WILMINGTON, Del. — Attorneys for Fox Corp. asked a Delaware judge Friday to dismiss a shareholder lawsuit seeking to hold current and former company officials personally liable for the financial fallout stemming from Fox News reports regarding alleged vote rigging in the 2020 election.

Five New York City public employee pension funds, along with Oregon’s public employee retirement fund, allege that former chairman Rupert Murdoch and other Fox Corp. leaders deliberately turned a blind eye to liability risks posed by reporting false claims of vote rigging by election technology companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic USA.

Smartmatic is suing Fox News for defamation in New York, alleging damages of $2.7 billion. It recently settled a lawsuit in the District of Columbia against One America News Network, another conservative outlet, over reports of vote fraud.

Dominion also filed several defamation lawsuits against those who spread conspiracy theories blaming its election equipment for Donald Trump’s loss in 2020. Last year, Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion in Delaware for $787 million.

The shareholder plaintiffs also allege that Fox corporate leaders ignored “red flags” about liability arising from a 2017 report suggesting that Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer, may have been killed because he had leaked Democratic party emails to Wikileaks during the 2016 presidential campaign. Rich, 27, was shot in 2016 in Washington, D.C., in what authorities have said was an attempted robbery.

Fox News retracted the Seth Rich story a week after its initial broadcast, but Rich’s parents sued the network for falsely portraying their son as a criminal and traitor. Fox News settled the lawsuit in 2020 for “millions of dollars,” shortly before program hosts Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity were to be deposed, according to the shareholder lawsuit.

Joel Friedlander, an attorney for the institutional shareholders, argued that Fox officials waited until the company’s reporting about Rich became a national scandal before addressing the issue. Similarly, according to the shareholders, corporate officials, including Rupert Murdoch and his son, CEO Lachlan Murdoch, allowed Fox News to continue broadcasting false narratives about the 2020 election, despite internal communications suggesting that they knew there was no evidence to support the conspiracy theories.

“The Murdochs could have minimized future monetary exposure, but they chose not to,” Friedlander said. Instead, he argued, they engaged in “bad-faith decision making” with other defendants in a profit-driven effort to retain viewers and remain in Trump’s good graces.

“Decisions were made at the highest level to promote pro-Trump conspiracy theories without editorial control,” Friedlander said.

Defense attorneys argue that the case should be dismissed because the plaintiffs filed their lawsuit without first demanding that the Fox Corp. board take action, as required under Delaware law. They say the plaintiffs also failed to demonstrate that a pre-suit demand on the Fox board would have been futile because at least half of the directors face a substantial likelihood of liability or are not independent of someone who does.

Beyond the “demand futility” issue, defense attorneys also argue that allegations that Fox officials breached their fiduciary duties fail to meet the pleading standards under Delaware and therefore should be dismissed.

Defense attorney William Savitt argued, for example, that neither the Rich settlement, which he described as “immaterial,” nor the allegedly defamatory statements about Dominion and Smartmatic constitute red flags putting directors on notice about the risk of defamation liability. Nor do they demonstrate that directors acted in bad faith or that Fox “utterly failed” to implement and monitor a system to report and mitigate legal risks, including defamation liability risk, according to the defendants.

Savitt noted that the Rich article was promptly retracted, and that the settlement included no admission of liability. The Dominion and Smartmatic statements, meanwhile, gave rise themselves to the currently liability issues and therefore can not serve as red flags about future liability risks, according to the defendants.

“A ‘red flag’ must be what the term commonly implies — warning of a risk of a liability-causing event that allows the directors to take action to avert the event, not notice that a liability-causing event has already occurred,” defense attorneys wrote in their motion to dismiss.

Defense attorneys also say there are no factual allegations to support claims that Fox officials condoned illegal conduct in pursuit of corporate profits, or that they deliberately ignored their oversight responsibilities. They note that a “bad outcome” is not sufficient to demonstrate “bad faith.”

Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster is expected to rule within 90 days.

