Author: adler

The people have spoken, and Kari Lake appears to be the most popular candidate for the GOP vice presidential slot in 2024 according to last week’s official Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
The former Arizona gubernatorial candidate won 20% of the vote among a field of 30 potential candidates listed. On the list, Lake surpassed former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley who received 10%, as well as popular Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who earned 14%.
Haley is currently running for the Republican presidential nomination, while DeSantis is rumored to be announcing his own presidential campaign as well any moment now. Both have had their names floated around as likely VP contenders too.
Other big names which earned a smaller percentage of the straw poll vote included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, businessman and current presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Ted Cruz, and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Lake’s Twitter account responded to the favorable results, saying that “We’re flattered, but unfortunately our legal team says the Constitution won’t allow for her to serve as Governor and VP at the same time.” This statement is in reference to Lake’s continued legal battle contesting the results of the controversial 2022 Governor’s race in Arizona, which she believes she legally won due to alleged voter fraud.
As for who conservatives want to see at the top of the ticket in 2024, former President Donald Trump won big boasting 62% of the vote, with DeSantis earning 20%.

BREAKING: Out of 30 contenders, @KariLake wins @CPAC straw poll for Vice President.
We’re flattered, but unfortunately our legal team says the Constitution won’t allow for her to serve as Governor and VP at the same time. pic.twitter.com/gFV3z3wtxB
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) March 4, 2023

RELATED: Kari Lake Takes Her Election Fight To The Arizona Supreme Court
Not Backing Down
As of last week, Lake’s legal battle regarding her lawsuit alleging election tampering in the 2022 gubernatorial election will now be seen before Arizona Supreme Court.
Lake’s legal team filed the “Motion To Expedite” their case, stating that “expeditious action to resolve these issues is needed to safeguard Arizona voters’ right to free and equal elections.”
It was only in February that the appeals court had decided that Arizona voters could cast their ballots at the time the alleged tampering occurred, and that those votes were counted properly.
The ruling at the time stated “Lake argues that the superior court erred by dismissing her claims asserting equal protection and due process violations. Her arguments fail, however, because these claims were expressly premised on an allegation of official misconduct in the form of interference with with the on-site tabulators — the same alleged misconduct as in Lake’s printer/tabulator claim.”
“Because these claims were duplicative of a claim that Lake unsuccessfully pursued at trial, the superior court did not err by dismissing them. For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the superior court’s ruling confirming Hobb’s election as governor. We deny Hobbs’s request for an award of attorney’s fees on appeal because she offered no substantive basis for the award,” the appeals court added.
“Evidence ultimately supports the conclusion that voters were able to cast their ballots, that votes were counted correctly, and that no other basis justifies the election results.”

The moment Olivia and Chloe met @KariLake People always ask me how Kari is in person. I tell them she is a genuine as it gets! It’s one of the reasons her supporters love her, and also one of the reasons the left hates her, because they are all fake and she is so real!… https://t.co/W6OA60hnDE pic.twitter.com/LHOR18Bozr
— Ben Bergquam – Real America’s Voice (RAV-TV) News (@BenBergquam) March 5, 2023

RELATED: Kari Lake Earns Legendary Status After Refusing to Stand for the ‘Black National Anthem’
Senator Kari Lake?
Despite all indications she’s sticking with her attempts to legally find a way to overturn the results of the gubernatorial election, Lake has also made it known she’s considering a possible US Senate run as well.
According to The Washington Post who spoke to someone close to Lake last week, she is considering June of this year to announce whether she will be entering the race or not.
Currently, she leads all potential GOP candidates for that position and is also boasting high favorability ratings among Arizona Republicans.
In an interview last month when teasing her potential campaign, Lake targeted sitting Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema.
“She’s the furthest thing from an independent,” Lake said. “Someone somewhere said she did a couple of courageous things, well, she should do courageous stuff here every day. If you are blessed to be elected by the people, when you show up in Washington, D.C., you should be doing courageous acts every damn day.
Do you think Lake should run for Senate, continue her legal battle, or flirt with the idea of courting the possibility of being the eventual GOP nominee’s VP pick? Let us know in the comments below.

