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Nov. 7 (UPI) — Democrats are ready to end the federal government shutdown if Republicans agree to extend Affordable Care Act credits for another year, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Friday afternoon.

Schumer, D-N.Y., said Senate Democrats favor passing a temporary funding measure and three other bills that would fund the federal government for one year, CNN reported.

“Democrats are offering a very simple compromise,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

“Now, the ball is in the Republicans’ court,” he added. “We need Republicans to just say yes.”

Schumer’s announcement came after Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., earlier said the Senate will work through the weekend to negotiate reopening the federal government and possibly vote after a bipartisan effort failed Thursday.

Thune wanted to hold another vote on the House-approved continuing resolution to fund the federal government through Nov. 21, but Senate Democrats aren’t on board, he told media earlier Friday.

“Our members are going to be advised to be available if, in fact, there’s a need to vote,” he said.

“We will see what happens and whether or not, over the course of the next couple of days, the Democrats can find their way to re-engage again,” Thune added.

Thune earlier this week expressed optimism that a funding agreement would be made this week, but that ended after Senate Democrats met on Thursday.

“All I know is that the pep rally they had at lunch yesterday evidently changed some minds,” he said Friday.

“We had given them everything they wanted and had asked for,” Thune explained. “At some point, I was gonna say they have to take ‘yes’ for an answer, and they were trending in that direction.”

The impasse is due to Senate Democrats not trusting President Donald Trump to agree to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire after December and to stop firing federal employees, The Hill reported.

Senate Democrats held a working lunch on Thursday, as referenced by Thune, during which they rejected a bipartisan proposal to reopen the government.

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Angus King, I-Maine, had worked out a deal with the GOP, which buoyed Thune’s hope of ending the government shutdown on its record 38th day.

Senate Democrats discussed the bipartisan proposal during their Thursday lunch and rejected it due to their distrust of the president.

The proposal would have included a short-term funding measure to reopen the government and a three-year appropriations bill that would have funded the Agriculture Department, Veterans Affairs, military construction and the legislative branch.

The USDA funding would have meant full funding for currently suspended Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

Lacking strong guarantees that the president would support extending Affordable Care Act credits that initially were enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic and that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year, the Senate Democrats said they won’t support the bipartisan plan to move forward.

Despite the continued opposition from Senate Democrats, Thune doesn’t expect the shutdown to continue into the Thanksgiving holiday weekend at the end of the month, he said while appearing on Fox News Friday.

Thune needs at least five more Senate Democrats to join with Democratic Party Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and King, who caucuses with Senate Democrats, to approve the continuing resolution.

Fetterman, Masto and King consistently have voted in favor of continuing the 2025 fiscal year budget while negotiating the budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which started on Oct. 1.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is the only Republican senator to continually vote against the measure.

The House-approved continuing resolution consistently has received a majority of support in the Senate, but it has not received the 60 votes needed to overcome the Senate’s filibuster rule for passage.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla announced Tuesday that he will not run for California governor next year, ending months of speculation about the possibility of the Democrat vying to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“It is with a full heart and even more commitment than ever that I am choosing to not run for governor of California next year,” Padilla told reporters outside his Senate office in Washington.

Padilla instead said he will focus on countering President Trump’s agenda in Congress, where Democrats are currently on the minority in both the House and Senate, but hope to regain some political clout after the 2026 midterm elections.

“I choose not just to stay in the Senate. I choose to stay in this fight because the constitution is worth fighting for. Our fundamental rights are worth fighting for. Our core values are worth fighting for. The American dream is worth fighting for,” he said.

Padilla said his decision was influenced by his belief that under President Trump, “these are not normal times.”

“We deserve better than this,” he said.

Many contenders, no clear favorite

Padilla’s decision to bow out of the 2026 governor’s race will leave a prominent name out of an already crowded contest with many contenders but not a clear favorite.

For much of the year, the field was essentially frozen in place as former Vice President Kamala Harris debated whether she would run, with many donors and major endorsers staying out of the game. Harris said at the end of July that she wouldn’t run. But another potential candidate — billionaire developer Rick Caruso — remains a question mark.

Caruso said Monday night that he was still considering running for either governor or Los Angeles mayor, and will decide in the next few weeks.

“It’s a really tough decision,” Caruso said. “Within a few weeks or so, or something like that, I’ll probably have a decision made. It’s a big topic of discussion in the house with my kids and my wife.”

Major Democratic candidates include former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, current California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former state Controller Betty Yee and wealthy businessman Stephen Cloobeck. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton are the most prominent Republicans running.

Amid fire recovery aftermath, immigration raids and a high-octane redistricting battle, California voters have yet to turn their attention to next year’s gubernatorial matchup, despite the vast power Newsom’s successor will wield. California is now the world’s fourth-largest economy, and policy decisions in the Golden State often have global repercussions. Newsom is nearing the end of his second and final term.

Recent polling shows the contest as wide open, with nearly 4 in 10 voters surveyed saying they are undecided, though Porter had a slight edge as the top choice in the poll. She and Bianco were the only candidates whose support cracked the double digits.

Candidates still have months to file their paperwork before the June 2 primary to replace Newsom.

June incident brought attention

Known for soft-spoken confidence and a lack of bombast, Padilla’s public profile soared in June after he found himself cuffed by federal agents, at the center of a staggering viral moment during a news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Despite identifying himself, Padilla was tackled after trying to interrupt Noem with a question. The manhandling of California’s senior senator was filmed by a staffer and broadcast around the world, provoking searing and widespread condemnation.