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The post Fox attorneys seek to dismiss shareholder lawsuit over reporting of vote rigging allegations in 2020 appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

PHOENIX — A total of 17 judges and attorneys have put in their bid to be the first Supreme Court justice appointed by Gov. Katie Hobbs.

But if precedent is any indicator, whoever the governor picks to replace Republican Justice Robert Brutinel, who is retiring, will be a Democrat like her. And that effectively would knock four of the applicants out of the running even if any of them are on the final list of nominees eventually submitted to Hobbs by the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments.

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The post 17 judges, attorneys bid to replace retiring AZ Supreme Court Justice Brutinel | News appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to tap California attorney and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan as his running mate, according to a report.

Shanahan, a Democratic donor who was once married to Google cofounder Sergey Brin, funded Kennedy’s pricey Super Bowl campaign commercial, Mediaite reported Saturday.

The pair “align on numerous issues,” including his condemnation of vaccines, and she can help funnel money into Kennedy’s long-shot bid and get him on ballots in all 50 states, sources close to the campaign told the outlet.

The pick notably keeps New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, whom Kennedy said was considering as his Vice President, off the November ballot.

Kennedy’s campaign declined to confirm that he’s made a decision.

“There has been a lot of speculation in the media about Mr. Kennedy’s pick of vice presidential running mate,” his campaign’s press office told The Post in a statement.

RFK Jr. plans to name Nicole Shanahan as his running mate. WireImage

“The official announcement will be on March 26 in Oakland, CA. We hope to see you there.”

Shanahan, 38, told The New York Times last month she had given $4 million to the super PAC, American Values 2024, to fund the $7 million 30-second Super Bowl commercial.

While claimnig to not be an “anti-vaxxer,” she said she shared Kennedy’s constant attacks on vaccines. She also describes herself as a progressive who cares about children’s health. 

She donated to President Biden’s campaign in 2020 and gave the maximum $6,600 to Kennedy’s campaign in May 2023 while he was still seeking the Democratic nomination, according to records obtained by The Times.

Nicole Shanahan is a lawyer and entrepreneur from California. Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize

The Bay Area attorney was married to Google’s Brin in 2018 — but they officially divorced last summer after she was reportedly romantically involved with Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Musk and Brin were previously longtime friends, and Musk frequently stayed over at Brin’s home, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2022. 

However, the two reportedly had a falling out following Musk and Shanahan’s brief fling in December 2021, when Brin requested that his financial advisers sell his personal investments in Musk’s companies.

Musk and Shanahan have denied the allegations.

“This is total bs,” Musk posted on X in July 2022, in response to a user who shared the WSJ article.

“I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic,” he added.

Brin filed for a dissolution of marriage from Shanahan in January 2022. The couple shares a young daughter together, according to People.

Kennedy initially ran as a Democrat against President Biden before announcing an independent bid in October. He has been polling as the top third party candidate in the field, consistently cracking double-digits behind President Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Others on Kennedy’s short list included former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who, along with Rodgers, was “at the top of his list,” he told the New York Times this week.

Kennedy has been working to secure funding to get on the ballot in every state as an independent, which his campaign says it will cost them $15 million. So far, he’s only qualified for the ballot in four states: Hawaii, Nevada, New Hampshire and Utah.

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The post RFK Jr. to name Nicole Shanahan as running mate in White House run: report appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — One of the country’s most progressive prosecutors, George Gascón, has advanced to a runoff in his reelection bid for Los Angeles County’s district attorney, surviving a primary race that pit him against 11 challengers.

Gascón will compete in November against the second highest vote-getter from Tuesday’s primary in the race to lead an agency that prosecutes cases in the most populous county in the U.S.

Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor and one-time California attorney general candidate who ran as a Republican in 2022, was closely behind Gascón in partial returns.

Hochman has tried to capitalize on voter anger over crime and homelessness, issues that led voters to unseat San Francisco District attorney Chesa Boudin in a recall election in 2022. In his campaign ads, Hochman, a defense attorney, vowed to change the direction of the district attorney, saying: “It’s time we had a DA who fights for victims, not criminals.”

To win the primary outright in California, Gascón needed to get a 50%-plus-one vote. Anything less triggers a runoff race between the top two candidates in November regardless of party.

