Monthly Archives: January, 2021

(The Center Square) – At least two members of the Wisconsin legislature say Wednesday’s chaos at the U.S. Capitol is not something you see in America.

Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher on Wednesday afternoon released a video on Twitter from his office in Washington, D.C., calling out both the protesters who stormed the Capitol and the Republicans who he blames for the violence.

“This is banana republic crap that we are watching right now,” Gallagher said. “This is the cost of countenancing an effort by Congress to overturn the election, and telling thousands of people that there is a legitimate shot at overturning the election today.”

Gallagher is one of Wisconsin’s Republicans who does not support the objections to the Electoral College results or the objections to Wisconsin’s election outcome.

Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan also released a Twitter video from his office Wednesday. He wasn’t inside the Capitol, but shared Gallagher’s outrage at the protesters who stormed the building.

“It’s a sad day for America when the president is inciting domestic terrorism and acting so incredibly irresponsibly because he is unhappy that he didn’t win the election,” Pocan said.

Gallagher echoed the sentiment. He said President Trump started the chaos, and only he can end it.

“Mr. President, you have got to stop this. You are the only person who can Call. This. Off,” Gallagher said. “The election is over. Call it off. This is bigger than you, this is bigger than any member of Congress. This is about the United States of America.”

Wisconsin’s Republican U.S. Senator, Ron Johnson, who has been one of the most vocal critics of the November election and a leader in the fight to oppose the election results said Wednesday that storming the Capitol is not an acceptable protest.

He asked for calm on Twitter.

“Please, if you are in or around the Capitol, respect law enforcement and peacefully disperse,” Johnson tweeted. “The Capitol Police have acted with incredible professionalism. I sincerely thank them for their service and condemn all lawless activity.”

(The Center Square) – Supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol Building Wednesday afternoon, interrupting the congressional session that was meeting to confirm the Electoral College votes.

Hundreds of protesters were shown on television news coverage walking through Statuary Hall without having gone through any security checkpoints. Debate was halted, and lawmakers were ordered to return to their offices and shelter in place. Legislators were told they may need to hide under their chairs and to be quiet and not draw attention to themselves.

The protesters appeared to have come from a rally earlier in the day in which Trump condemned, as he has repeatedly since November, the results of the Nov. 3 election that made former Vice President Joe Biden the president-elect.

Capitol Police put out calls to several other agencies to provide assistance after getting overrun, and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has put in place a 6 p.m. curfew and asked for the Washington, D.C., National Guard to be called up.

Trump didn't directly address the actions of the protesters but he did ask them to avoid violence, tweeting "Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!"

The sight of massive crowds halting the democratic process in the nation's capital city was jarring to observers, some of whom laid the blame for the crowd's actions at the president's feet.

"This is a coup attempt," tweeted U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. Then, addressing Trump, he wrote, "You are not protecting the country. Where is the DC guard? You are done and your legacy will be a disaster."

(The Center Square) - Wisconsin schools saved about $40 million by not being open last spring, but a new report says no one is sure where the money went.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty looked at the data included in the coronavirus report issued by the state’s Department of Public Instruction last month.

“The report asks for costs and savings in five categories: utilities, transportation, food service, personnel, contract terminations, and a catch-all 'other' bucket," WILL Director of Research Will Flanders wrote. “By far the biggest savings came from transportation costs. When schools are shut down, obviously most kids are no longer being transported, leading to a savings statewide of more than $34 million.”

Flanders said schools across the state saved another $10.6 million in personnel costs, presumably from not needing as many substitute teachers.

The DPI report shows Wisconsin schools spent more on food service during last spring’s shutdowns.

“The only main bucket for which we see a cost increase is for food services, which increased by approximately $6.3 million,” Flanders added. “This likely results from the logistical challenges of continuing to provide free and reduced meals during the pandemic.”

Many schools across the state, mainly in bigger cities, turned their focus last spring almost entirely toward providing breakfasts and lunches for students.

The WILL study lists the biggest savers, and biggest losers from last spring’s shutdown.

Wausau schools saved more than $3 million, followed by Kenosha, Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, and Eau Claire schools.

Racine schools spent the most during last spring’s shutdown. Flanders noted Racine increased spending by $1.9 million. They were followed by Madison, New Berlin, North Fond du Lac, and Green Bay schools.

Flanders said districts that lost money owe taxpayers an explanation.

“Given that other districts were able to get out of at least a portion of their transportation spending, this suggests either that bad contracts were made by the district, or that they are not fully reporting the money they saved,” Flanders wrote.

He also says schools that saved money owe an explanation to taxpayers.

“Many districts throughout the state have continued to keep their doors shut, despite substantial scientific evidence that it is safe to reopen,” Flanders said in his study’s conclusion. “The data here shows clearly that districts enjoy significant financial savings from keeping their doors shut. This represents the hard-earned money of Wisconsin taxpayers, and ought to be used to educate Wisconsin’s children. These savings ought to be passed on to Wisconsin parents who are struggling to educate their children in districts more concerned about the interests of the teachers union than about educating kids.”

(The Center Square) – As expected, Republican lawmakers in Congress filed a written objection Wednesday over Arizona’s electoral votes in the presidential election.

The Joint Session of Congress was called to order by Vice President Mike Pence shortly after 1 p.m. EST Wednesday, and the electoral votes for either President Donald Trump or President-elect Joe Biden were to be certified by state in alphabetical order.

There were no objections over the first two states, Alabama and Alaska, which Trump won. The objection over Arizona was filed by U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and signed by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

Biden edged Trump by fewer than 11,000 votes, or three-tenths of a percent, in Arizona to pick up the state’s 11 electoral votes.

The objection stated that “not under all of the known circumstances” that the state’s electoral votes were regularly given.

Several GOP legislators previously have said they would file objections over Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said those three states were guaranteed, and objections also could be filed in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin.

A dozen Senate Republicans and at least 140 House Republicans have said they will object. Individual states last month certified their Electoral College votes, which showed Biden finishing with 306 votes to Trump’s 232. A minimum of 270 is required.

The Constitution requires both chambers of Congress to meet before the inauguration to count the electoral votes of each state. While in the past it has been a purely ceremonial event, several GOP legislators signed a letter pledging to object unless Congress agreed to investigate election results.

