 17 days if she does win her way to office. She also has strong Second Amendment beliefs, which I would expect of someone who served in the military. She is a far better candidate than some might give her credit for, especially considering who she is up against.

There are a lot of links that I would like to share some time, but am unsure if I will in the end. All you can hope is that I find some place to put them at some time. I have stuff that I was wanting to share from back when impeachment was the main story. Republican’ts did poorly at being impartial and Mitch was a reason why.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/22/1913331/-McConnell-is-also-covering-up-the-bad-behavior-of-Republican-senators-during-this-impeachment-trial

Him not doing a lot of the work that he’s supposed to do has drawn bipartisan outrage from 70 former senators who insist that he should do his job by casting votes on legislation that the House has passed. To not do this is horrible. If he doesn’t want it to pass, why not hold a vote and let it fail that way? Is he that convinced that it wouldn’t happen?

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/25/1921974/-70-former-senators-have-the-same-message-for-the-Republican-controlled-Senate-Do-your-job

Some people got stimulus checks in order to pay for things, but there were issues with that which lead to a lawsuit. Some people didn’t get the money that they probably should have in the end and that’s an issue.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/28/1941042/-Illinois-man-sues-Trump-McConnell-and-Mnuchin-over-exclusion-of-U-S-citizen-spouses-from-relief?detail=emaildkre

Mitch doesn’t seem to have good things going with judges and justices and I may never forgive him for what he did as a result. When confronted about his ways, he couldn’t even offer an answer when trying to change the story of what actually happened.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/9/1803081/-McConnell-sputters-as-news-host-refuses-to-accept-his-revisionist-Supreme-Court-history?detail=emaildkcc

There can be issues with the judges that Mitch has been tainting various courts with. He might even be doing illegal things in order to do it. Whether he is or isn’t, there are people who think that his role in this needs investigating. They are right.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/judge-asks-for-investigation-of-mcconnells-role-in-creating-federal-bench-vacancy/ar-BB13B2pT?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

Even though Mitch infamously refused to allow there to be a vote on Merrick Garland, he seems to not even care that another election is coming quicker than the vote was and is not following his own rules because it is the same timeframe and Mitch is seeking to make the courts bleed as much red as possible.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/16/mitch-mcconnell-urging-judges-retire-ahead-2020-election/5060303002/

Another issue that is going on is that Mitch is trying to blame the poor pandemic response that is going on right now on Obama. This far into the Trump administration, you can’t be blaming things on what Obama might have done or not done, especially when Obama left a pandemic response for the next administration.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/12/1944517/-McConnell-claims-Obama-didn-t-leave-Trump-a-pandemic-game-plan-Obama-very-literally-did

I won’t say anything here, other than read this link if you have time.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/20/1946411/-An-open-letter-to-Republican-Senate-Majority-Leader-Mitch-McConnell

At least there are some people within the Republican Party who want to turn on Mitch so they can do what needs to be done to deal with the pandemic. They haven’t done anything yet, but maybe they will break ranks with him in the future.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/21/1946696/-Unrest-blubbling-up-among-Republicans-who-have-to-fight-McConnell-to-act-again-on-COVID-19

With more racism going on in the country and horrible things like that going on as a result, we need an anti-lynching bill passed in the senate. Why won’t they do it? They really should. But the two Kentucky senators are not going to do this.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/4/1950391/-It-s-2020-and-the-Senate-won-t-pass-an-anti-lynching-bill-because-of-Rand-Paul-and-Mitch-McConnell?detail=emaildkre

The one thing that Mitch is certain will be his legacy will be the courts. He’s sadly right. It won’t be the legacy that he should be wanting as he has to fear monger his way into getting the courts to be the way that he wants to be.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/11/1952455/-McConnell-in-full-troll-mode-running-against-the-lawless-left-and-its-plans-to-pack-the-courts

Even in the rare event that he works with people of the other party, he does it while lying through his teeth about what all he has done and could do. If some people have a good idea that he does not originally embrace, he may take credit for it himself in the end since it would make him look good.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/2/1957845/-McConnell-lies-to-Kentucky-takes-credit-for-the-COVID-19-relief-bill-Pelosi-and-Schumer-negotiated