Political experts said they had expected Gascón to advance from the nonpartisan primary but are less optimistic about his chances in the fall.

The primary set Gascón against opponents who ranged from line prosecutors in his own office to former federal prosecutors to county judges. They sought to blame Gascón and his progressive policies for widespread perceptions the city is unsafe, highlighting shocking footage of a series of brazen smash-and-grab robberies at luxury stores. The feeling of being unsafe is so pervasive that even the Los Angeles mayor and police chief said in January that they were working to fix the city’s image.

But while property crime increased nearly 3% within the sheriff’s jurisdiction of Los Angeles County from 2022 to 2023, violent crime decreased almost 1.5% in the same period.

Gascón was elected on a criminal justice reform platform in 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police. He faced a recall attempt within his first 100 days and a second attempt later, which both failed to get on the ballot.

During his first term, Gascón immediately imposed his campaign agenda: not seeking the death penalty; not prosecuting juveniles as adults; ending cash bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies; and no longer filing enhancements triggering stiffer sentences for certain elements of crimes, repeat offenses or gang membership.

He was forced to roll back some of his biggest reforms early in his tenure, such as initially ordering the elimination of more than 100 enhancements and elevating a hate crime from misdemeanor to a felony. The move infuriated victims’ advocates, and Gascón backpedaled, restoring enhancements in cases involving children, older people and people targeted because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability.

His challengers have pledged to reverse many or nearly all of his most progressive policies, such as his early orders to eliminate filing for sentencing enhancements.

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The post Progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón advances to runoff appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

LOS ANGELES — One of the country’s most progressive prosecutors, George Gascón, has advanced to a runoff in his reelection bid for Los Angeles County’s district attorney, surviving a primary race that pit him against 11 challengers.

Gascón will compete in November against the second highest vote-getter from Tuesday’s primary in the race to lead an agency that prosecutes cases in the most populous county in the U.S.

Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor and one-time California attorney general candidate who ran as a Republican in 2022, was closely behind Gascón in partial returns.

Hochman has tried to capitalize on voter anger over crime and homelessness, issues that led voters to unseat San Francisco District attorney Chesa Boudin in a recall election in 2022. In his campaign ads, Hochman, a defense attorney, vowed to change the direction of the district attorney, saying: “It’s time we had a DA who fights for victims, not criminals.”

To win the primary outright in California, Gascón needed to get a 50%-plus-one vote. Anything less triggers a runoff race between the top two candidates in November regardless of party.

Political experts said they had expected Gascón to advance from the nonpartisan primary but are less optimistic about his chances in the fall.

The primary set Gascón against opponents who ranged from line prosecutors in his own office to former federal prosecutors to county judges. They sought to blame Gascón and his progressive policies for widespread perceptions the city is unsafe, highlighting shocking footage of a series of brazen smash-and-grab robberies at luxury stores. The feeling of being unsafe is so pervasive that even the Los Angeles mayor and police chief said in January that they were working to fix the city’s image.

But while property crime increased nearly 3% within the sheriff’s jurisdiction of Los Angeles County from 2022 to 2023, violent crime decreased almost 1.5% in the same period.

Gascón was elected on a criminal justice reform platform in 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police. He faced a recall attempt within his first 100 days and a second attempt later, which both failed to get on the ballot.

During his first term, Gascón immediately imposed his campaign agenda: not seeking the death penalty; not prosecuting juveniles as adults; ending cash bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies; and no longer filing enhancements triggering stiffer sentences for certain elements of crimes, repeat offenses or gang membership.

He was forced to roll back some of his biggest reforms early in his tenure, such as initially ordering the elimination of more than 100 enhancements and elevating a hate crime from misdemeanor to a felony. The move infuriated victims’ advocates, and Gascón backpedaled, restoring enhancements in cases involving children, older people and people targeted because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability.

His challengers have pledged to reverse many or nearly all of his most progressive policies, such as his early orders to eliminate filing for sentencing enhancements.

