Impact2020: Wisconsin governor orders last-minute election delay
Welcome to your Impact2020 briefing for Monday, April 6. Tuesday’s election in Wisconsin is off (for now), three governors take different paths in their coronavirus responses, and how down-ballot candidates are campaigning amid the pandemic.
On the Ground
Calling it off
Less than 24 hours before polls opened, Gov. Tony Evers shut down Wisconsin’s spring elections.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Molly Beck and Patrick Marley report that Evers “issued an executive order that bars in-person voting Tuesday and moves the state’s spring election to June 9. It also calls lawmakers back into session this week to decide whether the election should be held at a different date.”
But don’t expect this to end the election fight in Wisconsin: “Republican legislative leaders said … they would immediately take the matter to the state Supreme Court,” where conservatives hold a 5-2 advantage.
“In issuing the order, Evers is arguing he has the power to suspend voting even without legislative action, a position he has not previously held,” Beck and Marley write. “He called in lawmakers for a special legislative session Saturday to stop in-person voting and delay the election until May, but Republicans who control the Legislature adjourned without taking up any measures.”
If the move stands, there will be no in-person voting for the presidential primary this month.
A governor case study
Three governors in three very different situations — from a political and a public health standpoint — are responding very differently to the coronavirus pandemic.
In Missouri, GOP Gov. Mike Parson lagged behind his counterparts in other states, waiting until last Friday to issue a statewide stay-at-home order. And some Democrats still think the response is too weak, Kaitlyn Schwers reports for the Kansas City Star.
The Kansas City Star’s Jason Hancock and Caitlyn Rosen note that the COVID-19 crisis has reshuffled the 2020 race between Parson and Democrat Nicole Galloway.
“While it is still seven months to Election Day, the full force of the pandemic is not expected to hit Missouri until mid-to-late May,” they write. “The despair and dislocation it will leave behind, in the form of unemployment, cuts in state spending and simple human misery, will linger for much longer. In the end, the gubernatorial race could become a referendum on Parson’s response to the pandemic and its aftershocks.”
Credit: Gov. Mike Parson, Facebook
Another GOP governor, South Carolina’s Henry McMaster, is continuing to resist calls to issue a statewide stay-at-home order, Joseph Bustos reports for The State. South Carolina is one of just nine states (and the only in the southeast) that has not issued one yet.
“We are taking a deliberate approach,” McMaster said. “Our state is not like everyone else’s state.”
And Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington state is going in the other direction, calling for a national stay-at-home order, James Drew reports for the Tacoma News Tribune. Inslee said: “The reason is that even if Washington gets on top of this fully, if another state doesn’t, it can come back and come across our borders two months from now.”
The virtual campaign trail
Meanwhile, candidates up and down the ballot are figuring out how to campaign amid a pandemic. Some are having more success than others.
The Kansas City Star’s Bryan Lowry reports that the contenders to succeed Sen. Pat Roberts in Kansas are trying to re-create their campaigns from home. He notes that Republican Kris Kobach has used his iPhone to talk with supporters over Facebook Live from his couch. Democrat Barbara Bollier has taken to balancing on an exercise ball as she makes campaign phone calls throughout the day.
But perhaps the most pressing short-term issue for candidates is how to raise money. In California, one congressional candidate actually had one of his best fundraising weeks since launching his bid, Kate Irby reports for the Fresno Bee.
Fresno Democrat Phil Arballo said Republican Rep. Devin Nunes’ TV appearances in which he questioned school closures “drove about $190,000 in contributions to his campaign in the last two weeks of March.”
Trail Mix
Convention watch
Joe Biden said the Democratic National Convention may need to be a virtual event, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Mary Spicuzza reports.
But President Donald Trump said there is “no contingency plan” for the GOP convention, Brian Murphy reports for the Charlotte Observer.
Election disruption
Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee signed an emergency order allowing for the electronic submission of qualifying documents, including signed petitions, for candidates hoping to get on the 2020 ballot, David Smiley reports for the Miami Herald.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “launched an effort … to investigate voting fraud that could arise from widespread use of mailed-in ballots in” the state’s primary, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mark Niesse writes.
A federal judge won’t alter Ohio’s plan to hold an all-mail election on April 28, Eric Heisig reports for the Cleveland Plan Dealer.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy suggested that he is likely to postpone the state’s June 2 primaries, Brent Johnson reports for the Newark Star-Ledger.
Battle for Congress
- The latest on Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s stock controversy: Tia Mitchell and Chris Joyner of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution report that she “has provided no proof that financial advisers making stock transactions on her behalf have total control over decision-making.”
Number of the Day
51%
That’s how many Florida voters approve of the way Gov. Ron DeSantis is handling the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new poll from University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab. By comparison, 45% approve of the job Trump is doing.
Straight to your phone
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Load up those baskets
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern allayed some children’s fears during a press conference when she deemed the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy ‘essential workers’ during the country’s COVID-19 lockdown.
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This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 1:43 PM.