The Midterm Elections

[Cartmann99]

*snerk*

 

[Audrey2]

2 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

*snerk*

 

She seems like another chip off the old blockhead, Trump. "I said it, the media recorded it and, because they played it back, it's now fake news and I never said what I said (with witnesses)!"

[Cartmann99]

Beto O’Rourke says he isn’t debating Ted Cruz this Friday

Quote

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, the El Paso Democrat challenging Republican incumbent Ted Cruz in Texas' U.S. Senate race, says a proposed Aug. 31 debate between the two "is not going to happen."

"Friday in Dallas is not going to happen, but I'm convinced we will debate," O'Rourke said Monday during an appearance at the 2018 Texas Disability Issues Forum in Austin. "I'm convinced there will be a number of debates."

In July, Cruz challenged O'Rourke to five debates – sending a detailed plan with proposed dates, cities and topics. The first was to be on Aug. 31 in Dallas and to focus on "Jobs/Taxes/Federal Regulations/National Economy." O'Rourke accepted Cruz's proposal for five debates but suggested some revisions — including having a sixth debate in O'Rourke's hometown of El Paso.

In April, O'Rourke's campaign kicked off the debate negotiations by proposing six debates, including two in Spanish.

O'Rourke said Monday that Cruz's campaign has "attempted to dictate" different aspects of the debate schedule, such as the time, the moderators and which subjects the candidates could speak about.

"We're working through those differences, and we're trying to introduce more of a collaborative style to the negotiations than he may be used to," O'Rourke said during the forum. "And so we're confident that out of that, we're going to come to something good."

Cruz's team shot back Monday evening.

"[O'Rourke] begged for debates, but when Sen. Cruz invited him to five debates all across Texas, suddenly O’Rourke seemed to get scared," spokesperson Emily Miller said, adding that "except for when he has to be in DC for his work in the Senate, Cruz is ready and excited to debate O’Rourke, including this Friday."

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/08/27/beto-orourke-ted-cruz-debate-friday-texas/

Emily honey, allowing both candidates to provide input on the topics and how and where the debates are set up is a very reasonable request. Your candidate is the one that only wants to debate on Friday nights during football season, so your claim of Beto being scared is laughable. Should I send you a hardcover copy of Friday Night Lights so you can get yourself acquainted with the phenomenon of high school football in Texas? 

Also sweetie, how come Ted doesn't have a Senate office west of I-35? Hell, the El Paso metro area alone has close to a million residents, but neither Cornyn or Cruz keep an office there. We're tired of being treated like the proverbial red-headed stepchildren out here, and we'll be voting in November.

[GreyhoundFan]

Poor Teddy is so concerned about winning in November that he's blowing off his job: "Ted Cruz Opts for Campaign Trail Instead of Senate Votes"

Spoiler

When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell nixed much of the August recess, it raised the prospect that vulnerable Democrats might miss valuable campaign time, but it appears to also be having an effect on Republicans. Case in point: Sen. Ted Cruz.

The Texas Republican is not expected at the Senate vote that has been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Monday to limit debate on the nomination of President Donald Trump’s choice to be assistant secretary for family support at the Health and Human Services Department, Lynn A. Johnson.

The senator is expected to be at campaign events back home well into the evening Monday.

Cruz is facing a challenge from Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Likely Republican.

Cruz was in the Senate chamber for part of last week, but he missed floor votes on both ends. He was among 15 senators to miss votes the evening of Aug. 20, including on a proposal from New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez to support funding for a firefighter cancer registry.

And, despite Cruz being among the Capitol’s leading opponents of abortion, he missed a vote last Thursday on an amendment intended to defund Planned Parenthood.

Thursday, it appears the Texas senator left early. He was on the floor to vote to limit debate on the fiscal 2019 package of Defense and Labor-HHS-Education spending. But mid-afternoon, when senators were voting on the failed amendment from Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky to block funding for groups that provide abortion services (and final passage of the appropriations bill), Cruz was not recorded.

 

[Howl]

Y'all, apologies!  I don't know what I was thinking in my earlier post where I incorrectly posted about the results of the AZ Senate primary; AZ is voting TODAY (Tuesday).  I must have been looking at poll results yesterday. 