.@KariLake: “I want you to know that I will never stop fighting. I will never stop fighting for fair and free elections. I will never stop fighting for the people of Arizona, and America. I love each and every one of you.” pic.twitter.com/EyU2WUYYaS
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) March 5, 2023

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The post Kari Lake Dominates CPAC Vice President Poll Among Large Field of Potential Candidates appeared first on The Political Insider.

By Casey Harper (The Center Square)
Washington D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson announced he is withdrawing a controversial crime law from Congressional consideration Monday that would have lessened certain criminal penalties even as crime spikes in the nation’s capital.
Mendelson said that the changes would be reworked. The U.S. Senate was expected to vote and likely kill D.C.’s rewrite of the criminal code, which received opposition even from the President Joe Biden.
Congress can weigh in to overrule the D.C. city council, though local D.C. leaders dispute that as part of their ongoing fight for autonomy. The House voted to do just that in February, and despite the withdrawal, the Senate is expected to still follow through with its vote on the matter this week.
“This desperate, made-up maneuver not only has no basis in the DC Home Rule Act, but underscores the completely unserious way the DC Council has legislated,” said Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn. “No matter how hard they try, the Council cannot avoid accountability for passing this disastrous, dangerous DC soft-on-crime bill that will make residents and visitors less safe.”
The law also grants noncitizens the right to vote. 
Biden previously said he would not veto Congress if it voted to overrule the city council.
Related: Elizabeth Warren Swings For Washington DC Statehood, Gets Smacked With the Constitution
Total crime is up 25% in D.C. so far this year.
The bill would have reduced the maximum penalties for offenses like murders, armed robberies , armed home invasion burglaries, armed carjackings, unlawful gun possession, and some sexual assault offenses.
According to data from the D.C. government, in 2023 as of Monday, homicides are up 31%, sex abuse is up 113%, motor vehicle theft is up 110%, and arson is up 300%. Some crime categories were slightly lower, and assault with a deadly weapon is about the same level as this time last year.
The battle over the bill has typified the controversy over how liberal leaders of America’s largest cities are approaching criminal justice even as homicides have risen markedly in recent years.
A recent incident, though, put a face to the statistics and likely galvanized members of Congress on the issue.
Last month, Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., was robbed in the elevator of her apartment building in Washington, D.C. and suffered minor injuries.
That evening, 26-year-old Kendrid Hamlin was arrested. Turns out Hamlin has a lengthy criminal history with involvement in incidents often near the capitol.
“Passing a bill that lowers sentences for first and second degree murder, carjacking, assault against law enforcement officers, sexual assault and other crimes under the guise of reform is laughable if it wasn’t so dangerous,” Heritage Foundation legal and crime experts Cully Stimson and Zack Smith told The Center Square in a joint statement.
Related: Democrat DC Mayor Orders Altered American Flags With 51 Stars Flown On Flag Day
Stimson and Smith argued that this kind of lax treatment has led to repeat offenders among youth.
“Furthermore, the kid-gloves ‘second chance law’ for violent juvenile offenders has resulted in at least 120 criminals sentenced under the ‘Youth Rehabilitation Law’ since 2010 to “progress” to being charged with murder,” they said. “This isn’t reform; it’s insanity, and DC residents are paying with their lives.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took a flurry of tough questions from visibly agitated reporters at a press briefing last week. That issue eclipsed others as Jean-Pierre tried to toe the line of the president’s position.
“And so, look, the President has been very clear we need to do more to reduce crime, to make communities safer, to save lives,” she said. “And that’s why he put together — he put forth his Safer America Plan that does just that — that we believe does exactly that.” 
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
The post D.C. Dems Back Down From Crime Bill After Pushback appeared first on The Political Insider.

