Showing posts with label GOP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GOP. Show all posts
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Virginia GOP congressman who officiated same-sex wedding loses primary battle
A first-term Republican congressman in Virginia who drew the ire of social conservatives in his district for officiating a same-sex wedding lost his party’s primary on Saturday.
Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va., lost a GOP convention Saturday that was done via drive-thru because of the coronavirus pandemic. He lost to Bob Good, a former official in the athletics department at Liberty University and a strong social conservative.
While the convention ended at 7 p.m., the vote tally was not announced until after 1 a.m. Sunday. Good won 58 percent of the vote, campaign manager Nancy Smith told The Associated Press. Melvin Adams, 5th District Republican Committee chair, said 2,537 of the more than 3,500 registered delegates voted, news outlets reported.
“Resounding win!” Smith wrote in an email.
Riggleman, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, upset many Republicans in his district last summer when he officiated the wedding of two male campaign aides.
President Trump endorsed Riggleman, as did Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr.
The convention was held at a Lynchburg-area church near Good’s home and was the only place delegates could cast a ballot in a district that stretches from northern Virginia to the North Carolina border.
Riggleman has said a small coterie of Republican insiders were trying to rig the contest against him, forcing the nomination process to be decided with a convention instead of a primary. Conventions favor more conservative candidates and have been used for years by Virginia Republicans to block moderate Republicans from winning office.
“Voting irregularities and ballot stuffing has been reported in multiple counties in the #VA05. Voter fraud has been a hallmark of this nomination process and I will not stand for it,” Riggleman tweeted a little over an hour before results were announced. “@VA_GOP needs to reevaluate their priorities. We are evaluating all our options at this time.”
Good is now the Republican nominee for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District. Four Democrats are vying to challenge him in the fall, with the winner picked later this summer
“That’s what losers say," Good told reporters, commenting on Riggleman's allegations of irregularities.
Good has pledged to restore “Judeo-Christian” values to Congress. He’s also a hardliner on immigration and wants English to be the official language of the U.S. His victory could make national Democrats and outside groups more likely to spend money in the district, which easily went for Trump in 2016.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
GOP medical marijuana proposal snuffed out by Senate leader Scott Fitzgerald
From JSOnline:
Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MADISON - Two Republican lawmakers tried Wednesday to breathe new life into a proposal to legalize marijuana for medicinal use but it was blocked within an hour by the leader of the state Senate.
The proposal from Rep. Mary Felzkowski of Irma and Sen. Kathy Bernier of Chippewa Falls would create a new state program to license dispensaries of marijuana for anyone with a serious medical condition, like cancer, AIDS or post-traumatic stress disorder.
But Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald quickly rejected the idea as he's done before, saying he personally opposes the idea and doesn't believe his GOP-controlled chamber is on board.
Felzkowski, who is a cancer survivor, said her only goal at this point is to have a public hearing on the proposal and anticipated she would have to change minds in both GOP caucuses, which have long opposed similar proposals from Democrats
"I took a whole lot of medications with a whole lot of side effects that I still deal with today," Felzkowski said. "I can look at what happened to me and other people and see that this could be used without those side effects and I'lI tell you what ... those side effects were horrific."
The bill would create a state commission controlled by Democrats under the current party makeup of state government that would be charged with licensing manufacturers and dispensaries of the marijuana and determining whether new medical conditions should make someone eligible.
Under the bill, anyone with cancer, Crohn's disease, Glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and seizure disorders would be eligible with a doctor's recommendation.
The marijuana could only be manufactured in the form of a liquid, oil, pill, or tincture or in a form that is applied topically.
While Fitzgerald has long opposed such proposals, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos are open to creating a state program.
Evers proposed one in his first state budget, along with decriminalizing certain amounts of marijuana for recreational use, but it was removed by GOP lawmakers.
Vos said in recent months he'd be open to the idea with certain restrictions. A spokeswoman didn't immediately answer whether Vos supports Wednesday's proposal but Felzkowski said he is open to it but wants fewer dispensaries.
"Politicians, their minds can change," Bernier said. "Helping to educate our colleagues is part of our chore — part of our task in getting a hearing ... it is a viable option for some individuals."
Under the bill, Dane and Milwaukee counties could have up to 10 dispensaries. Counties with populations smaller than 500,000 but more than 100,000 could have up to five. No more than three would be allowed in counties with a population less than 100,000.
The program also would create an excise tax on a licensed manufacturer of medical marijuana at the rate of 10% of the sales price on each wholesale sale of marijuana to a licensed dispensary. That revenue goes into a fund for the program.
Democrats have repeatedly called for the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes and for recreational use but have been blocked by Republican lawmakers, some of whom have cited fears of abuse.
Sen. Jon Erpenbach and Rep. Chris Taylor, Democratic lawmakers from the Madison area, said Wednesday they fear the GOP proposal doesn't go far enough and want GOP lawmakers to take another look at a bill already introduced by Democrats.
“At some point, GOP leadership needs to realize that Wisconsin has quickly fallen behind," Erpenbach of West Point said in a statement. "Our neighboring states have legal cannabis in some form, and Wisconsin residents overwhelmingly support it for medical use."
The Democratic bill would create a medical marijuana registry that would apply to many more medical conditions than the GOP proposal.
In proposing their bill, Felzkowski and Bernier cited broad support for the idea.
Wisconsin is one of a minority of states that have not legalized marijuana use in some form. Thirty-three states have medical marijuana programs, including states bordering Wisconsin. In 2018, sixteen counties and two cities voted to support medical or recreational marijuana in referendums.
Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.
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