Missouri reproductive freedom campaign to submit signature petitions tomorrow.

MI: Lambert Junttila trial in voting machine tampering case set for October

Attorney Stefanie Lambert Junttila is slated to proceed to trial on Oct. 21 due to scheduling concerns with the previously scheduled trial date.

While Oakland County Circuit Judge Jeffrey S. Matis previously scheduled a trial for July 15, Lambert Junttila’s attorney, Dan Hartman, objected to the date due to a potential conflict with another trial he had scheduled in late July, as Lambert Junttila’s trial is expected to last two to three weeks.

Lambert Junttila is one of three individuals indicted as part of an investigation into alleged tampering with voting machines following the 2020 election that former President Donald Trump lost to President Joe Biden. Former state Rep. Daire Rendon (R-Lake City) and attorney and Republican former Attorney General nominee Matt DePerno are also facing charges.

Rendon’s and DePerno’s cases have been remanded to district court for preliminary examination, while Lambert and her attorney have opted to go directly to trial.




https://michiganadvance.com/briefs/lambert-junttila-trial-in-voting-machine-tampering-case-set-for-october/

Latino voter campaign ramps up in battleground Arizona and Nevada

Chicanos Por La Causa, one of the largest Latino organizations in the nation, kicked off a campaign on Wednesday to increase the number of Latinos who vote in the November election in Arizona and Nevada. The two battleground states could play an outsize role in deciding who wins the presidential race, Joe Biden or Donald Trump.

Organizers of the Latino voter campaign emphasized during the kickoff at the group's headquarters in Phoenix that the drive to increase participation by Latino voters is strictly nonpartisan.

"This is a nonpartisan get-out-the-vote campaign," said Alicia Nuñez, president and CEO of CPLC, who also chairs Sí Se Vota CPLC Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) advocacy nonprofit organization leading the Latino Loud voter engagement campaign. "I want to underscore that fact because we believe if Latinos are seated at the tables where decisions are being made, Latino issues will be heard and addressed regardless of political party or even no party preference at all."

But Latino voters in general tend to vote Democratic, so any effort to get more Latinos to the polls could ultimately help Democrats. Though Trump overall made gains with Latino voters in 2020, Biden received 61% of the Latino vote in Arizona and the same in Nevada, helping Biden eke out wins in both battleground states, according to exit polls. Biden captured the two states' 17 combined electoral votes — 11 from Arizona and six from Nevada — helping him win the presidency in 2020 with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232.





https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/02/chicanos-por-la-causa-latino-loud-voter-drive-kicks-off-arizona-nevada/73532210007/

State Supreme Court reverses sanctions against Arizona GOP in 2020 election challenge

The Arizona Supreme Court in a Thursday decision reversed sanctions against the Arizona Republican Party on a 2020 election challenge.

The decision overturns lower courts' rulings and could chill similar sanctions in future election lawsuits.

Maricopa County officials declined to comment Thursday on the Arizona Supreme Court's ruling. Attorney Dennis Wilenchik, who represented the Arizona GOP in the case, called the decision "a total unanimous victory."

He said he believes lower courts will "pay attention" to the ruling and "will not be as quick to find sanctions for whatever other purposes beyond the actual merits."


https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/02/state-supreme-court-reverses-sanctions-against-arizona-gop-in-2020-election-challenge/73543403007/

Arizona court set to hear Kari Lake's appeal on signature verification from 2022 election

Arizona Republican Kari Lake is asking voters to elect her to the U.S. Senate, but on Thursday, judges are slated to hear an appeal in her case claiming she won the Governor's Office nearly 18 months ago.

Lake's appeal of a decision affirming Maricopa County followed the law to verify voter signatures is scheduled for oral arguments before an Arizona Court of Appeals in Tucson. The arguments are set for 2 p.m. and will be livestreamed via the court's website.

A former television news anchor turned politician, Lake in December 2022 filed the case disputing her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Hobbs won by 17,117 votes, a margin of 0.7 percentage points.

Lake alleged a variety of misdeeds, spinning issues with ballot tabulators and long lines on Election Day into claims that tens of thousands of voters were disenfranchised. A new election should take place, or a judge should rule she was the rightful governor, she and her legal team argued.




https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/02/arizona-court-of-appeals-to-hear-kari-lake-signature-verification-case/73520032007/

NY-19: Molinaro (R), Riley (D) head for bitter rematch in New York's 19th Congressional District

A brewing rematch in a congressional district that could determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives is quickly turning bitter and personal.

In New York’s expansive 19th Congressional District, which stretches from Tompkins County in the west to Rensselaer County in the east, Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro is trying for a repeat of 2022, when he beat Democrat Josh Riley.

