I am confused, can Scotland just vote to leave the UK and then just do it?Β Β Would there be a war or something if they tried?Β Β Here in the US we have a lot of rabid right wingers talk about leaving the Union but it is well known it can not be done unless all states and the federal government agree.Β Β Some say it can not be legally done at all.Β Hugs
Scottish first minister on collision course with Boris Johnson over plans for second referendum next year.
Β Britain is headed for a fresh constitutional crisis as Scotlandβs First Minister Nicola Sturgeon prepares to outline plans for a second vote on Scottish independence β with or without Boris Johnsonβs agreement.
In a 20-minute speech to lawmakers in the Scottish parliament (Holyrood) on Tuesday, Sturgeon will set out her long-awaited route to some form of a second referendum, vowing to press ahead even if β as expected β Johnsonβs U.K. government continues to withhold consent.
The first poll in 2014, in which the pro-Union side triumphed by 55 percent to 45 percent, followed then-Prime Minister David Cameronβs decision to temporarily hand Holyrood the power to hold a referendum. This time, no such consent from Westminster will be forthcoming.
After pro-independence parties gained a majority of seats in last yearβs Holyrood elections, Sturgeon argued her government now had a mandate to hold a fresh vote. In response, Johnson and U.K. ministers have pointed to nationalist statements from 2014 that the first referendum would be a βonce in a generationβ event, and say Sturgeonβs current focus should be on helping Scots with the cost-of-living-crisis.
Sturgeon will say Tuesday that her preferred option remains a repeat of the 2014 transfer of powers, stating in pre-released remarks: βWestminster rule over Scotland cannot be based on anything other than a consented, voluntary partnership.β
βIt is time to give people the democratic choice they have voted for.β
Nationalists and unionists alike expect this plea to fall on deaf ears. An official from the U.K. government said its position in opposition to another referendum would not change.
The most hotly anticipated portion of Sturgeonβs speech will therefore concern how her government plans to hold a referendum if Westminster does not grant consent.
In a press conference earlier this month,Β Sturgeon stressed that any efforts to hold a referendum must be done βin a lawful mannerβ β a reference to the widely-held view that either the U.K. government or an activist private citizen would take the Scottish government to court if it tried to hold a referendum against the will of Westminster.
One way to get around the legal difficulties could be to hold a purely advisory poll, according to a former senior civil servant involved in the negotiations for the 2014 referendum.
βPerhaps instead of a βreferendum on independence,β the bill is instead about something like asking the people of Scotland for a mandate to open independence negotiations with the U.K,β Ciaran MartinΒ wrote in the Sunday Times. He added that such a measure βmight stand a better chance in court.β
Some unionists have made clear they would boycott any consultative poll, regardless of its legality. But with October 2023 penciled in as Sturgeonβs ideal date for a fresh referendum, and legislation to enact a vote expected in Holyrood later this year, a court battle looks increasingly inevitable.
POTENTIAL SCOTLAND INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM POLL OF POLLS
π’ This just in: the Scottish are coming … for their independence! π΄σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄σ Ώ
The UK is headed for a fresh crisis as Scotlandβs First Minister Nicola Sturgeon prepares to outline plans for a second vote on Scottish independence.https://t.co/8X8ZcWo7Zs
Nicola Sturgeon accused of sowing βdivision and strifeβ over plan for second Scottish independence referendum β UK politics live https://t.co/CLokWtcNk3
Congratulations to the Conservative Party of the UK, who as paid agents of the Russian government have installed Russian oligarchs in the House of Lords, compromised the NHS in the middle of a global pandemic, knocked the legs out from under several UK industries, weakened the EU, weakened NATO and brought about the likely dissolution of the UK.
David Cameron, Teresa May, Boris Johnson… traitors to their country, all.
Christ. I don’t know if I should bother with this one, since everyone’s going to be talking Braveheart shite.
