With just two weeks left until the Nov. 4 special election, counties across the Bay Area are seeing strong interest from voters.
In San Mateo County, six locations opened for a total of eight voting centers where voters can show up and vote in person already.
Colma’s City Clerk has been bracing for a turnout like this.
“For me, it’s exciting to see people come out and vote, because we don’t always get a lot of turnout, so seeing all this interest is great,” said Michelle Estabillo with the Colma City Clerk.
She says the national political climate over redistricting efforts in red states seems to be driving the voters’ excitement on both sides of the issue.
That’s something Governor Gavin Newsom talked about just two days ago in a prop-50 event in San Jose.
“It just reinforces that this is a great turnout for prop-50 and look, prop-50 is our reaction to this authoritarianism that’s going on. These attacks. These assaults. This guy is wrecking this country,” Newsom said.
Marin County Republicans, who support “No On 50”, say the proposition is more about political posturing than protecting democracy.
“We think it’s an overreach by the governor, that his ambitions for the presidency are kind of driving him to get more notoriety, as he starts his campaign to be the Anti-Trump movement, because they already have the state legislature and a super majority,” said John Turnacliff with Marin County Republicans.
Republican, Democrats and Independents: everyone seems to have an opinion on 50.
“It’s nice to have a clean conscious. I mean if someone else is robbing banks, I should go out and rob banks?” said Jack McGuiness, a South San Francisco independent voter.
And Estabillo said she thinks most people have already made up their minds about how they’re going to vote.
“No matter how many ads or mailers are out there, they’re going to vote the way they’re going to vote,” said Estabillo.
San Mateo will open seven more locations Nov. 1. They’ll remain open until 5 p.m. nightly, right up until Nov. 4 and stay open until 8 p.m. on election night.
Argentine President Javier Milei’s problem heading into midterm elections Sunday isn’t just the pain caused by his radical free-market experiment. It is that, for all the force of his personality, he hasn’t mastered the art of politics.
Milei has alienated so many important allies that, even though his Freedom Advances party is set to double its share of congressional seats, he might not win a big-enough coalition to govern, protect his veto or avoid impeachment.
NEW YORK (AP) — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Friday endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City, saying he respected the will of the primary voters and young people inspired by the Democratic socialist state lawmaker’s candidacy.
Jeffries, who represents Brooklyn, has for months declined to officially throw his support behind Mamdani, who upended the New York political establishment when he handed former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo a resounding and stunning defeat in the June primary.
Cuomo is still running in the November general election, but as an independent. Republican Curtis Sliwa is also on the ballot, as is Mayor Eric Adams, though the embattled Democrat dropped out of the race last month and has endorsed Cuomo.
While acknowledging he had “areas of principled disagreement” with his party’s nominee for mayor, Jeffries said Democrats have a “clear obligation to push back against” Republican extremism, calling it a “national nightmare,” in a statement.
“Donald Trump must be given no space to haunt the people of New York City,” said Jeffries, adding that communities he represents in Brooklyn “are being devastated by this extreme version of the Republican Party.”
Jeffries’ tactical decision to back Mamdani is a show of support for a unified Democratic ticket. However, it is also expected to draw criticism from the GOP. Republicans have repeatedly highlighted Mamdani’s most controversial past comments and positions, casting him as dangerous, a communist, and an antisemite, and trying to tie him to other Democratic officials.
Jeffries credited Mamdani with focusing on the “affordability crisis” in his campaign and expressing a commitment to serving all New Yorkers, including the Jewish community that has faced a rise in antisemitic incidents.
Last month, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani, saying the two diverged on some issues but came together on the importance of addressing the affordability crisis in the city and across the state. At the time, it was one of Mamdani’s most significant endorsements in his bid for mayor.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has picked a 30-year fire department veteran as the new fire chief months she ousted the previous chief over handling of the most destructive wildfire in the city’s history.
Bass announced Friday she was selecting deputy chief Jaime Moore to take the reins of the Los Angeles Fire Department after a nationwide search with more than 100 candidates.
Moore will inherit a department that has faced scrutiny over its response to the Palisades Fire, which began during heavy winds Jan. 7, destroying or damaging nearly 8,000 homes, businesses and other structures and killing at least 12 people in the affluent LA neighborhood.
Bass, a first-term Democrat seeking reelection, fired then-fire chief Kristin Crowley six weeks after the blaze amid a public rift over preparations for a potential blaze and finger-pointing between the chief and City Hall over responsibility for the devastation.
Moore said he will work to implement strategic changes such as preparation for major disasters and world events, improving morale and culture, and ensuring the department has adequate staffing and resources.
“I’m proud to appoint an Angeleno to this role, and I know that he will work to improve the LAFD for everyone in this city,” Bass said.
The firefighters union quickly applauded Moore’s appointment.
“Throughout his career with the LAFD, Chief Moore has shown strong leadership and a deep commitment to the department,” the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City wrote on X. “His background and experience within the ranks has demonstrated that he’s the right leader at the right time to move the LAFD forward.”
Moore currently oversees operations for the Valley Bureau, covering a northern swath of the city that includes 39 fire stations and over 980 sworn personnel, according to his fire department biography. He joined the LAFD in May 1995 and has worked in a multitude of areas within the department throughout the years. In 2018, he was promoted to assistant chief.
He was born in Delhi, Louisiana, but has spent his entire life in Southern California. His mother was an immigrant from Guadalajara, Mexico, and he was raised speaking English and Spanish.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles and a master’s degree in public administration and emergency management from California State University, Long Beach.
The appointment comes at a critical political juncture for Bass, as she positions herself for a reelection run next year after a difficult first term. City Hall has struggled with a shortage of cash and a continuing homeless crisis with the 2028 Olympics on the horizon, while continuing to rebuilt from the January fires.
Crowley, the department’s first female chief, was named chief in 2022 by Bass’ predecessor at a time when the department was in turmoil over allegations of rampant harassment, hazing and discrimination. She worked for the city fire department for more than 25 years and held nearly every role, including fire marshal, engineer and battalion chief.
Fire officials, including Crowley, expressed concerns over budget cuts that left the department understaffed and fire trucks sitting idle in the maintenance yard because they didn’t have mechanics to fix them. The firefighters union sharply criticized Bass’ decision, calling Crowley a “scapegoat.”
Crowley filed a legal claim against the city in August accusing Bass of an “orchestrated campaign of misinformation, defamation and retaliation” after the wildfires.
Federal investigators have determined that the Palisades Fire was ignited from a smaller fire that was set about a week earlier on New Year’s Day. A man accused of sparking the fire pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges. His attorney has blamed the LAFD for not fully extinguishing the initial fire, while fire officials have said such fires linger deep underground and are impossible to detect.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The news media that has misread the Donald Trump–Benjamin Netanyahu relationship every step of the way is doing it again. The latest fixation is on the President’s comments against West Bank annexation, while his analysis on Iran and Qatar go ignored.
President Trump told Time magazine that he won’t let Israel annex the West Bank, and Vice President JD Vance said in Israel that he was personally insulted by two preliminary votes of the Israeli Knesset in the policy’s favor on Wednesday. Both U.S. statements are being taken as a rebuke of Prime Minister Netanyahu, when they are really an assist.
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A yearlong investigation into suspected fraudulent voter registration forms submitted ahead of last year’s presidential election produced criminal charges Friday against six street canvassers and the man who led their work in Pennsylvania.
The allegations of fraud appeared to be motivated by the defendants’ desire to make money and keep their jobs and was not an effort to influence the election results, said Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican.
Guillermo Sainz, 33, described by prosecutors as the director of a company’s registration drives in Pennsylvania, was charged with three counts of solicitation of registration, a state law that prohibits offering money to reach registration quotas. A message seeking comment was left on a number associated with Sainz, who lives in Arizona. He did not have a lawyer listed in court records.
The six canvassers are charged with unsworn falsification, tampering with public records, forgery and violations of Pennsylvania election law. The charges relate to activities in three Republican-leaning Pennsylvania counties: York, Lancaster and Berks.
