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Thread: NH-Anti-FreeState PAC "Citizens for Belknap" running anti freedom campaign ads

  1. #1

    NH-Anti-FreeState PAC "Citizens for Belknap" running anti freedom campaign ads

    For my pal @PAF

    This is bubbling up from the next county over.

    Seems those damn libertarians plotting to take over the world and do nothing, have ruffled feathers at the government run Gunstock ski resort.

    Funny how a PAC that has lawn sign to "End Extremism" calls it's neighbors and fellow citizens "an invasive species".

    THE SITUATION


    A group of runaway legislators has taken over the Belknap County Delegation. They no longer represent the citizens they pledged to serve. They have been overtaken by runaway extremism and have an agenda that is harmful to the health of our county.



    The Belknap County Delegation (sometimes called the County Convention) consists of 18 state reps from Belknap County. They were elected to serve by Belknap's voters. Importantly, in addition to their duties in the State House, they also serve as County Officials and as such play an important role in our lives.



    That process has run amok in Belknap County!



    FREE STATERS. Our Delegation is populated by Free Staters and Libertarians whose beliefs and agendas represent a tiny fraction of our county’s population. They hide their extremist views under traditional party banners, and then surprise their constituents with their votes - -far outside the mainstream. Over half the Belknap delegation fits this radical mold! . . .And two of them signed a manifesto declaring themselves no longer citizens of New Hampshire!



    Governor Chris Sununu said it best:

    "The Libertarians are not Republicans. Okay? I know a lot of them like to sign up as republicans and pass themselves off as Republicans. But they're not. Not even remotely."



    SECESSION FROM THE USA! This is not a joke. Four of our delegation’s members voted to support a bill for New Hampshire to secede from the United States! Here it is. One of its sponsors, the CHAIRMAN of our Delegation, keeps his hands at his side and his lips closed during the Pledge of Allegiance! Are these the people you want representing you?



    GUNSTOCK MOUNTAIN RESORT. The County Delegation is empowered to appoint and remove Gunstock Commissioners. They have used that power to declare war on the Gunstock Area Commission and on Gunstock’s outstanding management team. In the span of a few months, they used their appointment power to effectively dismantle the Gunstock Area Commission, which acts as Gunstock's Board of Directors. When they attempted and failed to hijack Gunstock Resort through legislation that would have given them control over Gunstock’s budget, they replaced four of the very commissioners who helped produce the best years in Gunstock history.



    In appointing replacement commissioners, our runaway delegation passed over highly qualified candidates with ski area and financial backgrounds and instead stacked the commission with like-minded individuals who are making noises about privatizing the resort and stifling investment in expansion -- the very key to survival in today’s competitive environment.



    Today, instead of fostering a healthy collaborative relationship with Gunstock's management team, the new commission has opted for open warfare. The ultimate losers will be Belknap's citizens.



    And they wrongfully claim that our county-owned gem is a burden on Belknap’s taxpayers. In fact, every penny of its $17 million in revenue comes from visitors to the resort! What are they up to??



    BUDGET CHOPPING. Our delegation has openly committed to “serve the taxpayer” by reducing taxes through a slash and burn attack on every molecule of the county budget. As a result, every county service has suffered, including the Sheriff's department, the County Attorney's Office, the Nursing Home (see below) - - even Meals on Wheels! Nobody likes to pay more taxes than they should, but most responsible citizens are willing to pay their share for essential services across our county.



    The extremists in the delegation use promises of low taxes to further their radical anti-government agenda.



    BELKNAP COUNTY NURSING HOME. For reasons that no caring person can possibly understand, your Belknap Delegation has put our nursing home on life support. How? By a reckless agenda of heartless budget slashing that has produced a deficit of over $350,000 on payroll costs alone! By refusing to budget for an industry-standard wage scale, they have prevented the nursing home from hiring qualified people, and as a result one third of its beds remain empty while many of our senior citizens have no place to go for the care they need. Shameful!



    And it does not end with staff wages. Your delegation ruthlessly chopped the professional development budget to $5700. For 65 – 70 professionals! Do the math!



    And in a recent meeting one of your delegates asked: “Should our County have a nursing home at all?”



    We can and should do better!

    ABOUT US



    We are a group of citizens from across the political spectrum with the common purpose of restoring reasonable, responsible and representative government to our county.