The SNP have no currency plan. They are lying about us getting straight into the EU. Scexit negotiations, if they happened, would make Brexit negotiations look like cancelling a broadband contract, and this time the tories they’d be negotiating with would actually (not in their lies) hold all the cards.
I live in Scotland, and I am dependent on state benefits and the NHS. My appetite for risk is very fucking limited indeed. As is the appetite of most people in Scotland. Unless a non-binding referendum was boycotted, like the private referendum financed by SNP donor Brian Souter when he wanted to keep Section 28, Remain would win.
First, Braveheart is 20 years old and is an overrated film with the historical accuracy of sheep shit.
Second, not everyone. There is a strange draw I admit in the States to independence from everything it seems, definitely in light of the Crown (talk about a solution in search of a problem), Ireland, and Scotland. As if anything associated with England is tethered to a war that a bunch of colonists won only with the aide of France.
There is definitely a need for more input in terms of Scotland’s access to economically driven initiatives, particularly in the Highlands and the Northern Islands/Hebredes, which, in truth, the SNP doesn’t seem to deal much with at all. The loss of association with the EU definitely hurt crofters for one small example, and of course, the whole fishing industry thing. But those, and even increased voice in Westminster, can be resolved without a total break, which would just create even more chaos. Let’s face it: the economic ties bind; the whole separation thing might have been wonders when Catholics and Protestants were burning each other at the stake, but Mary, we’ve moved on.
It’s not the Scotland hates England; to be honest, that is a very American centric view. Are there representation issues? Yes, but independence is not a strong way to go for a country that is so linked economically to its neighbor to the south, and that is, truly, so small in population to support its own without that economic (and etc.) safety net. We are talking a country that has about 1/.2 the population not of England but only of London. There are too many ties that bind for a complete separation.
Honest question here… Right now the EUΒ seemsΒ (to my American ass) poised to accelerate membership for a few countries such as Ukraine and Moldova for very obvious reasons. I’m assuming that the expectation is that it wouldn’t do the same for Scotland despite it being a former member because Scotland isn’t under the same kind of threat as Ukraine and Moldova. And thus Scotland would have to go through a some-number-of-years long process to join. Have I got that right?
My uncle, when a student in Edinburgh, was arrested when he climbed a flagpole to replace the Union Jack with the flag of Scotland. That would have been sometime In the late 1930s. Independence has been festering for a long time, but it’s a lot like Texas seceding in that it’ll cause more problems than it solves.
YouGovβs latest tracking data on an independence vote shows that, if there was a vote today, the outcome would be identical to how it was in 2014, with 55% saying they would vote No and 45% Yes. Since the referendum, support for remaining in the UK has tended to be above support for leaving, and while in 2020 we saw the biggest Yes lead of any YouGov poll at 53%, this support has dwindled in subsequent polls through 2021 and 2022.
βThe reason we had so many overreaching regulations in our nation is because the church complied. The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church.Β That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it. And Iβm tired of this separation of church and state junk thatβs not in the Constitution.Β It was in a stinking letter and it means nothing like what they say it does.β β GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert, presumably referring an 1802 letter from Thomas Jefferson to a Baptist group.
Boebertβs primary is today.
Jesus said: βAgain I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.β (Matthew 19:24).
If the church directed government, there would be a 100% tax on rich people.
If we had a functioning government, this would be grounds for expulsion from Congress (and no doubt not her first qualifying utterance). This statement violates her oath of office.
Doesnβt matter how many times you tell them the Founding Fathers didnβt want America to be a theocracy they chime in with βshow me where the words βseparation of church and stateβ are in the Constitution!β
Some brave newsperson needs to ask her “which is ‘the‘ church?” Make her specify. Drill down. What flavor of which branch? Get to which version of ‘the‘ bible is the correct one as well. And definitely don’t let her get away with the garbage “Judeo-Christian” term, which is nonsensical anyway. One of those groups thinks the other is hellbound, the other thinks that the other folks don’t know how to read prophecy right. And it’s mostly used to ignore the third major Abrahamic religion in a rather deliberate way so they can be, pardon the term, demonized.
