The Midterm Elections

[AmazonGrace]

Okay I've shared a tweet by Kevin Bacon now so I have won too. Thanks Ted for spreading the message!

[JMarie]

5 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Ted is upset that Beto gets free publicity from famous people:

 

 

 

Has Cruz just discovered this game?  Twenty years later?  Maybe he'd like to bring over some Zimas and we could watch Pop Up Video together.

[fraurosena]

What a wonderful initiative!

[fraurosena]

I know it's nothing we didn't surmise already. But still, this is pretty stark.

 

[Cartmann99]

3 hours ago, JMarie said:

Has Cruz just discovered this game?  Twenty years later?  Maybe he'd like to bring over some Zimas and we could watch Pop Up Video together.

Ted's just pissed because no Hollywood celebrity would promote him unless they were being paid to do so.

[fraurosena]

Well now, this seems like a move in the right direction for the Dems.

Democrats move to limit role of superdelegates in presidential nominations

Quote

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to limit the role of superdelegates in choosing the party’s presidential nominee, moving to heal internal divisions that emerged during the bitter 2016 primaries.

The reform, adopted by voice vote at the DNC’s summer meeting in Chicago, will bar superdelegates — lawmakers, former presidents and other party dignitaries — from voting during the first ballot of the nominating process.

But superdelegates would be allowed to vote in the rare instance where a second ballot was needed to nominate a presidential candidate.

The reform was pushed by DNC Chairman Tom Perez, but faced strong opposition from a relatively small but vocal group of party members, who argued it would disenfranchise some of the party’s most prominent members.

Earlier on Saturday, opponents of the measure, led by former DNC Chair Don Fowler, sought to require a two-thirds majority vote to pass the reforms, arguing that doing so would require a change to the party’s charter.

But committee members voted to uphold Perez’s ruling that the reforms amounted to a rule change and required only a simple majority vote to pass.

Fowler then moved to suspend the rules and vote by a voice vote, paving the way for DNC members to swiftly and overwhelmingly adopt the reforms.

The reforms seek to heal divisions exposed during the 2016 Democratic nomination, when Hillary Clinton prevailed over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) after receiving the support of the superdelegates — “unpledged delegates” in the party’s parlance.

“Today is a historic day for our party," Perez said in a statement following the vote. "We passed major reforms that will not only put our next presidential nominee in the strongest position possible, but will help us elect Democrats up and down the ballot, across the country."

Unlike pledged delegates, whose votes at the convention are determined by state primary and caucus results, Democratic superdelegates can vote for whichever candidate they prefer.

Sanders and his supporters had argued that gave party elites the power to snuff out the will of Democratic primary voters.

“Today's decision by the DNC is an important step forward in making the Democratic Party more open, democratic and responsive to the input of ordinary Americans," Sanders said in a statement. "This has been a long and arduous process, and I want to thank Tom Perez and all of those who made it happen.”

Many Democratic leaders have since come around to supporting limiting the role of superdelegates in the nomination process, including former DNC chairs Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has also spoken out against the role of superdelegates.

But some DNC members sought to rally opposition to the reform proposal, including Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Critics of the reforms argued that it would disenfranchise party leaders and create tension between Democratic lawmakers and their constituents.

Other opponents of limiting the roles of superdelegates believed it gave Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, undue influence over the DNC.

At the end, Perez prevailed in pushing the reform, having argued it would grow trust in the party by voting members.

“Our North Star is very simple: We want to grow the party, we want to make sure that people embrace the Democratic Party and we want to make sure people trust the Democratic Party,” Perez told CBS News in an interview this week.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

An interesting analysis: "Trump’s Midwest is a gubernatorial battleground in 2018"

Spoiler

DES MOINES — President Trump’s Midwest is the key gubernatorial battleground in 2018. The swath of states that secured the president’s electoral college victory in 2016 is now home to a series of statehouse contests that could alter the balance of power in a region of the country long crucial to presidential elections.

The stakes are sizable as the two parties intensify their efforts heading into fall campaigning. Democratic victories in the Midwest not only could give the party’s presidential nominee needed help in the 2020 election but also would provide Democrats with new leverage in the critical redistricting battles that will take place after the 2020 Census.

The Midwest secured Trump’s victory in 2016. He carried Iowa and Ohio by surprisingly comfortable margins. He won Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania each by less than a percentage point. He narrowly lost Minnesota and fell well short in Illinois. Republicans control the governor’s mansions in all of those states except Minnesota and Pennsylvania, and all of them will elect governors in November.

Today just about everything is in play gubernatorially. The Cook Political Report puts Iowa, Michigan and Ohio in the toss-up category, leans Wisconsin toward the GOP and leans Illinois and Minnesota toward the Democrats. The one exception is Pennsylvania: Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who played a key role in forcing the drawing of new congressional district lines that are likely to give his party additional House seats in the next Congress, is rated to be in good shape for reelection.

