It was on this day in both 2015, as well as 2016, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Steve Martin, a former member of the Virginia legislature from 1988, serving five years in the General Assembly before moving to the Virginia State Senate from 1993 through 2016. The more famous silver-haired Steve Martin took to social media to ask that no one ever mixed him up with the Republican politician in February 2014 after the latter took to social media to argue against abortion, and in his anti-choice rant, he referred to pregnant mothers as "hosts". That's not all from Virginia's Martin, who was so in favor of torture said that it was justified no matter how many body parts the interrogated party loses, and that "Christ himself would have advocated for torture". Martin (again, the Republican one) believes that Constitutional rights don't apply to practitioners of Islam, because their religion "requires them to kill others to get into Heaven". Yes, somehow, a man with disgusting opinions like that can serve over a quarter century in politics. He was defeated in the GOP Primary for his Virginia State Senate seat in 2015, and has yet to reemerge in another run for office, if he ever will.
On this date in 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of Josh Moore, a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives who finished eighth in the general election for his seat, and voters were right that he should barely qualify for office, if at all. You see, there was debate over a public nudity bill sponsored by Josh Moore in the New Hampshire House of Representatives back in December of 2015, HB 1525, which was oddly specific about women’s nipples being an offending thing (but not men’s) and State Rep. Amanda Bouldin was one of the Democrats opposed to the bill because she thought it might potentially make public breastfeeding a crime, and she posted her frustration over it on Facebook. While all any of her fellow legislators had to do was point out that the bill actually did have a written exemption in it for breastfeeding mothers… Josh Moore decided to argue with her by taking a slightly different, and really stupid angle, writing “Who doesn’t support a mother’s right to feed? Don’t give me the liberal talking points Amanda. If it’s a woman’s natural inclination to pull her nipple out in public and you support that. Than you should have no problem with a mans inclantion [sic] to stare at it and grab it. After all... It’s ALL relative and natural, right?” So it seems Josh Moore feels that at the first sign of areola, he’s been given a free pass to grope anyone he likes. Which isn’t true, incidentally, and would actually be a form of sexual assault. Moore then closed his discussion with Amanda Bouldin by telling her, “I’ll see you on the House floor. I obviously have more respect for women and her innocence and decency than women who are support public nudity.” Yeah, that’s pretty much a response of, “I’m not a disrespectful sexist, you are for believing your nips aren’t filthy and need to be covered up.” Two off-kilter comments aren’t enough to consider someone touched in the head here at FRED, but when we look at his voting record, we also take note of how much of an extremist he’s been while in office, what with a vote to repeal the buffer zone for protesters around abortion clinics. Y’know, so they can actually BLOCK THE DOOR. Moore also voted for SB 116, one of the many bills he’s supported to attempt to do away with the requirement of needing a license required to be able to have a concealed carry handgun, and voted against HB 1661, an attempt to ban the practice of gay conversion therapy upon minors. With the Blue Wave on the horizon in 2018, Josh Moore opted to not run for re-election.
On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Jeffrey Pierce, a former member of the Maine House of Representatives from District 53 who served in office from 2015-2018. After failing to be elected in 2012, Pierce won in 2014 by about 280 votes, and proceeded to head to the capitol to prove himself dedicated loyalist of highly insane GOP Gov. Paul LePage, as evidenced by his voting record. Where things got interesting was just prior to the 2018 elections, when Maine Democrats made it a point to note that four GOP candidates for office in the election were in possession of criminal records. And one of them was sitting state legislator Jeffrey Pierce, who was arrested for trying to sell cocaine back in 1981, earning probation and in 1983, had a felony drug trafficking conviction. Even more interesting was that somehow, Pierce owned a firearm and had a hunting license, which should have been impossible for him to own as a felon. While Pierce trying claiming that was just when he was a “stupid kid”, he apparently didn’t get much smarter, and also had DUI arrests from 2004-2006. But still, for a time, Pierce was indicted for having that hunting license fraudulently until charges were dropped. With the momentum of the Blue Wave in 2018, Jeffrey Pierce lost to Democrat Allison Hepler, garnering just 48% of the vote. He attempted to avenge that loss in 2020, but again lost with only 48% of the vote. The one thing that he had going for him? He was pardoned of all crimes on his record by Paul LePage as he bitterly left office in January of 2019, against the recommendations of the state’s clemency board.
On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Patrice Kimbler, a failed 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 36th Congressional District, who wanted to challenge Rep. Raul Ruiz but was probably undone by the fact that she’s a kook who believes in the Qanon conspiracy theory while running for Congress. Her Twitter account posted the Qanon hashtag and motto, but because as we approached the insurrection in the capitol on 1/6 and the inauguration of Joe Biden, she was warning about the “demonic forces of the Deep State”, raving about “Obamagate” (with no concept of what it was), accusing Hillary Clinton of “suiciding” people (likely a reference to the Vince Foster conspiracy), and outright accused the incoming president of molesting children, per the conspiracy theory. Feel free to further scan her Twitter feed for other conspiracy theory nonsense and slander of the BlackLivesMatter movement supposedly invading churches, if you want to go down the rabbit hole of this kook. Patrice Kimbler finished fourth in the open primary for the seat, getting just 7.6% of the vote. She went mostly silent after the failed coup attempt by Donald Trump and his conspiracy theory-obsessed ilk and Joe Biden was sworn in as president.
On this date in 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Joe Collins, who was a 2020 candidate fpr U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 43rd Congressional District, hoping to upset legendary Congresswoman Maxine Waters, a frequent target of ire during the Trump era in particular. Collins gives the impression he will line up on any party’s ticket for any office for campaign contributions, considering he was originally a 2020 presidential candidate running for the Green Party nomination. By switching his party affiliation to the GOP and challenging Waters, he started getting way more campaign cash to play with, much of which he spent funneling back into the same Trump businesses who were helping promote him in his doomed campaign. What definitely confirmed suspicions that Joe Collins was never going to win in a highly Democratic district was when Collins responded to the death of George Floyd by claiming that “Democratic policies killed George Floyd”, and not, y’know, Derek Chauvin putting his knee on his neck until he was choked to death. In the wake of the killing of Dijon Kizzee getting shot 20 times by LAPD officers and camera footage at the scene not at all jibing with the deputies’ stories… well, that’s in the district Collins was running for, so he came out and blamed “outside influences” for protests after the LAPD’s attempted coverup of the incident resulted in protests. Joe Collins only beat absolute kook and convicted felon Omar Navarro in the GOP Primary by 250 votes, and got 28% of the vote in the general election, because Auntie Maxine is no joke and he definitely is.