Free Republic

The complaint filed by two state senators against Secretary of State Mark Ritchie over his conduct related to the state's proposed voter ID amendment is scheduled for a hearing Friday morning. Administrative law judge Bruce Johnson issued an order Tuesday, Oct. 9, concluding that the allegations, if true, would constitute a violation and thus a probable cause hearing was merited. Republican Sens. Mike Parry of Waseca and Scott Newman of Hutchinson filed the complaint Thursday with the Office of Administrative Hearings. It alleged that Ritchie, a Democrat and opponent of the proposed amendment -- which would require all voters to...

Petition Signature Gathering Please be advised that any persons who wish to gather petition signatures must do so beyond the 100-foot distance markers. Petition signatures for any type of election may not be collected inside the early voting or election day polling place or within the 100-foot distance marker. Petition gathering is considered electioneering for or against a measure, which is prohibited within the 100-foot distance marker. Id. §§ 61.003, 85.036.

Suddenly we're supposed to believe that Hillary Clinton is a great secretary of state. Eric Schmidt of Google calls her "the most significant secretary of state since Dean Acheson." A profile in the New York Times runs under the headline "Hillary Clinton's Last Tour as a Rock-Star Diplomat." Another profile in the current issue of Foreign Policy magazine is titled, wishfully, "Head of State." The two articles are so similar in theme, tone, choice of anecdote and the absence of even token criticism that you're almost tempted to suspect one was cribbed from the other. The Hillary boomlet isn't a...

John Kerry acting as key Obama surrogate, fuelling secretary of state buzz By: Lee-Anne Goodman, The Canadian Press 30/04/2012 WASHINGTON - John Kerry, the Democratic senator whose patrician ways helped seal his defeat to George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election, is emerging one of Barack Obama's top lieutenants in the U.S. president's battle for re-election. Kerry's foreign policy gravitas makes him a natural to tout Obama's achievements on everything from ordering the successful hit on 9-11 mastermind Osama bin Laden a year ago to working to topple Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. The long-serving Massachusetts lawmaker has been the chairman...

Whatever happened to the left-wing Secretary of State Project liberals promised would save our elections from the dirty tricks of those dang lowdown, yellow-bellied, lily-livered Republicans? The evidence now suggests that the election-stealing, George Soros-funded so-called "527" political committee is dead, or perhaps just deeply sedated. This group that section 527 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code allows to accept unlimited financial contributions was created solely to rig elections for Democrats. It accomplishes this by electing permissive liberal Democrats as secretaries of state. In most states the secretary of state is the chief elections officer, so putting left-wingers in the...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Longtime Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette plans to file paperwork on Thursday that would allow him to run for governor if a recall election is ordered against Republican Gov. Scott Walker. La Follette said Wednesday he still hasn't decided whether he will actually get into the race. But he says he wants to create a campaign committee so he can better gauge interest in him running and better determine if he would be a strong candidate. Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout have announced they are running. La Follette...

The Democrats cannot steal the 2012 election for Obama as easily if they don't have the Secretary of State cheating for them! Stand up for the Republican Sec of State! It sounds like his court case is nothing but political.

Yesterday I was helping my son study for a test in his Government class, and he asked me if I knew what Secretary of State had become President for about 3 hrs. My best guess is Alexander Haig, when he took control after President Reagan was shot and VP Bush was in his way to Texas. Am I right or has there been another case of a Secretary of State becoming acting President. And, if I'm right, why did he jump ahead of the Speaker of the House and President pro-term of the Senate? These may be very simple questions...

The FBI rounded up a network of deep-cover Russian spies last year after the group came close to placing an agent near a Cabinet official in the Obama administration, a senior FBI counterspy said Monday as the bureau released once-secret documents on the case. ...U.S. officials said it was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mr. Figliuzzi said in an interview that the FBI decided to end its more than 10-year-long counterspy investigation of the network because of concerns that the spies were “getting very close to their objective.” “These 10 Russian officers were sent to the U.S. on a...

Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson says Michigan has no plans to offer online voter registration, arguing the state needs to improve security in the voting process before introducing new technology. "There's nothing that's more important to the foundation of our democracy, our republic, our country than making sure our votes are clean and also encouraging people to vote," she told WJR-AM 760 host Frank Beckmann on Monday. "It's always a balancing act." Rock the Vote, a non-partisan national group that encourages young people to participate in elections, has called Michigan's voting laws outdated and suggested this week that technology...

