This Week in Statehouse Action: Session Is Coming edition

So the Mueller report dropped and …

LOL j/k that’s not why you’re reading this.

Yes, of course, we all know the Muller report dropped today.

But other stuff is going on, too. Especially at the state level.

And let’s be real—the state stuff is going to have more of a lasting impact on people’s lives than the Mueller report ever could.

So welcome to A GAME OF CHAIRS—the speaker’s chair, that is.

You win, or you struggle to influence policy as the minority party.

Campaign Action

Hand of Gov. Eric Greitens Elevated: I mean, governors don’t have “hands” a la John Arryn, Ned Stark, or Tywin Lannister; rather, they have “senior advisers” and such.

Austin Chambers was senior adviser to none other than (now-disgraced) Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens. More on this Chambers fellow in a moment. First allow me to refresh your recollection of the nature of Greitens’ disgrace. Once upon a time (waaaaaaay back in 2015), Eric Greitens had an extramarital affair. In preparation for his 2016 gubernatorial bid, he allegedly blindfolded and restrained the woman he’d been having the affair with, took a nude photo he used to blackmail her into not revealing said affair, then sexually assaulted her. All this came to light last year in a bombshell legislative report resulting from Greitens’ 2018 indictment on felony charges. Last May, after months of fighting the inevitable, Greitens finally resigned under a miasma of felony charges and threat of impeachment by the legislature. Now, back to Austin Chambers, Greitens’ senior adviser. After managing Greitens’ successful gubernatorial campaign, Chambers ran Greitens’ nonprofit and played a significant role in the governor’s policy, press, and political decisions. After trying and failing to become head of the Republican Governor’s Association (honestly why would they hire the top guy of a former governor who’d taken such a savage fall??) last winter, Chambers apparently started angling to head another national GOP organization—none other than the Republican State Leadership Committee, the party organization responsible for electing GOP state legislators, lieutenant governors, secretaries of state, as well as Republican/conservative judges. And lo, Chambers has been made a Knight of the Realm RSLC president! But it turns out RSLC isn’t too proud of their boy’s involvement in Missouri. Check out how the organization described Chambers’ campaign experience in its press release announcing his hire:

Chambers, a native of Georgia, comes to the RSLC after a string of recent campaign victories, including Governor Brian Kemp (former RSSC Chairman), Governor Kay Ivey (former RLGA Executive Committee Member), U.S. Senator David Perdue, and the successful campaign for Governor in Missouri. 

A. “Governor” is not a proper noun by itself and shouldn’t be capitalized.

B. LOL I wonder who that Missouri governor was I can’t imagine why RSLC wouldn’t want to remind everybody that their new president worked for [[checks notes]] a blackmailer and rapist

Snark aside, no matter what shameful pedigree RSLC’s new leader has, the organization is incredibly well-resourced and politically savvy and will be a formidable villain in the elections preceding 2021 redistricting.

from Daily Kos http://bit.ly/2IHVoMU