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The post Los Angeles County's progressive district attorney leads in early results against 11 challengers – News-Press Now appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County voters are set to decide next month if embattled District attorney George Gascón will remain the head of the nation’s largest prosecutor’s office in a race centered on perceptions of public safety.

Gascón, who was elected in 2020 on a criminal justice platform alongside a wave of progressive prosecutors, faces 11 challengers in the March 5 nonpartisan primary. Voting is already underway.

Gascón’s challengers say his policies are to blame for rising crime, including a series of brazen smash-and-grab robberies at luxury stores that have garnered national attention from critics who say California’s Democratic leaders are allowing lawlessness. Property crime increased nearly 3% within the sheriff’s jurisdiction of Los Angeles County from 2022 to 2023.

Violent crime, however, decreased more than 3% in the city of Los Angeles and nearly 1.5% in the county in 2023 compared to the year before. It is still above pre-pandemic levels, and the feeling of being unsafe is so pervasive that even the Los Angeles mayor and police chief said last month they are working to fix the city’s image.

“There isn’t a community, I believe, in LA County that would say things are on the right track from a crime perspective,” said Michael Bustamante, an election expert and public affairs consultant who is not involved in the race.

Gascón was elected after a summer of unrest following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

He immediately imposed his campaign agenda: not seeking the death penalty; not prosecuting juveniles as adults; ending cash bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies; and no longer filing enhancements triggering stiffer sentences for certain elements of crimes, repeat offenses or gang membership.

Gascón quickly faced backlash, including a recall attempt within his first 100 days and a second attempt later, which both failed to get on the ballot.

His challengers include local prosecutors Jonathan Hatami and Eric Siddall and former federal prosecutors Jeff Chemerinsky and Nathan Hochman, a one-time attorney general candidate, who all have garnered notable endorsements.

To win outright, a candidate must receive a 50%-plus-one vote, an unlikely outcome in the largest-ever field to seek the office. Anything less triggers a runoff race between the top two candidates in November to lead an agency made up of almost 1,000 lawyers who prosecute cases in the most populous county in the U.S.

Experts believe Gascón will survive the primary but are less optimistic about his chances in November.

“Nobody has really broken out. And with a large number of each candidate getting a decent amount of support, it could become a random thing who gets into the runoff,” said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of The John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which focuses on social science research in Los Angeles.

The challenger field is largely campaigning on a reversal of nearly all of Gascón’s progressive policies. They’re running with a more tough-on-crime approach but are mindful of going too far for LA County’s Democratic electorate.

Chemerinsky, for example, vowed to undo almost all of Gascón’s practices but said he would keep the ban on the use of the death penalty.

Gascón’s first term has been rocky. His orders to prosecutors to stop seeking longer prison sentences and cease using sentencing enhancements, among other controversial policies, were met with immediate resistance.

The union representing rank-and-file prosecutors sued Gascón, arguing he cannot bar the use of sentencing enhancements for prior felony convictions under the state’s “three strikes” law. The California Supreme Court heard arguments last year and has not issued a ruling.

Gascón faced a slew of no-confidence votes by municipal governments across the county. Other county district attorneys took the unusual step of criticizing his policies as reckless and tried to take cases from his jurisdiction.

He also was forced to roll back some of his biggest reforms, such as initially ordering more than 100 enhancements dropped and elevating a hate crime from misdemeanor to a felony. The move infuriated victims’ advocates and Gascón backpedaled, restoring enhancements in cases involving children, elderly people and people targeted because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability.

“I think that most of the damage to Gascón happened relatively early,” Sonenshein said.

The unions representing rank-and-file Los Angeles Police Department officers and Los Angeles County deputy sheriffs, respectively, have not publicly endorsed anyone in the primary. In 2020, both heavily opposed Gascón, a former police chief and two-term San Francisco district attorney.

The Association of Deputy District Attorneys, representing LA County prosecutors, has endorsed Siddall, its former vice president.

Hochman’s campaign said Thursday he has raised $2 million. Gascón, who got more than $12 million in contributions in 2020 — had nearly $112,000 cash-on-hand in his campaign account as of Feb. 17, according to campaign finance records. Experts said that’s a fraction of what’s needed to run a county-wide campaign.

