Wall Street-Owned New Dems Ready To Make War Against Elizabeth Warren And The Progressive Movement

Multimillionaire Scott Peters (D-CA) wants to undermine Elizabeth Warren

Scott Peters is a very wealthy conservative Democrat who bought himself a San Diego congressional seat in 2012. In one of the closest races in the country, Peters beat incumbent Republican Brian Bilbray 124,746-122,086, after outspending him $4,352,737 to $2,772,270. And not just outspending him; Peters ran one of the most self-financed congressional campaigns in history, having spent $2,757,452 of his own money. Since getting elected, Peters amassed a very conservative voting record that finds him voting with the GOP on crucial issues as frequently as he votes with progressives. He's not popular with Democratic voters in his own district and it was no surprise when the GOP mounted a strong campaign against him last year. Luckily for Peters, the Republican candidate, Scott DeMaio, spent the campaign on the front pages of the newspapers defending himself in a conveniently timed series of gay sex harassment cases. He would have won and even with all the tawdry scandal, he nearly did win!

Peters eked out reelection 98,332 (51.6%)- 92,408 (48.4%). Peters spent $4,504,003 to DeMaio's $3,349,677. This time, though, Peters "only" spent $476,659 of his own money on the race. The DCCC came to his rescue. They spent $2,574,753 and their super-PAC, the House Majority PAC, spent another $831,751 on the race-- so, over $3,000,000 on a conservative whose voting record this year is already worse than his first term record. His ProgressivePunch 2015-16 crucial vote score is an abysmal 46.15, the worst of any California Democrat. If you contributed to the DCCC last year, you enabled that. And a bad voting record isn't where it stops for Scott Peters.

Yesterday, The Hill was reporting that his corporately-financed, Wall Street-friendly faction, the New Dems is plotting a "strike against the Warren wing" on the Democratic Party. Of course, opposing the legitimate interests of working families is all the New Dems ever do, so that shouldn't come as too big a shock to people who follow carefully.

"I have great respect for Sen. Warren-- she's a tremendous leader,” said Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), one of the members working on the policy proposal. “My own preference is to create a message without bashing businesses or workers, [the latter of which] happens on the other side."

Peters said that if Democrats are going to win back the House and Senate, "it's going to be through the work of the New Democrat Coalition."

"To the extent that Republicans beat up on workers and Democrats beat up on employers-- I'm not sure that offers voters much of a vision," Peters said.

Peters and other New Dems are working with Third Way and other Wall Street and Big Business-backed groups to undermine progressives in the policy arena and to push the Wall Street agenda that Republicans already back. Reminder: when you contribute to the DCCC, you are financing garbage like Scott Peters with money that could be going to help elect and reelect progressive Democrats. Just stop. If the DCCC and DNC feel a drop-off in contributions from grassroots Democrats, they're likely to be more responsive to actual Democrats outside of K Street and Wall Street. Peters and two other especially bad Democratic congressmembers-- Suzan DelBene and Kyrsten Sinema-- were just named Honorary Co-Chairs of the extremely corrupt Third Way.

UPDATE: NJ Christiecrats' Bump In The Road-- NJ Pinelands Pipeline: 4 Ex-Govs Oppose Barr Appointment

On February 27, we reported on the underhanded procedure Christiecrats Steve Sweeney and Jeff Van Drew used to get the nomination of Robert Barr approved by the New Jersey State Senate’s Judiciary Committee.

In an interview posted on the Asbury Park Press web site later that day, Sweeney arrogantly defended his move and reiterated his support for running a natural gas pipeline through the environmentally unique Pinelands Preserve in order to keep an outmoded electric generating station in operation.

On March 1, the Newark Star-Ledger, the state’s largest daily paper, published a blistering editorial condemning Sweeney’s manipulation of the Judiciary Committee to ensure approval of the Barr nomination, calling it “a Machiavellian power grab.”

