In a follow-up to my comment a month ago on judicial vacancies (https://www.the-downballot.com/p/weekly-open-thread-92b/comment/91949578), judges' pace towards the exits continues to be mercifully slow. In the past month, we've learned of three upcoming vacancies, with Timothy Batten (ND GA), Eric Melgren (D KS), and Sean Cox (ED MI) making announcements. That makes for ten announced vacancies since the election: one via a coffin and the other nine all coming from a pretty small group: Dubya district court appointees who didn't have a chance to retire the last time Trump was in office. Only 36 other judges fit that description, plus ten Trump appointees who will have a chance to retire towards the end of this term. That also applies to 11 and 3 circuit judges, respectively, but we haven't heard from any of them yet. Democratic senators also (for now) hold veto power via blue slips on 4/10 of the post-election announced vacancies, as well as 17/46 of the aforementioned Dubya/Trump district appointees' seats. However, Mike Fragoso, who shepherded Trump's nominees through the judiciary committee from 2019-2021, is now calling on GOP nominees to boycott the ABA rating process (which gives us the well qualified/qualified/not qualified scale), so that may be another guardrail slipping away.
I’ll kick this off. So my Rep, Sydney Kamagler-Dove, was one of the Dems with a paddle and I called her office and thanked her. I also said that I hope she didn’t get a scolding from Jeffries and leadership but I also expressed my frustration why Jeffries and leadership had to have a “a serious talk” about how they protested the speech. I didn’t watch the SOTU because I did not want to give Trump viewership. I even told her aide over the phone that. I did say though that I wish Jeffries and leadership would listen more to her colleagues like Kamagler-Dove instead of getting scolded. I asked the aide if there was a way for her constituents to help give her more momentum and apply pressure on leadership. He said that’s a good question and invited me to her town hall tomorrow. I have an event in Long Beach before it but I’m going to try to go. If not, he said there will be another one in March. I think it’s good to acknowledge people like Kamagler-Dove but also find ways to give Democrats like her more influence and momentum to get leadership to listen to them more.
Heads up, I did work on the digital team for the Harris-Walz campaign towards the end of the election on YouTube content. I haven’t talked a lot about it here yet because I’ve also been really busy with other projects but I am slowly but surely coming back to here and DK.
In a follow-up to my comment a month ago on judicial vacancies (https://www.the-downballot.com/p/weekly-open-thread-92b/comment/91949578), judges' pace towards the exits continues to be mercifully slow. In the past month, we've learned of three upcoming vacancies, with Timothy Batten (ND GA), Eric Melgren (D KS), and Sean Cox (ED MI) making announcements. That makes for ten announced vacancies since the election: one via a coffin and the other nine all coming from a pretty small group: Dubya district court appointees who didn't have a chance to retire the last time Trump was in office. Only 36 other judges fit that description, plus ten Trump appointees who will have a chance to retire towards the end of this term. That also applies to 11 and 3 circuit judges, respectively, but we haven't heard from any of them yet. Democratic senators also (for now) hold veto power via blue slips on 4/10 of the post-election announced vacancies, as well as 17/46 of the aforementioned Dubya/Trump district appointees' seats. However, Mike Fragoso, who shepherded Trump's nominees through the judiciary committee from 2019-2021, is now calling on GOP nominees to boycott the ABA rating process (which gives us the well qualified/qualified/not qualified scale), so that may be another guardrail slipping away.
I’ll kick this off. So my Rep, Sydney Kamagler-Dove, was one of the Dems with a paddle and I called her office and thanked her. I also said that I hope she didn’t get a scolding from Jeffries and leadership but I also expressed my frustration why Jeffries and leadership had to have a “a serious talk” about how they protested the speech. I didn’t watch the SOTU because I did not want to give Trump viewership. I even told her aide over the phone that. I did say though that I wish Jeffries and leadership would listen more to her colleagues like Kamagler-Dove instead of getting scolded. I asked the aide if there was a way for her constituents to help give her more momentum and apply pressure on leadership. He said that’s a good question and invited me to her town hall tomorrow. I have an event in Long Beach before it but I’m going to try to go. If not, he said there will be another one in March. I think it’s good to acknowledge people like Kamagler-Dove but also find ways to give Democrats like her more influence and momentum to get leadership to listen to them more.
Now I’m going to focus more on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race and get back to election diaries. It’s been a slow return for me. By the way, Schimel caught on tape admitting he would be a support network for Trump and bringing up 2020 election conspiracy theories: https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2025/03/06/schimel-tells-canvassers-hell-be-support-network-for-trump-and-rehashes-election-conspiracies/
Heads up, I did work on the digital team for the Harris-Walz campaign towards the end of the election on YouTube content. I haven’t talked a lot about it here yet because I’ve also been really busy with other projects but I am slowly but surely coming back to here and DK.