The Midterm Elections

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Fealty to Trump has become the coin of the realm for GOP Senate candidates"

Spoiler

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Among his qualifications for the U.S. Senate, Rep. Evan Jenkins wants West Virginia voters to know that he once attended a Christmas party with Donald Trump, flew with him on Air Force One and watched two movies in the president’s private theater at the White House.

“He sat there right from beginning to end,” Jenkins (R) said of the screenings of “12 Strong,” a military thriller, and “The 15:17 to Paris,” the recent Clint Eastwood flick. “I have a great working relationship with him.”

Mitt Romney (R), a Senate candidate in Utah who called Trump a “phony, a fraud” during the presidential election campaign, recently embraced the president’s confrontational moves on trade and insisted he was tougher on immigration than Trump. And in Nevada, another Republican and former Trump foe, Sen. Dean Heller, has been praising the president’s policies in private meetings, while publicly saying that their relationship has “grown.”

Such flattery matters in GOP Senate primaries these days, even as Republicans in Washington express increasing unease with the president’s contradictory and pugilistic style of governance.

In intraparty fights across the country, fealty to Trump has become the coin of the realm. Candidates who once distanced themselves from him now declare themselves acolytes, attack rivals for any deviation from the Trump­ian script and, in one case, even don his cherry-red campaign cap in ads.

“I’ll proudly stand with our president and Mike Pence to drain the swamp,” a hat-wearing Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.) says in a recent ad, which started airing days before the Associated Press republished a 2016 interview in which he called Trump “vulgar, if not profane.” Rokita is seeking the nomination to run against Sen. Joe Donnelly (D).

At the root of the fawning rapprochements are two defining features of the Senate landscape: Trump enjoys enormous popularity among Republican primary voters, and most of the contested races are in states Trump won in 2016.

“I haven’t seen a state where among Republicans his favorables are anything less than 80 percent,” said Jim McLaughlin, a Republican pollster who has polled for Trump. “The challenge is going to be for the Republicans, whether it’s the congressional races or the Senate races, to get the bases motivated.”

But in most of the competitive House races, Republican candidates have been taking the opposite approach of their peers who are running for the Senate — carefully distancing themselves from Trump and trying to establish their own brand. The moves come as concerns are rising among Republicans that Democrats are now favored to seize control of the House this fall, a fact that was highlighted this week with the decision of Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) not to seek reelection.

In total, 46 Republicans have so far retired or said they will not seek reelection, and many of them come from the more moderate wing of the party. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats in the House and two seats in the Senate to gain control of the chambers.

While the decisive Senate races play out in states Trump won, often by large margins, the more competitive House races are in districts Hillary Clinton either won or came close to winning. These are parts of the country where Trump is currently less popular, including the suburbs of liberal cities or the rural areas of blue states such as New York and California. Republican strategists have urged those candidates to make clear their disagreements with Trump if it would help them hold disaffected independent voters.

“I am not running to be ‘The Apprentice,’ ” Dino Rossi, the leading Republican candidate in the race to replace Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), explained in a recent interview with the Seattle Times. “The Apprentice” was Trump’s reality television program.

After bottoming in the mid-30s late last year, Trump’s national approval rating has ticked up in most surveys this year. It now sits at 41 percent in the Gallup poll, which is still a historic low for a modern president at this point in his tenure.

But most consequential elections depart from the mean. The seven most competitive Senate races are in states where Trump’s 2017 Gallup approval rating was above the national average — sometimes by significant amounts. In North Dakota, 57 percent of residents approved of Trump over the course of the year, while 61 percent in West Virginia approved.

As a result, the campaigns there are playing out like a tribute.

At a forum for Republican candidates in Martinsburg this month, each of the candidates was quick to make clear his claim to the Trumpian movement. The businessman Tom Willis mentioned that he owned a hotel. State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said that he had been filing legal motions to support the Trump agenda. Jenkins talked of his time in Washington working with Trump.

The candidate most attuned to Trump’s persona was the fourth person on stage, the former coal baron Don Blankenship, who is campaigning while on probation after serving time in federal prison for conspiring to break mine safety laws. In 2010, a coal-dust explosion at a West Virginia mine run by his company killed 29 miners.

“I’m the most popular hostile campaigner in America, probably,” Blankenship said in a low, rumbling delivery. “I’m not running to make friends with the candidates up here.”

Before the event, Blankenship declined to answer questions from a Washington Post reporter. “I’m afraid of The Washington Post,” he said. But his campaign manager, Greg Thomas, later explained that the Blankenship candidacy was based on a set of policy priorities that matched the Trump agenda and a similar ­devil-may-care attitude of a brawler who will fight for the state’s residents.