Reports from Thursday’s filing deadline have not been made public yet.

The other candidates are David S. Milton, Debra Archuleta, Maria Ramirez, Dan Kapelovitz, Lloyd “Bobcat” Masson, John McKinney and Craig J. Mitchell.

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The post Los Angeles County district attorney seeks reelection in contest focused on feeling of public safety appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Former President Donald Trump’s lead Georgia attorneys filed a motion on Monday that seeks to dismiss Fulton County District attorney Fani Willis’ charges against him based on 1st Amendment grounds.

The motion was filed by attorneys Steven Sadow and Jennifer Little in Fulton County Superior Court.

“The core political speech and expressive conduct alleged in this indictment against President Trump are protected from government regulation and thus criminal prosecution by the State,” Monday’s court filing said. “That fact becomes even more clear when considering the context within which the speech was uttered while challenging a presidential election was directed towards the state legislatures, state officials tasked with conducting investigations, and within lawsuits against those same officials.

“The speech sought action by the government, the very body responsible for educating itself before exercising its governmental functions on behalf of the people,” the filing said. “It was directed at the bodies responsible for conducting government business, the bodies with the information in their possession, the bodies undertaking the investigations, and the bodies vested with the authority of adjudicating such complaints.

“The speech was directed at the governmental bodies the Founders believed should always be challenged, and the bodies that must be capable of being challenged in a democracy where citizens are capable of guarding against governmental oppression.”

Last month, Sadow said the nation’s 45th president believed the 2020 election had indeed been stolen from him; thus, his statements about election malfeasance are protected by the First Amendment.

“Here, the indictment’s recitation of supposedly ‘false’ statements and facts, undisputed solely for purposes of a First Amendment-based general demurrer/motion to dismiss, show that the prosecution of President Trump is premised on content-based core political speech and expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment,” Sadow wrote in a Nov. 27 filing.

“This is the ordinary course in free society,” the filing said. “(‘The response to the unreasoned is the rational; to the uninformed the enlightened: to the straight out lie the simple truth.’) The remedy is not a state RICO prosecution against the former President of the United States.”

Trump is facing 91 felony counts in four criminal cases in Washington, New York, Florida and Georgia and could potentially be looking at years in prison if convicted.

Trump is charged alongside others — including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law by scheming to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss.

The indictment, handed up in August, accuses Trump or his allies of suggesting Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, could find enough votes for him to win the battleground state; harassing an election worker who faced false claims of fraud; and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of electors favorable to Trump.

At the same time, special counsel Jack Smith is asking the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to rule on questions over presidential immunity, questions that could be pivotal to Trump’s defense in Fulton County.

Smith’s request to bypass the question already before an appellate court would mean a SCOTUS decision on whether Trump can claim immunity would be final and binding.

Trump’s Georgia attorneys have already noted their intent to use a defense crafted around presidential immunity. His attorneys in Fulton County and Washington argue his alleged actions over the 2020 election results were part of his official duties at the time and therefore he has presidential immunity.

While the ruling could be advantageous for Trump if justices – three of whom were appointed by him – decide in his favor, it could be equally as detrimental if they rule in favor of Smith. It would take Trump’s ability to claim immunity off the table and subject him to various charges as a regular defendant.

A district judge has already ruled that Trump cannot claim presidential immunity, at least in regard to his case out of Washington, D.C. over his alleged involvement with the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Atlanta News First and Atlanta News First+ provide you with the latest news, headlines and insights as Georgia continues its role at the forefront of the nation’s political scene. Download our Atlanta News First app for the latest political news and information.

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The post Trump attorneys file motion to dismiss Georgia charges, cite 1st Amendment appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

California’s House Republicans have finally gained a Speaker of the House, but at what cost in 2024?

Many of the state’s GOP congressional incumbents were already in tough positions headed into next year. The removal of fellow Californian Rep. Kevin McCarthy, their valued fundraiser and political patron, in favor of Rep. Mike Johnson, who devised a legal argument to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, may place them on even more unstable ground.