Of course, he has to support the horrifying and dangerous unemployed people are lazy myth. If I ever got the chance to have a one on one conversation with Steve Harvey, I’ll ask him if he likes being rich better like he is now or preferred the days when he was so poor he was living in a car instead. I mean, come the fuck on, people. Some people have good reasons why they shouldn’t work or aren’t able to work in the end and he will support the myths that people are just lazy and want to live off the government, something that couldn’t be further from the truth.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/1/1957512/-McConnell-Republicans-say-extra-unemployment-and-not-raging-COVID-19-keeps-people-from-working?detail=emaildkre

Something that I want to see in ads from the DNC or some sort of organization that either supports Democrats or is against Republicans would relate to all the Congressmen, Senators, and Congresswomen who felt that the voters should decide Trump’s fate. We shouldn’t just decide Trump’s fate as we should vote out those who didn’t vote him out of office as well since that is what they wanted. They wanted to give voters the choice so we would choose to get rid of Trump and them as well. I know this isn’t something meant for just this election, but figured that I might as well say it now and didn’t know where else to say it.

While most of this post has been about Mitch McConnell and all that he has done wrong or is still doing wrong, I should remind you the alternative again, Amy McGrath. She may not be the most liberal that she could be, but she is far better than Mitch or any third party candidate in this race. Thus, my endorsement in the race is the only choice that makes sense: Amy McGrath. If you can vote in Kentucky in 2020, then be sure to vote for her for senate.

Politics: 2020 Indiana Governor Race

I was wanting to do this post sooner, but the primary was delayed, even though there was only one candidate for each of the major parties in the race at one point leading into the primary. Thus, we have the two candidates and I need to explain who both of them are while ignoring any of the third party candidates in the race.

The incumbent governor of Indiana is Republican Eric Holcomb. He was once the lieutenant governor under the previous governor, Mike Pounce. (Trump said that was his vice-president’s name once.) Despite Mike Pounce originally running in the last Indiana governor race in 2016, when he dropped out and Eric was allowed to be a late entry into the race as a replacement, Eric wound up winning the race and became governor as a result.

My irritation with him came from an ad he did in the 2018 Illinois governor race where I dubbed him one of the four horsemen. Joining two others governors, namely Scott Walker and Eric Greitens, he endorsed former Illinois governor Bruce Rauner and blamed all of the problems that Bruce had on the admittedly terrible Illinois speaker of the house, Michael Madigan. I was not liking him as a result.

While looking up more information about him in preparation for this post, I wind up learning about a possible Amazon factory scandal that might have happened as he or people in his administration might have tried to get a factory there in that state using questionable and possibly illegal means. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. It seemed like it was covered well, this issue, and there were no problems that I could make sense of.

I think that I changed to more neutral feelings towards Eric when covid19 hit since some of the governors formed an alliance. Eric joined one that was formed with others from all the states that border Indiana and a few others as well. This alliance will affect me and what I want to do in politics in the future. The alliance includes Eric Holcomb, Illinois Democrat J. B. Pritzker, Minnesota Democrat Tim Walz, Kentucky Democrat Andy Beshear, Wisconsin Democrat Tony Evers, Ohio Republican Mike DeWine, and Michigan Democrat Gretchen Whitmer. It seems that Eric still has friendships with other governors on his mind, but now, it is good.

The fact that he can work with so many Democrats and the replacement to Bruce Rauner proves that he might not be as bad as I thought that he was. It is also worth wondering how much of this alliance is just for show as there might not be too much coordination between these states in the end. But I may not want Eric out like I used to.

Still, it is worth noting that there is a Democrat in the race. This man, Woody Myers, was health commissioner and ran for office, but hasn’t held it yet. I couldn’t find out that much about him and don’t know if Eric is too bad a leader to need replaced.

Thus, surprising me and tons of others, I see no choice but to endorse Eric Holcomb in this race for office. He isn’t such a terrible leader that he needs replaced. He has shown to at least me that he is willing to work or at least seem like he works with members of the other party. I also do plan to write all of the governors of this alliance a letter at some point and I may have to owe Eric a bit of an apology. I could turn back to hate him again in the future, but don’t know yet if I will and can only hope that he doesn’t do anything I don’t like again, especially before the election this year. Maybe he’ll even make me actually like him.