And then there is Kansas, which Trump carried by 21 points. That state too is listed among the toss-ups, because the Republicans just concluded a contentious primary battle that saw incumbent Gov. Jeff Colyer, the establishment favorite, lose to Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

Kansas will be a reach for Democrats; few are counting on it. But Kobach, a Trump ally who led the flawed commission tasked with investigating Trump’s unproven claims of voter fraud, carries baggage and a divided party into the general election.

Iowa is a case in point for the state of play in the Midwest. Trump won Iowa by nine points, after former president Barack Obama won it by 10 points in 2008 and by six points in 2012. The shift in the margin of victory between 2012 and 2016 was one of the biggest in the nation. More than 30 of Iowa’s 99 counties flipped from Democrat to Republican between 2012 and 2016.

A year ago, Democratic and Republican strategists gave the advantage in the governor’s race to newly elevated Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who as lieutenant governor succeeded long-serving Terry Branstad after he was nominated as U.S. ambassador to China. Today, Democrats are cautiously optimistic and Republicans admittedly nervous. “I think what this election is going to show is that Iowa is a purple state,” said Troy Price, the Iowa Democratic Party chair.

Reynolds should benefit from Iowa’s generally healthy economy and low unemployment rate. GOP strategists say her biography as a product of rural Iowa and working-class roots will play well with voters, and she will contrast her background with that of the Democratic nominee, wealthy businessman Fred Hubbell.

Her challenges, meanwhile, come from various directions. She inherited the governorship and now has to run on her own in a midterm election year in which the party in the White House is historically at a disadvantage.

Her administration has come under fire for its management of the Medicaid program. The Iowa legislature approved a highly restrictive abortion law (now tied up in the courts) that gives Democrats a way to appeal to some suburban female voters. Beyond that, Trump’s trade policies could sour Iowa farmers, although even some Democrats say right now it’s more of a “slow-burn issue” rather than one dominating the campaign.

At the time of Trump’s victory, there were questions about whether Iowa was moving from being a purple state to one closer to red. Today, Republicans have a more realistic perspective: that 2016 was a perfect storm, conditions that won’t exist this November.

They see that Trump was able to bring out voters who had not embraced the GOP in recent presidential elections and whose support might not be transferrable. Meanwhile, they know that Hillary Clinton was a demonstrably weak candidate in Iowa and in some other Midwest states. “The whole upper Mississippi Valley revolted against her,” said David Kochel, a Republican strategist advising Reynolds.

Democrats and Republicans alike note that going into November, the energy is considerably stronger on the left than the right. Republicans will look to insulate their gubernatorial candidates from national winds by focusing on state-specific issues. But that’s difficult, particularly in an environment in which the president so dominates everything politically.

Hubbell, the Democratic nominee, will have a fight on his hands. He is a temperate personality, not exactly the profile of a hard charger who could, by himself, energize the party’s base. But with two highly competitive GOP-held House races also on the ballot, Democrats will have plenty of incentives to turn out. The gubernatorial contest seems destined to remain close to the end.

The most vulnerable GOP-held seat is in Illinois, where wealthy Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is the clear underdog against wealthy Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker. Meanwhile, Minnesota Democrats are bullish about the prospects for Rep. Tim Walz (D) to succeed Gov. Mark Dayton (D) in the governor’s mansion, after former Republican governor Tim Pawlenty, the favorite of national GOP leaders, lost the primary to Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson.

Among the other GOP-held seats, Democrats feel more confident about Michigan than they do about Iowa, Wisconsin or Ohio. In Michigan, Democratic state Sen. Gretchen Whitmer survived a primary challenge from the left and now faces GOP attorney general Bill Schuette in the contest to succeed term-limited Gov. Rick Snyder (R).

Ohio has a history of disappointing Democratic statewide candidates, and that could be the case again this year. But with Republican Gov. John Kasich leaving because of term limits and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown on the ballot and favored, the open-seat race for governor between Republican Mike DeWine and Democrat Richard Cordray is genuinely competitive.

That leaves Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker (R) has never had easy races and remains as polarizing a figure as he’s been since the uproar over collective bargaining that he created early in his first term. He survived a recall election in 2012 and won reelection in 2014. The most recent Marquette Law School poll shows the race tied. Other recent polls have given an edge to Democrat Tony Evers. Walker’s first two elections came in good years for Republicans. His bid for a third term comes in a year favorable to Democrats.

It’s possible, though not probable, that by the day after the election in November, Democrats will control most of the governorships in a band of states stretching from Kansas to Pennsylvania. Don’t count on that clean sweep, but it’s clear that the region that broke many Democrats’ hearts on election night 2016 could be a bright spot for the party this November.