    Citizens for Belknap was born last November as Citizens for Gunstock in response to the Belknap Delegation’s announced plan to remove three of Gunstock’s five area commissioners. When the community feared for the survival of Gunstock as we know it, we made our voices heard. The public outcry was immediate and swift! In a matter of days, 2,400 people voiced their feelings on a petition, and in the weeks that followed the public response to that situation continued to grow. If you are reading this, you are no doubt aware of this ongoing drama.



    For months the “Gunstock issue” has dominated newspaper front pages, seen countless letters to the editor, and drawn raucous overflow crowds to Belknap County Delegation meetings which, in the past, were barely attended at all. The voters are restless!



    While this was all playing out, it became clear to thousands of Belknap residents that their delegation’s behavior extended way beyond Gunstock, to every corner of our county. Budget hearings became slash and burn operations where no County function was spared. Not the Nursing Home, not the Sheriff’s Department, not even Meals on Wheels!



    Accordingly, Citizens for Gunstock broadened its focus to county-wide issues, and Citizens for Belknap was born.



    We are fed up with the runaway extremism in our County Delegation and are fed up with representatives who represent a tiny fraction of their constituents. And we are fed up with Free Staters and Libertarians who call themselves Republicans and are seeking to shrink the scope of state and local government.



    We are committed to a return to reasonable, responsible and representative government in our county.



    We are committed to helping our citizens rid Belknap County of this invasive species and to take back our county at the ballot box this fall.
    https://www.citizensforbelknap.org/about
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11



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  3. #2
    Brian Beihl, a seasoned campaign consultant and organizer who is overseeing the undertaking, said he has been pleased by the initial response to the effort from voters. In particular, he pointed to the number of longtime Republicans disaffected by the pretense of extremists and radicals disguising themselves as Republicans.
    Gunstock Mountain Resort Doing the “Saul Alinsky Two-Step – Or Is That the Brian Beihl Bugaloo?

    https://granitegrok.com/blog/2022/07...-beihl-bugaloo

    BY SKIP / 24 JULY 2022
    Gunstock Resort Logo
    As I have said in the past, people send me stuff. And given the stir that NH Governor Chris Sununu made by shooting his mouth off concerning three NH State Reps in Belknap County that are rated among the highest in fidelity to the NH GOP Platform (via the NH House Republican Alliance, which monitors such things), GraniteGrok is getting more eyeballs, so more is coming in (more about his hoof-in-mouth disease further down).

    This first one that came in counters the Gunstock Sr. Management’s talking point that their walkout was about “respect” and not political as I’ve been posting. Well, throw a bucket of water onto THAT idea – a bit on Brian Beihl, who Kaidaisch / Gallagher has running the Citizens for Belknap election effort (emphasis mine):

    Also, I have known Beihl for a very long time. He would not be involved in anything that would be bipartisan. Nearly everyone or everything he has ever worked for has been left of center — Dan Weeks for Executive Council in 2016; NH Rebellion before Open Democracy; station manager at WNHN, the LPFM radio station in Concord whose main host is ultra-leftwing Arnie Arnesen. What’s also weird is that he is very anti-corporate. It must be tough times for Beihl when he actually gets in bed with people who are on the take for a big development like this.

    Well, so much for Mike Kitch’s article in NH Business Review about “non-partisan,” eh? And if you’ve put Beihl in place as your “organizer,” he’s not doing it just for the sake of the Citizens For Belknap – it is ENTIRELY partisan and is merely using this as his long-term goal, which is to turn Belknap County blue (Democrat).

    Have I mentioned that I have Beihl’s emails, going back YEARS, to back up that assertion? I need to start putting them up. I do have to admit, however, that I forgot that Beihl was with NH Rebellion, and I don’t remember if I ever saved them.

    Yeah, that certainly doesn’t fit the Citizens for Belknap’s Narrative well now, does it?

    Sidenote: isn’t that just SWEET! Here is Citizens for Belknap castigating THE ENTIRE BELKNAP DELEGATION while having an advisor who worked for a Leftist advocacy group with “REBELLION” in its name. I swear you can’t make this stuff up (and it’s clear they can’t connect the dots).