Blankenship’s rivals “want to say, ‘Trump likes me the best,’ where what we are trying to do is say, ‘We are the most like Trump,’ ” Thomas said.

In Arizona, all three of the Republican Senate candidates have made their support of Trump a central campaign message.

Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has claimed Trump as his reason for running, even claiming a sort of psychic connection to the president. Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), who was a critic of Trump last year, has quoted the president describing her as “my friend” in her campaign ads.

Former state senator Kelli Ward has also claimed Trump’s mantle and has repeatedly attacked McSally for her past criticism. “Times have changed. People are looking for a different type of Republican,” Ward said. “They don’t want Mitch McConnell’s pawn.”

In Utah, Romney explains his turnabout from his March 2016 criticism, in which he called Trump’s promises “as worthless as a degree from Trump University,” with a terse “I’m not going to look backward.”

A similar race for the Trump mantle is playing out in Indiana, where all three candidates have been trying to outdo each other. Television ads for Rep. Luke Messer (R-Ind.) feature a clip of Trump’s inaugural address before the candidate announces that he backs the Trump agenda.

Another candidate, businessman Mike Braun, who previously served in the state House, has cast himself as a straight talker from the private sector. “Last year’s presidential election showed that Hoosiers know outsiders with business experience are the country’s best hope to fix the broken political system in Washington,” he said in a statement when announcing his campaign.

The candidates have also been criticizing one another for their failures to support the Trump agenda in the past. Braun voted in Democratic primaries for years. Messer spoke out against Trump during the 2016 campaign, saying he was not presidential and might have an “odd personal tick” that prevented him from controlling what he said. Rokita, who supported Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) earlier in the presidential primaries, also was critical of Trump.

Trump has so far declined to weigh in on the race, but the candidates have still scrambled for his approval. Last week, Rokita announced the endorsements of the chair and vice chair of Trump’s 2016 Indiana campaign.

In an interview, Rokita said he was confident that his effort to attach himself to the Trump brand would not hurt him in the general election, if he wins the nomination. He also defended Trump’s escalating confrontation with China, despite the threat of retaliatory tariffs hurting Indiana farmers.

“I’m willing to go along with President Trump in trying something different,” Rokita said. “I think all Americans who want to make America great again and who want America to come first want their president to be successful.”

I probably should have posted this in the Branch Trumpvidians thread, but I'm too lazy to move it. I hope each of the idiots mentioned lose -- we don't need them in the senate.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"GOP Rep. Charlie Dent will leave Congress within weeks, potentially setting up special election"

Spoiler

Rep. Charlie Dent (Pa.), a frequent critic of President Trump and a leader of the GOP’s moderate bloc in the House, said Tuesday that he will resign from Congress within weeks. His decision could set up a costly special election if the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania orders one.

Dent had already announced his retirement from Congress in September, citing personal reasons for the decision while also lamenting the marginalization of the “governing wing” of the Republican Party as the GOP has moved further to the right.

He said in a statement released Tuesday morning that he will leave “in the coming weeks.” He did not offer a reason for his decision to depart now rather than finish his term.

“Actively engaging in the legislative and political process presents challenges, and in so doing, I believe I have had a positive impact on people’s lives and made a difference in Congress,” he said. “I am especially proud of the work I have done to give voice to the sensible center in our country that is often overlooked or ignored. It is my intention to continue to aggressively advocate for responsible governance and pragmatic solutions in the coming years.”

Dent, 57, is a co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, made up of several dozen centrist House Republicans, and he is chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on military construction, veterans affairs and related agencies.

His decision to resign in the coming weeks could set up a competitive and costly special election, depending on the wishes of Gov. Tom Wolf.

Pennsylvania election law requires the governor to issue a writ of election within 10 days of a vacancy, with an election to follow “not less than sixty days” later. Although the election could be held during “the next ensuing primary or municipal election,” Pennsylvania’s primary will be held May 15 — before any special election could be called. It is not clear whether Wolf would schedule an election so soon before the November midterm election will bring a full-term replacement for Dent.

A special election called before the Nov. 6 general election could force Republicans to spend millions to defend the seat. Democrat Conor Lamb won a March special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, which Trump had won by 20 points in 2016. Dent’s district is much more competitive for Democrats — it went for Trump by eight points — and it is set to become even more competitive after a court-ordered redistricting. But a special election would fill the seat based on the existing lines.

 

[onekidanddone]

Not sure where to put this.

