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Chris Collins was a leading Republican congressman from New York, the first GOP House member to endorse Donald Trump in 2016. But his arrest last week on insider trading charges has effectively ended his political career. And now, as Randy Gorbman of radio station WXXI reports, it’s up to Republican leaders in the 27th District to come …
Read moreEpisode #241: Left Turn in Mass., Right Turn in Fla., A Turnaround in N.Y.
The special congressional election in Ohio’s 12th District is still too close to call. But just the fact that a Democrat almost won this longstanding GOP bastion is enough for Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of Inside Elections, to call it bad news for the Republican Party and a possible reason to worry for November. …
The “impeach Rod Rosenstein” effort is going nowhere, to no surprise, but that hardly means conservatives in the House Republican conference are backing down. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio is running to head up the party in the House, and there may be several dozen members of the Freedom Caucus ready to back him. Jack …
The victory of Democrat Conor Lamb in a solidly Republican House seat in Pennsylvania earlier this year brought national headlines. Could the same thing happen next month in Ohio? Owen Daugherty of the Columbus Dispatch talks about the special congressional election in the Buckeye State’s 12th District on August 7, a seat that Democrats haven’t …
The almost surreal news conference in Helsinki between President Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin was the big story of the week, and we’ve got it covered. Amanda Sloat of the Brookings Institution reviews Trump’s relationship with NATO allies and discusses the reaction in the aftermath of Helsinki. Michael Steele, the former chair of the Republican …
President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to succeed Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court has given the president his second chance to move the court in a more conservative direction. Burgess Everett of Politico reports on the senators who will be pressured by special interest groups regarding Kavanaugh’s confirmation. And Prof. Jeffrey Segal …
The announcement by Anthony Kennedy, the crucial “swing” justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, that is retiring has sent shock waves through both parties. And the battle to confirm President Trump’s nominee to succeed him will certainly consume the 2018 midterm elections. Court blogger Amy Howe talks about Kennedy’s influence, the list of potential successors, …
Faced with a losing political argument on “zero tolerance” and the separation of children from the parents who enter the U.S. illegally, President Trump signed an executive order that basically ended his own Administration’s policy — even though he had all along been blaming the Democrats for it. Veteran Republican strategist and pollster Whit Ayres …
Maine tried something this week that has never been tried before. It became the first to hold a statewide primary using a system called “ranked choice voting” — in which voters don’t simply indicate their choice on the ballot but “rate” the candidates in order of their preference. Rob Richie of FairVote.org explains the system and weighs …
It was a big primary night Tuesday in California, and KQED’s Scott Shafer has all the key results. The big takeaway: Democrats didn’t get shut out of some key House races because of the state’s unique “Top Two” system; it looks like there will be a Democrat and a Republican in all seven congressional districts …
Read moreEpisode #232: Buy Me Some Primaries and Cracker Jack