But knowing how the media works, I doubt such a brave interviewer will step up.
Of course. Many of whom belong to churches which are hyper-evangelical, very conservative, and scary. And they never, ever want to admit which church they belong to, since it’s “a relationship” not “a religion” and other such garbage to avoid answering.
The Federalist Papers, the commentary at the time of the founding on the Constitution wanted as much separation between church and State as possible. Like even more than you’ll hear from people today.
Boobert is painfully wrong and so is SCOTUS in Bremerton.
So, Lauren, WHICH church/Religion is supposed to run the government? There are literally thousands of different Christian sects with different canons and beliefs, then there is Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Satanism, Wicca, and so forth. Plus, many if the Founding Fathers were Master Masons, and many religions disagree with Freemasonry.
You usually have to go to a Christian school to find someone as dumb as Lauren. Or a homeschool. Or some private school for rich children who will never have to work.
Just among Protestant Christians in the US, there are about 3000 denominations (not counting independent congregations). That’s about one per county (or county equivalent, looking at you, Louisiana, Virginia cities, and DC). Seriously, I think a lot of “under-educated” Americans have trouble imagining a country any larger than their school district was back when they lost their virginity and found alcohol.
With its decision on Roe v Wade, the court has signaled its illegitimacy β and thrown the American project into question
βCan a country be properly understood as a democracy if it subjugates half of its population?βΒ Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
As of 24 June 2022, theΒ US supreme courtΒ should officially be understood as an illegitimate institution β a tool of minority rule over the majority, and as part of a far-right ideological and authoritarian takeover that must be snuffed out if we want American democracy to survive.
On Friday, in Dobbs v Jackson Womenβs Health, the supreme court overruled its nearly 50-year precedent of Roe v Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide. It is difficult to overstate just how devastating this is for pregnant people,Β for women as a classΒ and for anyone with even a passing interest in individual freedom and equality.
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But itβs also devastating for those of us who care quite a bit about American democratic traditions and the strength of our institutions. Because, with this ruling, the supreme court has just signaled its illegitimacy β and it throws much of the American project into question. Which means that Democrats and others who want to see America endure as a representative democracy need to act.
Of the nine justices sitting on the current court, five β all of them in the majority opinion that overturned Roe β were appointed by presidents who initially lost the popular vote; the three appointed by Donald Trump were confirmed by senators who representΒ a minority of Americans. A majority of this court, in other words, were not appointed by a process that is representative of the will of the American people.
Two were appointed via starkly undemocratic means, put in place by bad actors willing to change the rules to suit their needs. Neil Gorsuch only has his seat because Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell, blocked the ability of Barack Obama to nominate Merrick Garland β or anyone β to a supreme court seat, claiming that, because it was an election year, voters should get to decide.
And then Donald Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett in a radically rushed and incomplete, incoherent process β in an election year.
And now, this court, stacked with far-right judges appointed via ignoble means, has stripped from American women the right to control our own bodies. They have summarily placed women into a novel category of person with fewer rights not just than other people, but than fertilized eggs andΒ corpses. After all, no one else is forced to donate their organs for the survival of another β not parents to their children, not the dead to the living. It is only fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses that are newly entitled to this right to use anotherβs body and organs against that otherβs will; it is only women and other people who can get pregnant who are now subject to these unparalleled, radical demands.
This raises a fundamental question: can a country be properly understood as a democracy β an entity in which government derives its power from the people β if it subjugates half of its population, putting them into a category of sub-person with fewer rights, freedoms and liberties?
The global trend suggests that the answer to that is no. A clear pattern has emerged in the past few decades: as countries democratize, they tend to liberalize womenβs rights, and they expand abortion and other reproductive rights. Luckily for the women of the world, this is where a great many nations are moving.
