Tag Archives: senate

Rubio Slams Obama on Guns—But He Once Backed "Reasonable Restrictions" on Firearms

by CornellSmalls48 Posted on January 6, 2016

Mother Jones

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On Tuesday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) slammed President Barack Obama’s new executive actions aimed at enhancing gun safety—but the GOP candidate was attacking an approach to guns that he once supported as a candidate in Florida, when he endorsed “reasonable restrictions” on firearms.

After Obama announced the series of new gun-control steps, Rubio exclaimed, “Barack Obama is obsessed with undermining the Second Amendment…Now this executive order is just one more way to make it harder for law-abiding people to buy weapons or to be able to protect their families.” And in a campaign ad, Rubio went further in assailing the president: “His plan after the attack in San Bernardino: take away our guns.”

Obama’s new measures would not take away guns; the most prominent executive action is aimed at limiting the number of gun sales that occur without background checks by requiring more gun sellers to register as dealers and vet their customers. And background checks is a policy that Rubio has supported in the past.

When Rubio first ran for the Florida state House in 2000, he told the Miami Herald that he supported “reasonable restrictions” on guns, including background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases. Ten years later, this comment was used against Rubio during his Senate primary campaign against then-Republican Charlie Crist. The Crist camp, pointing to Rubio’s 2010 statement, accused him of supporting gun limits. Rubio’s spokesman dismissed the significance of Rubio’s earlier statement, saying, “It’s basically a restatement of his support for the current law.”

During his eight years in the Florida legislature, Rubio backed much of the National Rifle Association’s agenda. He co-sponsored the state’s Stand Your Ground law, which became the subject of a nationwide debate following the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. And, as a senator, Rubio recently received an A rating from the NRA. But Rubio has a few times wavered from the NRA’s hardline. In the Florida legislature, he drew the organization’s ire when he took a tepid approach to supporting a bill allowing Floridians to bring firearms to work if they leave them in their cars. (He ultimately voted for the measure). And after the Sandy Hook shooting in December 2012, he flirted with supporting measures to prevent convicted felons and the mentally ill from obtaining firearms—actions the NRA opposed. He voted against the background-check bill that ultimately came to the Senate floor the following spring.

As a presidential candidate, Rubio has positioned himself as an ardent champion of gun rights and does not talk about the need to preserve or enhance “reasonable restrictions” on guns. His campaign website states that “new gun laws will do nothing to deter criminals from obtaining firearms.” Asked whether he still supports “reasonable restrictions,” Rubio’s campaign did not respond.

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Here’s a Video Showing the Very Worst Anti-Science Bullshit of 2015

by Myrna Posted on December 23, 2015

Snowballs, witch-hunts, and a big measles outbreak. In 2015, science was a favorite punching bag for many of America’s politicians. While leaders of nearly 200 nations met in Paris to hammer out a historic deal to combat climate change, the US Senate held a hearing—hosted by presidential hopeful Ted Cruz (R-Texas)—to debunk the science. It had a subtle title: “Data or Dogma?” In fact, 2015 did nothing to alter the notion that one whole American political party—and nearly all of its candidates for the White House—remains stuck on a murky spectrum from outright climate denial to the policy version of ¯_(ツ)_/¯, as we wrote about all-too often this year. There was, of course, the infamous snowball thrown on the floor of the Senate. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) claimed that global warming wasn’t happening because it was cold when he made the snowball. (Repeat after me: Weather does not a climate trend make.) But perhaps the more insidious attack on science was directed by Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. Smith accused government scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of rigging climate data to disprove the so-called “global warming pause” (a contested but popular talking point often used to attack the science). He then attempted to depose the scientists and subpoena their documents. “Political operatives and other NOAA employees likely played a large role in approving NOAA’s decision to adjust data that allegedly refutes the hiatus in warming,” he told the Washington Post. But if you can’t fight the science outright in public, why not simply try to ban the words? That was the ingenious tactic allegedly employed by the state of Florida, under Gov. Rick Scott (R). Employees from several state departments said they had been told not to use the phrases “climate change” and “global warming” in official state business. (The governor denied the allegations.) 2015 also saw yet another round of measles outbreaks, including one that spread at Disneyland in California. Public health officials blamed parents who don’t vaccinate their kids. That anti-vaxxer sentiment found a powerful megaphone in Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who at September’s televised GOP debate repeated the totally discredited—and dangerous—theory that vaccines cause autism. “Autism has become an epidemic,” Trump claimed. “Twenty-five years ago, 35 years ago, you look at the statistics, not even close. It has gotten totally out of control.” (Trump insisted he’s still in favor of vaccines, despite warning a national TV audience that they are endangering children.) Watch the whole, not-so-splendid, anti-science show above. Front-page image credit: Smoke: Claire McAdams/Shutterstock; Man: Everett Collection/Shutterstock Follow this link:  Here’s a Video Showing the Very Worst Anti-Science Bullshit of 2015 ; ; ;

