ME: GOP Nominee for Governor Calls for Gang Presence at Polling Stations

Source: Common Dreams

“[T]he state’s Republican nominee for governor detailed a proposal that, according to one public policy think tank, is wholly illegal. In an audio clip released Wednesday by the Bangor Daily News, Bobby Charles, a lawyer and former Reagan administration staffer, boasted about his connections to the Trump administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, a key figure in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation. ‘Here’s my secret. I have a friend named Tom Homan,’ said Charles, drawing applause from the GOP voters. ‘I’m going to ask Tom … three or four weeks before the election, maybe three, I’m going to make an appeal for ICE and Marshals to be at our voting booths.’ Charles was referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the US Marshals, both armed federal law enforcement officers whose presence at polling sites to intimidate voters would be against the law, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.” (08/27/26)

https://www.commondreams.org/news/bobby-charles-maine-governor-race

Steve Trinward

Flailing GOP needs a boogeyman for midterms. Enter Islamophobia.

Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan

“November’s midterm elections, which will determine which political party controls Congress, are less than 10 weeks away. And Republicans, already likely to lose control of the U.S. House, are now in danger of losing the U.S. Senate too. Time for a Republican boogeyman to frighten voters – a revival of Islamophobic rhetoric. A standing election time tradition in the Republican Party is to pick some group – Chinese Americans during COVID-19, LGBTQ+ Americans in 2024 – to present as an un-American threat to the rest of us. But this Republican Party has run short of ideas on everything from how to fix our economy to which scary people we should be scared of. So we’re getting a retread.” (08/27/26)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/08/27/republicans-attack-el-sayed-islamophobia-midterms/91455004007/

Thomas L. Knapp