Raw Story

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana is dodging questions from the media by citing laws that don't actually exist, a local newspaper accused him Monday.

NOLA.com reporter Andrea Gallo detailed the governor's attempts to avoid requests for details about his government by claiming that public records would be “weaponized to stifle deliberative speech.” The journalist discovered that, during the first five months of Landry's term in office, he refused about a quarter of all public records requests by citing "deliberative process" or "executive privilege."

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"The documents they withheld for those reasons included records related to Landry’s attempts to expand the death penalty, records dealing with the Louisiana National Guard’s deployment to Mexico, and records related to Landry’s travel," wrote Gallo.

Landry made national headlines recently when he signed a law requiring all classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.

The governor's office also withheld records from other agencies using a state law that only applies to the governor's office, the report continued. In another case, the governor's office claimed that there was a constitutional right to privacy after requests for information following a flood of resignations from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

“I can’t see the legal justification for it,” Steven Procopio, who serves as the president of the Public Affairs Research Center in Louisiana, told NOLA.com. “Because they’re doing this in a very broad way and using exemptions that don’t seem to have legal standing, it’s preventing the public’s right to know what their government is doing.”

Gallo spoke to a former top attorney to three Louisiana governors and thinks that the GOP governor is wanting people to sue.

“You just can’t make up law,” Ryder explained. “There’s no such thing as executive privilege or deliberative process privilege if it’s not in law.”

Three outlets were denied information when requested, citing the questionable laws. But when asked about it, Gallo said Landry's spokesperson, Kate Kelly, said the office has “never denied a public records request.”

“Every record request has been answered in compliance with the law,” she said. “We may ask for clarification and never hear back from the requester — but we never just deny a request.”

Ironically, in 2022, while serving as attorney general, Landry opposed the same practice he's accused of deploying now. He said at the time that the Department of Justice “must not be allowed to hide behind the veil of executive privilege."

When former Gov. Bobby Jindal was in office in the state, they used a "deliberative process" excuse to dodge some public information requests. In his case, there was a state statute they used to withhold the documents as "privileged."

But Gallo explained, "The same cannot be said for Landry."

“They did have a core legal argument: there was in fact a deliberative process privilege,” Procopio said. “Whereas now, it doesn’t exist in law.”

The report stated that Louisiana's constitution says "no person shall be denied the right" to observe public bodies and examine public records, except in cases of law. The only example in law says, “a record of the office of the governor relating to intraoffice communications of the governor and his internal staff may be privileged from disclosure.”

Read the full report here.

The heat was suffocating when 70 Democratic politicians and activists gathered on a Frederick parking lot the other day for a rally organized by a national Democratic youth group. But the Democrats saw a hopeful metaphor.

“Are we on fire?” April McLain Delaney, the Democratic nominee in the 6th Congressional District, asked the crowd.

Even with the withering early afternoon sun, the energy was palpable — and most of the Democrats there attributed it to the recent change at the top of the ticket, with Vice President Kamala Harris poised to replace President Biden as the party’s White House nominee. Several people said they expect that momentum to accrue to Delaney in the open-seat 6th District race, and especially to Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) in her battle against former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.

“We have to make sure that the energy we all felt after President Biden, with all his accomplishments, stepped down and turned things over to Vice President Harris, that that energy trickles down to these two amazing women,” said Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater (D).

After fretting for the previous month that the presidential election was slipping away, Democrats from coast to coast have sensed a shift, and a surge in enthusiasm, in the race in the two weeks since Biden announced he wouldn’t seek reelection and Harris quickly became the heir apparent. And most Democratic strategists believe at least some of that same boost is materializing in down-ballot races across the country.

But how is that phenomenon materializing in Maryland’s two most competitive general elections — the Senate race and the 6th District race between Delaney and former Del. Neil C. Parrott (R-Washington)? Is it real and is it, for Democrats, sustainable?

Opinions differ.

“Every election is driven to some extent by what’s happening at the top,” said Patrick Gonzales, an Annapolis-based independent pollster and political consultant. But Gonzales said the developments at the top of the ticket play in different ways in the two big Maryland races.

The basic contours and narratives of these two competitive races haven’t changed all that much in the past few weeks. And yet, the Alsobrooks camp clearly believes that their candidate, a Black woman and former prosecutor, benefits from the presence of Harris, a Black woman and former prosecutor — who, incidentally, is a friend and mentor to Alsobrooks — at the top of the ticket. Turnout among Black women, stalwart supporters of Democrats generally, should be supercharged with Harris as the presidential nominee against former President Donald Trump.