And on yesterday, the same four ex-governors who urged the Pinelands Commission to reject the pipeline proposal in December 2013 wrote a letter to Ray Lesniak-- an opponent of the pipeline project, and the senator that Sweeney replaced with Van Drew on February 24. This time they were asking the full Senate to reject the Barr nomination. Here’s the text of that letter:

Dear Senator Lesniak,

We are writing to urge the Senate to withhold confirmation of the pending nomination for the Pinelands Commission, Robert Barr to replace Robert Jackson, when it comes before the full Senate in the coming weeks. We believe that at this time and in the present circumstances, this nomination would undermine the independence of the Pinelands Commission. For thirty-five years, the Pinelands Commission has been the bedrock of the Pinelands conservation effort. Its extraordinary success in that mission is due in great part to the fact that it has functioned as an independent executive agency without undue interference in its implementation of the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan. Recent events threaten to erode that independence. The Senate can preserve the integrity of the Pinelands program, and help protect the work of other independent executive agencies, by withholding confirmation of this nomination at this time. As former governors for whom the Pinelands represents one of New Jersey’s great-- but ever-vulnerable-- treasures, we ask for your help at this important juncture in the life of the Pinelands.

Sincerely,

Brenda T. Byrne
Thomas H. Kean
Christine Todd Whitman
James J. Florio

New Jersey Christiecrats and Pipelines-- Perfect Together?

In the 1980s, a New Jersey tourism commercial featuring then Governor Tom Kean, Sr. made Kean famous for the tag line, “New Jersey and you-- perfect together.”

Kean’s idiosyncratic pronunciation of “perfect together” made it a catch phrase, even a punch line in jokes, during his administration and beyond. Thirty years later, it still strikes a chord here. And it aptly sums up the relationship between Christiecrats and pipelines.

Longtime DWT readers will remember the Christiecrats, the nominal Democrats from South Jersey controlled by corrupt South Jersey machine boss George Norcorss III. The Christiecrats earned their name in 2011 when they voted with the Republicans in the legislature to gut pensions and benefits for state employees, giving Gov. Chris Christie a victory that raised his standing with anti-labor Republicans around the country.

One of those Christiecrats was George Norcross’ younger brother Donald, who was then a state senator. The younger Norcross replaced corrupt Democrat Rob Andrews in New Jersey’s First Congressional District after the November election. (The seat had been vacant for ten months after Andrews resigned in February, 2014 in order to avoid an ethics investigation.)

Having been virtually “installed” in Congress by his older brother’s machine, Little Brother Donnie cast his first major Congressional vote in favor of finishing the Keystone XL pipeline. He was one of 31 “Democrats” who voted with House Republicans.

Before the start of his first full term, with less than two months in Congress under his belt, his Progressive Punch score was a pathetic 40.

That was exactly what New Jersey environmentalists expected of Norcross. They considered him the Legislature’s worst Democrat in Trenton on environmental issues. But with his departure for Congress, that mantle now falls on another Christiecrat: Jeff Van Drew, who is by far the most conservative Democrat in the New Jersey Senate on all issues. Consider his record:

• In 2010, Van Drew sponsored a bill to allow residents to carry handguns.


• In 2011, he appeared with Steve Lonegan (who was there in his capacity as State Director of Americans for Prosperity) to rally support for a bill to repeal cap and trade, and expressed his support for nuclear power and fossil fuels. Also in 2011, Van Drew sponsored a bill to abolish the seven-day waiting period before shelter animals could be killed. And of course, he was one of those Christiecrats who voted to cut public workers’ pensions and benefits.

• In 2013, he broke with the Democratic leadership on gun control and marriage equality.

Van Drew’s conservative voting record has made him popular in his Republican-leaning First Legislative District, which lies entirely within the Democratic-leaning Second Congressional District; and his success in LD 1 has made some conservative South Jersey Democrats think he might be able to beat Republican Frank LoBiondo in the state's CD 2. (That idea goes back at least as far as this Daily Kos post from 2005, when Van Drew was still an Assemblyman.)

In view of his record, it’s not surprising Van Drew is a prominent proponent of a plan to run a dangerous and unnecessary gas pipeline through the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve in order to keep an outmoded electric generating station running. And like a true Christiecrat, he’s allied with Christie on this issue.