For Republicans to maintain their slim House majority, they will need to hold the line in California.

But they “are now associated with one of the most far-right elements of MAGA, the MAGA Republican Whig Party,” said GOP consultant Mike Madrid. “And as much as they try to omit that, the Democrats will make sure that that everybody understands that connection.”

All House Republicans supported Johnson in Wednesday’s floor vote, ending three weeks of infighting and dysfunction over a successor to McCarthy, R-Bakersfield. His Oct. 3 ouster was engineered by a small group of ultra-conservative members and Democrats. After the candidacies of three potential replacements (Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Rep. Jim Jordan and GOP Whip Tom Emmer) collapsed, the little-known four-term Louisianan — the least experienced speaker in 140 years — finally emerged as a palatable choice for the hard right and other caucus factions.

“It’s not that Mike Johnson is really fundamentally different than Kevin McCarthy or Donald Trump,” Mike Madrid, a GOP consultant, said. “This is the realization that this isn’t an abstract thing anymore. This is an existential threat to the values that a lot of Republicans — especially women, college-educated women are facing — and they’re saying, ‘I’ve had enough.’”

“You have to remember that the Republicans have done very poorly with their own base in the last three straight election cycles,” he said. “And this is lining up to make it a fourth.”

Who is Mike Johnson?

With war in the Middle East and a mid-November deadline to avert a government shutdown, the urgency of filling the speaker’s chair was mounting by the day.

From the chaos emerged Johnson, 51, with a low public profile but a penchant for highly conservative ideology.

A constitutional law attorney, Johnson argued in the wake of the 2020 election that several states improperly changed their voting laws to ease ballot access in response to the coronavirus pandemic. He asserted that this was unconstitutional and provided House Republicans a reason to reject election results.

He solicited House GOP support to file an amicus brief in a long-shot Texas lawsuit seeking to throw out Electoral College votes from multiple states. He also served as part of the former president’s defense team through two Senate impeachment trials.

As part of the Republican Study Committee, a kind of in-house policy think tank, he supported slashing Social Security and Medicare benefits. Johnson, who identifies as a Christian, said the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision protecting federal abortion rights was “an egregious error.” He is strongly against abortion access, and garners top ratings from nonprofit Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

Last year, he introduced legislation to bar discussion of sexual orientation, gender identity and related subjects at institutions that receive federal funds, mirroring a Florida law. Johnson also opposes gender-affirming care for minors, blasting it and LGBTQ identities at a hearing he held in July.

“Those issues are really working with fewer and fewer Republicans,” Madrid said, “which is why you’re seeing a lot of these nominal districts, especially in Orange County and in Mike Garcia’s district, go back and forth between Republicans and Democrats.”

California Republicans in tough elections

Democrats are already piling onto California Republicans facing close 2024 elections.

“Mike Johnson is Jim Jordan with a sports coat — possibly worse — and he has a new posse of best friends in California …” said Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Democratic Campaign Committee. “These GOP shills have enabled MAGA extremism every step of the way, and we’ll make sure that voters know that they once again put the far-right before California workers and families.”

Meanwhile California Republicans in tough races put out statements focused less on Johnson and more on returning to work.

Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, without using Johnson’s name, said: “We have a crisis at our southern border, one of our closest allies in the Middle East at war, and a deadline to fund the government in less than 30 days. The House elected a Speaker so we can get back to work on these issues…”

Valadao is one of five GOP incumbents in districts Biden carried in 2020, and is one of seven whose seat is considered at risk. His race leans ever-so-slightly in his favor, election analysts say, with some rating it as a toss-up. Former Assemblyman Rudy Salas, who fell to Valadao last year by a 3% margin, and State Sen. Melissa Hurtado have declared as Democratic challengers.

Also in trouble are Reps. John Duarte, R-Modesto, and Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, whose races are predominantly considered toss-ups. Both represent districts that Biden won.

Duarte, a first-term Republican representing an agriculture-heavy district, won election by fewer than 600 votes in 2022 and faces the same opponent, Democrat Adam Gray, next year.

