Elsewhere in the midwest
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The biggest news yesterday was obviously the Michigan primary — I may have more to say about that, but right now the most important thing is that Stevens and McMorrow quickly endorsed and El-Sayed graciously praised the former, all positive especially compared to whatever the fuck Jasmine Crockett is going in Texas.
I do think there are a couple of results from the western midwest that are worth highlighting. First Kansas voters rejected yet another attempt to ban aboriton through the back door:
Kansas voters Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to rewrite the state constitution and elect Kansas Supreme Court justices, spiking a plan long coveted by Republicans who want more conservative rulings on issues including abortion and school funding.
About 62% of Kansans were voting “no” on the constitutional amendment with 593,695 votes counted as of 11:15 p.m.
“This victory is beyond gratifying,” said retired Supreme Court Justice Carol Beier, who opposed the amendment. “Kansans have made their wishes known, and those wishes are noble. The Kansas Supreme Court must remain fair and impartial for every citizen. It cannot and will not be bought to give a few an unfair advantage.”
The primary ballot asked voters to evaluate a proposal that would spike a 68-year-old system for selecting justices for the highest court, a system born out of scandal from an era when justices were elected and the governor had total control over selecting replacements.
The amendment instead would have given voters the power to vote on candidates for the Supreme Court, and mega-donors the power to influence court decisions.
And speaking of Kansas, I assume that the Sam Brownback Experience was one reason that Missouri voters rejected abolition of the state income tax by near-Assad margins, while also rejecting a proposal to effectively permit only right-wing initiatives:
Missouri voters rejected major Republican priorities on Tuesday as proposals to eliminate the income tax and change the way initiative petition majorities are counted lost by large margins across the state.
Amendment 4 lost 80% to 20%, while Amendment 5 fared worse, losing 83% to 16%.
“Amendments 4 and 5 have been buried so deep in citizen rejection, they should never come back,” said Scott Charton, spokesman for the two Missouri Realtor-funded opposition groups, Missourians for Fair Governance and Missourians for Fair Taxation.
One measure of the magnitude of the “no” vote is that it created a mirror image of the majority requirement Amendment 4 would have imposed on constitutional amendments proposed by initiative.
Amendment 4 would have required amendments to achieve a majority in every congressional district in order to pass. All eight of Missouri’s congressional districts opposed both Amendment 4 and Amendment 5.
I hope this will be a hint that the anti-tax slopulism getting a foothold in the Democratic Party needs to be strangled in the crib.