But the reverse is also true: as a smaller number of countries move toward authoritarian governance, they constrict the rights of women, LGBT people and many minority groups. We have seen this in every country that has scaled back abortion rights, reproductive rights, and womenβs rights more broadly in the past several years: Russia, Hungary, Poland, Nicaragua and the United States.
The same week that the supreme court issued its decision in Dobbs, the US House of Representatives has been holding hearings to inform the public about what actually happened during the attempted coup of 6 January 2021, and to ideally hold perpetrators, traitors and seditionists to account. We are only a year and a half past that disgraceful day, when an angry mob decided that they, an authoritarian, patriarchal, white supremacist minority, should rule β that any other outcome, no matter how free and fair the election, was illegitimate.
The supreme court decision stems from that same rotted root: the idea that a patriarchal minority should have nearly unlimited authority over the majority. The conservatives on the court rightly understand that individual rights and womenβs freedoms are incompatible with a system of broad male control over women and children, and a broader male monopoly on the public, political and economic spheres.
But that authoritarian vision is also incompatible with democracy.
And so Democrats now have a choice. They can give speeches and send fundraising emails. Or they can act: declare this court illegitimate. Demand its expansion. Abolish the filibuster. Treat this like the emergency it is, and make America a representative democracy.
Jill Filipovic is the author of OK Boomer, Letβs Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind
A new analysis has found that in areas with high Republican supportβparticularly those that have supported the current wave of anti-trans lawsβthe search volume for transgender porn is also exceptionally high.
The analysis comes fromΒ Lawsuit.org, who researched Google search trend data between June 1 to 19, 2022, segmented the search volume results by metro area, and compared this to voting patterns during the 2020 election and public opinion polls on LGBTQ+ rights.
According to Ahrefs.com, there are 4.7 million searches for trans-related porn each month. Lawsuit.org found that the top twenty states in the nation with the highest volume of searches for trans porn were all (except 5) red states in 2020. Texas, whereΒ Gov. Abbottβs directiveΒ seemingly began the wave of anti-trans legislation earlier this year, scored number 1.
In addition to looking at geographic distribution, the researchers plotted the data using linear regression trend lines.Β These graphsΒ show a (literal) left-to-right correlation between the popularity of trans porn and political conservatism.
To look beyond the blue/red divide and compare the data with specific anti-queer sentiment, the group referenced data from the American Values Atlas, an organization that surveys Americans on social and religious attitudes.
The survey question they examined specifically was: βDo you support religiously based refusals to serve gay and lesbian people?β The researchers explain, βWe felt this survey question was a decent proxy for baseline LGBT prejudice, though we recognize some may support the question on Libertarian or Personal freedom grounds that do not have to do with the specific demographics of others.β
The resulting graphΒ also shows a correlation between supporting discrimination against LGBTQ+ businesses and a high volume of trans porn searches.
According to the HRC, there have beenΒ more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ billsΒ introduced this year, the majority of them in red states. These have disproportionately attacked the transgender community. Some supporters of these measures have been caught up inΒ scandals involving trans porn, including Alabama State Sen. Tom Whatley and queerphobic radio host Alex Jones. No one of course is knocking their porn preferences: itβs the hypocrisy we find unsurprising and exhausting.
Pride Glasgow was gate-crashed by a small group of counterprotestors. (PinkNews)
On Saturday (25 June) afternoon,Β GlasgowΒ was decked in the colours of the rainbow for the first Pride Glasgow in three years due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
But a small group of less than a dozen counter-protesters bearing signs saying homosexuality is a βsinβ as they set up camp in George Square.
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βRepent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,β read one sign.
The thousands of Pride-goers β many protesting against the British governmentβs refusal to ban trans conversion therapy β quickly circled the group. They drowned out the counter-protesters as they carried rainbow flags and kept spirits high.
Among them was Glasgowβs Metropolitan Community Church, an inclusive church founded by and for LGBTQ+ people, that stressed it is βfundamentally opposedβ to what the counter-protesters stood for.