The coal-fired B. L. England power plant, sometimes called the Beesley’s Point plant, was built in the 1960s. It couldn’t be built under today’s regulations. It was slated to be closed for environmental reasons at the end of 2013, but the Christie administration gave it a two-year extension. After that, it will have to be either converted to natural gas or shut down.

For the last few years, the plant has operated only during peak demand periods. But with a steady supply of natural gas, it could operate full-time.

Rockland Capital Energy Investments, which owns B. L. England through its subsidiary, RC Cape May Holdings, is one of the two firms that want to build a new gas pipeline to supply the plant. The other is South Jersey Gas, the utility that would supply gas to B. L. England. And both firms have Christie connections.

Rockland’s attorney on the pipeline application is David Samson. You may recall that Christie appointed Samson, one of his principal campaign fundraisers, chair of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Samson resigned that post after the Bridgegate mess. And Rockland president and co-founder Joseph Lambert is another Christie connection. Lambert contributed $3,400 (the legal maximum) to Christie’s 2009 campaign.

The South Jersey Gas connection is Christie’s former director of intergovernmental affairs, Christina Genovese Renna, who resigned after being subpoenaed about Bridgegate. She’s married to Michael J. Renna, the president and COO of South Jersey Industries, the parent company of South Jersey Gas.

The proposed pipeline would violate regulations adopted under the Pinelands Protection Act, requiring a variance from the 15-member Pinelands Commission. Seven commissioners are gubernatorial appointees who must be confirmed by the state Senate; seven represent the seven counties the Pinelands Preserve straddles; and one is appointed by the US Secretary of the Interior. The executive director and all other top staff are appointed by the governor.

In January 2014, the Commission rejected the pipeline proposal in a 7-7 tie vote, and Christie-- and the Christiecrats-- have been fuming ever since.

It would have been an 8-7 defeat if Commissioner Ed Lloyd, a professor of Environmental Law at Columbia University, had been allowed to vote. Christie’s minions had told Lloyd that the State Ethics Commission ordered to recuse himself because his relationship with environmental groups constituted a conflict of interest. But in fact, there was no such order.

No doubt Lloyd, a gubernatorial appointee since 2002, won’t be re-appointed when his current term expires. Some of the Commissioners who voted against the pipeline have already been replaced-- and not only by Christie. For example, Cumberland County Christiecrats replaced their long-time Commissioner, a local environmental activist, with a realtor.

Christie is now close to getting Robert Barr, the president of the Ocean City Democratic Club, president of the Ocean City Community Association and a former Van Drew aide, appointed to the Pinelands Commission. Despite those credentials, Barr has less than solid support in his home town, where he’s seen as little more than Van Drew’s political alter ego. But he has the solid backing of Senate President Steve Sweeney and the entire Norcross machine.

Gubernatorial nominees to the Commission have to be confirmed by the state Senate, and the 13-member Judiciary Committee had already rejected the Barr nomination twice. Then on February 24, Sweeney saw his chance to get Barr approved.

Sweeney knew that Sen. Ray Lesniak, who is an outspoken opponent of the pipeline project (and who is considering running for governor against Sweeney in the 2017 Democratic primary), was going to be away, so Sweeney used his prerogative as Senate President to put the Barr nomination on the agenda-- and to appoint Jeff Van Drew as a temporary member of the Judiciary Committee. (Strange as it sounds, under New Jersey rules, the Senate President can appoint a temporary substitute member to a committee when it suits his purposes, like a coach sending in another player, as long as he’s replacing an absent member, even when’s there’s already a quorum present.)

Worse, Sweeney also worked the room, actively lobbying regular committee members to approve the Barr nomination during the discussion.

Four Democrats-- Chair Nicholas Scutari, Vice Chair Nia Gill, Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg and Brian Stack-- voted no, as did Ranking Republican Christopher Bateman.

The other four Republicans and the other two Democrats (Paul Sarlo and Nellie Pou) voted to confirm Barr-- as did, of course, Van Drew. Democrat Bob Smith abstained.

Thus newspapers reported the vote a 7-5-1.

