On September 29, 2026, Schmitt received national attention and criticism for his erroneous line of questioning during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about the Smith special counsel investigation into Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.[122][123][124] Schmitt falsely accused the witness, former special counsel Jack Smith, of perjury for denying that he had attended an Atlanta Hawks–Golden State Warriorsbasketball game in Atlanta on February 3, 2024.[122] Schmitt's line of questioning suggested that Smith had been in Atlanta for the purpose of improperly colluding with the election racketeering prosecution of Trump led by Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis.[123] But Smith did not attend the Hawks game; he went to an Iowa Hawkeyes game in Maryland on that date.[124] Schmitt called Smith "a total dirtbag" during the hearing.[122] Schmitt's error has been called "amateur sleuthing",[123] "an embarrassing episode",[124] and "conspiratorial".[123][124]
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Who is the "dirtbag?" That would be snarky U.S. Senator ERIC STEPHEN SCHMITT (R-MISSOURI) (Wikipedia excerpt)
Understanding the Death Penalty in Tennessee (Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., circa April 1977)
In 1977, a minister from Northwest Tennessee wrote to freshman Tennessee Democratic US. Senator James Ralph Sasser, in which the Christian minister shared his sentiments passionately supporting the death penalty.
Sen. Sasser's handwritten note on the draft letter was then duly typed up by a staff member and was added to the Senator's response that was sent to the minister: "As one who was subjected to capital punishment, I wonder how our Saviour would vote on the issue."
I was honored to be the youngest staff member on Senator Jim Sasser's Washington, D.C. staff at age 20.
Upon reading the pro-death penalty letter from an ordained minister of the Gospel, Senator Sasser softly asked, "Wally, how do you spell "Saviour?" That's when the junior Senator from Tennessee hand-wrote a note at the bottom of the draft letter prepared by senior staff. He wrote, ""As one who was subjected to capital punishment, I wonder how our Saviour would vote on the issue." That note was added into the final version of the letter mailed to the minister.
49 years later, Senator Sasser's question haunts us all, after a cruel unusual botched execution.
Saturday, October 03, 2026
RANK OBSCENITY: Florida Law Bans Ranked Choice Voting -- St. Johns County's ex-Senator-Developer TRAVIS JAMES HUTSON DID IT.
I saw Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower speak at a food conference in Nashville circa 1978 and he said "They're stealing the alternatives, folks!"
TRAVIS JAMES HUTSON is now the $75,000/year lobbyist for St. Johns County Clerk of Courts and Comptroller. Ex-Senator-developer TRAVIS JAMES HUTSON is responsible for the Flora-DUH legislature banning ranked choice voting.
What rough beast eliminates peoples' rights to ranked choice voting?
Pray for TRAVIS JAMES HUTSON, et pals,, my friends.
"They're stealing the alternatives, folks!"
From Florida Politics:
Lawmakers explore ranked-choice voting possibilities for Florida
Jacob Ogles, Florida Politics, January 11, 2022
A Travis Hutson-sponsored bill would prohibit the election methodology.
No city in Florida has ever fully enacted instant runoffs. Now the Legislature may outlaw the voting methodology before anyone gets the chance.
Sen. Travis Hutson, a Palm Coast Republican, has filed an elections package that would, among other things, eliminate ranked-choice voting (RCV) in Florida.
“I don’t think you should be numbering and ranking people on the ballot,” he said. “One person should win, or if there is a runoff you should go to a top two.”
His bill (SB 524) would make sure a numbering system like that controversially used to elect New York City’s Mayor will never help pick a Florida elected official.
While that won’t have much effect on state elections, all of which by statute are decided by winner-takes-all Primary and General elections, Florida municipalities can and do employ a variety of election methods for picking city officials.
Yet, only one Florida city has ever jumped on the RCV bandwagon and approved an instant runoff system. Sarasota voters in 2007 approved a charter amendment that called for ranked-choice ballots whenever the state Division of Elections certified a system for use. More than 77.6% of voters endorsed the measure.