Garcia has new Democratic challengers after beating out former Assemblywoman Christy Smith last year. Garcia became the first California Republican in two decades to flip a district represented by a Democrat; he won a special election in 2020.

Reps. Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach, and Ken Calvert, R-Corona, also face races that currently lean slightly in their favor, according to analysts. Rep. Young Kim, R-La Habra, has a more secure seat, however he also represents a Biden district. And forecasters note Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, is not guaranteed to win next year.

Losing McCarthy

Losing McCarthy in leadership puts California Republicans in a tough spot. With his formidable fundraising, McCarthy has been a significant source of cash for the state GOP, often using his assets to protect vulnerable incumbents.

Through PACs associated with McCarthy and his own campaign committee, he has steered about $4.8 million this year to the campaigns of the seven at-risk incumbents, according to a review of Federal Election Commission filings. That makes up a significant portion of their fundraising.

The McCarthy-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC founded in 2011, and its associated groups have raised about $80 million this election cycle. CLF, which will be controlled by the next speaker, raised about $645 million under McCarthy.

Important too is what Matt Rexroad, another GOP consultant, called the “McCarthy machine.”

“Does [Johnson] have the support of the McCarthy machine in terms of the infrastructure? Will they replace a lot of people at the Congressional Leadership Fund?” Rexroad asked. “All these sorts of things are very secondary but really important: After you elect the speaker, then what do you do after that? Some speakers are better than others in terms of the political operations.”

Their best bet for speaker was McCarthy, said Rexroad. But the path forward for House Republicans under an inexperienced speaker, no matter who, is unclear.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that the best thing for the California delegation was to have Kevin McCarthy remain as speaker, but I don’t know,” he said. “There’s obviously going to be some drop off because there was no member of that caucus or organization that was better. But how much this drop off is, I really just don’t know.”

Related stories from Fresno Bee

Gillian Brassil is the congressional reporter for McClatchy’s California publications. She covers federal policies, people and issues that impact the Golden State from Capitol Hill. She graduated from Stanford University.

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The post How Speaker Mike Johnson affects CA Republican 2024 elections appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Few corners of the U.S. may be less hospitable to Donald Trump than California, where he lost by more than 5 million votes in the 2020 election. But as the former president seeks to return to the White House, the liberal bastion may give him an unlikely boost.

A state GOP rule change has opened the possibility that Trump could sweep each of the state’s 169 delegates on March 5, when California is among more than a dozen states participating in the so-called Super Tuesday contests. With Trump already leading his rivals in many state and national polls, a dominant performance in California could move him much closer to the GOP nomination.

“This race is quickly consolidating,” said GOP fundraiser Charles Moran, a Trump delegate in 2016 and 2020. With a win in California, he added, “I truly think Trump could take the nomination on Super Tuesday — then this is over.”

With less than four months before the Iowa caucuses officially kick off the GOP nomination process, the dynamics of the race could still change. But Trump is keeping a close eye on the state, where his most prominent Republican rivals will gather without him on Wednesday for the second presidential debate. While Trump is skipping the event, he has made sure to be in California on Friday to appear at the state’s GOP convention, where many of the people who will ultimately serve as delegates will be in attendance.

In what would be an ironic twist, the state where the former president is widely loathed outside his conservative base could help him tighten his grip on the Republican White House nomination.

Political Cartoons

Trump, who is facing criminal charges in four separate cases, has long had a conflicted relationship with California, the nation’s most populous state, where Democrats haven’t lost a statewide election since 2006 and outnumber registered Republicans by about 2-to-1.

California was home to the so-called Trump resistance during his time in office, and Trump often depicts California as representing all he sees wrong in America. As president, he called the homeless crises in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other big cities disgraceful, and threatened to intercede — faulting the “liberal establishment” for what he described as a “terrible situation.”

He berated state Democrats who supported funding health care for some adults who entered the U.S. illegally, and challenged California’s authority to reduce car emissions. Then-state attorney General Xavier Becerra filed more than 50 lawsuits against the Trump administration, targeting initiatives on immigration, health care and the environment.