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Here’s a Video Showing the Very Worst Anti-Science Bullshit of 2015

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Congress to Americans: You Get a Tax Break! And You Get a Tax Break!

by JeramyRittenhous Posted on December 18, 2015

Mother Jones

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The Senate on Friday passed a massive $1.8 trillion spending and tax bill, including a mess of tax breaks expected to cost the government $680 billion over the next decade. The beneficiaries range from low-income workers to giant corporations, and even include the all-important horse racing and motorsports industries. The measures, which passed the House on Thursday, are now headed to the desk of President Barack Obama.

Both parties came away from the frantic negotiations claiming some victories. Democrats managed to make permanent a series of anti-poverty tax breaks, including an expansion of the child tax credit—which will keep the threshold above which a percentage of a parent’s income can be deducted to defray childcare costs at $3,000, rather than allowing it to rise to $10,000—and the earned income tax credit. “These improvements lift about 16 million people, including about 8 million children, out of poverty or closer to the poverty line each year,” Robert Greenstein, president of the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said of the measures.

Two other newly permanent tax breaks are the research and experimentation credit—which allows companies to deduct R&D costs—and a tax deduction allowing small businesses to write off up to $500,000 for the purchase of heavy machinery or office equipment. These proposals found support on both sides of the aisle. Republicans, meanwhile, managed to extend or make permanent deductions that will largely benefit large corporations, including one that expands the category of foreign income that is not taxed and another allowing businesses to write off investment costs up front.

The tax bill may raise some problems for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Obama’s landmark health coverage bill. It delays the unpopular “Cadillac tax”—a tax on expensive employer-provided health plans—as well as taxes on medical devices and health insurance. Altogether, these cuts will cost the healthcare program more than $30 billion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a bipartisan fiscal policy education organization, making Obamacare just that much more expensive for the government over the coming years.

According to CRFB, the tax deal will cost the government a whopping $680 billion over the next decade—after interest, about $830 billion. With no new revenue sources, the expense will just be tacked onto the yawning US deficit. “The failure to pay for this legislation is completely at odds with rhetoric about fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets,” CRFB president Maya MacGuineas said.

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Congress to Americans: You Get a Tax Break! And You Get a Tax Break!

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The US May Finally Give Puerto Rico a Financial Lifeline. Here’s What’s Happening.

by ZenaidaNeblett Posted on December 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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After months of pleading by the governor of Puerto Rico and the island’s representative to Congress, lawmakers have introduced legislation in both the House and Senate that would offer tangible help for the island’s debt crisis. On Wednesday, the Republican chairs of three Senate committees proposed $3 billion in cash relief, a 50 percent payroll tax cut for Puerto Rico residents for the next five years, and the creation of an independent “assistance authority” that would help the government of Puerto Rico with its short-term and long-term budgeting process.

A separate House bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) would permit the island’s cities to restructure mounting debts through bankruptcy reorganization, an option available to cities in the United States but not in Puerto Rico. The legislation comes as the US territory grapples with ballooning debt payments on roughly $72 billion in borrowing that the island’s governor, Alejandro García Padilla, has said the island cannot pay. According to Bloomberg, Puerto Rico is in danger of defaulting on $957 million in interest payments that are due on January 1.

The Senate proposal comes from a trio of Republicans who chair committees with various oversight responsibilities for Puerto Rico: Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

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The US May Finally Give Puerto Rico a Financial Lifeline. Here’s What’s Happening.

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America’s Most Useless Surveillance Program Is Finally (Almost) Over

by KimDunleazdkq Posted on November 27, 2015

Mother Jones

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On Sunday, the National Security Agency will have to shut down one of its controversial mass surveillance programs: the unlimited collection of the phone records of millions of Americans, known as bulk metadata collection.