In other news, the chronically repulsive Joe Arpaio was interviewed and asked if he thought John McCain was a hero.  Arpaio hesitated for a long time and finally said something along the lines of, I've never had a hero before ....something something Trump.   I just remembered ---  Trump pardoned Arpaio almost exactly a year ago. 

 

[JMarie]

McSally is projected to win in Arizona.  Yay!

In sadder news, DeSantis will be the Republican candidate for governor in Florida.  Check out his ad.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Cartmann99]

Bless their hearts, when the GOP starts posting 25 year old pictures of Beto with his punk band, you know the internal polling data is scaring them:

 

[Howl]

13 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Should I send you a hardcover copy of Friday Night Lights so you can get yourself acquainted with the phenomenon of high school football in Texas? 

Good point, @Cartmann99! This morning our copy of the Austin American Statesman, the only newspaper for the capital of Texas, has a 12-page special section: 2018 High School Football Review.  For every high school team in the area (Austin and surrounding cities and towns -- even the tiny ones), there is a listing with the coach, the school's win/loss record for Fall 2017 and the previous three years, key players to watch with their stats from last year, a review of the quarterback and the crux game for the upcoming season, overall yardage gained stats for the previous year, results of pre-season games, whether they made the post season playoffs the previous year, and  more.  12 pages.  Some of the Friday night high school games are televised, and many more are broadcast play by play on the radio. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if there is some high school fantasy football stuff happening.  It's a BIG DEAL.  So yeah, Beto was wise to say no to Friday night debates. 

Also, I hope the GOP's strategy will backfire; some may look at early Beto pics and say, Awesome dude!  Also, the subtext for that particular photo is that one guy is wearing a flowered top and could be ONE OF TEH GEYZ. 

[JMarie]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

Also, I hope the GOP's strategy will backfire; some may look at early Beto pics and say, Awesome dude!  Also, the subtext for that particular photo is that one guy is wearing a flowered top and could be ONE OF TEH GEYZ. 

In that picture, it looks like his bandmate was wearing a {gasp!} dress! A DRESS! ON A MAN!

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Cartmann99]

3 hours ago, Howl said:

Good point, @Cartmann99! This morning our copy of the Austin American Statesman, the only newspaper for the capital of Texas, has a 12-page special section: 2018 High School Football Review.  For every high school team in the area (Austin and surrounding cities and towns -- even the tiny ones), there is a listing with the coach, the school's win/loss record for Fall 2017 and the previous three years, key players to watch with their stats from last year, a review of the quarterback and the crux game for the upcoming season, overall yardage gained stats for the previous year, results of pre-season games, whether they made the post season playoffs the previous year, and  more.  12 pages.  Some of the Friday night high school games are televised, and many more are broadcast play by play on the radio. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if there is some high school fantasy football stuff happening.  It's a BIG DEAL.  So yeah, Beto was wise to say no to Friday night debates. 

When I went to that Beto event and he told us about Cruz wanting Friday night debates, this gasp-murmur-chuckle moved through the crowd as everybody  realized what that meant. Hell, I don't even follow football, and yet I understand why Friday night debates are dumbest thing ever.

2 hours ago, JMarie said:

In that picture, it looks like his bandmate was wearing a {gasp!} dress! A DRESS! ON A MAN!

 

4 hours ago, Howl said:

Also, the subtext for that particular photo is that one guy is wearing a flowered top and could be ONE OF TEH GEYZ. 

That's a much younger Beto in the flowered dress, and yes, Republican voters are responding to posts with this picture with their usual style and grace. I guess the fact that people in punk bands tend to dress pretty edgy is a new experience for them.

Bless their hearts...

[AuntK]

Yes, Ron DeRacist, Republican candidate for governor of Florida, and Trump's chosen, warned Floridians not to "monkey up" the state by electing Democrat Andrew Gollum, who happens to be black.  His office claims this is "not racist," but we know better. He probably got this dog whistle phrasing from the recent conference he attended with Steve Bannon and other deplorables. And yes, he put his son in a Trump shirt for his ad and pretended to read a story about building a wall.

He is lower than scum.

[AmazonGrace]

Go Gillum!

[GreyhoundFan]

"An ode to one of the worst GOP candidates in recent memory"

Spoiler

For the second time in two years, Arizona Republicans held a Senate primary. And for the second time in two years, a uniquely bad and desperate candidate named Kelli Ward went down in flames.