“I hope you all feel the euphoria that we’ve all felt for the past week,” Alsobrooks told the crowd at the Frederick rally, which was organized by the Tour to Save Democracy, a Democratic youth group that has been stumping in swing congressional districts over the past three weeks.

All along, one of the main arguments for Alsobrooks as she presses her campaign against Hogan, a popular two-term governor who is considered a moderate by modern Republican standards, is that Democrats need to maintain control of the U.S. Senate.

“The question we are asking in this election is not whether we like Larry Hogan, or whether we think he was a good governor,” Alsobrooks said. “The question we are asking in this election is who gets the 51st vote” in the Senate.

Harris’ presence in the race, Alsobrooks said after the youth rally, reinforces that message.

“Nobody understands more than Vice President Harris the importance of keeping the majority in the Senate,” she said.

Asked whether they see a change in dynamic in the Senate race since Harris became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, the Hogan campaign did not answer directly. Blake Kernen, a Hogan spokesperson, said, “In politics today, we expect candidates to prioritize their allegiance to party leaders over the interests of their constituents. Marylanders know that’s not Governor Hogan. Governor Hogan has a proven record of independent leadership, challenging hyper-partisanship, advancing Maryland’s priorities and restoring decency and common sense to our nation’s politics. That is what these chaotic times call for, and that’ll be his focus regardless of who’s at the top of the ticket.”

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Grand Boule at the Indiana Convention Center on July 24, 2024 in Indianapolis. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.

But Paul Ellington, a Republican strategist and former executive director of the Maryland GOP, said Alsobrooks can’t help but benefit from the Harris presence as the White House nominee.

“This will be like ’08, when the base the county executive is going to need in November is going to be super excited,” he said.

Hogan continues to highlight his political independence. Last week, he debuted a 90-second digital ad that spotlighted the career of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a political maverick, and tried to cast himself in McCain’s image. Hogan was also the rare Republican last week to blast Trump after he questioned Harris’ racial identity during an appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists, though he did not mention the ex-president by name.

“It’s unacceptable and abhorrent to attack Vice President Harris or anyone’s racial identity,” Hogan wrote on X. “The American people deserve better.”

During his successful campaigns for governor in 2014 and 2018, when he defeated Black Democrats, Hogan picked up significant chunks of Black voters and Democratic voters — taking about 30% of each voting bloc in 2018, when he won reelection by more than a dozen points. Several strategists and political analysts believe that he will need to come close to duplicating those numbers to have any chance against Alsobrooks — which will be difficult in a presidential election year, and with an abortion rights initiative on the statewide ballot.

Three leading nonpartisan political handicappers — The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, and the University of Virginia Center for Politics — all rate the Maryland Senate race as “Likely Democrat” at the moment.

Maryland Democrats, including the Alsobrooks campaign, continue to hammer Hogan on being the choice of national Republicans, and the stakes involved in this election. Alsobrooks, following the youth rally last week, called it “an example” of the burgeoning Democratic enthusiasm as the election grows closer.

Gonzales, the pollster — who plans to be in the field with a statewide survey later this month, after the Democratic National Convention — said both Hogan and Alsobrooks are well-established political figures whose political fortunes may not automatically be linked to national trends.

“My sense is by the time the election rolls around, both Angela Alsobrooks, who is getting known to the voters of Maryland, and Gov. Larry Hogan are two candidates who are going to stand on their own,” Gonzales said. “They both possess distinct political qualities that are going to create an election where the two of them are going to rise and fall on their own.”

‘Western Maryland will show up’ for Trump, Parrott

In the 6th District, the dynamic is a little different. Running in the only swing congressional district in the state, Delaney may benefit from overall Democratic optimism and enthusiasm, but she still has to modulate and moderate her message while staying away from some of the perceived leftwing policies of Harris.

The 6th District, which takes in a piece of Montgomery County and then runs through Frederick, Washington, Allegany and Garrett counties, also has huge swaths of territory where Trump will be a huge asset to Parrott. Delaney said as much, even as she acknowledged witnessing “so much excitement [among Democrats] right now.”

“With Hogan at the top of the ticket, with Trump — and some people would march anywhere with Trump — we have our work cut out for us,” Delaney said. She added that Parrott, as the three-time Republican nominee in the district, is better known to voters at this point than she is, even though her husband, former U.S. Rep. John Delaney (D), held the seat from 2013 to 2019.

Ellington, the GOP strategist, said the national political trends “will have some bleedover” in the 6th District, and that Trump at the top of the ticket benefits Parrott.