“We are confident that the motive behind these crimes was personal financial gain, and not a conspiracy or organized effort to tip any election for any one candidate or party,” Sunday said in a news release. Prosecutors said the forms included all party affiliations.
In a court affidavit filed with the criminal charges on Friday, investigators said Sainz, an employee of Field+Media Corps, “instituted unlawful financial incentives and pressures in his push to meet company goals to maintain funding which in turn spurred some canvassers to create and submit fake forms to earn more money.”
The chief executive of Field+Media Corps, based in Mesa, Arizona, said last year the company was proud of its work to expand voting but had no information about problematic registration forms. A message seeking comment was left Friday for the CEO, Francisco Heredia. The Field+Media Corps website did not appear to be operative.
Field+Media was funded by Everybody Votes, an effort to improve voter registration rates in communities of color. The affidavit said Everybody Votes “fully cooperated” with the investigation and noted its contract with Field+Media prohibited payments on a per-registration basis.
“The investigation confirmed that we hold our partners to the highest standards of quality control when collecting, handling and delivering voter registration applications,” Everybody Votes said in a statement e-mailed by a spokesperson.
Sainz, who managed Pennsylvania operations from May to October 2024, is accused of paying canvassers based on how many signatures they collected. The police affidavit said Sainz told agents with the attorney general’s office earlier this month he was unaware of any canvassers paid extra hours if they reached a target number of forms.
“Sainz had to be asked the question multiple times before he stated he was not aware of this and that ‘everyone was an hourly worker,’ ” investigators wrote.
One canvasser said she created fake forms to boost her pay and believed others did, too, according to the police affidavit. Another told investigators that most of the registration forms he collected were “not real.” A third reported that when she realized she was not going to reach a daily quota, “she would make up names and information,” police wrote, “due to fear of losing her job.”
The investigation began in late October 2024, when election workers in Lancaster flagged about 2,500 voter registration forms for potential fraud. Authorities said they appeared to contain false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses and other problematic details.
The suggestion of criminal activity related to the election came as the battleground state was considered pivotal to the presidential election, and then-candidate Donald Trump seized on the news. At a campaign event, he declared there was “cheating” involving “2,600” votes. The actual issue in Lancaster was about 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration forms, not ballots or votes.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A yearlong investigation into suspected fraudulent voter registration forms submitted ahead of last year’s presidential election produced criminal charges Friday against six street canvassers and the man who led their work in Pennsylvania.
The allegations of fraud appeared to be motivated by the defendants’ desire to make money and keep their jobs and was not an effort to influence the election results, said Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican.
Guillermo Sainz, 33, described by prosecutors as the director of a company’s registration drives in Pennsylvania, was charged with three counts of solicitation of registration, a state law that prohibits offering money to reach registration quotas. A message seeking comment was left on a number associated with Sainz, who lives in Arizona. He did not have a lawyer listed in court records.
The six canvassers are charged with unsworn falsification, tampering with public records, forgery and violations of Pennsylvania election law. The charges relate to activities in three Republican-leaning Pennsylvania counties: York, Lancaster and Berks.
“We are confident that the motive behind these crimes was personal financial gain, and not a conspiracy or organized effort to tip any election for any one candidate or party,” Sunday said in a news release. Prosecutors said the forms included all party affiliations.
In a court affidavit filed with the criminal charges on Friday, investigators said Sainz, an employee of Field+Media Corps, “instituted unlawful financial incentives and pressures in his push to meet company goals to maintain funding which in turn spurred some canvassers to create and submit fake forms to earn more money.”
The chief executive of Field+Media Corps, based in Mesa, Arizona, said last year the company was proud of its work to expand voting but had no information about problematic registration forms. A message seeking comment was left Friday for the CEO, Francisco Heredia. The Field+Media Corps website did not appear to be operative.
Field+Media was funded by Everybody Votes, an effort to improve voter registration rates in communities of color. The affidavit said Everybody Votes “fully cooperated” with the investigation and noted its contract with Field+Media prohibited payments on a per-registration basis.
“The investigation confirmed that we hold our partners to the highest standards of quality control when collecting, handling and delivering voter registration applications,” Everybody Votes said in a statement e-mailed by a spokesperson.
Sainz, who managed Pennsylvania operations from May to October 2024, is accused of paying canvassers based on how many signatures they collected. The police affidavit said Sainz told agents with the attorney general’s office earlier this month he was unaware of any canvassers paid extra hours if they reached a target number of forms.
“Sainz had to be asked the question multiple times before he stated he was not aware of this and that ‘everyone was an hourly worker,’ ” investigators wrote.
One canvasser said she created fake forms to boost her pay and believed others did, too, according to the police affidavit. Another told investigators that most of the registration forms he collected were “not real.” A third reported that when she realized she was not going to reach a daily quota, “she would make up names and information,” police wrote, “due to fear of losing her job.”
The investigation began in late October 2024, when election workers in Lancaster flagged about 2,500 voter registration forms for potential fraud. Authorities said they appeared to contain false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses and other problematic details.
The suggestion of criminal activity related to the election came as the battleground state was considered pivotal to the presidential election, and then-candidate Donald Trump seized on the news. At a campaign event, he declared there was “cheating” involving “2,600” votes. The actual issue in Lancaster was about 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration forms, not ballots or votes.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Fox News Digital sat down with New York Republican attorney general candidate Michael Henry, who made his case on why the Democrat currently holding that office, Letitia James, needs to go and why his campaign has the message to do that.
“Two things,” Henry told Fox News Digital when asked what voters in New York tell him they are most concerned about. “Crime and affordability.”
Henry explained that New Yorkers are “fed up” with the cost of living in the state and may not realize that many of the regulatory policies that affect affordability are handled by the attorney general’s office.
“It’s really put a hamper on economic growth in the State of New York, how her and her bureau chiefs, deputy bureau chief, and the attorneys in the office, who all serve under the discretion of the attorney general, have really crippled the New York State economy,” Henry said.
Fox News Digital interviewed NY AG candidate Michael Henry about his plan to unseat Letitia James.(Fox News Digital/Getty)
Henry expressed concern specifically about energy costs and what he called a “far-left agenda” that James has been implementing.
“We see a Democrat governor in Josh Shapiro, who’s encouraging New York energy companies to work in Pennsylvania right across the line, where you could literally throw a rock and hit a truck on the Pennsylvania border. But then the 100 years worth of energy under our feet in the southern tier of New York State, which would not only revive the economy, but the people in places like Manhattan would see probably about a 60% cost of energy go down,” Henry said.
“And Letitia James has been wreaking havoc on the daily lives of New Yorkers, and in many instances they just don’t even realize it, and this is something I’ve been trying to shine a light on, letting them know how much damage she’s doing to them and their ability to just be able to afford to live here.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks alongside Gov. Kathy Hochul during a press conference in New York City on Nov. 6, 2024, discussing the impact of Donald Trump’s reelection as president.(Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Henry ran unsuccessfully against James in 2020, but his 45% of the vote was one of the best showings for a Republican in the state in decades.
Henry told Fox News Digital he lives a comfortable life as an attorney and didn’t plan on running again, but when he looked around and surveyed the situation he felt compelled to do so.
“You travel to upstate New York, you see these wind fans that don’t work, you see solar panels that break in the winter, yet we’re not allowed to use all options when it comes to energy development,” Henry said.
“Three thousand correctional officers, which is a huge employer in upstate New York, were fired by Letitia James and Kathy Hochul, three thousand families that relied on that income to take care of things like tuition or put food on the table, and they were blocked from going into other civil servant employment. You just see the war on agriculture, war on dairy farmers. There’s a 62-county drug crisis that’s been exacerbated, and if you had told me in 2022, all these issues would have happened or been this bad, I never would have believed you.”
Ultimately, Henry believes that New Yorkers need an “outsider” candidate who has “no fear of Letitia James at all.”
Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, and Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayoral candidate, embrace during a campaign rally at United Palace in New York City on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. (Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Henry explained, “Look, let’s be honest, she wakes up every day focused on three things: targeting the president of the United States, weaponizing her office against political opponents, and ignoring the issues that matter most to hardworking families,” Henry said. “And she’s forgotten that the New York state attorney general is the people’s lawyer, and it’s not the enforcer for the Democrat National Committee.”
On the crime front, Henry hit James for “not cooperating with local law enforcement,” particularly sheriffs in Republican areas, and said New Yorkers are “fed up” on the crime issue.
James will be in court Friday morning after being charged with mortgage fraud, which she has dismissed as political, but Henry pushed back on that narrative.
“People have seen her awkwardly stumble through these press conferences off the cuff, and now we’ve seen her ethical issues, where apparently she’s not only multiple times signed documents saying she’s married to her father, she doesn’t even know what state she lives in, apparently.”
“And Letitia James can’t have it both ways. She can’t say I’ve been trained by the best and then have these discrepancies on numerous occasions in her mortgage applications. It’s either that she knew what she was doing or she lacks the basic reading comprehension skills of a middle schooner, because I could walk into a middle school and put a mortgage application on any child’s desk, and they would say to me, I’m not married to my daddy,” Henry added. “So she cannot have it both ways, and she’s going to be held accountable this time, and we’re seeing it on a daily basis.”
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
The Department of Justice is preparing to send federal election observers to California and New Jersey next month, targeting two Democratic states holding off-year elections following requests from state Republican parties.
The DOJ announced Friday that it is planning to monitor polling sites in Passaic County, New Jersey, and five counties in southern and central California: Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside and Fresno. The goal, according to the DOJ, is “to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.”
“Transparency at the polls translates into faith in the electoral process, and this Department of Justice is committed to upholding the highest standards of election integrity,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Election monitoring is a routine function of the Justice Department, but the focus on California and New Jersey comes as both states are set to hold closely-watched elections with national consequences on Nov. 4. New Jersey has an open seat for governor that has attracted major spending by both parties and California is holding a special election aimed at redrawing the state’s congressional map to counter Republican gerrymandering efforts elsewhere ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The DOJ’s efforts are also the latest salvo in the GOP’s preoccupation with election integrity after President Donald Trump spent years refusing to accept the results of the 2020 election and falsely railing against mail-in voting as rife with fraud. Democrats fear the new administration will attempt to gain an upper hand in next year’s midterms with similarly unfounded allegations of fraud.
The announcement comes days after the Republican parties in both states wrote letters to the DOJ requesting their assistance. Some leading Democrats in the states blasted the decision.
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin called the move “highly inappropriate” and said the DOJ “has not even attempted to identify a legitimate basis for its actions.”
Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Party, said in a statement that “No amount of election interference by the California Republican Party is going to silence the voices of California voters.”
California’s House districts at stake
The letter from the California GOP, sent Monday and obtained by the AP, asked Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, to provide monitors to observe the election in the five counties.
“In recent elections, we have received reports of irregularities in these counties that we fear will undermine either the willingness of voters to participate in the election or their confidence in the announced results of the election,” wrote GOP Chairwoman Corrin Rankin.
The state is set to vote Nov. 4 on a redistricting proposition that would dramatically redraw California’s congressional lines to add as many as five additional Democratic seats to its U.S. House delegation.
Each of the counties named, they alleged, has experienced recent voting issues, such as sending incorrect or duplicate ballots to voters. They also take issue with how Los Angeles and Orange counties maintain their voter rolls.
California is one of at least eight states the Justice Department has sued as part of a wide-ranging request for detailed voter roll information involving at least half the states. The department has not said why it wants the data.
Brandon Richards, a spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom, said the DOJ has no standing to “interfere” with California’s election because the ballot contains only a state-specific initiative and has no federal races.
“Deploying these federal forces appears to be an intimidation tactic meant for one thing: suppress the vote,” he said in an email.
Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page said he welcomes anyone who wants to watch the county’s election operations and said it’s common to have local, state, federal and even international observers. He described Orange County’s elections as “accessible, accurate, fair, secure, and transparent.”
Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan said election observers are standard practice across the country and that the county, with 5.8 million registered voters, is continuously updating and verifying its voter records.
“Voters can have confidence their ballot is handled securely and counted accurately,” he said.
Most Californians vote using mail ballots returned through the postal service, drop boxes or at local voting centers, which typically leaves polling places relatively quiet on Election Day. But in pursuit of accuracy and counting every vote, the nation’s most populous state has gained a reputation for tallies that can drag on for weeks — and sometimes longer.
In 2024, it took until early December to declare Democrat Adam Gray the winner in his Central Valley district, the final congressional race to be decided in the nation last year.
Passaic County the target in New Jersey
California’s request echoed a similar letter sent by New Jersey Republicans asking the DOJ to dispatch election monitors to “oversee the receipt and processing of vote-by-mail ballots” and “monitor access to the Board of Elections around the clock” in suburban Passaic County ahead of the state’s governor’s race.
The New Jersey Republican State Committee told Dhillon that federal intervention was necessary to ensure an accurate vote count in the heavily Latino county that was once a Democratic stronghold, but shifted to President Donald Trump’s column in last year’s presidential race.
The county could be critical to GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli’s hopes against Democrat Mikie Sherrill. But the letter cited previous voter fraud cases in the county and alleged a “long and sordid history” of vote-by-mail shenanigans.
In 2020, a judge ordered a new election for a city council seat in Paterson — the largest city in Passaic County — after the apparent winner and others were charged with voter fraud.
Platkin said the state is committed to ensuring its elections are fair and secure. With the DOJ’s announcement, he said the attorney general’s office is “considering all of our options to prevent any effort to intimidate voters or interfere with our elections.”
Election observers are nothing new
Local election offices and polling places around the country already have observers from both political parties to ensure rules are followed. The DOJ also has a long history of sending observers to jurisdictions that have histories of voting rights violations to ensure compliance with federal civil rights laws.
Last year, when the Biden administration was still in power, some Republican-led states said they would not allow federal monitors to access voting locations on Election Day.
Trump has for years railed against mail voting as part of his repeated false claims that former President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 was rigged. He alleges it is riddled with fraud, even though numerous studies have found no evidence of widespread fraud in U.S. elections.
Earlier this year, Trump pledged to ban vote-by-mail across the country, something he has no power to do under the U.S. Constitution.
The DOJ’s effort will be overseen by Dhillon’s Civil Rights Division, which will deploy personnel in coordination with U.S. attorney’s offices and work closely with state and local officials, the department said
The department also is soliciting further requests for monitoring in other jurisdictions.
David Becker, a former DOJ attorney who has served as an election monitor and trained them, said the work is typically done by department lawyers who are prohibited from interfering at polling places.
But Becker, now executive director of the Center for Election Integrity & Research, said local jurisdictions normally agree to the monitors’ presence.
If the administration tried to send monitors without a clear legal rationale to a place where local officials didn’t want them, “That could result in chaos,” he said.
___
Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writers Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
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Jill Colvin | The Associated Press and Michael R. Blood | The Associated Press
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Less than six months after Samia Suluhu Hassan was inaugurated as Tanzania’s first woman president in 2021, the country’s most famous cartoonist depicted her in a military general’s uniform under the title “Dictatoress.”
In the cartoon by Tanzanian-born Gado, drawn from his base in Kenya where there is more press freedom, Hassan looks at her image in a mirror and sees herself as holding a torch — perhaps of liberty — when actually she wields a spiked club.
A former vice president who rose to the presidency after the death of predecessor John Pombe Magufuli, Hassan initially gave indications that she would relax the government’s repressive tactics against opposition leaders, civic groups, journalists and others.
Amnesty International said in a statement this week that repression in Tanzania has “intensified” with civilian abuses ranging from arbitrary arrests to enforced disappearances and even extrajudicial killings.
Hassan’s political group, known as Chama cha Mapinduzi, or CCM, is one of Africa’s longest-ruling parties. A version of CCM, which maintains ties with the Chinese Communist Party, has held power since independence in 1961.