Days later, Vice President JD Vance joked about the incident and referred to Padilla — his former Senate colleague — as “Jose Padilla,” a misnaming that Padilla suggested was intentional and others characterized as racist.

The event put Padilla on the national spotlight and rumors of Padilla’s interest in the gubernatorial race ignited in late August.

Padilla told reporters on Tuesday that he received an “outpouring of encouragement and offers of support for the idea” of his candidacy and that he had “taken it to heart”

Alongside his wife, Angela, the senator said he also heard from many people urging him to keep his fight going in Washington.

“Countless Californians have urged me to do everything i could to protect California and the American Dream from a vindictive president who seems hell bent on raising costs for working families, rolling back environmental protections, cutting access to healthcare, jeopardizing reproductive rights and more,” he said.

Padilla said he had listened.

“I will continue to thank them and honor their support by continuing to work together for a better future,” he said.

Ceballos reported from Washington, Wick from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Noah Goldberg, in Los Angeles, contributed to this report.

Oct. 22 (UPI) — Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., passed the 14-hour mark Wednesday morning in his filibuster speech on the “grave threats to democracy” he said President Donald Trump poses.

Merkley began his speech at 6:24 p.m. EDT Tuesday and was speaking as of about 10 a.m. Wednesday. The record for a Senate filibuster was set in April this year by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who spoke for 25 hours and 5 minutes.

The senator from Oregon used the speech to warn about what he described as Trump’s shift toward authoritarianism and weaponization of the Justice Department. He said it was “an incredible threat to our nation.”

“I’ve come to the Senate floor tonight to ring the alarm bells,” Merkley said in his opening remarks. “We’re in the most perilous moment, the biggest threat to our republic since the Civil War.

“President Trump is shredding our Constitution.”

Merkley took issue with the level to which Trump has used executive actions and powers, the mass deportations carried out by his administration, the deadly strikes used against suspected drug cartels in South and Central American waters, federal troop deployments to U.S. cities, and his work to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to Newsweek.

“President Trump wants us to believe that Portland, Ore., in my home state, is full of chaos and riots,” Merkley said. “Because if he can say to the American people that there are riots, he can say there’s a rebellion. And if there’s a rebellion, he can use that to strengthen his authoritarian grip on our nation.”

Merkley’s filibuster comes days after thousands of “No Kings” protests were held across the country. The anti-Trump demonstrations addressed many of the same issues as Merkley’s speech.

The Senate, which has yet to pass a stopgap funding bill to reopen the government after a 22-day shutdown, will be unable to carry out any business on the Senate floor until Merkley concludes his speech.

WASHINGTON — The very first thing you notice about the senior senator from West Virginia is that voice.

There is no doubt about it: Robert C. Byrd has the best voice in Washington.

It’s a deep yet tremulous 74-year-old voice that seems to descend upon the listener from on high, as if Byrd is somewhere above you, uttering eternal truths that are immediately being hammered into granite.

As he talks, Byrd dances through the octaves, carefully playing with his articulation of each vowel and consonant, surrounding his audience in the sweet darkness of sound.

Long, crafted pauses break his sentences, and during those silent moments time seems suspended; Byrd is then like nothing so much as a Shakespearean actor warming to the task.

The thought occurs that America is a safer place because Robert Byrd went into politics rather than into door-to-door sales.

Or is it?

“My voice, a political tool? I have never used my voice as a political tool,” insists Byrd in the sliding baritone that he has so often utilized as a political tool.

As he speaks, Byrd’s ornate Victorian-Era office in the Capitol Building is transformed into a personal stage. Beneath murals glorifying the Republic, Byrd paces the room, moves toward a shaft of sunlight and strikes a heroic pose beside a tall window.

He is a short, compact man, but his size belies the power of his presence. With his carefully coiffed silver hair, his high forehead and piercing eyes, and impeccably dressed in a vested dark suit, Byrd has the look of an important person not to be messed with, a fundamentalist preacher or a hanging judge.

Slowly, Byrd gets down to business. He moves to his desk, opens a drawer and pulls out a large black book. It is the Bible. Byrd turns to a coffee table in front of his audience, lifts the Bible and with sudden force slams the book down.

He slaps his hand onto the Bible. “Has Robert Byrd ever twisted arms to get the CIA to move jobs to West Virginia?”

His question to himself thunders through the room.

“Has Robert Byrd twisted arms at the FBI to move jobs to West Virginia?

“I swear on the Holy Bible that I have not!”

It is a bravura performance by the Senate’s premier dramatist.

Byrd, a Democrat, is here for some serious damage control. The former Senate majority leader and current chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee is under attack as Congress returns later this month, and he wants to get his side told.

The charge that Byrd is answering: that he has used his sway over the appropriations process, the flow of money, in the Senate to move–no, his real foes would say steal–thousands upon thousands of government jobs and take them to his depressed Mountain State.

Byrd’s pork-barrel deals have prompted the kind of shock and outrage from his colleagues that has rarely been seen here since Jimmy Stewart filibustered Claude Rains’ crooked dam project in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

“Everyone in this body knows what’s going on,” Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) warned darkly in a recent emotional rebuke to Byrd on the floor of the House. “We all know what’s taken place. I believe that actions like this . . . are disgraceful.”

Byrd’s efforts to move FBI and CIA facilities and thousands of jobs to West Virginia–immediately transforming rural hamlets there into international centers of law enforcement and intelligence gathering–have drawn special fire.