One of the groups of people who gathered to drown out the preachers' hate speech were from @MCCGlasgow – a church founded by queer people of faith which has been serving the LGBTQ+ community here in Glasgow since 2008 (2/?) pic.twitter.com/1KJ5mEs063
It didnβt take long for the religious demonstrators to get the message.
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By around 3pm, the picketers took down their signs and walked away from the Pride to a chorus of cheers and whoops by Pride attendees.
This is the minute the anti-LGBTQ preachers finally gave up, packed up their signs and left #GlasgowPride, to a chorus of cheers and flag waving π³οΈβππ³οΈβππ³οΈβπ (4/4) pic.twitter.com/notxTBgWZg
Scotland, however, may do things a little differently. Though riddled by delays,Β drafted legislationΒ from the ruling Scottish National PartyΒ proposes that trans Scots should no longer have to receive this diagnosis before changing their legal gender.
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This would mean they could more easily obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate and have their identity legally acknowledged. This move comes as part of the countryβs ongoing discussions aroundΒ reforming its gender recognition laws.Β
The Scottish government is also hoping to go ahead with its own trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban. As much as Boris Johnsonβs proposals only apply to England and Wales,Β Scottish ministers have committed to legislating a banΒ that includes trans people regardless.
βWe donβt fit into your boxes β we make our own,βΒ saidΒ Glasgowβs first trans councillor, Elaine Gallagher, at Pride Glasgow.
Speaking to the crowd from atop a double-decker bus awash with rainbows, she said: βThatβs why the people and the pundits and paid-for opinions all demand that trans people be eradicated. Starting with the kids that are excluded fromΒ sports,Β toilets, schools and life.β
βConversion is torture,β she added, βit is child abuse. We donβt condone or practise child abuse no matter what the bigots say β itβs them who do.
βAnd after the trans people and the rest of the queer alphabet, whoβs next? Weβve seen whose next. WomenΒ who wear their hair shortΒ or stand too tall, or donβt wear clothing a man approves of or, God forbid, want to have their own opinions or govern their own bodies.β
Rightwing justice appears to offer preview of the courtβs potential future rulings after decision to remove US abortion rights
Donald Trump with Clarence Thomas as Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the supreme court in October 2020.Β Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
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Many Americans reacted to the supreme courtβs decision to reverseΒ Roe v WadeΒ and remove federal abortion rights in the US with shock, but many also asked a terrified question: what might be next?
The conservative justice Clarence Thomas appeared to offer a preview of the courtβs potential future rulings, suggesting the rightwing-controlled court may return to the issues of contraception access and marriage equality, threatening LGBTQ rights.
βIn future cases, we should reconsider all of this courtβs substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,β Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion to the ruling on Roe.
Griswold v Connecticut established a married coupleβs right to use contraception without government interference in 1965. The court ruled in the 2003 case of Lawrence v Texas that states could not criminalize sodomy, and Obergefell v Hodges established the right for same-sex couples to marry in 2015.
In the decision written by Justice Samuel Alito, the conservative majority makes it clear that the decision in Dobbs v Jackson Womenβs Health Organization should not be interpreted as a threat to other major precedent cases. But the courtβs three liberal justices β Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan β dismissed that logic as a farce in their fiery dissenting opinion.
βEither the mass of the majorityβs opinion is hypocrisy or additional constitutional rights are under threat,β the liberal justices wrote. βIt is one or the other.β
Thomasβs concurring opinion confirmed what many progressive lawmakers and reproductive rights advocates have feared for years. The end of Roe marks the beginning, not the end, of judicial overreach by the courtβs conservative majority, they say.
βIt is important that Americans understand that this supreme court and Republicans in Congress will not stop here,β said Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. βIt is clear [Thomas] and the courtβs majority have no respect for other precedents that have been won in recent decades.β
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, warned that the courtβs decision to overturn Roe would only intensify its βgiant legitimacy crisisβ with millions of Americans.