    And then another data point that someone else sent me. Remember, the Sr. Gunstock Management wanted to make y’all believe that this past Wednesday’s GAC meeting was to make it seem that their mass resignation was “spontaneous” – it wasn’t.



    CitizenForBelknap-thank-you resigned employees



    Want another data point? The Sales and Marketing Gunstock head already had a job lined up. Now, as you read it, keep in mind that the above was an ad by the Citizens for Belknap that just appeared in the Laconia Daily Sun; note that Kristen Lodge’s name is in that ad, making it appear that her resignation was “spontaneous.” That is until you see the date of the email that Lodge pushed out to the Lakes Region Tourism Association announcing she already had a job in Tennessee. And did it with a Gunstock email address (emphasis mine):

    From: Kristen Lodge <klodge@gunstock.com>
    Date: 7/11/22 4:04 PM (GMT-05:00)
    To: <redated to protect the innocent>
    Subject: LRTA Board of Directors

    Hi everyone,

    I just wanted to let you all know that my last day at Gunstock is tomorrow, and I resigning my position on the board.

    It’s been so great working with all of you. I’m so sorry to have missed the last two meetings. They coincided with two very tough GAC meetings that I needed to prepare for, so I had to miss the LRTA meeting.

    I have made the decision to move to Tennessee for a job opportunity (still in tourism).

    Thanks for all the work you do to promote the Lakes Region and make it a great place to live and work.

    Sincerely,

    Kristen Lodge
    Sales & Marketing Director
    Office: 603-737-4308
    719 Cherry Valley Road, Gilford, NH 03249
    klodge@gunstock.com
    Subscribe to the Gunstock Newsletter!

    So let’s ask the obvious question – if her last day was the 12th, then the normal two weeks notice would be back on June 28th. The first of the two meetings she mentioned was LAST month (June 22), and the second would have been this past Wednesday (July 20th)

    Thus the Citizens For Belknap would have already known this in advance. Yet, as part of the “con” (IMHO) that Beihl / Citizens for Belknap / Gary Kiedaisch / Rusty McLear / Russ Dumais / Alex Ray are seemingly trying to pull, WHY DID THEY keep her name on that rather large ad to make it seem that she resigned “spontaneously” this past Wednesday at the GAC meeting???

    Oh – because it furthers the Narrative they are trying to present? Are there any more that are in the same situation? I wonder if that resignation notice is in her HR file…

    And I wonder if the Laconia Daily Sun’s reporter, Jon Decker, knew this and just didn’t mention it if he did? You know, Ethics and all?

    Questions were asked because I AM that cynical kind of guy.
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11

  4. #3
    The Citizens For Belknap PAC – Helping Us Compile the Next RINO Report (snort!)

    https://granitegrok.com/mg_lakesregi...o-report-snort

    BY SKIP / 10 SEPTEMBER 2022

    BUMPED from Sept 7, 2022. Thank you, Citizens for Belknap PAC, for making it easier for our readers to see who ALL THE RINOs are in Belknap County. That would have taken me quite a bit of time (not a lot of effort as they’ve already outed themselves in aligning themselves with you – a Democrat-run, guided, and funded Political Action Committee) to replicate in my own fashion. Couldn’t have really done much better, either! Every single one of your endorsed candidates is all in for your brand of politics! And that makes them RINOs.

    I dryly note, however, that while you call yourselves “non-partisan” but why are you playing in only Belknap County Republican Primaries? Why is this PAC Chaired by a Democrat, funded with dark money, and only playing in the Republican primary? That kinda says “partisan”, eh?

    And if your supporters, or your endorsed candidates, sputter, meltdown, rent their clothes like sackcloth and cast dust into the air to cover their heads, wail, or moan, ask yourselves one question:

    Who should I believe – Republicans endorsed by Democrats or GraniteGrok that is merely pointing it all out?

    This chart makes it really easy (and we thank CoB for helping GraniteGrok in doing so – you know, just like how Mike Bordes, one of your endorsed candidates, tried to turn my LtE against me in claiming I was endorsing him. Hardly, but since he made this New Rule of Behavior, I just thought I’d adopt them, too!). Each RINO is identified with a purple check mark and the Conservatives are marked with red (you know, as in Red, White, and Blue Patriots??).