If a written objection is made regarding any state by one member of the House and one member of the Senate, members will adjourn to their separate chambers for up to two hours of debate. Statements from the floor are limited to five minutes during the debate.

Unless both the House and Senate vote to overturn the count for the state in question, the objection is rejected and the process begins again with the next state.

It is difficult to see any objections succeeding in the Democratic-controlled House, and several Republicans in the Senate have asked their colleagues not to object, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who acknowledged Biden as the winner.

Without mentioning Trump by name, Pence said he does not have authority under the Constitution to refuse to accept the certification of any state’s certification.

(The Center Square) – Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff declared victory Wednesday morning over Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue in their runoff election – one of two elections held Tuesday to determine power in the U.S. Senate.

With 99.92% of precincts reporting, Ossoff held a 16,370-vote lead over Perdue, 50.19% to 49-81%. Ossoff's victory declaration came about six hours after The Associated Press declared Democrat Raphael Warnock the winner in his U.S. Senate runoff with Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler.

"It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate," Ossoff said. "Thank you for the confidence and trust you have placed in me."

Neither Perdue nor Loeffler have conceded. If Ossoff and Warnock's leads hold, Democrats would gain control of the U.S. Senate with a 50-50 split in the chamber and Democrat and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris holding the tiebreaker vote. Two independent senators caucus with the Democrats.

"This is an exceptionally close election that will require time and transparency to be certain the results are fair and accurate and the voices of Georgians are heard," Perdue's campaign said in a statement before Ossoff declared victory. "We will mobilize every available resource and exhaust every legal recourse to ensure all legally cast ballots are properly counted."

In the special election runoff to serve the remainder of retired U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson's term, Warnock had a 50.61%-49.49% lead over Loeffler, a margin of more than 53,000 votes. The Associated Press called the race for Warnock at 2 a.m. EST Wednesday.

"Tonight, we proved that with hope, hard work, and the people by our side, anything is possible," Warnock said.

Loeffler, who is in Washington on Wednesday for the certification of the Electoral College results, vowed to keep fighting.

“It's worth it for this election to last into [Wednesday]," she said. "We're gonna make sure every vote is counted. Every legal vote will be counted. And I'm not gonna stop working.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s latest coronavirus count shows most of the state’s vaccine doses are still in the fridge.

The state’s Department of Health Services on Tuesday reported that just 85,609 of Wisconsin’s 266,675 vaccine doses have been administered.

DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm defended the slow roll-out, saying many states are off to a slow start with the vaccine.

"For the foreseeable future, demand for the vaccine is going to outstrip availability," Palm said. "The holiday season is over and it is now certainly time to ramp up to make sure that we are pushing the vaccine that we have through the system.”

Numbers from the Centers for Disease Control reveal Wisconsin is 10th out of 12 Midwestern states in terms of the percentage of the population that has received a dose of the vaccine. Just 1.2% of Wisconsin’s population has gotten a dose of the vaccine.

Palm didn’t have an explanation as to why the vaccination roll-out has been so slow.

Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, said, no matter the reason, Gov. Evers and his administration is 100% to blame.

“The governor had months to prepare for this. We all knew the vaccines were on their way. Without a transparent and efficient plan, the governor is repeating the mistakes he made with unemployment insurance,” Darling said. “Wisconsin residents deserve and need to know when they can expect to be vaccinated against COVID-19.”

Darling sent the governor a list of 10 questions that she says need to be answered quickly.

“Governor Evers is on the verge of yet another disaster from his administration,” Darling said.

Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg, said Wisconsin is lagging well behind other states in the Midwest and across the country. He too lays all of the blame on Gov. Evers.

“Gov. Evers is an absolute disaster as an executive,” Stroebel said on Twitter on Tuesday. “Wisconsin’s COVID-19 vaccination rates are the third worst in the Midwest. Must be easier to push a dubious mask mandate than distribute a vaccine.

Gov. Evers on Tuesday said he is not concerned about comparing Wisconsin to other states,

"While we're worrying about comparing ourselves to Florida or to some other state,” Evers said. “I've continued to encourage people ... to think about how important it is to make sure we're not spreading this virus."

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber on Wednesday that Gov. Evers owns the failure to distribute the vaccine because he, and he alone, has the power over the state’s coronavirus response.

“When do people think they might be able to get a vaccine?” Vos asked out loud. “Is it this month? Is it this quarter? Is it this year? We don’t even have basic details out to the public.”

Vos said people across the state should be outraged by the delay, and the fact that some people are being denied life-saving medicine.

“[Gov Evers and the media] spent literally months saying because the legislature passed a bill in April and we weren’t going to pass another one until December, that we were ‘killing people’,” Vos told Weber. “Well here we are where they literally have a life-saving vaccine sitting in a freezer, and there’s not even an article that’s critical of the idea that we are not getting the idea out.”

(The Center Square) – Democrat Raphael Warnock declared victory early Wednesday against Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler in one of two Georgia runoff elections that will determine which party controls the Senate.

With more than 98% of precincts reporting, Warnock held about a 50,000 vote advantage. CNN, FOX News and other media outlets called the race for the challenger.

"Tonight, we proved that with hope, hard work, and the people by our side, anything is possible," Warnock said.

Loeffler did not concede, however, saying she still had a path to victory.

“It's worth it for this election to last into tomorrow," she said. "We're gonna make sure every vote is counted. Every legal vote will be counted. And I'm not gonna stop working.”

The second Georgia runoff remained too close to call early Wednesday. Democrat Jon Ossoff had about a 10,000 vote advantage over incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue, 50.1% to 49.9 percent, with just over 98% of precincts reporting.

The two U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia will determine the balance of power in the chamber.

If Democrat Warnock retains his lead and Republican Perdue finds enough votes to surpass Ossoff, the Republicans will retain control of the chamber, 51-49.

If Democrats win both elections, the chamber will be split, 50-50, with Democrat and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris holding the tiebreaker vote. Two independent senators caucus with the Democrats.

More than 4.3 million votes had been counted in each race.

Perdue was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014. He won 49.73% of the vote to Ossoff's 47.95% in the general election. Ossoff, an investigative journalist and media executive, ran for Congress in 2017 in the special election for Georgia's 6th Congressional District.