βFive Republican justices appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote are routinely making hyper-partisan decisions that take away the rights of Americans,β Green said.
For now, Thomas does not seem to have the support of his conservative colleagues in overturning other major cases, as they did not join his opinion. But the majority decision written by Alito could lay the foundation for discarding decades-old precedents that have become central to the American way of life, said Paul Schiff Berman, a professor at George Washington University Law School.
βThe logic of Justice Alitoβs opinion, as the dissent pointed out, would absolutely threaten the constitutional legitimacy of all constitutional privacy rights,β Berman said. βIt goes against the institutional obligation to respect precedent. And it also goes against, as Chief Justice Roberts pointed out in his opinion, the principle that you donβt decide in a given case, more than you have to resolve in that case.β
Berman expressed concern that the Dobbs decision could weaken public trust in the supreme court, which has already been waning in recent years. According toΒ a Gallup pollΒ taken this month, only 25% of US adults say they have βa great dealβ or βquite a lotβ of confidence in the supreme court. That is the lowest reading in Gallupβs nearly 50-year history of polling public perception of the court.
βI think this opinion reflects the fact that a radical faction of the supreme court is moving in a maximalist direction, despite the fact that the American people as a whole are becoming increasingly progressive on this issue,β Berman said.
For the millions of Americans dismayed by the reversal of Roe, they have few options to change the composition of the court in the near future. Justices are appointed to lifelong terms, and the three conservative judges confirmed during Donald Trumpβs presidency β Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett β are all under 60.
Democratic lawmakers are instead looking at legislative ways to protect Americansβ fundamental rights, and demands for action will probably only intensify now that Roe has been overturned.
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, issued an urgent demand for Americans to support Democrats in the midterm elections this November, thus giving them an opportunity to codify the right to abortion into federal law and protect other crucial freedoms.
βTermination of pregnancy is just the opening act,β Pelosi said on Friday. βA womanβs right to choose, reproductive freedom is on the ballot in November. We cannot allow [Republicans] to take charge so that they can institute their goal, which is to criminalize reproductive freedom.β
But some progressives are looking beyond legislation to significant reform of the court itself. Immediately after the decision in Dobbs was announced, a number of progressives reiterated their calls to expand the court, which would allow Democrats to confirm more liberal justices.
βAs we fight to make abortion legal at the federal level, I continue to reject the legitimacy of such an undemocratic institution,β the progressive congresswoman Ilhan Omar said on Twitter. βExpand the court.β
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‘A slap in the face to women’: Nancy Pelosi condemns overturning of Roe v Wade β video
As of now, Democrats do not have the votes in the Senate needed to expand the court. That could change after November, if the American people decide to give Democrats the chance to do so.
I have to remind everyone the current Republican / GOP attack on the Democrats is they are groomers and child abusers.Β Β Just saying.Β Β Hugs
Matt McIlravy formally resigned from his position of Pilot Point mayor this morning after being indicted earlier this week for online solicitation of a child.
Britt Lusk, the City Manager of Pilot Point, said that on Friday, the city received a letter from MacIlravy announcing his resignation immediately. Because MacIlravy’s resignation comes after the city posted its agenda for the week, the city will act on it at a later date in accordance with state law and the city charter.
For now, the city’s Mayor Pro Tem will serve as the acting mayor. Lusk did not name who that person is, and the Pilot Point City Council’s web page simply had a blank space under “Mayor.”
MacIlravy was arrested on Tuesday, June 21, 2022Β in an undercover operation conducted by Dallas police. He is accused of arranging to meet up and engage in sexual activity with a girl he believed was 13 years old.
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Pilot Point mayor resigns after being arrested on charge of soliciting a minor https://t.co/TWbP7n2FlN
Dozens of political committees with ties to Florida conservatives are funneling thousands of dollars toward candidates who share Gov. Ron DeSantisβ priorities.