That program allowed the NSA to collect information about citizens’ phone calls, including whom they were calling, when and where they made calls, and how long those calls lasted. While metadata collection doesn’t include what was said during those calls, the information can allow intelligence analysts to build up extensive profiles of an individual’s pattern of life. The New York Times first reported on the bulk metadata program, which was created under the Patriot Act, in late 2005, but it didn’t attract truly widespread outrage—or reform—until details of the program appeared in the documents leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013. A federal judge in Washington, DC, ordered the program to stop in a ruling issued later that year, but that didn’t happen until Congress passed a law this May that outlawed the bulk metadata program as of November 29. Under the new law, phone companies must now keep such records themselves, and intelligence agencies must seek permission from a federal judge to access specific data.

To its supporters, the program was a critical counterterrorism tool. “There is no other way that we know of to connect the dots…Taking the program off the table, from my perspective, is absolutely not the right thing to do,” said former NSA director Keith Alexander to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2013. Michael Hayden, another former NSA chief, and former attorney general Michael Mukasey said in a joint op-ed that the reform law was “exquisitely crafted to hobble the gathering of electronic intelligence.” After the terrorist attacks in Paris two weeks ago, there was even a failed last-ditch effort to restart the bulk phone records program.

But privacy advocates say the record tells a different story. “That program hasn’t prevented or even contributed to preventing a single attack in the nearly 15 years that it’s been in operation,” says Elizabeth Goitein, the co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.

Think tank reports on the program have backed her up. “There does not appear to be a case in which…bulk phone records played an important role in stopping a terrorist attack,” wrote Marshall Erwin in a January 2014 report from the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank. His counterparts at the nonpartisan but liberal-leaning New America Foundation found the same thing in a study that was released in the same month as Erwin’s report. “Surveillance of American phone metadata has had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism,” wrote national security journalist Peter Bergen and three others in the New America study.

The government hasn’t provided much more compelling evidence. The study from New America noted that President Barack Obama once claimed bulk surveillance had stopped at least 50 terrorist plots, but Alexander eventually admitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee that there was actually only one such case, in which a San Diego cab driver had attempted to send money to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab. Richard Leon, the federal judge who ruled the bulk metadata program illegal in 2013, wrote that there was an “utter lack of evidence that a terrorist attack has ever been prevented because searching the NSA database was faster than other investigative tactics.”

Late last year, a trio of Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee—Oregon’s Ron Wyden, Colorado’s Mark Udall, and New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich—filed a brief in support of a lawsuit against bulk surveillance, saying they had “reviewed this surveillance extensively and have seen no evidence that the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records has provided any intelligence of value that could not have been gathered through means that caused far less harm to the privacy interests of millions of Americans.”

In fact, say privacy advocates, bulk surveillance can actually hurt intelligence rather than strengthen it. “Part of the problem is that the analysts were drowning in data,” Goitein says, citing the 9/11 Commission Report as evidence. “There was too much information, and the threats got lost in the noise. So more surveillance isn’t the answer.”

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Read Elizabeth Warren’s Heartfelt Email in Support of Syrian Refugees

by King6726zyd Posted on November 19, 2015

Mother Jones

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As more Republicans declare their opposition to the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Thursday sent out an email to her supporters, passionately urging them to stand with her in pushing back against calls for rejecting those fleeing violence in Syria and the Middle East.

Here’s an excerpt:

In the wake of the murders in Paris and Beirut last week, people in America, in Europe, and throughout the world, are fearful. Millions of Syrians are fearful as well—terrified by the reality of their daily lives, terrified that their last avenue of escape from the horrors of ISIS will be closed, terrified that the world will turn its back on them and on their children.

Some politicians have already moved in that direction, proposing to close our country to people fleeing the massacre in Syria. That is not who we are. We are a country of immigrants and refugees, a country made strong by our diversity, a country founded by those crossing the sea fleeing religious persecution and seeking religious freedom.

We are not a nation that delivers children back into the hands of ISIS murderers because some politician dislikes their religion. And we are not a nation that backs down out of fear.

Warren’s letter was sent out by her Senate campaign, but it made no request for donations (which is rare when a politician zaps out an email to her list of supporters). The note follows a similar plea she made to her fellow lawmakers in the Senate on Tuesday. Warren is among but a handful of politicians who publicly support accepting a limited number of refugees in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday.

“It is easy to proclaim that we are tough and brave and good-hearted when threats feel far away,” Warren said in that speech. “But when those threats loom large and close by, our actions will strip away our tough talk and reveal who we really are. We face a choice, a choice either to lead the world by example, or to turn our backs to the threats and suffering around us.”

Here’s the full email:

Over the past four years, millions of people have fled their homes in Syria, running for their lives. In recent months, the steady stream of refugees has been a flood that has swept across Europe.

