“I wonder if RBG is Having Second Thoughts About Retiring?”
Josh Blackman asks the question that was first on my mind when I woke up to the red wave.
Category Archives: political polarization
Oregon Top Two Primary Initiative Loses Badly
“The Supreme Court Will Be a Disaster If a Justice Dies During a Republican Congress”
Would Stronger Parties Mean Less Polarization?
The Impact of Top-Two
KQED spends an hour on the consequences of California’s top-two primary.
The “Esquire” Commission to Fix Congress
I’m not kidding. Tom Daschle, Trent Lott, Bob Livingston, Barney Frank, Alan Frumin, Lawrence O’Donnell. Gentlemen of distinction, all. With “22 simple reforms that could #fixcongress right now.”
Primary Structures and Election Results
In State Legislatures Magazine, Lou Jacobson reviews the impact that various different primary election structures may (or may not) have on the types of candidates selected.
“Ohio is No Battleground for House Races”
USA Today reports on the absence of pitched partisan contests in the congressional races of the bellwether state of Ohio.
“Independent spending among conservatives shifted from strongly favoring the anti-establishment right in 2012 to favoring establishment conservatives in 2014”
Interesting findings coming from CFI-Brookings primaries conference.
Justice Scalia Praises Gridlock
AP on Justice Scalia speech to Federalist Society in San Diego:
“I hate to hear Americans going around grousing about gridlock,” he explained. “That’s the design of this system, that only really good legislation that has substantial support in the… Continue reading
“Are Republicans really driving congressional polarization? Maybe not.”
“In state Capitol, intransigence gives way to bipartisan deal-making”
Important report from Chris Megerian in the LAT.
What’s really interesting is that Chris does not mention either the top-two primary or citizen redistricting as connected to this new (perhaps temporary) period of bipartisan cooperation. I’ve been skeptical of claims… Continue reading
“Waning Influence, Part 2: Does Congressional Gridlock Lock Up K Street?”
CRP has this analysis of the relationship between lobbying spending and gridlock. A snippet: “[T]the notion that lobbying dollars might flow more freely when Congress is passing many bills, though plausible, is untested. In this report, the second in our … Continue reading
“The New Racism: This is how the civil rights movement ends”
Must read TNR cover story by Jason Zengerle on African American political power in Alabama and in the South.
Similarly, after a lawsuit was brought by the Alabama Democratic Conference and the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, a three-judge federal court… Continue reading