2022 Election
January 3, 2023 — Steven Hayward
I have no idea how the impasse in the House is going to end, but wild rumors and speculation are the coin of the realm right now. On social media there is great fascination over a short clip showing Matt Gaetz speaking with her worship Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. What were they talking about? The folks at Bad Lip Reading have figured it out (click on the second video here): What they
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January 3, 2023 — Steven Hayward
As of this writing, Kevin McCarthy has lost two rounds of voting to be the next Speaker of the House, something that hasn’t occurred in a century. Nineteen Republicans voted for someone else in both votes (McCarthy could only lose five votes). One interesting wrinkle though is that in the first round, the renegade GOP votes were split between Jim Jordan and Andy Biggs, but in the second round all
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December 29, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I detect Seth Lipsky’s characteristic prose and train of thought in the New York Sun editorial “Yes, Virginia–There Is a Santos Clause.” Seth’s hand in the editorial makes sense: he is the editor of the Sun. The subject of the editorial is the post-election discovery that Rep.-elect George Santos is not who he said he was. The subhead summarizes the gist of the editorial: “All the falsehoods George Santos is
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December 26, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I invited Arizona attorney Jack Clifford to finish up his reporting for us on Kari Lake’s election trial with a comment on the judge’s Christmas Eve decision dismissing Lake’s lawsuit. The AP story on it is here. Jack writes: I write to share my final thoughts on the Lake v. Hobbs litigation. As always, these thoughts are my own and are not written on behalf of any client or my
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December 23, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Attorney John A. “Jack” Clifford is of counsel with Merchant & Gould. P.C. He has lived, worked, and voted in Maricopa County, Arizona since 2014. He sends us this report on the Lake v. Hobbs trial that concluded yesterday. The AP’s story on the second day of trial is here. Jack’s day 1 report is here. This is Jack’s day 2 report: As before my comments are my own personal
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December 22, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Attorney John A. “Jack” Clifford is of counsel with Merchant & Gould. P.C. I developed a healthy respect for Jack many years ago when we represented adverse parties in an intellectual property dispute. He sends us this report on the Lake v. Hobbs et al. trial that opened yesterday. The AP’s story on the first day of trial is here. Jack reports that this is what he learned watching day
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December 7, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson have made it a mission to expose the Biden family corruption at whose apex sits President Biden. Their various reports, speeches, and correspondence are all accessible here. Most recently, they summarized the fruits of their research in this letter dated October 26, 2022 (“[t]he letter summarizes key elements of the Biden family’s engagements with individuals linked to the Chinese communist party and Chinese intelligence
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December 7, 2022 — Scott Johnson
This is a postscript to my November 9 installment of “After last night” on this year’s midterms. • In a perfect coda to the disappointing outcome of the 2022 midterm elections, Raphael Warnock won reelection to the Senate from Georgia last night. He did it by taking 51.4 percent of the vote in his runoff against Herschel Walker for a full six-year term. Walker fell about 100,000 votes short out
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December 4, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Dave Seminara’s Spectator column (behind the Spectator paywall) looks on the upside of the downside of the midterms for Republicans. Republicans won the cumulative popular vote for congressional candidates, but what about it? “The popular vote win shouldn’t be a cause of celebration for Republicans, who should have performed even better in the critical races given President Biden’s abysmal record. But there are also causes for concern among Democrats, a
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November 24, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Ranked choice voting may not have “the primal eldest curse upon’t,” but it nevertheless “smells to heaven.” Case in point: Alaska’s ranked choice voting scheme has now delivered Democrat Mary Peltola to represent this Republican state in the House of Representatives. Living with it, Kim Strassel called it out as “the hell that is Alaska’s election system” in her lucid October 27 Wall Street Journal column “The ‘ranked choice’ scam.”
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November 21, 2022 — Scott Johnson
It takes 218 seats to claim a the majority in the House of Representatives, which is itself an entirely majoritarian institution. It’s no fun to be in the minority in the House, as Democrats are about to be reminded. It appears that the prospective Republican majority in the House will max out at 221 or 222 members. We are still awaiting results in three California races. RCP still shows Lauren
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November 19, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Commenting on the midterms, I relied on Robert Cahaly’s Trafalgar polls to moderate my native pessimism. As I noted in “Trafalgar in retrospect,” I’m still kicking myself for that and for having advertised his polls to readers. What does Cahaly himself say? He spoke with New York Intelligencer’s Benjamin Hart this week for this interview. As I read the interview, he sounds grouchy and defensive, but I understand this much:
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November 18, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Maybe the news of massive layoffs at at leading Silicon Valley tech companies is good news for the Republican Party. Herewith:
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November 18, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll advises LET’S GET A GRIP! She writes: Long-married people may theologically be “one,” but as any Marriage Counselor will tell you, they are also two extremely separate individuals. Since famous novelist, Max Cossack and I are both hard-core political junkies, we have been discussing the latest election more or less non-stop for a week. Though I am the Columnist of Record and hence will be writing in the
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November 17, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Kendall Witmer is a Democratic political operative who describes herself as “comms director” for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s re-election campaign. This is a photo of Witmer (center) with Walz, from Witmer’s Twitter feed: This is how Witmer celebrated her client’s re-election win. Her tweet is directed at Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate Matt Birk, former All-Pro football player for the Minnesota Vikings: I’ll have something more coherent at some point but
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November 17, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Ryan Girdusky appeared for an interview on a segment of the Clay and Buck radio talk show yesterday. The interview is posted here at the show’s site. I had never heard of Girdusky and can’t vouch for him. These were Girdusky’s opening points: [T]here was no youthquake. The media has had this narrative coming out that there was this giant army of young Gen Z people voting Democrat — didn’t
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November 17, 2022 — Scott Johnson
When Dr. Oz narrowly won the Pennsylvania Republican primary — by fewer than 1,000 votes — I lamented the result in “Oz versus Fetterman.” I blamed Trump for an endorsement that, given the closeness of the race, must have pushed Oz over the top. I thought former Trump Treasury Under Secretary David McCormick, Oz’s opponent in the primary, made for a far better candidate against John Fetterman in Pennsylvania’s general
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