#Eric Hovde

[porterdavis]

From their own mouths...

"If you're in a nursing home, you only have 5 or 6 months life expectancy. Almost nobody in a nursing home is in a point to vote [sic]"

[cheerfullycatholic]

In recent comments, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Eric Hovde stated that while he supports the overturning of Roe v. Wade and believes in the “beauty of life,” he also believes allowing abortion to remain legal in the first trimester is the most reasonable thing to do. “I believe in the beauty of life,” said Hovde. “I have two daughters, three grandchildren, but I also believe in exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother. And I think early on in a woman’s pregnancy, she should have a right to choose. If you look at most of Western Europe, they resolved this decades ago. I think Germany said 12 weeks, France at 14 weeks, almost all of Western Europe allows a woman the right to choose in the first trimester.” Like Hovde, most Americans want abortion restricted significantly, while allowing it in the first trimester. But popular opinion in Europe or the United States “resolving” that it’s acceptable to kill smaller, weaker human beings up to a certain point doesn’t magically make those humans unworthy of life. Preborn children are living, growing human beings at all stages of pregnancy from the moment of fertilization, and all human lives deserve to be protected, including preborn children in the first trimester.

[tomorrowusa]

Filthy rich Republicans wish to tax poor people more so that the rich can get even more tax brakes when the GOP is in power. That's pretty much the story of Eric Hovde.

Hovde is running against incumbent Wisconsin US Senator Tammy Baldwin.

Wisconsin is a fairly moderate state. But it features some of the most despicable Republicans outside the old Confederacy.

In 2017, Sunwest Bank CEO Eric Hovde advocated for reforms that would raise taxes for 72 million Americans, including retirees and low-income earners. Hovde, a Republican, is expected to announce a U.S. Senate campaign in Wisconsin soon. Hovde, who has been endorsed by national Republicans to challenge Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in 2024, made the proposal in a Nov. 18, 2017, appearance on the radio program “The Vicki McKenna Show.”  [ ... ] Analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found the plan would have also raised taxes for middle- and working-class families as well as retirees. “More than 80 percent of the tax increase would be paid by households making about $54,000 or less, and 97 percent would be paid by those making less than about $100,000,” wrote Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow with the organization. “Low-income families with children would pay the most: Achieving Scott’s goal would slash their after-tax incomes by more than $5,000, or more than 20 percent. A Scott-like plan would raise taxes on middle-income households by an average of $450.” Scott’s plan failed to pass, but he has not given up pushing for it. If Hovde were to join him in the Senate and support the measure, it could gain traction. In Wisconsin, Scott’s plan would have raised taxes for 32% of people, according to analysis by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. 

Hovde wants to take away your healthcare in addition to raising your income tax (if you're not a millionaire).

Hovde ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 2012, and during that campaign he called for a total repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which in 2022 made it possible for 212,209 individuals in Wisconsin to obtain affordable health insurance coverage.

The Eric Hovde and Donald Trump Agenda: Take Away Critical Health Care Protections From Wisconsinites

Hovde doesn't even live in Wisconsin. Just sayin'...

Bice: Eric Hovde may run for Senate in Wisconsin, but he's living large in Laguna Beach, California

Did I mention that Eric Hovde is an anti-abortion fanatic.

ERIC HOVDE ON ABORTION

[davidblaska]

Democrat(ic) plant defeats Hovde

Siphons off just enough votes! We’ve said before Democrats fight dirty. But, like the late and unlamented Senate majority leader Harry Reid* crowed after being caught in one scam, “We won, didn’t we?” * ( * “Harry Reid’s appalling defense of his attack on Mitt Romney” — Washington Post.) Running as a third-party candidate, a Democrat(ic) plant named Thomas Leager siphoned off just enough votes…

[ladyscroogeblr]

US Senate race

In Wisconsin there is a senate race going out. Tammy Baldwin is the democrat and is up for reelection. she has been serving since 2012 for this great state and has done good for the state and the whole country! Her opponent is a millionaire named Eric Hovde from California who has no real ties to Wisconsin! He is a Trumpster, wants to band abortion nationwide, cut Medicare and Social Security, plus get rid of Obama care! With Wisconsin he has said farmers are lazy and only drive around all day on tractors! The more you weigh, the more health insurance you will have to pay and has said senior citizens would not be allowed to vote who live in nursing homes! Hovde has no plans to help Wisconsin if elected to the senate! He is clueless, stupid and spends most of his time on the beach in front of his house! Tammy has been traveling around the state in a bus visiting cities, towns and talking to people and followers getting the word out! Not to mention she has been supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, too! While Hovde sits on the beach and has hardly toured Wisconsin to talk to voters! He trashes Tammy along with money from Mitch McConnell's republican pack in commercials I see and hear on the radio! All lies! nothing but lies! Tammy can win her seat! She is fighting and working hard for Wisconsin! That is why I voted for her, not that lazy SOB who doesn't care about us!

