Republicans Favor Less Government Except in Distressed Cities

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1 Republicans Favor Less Government Except in Distressed Cities February 4, :00 AM EST Updated on February 4, :25 AM EST Governors in Illinois, New Jersey push state takeovers "What's the exit strategy?" needs to be answered of managers The Republican refrain is that the best government is a small government, and that it shouldn t meddle in local affairs. Except when cities in Republican ruled states are in trouble. Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner is pushing for a takeover of the Chicago school system, which is hemorrhaging cash, and his counterpart in New Jersey, Chris Christie, just reached a deal with a topranking Democratic legislator to give Trenton more control over Atlantic City, which could be out of money as soon as April. In Michigan, Rick Snyder was ahead of them: he signed a law in 2012 expanding the authority of stateappointed emergency managers who called the shots in several cities, including Flint, where the water system is contaminated. The governors have said drastic action is necessary, and state intervention the only option after years of failure by local officials in many cases Democrats to protect their citizens. Critics of a state taking command don t like the strategy no matter which party s behind it, but a bigger government seizing power seems not to mesh with the GOP platform. It doesn t fit with the Jeffersonian view of democracy in which you govern at the level closest to the people, said Marick Masters, a business and political science professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. Essentially when the state comes in and takes it over, and when you appoint one person and give them extraordinary power, that reeks of anything but democracy.

2 Lowest Rated The three governors are grappling with deep seated problems in cities. And the states are facing their own tough issues. Illinois and New Jersey are the lowest and second lowest ranked U.S. states by credit rating companies, as escalating public pension obligations pressure their finances. Michigan is trying to rebuild from the sharp decline of its manufacturing base; Detroit filed for bankruptcy in The water crisis in Flint which has been in and out of the state emergency manager system since 2002 is emblematic of Michigan s challenges, Standard & Poor s said this week. That state s oversight program is among the most aggressive in the country, said Eric Scorsone, director of the Center for Local Government Finance and Policy at Michigan State University in East Lansing. In 2011, the Republican controlled legislature passed a bill allowing state emergency managers to overturn labor contracts and seize other legal authority in financially troubled cities and school districts. Voters approved a repeal of the law, but it was replaced by a similar one in 2012 that gave local officials some options to challenge the state managers. Exit Strategy Flint s an example of the drawbacks of intervention, said Scorsone, who is advising the city s elected officials. It was the state that oversaw the decision to change the source of its water to a polluted river supply to save money. Complaints went unheeded for months. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined a probe of the contamination. You come in, you balance the budget. You make draconian cuts. What s your exit strategy? said Wayne State s Masters. It often requires a lot more than just rectifying the books to put a city on a path of sustainability. Snyder, who has been in office since 2011, has said the rescue policies provide tools needed to protect the health, safety and welfare of residents and ensure children receive a first class education. In the wake of Flint, he s pledged a comprehensive effort to improve the city s quality of life for generations. Budget Impasse Chicago s school system, the nation s third largest, is running out of cash after years of raiding reserves and shortchanging pensions, which has caused the unfunded liability to balloon. The district relies on borrowing to cover budget gaps. Rauner earlier this month called for the state to take over the district and potentially authorize bankruptcy, which currently isn t allowed. The governor who s locked in an impasse with the Democratic controlled legislature that has left Illinois without a budget this year has said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants money from the state without reforming the system.