By Brett Rowland (The Center Square)
Local governments or lienholders have taken more than 8,950 homes with more than $860 million in equity from 2014 to 2021 under laws that allow them to seize properties for unpaid property taxes, according to a new report. 
Pacific Legal Foundation, which is working to ban the practice, found that taking property to pay property tax debts can be ruinous for people with small tax debts.
“For tax debts of less than 1% of a property’s value, these laws have allowed officials to take homes that have been in families for generations and even to leave people homeless,” according to the report.
The report highlights several cases, including a county in Michigan that took a man’s house over an $8.41 underpayment. Oakland County later sold the property for $24,500. That case eventually went before the Michigan Supreme Court, which found the practice unconstitutional. 
The report found “the elderly, sick, and poor, along with the mentally ill and racial minorities, are especially at risk.”
Related: Lost Retirement: Why 401(k)s Are Not OK (and Not Just Because of the Lousy Economy)
Twelve states and Washington D.C. allow the practice. The states are Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and South Dakota, according to the foundation.
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to take up a Minnesota case, Tyler v. Hennepin County, that focuses on whether taking and selling a home to satisfy a debt to the government, and keeping the surplus value as a windfall, violates the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause, according to SCOTUS Blog.
“[Geraldine Tyler] failed to pay her property taxes,” said Christina Martin, a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “The property taxes owed were about $2,300. After adding in penalties and interest and fees, she owed $15,000. The county took her condo, sold it at auction for $40,000 and then kept all $40,000. In other words, the county got a $25,000 windfall at Ms. Tyler’s expense.”
Related: IG Reports ‘Historic’ $400 Billion in COVID Unemployment Funds Lost to Fraud, Waste
The foundation’s report shows Tyler, 94, is not alone.
Angela Erickson, strategic research director at Pacific Legal Foundation, said the problem goes beyond the 8,950 homes identified in the report, which represent “a fraction of the scope of home equity theft in the nine states studied,” according to the report. Researchers only collected information from a fraction of the jurisdictions and only focused on sold homes, she said. 
“These laws aren’t just taking family homes. They’re stealing family nest eggs or generational wealth and so I want to take a moment to have us imagine you’ve saved for decades, using your home as this device for your savings. And then you discover that in an instant you have no place to live and no safety net or wealth to pass on to your children,” Erickson said. “That’s devastating. It’s ruining these people’s lives.”
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
The post Report Finds $860 Million Lost In Homes Seized By Government appeared first on The Political Insider.