[iamnathannah]

I've summoned menacing Eric Hovde onto my timeline somehow. Just this still picture.

[rextomblr]

lmao what a clueless dunce.

[nodynasty4us]

From the April 29, 2024 explainer:

That is a question that several Republican Senate candidates are facing this year. It seems like the GOP’s strategy, initially spearheaded by Sen. McConnell (R-KY),  is to parachute in random millionaires with loose ties to battleground states, take pictures of them doing local sports and eating state-specific foods, and hope that no one notices that these people aren’t from there.

The four are:

Bank owner Eric Hovde--Laguna Beach, California, but running in Wisconsin

Hedge fund owner Dave McCormick--Connecticut, but running in Pennsylvania

Aerospace CEO Tim Sheehy--Minnesota, but cosplays as a Montana rancher

Mike Rogers--Cape Coral, Florida, but not even registered to vote in Michigan where he is running

The GOP!

"Rule's are for suckers"!

"rules are fo sucker

[bisexualalienss]

“it won’t be that bad” it’s already bad

[darkmaga-returns]

By Jerome R. Corsi

The Democrats may have made a significant mistake in their all-too-obvious attempt to steal a U.S. Senate seat from GOP candidate Eric Hovde. As Hovde explained in a November 12 video, in the early hours of November 6, 2024, he received congratulatory calls for his apparent win. Then, suddenly, by 4:00 am, “a staggering 108,000 absentee ballots were dumped from Milwaukee, with two-term incumbent Senator [and Democrat candidate] Tammy Baldwin receiving nearly 90 percent of those votes.” Hovde objected: “Statistically, this outcome seemed improbable, as it didn’t match the patterns from same-day voting in Milwaukee, where I received 22 percent of the votes.”

The problem for Democrats is that the late-night drop of an improbable 108,000 thousand absentee ballots that were nearly all for the Democrat candidate fitted an all-too-recognizable pattern of election fraud made possible by cryptographic algorithms embedded covertly in the official State Board of Elections (SBOE) voter registration database. Unfortunately for the Democrats, Andrew Paquette, Ph.D., had previously found an illegal clandestine algorithm in the SBOE voter rolls. As reported on GodsFiveStones.com, Paquette concludes:

This study of Wisconsin’s voter rolls reveals strong evidence of multiple ID number assignment algorithms, with two appearing over-engineered, enabling data segregation and hidden assignment. The presence of over 60,000 records with encrypted ID numbers further suggests hidden attributes, potentially violating public disclosure laws.

Paquette has also discovered similar illegal cryptographic algorithms in New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, with algorithms yet to be reported also found in New Jersey, Texas, and Hawaii.

[mariacallous]

MADISON, Wis. — A bombshell report this morning from Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that Banco Azteca, a bank reportedly tied to the Mexican cartel flew $26 million of cash across the U.S.-Mexico Border to Eric Hovde’s bank in California.

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailed, Banco Azteca was cut off by several other U.S. banks over “risk and compliance concerns” after reporting linked it to cartel activity. An executive of the bank was recently implicated in a federal indictment detailing his attempts to bribe a member of the U.S. Congress to get U.S. banks to once again do business with the bank. Despite this, Eric Hovde’s bank flew $26 million of cash from Mexico City to Irvine, California as part of a deal with Banco Azteca last December.

This shocking revelation comes as Hovde has refused to disclose which foreign banks and governments his bank has done millions of dollars of business with. What else is Hovde hiding?

Read more below:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bice: Democrats question Eric Hovde over his bank’s $26M deal with a troubled Mexican bank

By: Dan Bice

Banco Azteca, the 10th largest financial institution in Mexico, has had its share of problems in recent years.

Accused in past news stories of having links to the Mexican drug cartel.

Dropped as a financial partner by some U.S. banks because of “risk and compliance concerns.” 

And now caught up in a Texas bribery scheme with an American congressman.

But Sunwest Bank, the Utah-based financial institution run by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde, doesn’t mind doing business with it.

In December, Banco Azteca sent $26.2 million in cash to Sunwest on four airplane flights as part of a massive currency conversion called “repatriation,” records show. Hovde, who is running against Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, is chairman and CEO of Sunwest.

Now Democrats are questioning the deal, saying it gives voters a window into how Hovde runs his businesses by putting personal financial stakes above other issues.

