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How looming ‘proxy war’ in 2024 Republican primaries could define key races nationwide

May 2, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — As the 2024 election cycle takes very early shape, GOP strategists are predicting that an expensive and potentially even race-deciding “proxy war” could break out in various states between two major political groups, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) and the Club for Growth.

The crux of their conflict? They agree there’s a problem in unifying behind the best nominees, but they disagree on the solution.

Republicans across the party concede that “candidate quality” was a prime factor in their failure to flip the Senate last year, when less experienced nominees like Blake Masters and Herschel Walker suffered high-profile defeats while the party only narrowly retook the House, despite widespread apathy about President Joe Biden.

But where the SLF and the Club for Growth disagree is on who should take the lead — and how.

One strategist who is “more aligned” with Senate Republicans put it this way, with some exasperation: “If you’re the Club for Growth, why in the heck would you spend $10 or $12 million to defeat [another GOP candidate], who probably is aligned with like 100% on your issues?”

In an interview, David McIntosh, the Club for Growth’s president, offered a virtual reflection of that argument from the other side.

“My proposition to them is: Let us find and support and fund these good candidates through their primary, and then we’ll work together to try to get the majority in the fall,” McIntosh said.

The dispute is likely to play out far away from voters at the ballot box but it could help determine who the GOP nominates in key races in 2024, with control of a closely divided Congress at stake.

And with tens of millions of dollars in potential advertising and other muscle at the ready, both the SLF and the Club for Growth are set to play major roles in elevating the next class of Republican politicians.

Ultimately, primary voters pick their party’s nominee, not outside groups. But those same outside groups can be influential in helping with ads and messaging for preferred candidates as well as with attacks on their opponents.

“It’s always important to have the best candidate and one that could appeal to independent voters,” said one former National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) staffer. “Candidate quality matters. It’s the first thing you control in a race. And so, getting it right is paramount.”

Lining up early behind dueling names

In 2022, the SLF, allied with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, prized electability above all else. But groups like the Club for Growth emphasized conservative bona fides instead.

All the while, the NRSC stayed out of primaries, getting involved only in the general election — a strategy that has been abandoned heading into 2024.

Midterm losses in Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and elsewhere in 2022, which saw Republicans nominate nontraditional figures like Dr. Oz Mehmet and Don Bolduc, set off finger-pointing over what critics said were insufficient efforts to boost strong candidates.

The next cycle provides a “golden opportunity,” as the former NRSC staffer put it, with Democratic incumbents defending many Senate seats, including in red states like Montana, Ohio and Virginia.

The SLF and the NRSC are aligned in their willingness to intervene in the 2024 primaries in order to elevate candidates they view as electable, and the Club is set to do the same — but not always for the same people.

“I think in some states, it could become a major proxy war,” said one GOP strategist working on Senate races.

If so, expect major fronts in that battle to open in Montana and West Virginia.

The NRSC and SLF are focusing on wealthy potential self-funders and are eyeing either veteran and businessman Tim Sheehy or state Attorney General Austin Knudsen in Montana. They also successfully recruited West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice to run for Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s seat.

McConnell and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., the NRSC chair, have been directly involved in such recruitment talks, and the SLF released early internal polling showing Manchin losing to Justice but not West Virginia Rep. Alex Mooney, another primary contender.

That survey was something of a swipe at the Club for Growth, which is backing Mooney to the tune of $10 million.

Daines has also talked up former hedge fund manager Dave McCormick as a potential Pennsylvania Senate candidate (McCormick lost to Oz in the 2020 primary by less than 1,000 votes), and a source familiar with the matter told ABC News that national Republicans are having discussions with candidates in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin.

“We want to win primaries and generals. I think people realize that winners make policy, and losers go home,” Daines said in a brief interview.

The Club for Growth, meanwhile, is a longtime backer of Rep. Matt Rosendale, who could run against Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.

The organization put out a memo that contended the SLF had “abandoned conservatives” in 2022 and claimed, “the best path to a Republican majority is through the Club for Growth PAC endorsed candidates.”

Republicans also have an opportunity to unseat Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, though sources familiar said they anticipate a more hands-off approach to the GOP primary there.

Voters ‘don’t like to be told’ what to do

Interviews with leaders and strategists on both sides of the divide lamented the prospects of bloody primaries fueled by each camp’s beefy war chests. But it appeared that no amount of dread could force cooperation.