The attacks have come from such diverse sources as right-wing House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (“It makes no sense at all except as a pure abuse of power,” Gingrich blasted) to Tom Clancy, best-selling novelist and friend of the CIA (“The Duke of West Virginia,” Clancy wrote in The Washington Post, “. . . is taking serfs from one fiefdom and moving them to another–his–in return for which he will deign to grant favors to those willing to support his legislative kidnaping”).

To be sure, pork has never gone out of style in Washington. There is a good reason, after all, why Congress seems so reluctant to cut the bloated defense budget, even after the collapse of the Soviet Evil Empire; it’s because the Pentagon and the nation’s military contractors have been so efficient at spreading their largess (factories and jobs) throughout almost every congressional district in the country.

So when others in Congress say they are shocked–shocked!–to find pork-barrel politics going on, their protestations may be just a wee bit disingenuous.

Still, Byrd has been catching flak because he seems to have gone beyond the pale, the accepted norms of pork. At least by the standards of modern Washington, that is, where special interests usually bring home the bacon through less showy practices–and without leaving so many tracks.

Indeed, perhaps Byrd’s biggest mistake was that he failed to follow convention and work through a bunch of shadowy lobbyists; he has instead done pork the old-fashioned way–by dint of his brute power over the legislative process.

Byrd denies that he has abused his power or exerted undue pressure to persuade federal agencies to locate jobs and facilities in West Virginia, yet he remains quite open in his desire to do more for his state.

He has, in fact, publicly devoted himself and the remainder of his Senate career to the cause of stimulating the moribund West Virginia economy through a massive injection of government money and jobs. He even set a goal: to bring $1 billion home with him in the space of five years.

He has already exceeded that objective in just three years, and the way he has gone about it is a lesson in congressional power.

In 1989, Byrd surprised official Washington by stepping down as Senate majority leader to become chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. To most political pundits, it was a puzzling move; after all, as majority leader Byrd was a national figure. He was trading in the status of statesman for the grubby world of an obscure committee post, and few outside the Senate saw the logic in it.

Yet Byrd, a senator since 1959 (and a congressman even before that, dating to 1953) understood where real power lay in Congress.

At least the kind of power that was useful to West Virginia.

A master of parliamentary procedure and a self-taught expert on the history of the Senate, Byrd knew that while the highly visible majority leader could control the scheduling and the legislative pace in the Senate, the real substance of the Senate’s business was conducted at the committee level. Arguably the most powerful committee of all was Appropriations; while other panels could create new programs, Appropriations controlled all the money to run those programs.

“I had been in the leadership for 22 years, and that’s a long time,” Byrd says. “I had been spending all my time on the floor and on matters affecting the nation. I felt it was time to move on. I’m glad I walked away from it.”

And so, after a career in the Senate leadership, what better way to help West Virginia than to take the helm of Appropriations, where Byrd would be in a position to pick and choose which government spending programs to ship back home?

Today, Byrd doesn’t deny the obvious benefits his committee post offers West Virginia. What is good for West Virginia, Byrd explains, is good for America.

“Naturally, my state is part of this union. A highway in West Virginia versus another state . . . one shouldn’t look at it as if it is a highway in Mexico. All of these states are part of the same country.” Byrd adds that others shouldn’t begrudge West Virginia. Quoting Daniel Webster, he notes: “We don’t put lines of latitude on what public works do or don’t benefit us.”

The result: By last fall, more than $500 million in proposed federal spending for West Virginia for fiscal 1992 alone was moving through the Appropriations process in the Senate, according to Congressional Quarterly, a Washington journal that tracks Congress. A list of Byrd’s West Virginia-bound pork, compiled by Congressional Quarterly in the middle of the fall’s congressional session, was impressive; it ranged from $165 million in highway improvements to $600,000 in research grants for the study of a replacement for lime fertilizer.

More visible projects included the transfer of a 90-worker data processing division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; an Internal Revenue Service center employing 300, and a 700-worker office of the Bureau of Public Debt.

But his greatest coup was the FBI’s national fingerprinting laboratory, bringing as many as 2,600 workers to Clarksburg, W.Va.

Byrd didn’t win so much for his depressed home state by relying on friendships with his fellow senators; on the contrary, he has been successful almost exclusively because of the power of his position and his unrivaled grasp of the legislative process in the Senate–and in spite of the fact that many of his colleagues view him as cold and aloof.

“I don’t have close friends in the Senate,” Byrd quietly acknowledges. He adds, with a measure of pride: “I don’t socialize with anybody. I haven’t played a round of golf in my life.”

But with few allies to rely on, Byrd’s West Virginia-first campaign finally ran aground late in 1991 in the face of mounting congressional opposition. Thus, when Byrd tried to take the CIA, or at least a big chunk of it, to West Virginia, the rest of Congress put its foot down.

The CIA and Byrd had earlier agreed to transfer 3,000 workers to a new CIA office center to be built in West Virginia, consolidating a series of smaller offices scattered throughout the Washington area.

But this time, Byrd’s critics had seen enough.

Quickly, the House Intelligence Committee labeled the plan a “covert action.” Condemnation spilled out of Congress: “If this wasn’t so pathetic, it would be funny,” complained Rep. David O’B. Martin (R-N.Y.).

Wolf, a Republican from the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington whose district includes CIA headquarters, noted that Byrd’s actions would mean the agency would have to change its name to the “Decentralized Intelligence Agency.”

Eventually, the full House defied Byrd and has at least temporarily blocked the move.

