Liberal Republicans are thwarting conservative governance in red states

[mystery-ak]

Liberal Republicans are thwarting conservative governance in red states
By
Jeremiah Poff
December 17, 2024 1:58 pm
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When the 2023 legislative session in Ohio began, it was supposed to be another tour de force for the Republican Party.

Having gained an additional three seats in the state House and one in the state Senate to secure supermajorities in both chambers, alongside a landslide reelection for Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH), the GOP was on cruise control, locking the Democratic Party out of every corner of state government.

However, when the Republican supermajority in the state House went to the floor that January to begin its legislative session, it fell apart. Instead of backing state Rep. Derek Merrin, the Republican conference’s chosen nominee to be speaker, 22 Republicans joined the Democratic minority to elect state Rep. Jason Stephens and built a different majority that robbed the Republican conference of its elected government.

The goal of the coalition was simple: prevent the Republican majority from passing bills that would have pushed Ohio policymaking further to the right. These bills would have expanded the state’s school choice program, reined in public sector unions, and cut government spending. However, they were stalled because of Stephens’s speakership.

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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/in_focus/3262339/liberal-republicans-thwarting-conservative-governance-red-states/

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Illinois community outraged after Biden commutes sentence of fraudster behind $53M embezzlement scandal
Leniency for Rita Crundwell, 71, leaves rural town in 'disbelief'
By Taylor Penley Fox News
Published December 17, 2024 10:27am EST

President Biden added the woman behind the largest municipal embezzlement scandal in U.S. history to his list of clemency controversies, outraging a small Illinois community in the process.

The former Dixon, Illinois comptroller Rita Crundwell, 71, who stole nearly $54 million from the town over 22 years and pled guilty to the crime in 2012, had her sentence commuted as a part of a broader commutation last Thursday, making her one of 1,500 – the most ever granted by a president in a single day.

Local officials – and some state lawmakers – aren't happy to see her getting off "scot-free."

"Rita's crime absolutely shocks the conscience…. at her sentencing on February 14th, 2013, [the judge] said that a significant prison sentence was essential to reestablish public trust and confidence, so what we've seen here over the last week is just unbelievable and really a complete betrayal by the federal criminal justice system," Dixon city manager Danny Langloss told "Fox & Friends First" on Tuesday.

Langloss, who was the police chief at the time of Crundwell's arrest, went on to say the rural Illinois community is "shocked," "outraged," and in "disbelief" over the news, calling her commutation "a complete disservice to all the victims of her crime" and to the "sanctity and the trust of the criminal justice system."

Biden's blanket move also commuted the prison sentence for a corrupt judge involved in the "cash-for-kids" scheme, who imposed sentences on juveniles in exchange for millions of dollars in return.

"This is lazy governance, and it's really abuse of authority and power," Langloss continued on Tuesday.

more
https://www.foxnews.com/media/illinois-community-outraged-after-biden-commutes-sentence-fraudster-behind-53m-embezzlement-scandal