 

[onekidanddone]

Texas:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Not sure quite where to post this one. It's a good read: "Stop treating voters like idiots. Thanks in advance."

Spoiler

I have a naïve hope. Since we’re caught in an endless loop of action and reaction, perhaps the reaction to Donald Trump will produce not just a president who is unlike him in every way (Barack Obama was certainly that), but a politics less gripped by idiocy.

Trump could be a cautionary tale, a spur for all of us, whatever our ideology, to be a little more mature, a little more thoughtful, a little more reasonable. Trump, in this fantasy, has shown us what we should not be, and we would be wise to learn this lesson.

It hasn’t happened yet. So far anyway, our politics is no less dumb than it ever was. I’d like to take a look at one variant of that stupidity, which says that this vaguely defined thing called “Washington” is broken, and what we need are more elected representatives who will channel our rage at it.

You’d think that after fifteen months of the Trump administration, voters might begin to think that when a politician says “We need an outsider to come in and change the way they do business in Washington,” we ought to be a bit skeptical. So let me refer you to the first ad aired by cartoon villain and Florida governor Rick Scott in his campaign for Senate:

... < Scott's stupid ad >

“In Washington, they say term limits can’t be done. That’s nonsense.” No, that’s not what they say in Washington, because no one has bothered talking about term limits for 20 years. It’s a particular kind of dumb idea, the kind that doesn’t solve the problem you profess to care about but creates a whole set of new problems, like legislators who don’t have time to understand how the process works and so end up relying inordinately on staff and lobbyists.

What Scott is actually trying to communicate here isn’t about what the optimum tenure for a legislator is. It’s “I hate politicians just like you do!” And it’s not just Republicans who say that. Here’s Democratic senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, in the first ad of his reelection campaign:

... < Manchin's stupid ad >

“Washington sucks,” Manchin says in the ad, not for the first time. “This place sucks,” he reportedly told Democratic Senate leaders before reluctantly agreeing to run for another term. What’s he going to do about it? Not much, other than to keep saying it sucks.

But let me be a bit kinder to Manchin, because there’s actually something he can do about how Congress sucks: He can win reelection. Manchin is the only Democrat who could hold that seat, and if he does, it makes it much more likely that Democrats will take the Senate, which will go a long way toward reducing the volume of suckage in Washington.

I say that not because of the ideological differences I have with Republicans, copious though they may be. I say it because in recent years, the GOP has done everything in its power to make things in Washington work as poorly as possible. Never before has the old saying that Republicans say government doesn’t work and then set out to prove it when they get power been more true. Whatever else you might think about Democrats, as the party of government they have a sincere desire to see it operate effectively.

But the Republicans? Just the opposite, none more so than their leader in the Senate. When the history of this era is written, Mitch McConnell will be understood as one of the great villains of our time, a man of utterly boundless cynicism who was willing to shatter any norm, walk over any precedent, and twist any rule if it meant that he and his party could win and retain power, whether it was filibustering every bill more important than the renaming of a post office, causing one shutdown crisis after another, or simply refusing to allow the president to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, just because he could.

Through the Obama years, McConnell and other Republican leaders paved the way for their party to elect Donald Trump in a spasm of rage by promising things they knew they could never deliver as long as there was a Democrat in the White House. A narrative of betrayal then took hold among the GOP base, in which “the establishment” in Washington was the source of all ills and only a cro-magnon in a comical coif could set things right.

And quite frankly, that base seems too dumb to realize that even with Donald Trump rampaging through the White House, “the establishment” is doing just fine, if you define it as the economic elite that so skillfully works the system in Washington no matter how dysfunctional things get. In fact, the establishment has never had it better.

And get this: in deep-red West Virginia, those Republican voters may well choose to challenge Joe Manchin none other than Don Blankenship, the soulless coal baron who spent a year in prison after being convicted of conspiracy to violate mine safety laws in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 people.

So instead of asking who might be able to protect them from people like Don Blankenship — by, I don’t know, having a government that cares about worker safety — West Virginia Republicans could well send him to the Senate, where he’ll fulminate about big government getting all up in your business while he works tirelessly to transfer wealth upward. And the next election will see a bunch of new Republican candidates (and a few Democrats too) saying “I’m not a politician, I’m a businessman,” or “I’m not a politician, I’m a veteran,” or “I’m not a politician, I’m a mom,” as though the only way to fix a system you think is broken is to elect a bunch of people who have no idea what they’re doing.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying there isn’t plenty to criticize about Washington, or that there aren’t enormous improvements that could be made to the way the political system operates. There is and there are. But the people who shout the loudest about how “Washington” is the problem almost never offer anything resembling a useful idea for how to improve things. They dish out pablum like “We need more common sense” or “We need to bring [insert your state here] values to Washington,” either because they think that’s all voters need to hear or they simply don’t have any better ideas.