Ward lost to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) by double-digits in 2016 despite some high-profile conservative support, and now she has lost to Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) by double-digits despite some even higher-profile conservative support. The final returns showed her getting just more than half (28 percent) of McSally’s support (52 percent) — a result that could spare national Republicans a massive headache in their quest to hold the Senate.

Recent history has included no shortage of extreme GOP nominees who tested the bounds of political discourse even within conservative primary electorates. Some of them imploded thanks to scandals (think Roy Moore) and gaffes (think Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock). Others won (think President Trump).

But even next to them, Ward stands out for having consciously made poor tactical decisions, over and over again. While some candidates succumb to one incident, Ward seemed determined to pepper them throughout her campaign. While others make being extreme work, Ward just made it painful.

Ward burst on to the scene late in her 2016 primary by making a closing argument against McCain that basically amounted to this: He’s going to deteriorate and die soon. “I do know what happens to the body and the mind at the end of life,” she said. When asked whether she, as an actual medical doctor, felt comfortable diagnosing McCain, she said: “Diagnosing him as an 80-year-old man? Yes, I do.” Earlier in that same campaign, she appeared on conspiracy-theorist Alex Jones’s show, where the two discussed the idea McCain might have her assassinated.

Despite an effort to appear more serious this time around, Ward again palled around with the likes of Jones and another conspiracy theorist and alt-right figure, Mike Cernovich. Her justifications were ... interesting. “I think there’s an audience of people out there that do listen to Infowars, and should they be left in the dark about options that are out there?” she told the Weekly Standard. When Cernovich’s appearance and his Pizzagate advocacy became an issue a few weeks back, Ward at first claimed she wasn’t familiar with Cernovich’s views but then, shortly thereafter, suggested she knew plenty about his audience.

Witness this amazing exchange with MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt:

HUNT: “Mike Cernovich has been associated with the PizzaGate conspiracy theory that led to shots being fired at Comet Pizza here in Washington. Do you believe what has been said about Hillary Clinton and pizza and all of this nonsense that has been on the Internet?”

WARD: “All I know about Hillary Clinton is that she would have been a terrible president. She -- and I’m so thankful every single day that she isn’t in the White House.”

...

HUNT: “So do you not want Mike Cernovich on your bus tour?”

WARD: “Mike Cernovich has an audience that we want to reach. And that includes Republicans, conservatives, liberals, Democrats, people of all ilks. And so, if he’s coming on the bus tour, I think that he’ll have a voice and he’ll have something that he wants to say.”

Ward’s 2018 campaign would ultimately end a lot like the 2016 version did: with a pretty obvious last-minute Hail Mary. When McCain announced he was going to stop treatment for brain cancer last week, Ward took to social media to suggest it might be timed to distract from her bus tour.

And then, when McCain actually did die shortly thereafter, Ward two days later again took to social media to suggest the real cancer was political correctness.

Candidates often toy with things like the idea that their opponents are too old and/or play footsie with conspiracy theories and extreme elements of their party. Where Ward differed was how absolutely ham-handed she went about all of that. Her campaigns often looked more like caricatures of what we’d expect from a tea party/alt-right primary challenger.

And ultimately, the result is the indictment. She had a real chance in the Trump era to run against an establishment-oriented GOP congresswoman with a moderate track record on immigration, and she didn’t even come close. A third, Trump-tied candidate — Joe Arpaio — undoubtedly ate away at what might have been her base, but even that didn’t account for her loss.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Danica Roem, the first transgender woman elected to office here in Virginia had this advice for Beto (she used to be in a band too):

She won by actually campaigning on local concerns and went and met a huge number of people in the district.

[Cartmann99]

This is not turning out like the Republicans hoped it would...

I may hurt myself laughing....

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Cartmann99]

This is a classy move. I'm glad that Arizona Republicans chose her in their primary instead of Kelli Ward or Joe Arpaio.

.

McSally's Democratic opponent is also being classy about McCain's passing:

She currently represents AZ-09 in the US House.

[fraurosena]

This is good news!