In the face of so much criticism, Byrd repeatedly has insisted that the CIA followed a legitimate site selection process in choosing West Virginia; he also stresses that he believes his honor was impugned in the House debate over the CIA project.

How has he responded to such personal attacks?

He insists–dramatically, of course–that he remains above the fray.

“Those are innuendoes, willful misrepresentations of the facts,” Byrd says.

The lawyerly words flow slowly but steadily, as if he is pulling warm licorice from his mouth.

“I have turned my cheek to all of the innuendoes,” Byrd says.

He says again, more emphatically: “I have turned my cheek.”

SACRAMENTO — State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who has emerged as one of California’s most vocal critics of President Trump, will run next year for the congressional seat held by former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

A formal announcement from Wiener is expected next week, the San Francisco Standard reported.

Erik Mebust, a spokesperson for Wiener, declined to comment.

Wiener, 55, has already declared his intention to eventually run for the seat held by Pelosi and has raised $1 million through an exploratory committee. But he previously indicated that he would wait until Pelosi, who was first elected in 1987, stepped down.

That calculus changed, according to the Standard, when Saikat Chakrabarti, a progressive candidate, entered the race for Pelosi’s seat.

Ian Krager, spokesperson for Pelosi, released a statement saying Pelosi was focused on Proposition 50, which will be on the ballot in California’s Nov. 4 special election. The measure would redraw California’s congressional districts in favor of Democrats and was pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democratic leaders after President Trump urged Texas to reconfigure the state’s district to elect five more Republicans to Congress, part of an effort to keep the GOP in control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Speaker Pelosi is fully focused on her mission to win the Yes on 50 special election in California on November 4th. She urges all Californians to join in that mission on the path to taking back the House for the Democrats.”

Pelosi, 85, hasn’t indicated whether will she run again. If she does seek another term, her age could be a factor at a time when younger Democrats are eager to see a new wave of leaders.

Pelosi was among several top politicians who persuaded then-President Biden to forgo a second term after widespread concerns about his age.

Wiener, elected to the state Senate in 2016, is best-known for his work pushing local governments to add more housing density.

He is a member of the California LGBTQ+ Caucus and has been a leading advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. If elected, Wiener would be the first openly gay person to represent San Francisco in Congress.

Before his election to the state Legislature, Wiener served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and worked as a deputy city attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

Newsom last week signed Wiener’s Senate Bill 79, one the most ambitious state-imposed housing efforts in recent memory. The bill upzones areas across California, overriding local zoning laws to allow taller, denser projects near public transit.

The bill was fiercely opposed by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and other L.A. leaders who want to retain power over housing decisions.

Wiener has repeatedly criticized the Trump administration, sparring on social media with the president’s supporters. Another one of his recent bills, to prohibit on-duty law enforcement officers from masking their faces during immigration raids, was signed into law by Newsom.

Oct. 16 (UPI) — U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., fell down in a Capitol hallway Thursday on his way to the Senate to vote.

McConnell, 82, announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election when his term ends in 2026.

Two volunteers from an environmental advocacy group were questioning McConnell as he walked and he fell to the floor. He didn’t answer the question. He was quickly helped up by his aides and a security guard. He smiled and waved at the video and continued his walk.

The Senate was staging votes on Thursday related to the government shutdown, which is in its 16th day. McConnell voted after the fall, and he is expected to vote later in the day.

Retired Marine pilot Amy McGrath announced last week that she is running for McConnell’s seat in 2026.

McGrath, a moderate Democrat and former candidate for the House and the Senate from Kentucky, launched her campaign earlier this month.

Already running for the Democrats are former Secret Service Agent Logan Forsythe, former CIA officer and military veteran Joel Willett, and retired Air Force colonel and state Rep. Pam Stevensen.

For the Republicans, three people already are running: Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, businessperson Nate Morris and Rep. Andy Barr, who beat McGrath in 2018 for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s two-term Democratic Gov. Janet Mills will run for the U.S. Senate seat held by veteran Republican Sen. Susan Collins next year, two people familiar with Mills’ plans said Friday.

The development sets up a potential showdown between the parties’ best-known figures in a state where Democrats see a chance to gain a seat in their uphill quest for the Senate majority.

Mills is tentatively expected to announce her candidacy Tuesday, according to the people, who insisted on anonymity to discuss plans they were not authorized to share publicly.

Mills was the top choice of national Democrats who have long tried to unseat Collins, who has held the seat since 1997. She was urged to run by party leaders including New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader. And though she met only once with Schumer to discuss the race early this year, her decision is viewed as a recruiting win for Democrats, who also have well-known figures with statewide experience running for seats held by Republicans in North Carolina and Ohio.

Democrats see the Maine seat as especially important, considering it is the only one on the 2026 Senate election calendar where Republicans are defending an incumbent in a state carried last year by Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

Still, a Democratic majority in the 100-member Senate remains a difficult proposition.

The party would need to gain a net of four seats, while most of the states with Senate elections next year are places where Republican Donald Trump beat Harris. Maine is an exception, while in North Carolina, where Trump narrowly won, Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper is viewed as a contender, and Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown is running in Ohio, where Trump won comfortably and Brown was defeated in November.

Mills gained national attention in February during a White House meeting of governors with Trump when she announced to him, “We’ll see you in court,” over her opposition to his call for denying states federal funding over transgender rights.

In April, Maine officials sued the Trump administration in an effort to stop the federal government from freezing federal funding to the state in light of its decision to defy a federal ban on allowing transgender students to participate in sports.