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Poll workers at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department deposit peoples’ mail in ballots into an official ballot drop box on primary election day on Aug. 18, 2020 in Doral, Fla. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. β Florida Republicans are capitalizing on the national movement surrounding parental rights and education by jumping into local school board races with crucial endorsements and much-needed cash.
Dozens of political committees with ties to Florida conservatives are funneling thousands of dollars toward candidates who share Gov. Ron DeSantisβ priorities by campaigning against issues like critical race theory. DeSantis endorsed a slate of 10 school board candidates β a rare, if not unprecedented, move for a Florida governor that could help Republicans capture more support in the midterms from parents energized by contentious issues such as masking students during the pandemic.
βPeople are frustrated with the business-as-usual on these school boards,β said Christian Ziegler, vice chair of the Republican Party of Florida whose wife, Bridget, is running to keep her seat on the Sarasota County school board and has been endorsed by DeSantis.
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βPayback is coming in Augustβ when the school board elections are held, Ziegler said.
School board races in Florida are traditionally nonpartisan, sleepy down-ballot races. But Republicans, led by DeSantis, are getting more involved this year after the Covid-19 pandemic inflamed interest in education and what students are learning in schools, particularly about race and gender identity. Democrats have not shown similar levels of funding.
The candidates backed by GOP-tied cash and endorsements from DeSantis show that Republicans are gunning to unseat incumbent school leaders and reshape boards in key spots across Florida. The effort could help Republicans control nearly all levers of government in the state, from the governorβs mansion, Cabinet, state Legislature down to local school boards.
In Miami, for instance, one race is heating up between a career educator with support from GOP leadership and a longtime school board staple.
βI know the challenges that parents are facing and teachers are facing day in and day out,β Colucci said in an interview. βYou can be on a board for 24 years but if youβre not day to day facing the challenge yourself, you get a bit removed.β
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Colucci has raised less than half as much cash as her incumbent opponent at this point in the race. But campaign finance reports show Colucciβs first fundraising haul came in May to a tune of $53,000 fundraising and included some $15,000 from committees linked to state Republicans. She followed that up by raising more than $31,000 between June 1-17, records show.
To that end, Colucci scored $1,000 donations from NuΓ±ez as well as from state House members from south Florida and beyond, including Reps. Thomas Leek (R-Ormond Beach), Alex Rizo (R-Hialeah), Daniel A. Perez (R-Miami), Demi Busatta Cabrera (R-Coral Gables), David Borrero (R-Sweetwater) and Bryan Avila (R-Miami Springs).
Another Miami Dade school board candidate endorsed by DeSantis, Roberto Alonso, also has received $1,000 donations from committees led by Republican lawmakers such as outgoing Senate President Wilton Simpson and Sen. Ray Rodrigues (R-Estero), campaign finance records show.
And Colucci and Alonso each landed $1,000 from a committee led by state Sen. Ben Albritton (R-Wauchula), who represents some eight counties in Central Florida but not Miami-Dade, where the races are located. Albritton said in a written statement that heβs βproud to support candidates who share my values, particularly those who will have a voice on the school board.β
Alonso, who DeSantis in 2020 appointed to the Miami-Dade College trustee board, has raised more than $83,000 in his race while the candidate with the next highest contributions, Kevin Menendez Macki, is sitting on $16,555 for the wide-open seat. Alonsoβs campaign is closely aligned with the Republican governor and promises to βoppose attempts to impose Critical Race Theory and other extreme liberal agendas in K-12β and βprotect female athletes and female sports.β
Elsewhere in Florida, other candidates that have been β and could soon be β endorsed by DeSantis are collecting money from state Republicans.
Incoming House Speaker Paul Rennerβs political committee, for example, donated $1,000 each to five school board candidates in four separate counties, including two in Duval County that were endorsed by DeSantis. These two Duval candidates β April Carney challenging an incumbent and Charlotte Joyce seeking reelection β also landed $1,000 apiece from state Rep. Clay Yarborough (R-Jacksonville), records show.