Every day, refugees set out on a journey hundreds of miles, from Syria to the Turkish coast. When they arrive, human smugglers charge them $1000 a head for a place on a shoddy, overloaded, plastic raft that is given a big push and floated out to sea, hopefully toward one of the Greek islands.

Last month, I visited the Greek island of Lesvos to see the Syrian refugee crisis up close. Lesvos is only a few miles away from the Turkish coast, but the risks of crossing are immense. This is a really rocky, complicated shoreline – in and out, in and out. The overcrowded, paper-thin smuggler rafts are tremendously unsafe, especially in choppy waters or when a storm picks up.

Parents try their hardest to protect their children. They really do. Little ones are outfitted with blow up pool floaties as a substitute for life jackets, in the hope that if the rafts go down, a $1.99 pool toy will be enough to save the life of a small child.

And the rafts do go down. According to some estimates, more than 500 people have died crossing the sea from Turkey to Greece so far this year. But despite the clear risks, thousands make the trip every day.

I met with the mayor of Lesvos, who described how his tiny island of 80,000 people has struggled to cope with those refugees who wash ashore – more than 100,000 people in October alone. Refugees pile into the reception centers, overflowing the facilities, sleeping in parks, or at the side of the road. Recently, the mayor told a local radio program that the island had run out of room to bury the dead.

On my visit, I met a young girl – younger than my own granddaughters – sent out on this perilous journey alone. I asked her how old she was, and she shyly held up seven fingers.

I wondered what could possibly possess parents to hand a seven-year-old girl and a wad of cash to human smugglers. What could possibly possess them to send a beloved child across the treacherous seas with nothing more than a pool floatie. What could make them send a child knowing that crime rings of sex slavery and organ harvesting prey on these children.

Send a little girl out alone. With only the wildest, vaguest, most wishful hope that she might make it through alive and find something – anything – better for her on the other side.

This week, we all know why parents would send a child on that journey. Last week’s massacres in Paris and Beirut made it clear. The terrorists of ISIS – enemies of Islam and of all modern civilization, butchers who rape, torture and execute women and children, who blow themselves up in a lunatic effort to kill as many people as possible – these terrorists have spent years torturing the people of Syria. Day after day, month after month, year after year, mothers, fathers, children and grandparents are slaughtered.

In the wake of the murders in Paris and Beirut last week, people in America, in Europe, and throughout the world, are fearful. Millions of Syrians are fearful as well – terrified by the reality of their daily lives, terrified that their last avenue of escape from the horrors of ISIS will be closed, terrified that the world will turn its back on them and on their children.

Some politicians have already moved in that direction, proposing to close our country to people fleeing the massacre in Syria. That is not who we are. We are a country of immigrants and refugees, a country made strong by our diversity, a country founded by those crossing the sea fleeing religious persecution and seeking religious freedom.

We are not a nation that delivers children back into the hands of ISIS murderers because some politician dislikes their religion. And we are not a nation that backs down out of fear.

Our first responsibility is to protect this country. We must embrace that fundamental obligation. But we do not make ourselves safer by ignoring our common humanity and turning away from our moral obligation.

ISIS has shown itself to the world. We cannot – and we will not – abandon the people of France to this butchery. We cannot – and we will not – abandon the people of Lebanon to this butchery. And we cannot – and we must not – abandon the people of Syria to this butchery.

Thank you for being a part of this,

Elizabeth

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Time to Lead By Example

by Posted on November 18, 2015

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Time to Lead By Example

Posted 18 November 2015 in

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President Obama has said that the U.S. needs to lead by example on climate change. But now, he faces a critical decision.

The Renewable Fuel Standard is the most successful climate policy on the books. It has reduced greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

But the EPA’s proposal on the Renewable Fuel Standard would insert a waiver that could allow the oil industry to avoid blending low carbon fuel if they so choose. Because oil companies control most of the nation’s gas stations, the proposed waiver would amount to the oil industry deciding the fate of the RFS.

It’s also the same loophole that Sen. Jim Inhofe, the Senate’s most notorious climate denier, tried to get into the law in 2005. Oil companies cannot be allowed to dispute RFS blending requirements based on problems of their own creation.

Our country needs a strong RFS. The RFS has reduced U.S. carbon emissions by 589.33 million metric tons, the equivalent of removing 124 million cars from the road. The EPA’s proposed rules would effectively put 7.3 million cars back on the road in one year alone.