Alas, my dream of the example of Donald Trump lighting the way toward a less fatuous politics will probably not come true. But at least if Democrats win in November they might limit the extent to which Republicans will be able to validate the claim of everyone who ever said that Washington doesn’t work.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Arizona lawmakers at odds over a bill that could keep a McCain successor off the ballot this year"

Spoiler

State lawmakers in Arizona are sparring over legislation that would give a Republican successor to Sen. John McCain a pass on having to stand for election in November if the ailing six-term senator resigns or dies by the end of next month.

Leaders of the Republican-controlled state Senate say they plan a vote next week on the measure, which could have implications for control of the U.S. Senate and has intensified the spotlight on the health of McCain (R-Ariz.), who is battling brain cancer.

Democrats have cried foul and are vowing to block the bill, which they argue reflects how worried Republicans are about defending GOP-held seats, even in a red state like Arizona, where the state’s other U.S. Senate seat is also on the ballot in November. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) is not seeking reelection.

Under current law, a McCain successor appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey (R) after May does not have to stand for election until 2020. The legislation in question expands that window to include anyone appointed between now and then, as well.

“They don’t want to have to go up against the voters,” state Sen. Steve Farley (D), the assistant minority leader, said of the Republican leadership, adding that everyone’s hope is that McCain recovers.

Senate President Steve Yarbrough (R) acknowledged the legislation could have implications for a McCain successor but that was not its intent, saying Democrats have overreacted.

“Maybe they’re giving us more credit than we deserve,” Yarbrough said. “I think it’s turned into something that it’s not.”

[John McCain has surgery after intestinal infection; aides say he’s in stable condition]

With Republicans holding just a 51-to-49 seat majority in the U.S. Senate, many races across the country have taken on heightened significance as Democrats hope to parlay President Trump’s unpopularity into a takeover of the chamber.

McCain, 81, was diagnosed in July with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer that took the lives of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Beau Biden, son of former vice president Joe Biden.

McCain was hospitalized last weekend in Arizona for surgery needed to counter an intestinal infection.

His office did not respond to a request for comment on the pending legislation in Arizona.

The legislation was originally introduced to clarify the procedure for replacing congressional members following a scramble that followed the December resignation of Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.). Franks faced allegations that he had asked female staffers to act as a potential surrogate for him and his wife.

Under current law, as interpreted by the secretary of state, an appointed senator must appear on the ballot in an election year if the appointment is made by May 31. A provision added to the pending legislation would push that date back to March 31.

The issue came to the fore earlier this week, when the Senate amended the bill to make it an “emergency” measure, meaning it would take effect immediately and potentially affect a McCain successor appointed in coming weeks.

Under normal procedures, the bill would not take effect in time to affect this year’s election. Farley said the amendment was added to bill “quietly” and passed on a voice vote after no debate.

“I think there was hope from some of the proponents that no one would notice,” he said.

Now that Democrats are fully engaged, there’s an effort underway to block the bill.

Under legislative rules in Arizona, emergency bills require a two-thirds vote to pass. Republicans hold 17 seats in the 30-member Senate, meaning they would need several Democratic votes.

The bill would also need to be approved by the House, where Republicans similarly have a majority but not a large enough one to pass the bill without some Democratic support.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Republicans seeking to unseat Kaine embrace Trump at Liberty University debate"

Spoiler

LYNCHBURG, Va. — The trio of Republicans vying for the chance to challenge U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine spent nearly an hour in harmony with President Trump and each other until two of the contenders veered off into sharp personal attacks.

Asked at a debate about a variety of Trump’s domestic and international policies Thursday, Corey Stewart, Nick Freitas and E.W. Jackson had the president’s back. Border wall? Check. Threatening to scrap a nuclear deal with Iran? Check. Russia investigation?

“Fishing expedition,” said Stewart.

“Major fishing expedition,” said Freitas.

“They’re trying to overthrow the president,” said Jackson.

Their steadfast support for the president suggests that no matter who wins the June 12 primary, Virginia’s Republican candidate for U.S. Senate will run hand-in-hand with Trump, who polls poorly in Virginia but remains popular with the GOP base. That represents a sharp turn in strategy from last year, when Republican Ed Gillespie tried to keep the president at arm’s length in his unsuccessful bid for governor.