Mills stoked Democratic enthusiasm in April when she said of the lawsuit, “I’ve spent the better part of my career listening to loud men talk tough to disguise their weaknesses.”

Mills, 77, is a former state attorney general who won the governorship in 2018 and again in 2022. Maine governors are barred from seeking a third term and, while Mills early this year seemed to dismiss a Senate campaign, she said she had rethought the notion and was “seriously considering” running.

She had set a November deadline for making a decision, though as of mid-September, she was interviewing prospective senior campaign staffers.

A campaign against Collins would pit her against a senator who has built a reputation as a moderate but who was a key supporter of Trump’s Cabinet and judicial nominations. A spokesperson for Collins declined to comment on the expected upcoming Mills announcement.

Collins, 72, has won all of her four reelection campaigns by double-digit percentages, except in 2020.

That year, Collins defeated Democratic challenger Sara Gideon, the former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, by more than 8 percentage points in a race Democrats felt confident could help them gain a seat in the Senate. Collins won in a year Democrats gained a net of three seats in the chamber. She won despite Trump losing Maine to Democrat Joe Biden by 9 percentage points.

Like Collins, Mills was born in rural Maine. She became Maine’s first female criminal prosecutor in the mid-1970s, and she would later become the state’s first elected female district attorney as well as its first female attorney general and governor. She served as attorney general twice, from 2009 to 2011 and from 2013 to 2019.

A few other challengers have declared candidacies for the Democratic nomination, including oyster farmer Graham Platner, who has launched an aggressive social media campaign. Platner has the backing of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who posted on social media on Thursday that Platner is “a great working class candidate for Senate in Maine who will defeat Susan Collins” and that it’s “disappointing that some Democratic leaders are urging Gov. Mills to run.”

Whittle and Beaumont write for the Associated Press and reported from Portland and Des Moines, respectively. AP writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.), saying “the United States and this Administration have no trade policy,” Saturday called on the White House to impose restraints on shoe imports to help the suffering domestic footwear industry.

“It is time we got beyond simplistic catchwords that have immobilized us for so long,” he said in the Democratic response to President Reagan’s weekly radio address. “Free trade does not really exist in the modern market.”

“The U.S. shoe industry is literally withering on the vine due to a surge in footwear imports that reached 75% of the U.S. market in 1985,” Sasser said. In the senator’s home state, Tennessee, once the fifth-largest shoe-producing state in the country, 12 shoe factories have closed in the last 18 months.

Disarming in Trade War

“Far more is at stake here than the fate of a single industry. Frankly, we’re dealing with the credibility of our entire system of trade law,” Sasser said. “If the President fails to act here, where the evidence of import damage is truly extraordinary, we will be declaring unilateral disarmament in the intensifying battle for world trade.”

The President is required under law to act by next Sunday on a recommendation made by the International Trade Commission in June that he impose a novel shoe import quota system, in which the government would auction the right to import certain amounts of shoes.

“The International Trade Commission found that the shoe industry deserves and needs temporary relief, but the continued vacillation of the White House . . . only affirms what some of us have suspected for some time: that the United States and this Administration have no trade policy,” Sasser said.

“The belief that there is no middle ground between absolute free trade and absolute protectionism is largely responsible for the trade crisis we face today,” he added.

Trade Deficit Zooms

He said that the scope of that crisis is indicated by the growth of the nation’s trade deficit from $28 billion in 1981 to “the very real prospect of trade deficits that will have increased fivefold, to $150 billion” in 1985.

“For the first time in this century, the United States is now a debtor nation and our main export right now is American jobs,” Sasser said.

The problem, he said, is not with Japan or Canada or any other foreign nation. “The problem is ours and it’s a matter of gross inaction,” he said.

“The protectionist label is a red herring when virtually every government in the world seeks to assist its domestic industries with subsidies, with currency manipulation or with quotas,” he said.

BOSTON — Joan B. Kennedy, the former wife of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy who endured a long and troubled marriage marked by family tragedies, her husband’s infidelities and her own struggles with alcoholism and mental health, died on Wednesday. She was 89.

The former Joan Bennett was a model and classically-trained pianist when she married Ted Kennedy in 1958. Their lives would change unimaginably over the next decade and a half. Brother-in-law John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960 and assassinated three years later. Brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy served as attorney general under JFK, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1964 and assassinated while seeking the presidency.

Her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate and became among the country’s most respected legislators despite initial misgivings that he was capitalizing on his family connections. But Ted Kennedy also lived through scandals of his own making. In 1969, the car he was driving plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, killing his young female passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.

Kennedy, who swam to safety and waited hours before alerting police, later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. Chappaquiddick shadowed him for the rest of his life, weighing against his own chances for the presidency.

Joan Kennedy had three children with her husband, but also had miscarriages, including one shortly after the Chappaquiddick accident. She stood by her husband through the scandal, but their estrangement was nearly impossible to hide by the time of his unsuccessful effort to defeat President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 Democratic primaries. They had been separated by then, and would later divorce. One bumper sticker from the campaign read “Vote for Jimmy Carter, Free Joan Kennedy.”

Her love of piano would be a trademark for much of her life. She was known for opening her husband’s campaign rallies with a piano serenade and, after they divorced, touring with orchestras around the world. Her family said she would combine her masterful playing with a message about the transformational potential of the arts and the need for equitable arts education.

In a 1992 Associated Press interview, she recalled playing piano for brother-in-law Bobby when he ran for president in 1968. “He took me with him and encouraged me,” she said. “He had a theme, ‘This Land Is Your Land,’ the Woody Guthrie song. I’d play that on the piano and everybody would come in, feeling really great about everything.”