Although Tanzania is yet to witness an orderly transfer of power from one party to another, regular elections featuring successive leaders of CCM have long guaranteed a measure of stability that is rare among neighbors in the region.
That leadership model is gradually being challenged, with the opposition party Chadema consistently the strongest of the groups trying to break CCM’s grip on Tanzania. Chadema’s popular leader, Tundu Lissu, who survived an assassination attempt in 2017, is currently jailed on treason charges.
Chadema has said it will not participate in elections without the reforms it says are necessary to have free and fair polling, a stance that led to its disqualification by electoral authorities.
Another popular candidate, Luhaga Mpina of the Alliance for Change and Transformation-Wazalendo party, is also disqualified from running for allegedly violating his own party’s constitution.
Running against opponents from smaller parties, Hassan is effectively unopposed and will almost certainly be elected, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, or ACLED, a U.S.-based nonprofit that collects data on political violence around the world.
Tanzania’s election “will follow over four-and-a-half years of sustained repression by a CCM-controlled state that is keen to avoid the electoral pressures” faced by opposition parties elsewhere in Africa, ACLED said in a recent analysis.
CCM, after receiving its lowest-ever share of the vote in the 2015 election, has “since neutered Tanzania’s opposition through administrative, legal, and extra-legal means,” the group said.
In June, a United Nations panel of human rights experts cited more than 200 cases of enforced disappearance since 2019. The experts said they were “alarmed by reports of a pattern of repression” ahead of elections, after two pro-democracy activists from Uganda and Kenya went missing in Tanzania, where they had gone to attend Lissu’s treason trial.
The activists, Boniface Mwangi of Kenya and Agather Atuhaire of Uganda, later reported that they had been sexually abused before they were deported.
A recent high-profile disappearance is of Humphrey Polepole, Tanzania’s former ambassador to Cuba, who resigned his post earlier this year. His resignation letter, leaked on social media, cited his loss of “peace of heart and faith” in a government that he said violates the rule of law.
Hassan responded by revoking Polepole’s diplomatic status, and earlier in October he was allegedly grabbed by unknown people at his home in the commercial capital of Dar es Salaam. His whereabouts remain unknown despite calls for his freedom.
It was not possible to get a comment from Hassan. A presidential spokeswoman did not respond to emailed questions.
Lifting a ban on gatherings
Roland Ebole, an Amnesty International analyst, told The Associated Press that Hassan raised hopes early in her presidency with progressive measures such as lifting a ban on the right of opposition groups to hold rallies outside the electoral season.
But she has been just as responsible for the government’s turn toward more repression since then, Ebole said.
As the chairperson of CCM, “she cannot…distance herself from these violations,” Ebole said. “Her role as head of state and commander-in-chief places her directly in charge of the country’s security apparatus, giving her the authority to end the violations and restore a culture of respect for human rights.”
When Hassan took over as president, she asserted her authority by recruiting associates who had fallen out of favor with Magufuli, the previous president.
She is said to keep a small circle of advisors, and last year she appointed her third director of the Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service, the domestic spy agency, a high turnover that some analysts saw as a sign she was in charge or trying to consolidate power.
Hassan is running under the slogan “Work and Dignity,” promising opportunities in crop and livestock farming, the country’s top industry. Her vision has been summarized as the Four Rs, which stand for reconciliation, reforms, rebuilding, and resilience.
Foreign direct investment has rebounded after Magufuli alienated many investors with aggressive tax measures, and while Hassan’s pro-business stance has cheered many observers, critics say she has failed to seize an opportunity to be a consensus leader.
Many Tanzanians still hope for change.
“We expected more freedom, especially for political rallies and the press,” said one resident of Dar es Salaam, a man who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal from the authorities.
“But it feels like things are going back to the old ways.”
Musambi reported from Nairobi, Kenya.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
BUENOS AIRES—The adage “The most dangerous words in investing on Wall Street are ‘It’s different this time’” could have been coined to describe Argentina. For 50 years, it repeatedly convinced international lenders it had changed its ways, only to slide back into default, instability and inflation.
This Sunday, Argentines will demonstrate whether this time really is different. Midterm elections will decide whether President
Javier Milei’s radical economic reform will continue.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Anyone who watched U.S. President Donald Trump vow to condition financial aid to cash-strapped Argentina on the outcome of a “very big” and “very important” vote in the South American country would be forgiven for thinking that his close ideological ally, Argentine President Javier Milei, was up for reelection.
But no. The vote that Trump was talking about earlier this month is, in fact, a midterm election for less than half of the Argentine Congress.
Now the explosive comments, combined with a dizzying series of scandals and setbacks for Milei, have cranked up the pressure on Argentina’s libertarian president and transformed Sunday’s limited vote into a major political test that could help determine the fate of Milei’s free-market experiment.
“We’ve made it to the elections on our feet, and on Sunday Argentina will really change,” Milei said in a fiery final campaign speech late Thursday from the port city of Rosario.
At the start of the year, pollsters and pundits were predicting a smashing success for Milei in the midterms.
The latest blow came earlier this month, when Milei’s leading candidate in Buenos Aires province, José Luis Espert, dropped out of the midterm race after admitting he received $200,000 from a businessman indicted in the U.S. for drug trafficking. He says it was for consulting services.
The controversies have hurt Milei’s reputation as a straight-talking outsider determined to tear down the corrupt establishment, experts say, particularly at this time of harsh austerity.
“It was the first wake-up call when people started to ask, maybe (Milei and Karina) are asking us to make sacrifices that they’re not making themselves,” said Eugenia Mitchelstein, the chair of the social sciences department at Buenos Aires’ San Andrés University.
Tactical errors compounded matters. Milei ran an aggressive campaign strategy in some two dozen provincial elections in recent months that pitted a slew of unknowns from his scrappy libertarian party against more established rivals.
The run-up to the midterms — in which half the seats in the lower house of Congress and a third of the Senate are up for grabs — has also been rough. Although veteran politician Diego Santilli is now at the top of the party’s Buenos Aires list after Espert stood down over the scandal, voters will still see Espert on the ballot Sunday after electoral authorities ruled it was too late to print new ones.
The other Buenos Aires candidate, Karen Reichardt, is a former model and actress who has recently come under fire for old social media posts attacking national soccer hero Lionel Messi and insulting her political enemies with racially insensitive language. She did not respond to a request for comment.
The loss tipped already jittery markets over the edge. Investors dumped Argentine bonds and sold off the peso, prompting the central bank to burn through its foreign currency reserves to prop up the currency.
That’s when Trump and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stepped in to save their closest political ally in the region.
But it seems that not even such dramatic moves from the world’s biggest economy could restore faith in the famously volatile peso. Argentine investors — who can more easily take money out of Argentina since Milei’s government scrapped capital controls this year — continued ditching pesos. The currency slid to a new record low of 1,476 per dollar Monday.
“It’s the managerial class changing their pesos furiously into dollars who are sabotaging Milei,” said Christopher Ecclestone, a strategist with investment bank Hallgarten & Company.
Washington’s multibillion-dollar rescue of Argentina has unleashed backlash across the political spectrum — and the Western Hemisphere.
In the U.S., Democratic and Republican lawmakers, farmers, ranchers and Trump supporters have increasingly questioned the merits of showering money on a serial defaulter and rival agricultural exporter.
In Argentina, Trump’s warning that U.S. assistance was contingent on Milei’s victory in the vote breathed new life into the opposition Peronist party, which urged Argentines long wary of U.S. interventionism to punish Milei on Sunday.
Markets reeled as investors fretted that the U.S. aid might not come at all. Consultants tried to parse Trump’s cryptic demand that Milei clinch a congressional victory. Does it mean Milei increasing his party’s tiny congressional minority? Does it mean securing enough seats to defend his vetoes?
With only some congressional seats up for renewal, a landslide win for Milei’s party wouldn’t give it a majority in Congress.
Even Milei’s supporters took to social media to express unease, with many attacking then-Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein for mishandling the situation. Werthein tendered his resignation without explanation late Tuesday.
Protesters rallied in front of the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, banging pots and setting American flags alight.