But after the vote, Stack changed his vote from no to yes, and the official tally is now 8-4-1. (That’s another quirky New Jersey rule: Members are allowed to change their votes after the fact-- for appearance’s sake?-- as long as that doesn’t change the outcome!)

Both Smith and Stack had been skeptical. The fact that Smith could be persuaded to abstain, and that Stack could be persuaded to switch sides after the vote, is grim evidence of the way Sweeney abuses his power.

This pipeline isn’t a strictly partisan issue. Far from it, as the committee vote shows. In fact, four former governors who seldom agree on anything-- Democrats Brendan Byrne and Jim Florio and Republicans Tom Kean, Sr. and Christie Todd Whitman-- signed a joint letter to the Pinelands Commission opposing the project.

South Jersey Gas customers should also oppose the pipeline, because the utility plans to raise its rates (with the blessing of the Christie-controlled Board of Public Utilities) to finance the project if it’s approved.

And because the Pinelands sit above the Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to much of South Jersey, everyone in the area should oppose it.

If Barr is confirmed, the Commission will almost certainly vote to approve the pipeline. The full Senate will probably vote on Barr’s nomination at its next regular meeting on March 5.

Is it possible that Barr will be rejected? Yes, anything is possible, but it isn’t likely.

Environmental groups will do their part. But without a groundswell of public opposition, Barr will probably be confirmed, and the Pinelands will be wide open for reckless development.

And how likely is that groundswell in a state that keeps electing clowns like Christie and the Christiecrats?

Big Trouble For Democrats In New Jersey

-by Jersey Jim

Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker-- one of a cohort of rightwing Republican ideologues elected to Congress, state legislatures and governorships in 2010 (largely as a result of apathy among progressives who have been disappointed by the Obama Administration)-- had good reason to expect little trouble getting his anti-public employee legislation through the state’s Republican-controlled legislature. But it didn’t quite go off without a hitch.

There were demonstrations for days in the state capital-- not only by the Wisconsin Education Association and the public sector unions within the AFL-CIO, but also by private sector unions. Even the Green Bay Packers supported the demonstrators. And the Democrats in the state senate left the state for a period in order to avoid being rounded up by state police. They wanted to deny the Republican leadership the super-quorum needed to pass a bill dealing with state finances.

On the other hand, New Jersey’s Chris Christie, elected a year earlier (because New Jersey holds all elections for state offices in odd-numbered years), could have been expected to encounter opposition from a legislature with both its chambers nominally controlled by Democrats. But in fact, Christie had little trouble getting the legislature to pass a bill to make public employees pay more for their health insurance, to gut their collective bargaining rights, and to eliminate cost of living adjustments for the state’s retirees. There were some demonstrations in Trenton, but nothing like those in Madison. And several Democrats in the legislature-- fully one-third of those in the state senate, and nearly one-third of those in the Assembly-- defected and voted with the GOP, handing Christie a victory.

Christie claims that other Republican governors were soon calling him to ask how he did it. It was simple. There’s a deep rift in the New Jersey Democratic Party, and Christie merely exploited it with the help of his nominally Democratic allies. There’s also an equally deep rift in organized labor in the state. And those divisions make a GOP takeover of the Assembly, the Senate or both a possibility this year.

Christie and his Democratic allies in the legislature picked the ideal time for this assault on New Jersey labor. By mid-June, the state’s late primary elections were already over-- as was the deadline for independents to file nominating petitions for the November elections. And the school year was just ending, making it difficult for the New Jersey Education Association to cultivate grassroots opposition from parents.

The Dems who voted for the bill, derided as Christiecrats, are all controlled, directly or indirectly, by South Jersey party boss George Norcross. Six of the eight turncoats in the Senate, and 10 of the 14 in the Assembly, are from South Jersey. All sixteen have ties to Norcross. The other six defectors all have connections to Joseph DiVincenzo’s Essex County machine. But it would be a mistake to think of the Essex machine as an independent entity. It’s more like a semi-autonomous satrapy within the Norcross political empire. (For background on the relationship between the Camden and Essex machines, see Chris Christie's Democratic helpers and The rise of the Chris Christie Democrats.)

