*Updated, 2:00 PM
Back when Florida executed prisoners in an electric chair, part of the ritual involved plunging the entire maximum security state prison into total darkness as they switched off the grid and onto backup generators. The purpose of this exercise was to protect Florida Power and Light from possible bad publicity–a …
The amount of money the state of Alaska and news organizations are spending on the Sarah Palin e-mails — copying costs, shipping costs (or flight costs), man-hour costs, and opportunity costs — should inspire some skull-clutching. It’s all the more extravagant considering how much of the content has been redacted, how old the e-mails …
Governor Rick Perry’s office called in response to my post on his jobs record last week. His spokesperson, Catherine Frazier, wanted to defend Perry’s business-luring tax credit funds, and I’ll get to that below. But first, some more context on the subject of Texas and job creation, which will be central to the 2012 campaign if …
Looking a little tired, but still standing tall on the center stage of Texas politics, Governor Rick Perry was triumphant at an Austin press conference Monday. He got most of what he wanted and then some from the regular state …
SACRAMENTO—Forget the former California governor who’s once again a tabloid sensation. Let’s talk about the former California governor who’s once again a California governor. Jerry Brown, the Golden State’s 34th and 39th chief …
The financial picture is still grim in state capitals across the country. In California, for example, the once-again Gov. Jerry Brown has bailed $11 billion of red ink out of the budget, leaving him with $15 billion to go. A new poll of Golden State voters suggests that the drumbeat of fiscal calamity is starting to move citizens to …
Republican gains in last November’s Congressional elections were minor compared to the rout the party engineered in statehouses around the U.S. The GOP won a net gain of nearly 700 state-legislature seats on Nov. 2, wresting …
Arizona’s Republican Governor Jan Brewer became an unlikely firewall for progressives yesterday, vetoing two controversial pieces of legislation passed by the state’s GOP-controlled Congress.
In this week’s dead-tree issue I have a short piece on the surge in mayoral recall attempts across the country. You can read it here. I mention a couple of reasons for the rise in recalls: cratering confidence in government, the sluggish economy, a strong Tea Party presence that has harnessed the power of blogs and social media, and so …
Those of you following Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race will know by now that Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus discovered yesterday during her canvass of ballots from Tuesday’s election a misplaced computer tally that has swung the competition back to justice David Prosser by more than 7,000 votes.
As the Milwaukee Wisconsin …
John Boehner has a decision to make. And in some ways it’s akin to choosing between his children. By midnight tonight the government will shut down unless an agreement can be reached between the Speaker and President Obama. Whatever Boehner decides will have long-reaching implications for his Speakership.
Ideally, Boehner would have …
Wisconsin election officials are still in the process of certifying Tuesday’s unofficial 204-vote victory by assistant attorney general JoAnne Kloppenburg over incumbent state Supreme Court justice David Prosser, but already the state is bracing for a recount.
As I wrote for the magazine yesterday, the vote became a proxy for the …
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took both Republicans and Democrats to task for political cowardice on entitlement reform in his first big Washington speech today at the American Enterprise Institute.
“The President’s not talking about it because he’s waiting for the Republicans in Congress to start talking about it,” said …