A source familiar with the matter said the NRSC and the Club for Growth have held discussions “trying to just get a feel for — ‘Where are you really going to go to the mat on? And where are you going to maybe spend a half a million or a million?'”

But both groups denied the talks.

“They have a different set of candidates in a couple of these states — Montana, West Virginia,” McIntosh, the Club for Growth president, told ABC News. “And the question that I would ask them to think about is: Is it worth spending your money in a primary when you can get a candidate that we’ll support, who can win, and then save your resources to win the majority in the general?”

For all the focus on the maneuvering, some politicos suggest a simpler reality.

“In my experience, Republican primary voters don’t like to be told who to vote for by people in D.C.,” said one 2022 NRSC staffer, noting the recruiting efforts around Justice and Sheehy. “They may be beloved by the Republican base. We’ll see how the primaries play out.”

This person agreed that the GOP has to “make sure that we can all come together for the general election and win” but shrugged off the primary conflict.

“I think they have different philosophical perspectives on how they go about races. And so, at a certain point, there isn’t necessarily a way to completely align those. And again, it’s not a bad thing or a good thing, necessarily. It just is,” they said. “And that’s never going to change.”

Hollywood writers’ strike to begin as talks end without agreement

May 2, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — Unions representing thousands of Hollywood movie and television writers voted last month to authorize a strike when their contracts run out at midnight on Tuesday.

The WGA called for a strike effective 12:01 a.m. PST on Tuesday.

Now, the time is here, with writers demanding that studios pay them accordingly as shifts in streaming have changed the way shows are made and monetized.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in a statement on Monday night that its negotiations with the Writers Guild of America “concluded without an agreement today.”

“The AMPTP member companies remain united in their desire to reach a deal that is mutually beneficial to writers and the health and longevity of the industry, and to avoid hardship to the thousands of employees who depend upon the industry for their livelihoods,” the AMPTP statement read, in part.

The current television landscape is vastly different than it was in 2007.

Since the rise of streaming, viewers are much less tied to linear TV lineups, and that will dampen the immediate effect on scripted shows.

Mega-studios now have much more content in the pipeline for distribution across multiple platforms, meaning there would not be such an immediate drought of scripted TV.

Late-night TV, on the other hand, will once again be the quickest area to be impacted. If no agreement is reached, you can say goodbye to the remainder of the current season of Saturday Night Live, and daily late-night hosts will have to decide if they will remain in production without their writers like they did in 2007.

“It may be a long time before viewers really feel the impact of a strike if it were to go on for many weeks,” Cynthia Littleton, co-editor-in-chief at Variety, told ABC News, adding that Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services have “such vast libraries of shows.”

Helping soften the blow of this strike is the timing, as many traditional TV programs have already wrapped up shooting their seasons and broadcast networks are gearing up for a summer of game shows and reality TV.

New experimentation in programming

Media companies are already experimenting with different types of shows across linear, streaming and cable, and a writers’ strike will only hasten those companies’ plans, according to Littleton.

“Those companies will have every incentive to look across their vast array of content assets and say, ‘Well, I have a big hole to fill on ABC at nine o’clock on Thursdays. What if I tried this show?’ And I think that you could, if there is a prolonged strike, you could see that will absolutely accelerate more of that experimentation that is already happening,” she said.

How writers are compensated as TV seasons get shorter and shorter is an issue at hand

The age of television, where networks were previously giving television series’ 22 episodes a season, has changed, according to entertainment attorney Jonathan Handel.

“Streaming series are 10, eight, sometimes even six or even four episodes and that has affected cable television as well,” Handel told ABC News. “It’s affected network television as well. The number of episodes produced in aggregate per year in this business has actually declined.”

“In effect, people are — especially writers — are hired by the series, but they’re paid by the episode,” he added. “So, when you’ve got more people sharing a pie that in some ways is smaller, you have a structural pressure that is very hard to relieve, on the labor market.”

A writer strike could cost the economy billions of dollars

Of course, the broader economic impact in Los Angeles, as well as New York, Georgia and New Mexico, among other cities, will be enormous.

With productions shut down, people well beyond writers — from anyone involved in productions to restaurants near studios — will be feeling the pinch as the strike moves on.

The most recent full-fledged strike took place in 2007 and cost the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion.

“The economic impact of the last writers’ strike, 15 years ago, was about $200 million or more a day,” Handel said.

Those costs factored in a lot of people who were not able to pay their mortgages and rent, bought less food, and spent less on discretionary items, according to Handel.