Arik Wolk, spokesman of the Democratic Party, said Sunwest’s transactions with Banco Azteca are “extraordinarily concerning,” especially given the alleged past ties between Azteca and the drug cartel. He added, however, that Democrats were not suggesting Hovde or Sunwest had done anything illegal.

“Hovde is willing to do anything to enrich himself, even flying cash across the border for a bank suspected of working for criminal groups that are pouring deadly fentanyl into our state,” Wolk claimed.

As recently as 2021, Banco Azteca had no correspondent banks in the U.S. with which it could transfer U.S. currency.

Over the past decade, several news accounts, including two by Reuters, have drawn links between Banco Azteca and Mexican gangs, which are the leading suppliers of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other illicit narcotics to the U.S.

In 2023, a Reuters reporter wrote that drug cartels are using remittances – money transfers favored by migrant workers – to send illicit earnings back to Mexico. 

The Reuters reporter said he witnessed five individuals on motorcycles collecting cash from people leaving branch offices of three banks, including Banco Azteca. Locals said these were couriers for the Sinaloa Cartel picking up drug money sent as remittances.

In a 2014 story, Reuters quoted a prominent anti-kidnapping activist saying Mexican gangs involved in kidnapping migrants ask for the money to be sent to Banco Azteca. Also, the Yale Journal of International Affairs reported that Banco Azteca was one of four banks that the Mexican cartel was using to process extortion payments.

A little more than a decade ago, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency investigated Banco Azteca’s ties with its then-correspondent bank in the U.S., Lone Star National Bank of Pharr, and turned up money-laundering concerns. Repeatedly cited and fined, Lone Star soon ended its relationship with Banco Azteca.

Other financial institutions, including Fifth Third Cincinnati and CBW Bank, soon followed.

According to a May story in the Wall Street Journal, Banco Azteca has struggled doing business with U.S. banks since regulators began enforcing rules cracking down on money laundering from drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. Many U.S. banks have cut ties with Banco Azteca because of “risk and compliance concerns.”

For years, that left Banco Azteca holding onto large sums of U.S. currency with no place to offload it.

[davidblaska]

Blaska's ballot looks like this:

Garbage in, garbage out! Unlike The Washington Post — or Amazon.com for that matter — Blaska Policy Werkes endorses candidates. In many cases, we help the candidates we support by endorsing their opponents. The old switcheroo, as KC Chiefs Coach Andy Reid might say. Donald Segretti would be proud. Donald Trump riding a garbage truck in Green Bay WI in response to the Uncle Joe Biden’s latest…

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 18, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Oct 19, 2024

The events of January 6, 2021, overshadowed those of January 5, 2021, but that day was crucially important in a different way: Georgia voters elected two Democrats, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, to the U.S. Senate. Warnock and Ossoff brought the total of Democrats in the Senate to 48, and since two Independents—Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont—caucus with the Democrats and because in an evenly split Senate the majority goes to the party in the White House, their election gave Democrats control of the Senate.

Without that majority, the Biden-Harris agenda that built the U.S. economy into what The Economist this week called “the envy of the world” would never have passed. There would have been no American Rescue Plan, no Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, no CHIPS and Science Act, no Safer Communities Act, no PACT Act, no Inflation Reduction Act. 

In an era when Republicans refuse to vote for any Democratic measures no matter how popular they are, control of the Senate is vital. The Senate majority leader decides what measures can come to the floor for consideration, so a leader can shut out anything his party doesn’t like. The Senate also controls the confirmation of federal judges, including members of the Supreme Court. 

During the Trump years, then–Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stacked the courts with MAGA judges, some of whom are now so reliably handing down right-wing decisions that plaintiffs routinely “shop” for them to get the decisions they want. And with Trump’s three hand-picked extremists at the Supreme Court, challenging those decisions simply writes that extremism more fully into law. 

As Trump continues to crumble—he canceled another appearance today, and in a statement almost certainly designed to leak, an advisor said he was “exhausted”—and as Democrats are favored to take the House, Republicans are waging a fierce battle to take control of the Senate. 

They are starting with an advantage. There are 34 Senate seats on the ballot this year, and Democrats are defending 23 of them while Republicans are defending just 11. Republicans need to pick up one seat to control the Senate if Trump wins the White House, and two if Harris wins. 

The McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund PAC has, so far, spent more than $140 million in this year’s Senate races, with more than $136 million going to attack ads. In the four races that are most vulnerable for Democrats—Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—the Senate Leadership Fund has spent $17.85 million (MT), $55.5 million (OH), $38.1 million (PA), and $23.6 million (WI).