“The energy level among the Trump base is high, and Western Maryland will show up for them,” he said.

Parrott did not respond to a request for comment last week.

At the national level, both parties are watching the race carefully and believe it is close – but it has yet to rise to a top priority contest for either side. Two of the three national handicappers currently rate the race as “Likely Democratic,” while Inside Elections recently put it in the “Safe Democratic” category, in part because it judged Delaney to be a stronger Democratic nominee than some of the candidates she defeated in the May 14 primary.

Gonzales said the 6th District’s voter registration is roughly 42% Democratic, 40% Republican, and 18% independent voters. That means Parrott and Delaney have to motivate their political bases while also appealing to swing voters.

While Parrott benefits from the fact that he’s the GOP nominee for the third straight election and enjoys some measure of name recognition as a result, Delaney benefits from the robust spending of the district’s outgoing congressman, David Trone (D), which he used in part to paint Parrott as out of the political mainstream.

Delaney made some of the same arguments last week.

“In my race, whether it’s Hogan or Parrott, they’re both extremists — and we have to work to get that message out,” she said.

But in competitive House races across the country, the National Republican Congressional Committee is trying to paint the Democrats as extremists — and Harris becomes a handy conduit.

Last week, after the U.S. Justice Department announced that it had reached plea deals with some of the architects of the 9/11 terrorist strikes, the NRCC issued 30 separate news releases attacking vulnerable House Democrats and congressional nominees in competitive districts. Delaney did not merit her own targeted attack from the NRCC, but the campaign committee labeled the news as “the Harris terrorist plea deal.”

“Kamala Harris’ terrorist plea deal is yet another example of Democrats’ failure to protect the American people,” said NRCC spokesperson Savannah Viar said of the plea deals, which have since been withdrawn by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Similarly, the Maryland Republican Party, in a social media post last week, wrote, “This election is not going to be a fight against a typical Democrat, this is a fight to prevent the most extreme far-left President in the history of the United States.”

Is that rhetoric going to carry the day in Maryland with Democrats so much more motivated to turn out than they were just a few weeks ago?

Drew Spiegel, an organizer with the Tour to Save Democracy, the Democratic youth group that hosted the rally in Frederick last week, has been visiting competitive congressional districts in California, Arizona, Texas, Nebraska, Michigan and Pennsylvania for the past few weeks, and the tour was on its way to Syracuse, N.Y., after leaving Maryland.

“You’re definitely seeing more enthusiasm in gatherings and on social media,” he said. “Now it’s starting to translate to the polls.”

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

A dramatic power struggle is now unfolding in Antrim County, Michigan — a small county of about 25,000 people on the shores of the Grand Traverse Bay — reported CBS News, and it's been triggered by former President Donald Trump's conspiracy theories about election-rigging.

Sheryl Guy, the local county clerk, has been working for more than 40 years and was planning to retire, but she's horrified by developments in the race to succeed her, with five Republican candidates running, one of the most prominent being Victoria Bishop, the wife of a local right-wing talk radio host and an avid conspiracy theorist who has specifically accused Guy of cooking election results.

Antrim County, which is a resort area and leans Republican, originally reported a Democratic landslide in 2020 due to a tallying error. That was swiftly corrected, but became a source of a conspiracy theory that a plot to rig the Michigan election originated from there.

Guy says that she plans to run a write-in campaign if Bishop wins the primary. "I fear for the taxpayers and the county becoming part of their agenda," she told reporters. "I can't just turn over an office that I have worked in for over 45 years to an election conspiracist."

ALSO READ: We asked 10 Republican senators: ‘Is Kamala Harris Black?’ Things got weird fast.

Trump's baseless allegations that the 2020 election was rigged have led to local campaigns to terrorize election officials all over the country.

One of the most notorious involved Stephen Richer, a Republican local elections recorder in crucial Maricopa County, Arizona, who was for years subject to abuse and threats and recently lost his primary to a MAGA candidate. In another case, the entire election staff of Gillespie County, a heavily Republican community in the Texas Hill Country, was driven to resign by abuse from election deniers even though Trump won the county handily.

Donald Trump chances of election success in Georgia were jeopardized when he attacked the popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp at the weekend, according to several experts — and MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire argued Monday that the former president's personal grudges could cost his party a shot at regaining a Senate majority.

The former president lashed out at Kemp during his rally in Atlanta, where he appeared in the same arena that Vice President Kamala Harris had packed a few days earlier. Lemire told "Morning Joe" that Trump has been knocked off his game since Harris took over as the Democratic Party's presumed nominee.