The idea is that costly runoffs can be eliminated by directing voters to vote not just for their favorite candidate, but to rank their choices in order. From there, elections officials would tabulate votes and figure out which candidates should advance to a runoff. But rather than holding a new election, voter preferences on the ballot would be taken into account.
Any voter whose top choice was eliminated would have their ballot cast in a second tabulation for the candidate they ranked the next highest. Some systems of ranking will apply those votes in a multistep process, knocking out the lowest vote-getting candidates one at a time and reapplying second choices to the next eligible candidate each time.
“It is effectively the same as having a runoff election except that voters only need to fill out a ballot once,” explained David Angel, general counsel for the group Rank My Vote Florida.
But 14 years after Sarasota approved such an election process, nothing has come of it yet. City Attorney Robert Fournier said the Secretary of State and Division of Elections have resisted certifying the software for legal use. If Hutson’s law passes, state elections officials won’t be allowed to give such an OK.
“The charter amendment also said there was no obligation or duty to pursue certification of the charter amendment,” Fournier noted.
Still, the City Commission in September did vote to pursue a lawsuit against the state, working with Rank My Vote. However, officials quickly backed off that, deciding the issue needed further study.
But Fournier said with the pending legislation — which, if it became law, would preempt city charter language — all talk in Sarasota about instant runoffs has temporarily come to a halt.
That said, other larger cities started flirting with the process before Hutson’s bill was filed. The Clearwater City Council in June voted to begin work on their own ranked-choice voting charter amendment. That was done in response to the election of Council member Mark Bunk winning a five-candidate race with 27% of the vote. Bunk notably voted against exploring instant runoffs.
When Hutson heard of cities in Southwest Florida considering ranking candidates on ballots, it caught him off guard. He had no idea such a system was even legal in Florida, but in a conversation with Secretary of State Laurel Lee, he learned cities absolutely could change their charters to call for instant runoffs. So Hutson filed language to change that.
Hutson notably included it in a broader bill that would also raise a cap on candidate reporting fines and allow for elections supervisors to have two more early voting sites.
Jacob Ogles
Jacob Ogles has covered politics in Florida since 2000 for regional outlets including SRQ Magazine in Sarasota, The News-Press in Fort Myers and The Daily Commercial in Leesburg. His work has appeared nationally in The Advocate, Wired and other publications. Events like SRQ’s Where The Votes Are workshops made Ogles one of Southwest Florida’s most respected political analysts, and outlets like WWSB ABC 7 and WSRQ Sarasota have featured his insights. He can be reached at jacobogles@hotmail.com.
Here's the fruits of the poisonous tree poisoned by partisan TRAVIS JAMES HUTSON:
The 2026 Florida Statutes
| |||
101.019 Ranked-choice voting prohibited.— (1) A ranked-choice voting method that allows voters to rank candidates for an office in order of preference and has ballots cast to be tabulated in multiple rounds following the elimination of a candidate until a single candidate attains a majority may not be used in determining the election or nomination of any candidate to any local, state, or federal elective office in this state. (2) Any existing or future ordinance enacted or adopted by a county, a municipality, or any other local governmental entity which is in conflict with this section is void. History.—s. 14, ch. 2022-73; s. 24, ch. 2023-8. |
Mosquito Control and Overdevelopment
I am running for Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County in the November 3, 2026 election. May I please have your vote?
Flooding is increasing. Increased flooding flows from every single proposed "development" here. Mosquitoes flourish amid flooding.
The frequency and severity of storms and flooding is increasing. We must use good science to prepare for the storms and remediate the flooding.
We must protect people from persistent flooding, evidenced by testimony at government meetings.
Whenever a development (sic) proposal is discussed, residents testify about flooding. Too often, our governments are flummoxed, failing to present scientific evidence in response.