“The impact today — with inflation and the degree of connectedness to the economy — would no doubt be significantly larger than that,” he said.

Two inmates escape from Virginia jail, including man arrested in murder of North Carolina deputy

May 2, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Federal, state and local officials are searching for two inmates who escaped from a Virginia jail, including a man who’s suspected of being involved in the murder of a North Carolina deputy, according to authorities.

Alder Marin-Sotelo, 26, and Bruce Callahan, 44, escaped “sometime” over the weekend from the Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville, which is about 70 miles west of Richmond, according to the Prince Edward County Sheriff’s Department. The sheriff’s department said it was notified about the escape around 4 a.m. Monday.

Callahan is convicted of multiple federal drug charges and Marin-Sotelo is convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm, the sheriff’s department said. Both are from North Carolina, the department said.

Alder Marin-Sotelo is also a defendant in the murder of deputy Ned Byrd of the Wake County Sheriff’s Department in North Carolina, Wake County officials said.

Alder Marin-Sotelo and his brother, Arturo Marin-Sotelo, were indicted on murder charges in the August 2022 slaying and both pleaded not guilty, Raleigh ABC station WTVD-TV reported. Arturo Marin-Sotelo allegedly shot Byrd four times after the deputy stopped to check out a suspicious truck, according to WTVD.

The Wake County Sheriff’s Department, who said the escape took place around 1 a.m. Monday, said, “We are working with our state and federal partners, as well as local authorities in Virginia to ensure all resources are being used to bring the defendant back into custody.”

The U.S. Marshals are leading the manhunt, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

The Marshals later announced a $5,000 reward for any information leading to the capture of Callahan. The FBI is leading the investigation for Marin-Sotelo, according to a press release, and the Marshals are assisting in the case.

Seven bodies found on Oklahoma property amid search for missing teens: Sheriff

May 1, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(HENRYETTA, Okla.) — Seven bodies were found in Henryetta, Oklahoma, on Monday amid a search for two teenage girls who were reported missing over the weekend, according to the sheriff’s office.

Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice told reporters outside the crime scene later in the afternoon Monday that while the medical examiner is still waiting to identify the seven bodies, investigators “are no longer looking” for the two teens.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol had issued an endangered missing person advisory on behalf of the sheriff’s office for 14-year-old Ivy Webster and 16-year-old Brittany Brewer. The missing teens were possibly traveling with an adult, 39-year-old Jesse McFadden, according to the advisory.

“We believe we found the persons, we are just waiting for confirmation,” Rice said.

The sheriff reiterated that the medical examiner hasn’t made any official confirmation.

“We are doing everything that we can just in case something is left open. We don’t want to miss anything,” Rice said.

Investigators said the missing girls were hanging out in the McAlester area and were supposed to return home by 5:00 p.m.

“Our hearts go out to family, friends school mates and everyone else,” Rice said.

Arizona mother stung over 75 times by bees during family photo shoot: Officials

May 1, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(BUCKEYE VALLEY, Ariz.) — A woman was stung more than 75 times by a swarm of bees while participating in a family photo shoot in Arizona on Sunday, fire department officials said.

Arizona Fire & Medical Authority said crew members responded to calls in the Buckeye Valley area of bees attacking a mother and her two kids.

The mother saved her children by placing them in her car, resulting in her taking the brunt of the stings, fire officials wrote on Facebook.

“The mother’s quick thinking saved the children from being stung,” Arizona Fire & Medical Authority said.

The unidentified woman was sent to the hospital with more than 75 stings and has recovered, officials said.

Fire officials used foam to calm the bees down and rescue the children, according to officials, who also posted a partial video of the incident on Facebook.

Arizona Fire & Medical Authority officials urged the public that getting inside to a safe place is important if they are attacked by bees.

“Run in a straight line, cover your face, and get to shelter. Never get into water and do not fight the bees,” officials wrote.

Experts have previously provided tips to ABC News about what to know about bee stings, saying people should run if a bee “bumps into” them, since it isn’t an accident; if there’s no attack yet, hold your breath; and don’t flail your arms or swat at bees.

ABC News’ Joyeeta Biswas contributed to this report.

Who are the 5 victims in the Texas shooting?

May 1, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(CLEVELAND, Texas) — Five people, including an 9-year-old boy, were killed Friday night at their Texas home by a neighbor who was armed with an AR-15-style rifle, police said.

A manhunt was underway Sunday for the suspect, identified by authorities as 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza.

The victims included three women, a teenager and a 9-year-old child.