"Georgia arrived as a swing state ahead of schedule in 2020 because of Trump's poor performance in office," Lemire said. "Then, of course, no one anticipated Democrats would get both Senate seats [in 2022], but Trump, while fighting the big lie, you know, refused to go down and campaign. The one event he had was a screed against all the Republicans there, it turned off GOP voters. Democrats get both seats and then the majority of the upper chamber."

Trump has struggled to define Harris, who has cut his polling lead in key states since President Joe Biden left the race, and Lemire said the ex-president has frustrated his campaign team with poor choices.

"All that talk of the disciplined, professional Trump campaign, that's gone, out the window," Lemire said.

ALSO READ: We asked 10 Republican senators: ‘Is Kamala Harris Black?’ Things got weird fast.

"The candidate is making decisions much to the consternation of those around him, and he's rattled. We always say this here. If you want to know how Donald Trump feels, look at Truth Social in the middle of the night. It's been screed after screed since Harris ascended to the top of the ticket.

"The Trump campaign has no answer yet how to respond to her. He's rattled by the crowd size, obviously. Look, they both filled that arena, but Harris could do it. Biden, that was something he couldn't do."

"It can't be said enough, Brian Kemp is really popular in Georgia," Lemire added. "With Harris at the top of the ticket and Trump reigniting this feud with Kemp, a couple Republicans said to me over the weekend, Georgia is very much in play right now. They feel like it could slip away from Republicans."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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Convicted felon Donald Trump won't get a vote from a man who was found not guilty in his own criminal case, Kyle Rittenhouse, and the ex-president's allies have gone to war against the young gun.

Rittenhouse announced on social media that he won't be voting for the former president because of his record on guns.

"Unfortunately, Donald Trump had bad advisors making him bad on the Second Amendment and that is my issue," he said. "If you cannot be completely uncompromisable on the Second Amendment, I will not vote for you."

ALSO READ: We asked 10 Republican senators: ‘Is Kamala Harris Black?’ Things got weird fast.

The young activist then added, "I support my decision and I have no takebacks."

On popular Trump influencer, @Catturd2, showed on social media that he had blocked Rittenhouse Friday.

"BYE forever I can stomach a lot of things - but backstabbing millions who supported you at your lowest point," the account wrote. "Then turning on Trump right after he got shot. Can't stomach it - won't put up with it - forgotten forever."

Former prosecutor Ron Filipkowski shared the image of the MAGA influencer blocking Rittenhouse and wrote, "I hate messy breakups."

Another social media user, @GuidoMcGirkIII, wrote, "F--- you Kyle Rittenhouse. You punk a-- piece of s---!!!! Stay out of wisconsin. We don't want your back peddling punka-- here anymore. F--- you and f--- the cowards that raised you to be this way!"

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) was raked over the coals on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday for his "pathetic" spin on President Joe Biden's successful effort to free unjustly arrested Russian prisoners and return them to their families.

On Thursday, while doing a photo-op at the border, Donald Trump's running mate told reporters, “We certainly want these Americans to come back home. It was ridiculous that they were in prison to begin with."

He then added, "But we have to ask ourselves: Why are they coming home? And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house,” he said. “That’s a good thing, and I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.”

ALSO READ: We asked 10 Republican senators: ‘Is Kamala Harris Black?’ Things got weird fast.

That led Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson to launch into a scathing takedown of both Vance and the former president.

"I think that the reaction from both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance yesterday— the only word that comes to mind is just pathetic," Robinson began. "It is just absolutely pathetic and incredible that they couldn't just say, we're happy that they're home. We're happy these Americans who were wrongly detained by Vladimir Putin are home and just leave it at that."

"I don't understand why they felt they had to attack, attack, attack," he admitted. "I mean, I guess that's who Trump is, and then J.D. Vance seems to be trying really, really hard to be kind of a mini-me; giving credit to Donald Trump for something he couldn't have been bothered to do when he was in office."

"I think, in part, it's their frustration," he claimed. "They just can't buy a news-cycle right now. They have been — and that has to be driving Trump crazy. Kamala Harris has dominated the news cycle and he thought he maybe had a little momentum by going crazy and saying offensive things at the NABJ meeting on Wednesday. Boom! Thursday attention is away from him again. Nobody is thinking or talking about Donald Trump."

"So maybe that pathetic reaction was just frustration on the part of Trump and Vance that nobody is really paying much attention to them right now," Robinson suggested.

Watch below or at the link right here.

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