Pajamas Media has launched the PJ Tatler and I’ll be one of the featured commentators.  The PJ Tatler harkens back to the Tatler of 1709.  The original Tatler’s “intention was to present accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment, of poetry, and of foreign and domestic news. These all were reported and ‘issued’ from various London coffee and chocolate houses. In time The Tatler began to investigate manners and society, establishing its principles of ideal behaviour, its concepts of a perfect gentleman and gentlewoman, and its standards of good taste. Dueling, gambling, rakish behaviour, and coquettishness were criticized, and virtuous action was admired.”

The PJ Tatler is a rapid fire internet  “free-for-all, constantly updated conversation about anything and everything that’s happening around the world.”  In other words, a great place to click by and see what’s going on. 

When it comes to outgoing Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, perhaps the most partisan Secretary of State in the nation, nothing is a surprise, not even to the Ohio Supreme Court:

“The rush to judgment was started by the secretary of state in a fairly transparent attempt to play a role in the resolution of the election before her successor takes office on January 10. Now, this court is along for the ride.”

Full opinion here.   ELC.com first posted about Brunner’s meddling in a local election here.

This is not a reassuring set of data.  They show that white voters fled the Democratic Party in 2010 and minority voters were an even more solid bloc.  In other words, minorities and whites were voting differently in record numbers.  This is precisely the opposite outcome envisioned by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  The National Journal piece is a must read.  The sample size of the data is enormous: 17,504 voters.

“The new data show that white voters not only strongly preferred Republican House and Senate candidates but also registered deep disappointment with President Obama’s performance, hostility toward the cornerstones of the current Democratic agenda, and widespread skepticism about the expansive role for Washington embedded in the party’s priorities. On each of those questions, minority voters expressed almost exactly the opposite view from whites.”

The implications for elections are enormous.  Racial polarization in elections almost never has a desirable result for racial minorities.  White support for GOP Congressional candidates were at a record level in 2010 – 60% voted for the GOP and only 37% for Democrats.  Outside of the northeast and west coast, the disparity was even more staggering.  In other words, in most parts of the country, white support for Democratic candidates barely registered any effective strength at all. 

On the other side of the ledger, minority support for Democratic candidates was even more cohesive, with 73% percent of minorities voting Democrat.  The story pegs Hispanic support at 60 percent.  That means black support must be at least above 80 percent and is likely higher.

Views on the President were also extremely polarized:

“First among those was Obama’s performance. Exactly 75 percent of minority voters said they approved; only 22 percent said they disapproved. Among white voters, just 35 percent approved of the president’s performance, while 65 percent disapproved; a head-turning 49 percent of whites said they strongly disapproved.”

My latest on the 2012 election, Mitch Daniels and lawlessness at Pajamas:
“South Carolina politics are changing, but they aren’t changed. Pro-business mainstream conservatives who give no offense to evangelicals and mainline Protestants — and, ideally, who have demonstrable national security credibility — are the candidates who win the South Carolina primary. Everyone wondering who will be the GOP nominee in 2012 should read that last sentence ten times over. Failure on any point means failure in South Carolina.”

Daytona (FL) is finally holding an election to replace a disgraced City Commissioner who was removed from office after he committed voter fraud.  Derrick Henry was unseated after he and a campaign aide, Genesis Robinson, made dozens of illegal absentee ballot requests.  Derrick Henry’s brother, Patrick Henry, is now running for the same seat.  More here.

“Last October, Commissioner Derrick Henry was unseated following allegations of voter fraud. A special run-off election slated for Jan. 11 between candidates Mario Henderson, 23, and Patrick Henry (Derrick’s older brother), 50, should finally deliver representation back to Zone 5 residents.  ‘Our seat sits empty,’ Mr. Henderson said at a NAACP-sponsored election forum Monday night. ‘This races is about giving our community a voice.’ Mr. Henry did not attend the forum.”

After the storm of controversy last fall over the waiver it received, Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed is asking the Legislature to move Washington’s Primary Election two weeks earlier, to early August, to ensure that Washington complies with a new federal law requiring military ballots to be mailed 45 days before Election Day. 

Reed said Washington needs to move the state’s Primary Election to the first Tuesday in August to comply with the Military & Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, passed by Congress in 2009. The Primary date must be earlier because the MOVE Act requires military and overseas ballots to be mailed 45 days before November’s Election Day instead of Washington’s current law of 30 days before Election Day.