3 Catherine Kelly, a spokeswoman for Rauner, pointed to comments he made Wednesday, where he called the school system a financial disaster. State appointees, and possibility bankruptcy, would keep schools open and teachers in the classrooms, he said. We can protect our children and their education and still protect taxpayers, said Rauner, who last month spoke of the need of "empowering local communities" in the state to streamline government for savings. Little Success State takeovers across the country, particularly with school districts, have yielded little success since little additional resources are ever devoted to the problems, said David Merriman, co director of the Fiscal Futures Project at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois. In New Jersey, Christie, a presidential candidate who has called for less government being intrusive in our lives in every way, appointed an emergency manager last year for Atlantic City. Home to 39,000 on the sea, it s been upended by an expansion around the country of legalized gambling. The city could soon be in the red, in the wake of the closure in 2014 of one third of its betting parlors. Mayor s Support The emergency manager left in January, after releasing a report that recommended more spending cuts and consolidating services. That could be more easily done if a state oversight agency wins unprecedented control over the city s decisions, which Christie wants for five years. Mayor Don Guardian and city council members agreed to work on state legislation that would authorize this with Senate President Steve Sweeney. Joelle Farrell, a spokeswoman for Christie, pointed to the governor s comments last week, where he said he considered intervention five years ago but decided on just a state run tourism district. We wanted to give Atlantic City a five year opportunity to have some of these problems work out on their own, they did not, Christie said. So now we need to take those stronger steps to intervene and to work as partners with the mayor going forward. Christie has stepped up the state s role in other distressed areas. Camden, whose manufacturing collapse set it on a path to become the most dangerous U.S. city, was already under state oversight dating back to 2002 when Christie took over its school district three years ago. In 2013, he disbanded the city s police department in favor of a regional system. Grim Alternative

4 Democracy in the city of Camden has been decimated in Atlantic City, it will be, too, said Raymond Lamboy, a former Camden schools trustee who is a Democrat. Atlantic City s unique case tests the state s commitment to local control, said Carl Golden, who worked in the administrations of two Republican former governors of New Jersey. It may go across the grain ideologically or philosophically with Republicans but at the same time, the alternative was so distasteful let it sink on its own or dump god only knows how much money into it year after year, said Golden, a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University. Money and Influence in U.S. Presidential Campaign University of Chicago Professor Luigi Zingales discusses money and influence in the U.S. presidential campaign. He speaks on "Bloomberg Surveillance." (Source: Bloomberg) With All Due Respect (02/05/16) Mark Halperin and John Heilemann are joined by former Governor Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Republican strategist Tom Rath and NBC News Kristen Welker on With All Due Respect. New Hampshire Republicans Battle for Second Place in New Hampshire Feb 8, :24 AM EST Home Field Advantage Is Only Part of Sanders's Appeal in New Hampshire The Vermont senator has made significant inroads with women voters in the Granite State. Senator Bernie Sanders throws his jacket to an attendee as he speaks during a campaign event in Portsmouth, New

5 Hampshire, on Feb. 7, Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg Just a week after turning 2008's loss in the Iowa caucuses into a 2016 win, Hillary Clinton could be headed for the opposite fate in New Hampshire, where polls show she now trails Bernie Sanders by double digits. Her campaign has advanced a rationale even promoted by Bill Clinton himself: Nobody from a state bordering New Hampshire has ever lost a Democratic primary to a non incumbent president. Even as Clinton looks forward to upcoming contests to solidify her anticipated march to the Democratic nomination, her struggle to repeat her 2008 victory in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary is about more than just home field advantage for the Vermont senator. Polling suggests that trust in Clinton, as well as her support among women and those earning less than $50,000 a year, has eroded since Granite State voters gave her that triumph in The New Hampshire electorate also has changed, with fewer blue collar Democrats who served as a staple of Clinton's coalition in 2008 and her husband's in 1992 when he won the presidency. Hillary Clinton is not the Hillary Clinton of New Hampshire is not the New Hampshire of 2008, said Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Granite State voters helped Clinton revive her flagging campaign in 2008 when, as the leading Democratic candidate, she came in third in Iowa behind then Senator Barack Obama and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Clinton beat Obama by 2.6 percentage points in New Hampshire that year, and while Obama ultimately won the nomination, her win allowed the contest to continue and she thanked voters for helping her find her own voice. Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton asks for quiet as she celebrates her victory in the 2008 New Hampshire primary in Manchester. Photographer: Stan Honda/AFP After starting the 2016 Democratic race as the overwhelming favorite, the RealClearPolitics average of New Hampshire polls through Saturday had Sanders leading Clinton by more than 13 percentage points in the state. Last week, Clinton narrowly won the Iowa caucuses after once leading by more than 40 percentage points and despite overwhelming institutional advantages. There is an advantage in New Hampshire for Sanders not necessarily because voters know him better, but because Democratic voters in the state are similar to those in Vermont and it's been easy for him to campaign there, Smith said. Yet that alone doesn t account for the difference in pre primary polls because Clinton s support in among New Hampshire Democrats isn't as broad as it was in 2008, he said.