Loeffler, who was appointed to retired U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson's vacant seat in December 2019, and Warnock emerged from a pack of 21 candidates in the general election, where Warnock won 32.9% of the vote compared with Loeffler's 25.91%. Warnock is a senior pastor of the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached. He also would be the first Black U.S. Senator from Georgia.

(The Center Square) – The two U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia that will determine the balance of power in the chamber were too close to call late Tuesday night.

If Republicans win one or both of the elections, the GOP will retain control in the U.S. Senate. If Democrats win both elections, the chamber will be split, 50-50, with Democrat and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris holding the tiebreaker vote.

With 84% of precincts reporting, Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. David Perdue led Democrat Jon Ossoff, 51.21% to 48.79%. Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to retired U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson's vacant seat in December 2019, led Democrat Raphael Warnock, 50.81% to 49.19%.

Perdue was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014. He won 49.73% of the vote to Ossoff's 47.95% in the general election. Ossoff, an investigative journalist and media executive, ran for Congress in 2017 in the special election for Georgia's 6th Congressional District.

Loeffler and Warnock emerged from a pack of 21 candidates in the general election, where Warnock won 32.9% of the vote compared with Loeffler's 25.91%. Warnock is a senior pastor of the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached.

Voters also will settle the race for the Georgia Public Service Commission's District 4 seat in Tuesday's election. Republican incumbent Lauren "Bubba" McDonald Jr. had a 51.89% to 48.11% lead over Democrat Daniel Blackman.

The Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) oversees utility rates in the state.

(The Center Square) – Polls have closed at most precincts across Georgia in Tuesday's runoff elections.

Six polling places remained open past 7 p.m. because of issues earlier in the day. More than 3 million Georgians voted early or by mail ahead of the U.S. Senate and Public Service Commission runoff races.

The two U.S. Senate runoffs between Republican incumbent David Perdue and Democrat challenger Jon Ossoff and Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock will determine the balance of power in Congress.

In a District 4 runoff for public service commissioner, Republican incumbent Lauren "Bubba" McDonald Jr. faces Democratic challenger Daniel Blackman. The Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) oversees utility rates in the state. District 4 includes more than three dozen counties in north Georgia.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Tuesday's election went smoothly with short wait times. A few polling locations reported wait times between 20 to 30 minutes in the afternoon, officials said, but by evening, some saw wait times around an hour.

"After wait times averaging just 2 minutes on Nov. 3rd, Georgia's election administration is hitting a new milestone for effectiveness and efficiency," Raffensperger said. "I have always said that after every election, half the people will be happy and half will be disappointed, but everyone should be confident in the reliability of the results."

Poll workers in Columbia County reported having problems programming equipment and queuing voting machines. The Columbia County precincts remained opened until 7:01 p.m and 7:04 p.m. Another polling place in Gwinnett County stayed open until 7:04 p.m., and a Tift County polling place remains open until 7:40 p.m. Two precincts in Chatham County will remain open until 7:33 p.m. and 7:35 p.m.

Officials did not disclose the reason for the delays in Gwinnett, Chatham and Tift counties.

Officials in Cobb, Cherokee and Gilmer counties all requested judicial extensions, where polling places in the areas could remain open as late as 7:40 p.m.

Gabriel Sterling, the state's voting system implementation manager, said it could take a "couple of days" to count all of the votes. There were 229,357 outstanding absentee ballots shortly after 6 p.m.

Local election offices were allowed to start scanning the absentee ballots two weeks ago. Sterling said he anticipates smaller counties would finish scanning the absentee ballots by 9 p.m. All absentee ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday and counted by Friday.

(The Center Square) — Washington, Oregon, and 29 indigenous tribes are suing the federal government for selling what community organizations call a "treasure trove" of Pacific Northwest history.

The Seattle National Archives' 56,000 cubic feet houses thousands of paper files related to tribal treaty documents, ancestral records, and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, according to court documents.

Virtually all of the aging records have yet to be digitized, court documents state, and fewer than .001% are available online.

Seattle's National Archives building was listed as a "High Value Asset" in 2019 along with a dozen other federal properties slated for sale by the Public Buildings Reform Board (PBRB).

The records will be sent to two separate National Archives sites in Kansas City, Missouri and Riverside, California.

Sixteen Democratic and Republican members of Congress from Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Alaska voiced opposition to the sale in a joint letter back in January 2020.

In a letter to the federal government sent on February 25, 2020, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson urged the federal government to rethink moving the sensitive and irreplaceable records.

Ferguson claims his public records requests concerning the building's proposed sale around that time were left unfulfilled and spurred a $65,000 fee for record redactions from the PBRB.

He says the PBRB has informed his office the requested records will take until March 31, 2021 to produce.

"To be blunt, these federal agencies don’t give a damn about their legal obligations or what these documents mean to our region," Ferguson said. "Consequently, this lawsuit is our only recourse to compel the government to follow the law and respect the fact that these irreplaceable records contain the DNA of our region.”

In response to the agencies’ refusal to comply with Ferguson’s records request, he filed four Freedom of Information Act lawsuits by September 2020.

Those lawsuits yielded a handful of related documents from four federal agencies which produced heavily redacted records, according to court documents.

By October 2020, the PBRB announced in a 74-page meeting record that it would advance the sale of Seattle's National Archives Building and 11 other federal sites due to the economic downturn of the national real estate market.

On Monday, Washington filed a joint lawsuit against federal authorities in U.S. District Court, claiming the National Archives building's expedited sale is illegal based on its relation to "agriculture, recreational, and conservation programs."

It also claims the sale violated various administrative protocol and did not seek testimony from tribal governments and other stakeholders.

The lawsuit names nine community organizations as plaintiffs who say the sale of the building would place priceless Pacific Northwest history at risk.

“The word ‘archives,’ from the view of law firms, businesses and courts, tends to conjure an image of a records storage facility for ‘dead files,’” said Tallis King George, a Puyallup tribal attorney. “A visit to the National Archives at Seattle, for native people whose ancestral historical and cultural records are housed there, fills a deep cultural yearning to know, honor and understand the lives and sacrifices of their ancestors.”

Among the files stored at the building are some 50,000 documents related to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which forced Chinese immigrants to go through a discriminatory application process meant to curb Chinese migration.