Republicans are trying to regain their footing in Virginia, a swing state that has been trending blue in recent election cycles. The GOP has not won a statewide contest here since 2009, a losing streak capped by devastating losses in November. Republicans lost 15 seats in the House of Delegates as well as all three statewide contests, for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Despite their shared support for Trump, differences eventually emerged among the three. The first real split came when they were asked whether Facebook, under intense scrutiny over its handling of user data and privacy issues, needs more regulation.

Jackson, a Chesapeake minister who was the GOP’s nominee for lieutenant governor in 2013, and Freitas, a second-term state delegate from Culpeper, said they were wary of more government regulation. They said market forces would correct any problems.

“What would it look like if Nancy Pelosi was regulating it?” Freitas said.

But Stewart, a Trumpian provocateur who nearly beat Gillespie for the gubernatorial nomination last year, said the time had come to “sic anti-trust investigators” on the social media platform and “pass legislation to break up Facebook.”

The debate was live-streamed over Facebook.

Differences turned more personal as the event wound down. After Freitas said he supported Trump’s plan to build a wall along the Southern border with Mexico, Stewart asserted the delegate was a new convert to the cause of fighting illegal immigration.

“Some people will tell you anything you want to hear, like my friend Nick here,” said Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, who touted a crackdown on illegal immigration he led a decade ago. Stewart also said Freitas had criticized him as going too far with a pledge to jail “sanctuary mayors,” meaning local officials who do not cooperate with federal immigration officials.

Freitas shot back with, “I do support the wall.” He said the reason he called out Stewart was because two of Stewart’s field directors had mocked Freitas’s surname, which is Portuguese.

“Freitas sounds like something on the dollar menu at Taco Bell,” Freitas said they’d written online, a comment he said he was forced to explain to his young daughter.

“I fought for my country,” Freitas said. “I don’t appreciate it when my kids have to ask me that question in my country.”

Rather than apologize or try to distance himself from the comment, Stewart turned the episode around on Freitas, offering it as proof that the former Green Beret was not up for the hardball politics needed to unseat Kaine.

“I pledged to run a vicious and ruthless race against Time Kaine because he’s going to run one,” Stewart said. “If all it takes is a little bit of fun to get under your skin, I don’t think you’re gonna do it. He’s gonna eat you up, spit you out.”

Jackson, who is African American, used the opportunity to inject one of the few moments of levity in the night.

“If we’re already arguing about ethnicity,” Jackson said, pausing for effect and drawing laughs, “I’m glad I’m not involved in that. How in the world are we going to reach black and Hispanic voters?”

The debate, moderated by Liberty spokesman Len Stevens and WSET News Anchor Mark Spain, was televised but drew fewer than 300 people to an auditorium on Liberty’s campus.

Stewart circulated fliers for a $30-a-head “after party” at a nearby restaurant, with two drink tickets part of the deal. Liberty, a Christian university founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, is a dry campus.

I hope none of these Repugs unseats Tim Kaine, who works hard for Virginia.

[AmazonGrace]

I hear knitting is a nice hobby

[GreyhoundFan]

Good grief: "Hillary Clinton, not on ballot, is star of GOP midterm plan"

Spoiler

NEW YORK (AP) — Almost 18 months have passed since Hillary Clinton lost the presidency. She holds no position of power in government. And she is not expected to run for office again.

Yet Clinton is starring in the Republican Party’s 2018 midterm strategy.

With control of Congress up for grabs this fall, the GOP’s most powerful players are preparing to spend big on plans to feature Clinton as a central villain in attack ads against vulnerable Democrats nationwide. The strategy, which already has popped up in races in Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Dakota, illustrates the resilience and political potency of Republican voters’ antipathy for Clinton. As difficult as it’s been for Democrats to move past the Clinton era, it may be even harder for Republicans.

“STOP HILLARY. STOP PELOSI. STOP LAMB,” read pamphlets circulated during the special election in Pennsylvania earlier this year.

That’s just a taste of what’s to come as the November elections grow closer, say those who control the GOP’s strategy in the first midterm elections of Donald Trump’s presidency.

“I promise you that you’ll continue to see it — Hillary Clinton starring in our paid media. She’s a very powerful motivator,” said Corry Bliss, who leads the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super political action committee ready to spend tens of millions of dollars to shape House races this fall. “It’s about what she represents. What she represents, just like what Nancy Pelosi represents, is out-of-touch far-left liberal positions.”

Critics suggest the strategy reeks of desperation, if not sexism. But with no Democrat to attack in the White House for the first time in nearly a decade, Republicans are betting big that the ghost of Clinton will serve them well in 2018. Saddled with Trump’s poor approval ratings, they may have little choice.