    So in each race, dear readers (if you live in Belknap County or, like Democrats “from away and not from heah”, just want to come up for a day trip to see all of the lovely ballots starting to turn Red on the trees), just look at this chart. Each and every purple checked are folks aligned with the Democrats – these are the folks to avoid! The only person not following this model is Greg Hough! It seems that NONE of the factions like him much at all (not me, not GraniteGrok, not the Belknap County Republicans, the Democrats in Belknap, and now the Citizens for Belknap Democrat PAC). That takes some real skill in achieving – you were the Democrats’ “useful idiot” and now that you’ve served your purpose, they’re throwing you away.

    BRILLIANT!

    On average, every candidate they are rejecting has better scores on legislating/voting in accordance with the NH GOP Platform (what it believes in) and in protecting and defending your Constitutional Freedom and Liberties when aggregated (as ascertained by the House Republican Alliance and the NH Liberty Alliance). But heck, what do Democrats care about that silliness (snort!) anyways?

    And lest I forget, don’t let me forget the two Republicans who aren’t on the ballot but who have done most the public-facing dirty work for the Citizens of Belknap: Commissioners Doug Lambert (of DGF Industrial) and Jade Wood (NH GOP Area 5 Vice-Chair – an elected Republican within the NH GOP!). They set the stage to make sure that good Conservatives ousted from elected office and paving the way for these RINOs, and sadly, Democrats with their totalitarian ways, to take over. This was the “top prize” plan all along (hey CoB are DEMOCRATS, right?).



    This Democrat started, funded, led, and strategized Citizens for Belknap PAC that has roiled Republican politics here in Belknap County since the beginning of the year. I’m so glad that they have let all of us know who their political allies in the Republican Party are.

    Just ask yourself:

    If they are willing to align themselves with Democrats (and make no mistake, they have for months), what will they do to YOU if they get into office in expressing their Democrat-aligned views?
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    [W]e are fed up with Free Staters and Libertarians who call themselves Republicans and are seeking to shrink the scope of state and local government.
    Well, that kind of sums it all up perfectly, doesn't it?

    Some people are "seeking to shrink the scope of state and local government"?

    Quelle horreur!
    The Bastiat Collection · FREE PDF · FREE EPUB · PAPER
    Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)

    • "When law and morality are in contradiction to each other, the citizen finds himself in the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense, or of losing his respect for the law."
      -- The Law (p. 54)
    • "Government is that great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
      -- Government (p. 99)
    • "[W]ar is always begun in the interest of the few, and at the expense of the many."
      -- Economic Sophisms - Second Series (p. 312)
    • "There are two principles that can never be reconciled - Liberty and Constraint."
      -- Harmonies of Political Economy - Book One (p. 447)

    · tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito ·

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Occam's Banana View Post
    Well, that kind of sums it all up perfectly, doesn't it?

    Some people are "seeking to shrink the scope of state and local government"?

    Quelle horreur!
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11

  7. #6
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11

  8. #7
    Originally Posted by Anti Federalist

    [W]e are fed up with Free Staters and Libertarians who call themselves Republicans and are seeking to shrink the scope of state and local government.

    Quote Originally Posted by Occam's Banana View Post
    Well, that kind of sums it all up perfectly, doesn't it?

    Some people are "seeking to shrink the scope of state and local government"?

    Quelle horreur!

    While I was reading the article I had to read that part twice - just to make sure that everything I’ve been griping about was true and On the Record.

    I laugh, I cry, I shake my head. Now I look forward to the Outer Space Alien Invasion that’s supposed to take place in 2024 that a lot of folks have been talking about.


    Thanks for the article @Anti Federalist
    ____________

    An Agorist Primer ~ Samuel Edward Konkin III (free PDF download)

    The End of All Evil ~ Jeremy Locke (free PDF download)

  9. #8
    Gotta read this when I have time.

    People are $#@!ing insane.
    "An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government" - Ron Paul.

    "To learn who rules over you simply find out who you arent allowed to criticize."



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Occam's Banana View Post
    Well, that kind of sums it all up perfectly, doesn't it?

    Some people are "seeking to shrink the scope of state and local government"?

    Quelle horreur!

    Oh, the humanity!