Two female victims were discovered in the bedroom lying on top of two surviving children, authorities told ABC News.

Wilson Garcia, who owned the home, told ABC Houston station KTRK that his wife and son were among the victims.

Here is what’s known about the victims so far:

Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21

In an interview with ABC News, Velasquez Alvarado is described by her longtime partner Jefrinson Josué Rivera as a “warrior.” The two were together for six years.

“She gave everything for her children,” Rivera said. “She never had issues with anyone. She was happy, humble and caring. She was so attentive to her children, her friends, and to me.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott previously described the victims as undocumented; however, Rivera said his partner was a lawful permanent resident.

Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18

Obdulia Molina Rivera, 31

Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25

Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, 9

Daniel’s school district, Cleveland Independent School District, held a vigil in his honor and hosted crisis counselors for staff and students.

“Cleveland Independent School District is heartbroken learning the news concerning the death of one of our students. At this time, we cannot elaborate with information due to the ongoing investigation of the horrendous tragedy,” the school said in a Facebook post.

ABC News’ Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.

US could default by June 1 unless debt ceiling is raised; Biden looks to meet with Congress

May 1, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. government risks defaulting on its debts — for the first time in history — “as early as June 1,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other top lawmakers on Monday.

“It is imperative that Congress act as soon as possible to increase or suspend the debt limit in a way that provides longer-term certainty that the government will continue to make its payments,” Yellen wrote.

The government hit its debt ceiling in January and has been employing “extraordinary measures” since then to keep its bills paid, according to Yellen.

“It is impossible to predict with certainty the exact date when Treasury will be unable to pay the government’s bills, and I will continue to update Congress in the coming weeks,” she wrote on Monday.

The House Republican majority has said they won’t raise the limit further without a compromise from Democrats on spending and the government budget — which President Joe Biden has rejected, saying the ceiling should be raised without strings attached, as has happened before.

With the potential June 1 deadline looming, the president called all four congressional leaders on Monday afternoon and invited them to a May 9 meeting on the debt limit, multiple sources familiar confirmed to ABC News.

ABC News’ Allison Pecorin and Rachel Scott contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Feds say hospitals broke the law by refusing to provide life-saving abortion

May 1, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Hospitals in Missouri and Kansas violated federal law last summer when they refused to provide an emergency abortion to a woman who went into premature labor at nearly 18 weeks and risked developing a life-threatening infection, according to initial findings in a government investigation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The investigation, which is the first of its kind, underscores the persistent legal confusion in several states that ban abortions but carve out exceptions when a patient’s life is at risk. Abortion rights advocates say there’s no clear standard on when a health condition is serious enough to intervene and that doctors are often unclear on how to treat medical complications in a way that won’t violate anti-abortion statutes.

In the case of Mylissa Farmer of Joplin, Missouri, she was told she risked developing an infection and other serious complications if she remained pregnant after her water broke, investigators found, but at least two hospitals denied providing her with an abortion because of concerns it could violate state abortion laws.

“Since (last year’s Supreme Court decision), there’s been a lot of legal chaos and confusion and we really applaud that this is decisive action” by the government, said Michelle Banker, director of reproductive rights and health litigation at the National Women’s Law Center and Farmer’s lawyer.

Patients are “really being forced to wait until they are on the brink before hospitals will intervene,” Banker added. “And what this decision makes clear is that federal law does not allow hospitals to put patients in that impossible scenario.”

Last August, after Farmer arrived at a Missouri hospital, the doctors there said her fetus had a “very low” chance of survival and that an abortion was necessary to prevent her from developing sn infection and other problems due to her medical history, according to federal findings.

But because the fetus still had a heartbeat and Farmer remained stable at the time, the legal staff at Freeman Health System in Joplin, Missouri, determined that delivering the fetus at such an early point in the pregnancy would violate anti-abortion laws, investigators said.

“She expressed concern of infection with ruptured membranes,” according to a federal report on Farmer’s case. Doctors at the hospital “discussed that unless delivery becomes emergent, we are unable (to) help her deliver due to current state law while fetus has a heartbeat, even (though) the fetus is not viable.”

Farmer then drove three hours to the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City. While abortion is legal in Kansas, Farmer had arrived there the night of Aug. 2 — the same day the state was voting on whether to amend its constitution to allow for abortion bans.

According to Farmer’s complaint, the hospital’s legal counsel told the doctor not to deliver the fetus prematurely or surgically remove it because it would be ‘too risky in this heated political environment to intervene.'”