It’s helpful, some Republicans say, that Clinton refuses to disappear from national politics altogether.

Less than a year ago, she launched a political organization designed to encourage anti-Trump “resistance” groups. She made two public appearances this week alone. During recent remarks in India, she took a shot at Trump’s slogan and his appeal across middle America: “His whole campaign, ‘Make America Great Again,’ was looking backwards,” Clinton said.

The national GOP pounced, running digital ads featuring Clinton’s comments — and her image — to attack the 10 Democratic Senate candidates running for re-election in states Trump carried.

“She’s called you ‘deplorable.’ Now, she’s called you ‘backwards,'” said one ad that targeted Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

“If Bill Nelson had his way, Hillary Clinton would be president,” the ad continued. “Florida won’t forget.”

Even if Clinton avoids the spotlight moving forward, the Republican Party plans to evoke her early and often in key congressional races, particularly in regions Trump won, which feature most of the midterm season’s competitive races. They include places like western Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, where Republicans spent millions in last month’s special election to oppose Democrat Conor Lamb.

Lamb won the election, despite the flood of attack ads.

Internal polling and focus groups conducted by Republican campaigns find that Clinton remains one of the most unpopular high-profile Democrats in the nation, second only to Pelosi, the House minority leader. Just 36 percent of Americans viewed Clinton favorably in a December Gallup poll, an all-time low mark that bucked a trend in which unsuccessful presidential candidates typically gain in popularity over time.

“We’re going to make them own her,” Republican National Committee spokesman Rick Gorka said.

Clinton is a primary target of conservative media, which largely shifted its focus away from President Barack Obama after he left office last year but did not do the same with Clinton, who last served in the government in 2013.

In some cases, Republicans are using Clinton to go after some of their own.

That’s what is happening in Indiana, where Republican congressional candidate Steve Braun is under attack in his primary from conservatives who suggest he may have voted for Clinton in 2008, when he cast a ballot in the state’s Democratic primary. A super PAC is set to begin running new TV ads linking Braun and Clinton in the coming days.

A Clinton spokesman declined to respond to requests for comment.

A former Clinton staffer, Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson, dismissed the Republican strategy as an act of desperation. Gallup reported this week that Trump’s job approval is 39 percent, virtually the same as Clinton’s.

“Their obsession with her is evidence that they have nothing to run on, and they’re scared of running with the president,” Ferguson said. “It reminds me of the guy at the office who goes to the water cooler, and all he does is boast about his high school football championships.”

On the ground in some races, however, Democrats are still figuring out how to navigate the Republican strategy.

In North Dakota, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who faces a tough re-election in November, was asked last month in a radio interview when Clinton would “ride off into the sunset.”

“Not soon enough,” Heitkamp responded.

In suburban Philadelphia, Democratic congressional candidate Greg Edwards, who initially supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the last presidential election, was reluctant to embrace Clinton when asked.

“On both sides of the aisle, I think we have to stop replaying the 2016 election,” he said in an interview. “Candidates have to make a decision as to whether her presence will help or hinder. That’s an individual choice.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Retiring Sen. Bob Corker won’t campaign against Democrat vying for his seat"

Spoiler

Retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) offered faint praise on Sunday for the Republican likely to win the nomination to replace him, telling interviewers on two Sunday talk shows that his party was making trouble by questioning his loyalty.

“It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen politically in recent times, but apparently they want you to ask me about the Tennessee race,” Corker said on ABC News’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

In a separate interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Corker accused the National Republican Senatorial Committee of “leak[ing]” news of tensions with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over Corker’s public comments about former governor Phil Bredesen, the likely Democratic nominee, and his advantages in the race.

“Look, I have sent the maximum contribution to the Republican nominee on our side. I have said I’m going to plan to vote for this person,” Corker said. “I was in a long meeting where … they were asking me about Governor Bredesen. He is my friend. I’m not going to campaign against him, but I am supporting our nominee.”

The Washington Post first reported on tensions between Corker and fellow Republicans. On Wednesday, Corker praised Bredesen, a two-term governor whose tenure overlapped with Corker’s first term, as “a very good mayor, a very good governor, a very good business person.” Hours later, President Trump called Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R) to reiterate his support for her in the race, and McConnell confronted Corker to say that his remarks had been unhelpful.

But on Sunday, Corker had more to say about the heavy hand of Senate Republicans than he had to say about Blackburn.

“I’m supporting the nominee, everyone knows that,” he said on ABC. “I’ve sent the maximum check, plan to vote for them.”