“It seems like a long time ago, but it’s part of my memories,” she said softly.

In a statement, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island praised his mother for her courage and talent.

“Besides being a loving mother, talented musician, and instrumental partner to my father as he launched his successful political career, Mom was a power of example to millions of people with mental health conditions,” his statement said. “She will be missed not just by the entire Kennedy Family, but by the arts community in the City of Boston and the many people whose lives that she touched.”

She also became one of the first women to publicly acknowledge her struggles with alcoholism and depression.

“I will always admire my mother for the way that she faced up to her challenges with grace, courage, humility, and honesty,” Ted Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “She taught me how to be more truthful with myself and how careful listening is a more powerful communication skill than public speaking.”

Casey writes for the Associated Press.

Former state Sen. Ronald Calderon, once the most powerful member of a politically influential family, was sentenced Friday in Los Angeles to 42 months in prison after he pleaded guilty in a federal corruption case.

The Montebello Democrat, who served in the state Senate for eight years ending in 2014, admitted in a plea deal in June that he had accepted tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from undercover FBI agents and a hospital executive in return for official favors.

Federal prosecutors had asked for a five-year sentence for a charge for which the maximum possible penalty was 20 years. U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder, who handed down the sentence to Calderon, said five years was too severe but that a significant prison sentence was needed to punish Calderon and send a message to other elected officials that corruption will not be tolerated.

“The crime is significant,” she said during the court hearing. “This is a true public corruption case.”

In addition to three and a half years in prison, Calderon was sentenced to one year supervised release and 150 hours of community service, but no fine. Instead of having Calderon taken into custody immediately, Snyder granted him a reprieve, allowing him to surrender to prison officials in January.

“Mr. Calderon betrayed the public trust,” said U.S. Atty. Eileen Decker. “A basic premise of our society is that elected officials will not exchange their votes for monetary gain and that’s what Mr. Calderon did.”

Mark Geragos, Calderon’s attorney, suggested during the court hearing that his client should serve no time in prison. He alleged that the government had entrapped Calderon and raised the former lawmaker’s poor health. The former state senator’s legacy has been ruined by his guilty plea in the case, he added.

“This is going to be the opening paragraph of his obituary, unfortunately,” Geragos told Snyder.

When Snyder rebuffed Geragos’ appeal and said Calderon needed to spend some amount of time behind bars, Geragos switched tactics, asking her to consider a two-year sentence.

Striking a defiant tone throughout, Calderon, 59, refused to admit any wrongdoing or to apologize.

“My goal was always to do the right thing for California,” he said. “At no point did I intend to break the law.”

Faced with the prospect of going to trial on nearly two dozen charges that could have sent him to prison for many years, Calderon said he had been put in a “tough situation” when the government proposed its plea agreement.

He said he ultimately decided to plead guilty to one count of mail fraud in order to spare his family the ordeal of a trial, but persisted in his innocence, saying he never agreed to any quid pro quo to benefit himself or his family.

Calderon, his voice wavering with emotion at times, then told Snyder of the toll the case has taken on him and his family, saying he had “learned a hard lesson.”

Unemployed and tens of thousands of dollars in debt, he said he was not only banned from running for public office again but had been stripped of his real estate license and had been unable to get a job. His wife, he said, would likely have to declare bankruptcy and sell their house.

“I had so much potential for life after politics,” he bemoaned.

Professional relationships had been ruined as had his relationship with his brother, he said.

“My reputation is destroyed,” Calderon said.

Snyder was unmoved.

“I did not really hear Sen. Calderon accept responsibility or apologize,” she said. “It was really about himself.”

Snyder said that after listening to Calderon she was tempted to tack on several months to his sentence, but chose to stick with the 42 months.

Calderon learned his fate a month after his brother former state Assemblyman Tom Calderon was sentenced to a year in federal custody for laundering bribes taken by his brother.

Updates from Sacramento »

As part of the plea, Ronald Calderon admitted accepting trips to Las Vegas, jobs for his adult son and daughter and cash for him and Tom Calderon.

In exchange, Calderon advocated for legislation that would help a hospital owner. He also acknowledged that he had pushed for a law to give tax credits to independent films while an undercover FBI agent posing as a film producer showered him with bribes.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Mack E. Jenkins wrote a blistering brief urging the federal judge for a prison sentence for the former state senator, who had asked to be allowed to serve time in home detention or be released after the brief time he already served in jail.

“Here, defendant’s trafficking in his legislative votes (for, by contrast, over $150,000 in benefits) caused a reverberation of negative effects throughout California and put a stain not just on his career, but on the reputation of the state legislature,” Jenkins wrote.

“Here, defendant sold his vote not just to help pay for the expenses of living beyond his means, but for the more banal and predictable aims of corruption — fancy luxuries, fancy parties and fancy people,” Jenkins wrote, attaching to the file a photo Calderon took with rappers Nelly and T.I. at a Las Vegas event.

The Calderon family was a political dynasty for decades in California. A third brother, former Assemblyman Charles Calderon, was not implicated in the corruption scandal. Ronald Calderon’s nephew Ian Calderon is a state assemblyman and the last family member in state elected office. He was not alleged to have any part in the scheme.

The indictment of Ronald Calderon in 2014 was part of an ugly chapter for the state Senate, which saw two other members also suspended after being charged with crimes.