Carney, a conservative mother who βbelieves that families know what is best for their children β not bureaucrats or elected officials,β holds a slight financial lead over Elizabeth Anderson, a former educator and board member since 2018, with both raising more than $65,000. Joyce, who earlier this yearΒ proposed a proclamationΒ in support of DeSantis and recent legislation that prohibits educators from leading classroom instructions on sexual orientation or gender identity for kids in kindergarten through third grade, has raised nearly $30,000 compared to almost $8,000 by her challenger, Tanya Hardaker.
βWe need strong school board members who will set Floridaβs children up for success, ensure parental rights in education, and combat the woke agendas from infiltrating public schools at the local school board level,β DeSantis said in a statement accompanying his endorsements.
Some candidates are linked to political committees that have donated to candidates backed by DeSantis, a possible sign of another round of contenders that could eventually get a blessing from the governor.
Jessie Thompson, a Volusia County mother, was endorsed by Renner and Republican CongressmanΒ Byron DonaldsΒ (R-Fla.), and is in a three-person race to fill a vacated seat.
And in Lee County, a GOP stronghold thatβs home to Fort Myers, there have been no endorsements from DeSantis and yet at least a dozen political committees have invested a total of $22,000 in four different candidates. Among this spread are donations from committees led by Republicans like Albritton and state Reps. Jenna Persons-Mulicka (R-Fort Myers), Sam Garrison (R-Fleming Island), Lawrence McClure (R-Dover), Josie Tomkow (R-Polk City) and Mike Beltran (R-Lithia), records show.
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One of those races features two challengers who are raising more cash than an incumbent and both could earn DeSantisβ endorsement.
Jason βBig Mamaβ Jones, a radio host and parent, is leading the pack by eclipsing $32,000 so far without donations from political committees. Jones proudly bills himself as the only parent vying for the seat and contends his local school board is missing the needs of students, something he believes puts him in line with the governor.
Jones said he would welcome an endorsement from the DeSantis, whose campaign is pushing for candidates toΒ complete surveysΒ gauging how they closely they align with him on issues like critical race theory and parental rights.
Jones is facing an incumbent in Debbie Jordan, the current chair of Leeβs school board, and Dan Severson, a former βTop Gun Fighter Pilotβ and ex-Minnesota lawmaker.
Severson, who spent eight years as a representative of the Minnesota House, including a stint as Minority Whip, appears well aligned with DeSantis by vowing to put βparents back in control of their childrenβs educationβ and grapple with βout of control spending, infighting, and liberal policies [that] have taken the focus away.β His campaign, which has raised nearly $21,000 compared to $6,100 for the incumbent, also has ties to state Republicans, receiving $1,000 donations from Rodrigues, state Rep. Spencer Roach (R-North Fort Myers) and another committee that also donated to Colucci in Miami.
The endorsements from DeSantis are expected to shake up races leading to the Aug. 23 primary elections when school board contests β labeled as nonpartisan statewide β unfold. His name and surging political popularity attached to candidates could also help them raise cash in the coming weeks. The effects of DeSantisβ backing are already being felt, like in Miami, where Perez worries about fundraising now that DeSantis threw his support behind her opponent
Payback for what? What exactly have the schools done that is horrible Good luck getting teachers, Florida. Wait until the teacher retirements start en mass.
Teachers, nurses, doctors, they should just leave for another states and let Florida crumble into a shit hole state. Not a place for anyone to raise children.
They will ruin the education system. First, they will set up all these rules for teachers to follow, and they will chafe under them and leave. They won’t be able to fill a lot of the positions, and will lose the best teachers. Next, they won’t want to deal with boring stuff like budgets and maintenance, so the system will get wrecked from negligence, lack of any over sight, and so on. Spending will get out of control. Except corruption, and funds being channeled to bizarre things instead of maintenance and salaries. Once they have screwed it up past the hopeless point, they will declare victory over the liberals and step down. Then someone else will have to pick the pieces by raising taxes.