____
Associated Press writers Almudena Calatrava and Débora Rey contributed to this report.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Four family members of a Republican running for governor in Illinois were killed in a Montana helicopter crash, his campaign said Thursday.
Killed in crash Wednesday were the son and daughter-in-law of former state Sen. Darren Bailey, a Republican who lost the 2022 gubernatorial election in Illinois and is seeking his party’s nomination again in next year’s race.
Two of Bailey’s grandchildren also were killed, Bailey’s campaign said in a statement.
“Darren and Cindy are heartbroken by this unimaginable loss. They are finding comfort in their faith, their family, and the prayers of so many who love and care for them,” the statement said.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that it was investigating a helicopter crash in eastern Montana near the town of Ekalaka.
Bailey, from the southern Illinois town of Xenia, announced this year that he is seeking the GOP’s nominee for governor in 2026. He lost to Gov. JB Pritzker in 2022 after serving single, two-year terms in both the Illinois House and Senate.
He unsuccessfully challenged five-term incumbent Republican U.S. Rep Mike Bost in last year’s primary race for a district that covers much of the bottom one-third of Illinois.
President Donald Trump’s desire to secure the Republican majority in Congress has prompted an unusual burst of mid-decade redistricting in multiple states.
North Carolina is the latest to take action. The Republican-led General Assembly approved changes Wednesday to U.S. House district designed to help the party unseat a Democratic incumbent.
Texas was the first to answer Trump’s call to redraw its congressional districts for the GOP’s advantage ahead of next year’s elections. Democrats in California countered with their own redistricting effort, followed by Republicans in Missouri. Other states are considering joining the redistricting battle.
U.S. House districts typically are redrawn once a decade, immediately after a census. But some states have no rules against redistricting more frequently than that. And the U.S. Supreme Court has said there is no federal prohibition on political gerrymandering, in which districts are intentionally drawn to favor one party.
The stakes are high, because Democrats need to gain just three seats in the 2026 elections to take control of the House, which would allow them to impede Trump’s agenda. Historically, the president’s party has lost seats in midterm elections, a fate Trump is trying to avoid.
Why Republicans are targeting a North Carolina seat
The new congressional map reshapes the state’s only current swing district, held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis, by adding more Republican-leaning voters along the coast and shifting some inland voters into an adjacent Republican-held district. The GOP already controls 10 of the 14 House districts in North Carolina, a state Trump won by 51% last year. Davis won last year by less than 2 percentage points.
The revised districts cannot be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, though Democrats or civil rights groups are likely to bring a legal challenge.
How a Louisiana court case could affect other states
Louisiana lawmakers are to convene Wednesday in a special session called by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry to consider changes to next year’s election schedule. Republicans are trying to position the state for redistricting, in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the state’s current congressional map.
During arguments last week, the court’s six conservative justices seemed inclined to effectively strike down a Black-majority district in Louisiana because the districts relied too heavily on race. Such a ruling could upend a central provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, opening the door for lawmakers in Louisiana and other states to eliminate majority Black and Latino districts that tend to favor Democrats.
Where Republicans are still pressing for redistricting
Some Republicans in Indiana, Kansas and Nebraska are trying to rally support for redistricting.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance have pressed Indiana lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional districts to try to expand Republicans’ current 7-2 edge over Democrats. Republican Gov. Mike Braun has said a legislative session on redistricting probably will happen, but legislators have yet to round up enough votes.
In Kansas, Republican lawmakers are trying to collect enough signatures from colleagues to call themselves into a special session on redistricting. The petition drive is necessary because Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly isn’t likely to call a session to redraw the current map that has sent three Republicans and one Democrat to the House.
Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has expressed support for redistricting, though it remains tough to ensure enough Republican votes in the officially nonpartisan Legislature. Republicans already hold all three of the state’s U.S. House seats but are looking to shore up a competitive district that includes Omaha.
Why two states have to redraw their maps
Though the details remain to be worked out, Ohio will have new congressional districts for the 2026 elections. The state constitution requires new districts because the ones adopted by Republican officials after the 2020 census didn’t have sufficient bipartisan support. Republicans could use this as an opportunity to try to expand their current 10-5 seat advantage over Democrats.
Utah’s Republican-led Legislature passed a revised U.S. House map Oct. 6 in response to a court ruling striking down the districts they originally adopted after the 2020 census because the Legislature had unlawfully circumvented an independent redistricting commission. The same judge is now weighing whether to sign off on the new map. Republicans currently hold all four districts, though some could become more competitive for Democrats under the revisions.
What challenges persist in Texas, California and Missouri
The revised Texas congressional map could improve Republicans’ chances of winning five additional seats. The GOP currently holds 25 of the state’s 38 seats. But the map faces a legal challenge from civil rights groups and Black and Latino voters who have said it intentionally reduces the influence of their votes in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.
Missouri’s revised map could help Republicans pick up one additional seat. They currently hold six of the state’s eight U.S. House seats. But opponents are pursuing a referendum petition that, if successful, would force a statewide vote on the new map. Several lawsuits also assert that mid-decade redistricting isn’t allowed under the state constitution.
California’s revised congressional map could help Democrats win five additional seats. They already hold 43 of the 52 seats. But the new map can take effect only if approved by voters in a Nov. 4 election. The vote is necessary to override a map adopted by an independent citizens commission after the 2020 census.
How other states might act
Officials in Florida, Illinois, Maryland and New York all have raised the possibility of redrawing U.S. House districts.
Republican Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez has created a special committee to look into redistricting. Republicans currently hold 20 of the state’s 28 seats.
In Maryland, where Democrats already hold seven of the eight U.S. House seats, some Democratic state lawmakers have said they will file redistricting legislation for the 2026 session.
Democrats already hold 14 of the 17 U.S. House seats in Illinois, but Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker has said it’s possible to draw even more districts favoring Democrats.
New York has an independent commission that redraws districts after every census. State Democrats have introduced legislation to allow mid-decade redistricting, but the soonest that new maps could be in place is the 2028 election. That is because the proposal would require an amendment to the state constitution, a change that would have to pass the Legislature twice and be approved by voters.
Carlos Ruiz Massieu, special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Haiti and head of the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti, briefs the Security Council on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 on the question concerning Haiti and the U.N. political office.
Eskinder Debebe
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
With three months remaining in Haiti’s rocky political transition, United Nations Security Council members are calling on the country’s leaders and politicians to quickly set aside their differences and avoid a political vacuum.
The urgent call comes amid the pending end of the current governance arrangement that expires on Feb. 7, 2026— a date by which a newly elected president and Parliament were originally expected to take office but mostly likely will not. In addition to being hampered by a complex and deadly security landscape, Haiti’s ruling transition has also been dogged by corruption allegations, which have undermined its efforts to return the country to constitutional order. Haiti’s last general election was in 2016, and since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, the Caribbean nation has not had one elected leader in office.
“Critical decisions will be required by national authorities and stakeholders in the weeks to come,” Christina Markus Lassen, the Permanent Representative of Denmark, said. “Sustained inter-Haitian dialogue remains crucial.”
In his latest report to the Security Council, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres noted that many Haitian political actors have expressed concern about the risk of a political vacuum if elections are not held on time.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres. Evan Schneider UN Photo/Evan Schneider
The key people in Haiti hold diverging views on whether to maintain or modify the current transitional governance arrangement, Guterres said. Among the suggestions being discussed in Port-au-Prince: replacing the current nine-member Transitional Presidential Council with a judge from the country’s highest court as transitional president and a prime minister chosen through consultations; amending the arrangement to only three individuals and an oversight body to monitor government action, or extending the current group.
Several political figures, including a group of former prime ministers, proposed a one-year extension, starting on Feb. 7, 2026, under a new political accord, leading to elections by October 2026, the report said.
Guterres’s report is part of the regular update he is required to give the Security Council, which after supporting the extension of global sanctions for Haiti and issuing a new 12-month mandate for a Gang Suppression Force is also deciding on the renewal of the mandate of the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti. The renewal of the political office received wide support from the council.