“The Archives are critical partners in the conservation of our community’s history,” said Connie So, president of OCA Asian Pacific Advocates – Greater Seattle Chapter. “Most Chinese Americans left few records of their lives and history prior to 1950, making the Archive’s treasure trove of files related to the Chinese Exclusion Act all the more precious."

The sale of the National Archives Building is in the middle of the bidding process which plaintiffs are seeking to block in court as the lawsuit awaits review.

(The Center Square) – No one will be charged in connection to Jacob Blake’s shooting by a Kenosha police officer.

Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley on Tuesday said neither the officers involved in Blake’s shooting, nor Blake himself will be charged with any crimes.

“No Kenosha law enforcement officer in this case will be charged with any criminal offense, based on the facts and the laws,” Graveley said. “I am going to also tell you, because I believe it is important, that no charge will be filed against Jacob Blake in regard to this incident either.”

A Kenosha police officer shot and wounded Blake on Aug. 23. Police were trying to arrest Blake that day for violating an order of protection. He was at his ex-girlfriend’s home. She had accused Blake of sexual assault not long before.

Video shows Blake wrestling and fighting with officers, who tried and failed to use a Taser to subdue Blake. The last seconds of that video went viral. They show Blake walking around to the front of his ex-girlfriend’s SUV, opening the door, and reaching in. That’s when the officer fired.

Investigators said in August that Blake had a knife either on him or in the car.

Blake was left paralyzed after the shooting.

At the time, Wisconsin’s governor and lieutenant governor were critical of Kenosha Police for the shooting.

"Jacob Blake was shot in the back multiple times, in broad daylight, in Kenosha, Wisconsin," Evers said in a statement in August. "While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country."

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, perhaps, made the most inflammatory remarks after Blake's shooting.

“This wasn't bad police work," Barnes said after the shooting. "This felt like some sort of vendetta taken out on a member of our community."

Graveley on Tuesday said Blake’s shooting is a tragedy for everyone involved.

“I have thought several times, and had a quick conversation with Mr. Blake today, about his children who were in that vehicle,” Graveley told reporters. “And I don’t want to leave out the officers whose entire careers, in fact their whole lives, have been judged by a few seconds.... There is a tragedy there.”

Graveley said the shooting has also been a tragedy for the city of Kenosha, which saw nights of riots in August after of the shooting.

There is fear there will be another round of rioting this week.

Evers on Monday ordered 500 National Guard troops to Kenosha to help keep the peace. The city council in Kenosha on Monday also approved an emergency declaration that allows for the city to respond to protests and any violence that may happen.

The decision not to charge anyone in the Blake case came on the same day that Kyle Rittenhouse pleaded not guilty to the charges in his case.

Rittenhouse shot and killed two people during Kenosha’s final night of violence in August. He shot and wounded a third person. Rittenhouse’s lawyers insist he fired in self defense.

Graveley and his office is moving ahead with homicide and weapons charges against Rittenhouse.

In 2021, the minimum wage will increase in 25 states and Washington, D.C. The size of the increases range from $0.08 per hour (a 0.8% increase) in Minnesota to $2.25 per hour (a 31.03% increase) in Virginia, and the effective dates for the increases range from October 2020 to August 2021. Increases in 18 states took effect on Jan. 1, 2021.

After these increases occur, minimum wages will range from the $7.25 per hour federal rate in 20 states to $15.00 per hour in D.C., $14.00 per hour in California, $13.69 per hour in Washington, and $13.50 per hour in Massachusetts. In New York and Oregon, state laws provide for regional minimum wages.

Below are some highlights from Ballotpedia’s annual report on minimum wage increases:

In 2021, the largest minimum wage increases based on state laws are $2.25 in Virginia ($7.25 to $9.50), $1.50 in New Mexico ($9.00 to $10.50) and Oregon ($11.25 to $12.75), and $1.44 in Florida ($8.56 to $10.00).Eleven states are increasing their minimum wage due to citizen initiatives approved by voters. The remaining 14 states and D.C. will have minimum wage increases due to bills approved by lawmakers.Nine states index their minimum wage to changes in cost-of-living or inflation; 13 states and D.C. have legislative bills scheduling specific increases; and three states have citizen-initiated measures scheduling specific increases.Out of the nine states with minimum wages indexed to changes in cost-of-living or inflation, eight have minimum wage laws passed through ballot initiatives, and one has a minimum wage law passed by the legislature.Florida voters approved Amendment 2 on November 3, 2020. The citizen initiative was the first time voters considered a ballot measure designed to set a $15 per hour minimum wage.Four states passed minimum wage increase laws in 2020: one ballot initiative in Florida and three legislative bills in Rhode Island, Virginia, and Vermont.Of the 30 states that have a minimum wage higher than the $7.25 per hour Federal minimum wage, 12 passed their existing minimum wage laws through ballot initiatives.Michigan’s minimum wage law requires an adjustment to the state’s minimum wage based on inflation unless the average unemployment rate for the year is 8.5% or higher. In 2020, the average unemployment rate is expected to be higher than 8.5% and the scheduled increase from $9.65 to $9.87 per hour was canceled.

(The Center Square) – The list of Republican lawmakers who will oppose Wednesday’s vote to certify the Electoral College results continues to grow, thereby trying to block former Vice President Joe Biden from becoming the nation's 46th president.

“On January 6th I will vote to give President Trump and the American people the fair hearing they deserve and support objections to the Electoral College certification process,” Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia said in a statement Monday night.

Her fellow Georgia Republican David Perdue said on Fox News Sunday he is urging his colleagues to object.

Both are involved in runoff races Tuesday.

A dozen Senate Republicans and at least 140 House Republicans have said they will object. Individual states last month certified their Electoral College votes, which showed Biden finishing with 306 votes to Trump’s 232. A minimum of 270 is required to claim the presidency.

The Constitution requires both chambers of Congress to meet before the inauguration to count the electoral votes of each state. What has in the past been a ceremonial event, several GOP legislators signed a letter pledging to object unless Congress agreed to investigate election results.

The official process begins with Vice President Mike Pence presiding over a joint session beginning at 1 p.m., at which time each state’s results are announced in alphabetical order. If a written objection is made regarding any state by one member of the House and one member of the Senate, members will adjourn to their separate chambers for up to two hours of debate.

Unless both the House and Senate vote to reject the count for the state in question, the objection is rejected and the process begins again with the next state.

