States
From NBC's Alex Beinstein, James Rankin, and Katelin Schartz
The economic recession has not hurt individual Americans across the country; it has also negatively affected state governments, which must balance their budgets.
June 30 was the end of the fiscal year for most states, and here's a round up of headlines -- in the last couple of days -- that shed light on the challenges they're facing:
Alabama
“Recession Delays Alabama Tax Refunds”
120,000 Alabama taxpayers will have to wait for their refunds due to declining revenue.
Arizona
“Brewer Rips Budget, Calls Special Session”
Arizona lawmakers pulled an all-nighter to avoid a government shutdown.
California
“California Ready to Issue IOUs”
California’s epic budget meltdown is grabbing national headlines and forcing the state to print IOUs to residents waiting on income-tax refunds
Colorado
“Colorado Crisis Worst Since Depression”
Colorado is accustomed to boom-and-bust economics, but analysts say this budget crisis is the worst the state has seen in a long time.
Connecticut
Gov. Rell Vetoes Democrats' Budget Proposal
Delaware
“House OKs a Dozen New Tax Initiatives”
Reluctant lawmakers passed a slew of new taxes in order to make up for the states deficit.
Florida
“Florida Drivers, Brace for Impact on Your Wallets”
Florida is trying to close budget deficits by increasing registration and licensing fees for automobiles.
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From NBC's Pete Williams
As a technical matter, Norm Coleman has the legal option to appeal today's decision over the Minnesota Senate recount to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a practical matter, however, it's over.
Five members of the Minnesota Supreme Court today rejected every legal argument Coleman raised. Though the court has seven members, the ruling was unanimous.
Two members -- Chief Justice Eric Magnuson and Justice Barry Anderson -- recused themselves from the case, because they were on the statewide canvassing board and could not be in the position of essentially ruling on their own earlier conclusion about the election.
Today's decision does not order the governor to act, but it says
Al Franken "is entitled" under state law "to receive the certificate of election." The court put the legal effect of its ruling on hold for 10 days -- time enough for Coleman to seek relief from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Many legal scholars agree, however, that it's nearly a certainty that the U.S. Supreme Court will stay out of this. It was one thing for the court to take up the Florida election challenge in 2000, because that involved the presidential election. No such pressing national concern is present here, and there's every reason to think Coleman received fair consideration from the Minnesota courts.
From NBC's Mark Murray
Not surprisingly, Democrats are now putting pressure on Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty
to certify Al Franken as the winner in Minnesota, and on Norm Coleman to bow out of the race.
Sen.
Bob Menendez, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said: "We've always said that Norm Coleman deserved his day in court, and he got eight months. Now we expect Gov. Pawlenty to do the right thing, follow the law, and sign the election certificate."
Added DNC Chairman
Tim Kaine: "Norm Coleman should concede and Gov. Pawlenty should sign the election certificate which Al Franken is entitled to."
And here's Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "I once again encourage Gov. Pawlenty to respect the votes of his constituents and the decisions of his state's highest court. He should put politics aside, follow his state's laws and finally sign the certificate that will bring this episode to an end."
From NBC's Mark Murray and Chuck Todd
Is the never-ending recount in Minnesota over? It very well might be.
Moments ago, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Al Franken beat Norm Coleman in that contested race. "[W]e affirm the decision of the trial court that Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled under Minn.
32 Stat. § 204C.40 (2008) to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota."
Video: The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state's long-running Senate race.
That would give Democrats their filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate (although getting ill Democrats like
Ted Kennedy and
Robert Byrd to vote on legislation will be a challenge).
There are two things to watch. One, will Minnesota Gov.
Tim Pawlenty (R) certify Franken the winner? Pawlenty has said he'll do so if the Minnesota Supreme Court orders him. (Question: Is the court saying Franken is "entitled" an order?) Two, will Coleman take his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court?
By the way, Franken is holding a press conference at 5:15 pm ET.
From NBC's Mark Murray
Well, it looks like South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) wasn't telling the whole truth at that press conference where he revealed his affair with an Argentine woman.
In an interview with the AP, Sanford
disclosed that met seven times with the woman -- more than he initially claimed. The governor "described five meetings with Maria Belen Chapur over the past year, including two romantic, multi-night stays with her in New York before they met there again intending to break up. He said he met her two other times -- their first meeting in 2001 at an open-air dance spot in Uruguay and a coffee date in New York in 2004 during the Republican National Convention. He said neither time was romantic."
More: "It was the first disclosure of any liaisons with Chapur in the United States and contradicted a public confession last week during which Sanford admitted to a total of five encounters over their eight-year relationship."
From NBC's Mark Potter
In an interview with NBC News this morning, Gov. Mark Sanford (R) said categorically he will not resign as governor of South Carolina.
He said he intends to spend the last 18 months of his term improving his approach to proposing legislation.
He says he has consulted with a number of friends and spiritual advisers. All encouraged him to stay in office, which he says now he will do.
