With Rep. David Valadao of California’s 21st District conceding to T.J. Cox, the Democrats have locked in a forty seat gain in the 2018 midterm elections. It could go as high as forty-one if a new election is held in North Carolina’s Ninth District. The absentee ballot shenanigans that have been exposed there certainly warrant it, and at a minimum it does not look likely that Republican Mark Harris will be seated in the House of Representatives.
But the Republicans also have a problem in the Senate, as Ed Kilgore explains. It appears to be a fairly straightforward scandal although its resolution promises to be anything but.
Missouri attorney general Josh Hawley was the Republican Party’s nominee to take on Senator Claire McCaskill, and he was successful in his effort. The problem is that he improperly used his old office to run for his new one. McCaskill raised this issue in the last days of the campaign, but Hawley scraped by nonetheless. Having won, however, hasn’t made the problem go away, and now he faces an inquiry.
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has launched an investigation into the way Attorney General Josh Hawley ran the office, Ashcroft’s deputy general counsel wrote to a Democratic-allied group Thursday…
…The complaint came after the Kansas City Star reported on Oct. 31 that political advisers who would run Hawley’s U.S. Senate campaign also directed taxpayer-funded staff, confusing the attorney general office’s chain of command.
The advisers also worked to raise Hawley’s national profile after Hawley took office as attorney general, the Star reported.
“This office will commence an investigation into the alleged offense,” Khristine A. Heisinger wrote to Brad Woodhouse, president of the [American Democracy Legal Fund]. Heisinger asks Woodhouse to forward the secretary of state’s office any information he may have.
Jay Ashcroft is the son of former U.S. attorney general and Missouri senator John Ashcroft. According to Ed, he lacks subpoena power. Obviously, he has partisan motives here, too, that may influence his investigation. But these charges are similar to the ones that put a former Missouri attorney general in prison.
In 1993, Missouri Attorney General William L. Webster was sentenced to two years in prison for conspiracy and embezzlement of state resources after an investigation revealed Webster was using state resources for political purposes.
It’s doubtful that the Senate will refuse to seat Josh Hawley, but it’s possible that they may quickly come to regret that decision.
Ho-hum. Another Republican criminal takes office. “Move along now! Nothing to see here! We need to focus on her emails! No! NOT Ivanka’s emails! Hillary’s emails! That’s the only issue in 2018.”
Hawley had an almost non-stop ad in rotation where he had his kids running around and he states they just learned his oldest has a pre-existing condition and his punch line was, “I support forcing insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions,” “And Claire McCaskill knows it. You deserve a Senator who’s driven to fix this mess, not just one determined to hang onto her office.”
“Driven to fix this mess” by joining republican AG’s in a lawsuit to blow the protection up. I really hope this lying piece of shit gets his due, but assume he will continue to skate.
So AG Josh brazenly and vociferously lied for months on end, and presumably most MO voters have the intelligence to see this.
What can be concluded other than a majority of them desperately wanted a National Trumpalist, no matter how colossal a liar he was shown to be?
“most MO voters have the intelligence to see this”
Ah – nope. I tried discussing this lie with several folks. It was hopeless. You see Claire is the liar, and Obamacare is the problem.
On the other hand I do not have to suffer over every blue dog vote Claire casts anymore, so it is not all bad.
The “conservative” movement is criminally-controlled enterprise from coast to coast. Seriously. And young Mister Josh certainly grew up seeing lawbreaking as the modus operendi of all Repub office-holders, including (especially?) attorney generals. (Not that Repubs voters mind, of course, because the ends justify the means in every instance.)
The wheels of justice will grind pretty slowly on this, and who knows what’s become of MO state courts in the past 25 years–most likely they have been appropriately “conservatized” by the Repub party. But a 6 year term is a long, long time for junior senator Josh to stonewall and brazen it out….
Hmm. If these charges come to some kind of charges and trial, that would be good. It would mean Missouri has a deeply corrupted governmental culture (fool me once).
On the other hand, conviction would mean he’s a made man in Republican mob circles, so he should probably be on the fast track for Senate party leader and / or presidential candidate.
Criminality is now a feature, and not a bug, in republican organizations and politicians. And when Hawley comes to town they will circle the wagons to protect him from facing justice, until such time when it becomes, if ever, no longer politically viable to continue to do so.
Jay Ashcroft is a bit of a voter ID zealot, according to his Wikipedia entry.
Show me one that isn’t.
.
No one with the power to do anything gives a shit.
“Obviously, he has partisan motives here,”
?
Like Hawley, Ashcroft is a Republican.