Free Republic

In the coming days, I will shed light on the players and their motivations behind this latest California Water War Water wars are historic undertakings in California. Countless other publications have written recently about the proposed ballot measure that would redirect High Speed Rail bond money for water-related projects and prioritize the use of water, But what makes this story interesting is the coalition of opponents, their motivations and techniques being employed. The Committee to Stop the Special Interest Water Grab, led by David Guy, president of the Northern California Water Association, Tim Johnson, president of the California Rice Commission...

JACKSON, Miss. – Former Republican two term state Sen. Tim Johnson announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor Wednesday at the State Capitol. He also officially switch over to the Democratic Party to run against incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. Johnson says he has been contemplating the party switch for over a year now. He says the final straw for him was Republicans failing to expand Medicaid under the affordable care act. Johnson is from Madison and has served as a Madison County Supervisor. In 2011 he ran for Central Public Service Commissioner, but lost the election to Dick Hall....

It’s only a small matter of time until the Obama administration finally, rapturously releases what its hopes will be the crown jewel of its rise-of-the-oceans-slowing climate-change agenda: Regulations capping the emissions from existing power plants, a.k.a., stamping out coal plants across the country. This set of regs is going to be even more complicated and controversial than the regulations for only new power plants the administration released last year, and as the AP obliquely explains, we’re likely to start seeing those “necessarily skyrocketing” energy prices Obama once mentioned pretty quickly here: Electricity prices are probably on their way up...

Controversial housing finance reform legislation making its way through the Senate Banking Committee was co-written by a former mortgage trader for Countrywide Financial and Wachovia, two of the subprime mortgage behemoths at the center of the housing market crash in 2007.Michael Bright, the senior financial adviser to Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), worked as a trader and member of the loan-pricing desk at Countrywide Financial from 2002 to 2006, and as a senior trader for Wachovia from 2006 to 2008.Bright joined Corker’s office in 2010, and has been a key figure in crafting the Corker-Warner housing reform bill and the...

Even worse, the U.S. Senate is poised give us Fannie–Freddie 2.0 in the new housing reform bill that Senators Tim Johnson (D., S.D.) and Mike Crapo (R., Idaho) have released. The Johnson-Crapo bill would wind down the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but would also replace them with a new government agency that expands the federal government’s grip on the housing market. If the Johnson-Crapo housing bill is adopted, the federal government will have effectively taken over the U.S. mortgage market.

**SNIP** Midterm elections are often a reflection of the approval rating of the incumbent president and now President Obama stands at 42.8%. And elections in the 6th year of a PresidentÂ’s term are usually not good for the incumbentÂ’s party. To make things even worse for Democrats, the issues of a weak economy and Obamacare make November look bleak for Harry Reid and his Senate Democratic cohorts. â—¾Alaska, Mark Begich â—¾Arkansas, Mark Pryor â—¾Louisiana, Mary Landrieu â—¾Michigan, Open Seat (liberal Democrat Carl Levin retiring) â—¾Montana, John Walsh â—¾North Carolina, Kay Hagan â—¾South Dakota, being vacated by retiring Democrat Tim Johnson...

EDITED TO AVOID BORING FREEPERS TO DEATH.....several stalwarts of the Democratic caucus write the final chapter in their Senate careers.....among the last connections to the “Old Bulls” w/ some 150 years of combined service. Five top Democratic chairmen are now in their final year as senators. Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan Levin, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia are set to depart when their terms expire. Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is expected to resign early to become the U.S. ambassador to China. ,.....the new Old Bulls are...

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander (R) Montana Senator Max Baucus (D) Alaska Senator Mark Begich (D) Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss (R) Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran (R) Maine Senator Susan Collins (R) Texas Senator John Cornyn (R) Massachusetts Senator William "Mo" Cowan (D) Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D) Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi (R) Minnesota Senator Al Franken (DFL) South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham (R) North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan (D) Iowa Senator Tom Harkin (D) Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe (R) Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns (R) South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson (D) Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D) Michigan Senator Carl Levin (D) Kentucky...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House will host a meeting of aides to Senate committee leaders on Thursday seeking to persuade lawmakers to hold off on a package of tough new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, a senior Senate aide said. The White House will press for another delay on a sanctions bill that had been expected to come to a vote in the Senate Banking Committee last month, but was held back after appeals from President Barack Obama's administration to let negotiations on Iran's nuclear program get under way. The aide said Republicans would resist further delay,...

Herseth Sandlin passes on Senate run, leaving Republicans with early edge to win seat. ... Democrats had targeted the onetime congresswoman, who served from 2004 to 2011, as their top recruit in a seat currently held by retiring Sen. Tim Johnson. Even if Johnson had decided to run for another term, Republicans would have considered the solidly-Republican state one of their top pickup opportunities of the 2014 election. ... The state's former GOP governor, Mike Rounds, has already declared he will seek the Republican Party's nomination. While Rounds announced his campaign early and has high name-identification in the state, he...