“South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Sunday he considered resigning his office after his steamy affair with an Argentine hottie became public last week,” the New York Daily News writes. “He decided to fight on.”
The New York Times says the future of Sanford’s political career “may now depend on something more complicated than even the human heart: the wild and woolly politics of South Carolina.”
Video: Returning to work after publicly admitting to having an extramarital affair, Gov. Mark Sanford is facing disapproval from many – including the state’s first lady. NBC’s Mark Potter reports.
Politico’s Jonathan Martin adds, “In the should-he-stay-or-should-he-go drama now playing out in South Carolina over Gov. Mark Sanford, there is one group of people that is fervently, if quietly, hoping that he will stay. Their motivation is not loyalty to their adulterous governor. It is dismay over what would happen if Sanford bows to pressure and steps down: Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer would step up. That would give Bauer – like Sanford, a Republican – an advantage in what was already shaping up as a brutally competitive GOP primary to replace the term-limited incumbent in 2010.”
The Washington Post profiles Sanford’s wife, Jenny, who it says “seems to have drawn a new path for the aggrieved spouse of a philandering politician… ‘Jenny is the hero in this story,’ said Cyndi Mosteller, a longtime friend and a prominent Republican operative here. ‘She's the hero to her children, and I think she's the hero to this state. In the midst of this tragedy, she is standing strong to who she is and what she believes in. . . . I think Jenny has not had these types of ambitions, but I think every woman in South Carolina would vote for Jenny Sanford for governor right now.’”
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From NBC's Mark Murray
Per a statement, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admits that he visited his mistress during a trade mission last year. He says he's reimbursing the state for the full cost of the Argentina leg of the trip.
Video: More questions were raised Thursday about whether taxpayers paid for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's trips to see a woman in South America with whom he admitted having an affair. NBC's Mark Potter reports.
Here's the statement from Sanford:
As noted by the Department of Commerce, I attended a trade mission with the Department of Commerce last June. As the agenda notes, the mission was spent meeting with government and private business officials in both Brazil and Argentina. This trip was handled very professionally by the Department of Commerce, and I'm proud of their work there.
However, while the purpose of this trip was an entirely professional and appropriate business development trip, I made a mistake while I was there in meeting with the woman who I was unfaithful to my wife with. That has raised some very legitimate concerns and questions, and as such I am going to reimburse the state for the full cost of the Argentina leg of this trip.
“Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday to an extramarital affair with a woman living in Argentina and to lying to South Carolinians to cover up his tryst -- then asked everyone, including his family, for forgiveness. The two-term S.C. Republican, a rising GOP star, fought tears during a news conference hours after a reporter from The State newspaper surprised him at the Atlanta airport on his way back from seeing the mother of two during Father’s Day weekend.”
The State newspaper also publishes e-mails it had received from an anonymous tipster months ago about an affair Sanford was having with a woman named Maria in Argentina. The paper chose not to publish the e-mails at the time, because it couldn’t verify them.
Video: NBC’s Mark Potter reports on the emergence of steamy e-mails between Sanford and the woman, identified as "Maria."
The
New York Times says that Sanford’s “confession and apology, in a rambling, nationally televised news conference, left other mysteries unsolved, like whether he had lied to his staff members as late as Monday about his whereabouts, whether the affair had definitively ended, whether he would resign from the governorship and whether he would even have acknowledged the affair had he not been met at the airport in Atlanta by a reporter upon his return.”
We brainstormed and came up with a list of 20 political sex scandals since Bill Clinton in 1998, including 16 just since 2006.
More coverage… The New York Post: “Latin lover e-mails.” And: “Runaway Gov: Cry for me, Argentina.”
The New York Daily News: “Buenos Airhead” over Sanford wiping his eye. “Meet America’s latest luv guv.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro
Fighting back tears at a news conference he assembled, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) admitted that he had an affair with a woman living in Argentina. "I have been unfaithful to my wife," he said. "I hurt you all. I hurt my wife. I hurt my boys. And all I can say is I apologize."
Sanford also announced he was resigning his position as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
The governor's stunning revelation caps a three-day media frenzy, in which it was first reported that the governor was missing; then his staff said he had been hiking the Appalachian Trail; and this morning, the State newspaper discovered he had been in Argentina.
Video: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford holds a news conference to explain his absence from the state, and admits he's been having an affair with an Argentinean woman.
In the news conference, Sanford revealed that the affair began about a year ago, that he's seen the woman three times since it began, and that his wife and family found out about it five months ago. Sanford said he and the woman exchanged e-mails and the relationship began as a "casual" friendship. He seemed to suggest that his reason for traveling to Argentina was to end the extramarital affair. He said he spent five days "crying" there, so "repeat it when I came back here."
He also said he told his staff that the Appalachian Trail where he was thinking about going.
Sanford apologized to a myriad of people, including his wife, four sons, friends and the state of South Carolina. He asked for forgiveness, but said he understood that would not come easily.
"I'm committed to trying to get my heart right," he said.