The Health and Human Services Department’s CMS, which works with hospitals to administer Medicare and Medicaid dollars, says it found that Farmer’s treatment at both hospitals violated a federal law known as Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act, which requires that hospitals provide stabilizing care to patients showing up in emergency rooms. Neither hospital responded immediately to requests for comment.

A CMS spokesperson said the hospitals are now “taking steps” to demonstrate compliance with the law. If compliance remains in question, the hospitals could risk losing access to the Medicare program and eventually being fined.

The Biden administration last year issued guidance to hospitals that abortions should be considered stabilizing care, although anti-abortion rights advocates say this position is unnecessary. They argue that hospitals can’t be forced to grant access to abortion, although the Lozier Institute has called on state medical boards and other oversight groups to offer hospitals more detailed guidance.

States with abortion bans still allow terminations “in those rare and heartbreaking circumstances when it is necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman,” the Lozier Institute, which opposes abortion rights, wrote in an online post earlier this year.

“Physicians can make this determination based on their ‘reasonable medical judgment,’ a standard very common in the medical profession and used for any case involving medical malpractice litigation,” the group added.

Still, other medical experts say it’s not clear how sick a patient must be to qualify for an abortion and warn that doctors still fear running afoul of state laws.

In a letter to hospitals this week, Health Secretary Xavier Becerra told administrators they must under law “continue to require that healthcare professionals offer treatment, including abortion care, that the provider reasonably determines is necessary to stabilize the patient’s emergency medical condition.”

Bride killed, groom seriously injured by suspected drunk driver hours after exchanging vows

May 1, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — A golf cart carrying four people was struck from behind by a suspected drunk driver Friday night near Charleston, South Carolina, killing a woman who had just celebrated her wedding earlier in the day.

Chief Andrew Gilreath of the Folly Beach Department of Public Safety identified the victim as 34-year-old Samantha Miller.

The three others in the golf cart, who were not named, were all injured, with two in serious condition and one in stable condition.

Jamie Komoroski, 25, was arrested and charged with three counts of DUI causing serious bodily injury/death and one count of reckless homicide. Gilreath said Komoroski was driving 65 miles per hour when the crash happened. Her blood draw results are pending, he added.

According to a GoFundMe account created by a woman identifying herself as the mother of the groom, Miller and Aric Hutchinson were being escorted from their wedding reception by two family members when Komoroski’s car slammed into the golf cart, propelling the cart nearly a football field ahead as it “rolled several times.”

Gilreath could not confirm that the golf cart rolled but said it was found on its side roughly 75 yards from the collision.

“Aric is in serious condition and has had one of two reconstruction surgeries, numerous broken bones, and a brain injury, he will have a long recovery,” wrote Arnette Hutchinson.

“I was handed Aric’s wedding ring in a plastic bag at the hospital, five hours after Sam placed it on his finger and they read each other their vows,” she added. “Aric has lost the love of his life.”

Arnette Hutchinson said that the money raised — more than $150,000 as of Monday afternoon — will help pay for Miller’s burial and the medical costs for the injured golf cart occupants. Hutchinson did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

‘Multiple’ people killed, dozens injured as dust storm causes major car crash in Illinois

May 1, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Multiple people are dead and dozens injured after a massive pileup Monday in Illinois caused by a sudden dust storm, officials said.

Illinois State Police Maj. Ryan Starrick said during an afternoon press conference he did not have an official death toll, but said more than 30 people were transported to the hospital.

The crash took place at about 11 a.m. local time on Interstate 55 in Montgomery County, officials said.

Forty to 60 passenger vehicles and at least 20 commercial vehicles were involved in the crash, including two semi-trucks that caught fire, police said.

The cause of the crash was excessive winds blowing dirt from farm fields across the highway, Starrick said.

“It actually looks like snow almost when I was sending [my kids] videos,” said Karen Leach, who was caught up in the storm. “And it just it feels like, like the end of the world.”

Leach, who was driving an RV from Illinois to Texas, said she had been caught up in traffic for five hours.

The stretch of I-55 where the accident took place is expected to be closed until Tuesday afternoon, Starrick said.

Law enforcement is currently doing a secondary search of vehicles, but it’s preliminarily believed that everyone has been transported away from the scene, he said.

“My team and I are closely following the devastating crash on I-55 as authorities learn more,” Rep. Nikki Budzinski said in on Twitter. “Please be safe as this situation continues to unfold.”

ABC News’ Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.

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