By A.B. Stoddard for RealClearWire
Unfortunately for Ron DeSantis, expectations of him could not be higher. For a critical mass of Republicans seeking to move past Donald Trump, the Florida governor is already the anointed savior. While Trump still holds the lead in most polling, DeSantis is almost always second choice and is the favorite for many Republicans who want a new standard bearer because they believe Trump can’t win.
Though he has not yet launched a campaign, and his allies say he would not until the state legislature completes its session in May, DeSantis definitely wants us all to think he will soon be a presidential candidate. He has a new book out, there have been more visits outside of the Sunshine State, more interviews on Fox News, and more use of state power to curb a bunch of things he opposes as “wokeism.”
His book is titled “The Courage To Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.” It isn’t subtle.
This wouldn’t be just any presidential run. The Republican Party has been remade by Trump, and he remains in control of a solid portion of its base. Because Trump could prevail in winner-take-all primaries with only a plurality of the vote like he did in 2016, DeSantis will have to catch fire immediately so other contenders feel pressure to drop out and back him in a two-man race.
Thus far DeSantis has shown impressive discipline, refusing to answer any of Trump’s provocations – from nicknames like “Ron DeSanctimonious” and “Meatball Ron” to an insinuation DeSantis behaved inappropriately while teaching high school girls early in his career.
DeSantis avoids the political fray, refusing to weigh in on most everything that happens in Washington or Mar-a-Lago. DeSantis has proven a competent and effective governor, not only in his response to COVID but in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. But he has put himself on the Republican map by meticulously building a record to thrill and delight the MAGA right with his curriculum culture wars and is running to the right of Trump on vaccines.
Related: They Keep Saying Trump Can’t Beat Biden in 2024 – This Poll Says He’s the ONLY One Who Can
Is he canny enough to please the populist right in the Party of Trump, then win over a general election that has rejected Trump, his party, and his candidates in 2018, 2020, and 2022? Unlike Trump, DeSantis has won over many Democrats with increased teacher pay, funding to restore the Everglades, and his stewardship of the state through the COVID pandemic when he largely kept Florida open.
But there are concerns among some Republicans that DeSantis could scare off enough independent voters in the primary to lose the general election. Sen. Chris Murphy recently told the Washington Post that DeSantis is “using government to manipulate and micromanage our lives,” in ways that are “Orwellian” and “creepy,” and suggested that should provide an opportunity for Democrats.
The road to the White House is paved with land mines and will test DeSantis’ political instincts. Apparently a demanding boss, he has had trouble with staff turnover, according to reporting by Politico, and a number of former staffers formed a “support group” in 2021. Campaign experts have questioned whether someone who doesn’t have a cadre of loyal aides, and tends to trust only his wife, can run a successful presidential campaign on the first try.
He will also have to play an insider and outsider game in both the primary and the general that is hard to define in the era of Trump. Did DeSantis know what he was doing when he chose to endorse Harmeet Dhillon in the race to chair the Republican National Committee even though it was clear Ronna McDaniel would win? Perhaps that was meant to help his street cred with MAGA voters, but the truth is that Trump has deeply co-opted the RNC, and supported McDaniel despite objections from Rep. Matt Gaetz & Co.
Was that the move of a political genius or a novice? And does DeSantis know how cringeworthy and over the top this ad was that informed us he was chosen by God?
Related: Sarah Palin Offers Advice to DeSantis: Stay Out of Trump’s Way in 2024
DeSantis has also refused to do interviews with the mainstream media, something Trump has always done no matter how much he rails against them. DeSantis is not naturally charming, and often appears grumpy in public. Behind closed doors, he isn’t a good schmoozer either. Trump is a showman, craving adoration and loving the stage. Trump is also a brawler whose attacks aren’t limited by decency or dignity. Should DeSantis wilt in the face of Trump’s attacks, and fail to be that “fighter” he sold himself to be, he will have to hope primary voters prefer competence over performance and don’t reject him for the reigning alpha.
A powerful juggernaut also requires a deft balancing act. Too much consolidation around DeSantis could tip the scales back to Trump – if the entire donor class, Fox News Channel, the Club for Growth, and the rest of the GOP establishment back DeSantis, Trump will once again be the outsider. Headlines about Jeb Bush endorsing DeSantis help Trump.
Right now, he’s everyone’s favorite horse – but DeSantis doesn’t get to place or show. He has to win. It’s vanquish Trump or go down as a great disappointment.
For a 44-year-old incumbent who just won reelection handily, waiting until 2028 after a second Biden term (or after a second Trump term), would be far easier than taking on this primary battle. But waiting, and passing one’s “moment,” is considered a kiss of death in politics. Presidential contenders are expected to have the guts to jump in when everyone else wants them to, and to ride the momentum or else. But for DeSantis, a primary win could still invite a bitter end, if Trump refuses to endorse him and boycotts the general election. In a close presidential contest, like 2020 or 2016, Trump could convince even a small percentage of GOP voters to sit it out and doom DeSantis.
Ron DeSantis better make sure he has an end game.
Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.
The post Will DeSantis Rescue Republicans Or Let Them Down? appeared first on The Political Insider.