It is difficult to see any objections succeeding in the Democratic-controlled House, and several Republicans in the Senate have asked their colleagues not to object, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who ask acknowledged Biden as the winner.

In a memo to Democratic colleagues, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “At the end of the day, which could be the middle of the night, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will officially be declared the next President and Vice President of the United States."

Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri have been at the forefront of the fight.

“We went into this election with the country deeply divided and deeply polarized. And we’ve seen in the last two months unprecedented allegations of voter fraud,” he said in a statement. “I think we have an obligation to the voters and an obligation to the Constitution to see that this election was lawful.”

For his part, Hawley said, “I cannot vote to certify Electoral College results on January 6th without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state elections laws. And I cannot vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election in support of Joe Biden.”

(The Center Square) – The case against the pharmacist accused of ruining more than 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine at a suburban Milwaukee health clinic may be changing.

Steven Brandenburg left jail in Ozaukee County on Monday. He is currently facing a felony destruction of property charge and a recklessly endangering safety charge. But prosecutors hinted that those charges could change.

Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol told the judge in the case that Aurora Health has “walked back” some of the allegations it originally made.

Aurora originally said Brandenburg accidentally left about 500 vials of the vaccine out of a refrigerator at their clinic in Grafton over the Christmas weekend. Aurora then said Brandenburg intentionally spoiled the vaccine. Now, according to the D.A., Aurora is saying the vaccine doses may not be ruined. The hospital is working with the vaccine’s maker, Moderna, to determine if the vaccine is still viable.

If it is, prosecutors would have to drop the recklessly endangering safety charge, and lower the criminal damage to property charge to a misdemeanor.

Ozaukee County is working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Milwaukee, but no one is saying if federal charges could be coming in the case.

Monday’s court date also gave a window into a possible motive.

Gerol told the judge that Brandenberg is an “admitted conspiracy theorist,” and made a “full confession” to Grafton Police when they interviewed him about the vaccine doses. The D.A. says Brandenburg said he left the vaccine out of the fridge because he worried it would harm people’s DNA.

Brandenburg is free on a signature bond, which is common in almost all non-violent cases in Wisconsin. He has been ordered to surrender any weapons he has, and to not work as a pharmacist or have any contact with Aurora Health or its clinics. He was fired from his job at Aurora after his arrest last week.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s governor is sending National Guard troops to Kenosha ahead of the decision on charges in the Jacob Blake case.

Gov. Tony Evers on Monday deployed 500 National Guard troops to Kenosha to keep the peace.

“We are continuing to work with our local partners in the Kenosha area to ensure they have the state support they need,” Evers said in a statement. “Our members of the National Guard will be on hand to support local first responders, ensure Kenoshans are able to assemble safely, and to protect critical infrastructure as necessary.”

The deployment is the latest sign that authorities expect trouble once a charging decision is made.

Kenosha’s city council on Monday approved a resolution that allows for a two-week state of emergency “regarding potential civil unrest.”

Monday also saw Jacob Blake’s family and a number of protesters take to the streets.

The protestors say they want to see “change” in Kenosha. Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr. said his family “can’t just sit around” and wait.

Prosecutors in Kenosha have not said when a decision on charges in the case will come. Every indication is that it will come soon.

A Kenosha police officer shot Jacob Blake in the back during an attempt to arrest him back in August.

Video shows Blake fighting with officers, then walking around to the front of an SUV and then reaching inside. Police later found a knife inside the SUV.

Blake has remained paralyzed since the shooting. His family says he may never walk again.

The shooting in August sparked nights of rioting and fires in Kenosha. The violence in the streets ended only after Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two people and wounded a third.

Rittenhouse has been charged in that case, although his lawyers say he fired in self defense.

This latest deployment to Kenosha is the second for the Wisconsin National Guard. About 500 Wisconsin troops were sent back in August.

(The Center Square) – State unemployment compensation trust funds continue to struggle, a new report published by the Tax Foundation reveals.

As of Dec. 17, 20 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands have taken out loans from the federal government – totaling roughly $44.3 billion in Title XII Advances – which are required to be paid back with interest.

States entered 2020 with aggregate trust fund balances of $75 billion, which on net, now stand at $25 billion. Now 17 states and the Virgin Islands are in the red, the report found.

The states in the worst financial shape, from worst to least worse, include the Virgin Islands, New York, California, Hawaii, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, Massachusetts, Illinois, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Minnesota, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and New Mexico.

State unemployment compensation trust funds are in the best shape in Nebraska, Idaho, West Virginia, Mississippi, Utah, and Wyoming.

“A faster-than-expected jobs recovery has helped many states remain solvent,” the report notes.

In July, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the U.S. would return to 6.7 percent unemployment in the first quarter of 2023, a level already reached by November 2020, two years ahead of schedule.

“These significantly lower unemployment levels have stretched unemployment compensation trust funds further than many would have initially expected,” the report adds.

“Unemployment insurance taxes are imposed on a taxable wage base that is generally fairly low, so in many states, the majority – sometimes the overwhelming majority – of all UI tax revenues arrive in the first quarter of each calendar year,’ the report states. “States can, therefore, look forward to a substantial boost in trust fund balances in the early months of 2021. Nevertheless, outlooks in some states remain gloomy.”

The Tax Foundation notes that states will ultimately need to raise unemployment taxes to pay back their advances and replenish their trust funds.

(The Center Square) – Almost everything Wisconsin Democrats are hoping to accomplish this spring is tied to the coronavirus.

The budget, their long hoped-for Medicaid expansion, and just about everything else will be tied to the virus.

“At this critical point in our state’s history, we must get to work to ensure people have access to the support they need to get through the pandemic,” Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, told reporters in a pre-session news conference Monday. “Every legislative session we are sent here to take on the biggest issue of the state. We don’t get to choose the issues. The challenges facing the state are the ones that really require legislators act seriously.”

For legislative Democrats, that all comes down to the coronavirus.

Rep. Sara Rodriguez, D-Madison, said Democrats will champion their own coronavirus relief effort.

“We need to make protecting the health and safety of Wisconsin families and economic recovery a priority,” Rodriguez said.

The Democrats’ plan is almost identical to Gov. Evers’ proposal, with the addition of hazard pay and guaranteed paid sick time for health care workers.