Mr. President, if you intend to keep your promise to the companies that joined your American Business Act on Climate Pledge, the only way to do that is to reverse your disastrous proposal on the RFS and commit to renewable fuel.

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2 GOP Candidates Have Reasonable Positions on Climate Change. They Won’t Be in Tonight’s Debate.

by Myrna Posted on November 10, 2015

Pataki and Graham aren’t invited. Workers stand in at the candidates’ podiums in preparation for Tuesday’s Republican debate in Milwaukee. Morry Gash/AP If you were hoping for a reasonable discussion about science during Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debates, you’re probably going to be sorely disappointed. That’s because the only two candidates with serious positions climate change have been excluded from the event. Last month, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former New York Gov. George Pataki made news when they called out their own party for rejecting the science behind climate change. “I’ve talked to the climatologists of the world, and 90 percent of them are telling me the greenhouse gas effect is real, that we’re heating up the planet,” said Graham during CNBC’s Republican “undercard” debate—the early-evening consolation prize for candidates who aren’t polling high enough to land a spot in prime time. “It’s…not appropriate to think that human activity, putting CO2 into the atmosphere, doesn’t make the Earth warmer,” added Pataki. “It does. It’s uncontroverted.” Out of all the candidates in the crowded GOP field, Graham and Pataki also have the strongest track records when it comes to actually fighting climate change. In the Senate, Graham once sponsored a cap-and-trade bill intended to reign-in greenhouse gas emissions. As governor, Pataki helped create a regional cap-and-trade program in the Northeast. So I was excited to hear what they would have say on the issue during the debates that will air Tuesday on the Fox Business Network. Like its sister network Fox News, Fox Business is a major epicenter of climate science denial. Unfortunately for science, Graham and Pataki won’t be on stage Tuesday. Neither of them are averaging anywhere close to 2.5 percent in the polls—the threshold Fox established for the main debate. They aren’t even managing the 1 percent required to participate in the undercard debate. Instead, viewers will hear from an array of global warming deniers. Ted Cruz believes that climate change is a “pseudoscientific theory”; Donald Trump calls it a “hoax”; and Ben Carson insists there’s “no overwhelming science” that it’s caused by humans. Viewers will also hear from candidates like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (who was recently demoted to the undercard stage). Christie acknowledges that climate change is real but seems to oppose any realistic plan to deal with it. Then there are the folks who will be asking the questions. Last year, Fox Business managing editor Neil Cavuto—one of the moderators for Tuesday’s main debate—explained how he first became a climate change “doubter”: Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com Here’s what Trish Regan, one of the moderators for Tuesday’s undercard matchup, had to say when Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) called climate change the country’s top national security threat during a Democratic debate earlier this year: #Bernie says #climatechange is our biggest #1 threat. Maybe he should run for office in #Denmark? #DemDebate — Trish Regan (@trish_regan) October 14, 2015 So since you’re not likely to hear this tonight, here’s Pataki explaining why you really should believe what climate scientists are saying—and why you should vaccinate your kids, too: Read more: 2 GOP Candidates Have Reasonable Positions on Climate Change. They Won’t Be in Tonight’s Debate. ; ; ;

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2 GOP Candidates Have Reasonable Positions on Climate Change. They Won’t Be in Tonight’s Debate.

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Clinton Calls for Liberalizing Marijuana Laws

by epxxatlw Posted on November 9, 2015

Mother Jones

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Hillary Clinton moved ever so very slightly to the left on marijuana legalization over the weekend, after generally ducking the issue so far in her presidential campaign. During a town hall in South Carolina, the Democratic front-runner said that she’s in favor of changing the way the federal government regulates weed in order to allow researchers to explore the benefits of medical usage.

Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule 1 drug, alongside substances like heroin*, which means the government sees no legitimate uses for it. Clinton said that, as president, she’d reclassify marijuana to Schedule 2, the category for drugs like prescription painkillers. It would remain an illegal drug for everyday consumption but would be eligible for possible medical uses.

Clinton stopped short of the position taken by her leading Democratic opponent, Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator called it “absurd” last month that the feds treat marijuana the same way they do drugs like heroin, and pointed to the fact that anti-marijuana laws are enforced far more frequently against African Americans than against white users. Last week, Sanders introduced a bill in the Senate that would end the federal ban on marijuana. States could still ban recreational use under Sanders’ proposal, but states like Colorado and Washington that have already legalized the drug would no longer have to fear federal intervention.