6 Exit polls from the 2008 primary in New Hampshire showed that Clinton had 46 percent support among women compared with 34 percent for Obama, and she also had the advantage over Obama among those earning less than $50,000 a year, 47 percent to 32 percent. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll of likely Democratic primary voters released Thursday showed Sanders winning 50 percent of women and 61 percent of those earning $50,000 or less. Smith said the gender gap is particularly noticeable by age, with women 35 and younger backing Sanders and women older than 65 more inclined to support Clinton. That's attributable in part to generational differences and Sanders's overall appeal to younger voters, Smith said. Laura LaBranche, 24, a computer technician from Somersworth, said she relates better with Sanders as someone fighting for people who are not wealthy. I m not sure if she s just running for the sake of being the first female president, I m not sure how sincere she is with this, LaBranche said after a Sanders rally in Portsmouth. Bernie seems more connectable to me. Liz Frescoln said while she backed Clinton in 2008, she thinks Sanders is the more effective advocate for issues such as universal health care and lowering medical costs. I originally backed Hillary because she s a woman, but I think there s a lot more at stake here that I think Bernie s focusing on, Frescoln, 62, a psychotherapist from Canterbury, said after the same rally. He seems to have a lot more energy. Dianne Day, a 55 year old unemployed woman from Rindge, voted for Clinton in 2008 and is backing Sanders now. While she liked Clinton and her issues eight years ago, Sanders is a better choice now, Day said. I don t trust her, Day said after a Sanders rally on Saturday in Rindge. I liked that she was the first woman running, but I don t think that that s as important as getting the best person in the job now. A CNN/WMUR New Hampshire primary poll released Sunday showed that while 7 percent of Democrats won t vote for Sanders under any circumstances, 21 percent are opposed to Clinton amid questions about her use of a private e mail server while she was secretary of state and doubts about her electability and longevity on the political stage. There are fewer blue collar Democrats today compared with 2008 as factories closed and the state lost jobs during the recession, diminishing what had once been a core element of Clinton's coalition, Smith said. New Hampshire has shed almost 13 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the end of 2007, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Sanders is also appealing to moderates and blue collar workers in New Hampshire, which voted for U.S.

7 Senator John Kerry over former Vermont Governor Howard Dean in the 2004 presidential primary, said Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. I think Sanders speaks more directly to their concerns than Clinton has been able to do, Scala said. Those blue collar voters are especially willing to listen to a populist us versus them type of message, and that s resonating with them in a way that Clinton doesn t. In a telephone interview, Dean said while the New England advantage for Sanders is real, the appeal of his message during a time Americans are struggling with stagnant wages can't be denied as well. It's also a mistake to underestimate his political skills, Dean said. Ultimately, Clinton will win the nomination because voters will be able to picture her in the White House as president more easily than Sanders, Dean said. Unlike Sanders and Donald Trump, the real estate mogul and Republican front runner, she also has concrete plans that can be realized, he said. People know something's wrong, and that's a perfect situation for somebody like Bernie to come along, or Donald Trump on the other side, and rail against all the things that are wrong, Dean said. It's not going to get fixed by telling everybody how terrible it is. Even so, just as New Hampshire voters weren't ready to hand the nomination to an untested first term Senator Obama in 2008 after his victory in Iowa that year, the Granite State isn't ready to anoint Clinton either, said Tad Devine, a longtime Democratic strategist and senior adviser for Sanders. I think what voters are going to say this year in New Hampshire is, We have this power, we understand we have this power, and we think we re going to use it to make sure the nomination process continues because the person who needs testing is Hillary Clinton. Devine said.