The United Kingdom’s deputy representative, highlighting the recent support for the U.S.-backed suppression force and continued sanctions, said it’s time for Haiti’s transitional presidential council “to step up and match the international community’s efforts.
“The Haitian authorities must work at pace to lay the necessary legislation to enable free and fair elections,” Ambassador Archibald Young said. “We call on all Haitian political actors to put their differences aside and work together in good faith to improve governance in Haiti, particularly ahead of the seventh of February.”
Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Guterres’ new special representative in Haiti, told Security Council members that “the transition clock is ticking” and Haiti could not afford a political vacuum, especially amid its ongoing gang-driven violence.
“I am concerned that a steady path towards the restoration of democratic governance is yet to emerge,” he said. “However, I welcome the steps taken by national authorities to consult with political stakeholders to reach agreements on the necessary conditions under which elections should be held and to avoid a political vacuum beyond 7 February 2026.”
Since arriving in Port-au-Prince on Aug. 2, Ruiz Massieu said he has visited national authorities, civil society leaders, human rights advocates, political parties and Haiti’s international supporters.
“I have been able to witness firsthand the brutal reality of everyday life in the country, especially in Port-au-Prince,” he said. “There is no doubt that the circumstances are dire, but the Haitian people have not given up.”
Still, the scale and impact of the crisis is disturbing: More than 1.4 million people have been forced to leave their homes, while human rights abuses by gangs continue, Ruiz Massieu said as he highlighted the grim reality the secretary-general provided in his report.
Between July and August, gangs increasingly targeted farming communities on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince and in other areas of the country, and staged multiple attacks against the national police. In the West region, a gang assault on the village of Labodrie in Cabaret resulted in more than more than 40 deaths, including six children. In the Artibonite, attacks during the same period left 42 residents dead and 29 injured, with two police stations set on fire.
Though gang violence has slowed down in the capital, farmers in Kenscoff, located in the hills, continue to be targeted, while killings have risen dramatically in the Artibonite and Center regions, the report said. The U.N. recorded 1,303 victims of homicides between January and August, compared with 419 during the same period in 2024.
Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said while the United States will do its part to support Haiti, the countrys political class and private sector “must do their parts as well in support of a democratically elected government.”
Waltz said Washington will remain relentless in pursuing individuals who undermine Haitian security and arm and finance terrorist gangs. This includes expanding its use “of all available tools, using all means necessary, including indictments, arrests, financial sanctions, arms seizures, visa and other immigration restrictions, to counter the impunity that robs Haitian children of their futures.”
A number of U.N. diplomats, including the representatives of Panama and Russia, expressed concerns about civilian casualties resulting from security operations in Haiti. The issue was raised by Guterres and tied it to the Haitian government’s use of armed drones through a contract with the firm Vectus Global to fight gangs. Vectus Global is owned by former Blackwater founder Erik Prince.
In August, two police officers were killed and six others injured when a government drone accidentally exploded. In September at least 21 people were killed, including a pregnant woman, a boy and three girls, Guterres’ report said. Another 41 others, including 7 children, were injured.
“We are extremely concerned about the recent increase in activity in Haiti of foreign mercenaries operating outside the legal framework,” Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, who presided over the meeting, said. He added that the uncontrolled use of drones, “which has already resulted in several confirmed civilian casualties, is completely unacceptable, and we hope that this problem is not going to migrate into the new mission.”
Ruiz Massieu told the Security Council that despite the hostile environment the U.N. finds itself working in in Haiti, he is “leading efforts to swiftly complete the return of all its international personnel to Port-au-Prince, with the goal of achieving 100% staff presence in the capital as a matter of urgency at this critical stage of the political transition.”
Haiti’s ambassador to the U.N., Ericq Pierre, said that building peace requires the implementation of a national disarmament, demobilization and reintegration policy that is focused both on the removal of illegal arms and on the reintegration of young people.
“In this regard, the government invites [the U.N. Integrated Office] to strengthen its technical and institutional support for this policy, which is essential in order to bring about lasting security that is rooted in reconciliation, social cohesion and respect for human rights,” he said.
Pierre took note of the Secretary General’s report and said “the restoration of security” is the government’s top priority.
“The report does, however, indicate that the government is making great efforts to overcome these many challenges,” he said. “Despite a worrying security context and difficult socio-economic circumstances, the Haitian authorities are stepping up their actions to re-establish the state, to consolidate the Republic’s institutions and to create the conditions for a return to constitutional order.”
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith issued a statement Wednesday in support of redistricting, calling the Indiana Senate a place “where conservative ideas from the House go to die.”
Northwest Indiana Democrats told the Post-Tribune Wednesday that they’re not supportive of the lieutenant governor’s comments and redistricting.
“The people of Indiana did not elect a Republican supermajority so our Senate could cower, compromise, or collapse at the very moment courage is (required),” Beckwith said in his statement. “Yet, here we are again. The Indiana Republican-controlled Senate is failing to stand with President Trump, failing to defend the voice of Hoosier voters, and failing to deliver the 9-0 conservative map our citizens overwhelmingly expect.”
Beckwith’s statement seemingly comes in response to a Politico report saying Indiana Senate Republicans do not have the votes to pass mid-census redistricting of Indiana’s Congressional maps. A spokesperson for Senate President Pro Tempore Rodic Bray told Politico that “the votes aren’t there for redistricting,” according to the Wednesday report.
“Gov. (Mike) Braun is still having positive conversations with members of the legislature and is confident the majority of Indiana statehouse Republicans will support efforts to ensure fair representation in congress for every Hoosier,” a spokesperson for Braun responded to the redistricting claims, according to an X post.
President Donald Trump has pressured Republican-led states to redraw their Congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections to secure a Republican majority in Congress, even though redistricting occurs after each 10-year census data is released. Indiana last redrew Congressional maps in 2021, which left Republicans with seven seats and Democrats with two seats, according to Post-Tribune archives.
In his statement, Beckwith said Indiana should “be leading the nation, not apologizing for being a strong conservative state.”
“I am calling on my Republican colleagues in the Indiana Senate to find your backbone, to remember who sent you here, and to reclaim Indiana’s rightful voice in Congress by drawing a 9-0 map,” Beckwith said. “History will not remember those who stepped aside when action was necessary. Hoosiers are demanding warriors, so their voice is heard. If we will not fight now, for our state, our children, and our country, then what exactly are we here for?”
State Senators Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, and Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, were both unable to immediately comment on Beckwith’s statement Wednesday afternoon. State Senator Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, said in a text that he hadn’t seen Beckwith’s statement but didn’t comment after being sent the statement.
Indiana Democratic Party Chair Karen Tallian expressed her displeasure with Beckwith’s comments in a Wednesday phone call, adding that she’s not surprised by the pressure from the Trump administration.
Karen Tallian (Photo courtesy of the Indiana Democratic Party)
“I do not take Micah Beckwith’s posturing seriously,” Tallian said. “What does surprise me is that the governor has stated numerous times that he was going to leave this up to the legislature and let the legislature call it, and frankly, the legislature is not all that keen about calling it.”
Beckwith’s claims make it seem that constituents are pushing for redistricting, Tallian said, but she doesn’t believe the public is clamoring for the action.
If the Indiana Senate goes forth with redistricting, Tallian believes litigation will follow, especially as filing for congressional districts starts in January.
“Before people can file, these maps would have to be approved, and all the precinct lines would have to be drawn,” she said. “I mean, there’s a huge amount of work that would have to be done. How are we going to have filings in January if people don’t know where the districts are?”
Instead of redistricting, Tallian said she’d like to see state senators focus on issues that are important to Hoosiers, including advocating for workers and their wages.
State Senator Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, responded to Beckwith’s comments in a Wednesday phone call. Pol believes the district maps need to “be drawn in a fair and balanced way that represents everybody.”
State Senator Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, speaks during a town hall in Portage concerning the proposed Republican redistricting of the state on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)
“This is not how we do redistricting — we do it every 10 years,” Pol said. “They could call us in for a special session and draw maps that give Democrats two more seats, and I would still vote against it. It’s not the process, it’s not right, and it’s not how we do things.”
