(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . This Week in Statehouse Action: Get Busy edition [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-17 Shake that thing Politically, it can be tempting to see this time of year as a bit of a lull (unless it’s a presidential election year, but it’s not, so let’s fret about primary schedules another time). But when it comes to statehouse action, there’s not much of an off season. Take next week, for example. We Be Burnin: On Tuesday, February 21, a bunch of super important elections are happening (some special, some … well, “ordinary” doesn’t feel like a great way to describe them, but you get my drift). Let’s start with the special specials. Yes, you read that right, and yes, Kelly is a dude. Don’t ask me to explain conservative attitudes towards women, it won’t be insightful and it will be all swears. Also, progressive cross-partisan intervention in Wisconsin primaries isn’t being confined to the state Senate contest mentioned above. A Better Wisconsin Together has invested $1.9 million on spots accusing Dorow of issuing too-lenient sentences in some of her cases, a tactic designed to convince conservative base voters to reject her in favor of the ostensibly less-electable Kelly (which seems clever enough, considering that voters already rejected Kelly once, booting him from the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2020). Should be a fun night all around. Temperature: After the devastating gun attack at Michigan State earlier this week that left three dead and five wounded, a member of that state’s Democratic House was, I think, understandably frustrated that these mass shootings keep happening and no one seems willing to do anything meaningful about them. And voters are already on their side. Back in December, a statewide poll found that gun safety laws (specifically “red flag” and universal background checks) topped the list of voters’ priorities for the incoming Michigan legislature. The same poll found “nearly universal” support (90%, actually) for background checks, as well as 74% support for red flag measures and 63% support for safer gun storage requirements. Meanwhile, Michigan Republicans have responded to this week’s mass shooting by saying they want to “reach a consensus” on measures improving mental health services. Give It Up To Me: Last week in this space, I noted that Republicans are guaranteed to win majorities in the Mississippi House and Senate this fall, just by virtue of how many GOP seats Democrats are leaving uncontested. So … Just for fun, guess how many legislative chambers had locked-in majorities in 2022 before a single ballot was cast last fall. It’s, like, a lot. In 2022, one party was guaranteed majority control of no fewer than 21 legislative chambers across the country long before Election Day (some say 22, but Nebraska’s unicameral legislature is ostensibly nonpartisan, so it doesn’t count). Most (19, specifically) of these effectively uncontested chambers are Republican-controlled: Alabama House and Senate Arkansas House and Senate Idaho House and Senate Indiana Senate Kentucky Senate North Dakota House and Senate Ohio Senate Oklahoma House and Senate South Dakota Senate Tennessee Senate Utah Senate West Virginia Senate Wyoming House and Senate Democrats had pre-Election Day guaranteed majorities in two chambers: California Senate Massachusetts House Whichever side of the aisle you tend to identify with, this is just … well, bad. Jan. 6, 2021, gets so much of the focus when it comes to attacks on democracy (and, well, it should, yes), but elections that literally don’t matter at all when it comes to which party has power in a state threaten democracy in their own way. It’s no coincidence that every state on this list except Massachusetts, Ohio, and Utah ranked in the bottom half of the country in terms of voter turnout in 2020. Seven were in the bottom 10! After all, when you know your vote doesn’t really matter in terms of who has power in your state, you’re less likely to take the trouble to cast it. You can read the rest of this week’s edition here! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/17/2153528/-This-Week-in-Statehouse-Action-Get-Busy-edition Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/