For those now interested in Ranked Choice Voting & Redistricting— what the Obama-Holder folks knew (and unexpectedly got Biden in) was that major metro areas in large, easy to control counties that are predominantly in the west are the key to electoral control & mischief (1/8)
In Redistricting— if you can shrink the size of target lobby through subversive commissions, while also pushing for preferred “communities of interest” to be over-represented in the census — you can swing a state congressional and leg delegation your way. (2/8)
This is important as critical election funding for competitive local races impacts statewide. (See Sinema CD9) Proper cultivation and massive funding can fundamentally impact key target districts than can flip states, which is why the 2010 Redistricting in AZ was so bad. (3/8)
41% Very Conservative
14% Moderate Republican
22% Moderate Democrat
18% Progressive
5% Other Ideologies
By all accounts this is a “very conservative” community
(1/15)
In trad primary system, either the 40% Conservative population would win outright— or where primary runoffs occur (with a 50% + 1 rule), the mod republicans lose every time to the conservatives as community is more conservative & they would proceed to general against dems
(2/15)
Most proponents of RCV want to do away with primaries, using it as an excuse to insert the “top two” strategy & eliminating the “need and cost” of party primaries. The sales pitch is very slick and it sounds great to average citizens— but it’s not.
Ive had a lot of people ask me— “What’s the deal with HB2289 and what’s the hold up?” So I thought I would recap some easy to digest thoughts.
1) #HB2289 is the most gutsy election integrity bill that was drafted from the get go.
2) It focuses predominantly on ending fraud by eliminating unnecessary mail-in voting that has become abused as it has become more prevalent. (Won’t get into all the abuse opportunities here.) It also requires precinct-level voting (something the left is trying to eliminate.)
3) Leadership in the Senate is preventing it from being voted on, largely due to budget negotiations. Conservatives in the house and senate are pretty upset over the Governor’s veto of Joe Chaplik’s bill that would have required counties to remove non-citizens from voter rolls.
When I lived in Russia, I spent a significant amount of time in villages around the town Shakhty which translates literally as “Mines.” It is one of the largest cities closest to the Ukrainian border and during the fall of the Soviet Union the mines all went to oligarchs who (1)
Shut them down causing massive unemployment and despair felt to this day. This is what “Donbass” means— shortened for the Don (River) Coal Basin. The city is mainly very poor, most living off of the government. It’s interesting to note that theres very little differentiation (2)
Between the people on the Ukrainian and Russian side of the Donbas, however Ukraine is a much happier and wealthy place over the border and many Russians communicated that knowledge. The dirty south of Russia, as I call it— is an interesting place— aside from your standard (3)