On CNN, Corker added that “most people in our state — it is a red state — will focus on the first vote she makes, and that is the vote to elect the majority leader.” But again, he referred obliquely to “the nominee,” not using Blackburn’s name.

Democrats have not won a statewide race in Tennessee since Bredesen’s 2006 reelection and have not won a Senate race since 1990, when Al Gore won a truncated final term. But early polls in Tennessee have found Bredesen leading Blackburn. As of their last fundraising reports, the congresswoman had $5.9 million to spend and Bredesen had $1.7 million.  But the former governor has raised enough to keep the race on the radar, and Blackburn, who gained national prominence during the rise of the tea party movement, is running to Corker’s right.

 

[fraurosena]

Very important heads-up. If you can, you need to do something!

 

[AmazonGrace]

 This is so incomprehensible to me. I understand Hillary is an ambitious female and a Democrats but still, jailing her doesn't seem to do anything to fix any real problems

[fraurosena]

4 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 This is so incomprehensible to me. I understand Hillary is an ambitious female and a Democrats but still, jailing her doesn't seem to do anything to fix any real problems

The GOP are campaigning on the premise of 'us against them'. It's all they know how to do, as they can't run on their true policies of making rich richer and protecting big organizations at all costs.

However, there is no central figurehead for 'them', and therefore they have no real enemy anymore. So all they can do is hold onto who was the figurehead for that enemy in the past, even though she is now a private citizen and not even active in politics anymore and doesn't pose a threat to them. 

As to the authoritarianism, that is the only option left to them to remain in power, and they know it. If they drop the presidunce's base, the MAGA BT's, they will stand to lose about a third of the electorate. They are desperately trying to keep the party together and are willing to pay any price to not have the GOP disintegrate. Even if it means pandering to the presidunce and propping him up as an authoritarian leader. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Colorado Supreme Court just threw 6-term Republican Congressman off ballot in stunning upset"

Spoiler

Despite the fact that Rep. Doug Lamborn has served his district for the last six terms, the Republican lawmaker will not appear on the ballot in June’s GOP primary for the 5th congressional district.

The Colorado Supreme Court today ruled that because Lamborn’s campaign hired a circulator to collect petitions who did not meet the state’s residency requirements, the signatures collected were rendered “invalid and may not be considered.” In other words, Lamborn did not fulfill the 1,000-signature requirement to appear on the ballot.

In an interview with the Denver Post, Lamborn said only that he was “still digesting the opinion” before hanging up.

The only other option available to Lamborn to qualify for the ballot is to win 30 percent of the delegates at the state party convention. However, the convention already passed and Lamborn, having thought that his petitions would be valid, failed to compete there.

While Colorado’s 5th Congressional District did back Trump 57 to 33, that is certainly within the margin that Democrats have overcome to flip a seat in what has amounted to a massive Democratic wave in special elections—with swings as high as 20, 30, or even 56 points.

It seems that Republicans can’t catch a break. Then again, Lamborn might have just saved himself from being the latest in a long line of humiliating upsets for the Republican Party come November.

 

[AmazonGrace]

In today's episode of the series "This is not a bug, it's a feature", voter suppression in Arizona

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

From Jennifer Rubin: "Republicans lose even when they win"

Spoiler

Republicans hung onto the solidly red 8th Congressional District in Arizona on Tuesday with a modest 5-point win by Republican Debbie Lesko over  Democrat Hiral Tipirneni, a former emergency-room physician and political novice. Politico summed up the tepid win:

Lesko’s single-digit margin is the latest evidence that Republicans face a punishing midterm environment, even in Trump-friendly territory.

“Republicans shouldn’t be hitting the alarm, they should be slamming it,” said Mike Noble, a GOP pollster based in Arizona. He added: “This district isn’t supposed to be competitive, and so to see this margin, especially with the Republicans pouring in resources here — again, it’s a tough year.”

Cook Political Report congressional guru David Wasserman tweeted, “There are 147 GOP-held House seats less Republican [the Arizona 8th]. It’s time to start rethinking how many of those are truly safe in November.” He notes that in the past eight special elections, Democrats have overperformed by anywhere from 6 percent to 12 percent (15 percent in the Alabama Senate race). To win the House, Democrats need to overperform by only 4 percent compared with their 2016 results.

Moreover, if Democrats can do this well in a deep-red district after the GOP poured in more than $1 million, the Senate seat opened by retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) looks altogether winnable. Likewise, other Senate seats with strong Democratic candidates — especially Tennessee, where Democrats got their ideal candidate in former governor Phil Bredesen, are surely within their reach.