But the so-called "Healthcare for Heroes" aspect of the Democrats’ coronavirus relief plan is actually part of their old proposal to expand Medicaid in the state.

“There are many reasons to expand Medicaid, and there are many reasons to expand Medicaid during the pandemic,” Hintz explained. “But in this case it gives us the opportunity to utilize some of the $300 million in annual savings by taking the expansion and making sure we are covering the new costs associated with hazard pay and other pay coverage.”

Wisconsin lawmakers will craft a new state budget this spring, and Democrats are looking at that through the lens of coronavirus as well.

“We are at a time where, while our revenues held-up better than some previous estimates, we will be waiting for the January revenue estimate from the Fiscal Bureau to set the table for the remaining six months of this [state budget] and what we can expect for the next [state budget].”

Hintz once again held-out hope that the federal government will provide a bailout to the states, including Wisconsin.

(The Center Square) – The new year for Wisconsin lawmakers is beginning much like the old one ended.

Gov. Tony Evers on Monday welcomed the state Legislature back to session, then once again tasked lawmakers with passing his version of a coronavirus relief package.

“I respectfully request that you prioritize the COVID-19 compromise bill – LRB-6592 – that I introduced several weeks ago now, and ask that the bill as drafted, which includes provisions agreed upon by Republican leaders and me, be the first bill taken up and passed by both respective houses so it can be sent to my desk without delay,” Evers wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “Time is of the essence, and frankly, we cannot delay any longer. It is time to move forward on legislation where there is agreement.”

The Republican-controlled Assembly and Senate have rejected the governor’s ideas at least twice before.

Legislative leaders say the governor’s plan does little to actually help fight the virus in Wisconsin. Much of Gov. Evers’ proposal focuses on shifting state employees, continuing a moratorium on evictions, and stopping the state’s Department of Public Instruction from tracking school and student success.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has said in the past that Gov. Evers’ demands to lawmakers are counterproductive.

“I would hope he’d reconsider his decision to walk away from the table," Vos said in December, the last time the governor told lawmakers to quickly vote on his proposal.

The governor’s demand comes as lawmakers return to Madison for the first time since last spring.

Republicans hold even stronger majorities at the Statehouse after last November's elections. In the Assembly, Republicans will enjoy a 60-38 supermajority, while in the Senate Republicans are one vote shy of a supermajority with a 20-12 advantage.

The coronavirus is already causing hiccups, however.

Most of Wisconsin’s Democratic lawmakers skipped Monday’s inauguration ceremonies after opting for virtual swearing-in ceremonies last month. Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, D-Oskosh, was one of them.

“I can tell you our constituents care far more that we are putting something out there, that we are getting behind things, that we are calling for bipartisan action than they do whether we’re there for an in-person ceremony or not,” Hintz told reporters during a virtual news conference.

Other Democrats are talking about avoiding time in the State Capitol unless and until there is a mask requirement for lawmakers.

“[W]hen we have committee meetings I will be in the building,” Sen. John Erpenback, D-West Point, told reporters on Monday. “Sometimes it will be in attendance, sometimes it will be on Zoom.”

“I don’t think you’ll see a lot of Assembly Democrats coming to the floor to give 20-minute speeches,” Rep. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, added. “We’re not going to want to debate things ad nauseam in a room with people who shouldn’t be spending a lot of time together in close spaces."

“The general election is not an organizational exercise. It's a mass media exercise.”

– Roger Stone

All aspects of our lives were upended by the 2020 pandemic. The media reminded us daily of the violent social unrest and alleged racial injustice. They failed to cover abuses of our core democratic voting practices which cast long shadows over the efficacies of our election process. At a time so much went wrong and so little went right, when we needed unity, the media divided us even more.

Debates were postponed or canceled. Candidates missed events, and held others on the internet or TV. Joe Biden hid in the basement of his Delaware home for days, and refused interviews. The media did Kamala Harris’ campaigning for her while Biden remained AWOL from most of America.

President Donald Trump, Gallup poll’s most admired man in the U.S. the last two years, campaigned like a new age rock star. During the pandemic, he defied anyone to stop him. His whistle stops were more charismatic than any religious revival. Unlike Biden, he was all over the map until COVID-19 slowed him down. But during quarantine at Walter Reed Medical Center, he campaigned to the voters outside.

America was not prepared for mass mail-in voting, and questions remain how ballots were counted or made it to the polls at all. Many questioned the accuracy of voting software, while others wailed disenfranchisement and fraud. And the media fanned the flames for this yet blamed the president.

Contrarily, this election was a walk in the park compared to some the media has been a part of in the past. They have a history of disrupting presidential races by making accusations of fraud, covering up backroom deals, ignoring voting problems, and creating political chaos. They were a key player in fueling the U.S. Civil War.

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."

– John Kennedy

The 1800 contest saw Thomas Jefferson tie with his Democratic-Republican running mate Aaron Burr. Both had 73 votes. Congress was called upon to break the tie. Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton, founder of the Federalist Party, despised John Adams. He seduced Federalists to vote for Jefferson and make Aaron Burr the VP. The media continued to publicize this rivalry between Hamilton and Burr for over three years, until a frustrated Burr, the sitting vice president, killed Hamilton in a duel.

The highly publicized 1824 election saw four candidates from the same party competing. Andrew Jackson got 99 Electoral College votes, John Quincy Adams secured 84, William Crawford won 41 and House Speaker Henry Clay 37. Since none won the majority, the House decided the election.

House speaker Clay had the dubious honor to pick the winner. Adams promised Clay the job of Secretary of State if he gave the election to him. Jackson was so furious he accused Adams and Clay of “election corruption” and resigned his senate seat.

The 1860 election was notorious for many things as newspapers nationwide tried to derail Abraham Lincoln, which further divided the nation over slavery. The New York Herald claimed if he won, “hundreds of thousands” of slaves would invade the North. And the press in the south convinced southern states to remove Lincoln from their ballot. In the end, Abraham Lincoln beat John Breckinridge, due to the Republican Party’s firm anti-slavery platform. And weeks after the election, South Carolina voted to secede; followed by six more Southern states. In February 1861, delegates from Southern states formed the Confederate States of America and selected Jefferson Davis as their official president.

In the election of 1872, one of the candidates never saw the final Electoral College vote. Misguided New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, a Democrat critical of Reconstruction, had tried to unseat Ulysses S. Grant. He didn’t stand a chance of winning and died before the election was finalized.