Still, the Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles sits on the Pacific coast south of the city. And even in losing California in a landslide in 2020, Trump received over 6 million votes — more than any Republican presidential candidate before him — with his margins topping 70% in some rural counties that typically favor conservative candidates.

California probably will be an afterthought in November 2024 — the state’s lopsided electorate makes it a virtual lock for Democrats on Election Day. You’d have to go back to 2000 to find a Republican nominee pushing hard to win California, when George W. Bush invested millions in the state then lost to Democrat Al Gore by 12 points.

Under the rule change, a Republican presidential candidate who pulls in more than 50% of the primary vote would be awarded all 169 delegates. If no candidate hits that threshold, delegates will be awarded proportionally.

Such a winner-take-all rule didn’t exist in recent presidential elections in the state. Previously, the California GOP primary amounted to dozens of separate races on a single day — one in each congressional district across the sprawling state, and then one statewide. The winner in each district collected three delegates; the candidate who received the largest number of votes statewide claimed a bonus of about a dozen more.

That created a competitive environment where Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi ’s district in San Francisco awarded the same number of GOP delegates as a rural, conservative heartland district.

When the change was adopted in late July, state party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson predicted it would lure GOP presidential candidates to California to campaign, drive turnout and make the state relevant in picking the party’s 2024 nominee.

But others believe it has had the opposite effect, stifling competition in a state where buying media advertising across half a dozen markets comes at a huge, prohibitive cost. The vastness of the state, home to nearly 1-in-8 Americans, makes it hard to get to all the regions. The previous guidelines encouraged candidates to target specific districts — now, one candidate can collect them all.

“The effect of the change has been to effectively terminate the Republican primary in California,” said conservative activist Jon Fleishman, a former executive director of the state GOP.

The state party — strongly influenced by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, a Trump loyalist — “shifted everything to help Donald Trump,” Fleishman said.

In a sign of the fallout, a super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Never Back Down, recently curtailed operations in California. The committee says it had knocked on over 100,000 doors over several months but has shifted its focus elsewhere.

“The Trump team came in to rig the rules in their favor,” Ken Cuccinelli, who was deputy secretary of Homeland Security during the Trump administration and founded the PAC, said in a statement.

Similar rule changes seen as benefiting the Trump campaign are playing out elsewhere, including in Michigan and Nevada, where some GOP leaders fear changing guidelines could confuse voters. The California rules are expected to be challenged at a state party convention next week, though reversing course is seen as unlikely.

“Nobody is seriously trying to repeal it,” said longtime conservative activist Steve Frank.

The home turf of Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, California was once reliably Republican in presidential elections. Pronounced demographic shifts, particularly a boom in the Hispanic population, and a shifting economy that included the collapse of the defense industry, changed everything.

The number of Hispanics, Blacks and Asian-Americans combined has outnumbered whites in California since 1998, and Latinos alone have outnumbered the white population for about a decade. Most new voters are Democrats or left-leaning independents. Democrats hold every statewide office and dominate the Legislature and the congressional delegation.

California’s Republican Party has been in decline for years, and GOP voters account for just 23.8% of the statewide total, slightly ahead of independents. Infighting between conservatives and moderates persists, and dueling factions are expected to brawl at the state party convention over a proposed rewrite of the party platform, moving it toward the political center.

The last Republican to win a presidential contest in California was George H.W. Bush, in 1988. Since then, it’s been a long string of Election Day misery: John McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee against Barack Obama, boasted about competing in California but lost by 24 points. Mitt Romney suffered a 23-point loss to Obama in 2012. Trump lost there to Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 30 points.

However, pockets of Republican strength remain, including in the vast Central Valley farm belt and the so-called Inland Empire running east and north of Los Angeles. Despite his penchant for California-bashing, Trump won 23 of the state’s 58 counties in the state in 2020, mostly in the state’s farm belt and rural interior.

Once the primary is over, California’s relevance may lie in a string of competitive House seats, including several in Orange County southeast of Los Angeles, which are expected to play into control of the closely divided chamber next year.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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The post Donald Trump, Skipping GOP Debate, Eyes California Delegate Sweep in the State He Loves to Hate appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.