Impact2020: April 3, 2020
Welcome to your Impact2020 briefing for Friday, April 3. Wisconsin’s election saga somehow becomes even more chaotic. And Florida’s governor remains in lockstep with the president, while one of his top donors appears to be receiving special treatment.
On the Ground
Election chaos in Wisconsin
Just when you thought Wisconsin’s election situation couldn’t get any crazier, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers made a last-minute call for a “special legislative session for Saturday to convert Tuesday’s election entirely to a mail-in election, a change he called for a week ago but state election officials said was too late to accomplish and Republican lawmakers rejected,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Molly Beck reports.
“Lawmakers are unlikely to take the action,” Beck notes. “Both GOP leaders of the state Legislature have repeatedly said they consider in-person voting to be safe despite thousands of people expected at some polling locations as clerks consolidate amid a massive shortage of workers.”
Evers’ move came shortly after a federal judge ordered clerks not to report results of the April 7 election until April 13, when absentee ballots are now due. Beck reports that “the extended deadline to return mailed ballots was part of ... Thursday order to make changes to the spring election amid an outbreak of coronavirus, making it easier to vote by mail.”
U.S. District Judge William Conley’s initial ruling allowed absentee ballots to be counted if they arrive by April 13. The Journal Sentinel’s Patrick Marley notes that Conley’s order also “gave people until Friday to request absentee ballots and loosened a rule requiring absentee voters to get the signature of a witness.”
Wisconsin is the only state holding in-person voting for the presidential primary in April as the coronavirus spreads. Several other statewide and local elections, including one for a state Supreme Court seat, are still scheduled to take place as well.
If Friday’s news revealed anything, it’s that this saga is not even close to being over yet.
Trump and the governors
If there’s anything you’ve learned this week from reading this newsletter, it’s that the nation’s governors and President Donald Trump have complicated relationships when it comes to navigating the coronavirus crisis. (Remember the whole beef with Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer?)
Credit: Wilfredo Lee/ AP
But several Republican governors — most notably Florida’s Ron DeSantis — have remained in lockstep with Trump. As David Smiley and Franchesca Chambers report for the Miami Herald: “When big announcements are coming in the fight against the coronavirus in Florida, Trump and DeSantis get on the phone. Over the last week, as the COVID-19 outbreak has escalated, … the allies have kept in touch and in sync in their response to the global pandemic.”
The connection has its benefits, as Florida has received millions of pieces of medical equipment from a limited federal stockpile. But critics worry DeSantis has been too deferential to Trump, who was slow to accept the scope of the pandemic.
My colleagues Kristin Roberts, Adam Wollner and Alex Roarty take a closer look at how many of the nation’s governors have tackled the response to COVID-19 in their states in the latest Beyond the Bubble podcast. You can download the full episode from Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts… or watch a clip on YouTube.
Late checkout
DeSantis has also required visitors from New York and surrounding states who visit Florida to self-isolate after entering the state. Palm Beach County has ordered hotels to stop taking reservations
But as Ben Wieder scoops for the Miami Herald, billionaire hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin, the biggest financial backer of DeSantis’ 2018 gubernatorial campaign, is receiving much different treatment.
Griffin, the 38th-richest American, “has quietly flown in traders and staff from New York and Chicago to set up shop with him in the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the arrangement.”
Trail Mix
Hello, April
After the Democrats postponed their national convention in Milwaukee due to coronavirus concerns, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles was asked if her city could still host the GOP convention as planned in late August. “I don’t know the answer to that now. I don’t know whether or not we will have the ability to do this if this pandemic continues,” she said. “We’ll see.” Alison Kuznitz has more for the Charlotte Observer.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein writes that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is facing backlash for his comments that he decided to take more drastic measures to curb the spread of coronavirus after learning about “game-changing” data showing it can be transmitted by asymptomatic people. (It wasn’t actually new data.)
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson hasn’t implemented a statewide stay-at-home order, but more counties are issuing their own, Laura Bauer and Jason Hancock report for the Kansas City Star.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is endorsing like-minded candidates all across the country. But as the Arizona Republic’s Katie Surma points out, she has yet to throw her support behind an “ideological match” in Eva Putzova, a Democrat who is challenging Rep. Tom O’Halleran in the 1st congressional district primary.
Not mincing words about the coronavirus: North Carolina Rep. Alma Adams told the Raleigh News & Observer’s Brian Murphy that if the Senate had removed Trump from office, the “country’s response would have been swifter, more competent, and would have saved lives.”
Election disruption
Fear of the coronavirus may lead to more seniors mailing in their votes in the runoff and general elections in Texas, Gromer Jeffers Jr. reports for the Dallas Morning News.
South Carolina election officials have asked lawmakers to weigh in on how best to conduct the state’s June statewide primary (and possibly the November general election), Emily Bohatch writes for The State.
The state of Ohio asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit over their postponed primary, arguing the election date has not been moved, rather that voting has just been extended, the Columbus Dispatch’s Rick Rouan reports.
Number of the Day
6,000%
North Carolina’s unemployment claims are up by more than 6,000% in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Will Doran reports for the Raleigh News & Observer. That puts the general election battleground state second in the U.S., only to Louisiana.
For Planning Purposes
April 3
Joe Biden holds a virtual fundraising event.
April 7
Wisconsin primary (for now)
Get the latest 2020 presidential campaign news from David Catanese via text (and text back)! Impact2020 subscribers can sign up here.
What are you still doing there?
She may not have spoken to Trump for months, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did talk to Stephen Colbert to explain exactly why she is still at the House instead of at her house.
#FollowFriday
Maayan Schechter, a politics reporter for The State in Columbia, S.C., is worth a follow on Twitter here. She’s keeping up with South Gov. Henry McMaster’s response to the coronavirus. Schechter also contributes to a politics newsletter focusing on South Carolina. I highly recommend signing up to get that email for a great weekly wrap-up.
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This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 1:01 PM.