In recent interviews, Molinaro labeled Riley a “fraud,” while Riley said Molinaro is “really good at pointing fingers” and “really bad at solving problems.”

Molinaro, the incumbent, touts his decades living in upstate New York and endorsements from various trade unions, while casting Riley as an out-of-touch Washington insider. He points to Riley’s time spent outside of the district working as a clerk for a federal judge and an aide on Capitol Hill before entering private practice.




https://nystateofpolitics.com/state-of-politics/new-york/politics/2024/05/02/molinaro--riley-head-for-bitter-rematch-in-ny-19

Brooklyn's own Hakeem Jeffries may be the most powerful man in Congress

Without wielding the gavel or holding a formal job laid out in the Constitution, Brooklyn Congress Member Hakeem Jeffries might very well be the most powerful person in Congress right now.

The minority leader of the House Democrats, it was Jeffries who provided the votes needed to keep the government running despite opposition from House Republicans to prevent a federal shutdown.

Jeffries who made sure Democrats delivered the tally to send $95 billion foreign aid to Ukraine and other U.S. allies.

And Jeffries who, with the full force of House Democratic leadership behind him, decided this week his party would help Speaker Mike Johnson stay on the job rather than be ousted by far-right Republicans led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.




https://www.amny.com/news/brooklyn-hakeem-jeffries-house-congress-power/

Biden campaign hits Trump over Louisiana proposed bill to criminalize possession of abortion pills

President Biden’s reelection campaign is blaming former President Trump for a bill proposed in Louisiana that would criminalize the possession of abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol.

In a statement first shared with The Hill from the Biden campaign, Louisiana native Kaitlyn Joshua, who was turned away from two emergency rooms and denied reproductive health care while experiencing a miscarriage, called out the former president.

“This is Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda in action: criminalizing women’s reproductive health care,” Joshua said. “This should ring alarm bells for every woman across the country – MAGA Republicans want to ban and criminalize abortion medication everywhere.”

The Pelican State proposal would add mifepristone and misoprostol to the list of controlled dangerous substances and if someone in Louisiana is caught with them, it could lead to 10 years of prison time, local outlet WWNO reported.



https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4639404-joe-biden-donald-trump-louisiana-bill-criminalize-abortion-pills/

MI: Former Speaker Chatfield (R) and his wife plead not guilty to financial felonies

Former Michigan state House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R-Levering) and his wife, Stephanie Chatfield, were arraigned Thursday over Zoom in an East Lansing court, as the pair face numerous felonies after the Michigan Attorney General’s Office accused the pair of using various schemes to embezzle nonprofit money to fund luxury vacations and lavish purchases.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced on April 16 that investigators from her office found that between February 2020 and April 2021, the Chatfields used Lee Chatfield’s Peninsula Fund, which was registered as a non-profit social welfare program to pay off $132,000 in largely personal purchases such as a family vacation to Universal Studios in Florida, a $32,000 trip to the Bahamas and purchases at UGG and Coach.

Lee Chatfield, a Levering Republican, served in the Michigan House from 2015 to 2020, and was elected as speaker for the last two years of his term.

Nessel outlined findings from the investigation in April saying that it was found that Lee Chatfield was found to have written a check to his brother from a political account, the Chatfield Majority Fund, which then was used to fund the vacation to Universal. Stephanie Chatfield’s charges stem from the attorney general’s assertion that it was Stephanie’s role to make payments from the Peninsula Fund for personal expenses.


https://michiganadvance.com/2024/05/02/former-speaker-chatfield-and-his-wife-plead-not-guilty-to-financial-felonies/

Planned Parenthood asks AZ Supreme Court to block the 1864 abortion ban until repeal takes effect

Just after the Arizona Senate voted to repeal a territorial-era abortion ban on Wednesday, Planned Parenthood of Arizona filed a motion asking the state Supreme Court to issue a stay, delaying the implementation of the ban until after the repeal takes effect.

The near-total abortion ban was originally implemented in 1864 and then made unenforceable in 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court gave women the right to abortion via Roe v. Wade.

After the court voted to repeal Roe in June 2022, it became unclear whether the 1864 law would go into effect, or if a 15-week ban passed by Republicans just months earlier would supersede it.

On April 9, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the 1864 law, which carries with it a 2 to 5 year prison sentence for doctors who perform an abortion for any other reason than saving a woman’s life, trumps that 2022 law.



https://azmirror.com/2024/05/01/planned-parenthood-asks-az-supreme-court-to-block-the-1864-abortion-ban-until-repeal-takes-effect/