In 1876, when Democrat Samuel Tilden defeated Republican Rutherford Hayes, electorates in the College were tied. Democrats, influenced by Southern media on a bipartisan commission, made a shady deal to award Hayes the election if he would return power to the Democrats in the South.

The 1920 election featured two newspaper publishers, Democrat James Cox and Republican Warren G. Harding. Harding defeated Cox handily with strong media support. But the media completely ignored the candidate who finished third. And he was the most newsworthy.

Bernie Sanders’ predecessor, Socialist Eugene Debs who ran for president five times, ran his 1920 campaign from the most eccentric campaign headquarters: a prison cell. He was convicted for high crimes against government and sentenced to spend a decade in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.

“The most heroic word in language is revolution. I am a proletarian revolutionist.”

– Eugene Debs

By 1948, the media felt they were now qualified to start calling presidential elections. Segregationist Southern Democrats pitted Strom Thurmond, their first Dixiecrat candidate, against the incumbent Democrat Harry S. Truman and Republican Thomas Dewey. NBC, CBS and Gallop all predicted Dewey would win. Led by the Chicago Daily Tribune, they took the pollsters’ bait and signed off on one of the most blunderous media headlines in the history of journalism: “Dewey defeats Truman.”

We all recall the fiasco in Florida in 2000. Again, the media forgot they don’t pick the winners, the voters do. By 8 p.m. eastern, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and the API declared Al Gore the winner over George H.W. Bush. But when Bush won Florida, their newsrooms were covered with egg. The next day, they began a campaign to change the election results to vindicate their amateurish reporting.

Five weeks of recounting and ballot harvesting was highly publicized by the media, who favored Gore. When the Supreme Court ended this debacle, the media refused to let it go. As a result, our nation never recovered from the media’s Election Eve blunders. Judging by our latest election, we still haven’t learned; the media is a greater danger to elections than the voters who listen to them!

Topix’s Chris Tolles said, “People don’t trust politicians because of the media.” The media is no longer a watchdog over government. They’ve turned elections into high-priced advertising. In the 1800s when papers were in bed with favorite candidates, voters could read and decipher agitprop from both sides of the aisle. But each year, as the media has moved so dramatically left, this is no longer the case.

“Political candidates are products, and we sell the winners today.”

– Newsweek

Long before the pandemic, no presidential election was without conflict or adversity. This discord is fueled by the media to increase circulation. With today’s media appealing to identity groups and gullible Millennials, the media will have more influence over the future of our nation than voters will ever have.

“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”

– Thomas Sowell

(The Center Square) – Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rules Committee Chairman James P. McGovern announced new rules for the 117th Congress, which will be introduced and voted on after the new Congress convenes.

The rules include “sweeping ethics reforms, increases accountability for the American people, and makes this House of Representatives the most inclusive in history” – including eliminating the words, “father, mother, son, and daughter,” from federal code.

The proposed changes reflect “the views and values of the full range of our historically diverse House Democratic Majority,” Pelosi said in a joint statement with McGovern.

McGovern said the new rules were a result of months of consultation “across our caucus and Congress.”

Tucked inside the package is a proposal to use “gender-inclusive language.”n The goal is to “honor all gender identities by changing pronouns and familial relationships in the House rules to be gender neutral,” their joint statement reads.

McGovern issued a separate announcement about “Changes [to] pronouns and familial relationships in the House rules to be gender neutral or removes references to gender…”

Terms to be struck from clause 8(c)(3) of rule XXIII, the House’s Code of Official Conduct, as outlined in the new proposal include “father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, half sister, grandson, [and] granddaughter.”

The terms would be replaced with “parent, child, sibling, parent’s sibling, first cousin, sibling’s child, spouse, parent-in-law, child-in-law, sibling-in-law, stepparent, stepchild, stepsibling, half-sibling, [and] grandchild.”

The proposal also establishes a Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth “to prioritize our commitment to ensuring that no one is left behind in the 21st Century economy.”

Proposed reforms also include changing the process by which bills go to the floor, and making House documents more electronically storable and available.

They would also remove floor privileges for former members convicted of crimes related to their House service or election; make it a violation of the Code of Official Conduct for a member, officer, or employee of the House to disclose the identity of a whistleblower; make it a violation of the Code of Official Conduct for a member, delegate, resident commissioner, officer or employee of the House “to disseminate manipulated media, including photos and videos, known as ‘deepfakes,’” among other measures.

A section-by-section summary of the rules package is available online.

(The Center Square) – The fate of which party holds power in the U.S. Senate for the next two years is in the hands of Georgia voters.

Heading into the next session of Congress, Republicans hold a 50-48 advantage over Democrats with Tuesday's U.S. Senate runoff elections looming in Georgia.

Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. David Perdue faces Democrat challenger Jon Ossoff, and Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler is being challenged by Democrat Raphael Warnock. The runoff elections materialized after no candidate in either race garnered a majority of the vote in November's general election.

If Republicans win one or both of the elections, the GOP will retain control in the U.S. Senate. If Democrats win both elections, the chamber will be split, 50-50, with Democrat and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris holding the tiebreaker vote.

"We've got a job to do here in Georgia," Loeffler told supporters at a recent campaign rally. "America is counting on us. If you vote, we will win. If you don't, we will lose America."

"This election is about the difference that we can make in our lives when we elect people who care about the people more than they care about themselves," Ossoff said.

Perdue, who won 49.73% of the vote to Ossoff's 47.95% in the general election, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014. Before winning public office, Perdue was in business, and his previous jobs included serving as CEO at Reebok, Dollar General and Pillowtex.

Ossoff, an investigative journalist and media executive, ran for Congress in 2017 in the special election for Georgia's 6th Congressional District.

Loeffler and Warnock emerged from a pack of 21 candidates in the general election, where Warnock won 32.9% of the vote compared with Loeffler's 25.91%.

Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler, a businesswoman and co-owner of Atlanta's WNBA franchise, in December 2019 to fill the seat vacated by former Sen. Johnny Isakson, who retired.

Warnock is senior pastor of the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached.

The circus surrounding Georgia's presidential election and Perdue and Loeffler's support for President Donald Trump have dominated the conversation regarding the runoff elections, pushing policy to the background.