Marijuana legalization is quickly becoming one of the top social causes among Democrats, with polls now showing over half of the country behind ending the prohibition. But Clinton has been tentative when discussing drug reform, responding to questions by saying that she’s keeping an eye on the state-level legalization experiments while still making up her mind on where she stands.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the classification of cocaine. It is a Schedule 2 drug, less strictly regulated than marijuana.

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Clinton Calls for Liberalizing Marijuana Laws

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Here Are 6 Things You Should Care About in Today’s State Elections

by JewelLabarbera Posted on November 3, 2015

Mother Jones

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As John Oliver reminded viewers this week, the much-hyped presidential election may still be 12 months away but important state and local elections are on Tuesday. From the battle over health care in Kentucky to the return of Michigan’s tea party lovebirds, here are six states to watch in Tuesday’s elections.

1. Medicaid in Kentucky: Kentucky’s gubernatorial race has also turned into a battle over Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The race pits the state’s current attorney general, Democrat Jack Conway, against millionaire Republican businessman Matt Bevin. Bevin has sworn to roll back current Gov. Steve Beshear’s expansion of the state’s Medicaid program, saying that Kentucky taxpayers can’t afford it, even though this expansion allowed an additional 400,000 residents to receive health care coverage. It also made Kentucky one of the only Southern states to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. If Bevin wins, it would become the first state to reverse that expansion, according to the Associated Press. Bevin, who has never before held political office, was trailing Conway by 5 points in a recent poll.

2. Gun control in Virginia: The state Senate race in Virginia has attracted millions of dollars in outside funding from groups eager to make headway in the national fight over gun control. Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control advocacy group backed by billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has put $2.2 million into television ads supporting two Democratic candidates for the Senate, Reuters reported. A win by either of these candidates would give Democrats the majority in the 40-seat state Senate, which could allow Gov. Terry McAuliffe to push through gun control measures that were blocked by a state Senate committee in January. The National Rifle Association, which is based in Virginia, has contributed to the Republican campaigns.

3. Campaign finance reform in Maine and Seattle: Both Maine and Seattle residents will vote Tuesday on initiatives to limit the power of money in politics. Seattle’s city ballot includes a novel initiative to create a system of “democracy vouchers,” which would give voters four $25 vouchers to contribute to the campaign of their choosing. It would also limit contributions in city races to $500 or less. Meanwhile, Maine—historically a leader in campaign finance regulation—will vote on a package of reforms that would require additional disclosures in political advertising and gubernatorial races, raise penalties for breaking campaign finance rules, and add $1 million to the state’s fund for public campaign financing.

4. Restrictions on Airbnb in San Francisco: San Francisco residents will vote Tuesday on Proposition F, a measure to limit short-term rentals in the city—which would strike a potentially precedent-setting blow to locally based hospitality startup Airbnb. For its part, Airbnb has poured more than $8 million into lobbying against the initiative. The company tried to win favor before the vote with a tongue-in-cheek ad campaign last month that backfired, prompting an apology from the company’s management.

5. Education funding in Mississippi: While no surprises are expected in Mississippi’s gubernatorial election, in which an unknown truck driver is running as the Democratic nominee against Republican incumbent Phil Bryant, a racially tinged battle over an amendment to the state’s constitution is one to watch. Initiative 42, which gathered 200,000 signatures to get on the ballot, would force the state to meet levels of education funding that lawmakers set in 1997 but have repeatedly failed to meet. If the measure passes, and lawmakers again fail to appropriate sufficient funds, a state court could step in and rule on the issue. Republicans have opposed the measure, arguing that it would give the courts control over the state’s budget. But the issue has also taken on distinctly racial overtones, with one state lawmaker, Bubba Carpenter, caught on camera last month telling constituents they should be afraid of what a “black judge” might do with their tax dollars. “If 42 passes in its form, a judge in Hinds County, Mississippi, predominantly black—it’s going to be a black judge—they’re going to tell us where the state education money goes,” Carpenter said. Carpenter later apologized for his statement.

6. Tea party tryst in Michigan: And last but not least, two tea party politicians in Michigan who left office after their extramarital affair and peculiar attempts to cover it up were revealed are running for the same positions they just vacated. Todd Courser, who resigned after the scandal broke, and Cindy Gamrat, who was kicked out of the Legislature in September, are running less than two months after the left their respective offices. Courser in May famously sent a fake email to journalists and politicians claiming he had been caught having sex with a male prostitute—a ruse he believed at the time would make news of the affair appear less credible. He was wrong.

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Here Are 6 Things You Should Care About in Today’s State Elections

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