A report that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is interested in becoming the World Bank’s next president could create an opening for Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), who has previously expressed interest in the Cabinet position. A Clinton spokesman denied Reuters’ report Thursday that Clinton is talking with the Obama administration about resigning if World Bank President Robert Zoellick steps down when his term ends in the middle of 2012. Clinton has made clear that she is not interested in a second term as Secretary of State should President Barack Obama be re-elected. Kerry’s office was unavailable...

This ain't kosher! A Hasidic paper in Williamsburg digitally erased Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton from the instantly iconic photo of the White House Situation Room as President Obama and his staff watched the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound.

A flattering New York Times profile has increased speculation that Samantha Power, the Dublin-born aide to President Obama, could be his next Secretary of State or National Security Adviser. She has been the main architect, along with Hillary Clinton, of the Libya policy and has an increasing influence in the White House inner circle. No Irish-born person in recent history has had such influence on a president. Power, now 40, moved to the US from Ireland at age 10. With Hillary Clinton due to step down after Obama’s first term, she would be a live candidate to succeed her if...

WASHINGTON -Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday she does not want to stay in her job if President Barack Obama wins a second term in 2012. The nation's top diplomat also firmly said she neither has plans to mount another White House bid nor interest in other posts, such as vice president or defense secretary. Clinton, visiting Cairo, was asked whether she would stay on in a second Obama term. She also was asked if she would like the jobs of president, vice president or defense secretary. She offered single word responses to each: "No." Speculation about Clinton's...

Outside of Kansas, Kris Kobach is best known as an expert on immigration issues. He's the author of Arizona's anti-illegal-immigration law, a longtime counsel to the Immigration Law Reform Institute and a hero within the border-security movement.Inside Kansas, he wears another hat entirely. He's the newly elected secretary of state, having ousted Democratic incumbent Chris Biggs by a margin of 59 percent to 37 percent.Why would someone who's devoted his career to fighting illegal immigration want to become chief vote-counter for the state of Kansas? Suffice it to say that Mr. Kobach devoted his campaign to one issue, and...

Joy Tiz ©2010 Reunited and it feels so good! Looks like Bill and Hill have reconciled with their old pal, George Soros. Bill Clinton is set to be the special guest star at a fund raiser for gubernatorial candidate, Mark Dayton of Minnesota who is in a recount battle with Republican Tom Emmer. So near and dear is Dayton to Soros that he’s hosting the bash at his New York home. Soros and the Clintons were once, literally, thick as thieves. Soros reveled in having access to the Clinton White House and fancied himself part of the “Clinton team.” The...

Republicans on Monday accused the state Democratic Party and Secretary of State Debra Bowen of using "illegal campaign tactics" to influence voters to cast a ballot for late Sen. Jenny Oropeza in a Long Beach state Senate district. Democrat Oropeza died unexpectedly last month but remains as a candidate for re-election on today's ballot. The California Democratic Party recently sent Democratic and decline-to-state voters in the district a letter from Bowen, a Democrat, outlining what would happen if Oropeza wins. "Jenny Oropeza's name is on the ballot. You have the right to vote for her," the letter reads. "If you...

Forget about the House and Senate, the most important races throughout the country are the ones for Secretary of State! OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but these races are much more important than most people think. Last week, we posted an optimistic analysis of the state Attorney General races. I would argue that in light of all the Democrat cheating and early voting laws, the races for Secretary of State are almost as important. If we are to ensure that our elections are to be free and fair, we must win as many of these races...

Word on Capitol Hill is that Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee with a well-worn passport to the world's hot spots, is in the mix to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who's been hinting of an exit before the end of President Obama's first term. Kerry, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has acted as an emissary for Obama.

History's most notorious Georgian-turned-Russian, the politically astute Joseph Stalin once remarked, "The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." The lesson has not been lost on the increasingly notorious Hungarian-cum-American George Soros. A group backed by Soros is gearing up to steal the 2012 election for President Obama and congressional Democrats by installing left-wing Democrats as secretaries of state across the nation. From such posts, secretaries of state can help tilt the electoral playing field.