Free Republic

Former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness is, once again, running for the congressional seat recently left vacant with the passing of US Representative Alcee Hastings. He only lost by a mere five votes in the 2021 special election primary to Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who now holds the seat and is seeking reelection, and to make up for last year’s deficit, it seems Holness is openly courting Muslims associated with terror and bigotry. On July 30th, his campaign sponsored a ‘Night of Appreciation’ featuring Shafayat Mohamed, an anti-gay imam from an al-Qaeda-linked mosque. In Holness’ desperation to win this seat, he is...

Rep. Alcee Hastings was 84 years old and battling pancreatic cancer. He was nearing his third decade in Congress. But he just couldn’t quit his House seat. So he ran again last November and won his South Florida-based district, only to die in April. His death created a vacancy that made House Democrats’ already slim majority even smaller — and now his seat will remain vacant until January, thanks to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who aimed to keep the solidly Democratic seat unoccupied for as long as possible by scheduling the special election nine months after Hastings’ death.

A U.S. House seat left vacant because of the death of Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings likely will not be filled until early next year. Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that qualifying for a special election in Southeast Florida’s Congressional District 20 will be held in September, with a primary election on Nov. 2 and a general election on Jan. 11.

Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., died Tuesday after a more than two-year bout with pancreatic cancer, NBC News confirmed. Hastings, who served in the House for nearly three decades, was 84. Throughout his career, he held several key committee assignments and leadership positions, most recently as vice chairman of the Rules Committee. After the congressman’s death, Democrats hold a narrow 218-211 advantage in the House, giving the party a small margin for error in passing legislation. Six seats are vacant. Hastings, a former federal district court judge, was impeached in 1988 amid accusations of bribery and perjury. The Senate voted to...

Longtime Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings (D), the dean of the Florida congressional delegation, died Tuesday after a battle with pancreatic cancer, two leadership sources confirmed. He was 84. Hastings started his career as a civil rights attorney and was nominated by former President Carter in 1979 as a federal judge in Florida. Nearly a decade later, he was impeached by the House for bribery and perjury, and convicted by the Senate, making him only the sixth federal judge in U.S. history to be ousted from office by the Senate. Hastings later made an unlikely political comeback in 1992, winning a...

Alcee Hastings was appointed to be a federal judge in 1979. In 1981, he was accused of soliciting bribes and obstructing justice ... A special committee of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals began a .. three-year investigation ended with the panel concluding that Hastings did indeed commit perjury, tamper with evidence, and conspire to gain financially by accepting bribes. ... He was impeached by the United States House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate. He was kicked out of his judgeship in 1989. .... Four years later he ran for the U.S. House — a federal office —...

Who better to set the rules for Trump’s impeachment trial than a guy who has actually been impeached? That’s right, the Democrats, in all their infinite wisdom, appointed Alcee Hastings as the vice chair of the rules committee. Hastings went through an impeachment trial in 1988 on a bevy of crimes he committed while serving as a federal judge. Playing in the Democrat sandbox, the disgraced ex-judge was elected to congress by the crazed liberals. ... Here's something you don't see every day: Alcee Hastings, a former federal judge impeached and removed from the bench for taking bribes, participating in...

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings is hinting that he's contemplating retirement — but not too soon. Just elected to his 12th term, Hastings has already declared his intention to seek a 13th term in 2016. The Miramar Democrat has represented most of the black communities in Broward and Palm Beach counties since 1993, making him the region's longest serving member of Congress.

Full Title: Texas lawmaker dropped a sealed envelope at the airport. It was filled with four bags of cocaine, police say. A stray envelope may end the political career of Texas state Rep. Poncho Nevárez. As the Democratic lawmaker, 47, was leaving an airport in Austin earlier this year, he dropped an envelope bearing his official letterhead, police said, citing surveillance video. Inside, investigators now say they found a revelation that would lead to an apology, a decision not to seek reelection — as of Thursday afternoon — and a warrant for his arrest: The sealed envelope, they said in...

The late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in the mid-2000s attempted to coordinate with Colombian guerrillas to flood the United States with cocaine, according to federal prosecutors' documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal. According to the documents, former Venezuelan Supreme Court Magistrate Eladio Aponte took part in a meeting where Chávez in 2005 convened his closest advisers to draw up plans to ship cocaine to the United States with the help of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). SNIP “During the meeting, Chávez urged the group, in substance and in part, to promote his policy objectives, including to combat...

