Good evening,
I won't lie to you — I nearly died of boredom just thinking about how to write up the latest incremental action in the Legislature today. Imagine how the lawmakers and staff involved feel! (At least they have the benefit of Stockholm syndrome.)
A quick roundup:
Here's where bills stand now, after the House this afternoon passed a transportation budget:
| Budget bill | Negotiated? | House status | Senate status | | Agriculture | Yes | Passed | Passed | | Capital Investment | No |
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| | Commerce & Energy | Yes | Passed | Passed
| | E-12 Education | Yes |
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| | Environment | Yes |
| Passed
| | HHS | No |
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| | Higher Education | Yes | Passed | Passed | | Housing | Yes |
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| | Jobs & Economic Growth | Yes |
| Passed | | Judiciary & Public Safety | No |
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| | Legacy Finance | Yes | Passed | Passed | | State Government, Elections & Veterans | Yes |
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| | Taxes | Yes |
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| | Transportation | Yes | Passed |
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Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison are in the midst of a dispute with Chief Justice Lorie Gildea over the pardon board the three comprise. A recent court ruling rejected the pardon board's requirement that pardons must receive the unanimous support of all three officials. Now Gildea wants to postpone further meetings of the pardon board until that case is done with its appeals process, while Walz and Ellison want to continue considering pardons. [ Read more from the Star Tribune's Stephen Montemayor]
Vote-counting is still under way, but it seems likely that New York City's next mayor is Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president and a former police officer. (Ranked-choice voting and absentee ballots could overturn Adams' lead as more votes are redistributed, but he has a robust lead. And Tuesday's election was only the Democratic primary; the Democratic nominee will still have to win in November, though whoever it is will start the race heavily favored.) [ Read more from the New York Times]
Spin wars: People have already begun fighting over how to interpret Adams' apparent victory over a host of more progressive challengers. Does his strong showing in one of America's most liberal cities point to a limit to the political appeal of radical policing overhauls? Or does it have more to do with Adams' established political base and strong support in Black communities, paired with a disciplined campaign? (Be careful not to conflate what you want to be true with what is true.)
A note on comparison: With Minneapolis hosting its own ranked-choice mayoral election this fall, comparisons between New York City and Minneapolis are likely going to fly freely. Remember just how much bigger NYC is, though — Minneapolis has fewer residents than Staten Island, the smallest of NYC's five boroughs. | |
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Did President Joe Biden get lucky? That's the thesis of a recent book, arguing that repeated lucky breaks helped the former vice president win both the nomination and the general election. Against that, political science professor Seth Masket argues that Biden's "luck" mostly represented his deep support from party elites coupled with a Democratic electorate that prized unity and electability over particular issues, advantages that helped him recover from his mistakes and capitalize on his victories. [Read more from Seth Masket in the Washington Post]
Momentum is building for a plan to change how the U.S. military prosecutes sex-related crimes. The bill has bipartisan support in the Senate, recently picked up key supporters in the House and Defense Department leaders have dropped some of their objections. The key aspect of the change is removing jurisdiction for sexual assaults (and possibly other crimes) by service members from their superior officers and to specially trained prosecutors; critics say officers lack the expertise to fairly judge these crimes. [ Read more from NPR's Claudia Grisales]
The article I shared a few days ago about France's regional elections led with a phrase that's common in other countries, but not in the United States: "both (parties) failed to garner expected support in French regional elections that saw an unprecedented rate of abstention ." In the U.S., we tend to analyze elections primarily from the perspective of who turned out: When we say Joe Biden won 52.4 percent of the vote in Minnesota, that's 52.4 percent of the 3.2 million people who turned out. (Often, analysts go even further and looks at share of the "two-party vote," ignoring third-party candidates altogether. This can, in some circumstances, better capture the dynamics of an election.)
But in many cases, the most popular electoral choice each year isn't a Democrat or a Republican. It's not voting. Take a look at the below chart, which shows the plurality winner of each presidential election from 1980 to 2020 in each state, but treats an eligible voter not voting as a "vote." In 12 states, those nonvoters have been the "winner" in all 11 presidential elections — neither Ronald Reagan nor Bill Clinton nor Barack Obama nor Donald Trump won more votes than the people who just sat it out. In another 10 states, that was the case until 2020. | |
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You'll note that Minnesota still stands out here, with only a single election where nonvoters "won" (1996, when just barely more people stayed home than pulled the lever for Bill Clinton). You'll also note this isn't a blue state or red state phenomenon — New York, California, Texas and Mississippi all have plenty of grey bars.
In fact, delving deeper into this, 2020 was a remarkable election: It was the first time since at least 1980 when more eligible voters picked a particular candidate than stayed home. | |
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The reasons behind not voting are, of course, complex and different from person to person. Some people are engaged in politics and make conscious decisions not to vote because of objections to candidates or the process. Some people want to vote but find the obstacles involved in registering and casting a ballot too burdensome. Some people just don't care.
It's striking, though, that voter absenteeism is down since the 1980s.
Something completely different: One of my favorite YouTube channels for unwinding is Primitive Technology, in which a silent Australian man attempts to construct tools, shelter and other essentials using only stone-age tools. It's oddly relaxing but still interesting. Be sure to turn the subtitles on for extra commentary! [Watch]
Listen: Star Trek star William Shatner's distinctive, pause-laden delivery has become the stuff of parody. But somehow his 2004 album "Has Been," produced by Ben Folds, transcended the joke and became actually... good? And its signature song was Shatner's cover of Pulp's "Common People." [Listen] | |
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