Former Democratic Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco was sentenced in February to five years in prison for doing political favors in exchange for campaign cash in a separate scheme. Former Democratic state Sen. Roderick D. Wright served a brief jail sentence in 2014 after he was convicted of eight felony counts, including perjury and voting fraud, for lying about living in his state Senate district.

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) said Friday that with the sentencing of Calderon, “the Senate can close the book on a very dark period in its history.

“But its lesson will not be forgotten — that those who seek to trade a sacred trust for self-enrichment will be disgraced and punished,” he added. “There is no room for corruption in this house of democracy.

Good government advocates, including Kathay Feng of California Common Cause, were generally supportive of the judge’s decision. “The sentence of three [and a half] years sends a message that bribery does not pay,” Feng said.

Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), whose district overlapped Calderon’s and who had been first to call on Calderon to resign, said, “Today, our community received some justice for his crimes,” She added that the “dark cloud over our community will live with us longer than” Calderon serves in prison.

Patrick McGreevy reported from Sacramento and Joel Rubin reported from Los Angeles.

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ALSO

Sen. Ron Calderon surrenders to authorities in corruption case

Ex-Assemblyman Tom Calderon is sentenced to a year in federal custody in bribery case

Former state Sen. Ron Calderon’s guilty plea in corruption case marks blow to political dynasty

UPDATES:

4:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional quotes.

NEW YORK — Former U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez’s wife told a judge that her husband was “not the man I thought he was” before she was sentenced Thursday to 4½ years in prison for selling the powerful New Jersey politician’s influence in exchange for bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car.

U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein sentenced Nadine Menendez, 58, after she was convicted in April of colluding from 2018-23 with her husband, the former Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a variety of corrupt schemes, some involving assisting the Egyptian government.

Sobbing as she addressed the judge shortly before she was sentenced, Nadine Menendez described her husband as a manipulative liar.

“I put my life in his hands and he strung my like a puppet,” she said. “The blindfold is off. I now know he’s not my savior. He’s not the man I thought he was.”

Stein told the defendant that she wasn’t the person she was portrayed as during last year’s trial of her husband and two New Jersey businessmen, when the judge said she was painted “as manipulative, hungry for money and the true force behind the conspiracies.”

But he said she also wasn’t the “innocent observer of what was happening around you,” as she was portrayed by her lawyer at her trial.

“You knew what you were doing. Your role was purposeful,” he said.

When she spoke, Nadine Menendez partly blamed her husband, saying she was duped by his power and stature and that she felt compelled to do whatever he wanted, such as calling or meeting with certain people.

“I would never have imagined someone of his ranking putting me in this position,” she said, though she acknowledged that in retrospect, she was a grown woman and should have known better.

Before the hearing, Bob Menendez submitted a letter to the judge saying he regretted that he didn’t fully preview what his lawyer said about his wife during his trial and in closing arguments.

“To suggest that Nadine was money hungry or in financial need, and therefore would solicit others for help, is simply wrong,” he wrote.

In addition to prison time, Stein sentenced Nadine Menendez to three years of supervised release. He said he granted her leniency in part because of the trial she endured, her difficult childhood in Lebanon, her abusive romantic partners, her health conditions and her age.

Stein said a prison term was important for general deterrence purposes: “People have to understand there are consequences.”

Nadine Menendez won’t have to surrender to prison until next summer. Stein set a reporting date of July 10, accommodating a defense request that she be allowed to remain free to complete necessary medical procedures before she heads behind bars. Federal prosecutors did not object to the request.

Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of at least seven years.

Her lawyer, Sarah Krissoff, asked that she serve only a year behind bars, citing her difficult recovery from breast cancer, which was diagnosed just before last year’s trial, when she was to be tried along with her husband. She ended up being tried separately.

Bob Menendez, 71, is serving an 11-year sentence after his conviction on charges of taking bribes, extortion, and acting as an agent of the Egyptian government.

Prosecutors say Nadine Menendez played a large and crucial role in her husband’s crimes, serving as an intermediary between the senator and three New Jersey businessmen who literally lined his coat pockets with tens of thousands of dollars in cash in return for favors he could deliver with his political clout.

During a 2022 FBI raid on the couple’s New Jersey home, investigators found $480,000 in cash, gold bars worth an estimated $150,000 and a luxury convertible in the garage.

Prosecutors said that, among his other corrupt acts, the senator met with Egyptian intelligence officials and speeded that country’s access to U.S. military aid as part of a complex effort to help his bribe-paying associates, one of whom had business dealings with the Egyptian government.

Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press.

DES MOINES, Iowa — U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst said Tuesday that she will not seek reelection next year, confirming in a video post on social media that she will retire after months of speculation about her plans.

Ernst’s departure opens up a Senate seat in the state known for its long-serving incumbents. Ernst was first elected in 2014 to the open seat previously held by Tom Harkin, a Democrat who served for 30 years. Republican Chuck Grassley, Iowa’s senior U.S. senator, was first elected to the Senate in 1980.

Her announcement Tuesday followed reports last week that she was expected to announce her retirement in September.

It is the second unexpected retirement for Senate Republicans as they work to maintain their majority in the chamber, with Ernst joining Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who turned down a reelection bid after clashing with President Trump.

It also could have ripple effects down the ballot if third-term Rep. Ashley Hinson from the Cedar Rapids area in eastern Iowa jumps into the race, as is widely expected. Hinson’s decision could also complicate House Republicans’ efforts to keep control as Democrats look for opportunities to flip seats in once-competitive Iowa, where two of Iowa’s four congressional districts have been among the country’s most competitive in recent elections.

