Vulnerable Democrat governors preparing for a tough reelection battle in the November midterms are looking to dish cash out to their constituents, hoping it could reflect in the polls against a challenger, according to a report.
The move appears to be modeled after California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts last year. The Golden State governor splashed hundreds of dollars in direct payments to roughly two-thirds of his constituents when facing a recall — which he survived with a wide margin.
“Governor’s careers live or die by whether people think the state is moving in the right or wrong direction,” Thad Kousser, a state government expert who chairs the political science department at the University of California-San Diego, told the Hill. “Nothing says I love you to your constituents like a check.”
Vulnerable Democrat governors are looking into how they can ask their state’s legislature to allow them to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of their states’ unanticipated tax revenue to cut checks to the voters in their state. In many cases, like Newsom last year, the money going to the voters to politically benefit themselves could come from “pandemic-era federal relief checks and a rapid economic rebound,” the Hill stated.
- Wisconsin Democrat Gov. Tony Evers asked the Republican legislators, who turned him down Tuesday, to approve a $150 stimulus check for every resident.
- Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills proposed a budget that included $500 checks that would go out to roughly 800,000 eligible taxpayers.
- Kansas Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly proposed a one-time $250 tax rebate to any resident who filed a tax return last year.
- Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said that she wanted to use the $5 billion surplus in the state’s insurance fund to dish out a $400 rebate for each vehicle owned by drivers in the states.
- New Mexico Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has pushed for there to be a statewide cut in gross receipts taxes.
- Connecticut Democrat Gov. Ned Lamont has proposed cutting property taxes for a million residents.
- Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz proposed giving more than 2.7 million Minnesotans checks — $500 per person and $1,000 per couple — in specific tax brackets.
“Voters want to see that their governor gets what they’re going through and is trying to do something about it. A direct payment is a tangible way for a governor to show that they understand their constituents’ economic challenges,” Jared Leopold, former Democratic Governors Association advisor, told the Hill. “Average voters aren’t combing through the state budget proposal, but they’re definitely going to notice when a check shows up in their mailbox.”
The Hill acknowledged the Republican legislators being put in a difficult place by not approving their constituents free money had offered alternatives. The Republican-controlled state Senate in Minnesota proposed permanent tax cuts while the Republican-controlled legislature in Kansas agreed with the governor to eliminate a grocery tax.
“It took Joe Biden’s plummeting approval ratings, an awful 2021 election season and their own lackluster poll numbers for Democrat governors to shamelessly start behaving like they care about inflation and lower taxes,” said Republican Governors Association Spokesman Jesse Hunt. “Voters prefer elected officials who fight to keep money in people’s pockets year-round, no matter the election season.”
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.