Accountability | Kentucky
Fact Check: Deceitful Republican Governors Association Ad Misleads on Beshear’s Healthcare Record
Last week, in a last ditch effort to bolster Gov. Matt Bevin’s reelection campaign, the Republican Governors Association released an ad deceitfully implying that Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear is currently supporting a “government take over of healthcare,” without any shred of evidence.
The ad makes the claim while flashing pictures of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on the screen. But according to a review by American Ledger, the evidence supporting this claim is virtually nonexistent, making the RGA’s new ad an apparent attempt to defraud Kentucky voters with blatantly false information.
Corruption & Secrecy | Kentucky
Bevin Cut Off Resources to Laid Off Ashland Steel Workers
In January 2017, Gov. Matt Bevin ignored the cries of local steelworkers in Ashland County, Kentucky, by gutting funding for the Ashland Career Center, a local career organization designed to help guide local steel mill workers to their next position incase of layoffs.
Nearly two years later, in September 2019, almost 260 steel workers employed at AK Steel in Ashland were given notice they would likely be laid off, and now are left without a fully functioning resource center to help them find their next job because of Bevin’s steep cuts to the Ashland Career Center.
Accountability | Virginia
Anti-LGBT Va. Lawmaker Bill DeSteph Attempts to Whitewash Anti-LGBT Record
In an attempt to rebrand himself a champion of equality, Virginia State Sen. Bill DeSteph touted a singular endorsement of an openly gay Virginia Councilman in a Facebook post last week, despite his lengthy record of voting against LGBT equality in Virginia, including his ongoing support of harmful conversion therapy practices.
According to a review by American Ledger, in January 2019, DeSteph voted in favor of SB 1778, a bill that would allow for psychological conversion therapy to be practiced upon minors in Virginia. The American Psychological Association is opposed to conversion therapy, stating it poses significant risk of harm to LGBT individuals, including elevating the risk for potential suicide.
Accountability | Michigan
Former GM Employee Blasts Trump For Broken Promise to Autoworkers
In a heartfelt op-ed penned yesterday in the Akron Beacon Journal, John DeGarmo, a decades-long employee of General Motors, called on President Trump to finally make good on his broken campaign promise to revive the auto industry across the Rust Belt. DeGarmo demanded action after he and others lost their jobs when the GM Lordstown plant in Ohio shuttered in March 2019.
Accountability | Louisiana
Former Employees Sue Rispone Campaign Contributors, Allied Cajun Industries
Cajun Industries, founded by a close political ally of Eddie Rispone, is currently being sued for the events leading to an August 2018 explosion at a Lake Charles complex that caused many of his workers to flee the scene vomiting and gasping for air.
Just a few months after the dangerous explosion, Rispone continued to raise money with Grigsby, who originally founded the Louisiana-based contracting and engineering corporation -- Cajun Industries LLC -- that allegedly left these workers unprepared for the blast.
Accountability | Virginia
Virginia Republican Bryce Reeves: Women Need Transvaginal Ultrasounds to Make Rational Decisions About Abortion
In a newly uncovered radio interview, Va. State Sen. Bryce Reeves stated he believed women needed a transvaginal ultrasound in order to make a “rational” decision when seeking an abortion.
“This bill, transvaginal ultrasound bill, of which I got to tell you, I think helps women make a logical, rational decision,” Reeves said on the John Fredericks radio show in December 2012.
Accountability | Virginia
In the Wake of Virginia Beach Shootings, GOP Va State Sen. Hopeful Geary Higgins Embraces NRA
In the days following the deadly mass shooting on May 31, 2019 that took the lives of 12 people in Virginia Beach, State Senate Candidate Geary Higgins doubled down on his embrace of the gun lobby. Instead of disavowing his support of the National Rifle Association in the wake of the tragedy, Higgins continued to run ads on Facebook trumpeting the group's endorsement.
Coincidentally, the NRA returned the favor just weeks later, spending nearly $6,000 to give Higgins the boost he needed to win the Republican primary to represent Virginia’s 13th District in the State Senate.