The past 14 months have exposed several blue state governors’ ineptitude, favoritism and callousness.
In a story buried or ignored by most media since she’s a Democrat, we recently learned New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sexually harassed a now-former staffer in 2019.
Her office paid at least $62,500 to a law firm representing James Hallinan, after he accused the governor of grabbing his crotch in front of co-workers during her 2018 campaign.
Local media reports the payments — five installments of $12,500 — were revealed in a campaign finance report filed earlier this month.
Hallinan alleged the governor poured a bottle of water on his crotch and grabbed his genitals through his clothes while she laughed. The governor’s campaign manager talked him out of reporting the incident at the time.
“He pressured me on the phone later that night not to quit,” Hallinan said. “I wanted to talk and they didn’t want me to talk to law enforcement.”
Chair of the Democratic Governors Association no less, Lujan Grisham “strenuously denies that there is any merit or truth to Mr. Hallinan’s claims, including his claims about difficulty finding or keeping work after the campaign,” read a statement from campaign spokesman Jared Leopold.
Hallinan originally announced the allegations in a Christmas Day 2019 tweet, claiming, “A governor … is not above the law for her sexual and physical abuse of employees including (me!!!) I’ll talk more when I return to the country.”
Readers of this website know all too well about the failures of Minnesota leadership — from the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general to senators, urban congressmen, and mayors.
Last year, Gov. Tim Walz ordered elderly patients with COVID-19 back to nursing homes, where they spread the disease. Minnesota has long been atop the nation in percentage of nursing home deaths due to COVID-19.
Walz crushed businesses for months with inconsistent dictates on which facilities could remain open. Minnesota’s economic recovery has been rather slow.
The former teacher and cadre of leftist clowns showed little common sense last summer, allowing the largest city to be destroyed by riots and looting, which continued last week a few miles north. Influenced by the anti-police bigots on his city council, Mayor Jacob Frey ordered police officers to withdraw and let chaos rule as Minneapolis burned.
Minnesota students have also been brainwashed to hate policing, due to isolated incidents receiving international coverage.
Then there’s Andrew Cuomo, whose detestable policies have killed more than 10,000 New York nursing home residents as the national press yawned and celebrated. It took nearly a year of alternative media noting facts to wake up Empire State politicians to revoke his pandemic emergency powers. And that only occurred because the media was distracted by several sexual assault claims against Cuomo.
I said a month ago the three-term governor was never resigning, and he has not.
With the exception of New York, no state has been led worse during the pandemic than Michigan. And unlike the rest of America, as spring begins, the Wolverine State seems to be going backwards.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently extended several restrictions for six additional months because of current trends.
Despite strict mask mandates and draconian rules for over a year, coronavirus is a “runaway train” in Michigan. Many hospitals are back at critical levels, reaching 95% capacity in places like Detroit. This is a city led by a Democratic mayor who turned down vaccines last month because his citizens should get the “best” vaccines. This harebrained idea conflicts with guidance from state and federal health officials.
Facts matter. It’s certainly much easier politically to defame successful large states with Republican governors like Florida and Texas. Those states’ leaders deferred to citizens and liberty and, despite large populations with complicated demographics, have succeeded.
And we don’t have time or room to recap the mishaps by Democratic governors in California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Virginia and elsewhere.
A.J. Kaufman
A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.