(Pictured: Texas State Representatives Panco Nevarez (Left) and Matt Rinaldi (Right) Came To Blows On The House Floor Over Illegal Immigration)We’ve repeatedly warned that the division festering among the Left and Right could soon lead to violence across America and the real possibility of a civil war. Earlier this year we reported that Anti-Fascist groups were beginning to arm themselves for physical violence after taking a beat down in Berkeley.And while attacks have thus far been limited to protesters clashing on college campuses and speaking venues for Republicans, things have now taken a drastic turn.Hours ago, as supporters of...

State Rep. Poncho Nevárez, D-Eagle Pass, has bonded out of jail after he was caught on surveillance footage in early September dropping a white envelope with cocaine inside. The arrest warrant signed by a Travis County magistrate was issued Thursday. It states Nevárez faces a charge of Possession of Substance in Penalty Group 1, which is a third-degree felony and punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Bond amount was set at $10,000. Nevárez confirmed over text he turned himself in Thursday night in Maverick County. According to an affidavit for a search warrant to collect Nevárez’s DNA, filed...

A stray envelope may end the political career of Texas state Rep Pancho Navarez

The House Ethics Committee on Thursday released a trove of striking internal campaign communications sent in 2018 by Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, in which Tlaib urgently requested money from her congressional campaign to defray personal expenses -- and, a government watchdog said, possibly violated federal law in the process. The document dump was related to the committee's ongoing ethics probe into Tlaib, which the panel said on Thursday would be "expanded" based on a referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). Additionally, the Ethics Committee acknowledged for the first time on Thursday an investigation into Florida Democratic Rep....

Texas Democratic state representative Alfonso "Poncho" Nevárez was caught on video surveillance dropping an envelope containing cocaine at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The Texas Department of Public Safety filed an affidavit on Oct. 29 detailing surveillance footage that revealed Nevárez "dropping a white paper object" as he walked out of the airport on Sept. 6. Two Texas Department of Transportation employees found the white envelope, prompting an investigation. Inside the sealed envelope were four "small clear plastic baggies" containing cocaine. Nevárez, who is chairman of the state house Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee, told the Texas Tribune on Thursday "the...

The House Ethics Committee revealed on Thursday that it is investigating Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) over whether his relationship with a member of his staff breaks House rules. Hastings has admitted to being in a relationship with his aide, Patricia Williams, who serves as his deputy district director. The committee is now investigating whether Hastings violated House rules with that relationship and if he received any improper gifts from that employee. The House last year adopted a rule preventing members of Congress from having a sexual relationship with a member of their staff. "The Committee is aware of public allegations...

Full title: Ethics Committee releases messages showing Tlaib asking campaign for personal money, as ethics probes announced The House Ethics Committee on Thursday released a trove of striking internal campaign communications sent in 2018 by Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib , in which Tlaib urgently requests money from her congressional campaign to defray personal expenses. The document dump was related to the committee's ongoing ethics probe into Tlaib, which the panel said on Thursday would be "expanded" based on a referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). Additionally, the Ethics Committee acknowledged for the first time on Thursday an...

One of the cocky Democrats responsible for writing the party’s widely-criticized, “unfair” impeachment rules that were voted on this week is reportedly a habitual rule breaker who’s been caught employing his own girlfriend in his congressional office. That Democrat is House Rules Committee vice-chair Alcee Hastings of Florida, who this week joined his fellow equally cocky Democrats in stonewalling efforts by Republicans to install just a modicum of fairness in their otherwise unfair and unjust impeachment rules. Cocky Dems stonewall GOP over unfair impeachment rules during contentious meeting https://t.co/6puPuUlcpO — Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) October 31, 2019 According to an investigation...

Democratic representative Alcee Hastings (Fla.) has paid his girlfriend the maximum congressional salary for the seventh straight year. Patricia Williams, Hastings's longtime girlfriend, who first appeared on his payroll in 2000, received the maximum congressional salary of $168,411 throughout 2018, according to salary data posted to Legistorm, a government tracking website. Williams has collected the maximum allowable salary since 2012, and has been compensated at a higher rate than Hastings's Washington, D.C., chief of staff, typically the highest paid position in a congressional office. Williams had been listed as district director out of Hastings's Broward County, Fla., office, but in...

Full headline: Freshmen Democrat Leftists already wearing thin on establishment as rebukes of Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and Tlaib increaseAs candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s star began to rise last summer thanks to wall-to-wall coverage from an adoring, enthused media, many of whom were claiming that she was going to be the new face of the Democratic Party (if not the Democratic Left), some older party hands were having none of it. Rank-and-file establishment Democrats and former Democrats lined up to oppose Ocasio-Cortez’s agenda and even her candidacy after she unexpectedly defeated 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley, who was widely expected to step into...