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=0Ad9tholMEM
    Last edited by CCTelander; 09-12-2022 at 05:02 AM.
    Chris

    "Government ... does not exist of necessity, but rather by virtue of a tragic, almost comical combination of klutzy, opportunistic terrorism against sitting ducks whom it pretends to shelter, plus our childish phobia of responsibility, praying to be exempted from the hard reality of life on life's terms." Wolf DeVoon

    "...Make America Great Again. I'm interested in making American FREE again. Then the greatness will come automatically."Ron Paul

  12. #10
    Waiting to see how this fleshes out...a lot of results are not posted yet.

    All four "recommended" were elected in Gilmanton I see.

    That is the epicenter of the Gunstock ski resort issue however.
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11

  13. #11
    Epoch Times: Sununu’s Revenge against NH House Reps That Stood against “The Establishment”

    https://granitegrok.com/blog/2022/09...-establishment

    BY SKIP / 13 SEPTEMBER 2022

    Great. Got it. Baby Huey Sununu makes national news but not exactly for the right reason. The Epoch Times has a lengthy article on how Sununu is trying to “cancel” those that stand up for the Constitutions and Conservative values.


    They questioned him and his actions – and yet he wants “unity” even as he’s bringing fire and brimstone against those that DARE to challenge him. His Dad would never have stooped to this level, but again, he’s not even half the politician his Dad is.

    Related: A Look at Who is Paying the Sununu-Supporting Super PAC to Attack NH House Republicans

    You know, Chris used to say, “Hey, I’ll talk to anyone, anywhere, at any time.” Heck, at an NH GOP Annual Meeting, he sat down with GraniteGrok for an extended conversation. However, as he climbed “the Ladder,” that willingness dissipated just like the early fall fog is now. He wouldn’t talk to us (GrokGauntlet) and refused to even participate in a debate. No, he is now “above” the littler people, and how DARE they challenge him?

    Take a read. Emphasis mine

    Republican PAC That Backs Sununu Targets New Hampshire Republicans

    A mass campaign mailer attacking anti-establishment Republican candidates running in New Hampshire’s upcoming primaries was sent out by a political action committee formed to support party Gov. Chris Sununu as its purpose.

    “This is an outrageous and unprecedented attempt to purge as many constitutional conservative Republicans from the state house delegation as possible,” State Rep. Paul Terry, one of the Republican candidates targeted by the mailers, told The Epoch Times, “He wants us replaced with Rhinos [sic] or Democrats.”

    Terry is running for re-election to the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

    At least six Republicans are known to have been targeted by the mailers. All of them are running in contested Republican primaries and are called out in the mailers for supporting such Republican initiatives as impeaching Sununu and seceding from the U.S.

    Alex Stanford, chairman and treasurer of Granite PAC, which sent out the mailers, told The Epoch Times that Sununu had nothing to do with the mailers, that neither the governor nor his campaign knew about them, and that his committee chose the targeted candidates on their own.
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11

  14. #12
    Well, there's your problem lady...


    Why Californians are working to flip red state legislatures blue

    https://news.yahoo.com/commentary-wh...7wsRS6btfWOORC

    Laurel Rosenhall

    Sun, September 25, 2022 at 8:00 AM·6 min read

    Concerned about the future of the country and determined to wrest political power from the far right, a group of friends in the San Francisco Bay Area have been gathering once a month to talk politics over brunches, happy hours and Zoom meetings.

    Their focus is some 2,300 miles away, in Lansing, Mich., where these Californians are attempting to flip a red state legislature blue. At one time it might have been unseemly or just strange for activists to try to influence local elections far from home. But that's changed. The loss of abortion rights nationally and former President Trump's attempts to undermine election results in key states have made it clear that control of state legislatures really matters.

    On this particular day several weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, the friends were getting a pep talk designed to help Democrats understand something that Republicans clued into long ago.

    “If you care about Congress, you should care about state legislatures, because state legislatures draw the district lines that decide who goes to Congress,” Melissa Walker, who works to elect Democrats to state legislatures as a director of the States Project, said on a Zoom call with the Bay Area group.

    “If you care about the Supreme Court, you should care about state legislatures. Because the Supreme Court doesn’t write laws, they rule on laws, many of which are coming out of state legislatures. It was a Mississippi law that took down Roe .… It was written by state legislators. And that is true all over the country.”

    Heads nodded across the Zoom windows as Walker’s message sank in.