George Norcross also has operatives inside the AFL-CIO. His brother, District 5 state senator Donald Norcross, is president of the Southern New Jersey AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, as well as assistant business manager of IBEW Local 35. And Steve Sweeney-- the senator for District 3 and president of the state senate, as well as a childhood chum of the Norcrosses, is an official of the Ironworkers Union. Their influence within the building trades conference, and their dominance of the AFL-CIO’s South Jersey Regional Council, helped hold down the size of the Trenton demonstrations in June.

But that influence is a double-edged sword, because it’s rending the labor movement here.

Last month the South Jersey AFL-CIO Council announced its endorsements for the November elections of all the Christiecrats whose districts include any parts of Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem Counties. The building trades leadership also threatened to walk out of the state AFL-CIO Conference on Political Education (“COPE”) meeting in Trenton on August 4 if the state organization didn’t endorse all the Christiecrats-- and they made good on that threat last week.

Less than a week after the New Jersey Education Association, the largest non-AFL-CIO union in the state, refused to endorse Sweeney, Norcross et al., the state AFL-CIO followed suit. Delegates from the building trades stormed out of the conference, and were still yelling like petulant children about the rejection of the Christiecrats outside the meeting hall more than an hour later.

“We have our teabaggers in labor, and they spoke very clearly,” said Don Norcross. Likening public sector union members to teabaggers sounds hyperbolic to most of us-- but not to Norcross, who’s so far to the right on this issue that the middle of the road looks like the far left to him, and militant unionists look like the mirror image of the teabaggers.

But that’s all perfectly consistent with the views of George Norcross. After being a behind-the-scenes power broker for years, George has recently been granting interviews to promote his next two projects: bringing charter schools to the city of Camden (a position that has put him and his minions in the NJEA’s crosshairs), and replacing the city’s police force-- and that of every municipality in Camden County-- with a single county-wide police force.

George Norcross is neither a friend of labor nor a true Democrat, and his influence is undermining both labor and the Democratic Party in New Jersey.

So far, only one Christiecrat, a senator, is being challenged by a Democrat running as an independent on the ballot-- and there are no announced write-in candidates challenging the rest of the Christiecrats. If enough disaffected union workers and progressives stay home in November, the GOP could conceivably take over the state legislature.

A small fledging group is trying to find write-in candidates, but how will they fund a campaign?

New Jerseyans can only look on with envy today as Wisconsinites go to the polls today to recall some of the teabagging Republicans in their legislature!

Christiecrats Roiling The New Jersey Democratic Base

-by Jersey Jim

When 22 Democrats in the New Jersey Legislature-- eight in the Senate and 14 in the Assembly-- joined their Republican colleagues in voting yes on S-2937, a bill to eliminate collective bargaining for public employees in June, they hurt the party’s chances of maintaining control of the legislature in November (New Jersey holds all its elections for state offices in odd-numbered years). 

Fifteen of the Democratic defectors-- six in the Senate and nine in the Assembly-- are from South Jersey. The others are all connected to the Essex County machine, which is beginning to look like a branch office of George Norcross’s Camden County machine.

While nearly all Democratic office holders and party officials are putting on a brave face in public, many fear that those legislators who voted for the measure are not only in danger of losing their own seats, but could also hurt many down-ticket Democratic candidates at the county and local levels in places where labor support is essential for any Democrat to win. They’re well aware of how Obama’s failure to live up to progressive voters’ expectations caused many of them to stay home last year, allowing the U.S. House of Representatives and some state legislatures to fall to the GOP.

The sellout was coordinated by State Senate President Steve Sweeney, who represents District 3. In his day job, believe it or not, he’s business manager for a local of the Ironworkers Union.

Sweeney, as most politically aware New Jerseyans know, is a creature of South Jersey Democratic boss George Norcross, a wealthy insurance executive. So is District 5 Sen. Donald Norcross (George’s brother), who’s an IBEW official in his day job, as well as president of the Southern New Jersey AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. (For background on Norcross and his machine and the Essex County connection, see the two Steve Kornacki “War Room” pieces from Salon that Ken cited in an earlier post:  Chris Christie's Democratic helpers and The rise of the Chris Christie Democrats.)