Our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County does its best to apply good science to mosquito control. It has five Ph.D. scientists.
But our St. Johns County Commission has no Chief Scientist, no Chief Economist, and makes decisions substantially unencumbered by good data and good science.
Poorly-staffed County Commissioners rather remind me of what Sir Winston Spencer Churchill said in 1937, "The Government simply cannot make up their mind, or they cannot get the Prime Minister to make up his mind. So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent. So we go on preparing more months and years – precious, perhaps vital to the greatness of Britain – for the locusts to eat."
Mosquitoes are eating us alive. Building "developments" in mosquito swamps is unwise and unscientific. It needs to stop.
Our St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners and our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County are two separate local government agencies, with their own boards.
SJC abolished its Intergovernmental Relations Committee under controversial former County Administrator MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK (2007-2019), who sought a County takeover of mosquito control. We, the People stopped him.
Our County must better regulate "development" by greedy "developers," who build homes in swamps, exposing residents to hordes of mosquitoes.
Worldwide, some 1,000,000 people die every year after mosquito bites. My Father was bitten by a mosquito in Sicily in 1943, contracting malaria. We saw his suffering. Due to the effects of malaria, I was born fourteen (14) years later, after my parents prayed to Saint Jude (patron Saint of hopeless causes)..
Our County's "Growth Management (sic)" staff must consult with experts with our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County and AMCD's scientists and professionals.
Every single "development (sic) order" must include a mosquito control plan. Every single one. No excuses. Protection against mosquito-borne diseases must not be a "hopeless cause."
I am running for Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County (Seat 2) in the November 3, 2026 election.
May I please have the honor of your vote?
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
www.edslavin.com
(904) 377-4998
Opinion: A Hawk is not the same as a Hawkeye (Scott Simon, NPR Morning Edition, October 3, 2026OCTOBER 3, 2026)
From NPR:
Opinion: A Hawk is not the same as a Hawkeye
Allison Robbert/AP
Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri may not have been exactly hawk-eyed at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week when he asked former special counsel Jack Smith if he had gone to an Atlanta Hawks basketball game in February 2024. Schmitt implied that Smith met up in Atlanta with the district attorney who was investigating election fraud charges against then-former President Trump.
Smith said, "I definitely did not go to a Hawks game, I am sure of that," and Sen. Schmitt replied, "I think you've already perjured yourself." Then he called him a "villain" and more names I'd rather not repeat at breakfast time on a Saturday morning.
Further questioning from Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota established that Smith had been to a basketball game that night, but not in Atlanta. He was in College Park, Md., to watch the University of Maryland Terps take on Caitlin Clark and the University of Iowa.
The Iowa Hawkeyes. Not the Atlanta Hawks.
Sen. Klobuchar, a Democrat, suggested to Sen. Schmitt, a Republican, "That might be the confusion over the names of the team, but perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully. … I think people should have their facts straight before they accuse people … ."
The names of sports teams can be confounding. If I invite you to a Panthers game would you expect to meet me for a kickoff in North Carolina or a puck drop in Florida?
But was Sen. Schmitt's misstatement an innocent gaffe to be laughed off, like then-Vice President Dan Quayle inadvertently giving the wrong spelling for "potato" to a New Jersey sixth grader, or was it a public effort to discredit Smith with information that would not be hard to fact check?
"We had information, of course, about him being at a basketball game," Schmitt told KTVI-TV in St. Louis the next day. "My job is to ask the questions, and his job is to answer the questions. …
But I guess the one thing that Jack Smith and I can agree on is that we're a fan of college sports and college basketball." This is as close as the senator came to saying he'd made a mistake.
For the record: the Iowa Hawkeyes won that night, 93 to 85. Caitlin Clark scored 38 points. And I'll bet everyone who watched remembers exactly where they were that night.
NPR does not offer or accept money for coverage or interviews.
Anyone who makes such an offer or request is not an NPR employee and does not represent NPR.
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