By Philip Wegmann for RealClearWire
Return him to the White House, and Donald Trump promised to deliver global peace and domestic harmony. Deny him a second term, and the United States would become “a failed country,” a nation “that no one will even recognize – a lawless, open-borders, crime-ridden, filthy communist nightmare.”
That was the choice the former president presented to an adoring crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference a few miles outside the nation’s capital in suburban Maryland. As he spoke, many of the exuberant MAGA faithful seemed ready to carry him across the Potomac and reinstall him in the Oval Office then and there.
Trump is competing for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and perhaps for the first time, he will have to defend his record from the right, not the left. He didn’t mention any of his GOP rivals by name, some of whom had served on his own cabinet and who had taken the same stage the day before. Instead, he called out the old guard, promising “we are never going back to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, and Jeb Bush.”
The main distinction between Trump and those previous Republican leaders? “I was the only president in modern history who did not have any new wars. No new wars,” he said of his presidency before qualifying, though, that he had “finished some old ones.”
Land war in Europe provided Trump the opportunity to talk foreign policy at length. In his telling on Saturday night, the world teeters on the brink of a third world war, a conflict he claimed he could prevent “very easily.” The war in Ukraine could be buttoned up and over with, Trump told the crowd, “very quickly.”
Related: Trump Heads to CPAC While DeSantis, Pence Decide to Skip it
During an impromptu press conference before taking the stage, Trump told reporters that he has a plan to end that war “in 24 hours.” He wouldn’t give any details, he explained, “because if I told you that, I probably wouldn’t be able to do it.” Of course, he added, Russian tanks would’ve never rolled across Ukraine if he had remained in the White House.
“I was also the only president where Russia didn’t take over a country during my time. Russia didn’t take over because I got along with Vladimir Putin very well,” he said of the Russian leader. “I’d say ‘Vladimir, don’t do it. You know, you and I are friends, don’t take over any countries because you know, Moscow will be hit very hard.’”
Trump also returned to his regular complaint that Europe was taking the United States for a ride. “If you look at Ukraine, and we all feel so badly about it,” he said, “why isn’t NATO putting up dollar for dollar with us?” He complained when he noted that Europe was contributing “just a tiny fraction” of the critical war materiel needed to keep Ukraine standing. Pointing to the map, he continued that while he wanted to see Ukraine succeed, “It’s far more important to them than it is to us because of the location.”
Just hours earlier Trump had won the CPAC straw poll with 62% of the vote, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis coming in a distant second with 20%. The result was expected. He’d won the previous five straw votes, and the populist conference served as more of an unofficial coronation than a true cattle call. Other than former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, most potential 2024 candidates stayed away. This includes former Vice President Pence, who declined an invitation, and DeSantis, who traveled this weekend to a donor retreat hosted by the conservative Club for Growth.
Trump did not mention either rival, though he claimed to reporters before the event that Pence had the right to overturn the presidential election and, during the speech, that the Republican Party would never be controlled by people who “want to destroy our great Social Security system.” Earlier in the week, Trump accused DeSantis of being “a wheelchair-over-the-cliff kind of guy.” For understandable reasons, Trump welcomes a large field, telling reporters, “the more, the merrier.”
The Republican primary season promises to be a battle royale with multiple candidates vying for the nomination. If half as many candidates run in 2024 as did in 2016, it could quickly devolve into the kind of name-calling, substance-free chaos that defined that last contest. The former president can also deliver mayhem all on his own.
Though under investigation by prosecutors probing his efforts to overturn the results of the last presidential election in Georgia, and by the U.S. Justice Department, Trump declared that not even an indictment would end his candidacy. “I won’t even think about leaving,” he told James Rosen of Newsmax, speculating, “Probably, it’ll enhance my numbers.”
Trump returned to his claim onstage that he had won the 2020 election, and he condemned the investigations as politically motivated, telling the audience that “they want to lynch you for doing nothing wrong,” but complaining that “Joe Biden is a criminal and nothing ever seems to happen to him.” The idea that Democrats want a rematch, he said, was “bullshit” because why else would his opponents launch those investigations.
His enemies are many, and Trump told the crowd as much. “In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’” he said. “Today, I add, I am your warrior, I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
Vengeance would not get in the way of setting things right at home. Trump promised that he would fix public education in short order through “universal school choice and the direct election of school principals by the parents.” He called for new child tax credits, declaring “I want a baby boom!” Crime rates would fall, business would rebound, and there would be “a quantum leap in the American standard of living,” Trump claimed, “especially for our young people.”
Related: Trump: ‘I’d Beat’ Ron DeSantis If I Run in 2024
Trump took the opportunity to unveil two new policies. First, he said, “the federal government should take over control and management of Washington, D.C.” Second, he called for the building of “new freedom cities on the frontier to give countless Americans a new shot at homeownership and the American dream.”
The former president seemed to relish being back in the spotlight. His speech lasted more than an hour and a half. He took the opportunity to take yet another victory lap, recalling how “wonderful” things once were when he was in charge and how “great” things could be again if he won. But the contest was existential, the dichotomy Trump presented, rigid.
“We have no choice. If we don’t do this, our country will be lost forever,” he said, echoing a similar claim that he delivered less than three years ago. People are tired of RINOs and globalists. They want to see America First.” He continued, “This is the final battle. They know it, I know it. You know it, everybody knows it. This is it. Either they win or we win, and if they win, we no longer have a country.”
Return him to the White House, Trump said, and all would be well. A loss, he insisted, would mean all would be lost forever.
Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.
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