Pol is also concerned to see pressure from Braun, Beckwith and members of the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance.
“The polls have shown that the majority of Hoosiers do not want this, and I think the Senate is reflecting that right now,” Pol said. “They want answers to real-life problems. They want fixes to (Senate Enrolled Act 1), they want prices for their groceries to go down, they want prices for their utilities to go down, and they want housing to be fixed. Nobody wants to spend time on something that’s an illegitimate process.”
Election season should be about casting your vote and making your voice heard. But for scammers, it’s an opportunity to trick retirees into handing over personal details, money or even their vote itself.
What many don’t realize is that public voter registration data is one of the biggest tools fraudsters use. With elections coming up on Nov. 4, scammers are already scraping these records and using them to create targeted scams. If you’re a retiree or helping a parent or loved one prepare to vote, here’s how to stay safe.
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Every state in the U.S. keeps voter registration lists. These include personal details like:
Full name
Home address
Phone number (in some states)
Political party affiliation
Voting history (whether you voted, not who you voted for).
Scammers are targeting retirees with fake election messages and calls.(Getty Images)
While these lists are meant for transparency, they’re often made available online or sold in bulk. Data brokers scoop them up, combine them with other records and suddenly scammers have a detailed profile of you: your age, address and voting habits. For retirees, this exposure is especially dangerous. Why? Because seniors are less likely to know that this information is floating around, making scams seem more convincing.
You can easily check where your personal information is exposed with a free data exposure scanner.
Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com
Scams targeting retirees before Nov. 4
Here are the most common election-season cons fraudsters are already running:
1) Fake “polling place” updates
You might get a call, text or email saying your polling location has changed. Scammers may then direct you to a fake site that asks for your Social Security number or ID details “to confirm eligibility.”
2) “Voter ID update” messages
Since some states require voter ID, scammers will pose as election officials, claiming your ID is “out of date” or that you must upload personal documents. These go straight into the wrong hands.
Criminals set up fake political donation sites with names resembling real campaigns. Retirees who are politically active or generous with causes are prime targets here.
4) Absentee ballot phishing
Scammers know many seniors vote by mail. They’ll send emails offering to “help” with requests or track your ballot while stealing your personal data in the process.
Red flags to watch out for
Public voter data can make it easy for fraudsters to create convincing scams.(CyberGuy.com)
Scammers use clever tricks to make their messages seem urgent and official. Here are the warning signs that should make you pause before responding.
Urgency: “Act now or lose your right to vote.” Scammers use deadlines to scare you.
Unusual payment requests: No legitimate election office will ever ask for payment to vote or register.
Strange links: If you’re asked to click on a link from a text or email, stop. Always go directly to your state’s official election website instead.
Requests for sensitive info: Election officials don’t need your Social Security number or bank account details.
How retirees can stay safe this election season
Protecting yourself doesn’t mean opting out of civic life. It means taking a few smart steps:
1) Reduce your data footprint
This one matters most. The less personal data available about you, the fewer opportunities scammers have to trick you during election season. When they can view your age, address and even your voting history, they can craft messages that sound alarmingly real. The good news is you can take control and limit what’s out there.
Reaching every voter data broker or people-search site on your own is nearly impossible, and most make the process intentionally difficult. That’s why data removal services can help. They automatically send removal requests to hundreds of data-broker sites and keep monitoring to ensure your information doesn’t return. The result is fewer scam calls, fewer phishing emails and far less risk this election season.
While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice. They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.
Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com
Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com
2) Confirm only through official sources
If you get a message about your polling place, ignore any links and call your local election office directly. Each state also has an official website you can trust.
3) Sign up for ballot tracking
Many states offer secure ballot tracking online. Use only the official election site, not third-party services.
4) Freeze your credit
Since scammers use voter data to impersonate you, a credit freeze stops them from opening new accounts in your name. Retirees who don’t need frequent new credit are especially good candidates for this protection.
Taking steps to remove your personal info online helps keep your vote and data safe.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
5) Be wary of political donation sites
If you want to donate, type the campaign’s official website into your browser instead of clicking a link in an email or social media ad.
Kurt’s key takeaway
Voting is one of the most important rights we have. But this year, scammers will use public voter data to exploit retirees like never before. Don’t let them steal your peace of mind. By spotting the red flags, sticking to official election sources and removing your personal data from the web, you can protect yourself and your vote.
Have you or someone you know received a suspicious message about voting or donations? How did you realize or suspect that it was a scam? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com
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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
The devolution of Illinois’ Republican Party continued Tuesday as a candidate for governor refused to denounce two political operatives tied to a right-wing fake newspaper website that published a story containing an internet link detailing salacious allegations against a rival, while a new candidate emerged with a controversial background as a gambling mogul.
At a brief news conference, GOP governor candidate Ted Dabrowski refused to discuss the public disclosure of a years-old draft harassment complaint involving rival Darren Bailey and his 2022 campaign. The allegations, stemming from Bailey’s failed 2022 bid for governor, were never formally filed in court and have not been verified, but were linked to a politically motivated news article shared online.
Dabrowski, former president of the conservative research and advocacy group Wirepoints, also would not answer questions about Jeanne Ives and right-wing radio talk show host Dan Proft, both of whom supported Bailey in 2022 but are now backing Dabrowski. Ives is an acolyte of Proft, and Proft has been a business partner of Brian Timpone, who oversees one of many so-called “pink-slime” publications — fake newspapers used as a political tool — that included a link to the unverified claims.
Ives, who has lost previous bids for governor and Congress, also posted the article with the link on her Facebook page.
“Ordinary Illinoisans, Chicagoans, Illinoisans, don’t care about political infighting between campaigns. And I’m not going to get into that,” Dabrowski said during the news conference, which lasted less than 10 minutes.
The GOP race for governor in the March 17 primary and the right to take on billionaire second-term Democrat JB Pritzker began spiraling late last week when a Timpone-run publication posted the link to a 37-page confidential draft lawsuit within an online article about a political action committee called the Save Illinois PAC.
That PAC, which spent over $39,500 to help launch Bailey’s second bid for the Republican nomination for governor, is run by Brett Corrigan, a former political worker for Bailey who made the allegations during Bailey’s first run for governor in 2022, when he was 17 years old. The Tribune is not detailing the allegations contained in the draft lawsuit because it was never filed in court and not verified, and the legal dispute apparently ended in a closed-door resolution between Corrigan and Bailey.
Darren Bailey, center, greets supporters with Brett Corrigan, left, after announcing Bailey’s 2026 Republican primary bid for Illinois governor at the Drake Hotel Oak Brook on Sept. 25, 2025. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
At the time of the 2022 campaign, Proft was supportive of Bailey and used his People Who Play By The Rules PAC to back the Republican former state lawmaker from downstate. Proft, of Naples, Florida, also has been the conduit of tens of millions of dollars in contributions to Illinois candidates from conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein of Lake Forest, who founded the Uline office supply distribution firm. Uihlein, in 2022, overwhelmingly funded the People Who Play By The Rules PAC, but this year has given $250,000 to Dabrowski’s campaign.
In 2022, Proft sought to inject himself into the potential litigation between Corrigan and Bailey.
By law, the PAC was not supposed to coordinate its spending activities with Bailey’s campaign but text messages show efforts by Proft to try to intercede in the legal matter, raising questions over whether Proft was closer to the campaign than previously acknowledged.
After Corrigan retained Orland Park attorney Scott Kaspar to pursue a proposed confidential settlement agreement, Proft weighed in, apparently in an effort to quash the filing of a possible lawsuit that could become public ahead of the 2022 general election. Pritzker ended up defeating Bailey by about 13 percentage points.
The Democratic Party of Illinois filed a complaint with the Illinois State Board of Elections the day after the Tribune story was published, alleging Proft and Bailey’s campaign illegally coordinated their efforts to oppose Pritzker’s reelection bid. But the board rejected the complaint last year, in part, because Illinois law does not specifically define what activities constitute “coordination” that would render the actions of an independent expenditure PAC and the candidate it supports illegal.