    The tug of war over the balance of power in Washington soaks up lots of media attention and donor dollars. But issues that touch people’s lives most closely are largely decided in state capitols. Is your minimum wage more than $7.25 an hour? Can you get Medicaid health insurance through the Affordable Care Act? Can you get an abortion? The answers depend on which state you live in and who holds power in the statehouse.

    But in state capitols across the nation, Democrats have a lot of catching up to do. The GOP controls 62% of the legislative chambers in statehouses — even though only 47% of voters nationwide consider themselves Republicans.

    Republicans have been clobbering Democrats for the last decade when it comes to fundraising for state legislative campaigns. In 2010, the Republican State Leadership Committee, which works to elect GOP state lawmakers, raised nearly $30 million, while its Democratic counterpart, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, raised less than $10 million, according to an analysis by the Center for Political Accountability. In 2020, the gap was smaller but the Democratic group still lagged behind, raising almost $45 million to the Republican group’s $60 million.

    Now, a small but growing movement on the left is attempting to get Democrats to pay attention to some of the most under-the-radar political contests in America — races that determine which party controls power in statehouses.

    Democratic strategists and party officials are talking to major donors about the need to direct more money to state-level races. A Democratic super PAC is focused on flipping state legislatures in Arizona, Michigan and Minnesota. Groups like the States Project and Sister District are organizing grass-roots campaigns to recruit volunteers and raise small-dollar donations. That means convincing people like the group of friends in the Bay Area that they should care about who’s making state laws in Phoenix, Lansing and St. Paul.

    “Previously, I didn’t realize that, being in California, I should be active in other states’ politics,” said Ellen Blinderman, a Bay Area community college instructor who helped organize her friends to try to put Democrats in control of the Michigan Legislature.

    “But we are one country, and what happens in those states affects our whole country.”

    By forming a "giving circle" with the States Project, Blinderman and her friends are now part of a strategic effort to flip two seats in the Michigan House and three seats in its state Senate. First, they set a goal to raise $8,000. Over monthly potlucks, they invited friends and neighbors to learn about why they're helping Michigan Democrats and asked them to donate to the effort. Once the goal was met, they upped it to $10,000 — and are now 91% of the way there, mostly, Blinderman said, from donations of less than $200.

    The money helps fund advertising and professional campaign workers who help candidates connect with voters that might otherwise not show up for a low-turnout legislative race. It's targeted to help Democrats in races the States Project identified as critical to winning a majority. Legislative races are generally not very expensive — in some cases, Walker said, it costs less to flip an entire legislative chamber than it does to flip one congressional seat.

    For evidence of how much decisions by a state legislature can ripple across state lines, just look at what's happened since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade. More than a dozen Republican-controlled states quickly passed laws banning abortion. Democratic-controlled California, meanwhile, set about preparing for an influx of visitors seeking reproductive care.

    California lawmakers passed 15 bills to expand abortion access and devoted $200 million to abortion services, some of which will provide funds to patients traveling here from other states.

    “Need an abortion?” say billboards Gov. Gavin Newsom paid for in South Dakota, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas.

    “California is ready to help.”

    Walker, of the States Project, told me her group received a surge of inquiries after the Supreme Court's draft opinion leaked. In 2020, the group had 100 giving circles of friends working to raise money for Democrats to win targeted statehouses. It now has 200, including one named “In response to Roe” and another called “Down with Dobbs.”

    Fallout from Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election is another reason Democrats are tuning in to the power of statehouses. After he lost reelection, Trump pressured Republican-held legislatures in states that Joe Biden won to overturn election results. They didn’t do it — but now some of those GOP legislators are getting thrown out of office by Trump-supporting voters. The lie that the election was stolen has taken hold as a fact in some Republican-controlled legislatures. And the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could give legislatures immense new power in deciding presidential elections.

    Even though state-focused activism on the left is increasing, it’s still not nearly as robust as it needs to be, says David Pepper, a former leader of the Ohio Democratic Party who wrote a book about GOP dominance of state capitols called “Laboratories of Autocracy.”

    Engaging blue-state residents in trying to flip red-state legislatures is “a really smart strategy,” he told me.

    “My main quibble is, it needs to be not just a side effort by a really smart group, but this has to be a core mission approach by everyone who cares about democracy — quickly. Because it's that important to really fighting back where the fight really is.”

    This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11



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