Perdue and Loeffler have framed the runoff elections as saving America versus radical socialism.

Perdue has said an Ossoff victory would lead to illegal immigrants voting, police being defunded, higher taxes, private health insurance being taken away, small businesses going out of business and the U.S. Supreme Court being packed.

Republicans need to win the two Senate seats "to protect everything that Donald Trump accomplished in these first four years," Perdue said.

Ossoff has attacked Perdue for his stock dealings in the aftermath of learning about COVID-19 and his opposition of Medicaid expansion, which Ossoff said would help keep rural hospitals afloat and make health care more affordable.

"We've lost nine rural hospitals in 10 years here in Georgia," Ossoff told supporters at a recent campaign rally. "Where's David Perdue been? While the people are forced to move hours across the state just to get to the emergency room. That's not right."

Loeffler has painted Warnock as a radical liberal and Marxist who "wants to raise taxes, socialize health care, rip away our rights, and crush our economy with the Green New Deal." She has attacked Warnock for failing to support law enforcement.

"Violent crime in Atlanta is the highest it’s been in 20 YEARS – yet [Warnock and Ossoff] are totally silent," Loeffler tweeted. "By refusing to stand with law enforcement – and instead supporting defunding the police – they’re enabling the violence."

Warnock also has questioned Loeffler's stock trades after a senators-only briefing in January regarding the coronavirus, and he said Loeffler helped stall a second round of coronavirus aid for Americans for nine months.

"[Loeffler] made her priorities clear when she sold $3 million of her own stock, called unemployment relief 'counterproductive,' and stalled relief for nine months," Warnock tweeted. "Georgians learned long ago they can't trust Kelly Loeffler to look out for anyone but herself."

(The Center Square) – A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, one day after Vice President Mike Pence and members of the U.S. House objected to it.

District Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a nominee of President Donald Trump, said that Gohmert didn’t have standing to bring legal action.

The lawsuit requests the court to grant Pence as the president of the Senate overseeing the Joint Session of Congress “the exclusive authority and sole discretion in determining which electoral votes to count for a given State” on Jan. 6.

Gohmert “alleges at most an institutional injury to the House of Representatives,” Kernodle wrote. “Under well-settled Supreme Court authority, that is insufficient to support standing.”

In response, Gohmert told Newsmax, “If I don’t have standing to do that, nobody does.”

Kernodle ruled that the 11 other plaintiffs, including Arizona Republican Electors, claimed an injury that is not “fairly traceable” to Pence.

Gohmert said the attorneys representing the plaintiffs will appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He later asked, “When no one ever has standing, what good is a court system?”

In their 43-page reply to the judge on Saturday, Gohmert and other plaintiffs argue, “Under the Constitution, he has the authority to conduct that proceeding as he sees fit. He may count elector votes certified by a state’s executive, or he can prefer a competing slate of duly qualified electors. He may ignore all electors from a certain state. That is the power bestowed upon him by the Constitution.”

The day before the judge’s ruling, Pence’s attorneys filed a brief arguing that the plaintiffs “have sued the wrong defendant,” adding that Gohmert’s lawsuit objects to procedures in the law and “not any actions that Vice President Pence has taken,” therefore he should not be the one being sued.

Pence’s brief states, “A suit to establish that the Vice President has discretion over the count, filed against the Vice President, is a walking legal contradiction.”

Kernodle replied that Rep. Gohmert “… alleges at most an institutional injury to the House of Representatives. Under well-settled Supreme Court authority, that is insufficient to support standing.”

“The other Plaintiffs, the slate of Republican Presidential Electors for the State of Arizona (the ‘Nominee-Electors’), allege an injury that is not fairly traceable to the Defendant, the Vice President of the United States, and is unlikely to be redressed by the requested relief,” he added.

Republican Electors in seven battleground states cast Electoral College votes for President Donald Trump on Dec. 14, asking Congress to reject the votes certified in their states for former Vice President Joe Biden.

Gohmert and the other defendants argue that Pence acting as the president of the Senate has “exclusive authority and sole discretion under the 12th Amendment to determine which slates of electors for a state, or neither, may be counted.”

Gohmert says that he and 140 Republican members of the House will formerly object to some states’ Electoral College votes on Jan. 6.

Joining them in the U.S. Senate are 12 senators, four of whom are new members. The first to state his objection was Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, on Dec. 30.

(The Center Square) – Eleven U.S. Senators now say they will challenge some states’ Electoral College votes on Jan. 6 when the Joint Session of Congress begins.

“America is a Republic whose leaders are chosen in democratic elections. Those elections, in turn, must comply with the Constitution and with federal and state law,” they wrote in a joint statement.

“When the voters fairly decide an election, pursuant to the rule of law, the losing candidate should acknowledge and respect the legitimacy of that election. And, if the voters choose to elect a new office-holder, our Nation should have a peaceful transfer of power. The election of 2020, like the election of 2016, was hard fought and, in many swing states, narrowly decided. The 2020 election, however, featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations, and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities.”

The group includes seven sitting Republican senators: Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Ron Johnson, R-Wis., James Lankford, R-Okla., Steve Daines, R-Mont., John Kennedy, R-La., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. and Mike Braun, R-Ind.

It also includes four senators-elect who were sworn-in on Sunday: Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.

Their announcement comes several days after U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was the first senator to announce he planned to object. “I cannot vote to certify the electoral college results on Jan. 6 without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws,” Hawley tweeted Dec. 30.

The allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 Election “exceed any in our lifetime,” they wrote, arguing that Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission with full investigative authority to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of election irregularities in several disputed states.

Once the audit is completed, the states would then evaluate the commission’s findings and hold special legislative sessions in their states to certify the votes, and changes to their votes, if the audit warranted it.

“Accordingly, we intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified’ (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed,” the group said.

“… support of election integrity should not be a partisan issue,” they added. “A fair and creditable audit – conducted expeditiously and completed well before January 20 – would dramatically improve Americans’ faith in our electoral process and would significantly enhance the legitimacy of whoever becomes our next President. We owe that to the People.”

So far, roughly 140 U.S. Representatives have indicated they will object on Jan. 6.

Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden’s team downplayed the announcement, stating that the Joint Session of Congress’ vote count was “merely a formality.”

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she’s confident Biden will be sworn into office as the 46th president on Jan. 20.