“While Darren Bailey and (his lieutenant governor running mate) Aaron Del Mar are focused on defeating Democrats and fixing Illinois, it’s unfortunate that Jeanne Ives is once again reprising her role as the Democrats’ favorite ‘Republican,’” Bailey campaign spokesman Jose Durbin said in a statement. “Jeanne Ives is a sore loser who’s been bitter ever since she couldn’t even beat (former one-term GOP Gov.) Bruce Rauner in a Republican primary. She’s made a career out of attacking fellow conservatives instead of fighting Democrats. At this point, she’s nothing more than a political grifter looking for attention.”
Dan Proft listens to questions from attorney David Fox, right, during a hearing in Chicago on April 29, 2024, by the State Board of Elections after Democrats filed a complaint against the GOP strategist for alleged illegal election coordination with former GOP gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey. The board rejected the complaint. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)Former state Rep. Jeanne Ives speaks at a protest against mask mandates in schools on Feb. 7, 2022, outside the D181 Administration Center in Clarendon Hills. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Besides sharing the faux-news article and link on her Facebook page, Ives also commented on it by writing, “The Bailey Clown Show and Grift.” Appearing at Dabrowski’s news conference Tuesday, she denied being the source of the draft complaint.
“I have no idea who leaked it. Zero idea,” Ives said. “I was concerned about the ‘Save Illinois PAC.’ They raise monies for reasons that they never told the donors at all. And then they gave $40,000 to the Bailey campaign. I mean, that was the bigger concern for me.”
Despite hosting a Bailey kickoff event earlier this year in Oak Brook, Corrigan has now left Bailey’s 2026 campaign, signing up as chair for a new contender, Rick Heidner of Barrington Hills, a real estate developer and founder of Gold Rush Gaming.
Heidner filed campaign finance paperwork Tuesday to run for the GOP governor nomination with Homer Glen Mayor Christina Neitzke-Troike as his running mate. He also disclosed that he had seeded his campaign with $1 million.
In October 2019, a Chicago Tribune investigation revealed that for nearly two decades, Heidner owned numerous commercial properties via shell companies in several states with Rocco Suspenzi, the longtime chairman and part owner of Parkway Bank and Trust in Harwood Heights.
Former state Sen. Darren Bailey greets people after announcing his Republican primary bid for governor on Sept. 25, 2025, at Turner’s Table in Carterville, Illinois. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
In 2003, the Illinois Gaming Board and the FBI exposed Suspenzi and son Jeffrey for concealing their own ownership stake, as well as that of a reputed mob figure, in the infamous Emerald casino project. Suspenzi and his son invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in 2005 when the Gaming Board sought to question them about their role in concealing the ownership stakes of reputed Outfit-linked investors Vito Salamone and Nick Boscarino.
At the same time, Heidner had a similar real estate partnership with convicted bookmaker Dominic Buttitta. Together, they owned a building in Elgin that was leased to a bar licensed for video gambling that used Heidner’s Gold Rush machines. In 2012, Buttitta pleaded guilty to federal charges of running an illegal sportsbook from the South Elgin strip club he controlled.
The revelations led in part to Pritzker’s decision to cancel the sale of the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center property, which Heidner had sought to purchase for a horse racing and casino facility. In April 2021, Heidner and state gaming regulators reached a settlement after the state withdrew allegations that he had offered an illegal $5 million inducement to purchase a rival video gambling chain.
Heidner has been a frequent political donor, in February giving $25,000 to the conservative Republican group McHenry GOPAC and in 2022 he gave $25,000 to Richard Irvin, the former mayor of Aurora, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor that year.
Rick Heidner, of Playing In The Park LLC, speaks with the Illinois Racing Board on Sept. 17, 2019, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
But Heidner has also contributed to Democratic candidates, including $25,000 to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and $5,000 to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in 2023, as well as $5,000 to Don Harmon, now the president of the Illinois Senate, in 2017.
Corrigan confirmed that he’s supporting Heidner, stating that he and Heidner have been good friends for a long time. But Corrigan said he still considers Bailey a friend, though there are people who could take their previous falling out “to make a mess of politics.”
“It seems like Republicans attack each other harder than the opposition does,” Corrigan said.
Kaspar echoed that sentiment, saying the infighting is “a sad testament of the state of the Illinois Republican Party.”
“It’s a very fractured party,” said Kaspar, the general counsel for the Illinois Review, a conservative website that published an article about the draft complaint saga this week.
The U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing a request from New Jersey Republicans to send election monitors to oversee the handling of mail ballots in a key county that will help settle the state’s Nov. 4 governor’s race.
The New Jersey Republican State Committee told Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, in a letter that federal intervention is necessary to ensure an accurate vote count in Passaic County.
The suburban county has been a Democratic stronghold. But it shifted to President Donald Trump’s column in 2024 and may be critical to GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli’s hopes against Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill.
New Jersey Republicans asked specifically for federal monitors to “oversee the receipt and processing of vote-by-mail ballots” and “take steps to monitor access to the Board of Elections around the clock.”
Justice Department spokesman Gates McGavick said in a statement that the agency “is committed to upholding the integrity of our electoral system and is reviewing this request to ensure all elections remain free, fair, and transparent.”
The New Jersey GOP request cited previous voter fraud cases in the county, alleging a “long and sordid history” of vote-by-mail shenanigans and asserting that state officials have not done enough in response.
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While voter fraud does occur nationally, it is rare and there are safeguards in place to prevent it. But Passaic County drew Trump’s attention in 2020 as a case study in what could happen in an election conducted mostly by mail.
A judge ordered a new election for a city council seat in Paterson — the largest city in Passaic County — after the apparent winner and others were charged with voter fraud. The Passaic County Board of Elections decided not to count 800 ballots cast in the race after the U.S. Postal Service’s law enforcement arm said hundreds of mail-in ballots were located in a mailbox in Paterson, along with more found in nearby Haledon.
In 2024, Trump became the first Republican presidential nominee to win Passaic County in more than 30 years. He carried the heavily Latino city of Passaic and significantly increased his support in Paterson, the state’s third-largest city, which is majority Latino and has a large Muslim community.
That performance was part of Trump dramatically improving his statewide performance in New Jersey. In 2020, he lost the state by nearly 16 percentage points to Demcorat Joe Biden. Trump narrowed that margin to 6 percentage points last year in his matchup against Democrat Kamala Harris.
Trump has for years questioned mail voting as part of his repeated false claims that Biden’s national victory in 2020 was rigged. Trump has suggested that mail balloting is riddled with fraud, despite analyses that show no widespread fraud in U.S. elections. Earlier this year, Trump pledged to ban vote-by-mail across the country, something he has no power to do under the U.S. Constitution.
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NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has a book coming out in January, touching upon everything from his swift political rise to the trauma of his home being set on fire.
Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, announced Tuesday that “Where We Keep the Light: From a Life of Service,” will be released Jan. 27. Shapiro, 52, has become a prominent national Democrat since he was elected governor in 2022. He was on Kamala Harris’ shortlist as a running mate in last year’s presidential election and he has often been cited as a potential candidate for 2028.
According to Harper, Shapiro “shares powerful stories about his family, his faith, and his career in public service.”
“Gov. Shapiro reflects on what he has learned along his journey,” Tuesday’s announcement reads in part, “knocking on doors, serving his community, and bringing people together to tackle the tough problems we face.”
In April, a man set fire to the governor’s mansion while Shapiro and his family were sleeping inside, according to authorities. The Shapiros, who hours earlier had hosted a gathering for the Jewish holiday of Passover, were awakened by state police and ushered to safety. Cody Balmer pleaded guilty last week to charges of arson and attempted murder, and was sentenced under a plea deal to 25 to 50 years in state prison.
.jpg "Carlos Ruiz Massieu, special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Haiti and head of the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti, briefs the Security Council on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 on the question concerning Haiti and the U.N. political office.")