Several Democrats are seeking the party’s nomination for the seat, including state Sen. Zach Wahls; state Rep. Josh Turek; Jackie Norris, chair of the Des Moines School Board; and Nathan Sage, a former chamber of commerce president.

Two Republicans — former state Sen. Jim Carlin and veteran Joshua Smith — had already entered the primary to challenge Ernst.

Ernst, Iowa’s first woman elected to Congress, is an Iraq War combat veteran and retired from the Army National Guard as a lieutenant colonel. She served for several years in Senate GOP leadership and was considered a vice presidential contender for Trump’s first White House run.

But Ernst has faced pressure from all sides in the last year. She took heat after signaling a hesitance to support one of Trump’s Cabinet picks. She’s also been one of the faces of Democrats’ campaign against the sprawling tax and spending package after she made a retort about Medicaid cuts at a town hall.

Fingerhut writes for the Associated Press.

Aug. 29 (UPI) — Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, will not seek re-election when her term ends next year, people familiar with her decision have said.

Multiple sources have confirmed the decision to NBC News, CBS News and Politico.

Democrats’ hopes for a win in the state could be lifted, though they haven’t won a Senate race in Iowa since 2008.

Ernst, 55, won re-election by more than six points in 2020, and President Donald Trump won the state by 13 points in 2024. But the state elected President Barack Obama twice.

Democrats already have joined the race for Senate, including state Rep. Josh Turek, state Sen. Zach Wahls, Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris and Marine and Army veteran Nathan Sage.

Senate Republicans and their leadership already were worried about her planning to retire and have been lobbying for her to run again, Politico reported. Rep. Ashley Hinson also has expressed interest in running if Ernst retires. She will announce her bid by the end of September, another anonymous source told Politico.

NATO Ambassador Matt Whitaker may also run for the seat, according to NBC News.

Ernst has faced political setbacks, including backlash from MAGA allies over her hesitation to confirm Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. In May she made headlines when she said, “We all are going to die,” when a town hall participant said the cutbacks to Medicaid in the “Big Beautiful Bill” would cause people to die.

Ernst, a former Army Reserve and National Guard officer, first ran for Senate in 2014 to replace retiring Democrat Tom Harkin. She won the office and had promised to only serve for two terms.

DES MOINES, Iowa — U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iraq War combat veteran and Iowa’s first woman elected to Congress, is expected to announce next month she will not seek reelection, leaving another vacancy in an Iowa seat that could have ripple effects down the ballot as Democrats look to the state for pickup opportunities.

As Senate Republicans work to maintain their majority in the chamber, Ernst is joining a wave of her peers making headaches for the party. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina turned down a reelection bid after clashing with President Trump.

Ernst plans to announce in September that she will opt out of the race for a third term, according to three people familiar with her plans who spoke Friday on the condition of anonymity to preview the announcement.

Ernst, a former Army National Guard member and a retired lieutenant colonel, was first elected to an open Senate seat in 2014. She served for several years in the No. 3 spot in the Senate GOP leadership and was considered a vice presidential contender for Trump’s first White House run.

Her decision comes after Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, the state’s first female governor, said she would not run for reelection. It prompted the state’s many Republican elected officials to consider the open opportunity to run for higher office, a process that may begin again with Ernst’s departure.

Democrats have been looking for an opportunity to mount a political comeback in the once-competitive state, an uphill battle even in the potentially favorable midterm year. Ernst drew backlash after a retort about Medicaid cuts at a town hall. As Ernst explained that the legislation protects Medicaid for those who need it most, someone in the crowd yelled that people will die without coverage, and Ernst responded: “People are not … well, we all are going to die.”

The crowded primary field of Democratic candidates for the Senate have capitalized on that moment and Ernst’s Senate votes for early messaging. They’ll have to pivot once other Republicans enter the fray.

The election will be without an incumbent for the first time since 2014, when Ernst was elected in the first open Senate race in decades. Chuck Grassley, Iowa’s senior U.S. senator, has held his seat for 45 years.

Ernst emerged among a field of lesser-known candidates seeking the Republican nomination in 2014, rising to national recognition with advertisements that spoke of her experience slinging guns and castrating hogs. She won reelection in 2020 by more than six percentage points, coming in with just shy of 52% of voters.

Among Trump supporters, Ernst made waves earlier this year after signaling a hesitance to support his pick for the secretary of the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth. Hegseth has said in the past that he did not think women should serve in combat roles, and he was accused of a sexual assault that he denies.

But Ernst, who is herself a survivor of sexual assault and has worked to improve how the military handles claims of misconduct, made clear she wanted to hear him respond to those points. It provoked a pressure campaign that underscored Trump’s power on Capitol Hill and included threats of a bruising primary.

It wasn’t the first time Ernst went toe to toe with Trump supporters. She also faced condemnation for her 2022 vote to protect same-sex marriage.

Still, Ernst would have benefited from nearly 200,000 more active voters registered as Republicans than Democrats, a significant shift from even a few years ago. Ernst announced a campaign manager in June, an October date for her annual fundraiser and had raised just shy of $1.8 million in the first half of the year.

Several Democrats are seeking the party’s nomination for the seat, including state Sen. Zach Wahls; state Rep. Josh Turek; Jackie Norris, chair of the Des Moines School Board; and Nathan Sage, a former chamber of commerce president.

Two Republicans — former state Sen. Jim Carlin and veteran Joshua Smith — had already entered the primary to challenge Ernst.

Kim, Fingerhut and Cappelletti write for the Associated Press. Kim and Cappelletti reported from Washington.