Democratic leaders are wooing staunchly pro-gun candidates to run in pivotal Senate races at the same time they are discussing a strategy for bringing gun control legislation back up for debate. The two-pronged effort has prompted Republicans to accuse the Senate Democratic leadership of hypocrisy, but Democrats say it is simply smart politics. The question is whether two of the Democrats’ most promising potential candidates in Montana and South Dakota will pay a price for the leadership’s political maneuverings in Washington. Or will recruiting candidates who do not support President Obama’s gun control agenda have any effect on Democratic fundraising...

2014 retirements: Dems heading for the hills By: Alexander Burns April 23, 2013 04:49 PM EDT Doesn’t anyone want to run for Senate in 2014? Midway through candidate recruitment season, the bad news for Democrats is this: They are watching a generation of talent leave the Senate and head for retirement. The less-bad news: So far, few marquee-name Republicans are interested in these seats either. When Montana Sen. Max Baucus called it quits on Tuesday, he became the latest in a long series of senior legislators to announce that they’ve had quite enough of life on the Hill. National Democrats...

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, does not plan to run for re-election when his current term ends in 2014, sources close to the matter and key Capitol Hill staffers said on Monday. Johnson, 66, joined the Senate in 1997 and has been widely expected to retire at the end of his term. He plans to make the announcement on Tuesday, the sources said. Johnson's staff said that he will hold a press conference at the University of South Dakota on Tuesday. His retirement would leave a vacant seat in a conservative-leaning state that could be...

When South Dakota’s former two-term Gov. Mike Rounds made it official last week that he would seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator in 2014, it was national news. After an election year in which Republicans began with high hopes of winning a majority in the Senate only to end with a net loss of two seats from their ranks, news that Rounds was poised to challenge Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson was truly something to cheer for the dispirited GOP. “Instantly competitive,” is how the Hill characterized the likely contest between conservative Rounds and two-term liberal Democrat Johnson (lifetime American...

Stopping veteran Dem retirements is top priority for Reid, SchumerBy Alexander Bolton - 11/25/12 06:00 AM ET One of the highest immediate political priorities for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Democratic political guru Charles Schumer (N.Y.) is to persuade veteran colleagues not to retire in 2014. Democratic sources identify four senators as most likely to retire: Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Another possible veteran retirement is Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who has yet to announce his decision. But Democratic aides expect him to run...

Rodney Davis, an aide to U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, has been chosen by Republican leaders to be the GOP candidate for congress in the newly redrawn 13th Congressional District. Davis, of Taylorville, will be the GOP candidate instead of U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Champaign. Johnson won the Republican nomination in the March primary election, but announced shortly afterward that he would retire and not run in the general election. "As I traveled throughout the district during the selection process, voters told me that they wanted a common-sense, fiscally-conservative Representative in Washington to help restore the economy, create jobs and cut...

After voters sent a former "Saturday Night Live" star (Sen. Al Franken), a hit recording artist (former Rep. Sonny Bono) and an astronaut (former Sen. John Glenn) to Congress, a former Miss America Pageant winner wants to try her hand at lawmaking. Erika Harold, who won the Miss America crown in 2003, passed the first hurdle this week in becoming the Republican candidate to replace Illinois Rep. Tim Johnson, who dropped out of the race two weeks after winning the GOP nomination in March. The GOP county chairman tapped Harold, a Harvard Law School graduate who now works as a...

Local Republican officials in the 13th district will now select a new nominee to replace Johnson, who was first elected to the House in 2000. A senior Illinois GOP operative immediately pushed Rodney Davis, the former Illinois Republican Party executive director, as a potential successor to Johnson. The source also suggested Davis would have the support of his former boss, Rep. John Shimkus (R). Shimkus currently represents much of the redrawn 13th district but is seeking re-election in a nearby safe Republican district. State Reps. Chapin Rose and Adam Brown as well as state Sen. Sam McCann are also considered...

Veteran Illinois U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson intends to drop his bid for a seventh term and retire, a Republican official said Wednesday. Johnson was expected to make a public announcement of his decision Thursday, said the official, who spoke directly with Johnson but would confirm the decision only on condition of anonymity in order not to pre-empt the congressman's formal announcement.

Speaker John Boehner pushed his debt-ceiling bill through the House Friday night with the support of 218 Republicans. Here are the 22 no votes: Justin Amash (Mich.) Michele Bachmann (Minn.) Chip Cravaack (Minn.) Jason Chaffetz (Utah) Scott Desjarlais (Tenn.) Tom Graves (Ga.) Tim Huelskamp (Kans.) Steve King (Iowa) Tim Johnson (Ill.) Tom McClintock (Calif.) Mick Mulvaney (S.C.) Ron Paul (Texas) Connie Mack (Fla.) Jim Jordan (Ohio) Tim Scott (S.C.) Paul Broun (Ga.) Tom Latham (Iowa) Jeff Duncan (S.C.) Trey Gowdy (S.C.) Steve Southerland (Fla.) Joe Walsh (Ill.) Joe Wilson (S.C.) CORRECTED: Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) voted YES on the Boehner...