“Last year, our state was able to receive a waiver from the Department of Defense and Department of Justice that allowed us to mail our military-voter ballots when we would normally, but federal officials made it clear that we shouldn’t count on getting that waiver in the future, so we need to move up the Primary to follow the MOVE Act,” Reed said.   

In 2010, Reed asked legislators to allow military and overseas voters to return ballots by fax or e-mail rather than by slower surface mail. That measure was unanimously passed by the House before failing to be brought to the Senate floor for a vote.

“Military and overseas voters have repeatedly asked for the ability to scan and return their ballots by e-mail,” said Reed, noting that 20 other states use this approach and that it’s working well for them. “When you’re a soldier stationed in the hills of Afghanistan or on a ship in the middle of the ocean, you don’t have much time to mail back your ballot, so this bill provides a modern, practical solution that allows military voters to return their ballots in a timely way.”

“With complaints filed by both parties, the state Attorney General’s Office has been asked to investigate an allegation of ‘criminal conduct’ in The Woodlands Road Utility District No. 1 election. 

Attorney James Stilwell, who represents the three RUD board incumbents, filed a complaint with the Secretary of State that certain persons ‘swore to false residence addresses on their voter registration applications and subsequently voted illegally’ in the district’s election on May 8, McGeehan stated in her letter.”

Full story here.

Memo Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell:  You aren’t heading in the the right direction when DOJ makes a “more information” request.  It means you have problems. 

Louisiana wants to move to open primaries.  They made a submission under Section 5 to the DOJ.  The DOJ made a more information request instead of preclearing the submission.  This means there are problems with the submission, despite the rosy statements by state officials.

What to do?  Submit the open primary plan direction to the District Court in DC.  Georgia figured it out that the best way to ensure your plan is approved is to go straight to court.  When you sue, and particularly when you allege that Section 5 is unconstitutional, the DOJ may be more likely to agree to settle and approve the plan in a close case.  Court is easier, faster, cheaper – and most of all – more honest.  Georgia won.   Louisiana can too.

In particular, someone should let Sharon Kleinpeter know that the pattern of more information requests indicates the submission is not on a smooth glideslope to approval.  There is BOTH an October 8 and December 7 request for more information.  Double more information requests do not bode well for preclearance.  In fact, had Buddy Caldwell filed the action in District Court on August 8 instead of with the DOJ, the plan would have most likely already been approved already.  According to NOLA.com:

AP.

What does Senator John Cornyn’s hold on James Cole for Deputy Attorney General have to do with the Voting Section at the Department of Justice?  Lots.

Yesterday, on the floor of the Senate, Cole’s nomination was blocked yet again because of the failure of the Voting Section at the Department of Justice to aggressively enforce military voting rights.  More specifically, Cornyn blocked the nomination because a United States Senator could not get straight answers in August and September from the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department.  He wanted to know which states were in compliance with the new MOVE Act, and which were not.  Problem was, the Voting Section didn’t know themselves, so Cornyn blocked the Cole nomination until he got answers – answers he never got.  Cornyn wanted to see aggressive and swift enforcement of the law to protect military voters, something that never happened.

Then to rub salt in the wound, the Voting Section badly bungled military voting rights enforcement during the run up to the election, something extensively reported at Fox News and Pajamas Media.  Cole’s fate was sealed.  It would not be an easy path to nomination.

Democrats in the Senate are desperate to see Cole confirmed.  Maybe they should call the Office of Legislative Affairs at DOJ and tell them to start getting Senator Cornyn the answers he wants, and start enforcing the law without cutting corners to states.  Maybe they should tell Eric Holder to hold people accountable who bungled military voting 2010.  Maybe then the hold will come off.

Cole’s hold doesn’t have anything to do with AIG, it has to do with the Voting Section at the Department of Justice not aggressively enforcing military voting rights in 2010. 

Whether or not the people responsible will be held accountable remains to be seen.

UPDATE:  A Senate staffer tells ELC that the Cole nomination is DEAD.  James Cole will not be confirmed as the Deputy Attorney General this session.  Had only the DOJ responded to information requests about military voting and filed some cases when violations were well known, Cole might well have been confirmed months ago.