News & Brews April 1, 2025
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Wisconsin today, Pennsylvania next
All eyes are on Wisconsin today as voters will elect a new state Supreme Court justice who will determine not only the balance of power on the state’s supposedly non-partisan highest court but potentially also the balance of power in the U.S. Congress. That’s what the Democrats are pitching, at least. An event with the Left’s candidate was billed as a “chance to put two more House seats in play for 2026.” That’s because if the Dem wins and the Left controls the court, they plan to gerrymander districts to give Democrats more seats on Congress. They’re not even trying to hide it anymore. Of course, next up after Wisconsin is Pennsylvania, where three of our own Lefty judges who already gerrymandered congressional districts in 2018 to benefit Democrats will ask voters to give them each another 10-year term. The Wisconsin race has already broken spending records—suggesting an expensive election in Pa. as well.
More judicial chaos on mail-in ballots
A few months after the Pa. Supreme Court said it would consider whether undated or inaccurately dated mail-in ballots should still be counted—in violation of state law, by the way—a federal judge ruled that they must be. The judge said that requiring a date infringes on the right to vote. This, of course, is ridiculous. Next, activist judges will be ruling that requiring voters to actually fill out ballots violates the right to vote, because apparently these judges think voters are incapable of anything.
Texts show Delco elected official was afraid of ‘helping more Rs than Ds’
Text messages obtained by Broad + Liberty show that Democrat County Councilwoman Christine Reuther and other Dems on the council felt “at ease mingling their official jobs with their more partisan selves, blurring the ethical lines of a duty to administer the election in a nonpartisan way.” In response to a text from the Democrat Party County Chair asking, “Do you think there’s any point in trying to have volunteers outside the media voter service center to help when the lines get long? I don’t know if it’s a bad idea interfere [sic] with voting or if it might be helpful,” Reuther replied, “We may wind up helping more Rs than Ds.” The county would not reply to questions about how “problematic” this text is. Maybe the Democrat County Party would reply, since it kind of seems like they’re one and the same.
Pa. Senate passes immigration enforcement bill
The state Senate voted 31-18 to pass legislation that would require prosecutors to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement if a person charged with a crime is in the United States illegally. The vote was bipartisan, with four Democrats joining Republicans to support this public safety measure. As the bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Dan Laughlin (Erie County) said, “This is a strong bill that will safeguard our communities and ensure that dangerous criminals are not allowed to remain in Pennsylvania. We have a duty to protect our residents, and this bill gives law enforcement the tools they need to do exactly that.” The legislation now heads to the Pa. House for consideration.
‘Penn State faculty will get more than they bargained for with SEIU’
Even as Penn State plans to close multiple campuses as enrollment drops, the Service Employees Union International (SEIU), which typically targets healthcare and blue-collar workers but is also facing declining membership, is seizing on a way to pilfer dues money from another group: higher education workers. The Commonwealth Foundation’s David R. Osborne writes, SEIU “in the early stage of ‘organizing’ … faculty members” at Penn State. But faculty may not know what they’re in for. Indeed, they “can expect to fund not only politics but also union overhead.” In fact, “SEIU spends twice as much on overhead as it does on representing its members.” What’s more, SEIU has a shady record when it comes to higher education efforts.