In each of those four races, that money is bolstering extremely wealthy Republican challengers. In Montana, Republican Tim Sheehy, running against Senator Jon Tester, would be among the ten wealthiest senators if elected: his financial disclosures put his net worth at between $74 million and $260 million. Republican Bernie Moreno, who is challenging Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio, has a net worth between $38 million and $172.7 million. In the Pennsylvania race, David McCormick (who actually appears to live in Connecticut) reported assets of $116 million to $290 million in 2022. In Wisconsin’s race, Republican Eric Hovde (who lived in an ocean-view mansion in Laguna Beach, California, until he decided to run for the Senate from Wisconsin) would also be one of the Senate’s richest members. His financial disclosures say his net worth is between $195.5 million and $564.4 million. 

This is not a coincidence. Knowing that fundraising would be difficult this year with Trump steering funds from the Republican National Committee primarily to himself, Republican Party leaders actively recruited candidates who could pour their own money into their campaigns. By the end of June, Sheehy had put $10.7 million into his own race; Moreno had put in $4.5 million by mid-October. McCormick had loaned his campaign more than $4 million by the end of June; Hovde put in $8 million by the end of March. 

This moment echoes the late nineteenth century, when wealthy businessmen sought a Senate seat as a capstone to their success, a perch from which they could protect the interests of other men like themselves. In that era it was relatively easy for a man like Nevada’s William Sharon to buy himself a Senate seat because the Constitution had established that state legislatures would elect their state’s senators. Determined to win a Senate seat to protect his railroad interests “regardless of expense,” Sharon bought a newspaper to flood the state capital with his own praise. The legislature gave him the seat in 1874. 

By the 1880s, even the staunchly pro-business Chicago Tribune complained: “Behind every one of half of the portly and well dressed members of the Senate can be seen the outlines of some corporation interested in getting or preventing legislation.” In 1892 the newly formed Populist Party met in Omaha, Nebraska, “to restore the government of the Republic to the hands of ‘the plain people,’ with which class it originated.” They called for the people to bypass the corrupt legislatures and elect senators directly. 

In 1900, William A. Clark of Montana provided the kick their proposal needed. 

Clark had arrived at the newly opened gold fields in Montana Territory in 1863 and transferred the money he made as a mule trader into banking. He made a fortune repossessing mining properties when owners defaulted on their loans. He invested that fortune in smelters, railroads, a newspaper, and copper mining, becoming one of the state’s famous Copper Kings. In 1889 he was the president of the Montana constitutional convention, where he made sure that mine owners could run the state as they wished. 

By 1890, Clark had his eyes on a Senate seat. He failed to get the support of the legislature in that year, and for the next decade he and his rival copper magnate Marcus Daly of the Anaconda Company poured vast sums of money into influencing the economy of the state, the location of the capital, and the state’s politics. 

Clark finally won his election in 1899, but on the same day he presented his credentials to the Senate, his opponents filed a petition charging him with bribery. An extensive investigation revealed that Clark had bought his seat with bribes ranging from $240 to $100,000, equivalent to almost $4 million today. His representatives had paid debts, bought ranches, and even handed envelopes of cash to legislators. The investigation also showed that Daly had spent a fortune trying to block Clark’s election. 

Montana politics, it seemed, had become a rich man’s game.

Aware that the Senate would vote to remove him from his seat, Clark resigned in May 1900. In January 1901 a new Montana legislature containing many of the same men Clark had paid off in 1899 elected him again to the same term from which he had been forced to resign. After an undistinguished term, he retired from the Senate in 1907.

Clark’s blatant purchase of a Senate seat added momentum to the demand for the direct election of senators, and in 1913 the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution established that the power to elect senators must rest in the hands of voters. That measure was supposed to make sure that wealth could not buy a Senate seat.

That the ability to self-fund a campaign is once again a key factor in winning a Senate seat from Montana—and Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—seems to be history repeating.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[amagi2000]

Where Have We Seen This Graph Before?

Just because President Trump won in a landslide, don't think for a moment that Democrats have stopped stealing elections.

"In the late-night hours of November 6 while most of the country was asleep, a 'huge and improbable Dem vote dump,' to quote the “Shylock Holmes” (@shylockh) X / Twitter account that dropped the news, resulted in the Wisconsin Senate race being handed to Democrat Tammy Baldwin instead of Republican Eric Hovde.

Two counties in particular, Dane and Winnebago, saw oddly improved Democratic vote counts at numerous points during the count. Every time the GOP started to pull ahead in the race, the Democrat vote spikes became observably more “extreme” to offset it."

Meanwhile, in corrupt Pennsylvania, Democrats are even now busily engaged in stealing the Senate seat won by Republican Dave McCormick over Democrat incumbent Bob Casey