Meanwhile, the Hill reports, “Democrats in New York flipped a New York Assembly seat on Tuesday, winning a seat that has been in GOP hands for nearly four decades. Democrat Steve Stern, a former Suffolk County legislator, beat out Janet Smitelli (R) for AD-10, a Long Island seat with 59 percent of the vote. … The district has been represented by a Republican since 1978.” The win is the 40th state legislative seat that Democrats have flipped since President Trump took office.

Once again, we can see that the path to success for Democrats runs through the suburbs. The Post reports:

The Republican party’s problems were on display in Arizona, as Tipirneni made inroads into reliably Republican areas. The Democrat appeared to carry 58 of the district’s 142 precincts; in 2016, Hillary Clinton had carried just 12. The cities of Peoria and Glendale swung toward Tipirneni, as did areas around the retiree-heavy Sun City.

Democrats credited those gains to suburban angst about Republicans, and to a campaign that focused heavily on issues like Medicare and Social Security. Republicans said that their win showed how the party could still run and win.

Republicans grossly misjudged the political landscape if they think the GOP tax cut can buy the loyalty of Republican moderates, white women, married women and college graduates who held their noses to vote for Trump in 2016. These voters are the ones likely to tell pollsters they are embarrassed to have Trump as president, consider him dishonest and unfit, fret about getting into a fighting or a trade war, and worry not that their taxes are too high but that college tuition is too costly. These are the voters who play by the rules, know they need experience for high-level jobs and follow social norms in their neighborhoods and in their workplaces. They do not insult work colleagues, compulsively lie or think they’re on the precipice of losing their place in American society. They are strivers, not grievance-mongers and conspiracy theorists looking for excuses for their plight. They regard Trump as boorish, irresponsible, loopy and even dangerous.

Combine the “Could we just have normalcy?” voters with impassioned millennials and gun-safety advocates, and you have the makings of a formidable Democratic coalition. Democrats don’t need to play the protectionist card with white working-class voters or hand out job guarantees. They don’t need to feel guilty that are somehow not respecting Trumpkin snowflakes when they call out climate-change denial and recoil at casual expressions of white resentment.

In other words, Democrats can ignore the hundreds of media stories written from diners in coal country wherein Trump voters moan about political correctness and complain that elites look down their noses at their anti-immigrant, anti-free-trade, anti-climate-change-science views with disdain. It’s just fine for Democrats to run as grown-ups who are conscientious about their obligations and are unafraid to say that Emperor Trump has no clothes.

Democratic candidates who present themselves as defenders of democratic values, decency and what Republicans used to call “well-ordered liberty” will rack up midterm wins, maybe even enough to win majorities in both houses of Congress. Voters are telling us that they are sick of the Trump show and even more sick of his enablers who insult their intelligence with crackpot defenses of Trump.

 

[fraurosena]

53 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

[...] sick of his enablers who insult their intelligence with crackpot defenses of Trump

I think that if the Dems play on this phenomenon in particular, they will win the most votes. We don't think you're stupid, we don't think you lack intelligence, and we're most certainly not trying to pull one over you. We are the party of intelligence and integrity, and we don't take you for granted. But they will truly have to be that party, not just in words and promises, but in actuality and in deeds. At the moment, and in November, I'm quite sure the Dems will be riding the wave of discontent. But if they really want to bring voters over to their side for more than that singular protest vote against the presidunce, they will have to ensure that they really are the people's party, who listen to their citizens and have the best interests of the country at heart, not that of donors or lobbyists. I hope they can make the necessary changes in order to become that party. 

[Ali]

5 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

I think that if the Dems play on this phenomenon in particular, they will win the most votes. We don't think you're stupid, we don't think you lack intelligence, and we're most certainly not trying to pull one over you. We are the party of intelligence and integrity, and we don't take you for granted. But they will truly have to be that party, not just in words and promises, but in actuality and in deeds. At the moment, and in November, I'm quite sure the Dems will be riding the wave of discontent. But if they really want to bring voters over to their side for more than that singular protest vote against the presidunce, they will have to ensure that they really are the people's party, who listen to their citizens and have the best interests of the country at heart, not that of donors or lobbyists. I hope they can make the necessary changes in order to become that party. 

I don't think this would work for most Trump worshippers I have encountered. Education is seen as indoctrination. They are extremely narrow minded and cannot seem to hear anything contrary to their belief. I once heard one of them tell me that my child's school district was anti_Christian because spring break does  not always fall next to Easter. I pointed out that the district had no school on Good Fridays. This did not change her opinion. I have no idea how to get through to these people. They also think they are much more intelligent than they actually are - Dunning-Kruger effect.