The Associated Press: on Government Reform


Jeff Bartos: Election not stolen; Trump not to blame for insurrection

Bartos does not suggest that the election was stolen from Trump--Trump maintains baselessly that it was--and has said he believes Trump should have ended his efforts to overturn the outcome several weeks after the election when federal courts were rejecting his legal challenges.

But Bartos does not assign blame to Trump for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, unlike Toomey, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of suburban Philadelphia and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell.

Source: Associated Press on 2022 Pennsylvania Senate race Mar 8, 2021

Jeff Bartos: For voter ID, end "no excuse" absentee ballots

Bartos is also joining a Republican movement to tighten voting laws in the wake of Trump's loss to Biden. Bartos said that he supports voter ID laws and ending "no excuse" absentee ballots, a law that Pennsylvania passed in 2019 with near-universal support from Republican lawmakers before Trump began attacking mail-in voting, baselessly, as being rife with fraud.
Source: Associated Press on 2022 Pennsylvania Senate race Mar 8, 2021

Jim Lamon: Signed document falsely claiming to be presidential elector

A U.S. Senate candidate who was one of 11 Arizona Republicans who signed a document falsely claiming he was authorized to cast the state's electoral votes for President Donald Trump said in an interview that the document was only a contingency plan. Jim Lamon, who signed the document making the false claim on Dec. 14, 2020, said he understood he was only asserting himself as one of Arizona's official electors in case the results were decertified.
Source: Associated Press on KTAR 92.3 FM: 2022 Arizona Senate race Sep 16, 2021

Leslie Rutledge: OpEd: Lawsuit alleges election challenge was self-serving

The lawsuit alleges Rutledge overstepped her authority by supporting failed lawsuits seeking to overturn presidential election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. "Rutledge ... engaged in highly partisan political activities as Attorney General in order to further her political standing and to promote her own personal political ambitions at the expense of the taxpayers of Arkansas," according to the lawsuit. Rutledge denies the allegations.
Source: Associated Press / KY3-News on 2022 Arkansas Governor race Mar 24, 2021

Mandela Barnes: Fighting to protect democracy and right to vote

Barnes, in his announcement speech in Milwaukee where he grew up, called for "leveling the playing field" by fighting for family-supporting jobs, combatting gun violence, creating a more fair immigration system, improving health care, addressing climate change and protecting democracy and the right to vote. "We can, today, build a movement for justice," Barnes said. "I'm running for the Senate to provide opportunity, to fight for hard-working people."
Source: Associated Press on 2022 Wisconsin Senate race Jul 20, 2021

Mark Kelly: Declined to take a position on eliminating the filibuster

Kelly declined to take a position on eliminating the filibuster, a requirement for most major legislation to get 60 votes in the Senate, which many Democrats see as a major impediment to their ability to enact their agenda. He said only that he'll give it "careful consideration" if it comes up. "Washington is broken, and this highlights how broken it is that we're having these fights over old Senate rules," Kelly said.
Source: Associated Press on 2020 Arizona Senate debate Oct 8, 2020

Timothy Ramthun: Asked legislature to rescind Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes

Ramthun has called on the Legislature to rescind Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes that were awarded to Biden, a move that Republican leaders and nonpartisan attorneys for the Legislature have repeatedly said is illegal. Ramthun has also recorded a series of videos, and made comments on podcasts, where he discusses theories about why he believes Biden did not win Wisconsin. One of those was titled "The Calm Before the Storm," a phrase often used by followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Source: WISN via Associated Press on 2022 Wisconsin Governor race Feb 10, 2022

Steve Scalise: States didn't follow Constitutional requirements

Scalise repeatedly refused to say that the 2020 election wasn't stolen, standing by Donald Trump's lie that Democrat Joe Biden won the White House because of mass voter fraud. Nine months since Biden was inaugurated, Scalise was unwilling during a national "Fox News Sunday" interview to acknowledge the legitimacy of the vote, instead sticking to his belief that the election results should not have been certified by Congress.

"I've been very clear from the beginning," he said. "If you look at a number of states, they didn't follow their state-passed laws that govern the election for president. That is what the U.S. Constitution says. They don't say the states determine what the rules are. They say the state legislatures determine the rules," Scalise said.

Pressed on whether the election went beyond a few irregularities, Scalise responded: "It's not just irregularities. It's states that did not follow the laws set which the Constitution says they're supposed to follow."

Source: Associated Press in MarketWatch on 2020 Election Denialism Oct 10, 2021

Pete Snyder: Against on-again-off-again regulations on small business

The CEO of a capital investment firm, Snyder said that the state government's response to the coronavirus pandemic was the top reason he jumped into the race. He criticized Virginia's relatively slow rollout of testing at the start of the pandemic, what he called "on-again-off-again" regulations on small businesses, and the fact that many school districts have not returned to in-person instruction.
Source: Associated Press on 2021 Virginia Gubernatorial race Jan 26, 2021

Scott Parkinson: Roll back government regulations that stifle opportunity

Parkinson plans to campaign on a promise to cap the growth of government spending and reduce taxation. He voiced support for doubling down on Trump-era tax cuts and rolling back government regulations "stifling American opportunity."

"I'm terrified about what the future of the American economy looks like for my kids," Parkinson said. "And so that will be a big, big element of our campaign, when we create a movement to rescue the middle class."

Source: Associated Press on 2024 Virginia Senate race Apr 3, 2023

Perry Johnson: Voter ID will be mandatory; won't suppress votes

Asked if the 2020 election was "stolen" from President Donald Trump, he did not say."The very mere fact that we have to talk about this means that we have issues we have to resolve. ... Voter ID will be mandatory. It means that we're going to make it so everybody can have a voter ID. I'm not going to do anything to suppress votes," Johnson said.
Source: Associated Press on 2024 Presidential hopefuls May 4, 2023

  • The above quotations are from Columns and news articles distributed by the Associated Press on 2020 races.
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2024 Presidential contenders on Government Reform:
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V.P.Kamala Harris (D-CA)
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Chase Oliver(L-GA)
Dr.Jill Stein(D-MA)
Former Pres.Donald Trump(R-FL)
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Gov.Tim Walz(D-MN)
Dr.Cornel West(I-NJ)

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Pres.Joe_Biden(D-DE)
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Former V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN)
U.S.Rep.Dean_Phillips(D-MN)
Vivek_Ramaswamy(R-OH)
S.C.Sen.Tim_Scott(R)
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