And thereby hangs a tale, because the perfidy of those 22 turncoats, led by Sweeney, has hurt more than just the state Democratic Party. It’s also caused a rift within organized labor in New Jersey.

Before the vote, several unions, including the UFCW, the Steelworkers, the UAW, the SEIU and the Painters, along with public sector unions, went on record opposing the bill. They enjoyed the full support of state AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech and Secretary Treasurer Laurel Brennan-- “in spite of threats from the Sweeney building trades,” according to a letter to sent CWA members and signed by the presidents of 20 CWA locals.

Then on July 7, according to a report in PolitickerNJ, the state’s public sector unions wrote to national AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka demanding the removal of Don Norcross as president of the South Jersey AFL-CIO Council. On July 18, Norcross announced that he was moving up the date of his resignation as president of the council from December 31 to Labor Day. But he denied that opposition from the public workers had any effect on him-- and even denied any knowledge of the letter, dismissing it as “bogus.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Courier-Post and the Gloucester County Times all reported that Norcross was stepping down, saying he wanted to devote more time both to his family and to the Fall campaign, but none of them mentioned the public sector unions’ letter to Trumka.

Then on July 22, the South Jersey AFL-CIO Council announced its endorsements for the November elections. Only one of the endorsed candidates-- District 1 Assemblyman Nelson Albano, a shop steward for the UFCW-- voted no on S-2937. It probably would have been a little too obvious if they’d omitted him.

There was already some animosity between the UFCW and the building trades even before that vote, because the building trades have always supported WalMart in its fights with local zoning boards. That ill feeling is even worse, since leaders of the building trades unions are threatening a mutiny if the AFL-CIO opposes those legislators who voted against public employees. But there’s no indication that the rank and file share their leaders’ views.

New Jersey Democrats are in trouble because of internal strife, and labor here has factional squabbles, too. And the divisions in both are largely the work of George Norcross and his minions.

Belatedly, a progressive response is beginning to take shape. Tonight, a yet unnamed group will hold its third meeting in Collingswood (see the poster above). The group is seeking write-in candidates to run against the “Christiecrats,” i.e., the Democrats who voted for S-2937. They’ll probably endorse the 33 Assembly Democrats and the 16 Senate Democrats who voted no on the bill, as well as CWA Local 1038 President Paul Alexander, who filed to run as an Independent for the District 4 Senate seat currently held by Christiecrat Fred Madden.

And on Wednesday, the New Jersey Industrial Union Council will be meeting at the headquarters of CWA Locals 1038 and 1085 in Woodbury Heights. The IUC represents the more progressive factions in labor, and some members of the Collingswood group will be at the IUC meeting, too.

It would be easy to condemn this effort. Third party and independent are often seen as nothing more that spoilers. But the anger toward the turncoat “Christiecrats” in New Jersey is so great that write-in candidates could conceivably win. At the very least, they could hold down the GOP’s percentages by bringing out labor and progressive voters who are so disgusted that they otherwise wouldn’t even go to the polls-- as so many didn’t last November after becoming disillusioned with Obama.

It’s shaping up to be battle between the Third Way “centrists” and Not Ready for Prime Time Blue Dogs on one side, and the true heirs of FDR on the other. A fight between the Norcross Christiecrats and the real Democrats.

Sounds like a reality show, doesn’t it? “Real Democrats of New Jersey!”  

You Think The Rightists Have Taken Over Yet? Can You Guess Which State Would Make Hitler Happiest?

Conspicuous by his absence, Christie's legislature has cramped his style

Ken Quinnell posted a fantastic crowd-sourced feature at AlterNet yesterday that delineates the 10 craziest legislatures in America. Hard to imagine that his own Florida only came in at #2 and that Scott Walker's Wisconsin zombie parliament was only the 3rd worst. But one of our Facebook pals, Dan Lynch really felt burned, writing, "I feel left out. Surely Idaho deserves at least honorable mention? After all, the Senate caucus chairman went on a drunken rampage, stole and crashed a car, saying he was looking for the promised land." Life's never fair.