 

[AmazonGrace]

A man just died yet she feels like the victim 

 

[Cartmann99]

If Kelli Ward attended a funeral where the deceased was wearing jewelry, I think she'd climb up on the casket and try to steal it.

[Audrey2]

She sounds like the Jill Rodrigues sort to me... I don't want her anywhere near McCain's funeral.

[JMarie]

I hope she never gets elected for anything.

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, JMarie said:

I hope she never gets elected for anything.

 I would vote for her to be elected the tackiest woman in America. She gets a sash that a family of skunks repeatedly sprayed on, a crown made out of twist-ties, and a coupon for $1.00 off at Jim Bob's House of Discount Enemas and Mobile Taxidermy Service.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

I love the smell of corruption in the morning

[AmazonGrace]

Don't look now but Morons Are Governing America

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

[Cartmann99]

Kelli Ward is upset that she's being criticized for her comments about McCain:

A few minutes earlier, she had this to say:

Arizona Republicans will be deciding tomorrow (8/28) whether they want Kelli Ward, Joe Arpaio, or Martha McSally to be their candidate for the general election in November. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Might this portend the Dems making some inroads in NC? "Three-judge panel rules unconstitutional gerrymandering in North Carolina"

Spoiler

A panel of three federal judges held Monday that North Carolina’s congressional districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to aide Republicans over Democrats and said it may require new districts before the November elections, possibly impacting control of the House.

The judges acknowledged that primary elections have already produced candidates for the 2018 elections but said they were reluctant to let elections take place in congressional districts that it has twice found violate constitutional standards.

North Carolina legislators are likely to ask the Supreme Court to step in. The court currently has eight members since Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s retirement earlier this summer. Senate hearings on President Trump’s nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, commence on Tuesday.

The North Carolina case is a long-running saga, with federal courts first striking down the legislature’s work as a racial gerrymander and then as a partisan gerrymander.

The Supreme Court told the three-judge panel to take another look at the case in light of the court’s decision in a Wisconsin partisan gerrymandering case, in which the justices said those who brought that case did not have legal standing.

 

[Howl]

Sweet Rufus, the Arizona Republican Senate primary for Jeff Flake's open seat is an absolute cluster fuck of Joe Arpaio (epic, chronic and unrepentant asshole), Kelli Ward (alien abduction survivor, general whack-a-do and nasty piece of work, as noted in previous posts), and Martha McSally (combat veteran and definitely the sanest of the three).  I'm assuming McSally will win; hopefully,  AZ should be so over Arpaio by now and no one, at least no sane person,  should be voting for Ward. 

[Cartmann99]

5 hours ago, Howl said:

Sweet Rufus, the Arizona Republican Senate primary for Jeff Flake's open seat is an absolute cluster fuck of Joe Arpaio (epic, chronic and unrepentant asshole), Kelli Ward (alien abduction survivor, general whack-a-do and nasty piece of work, as noted in previous posts), and Martha McSally (combat veteran and definitely the sanest of the three).  I'm assuming McSally will win; hopefully,  AZ should be so over Arpaio by now and no one, at least no sane person,  should be voting for Ward. 

I had actually forgotten that Arpaio was running until earlier today.

[formergothardite]

13 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Might this portend the Dems making some inroads in NC? "Three-judge panel rules unconstitutional gerrymandering in North Carolina"

  Reveal hidden contents

A panel of three federal judges held Monday that North Carolina’s congressional districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to aide Republicans over Democrats and said it may require new districts before the November elections, possibly impacting control of the House.

The judges acknowledged that primary elections have already produced candidates for the 2018 elections but said they were reluctant to let elections take place in congressional districts that it has twice found violate constitutional standards.

North Carolina legislators are likely to ask the Supreme Court to step in. The court currently has eight members since Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s retirement earlier this summer. Senate hearings on President Trump’s nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, commence on Tuesday.

The North Carolina case is a long-running saga, with federal courts first striking down the legislature’s work as a racial gerrymander and then as a partisan gerrymander.

The Supreme Court told the three-judge panel to take another look at the case in light of the court’s decision in a Wisconsin partisan gerrymandering case, in which the justices said those who brought that case did not have legal standing.

 

I'm trying not to get my hopes up to much, but fingers crossed that they have to redraw before the election. The republicans in NC have been working overtime to fuck things up so they can keep power even when they are the minority. 

https://www.cbs17.com/news/north-carolina-news/nc-house-approves-changes-to-2-amendments/1393639185

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[Howl]

Martha McSally got 45% of the vote in the AZ Senate primary and won, but Krazy Kelli Ward GOT 40 percent!!!!!! ?  How nuts is that?  Way too close for comfort. 

Joe Arpaio got 15%.  AZ voters delivered a nice slap in the face to that hateful man. One can only hope he'll slink off into a corner somewhere now that voters have indicated they have no interest in him on the state or national stage.