New York | September 9, 2021
Former CIA official announces bid to oust Elise Stefanik from House
New York | September 9, 2021
A former CIA officer announced a 2022 campaign to unseat Rep. Elise Stefanik from her position representing New York’s 21st Congressional District. Matt Castelli, a Democrat, posted a video to declare his candidacy, accusing Stefanik of betraying her oath to protect the Constitution during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol when Trump supporters swarmed the building as lawmakers certified President Joe Biden’s victory. … (Excerpts from the Washington Examiner)
New York | August 2, 2021
Corporations Silent on Why They Pulled Funding from Republicans Who Questioned an Election, but Not Democrats Who Did the Same
New York | August 2, 2021
Corporations were silent on why they chose to suspend political contributions to Republicans, but not Democrats who have objected to election results.
More than 15 major U.S. companies that announced they would suspend giving money to members of Congress following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot didn’t respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation about their political contribution activity following the 2016 presidential election. The corporations were quick to condemn Republicans lawmakers who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election earlier this year, but apparently didn’t criticize or punish Democrats who have similarly objected to election results in the past.
“These corporations are doing something very new, and something that could potentially alienate an important base for them,” Craig Holman, a lobbyist at Public Citizen, told The Washington Post in January. “I’ve never heard of this happening before.”
On Jan. 6, nearly 150 Republican lawmakers — eight senators and 139 representatives — objected to the 2020 presidential election results of at least one state, The New York Times reported. Pennsylvania and Arizona received the most amount of GOP objections while four other states received one objection apiece.
Meanwhile, during the vote, throngs of former President Donald Trump’s supporters breached the Capitol building in protest of the election results. The crowd stormed the building after attending Trump’s speech at a nearby rally in which he claimed the election had been rigged and rife with fraud.
In the days following the riot and the failed Republican effort to overturn the election, around 280 corporations announced they would either conduct a review their political donation activity or no longer support those who had voted to decertify, according to a CNN database…. (Excerpts from the Virginia Star)
New York | July 6, 2021
Push to Reform New York City Board of Elections Gains Steam Following Mayoral Vote Tally Gaffe
New York | July 6, 2021
Several key New York State lawmakers told The Wall Street Journal that there are plans to hold hearings on the New York City Board of Elections (BOE) following last week’s mayoral primary vote miscount blunder, potentially pushing longstanding efforts to reform the administrative body across the finish line.
Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the state Senate majority leader, told the outlet that the chamber would hold hearings and seek to pass reform legislation “at the earliest opportunity,” while assemblywoman Latrice Walker, a Democrat who chairs the Senate election committee, said the hearings would include a review of the structure of the BOE, which has long been a key concern.
Last week, the BOE released tallies of of the first ever citywide primaries conducted with ranked-choice voting, before abruptly taking them down, citing a “discrepancy” in the numbers. The BOE later admitted that 135,000 test ballots had accidentally been included in the mayoral primary tally, with BOE officials apologizing for what they said was a “human error” and saying they had “implemented another layer of review and quality control” to prevent a repeat of the fiasco….
(Excerpts from the Epoch Times)