While attention was naturally focused on the changes in Congress that came as a result of the 2010 elections, an overlooked, but vitally important, consequence of those elections was the strong rightward shift in legislatures across the state. As of the beginning of legislative sessions this year, 26 states were controlled by Republicans, with only 15 in the hands of Democrats. Not surprisingly, this has meant an epidemic of right-wing legislation being proposed and passed across the country. The worst things that have passed, in both quantity and quality, are coming from Republican-controlled legislatures.

Keep in mind that all of these right-wing bastions of extremism and, more often than not, outright fascism, are now gerrymandering their states and rigging the election laws to make sure they hold power far into the future. Ohio only rang in as the 8th worst legislature and yet Quinnell writes that "It's hard to top Ohio Republicans, who had a fetus testify against abortion on the floor of the legislature. Seriously. They also went further than Wisconsin in stripping collective bargaining rights from public workers, including police and firefighters. (After that bill stalled in committee, Republicans just changed the committee membership to make sure the bill passed.) They also tried to pass legislation to allow guns in bars and stadiums and to allow drug convicts to have the right to bear arms. The legislature also poured money into for-profit charter schools, regardless of whether or not they successfully educated students, including one with a less than 2 percent success rate. All of this is without any oversight." It gets worse. Here's why Blue America has been asking everyone-- regardless of where you live-- to contribute to helping Wisconsin's voters recall Rick Scott and his pet fascist senators.

By now, everyone is familiar with Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican legislature's stripping state workers of their collective bargaining rights, but that's far from the only bad law to pass this year. The legislature also took away local governments' right to provide workers with stronger sick leave benefits, effectively privatized the state's Commerce Department, loosened child labor laws, cut public transportation and health care, shifted federal welfare reform dollars toward paying for tax cuts and cut access to broadband. All of this was done in a climate where the governor and Republicans went out of their way to deny Democrats the right to participate in the legislative process.

Quinnell makes a point that Florida is still worse. And can you guess which state tops the list of craziest in the nation? So as not to give it away, I'll alter the description slightly... but all regular DWT readers should be able to guess this on one try:

The number of times the legislature alone makes it on the national radar, not even touching on the nutcase governor, makes it a leader in state-level extremism. And it seems that it also sets the agenda for extremists in other states. Numerous states attempted to copy its most extremist legislation, but most of them didn't pass it. This proto-fascist state not only passed it first, the state is trying to up the ante by attempting to launch state "compacts" with its neighbors to override federal immigration law.

Want anti-union legislation? Check. Want to undermine a woman's right to choose? Got it. What about a full-scale assault on federalism and the powers of the national government? They lead the way. A government official gets shot in your state and what do you do? Vote to allow concealed weapons on college campuses. Don't like ethnic studies classes and believe crazy theories about a Mexican takeover of the U.S.? This is the state for you.
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Want a legislator ranting on the floor about bisexual high school principals? Done. Want another legislator saying the earth is only 6,000 years old? This state wins again. Want a birther bill passed through the legislature? All you had to do was ask.

Oh yeah, and the legislature (and governor) cut back on a transplant program that actually led to two people dying. When your state starts killing people who aren't on death row, then you can challenge these guys, which has the worst legislature in the United States.

These 10 states don't even remotely have a lock on the extreme legislative proposals this year. In particular, Virginia, Alabama, New York, Georgia, Maine, Kansas, and Missouri also got serious consideration for the top 10. And with groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) pushing its agenda in every state, progressives should keep an eye on all of the state legislatures to see where the national conservative attacks of tomorrow are being perfected today.

That's all folks... but only the 4th worst

UPDATE: And Back To New Jersey For A Moment

The New Jersey legislature wasn't included in the 10 worst. People would say that that's because the Democratic majority has kept Governor Christie from rolling out the full right-wing agenda that Kacich, Scott, Walker, Snyder, Daniels, etc have done in their states. But as Ken has shown earlier this month and in June, there is a dangerous species in the Jersey legislature named Christiecrats. Is a picture worth a thousand words?