 

[GreyhoundFan]

More fun with Repugs: "Scott Taylor Staffer Who Allegedly Forged Signatures Still Working for Campaign"

Spoiler

At least one of five campaign staffers for Rep. Scott Taylor who allegedly forged signatures on ballot petitions for an opponent appears to still be working for the Virginia Republican’s campaign.

That’s despite promises from the freshman lawmaker that he would purge his campaign of anyone who was involved in any illegal activity.

Democrats in the state have accused Taylor’s campaign staff of forging the signatures of dozens — possibly hundreds — of people in Virginia’s 2nd District to help Shaun Brown get her name the ballot as an independent in order to siphon off votes from Democratic nominee Elaine Luria in the hotly contested race. 

“You have my word that if anyone in my campaign did anything that was wrong, that was illegal, that was inappropriate or something like that, I would fire them in a second,” Taylor said in a Facebook Live broadcast to his supporters on Aug. 6.

Taylor said he would not spare even his “closest advisers, who I wouldn’t want to fire, but I would.” 

He already ousted his campaign manager over a different matter, he said, and after reports emerged about his staffers and the petition signatures, he swiftly axed his campaign consultant.

Yet one of Taylor’s campaign staffers, Lauren Creekmore, who has been accused of forging the signatures of at least 10 people on petitions for Brown, indicated as recently as Wednesday evening that she is still working for Taylor.

“So proud to work for Scott Taylor,” Creekmore posted on her personal Facebook page Wednesday, linking to a Facebook Live video of Taylor campaigning in his district.

Creekmore is also the host on Facebook of a “Volunteer Night” for Taylor’s campaign on Wednesday evening at the Republican Party of Virginia Beach’s office. As of Monday morning, she was still making updates to the event page.

“This event will be a volunteer event in the evening for Rep. Scott Taylor,” the event description reads. “We will be putting yard signs together, stuffing mail, and making phone calls.”

A spokesman for Taylor’s campaign could not be reached for comment at press time. 

Taylor’s campaign paid Creekmore a shade over $2,400 per month from mid-April through June as part of its payroll expenses, according to the Federal Elections Commission records. 

Jake Rubenstein, a spokesman for the Virginia Democratic Party, said in a statement that Taylor’s failure to fire Creekmore despite his promises to take such steps should undercut his rapport with voters.

“Scott Taylor’s credibility dwindles by the day,” Rubenstein said. “We now know that one of the staffers that forged voters’ signatures is still involved with his campaign. How can anyone believe a word that comes out of Scott Taylor’s mouth?”

A special prosecutor has been assigned to investigate the matter, and the state Democrats have filed suit to delay election officials from printing the ballots until the judge resolves their claim.

Taylor has said he knew some of his campaign staffers were working to get Brown on the ballot, but he denied the Democrats’ charge that his team undertook the effort to divide the Democratic vote.

Instead, Taylor said, his five staffers were helping Brown because they believed she had been railroaded and “disenfranchised” by the Democratic Party.

In all, Taylor’s five staffers submitted 584 signatures to help get Brown’s name on the ballot.

As part of the state Democratic Party’s lawsuit, 10 district residents signed affidavits saying their names appeared on the papers Creekmore submitted — but that the signatures on those documents were not theirs.

Democrats have submitted 31 other such affidavits to the court so far.

When election officials combined the Taylor staffers’ submissions with the petition papers Brown’s actual supporters had previously filed on her behalf, they found she collected more than 1,900 signatures — though just 1,030 of those were declared valid by the state board of elections.

That was still enough to get her on the November ballot, though she is facing prosecution in October for allegedly defrauding the federal government through a summer meal program for kids.

Brown ran against Taylor in 2016 as the Democratic nominee. But she announced in March that she would be running as an independent over objections to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee weighing in early on Luria’s behalf.

Though Taylor defeated Brown by 23 points to win a first term, the race this year is projected to be closer.

President Donald Trump carried the district by just 3 points over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Leans Republican.

 

[Audrey2]

1 minute ago, GreyhoundFan said:

More fun with Repugs: "Scott Taylor Staffer Who Allegedly Forged Signatures Still Working for Campaign"

  Reveal hidden contents

At least one of five campaign staffers for Rep. Scott Taylor who allegedly forged signatures on ballot petitions for an opponent appears to still be working for the Virginia Republican’s campaign.

That’s despite promises from the freshman lawmaker that he would purge his campaign of anyone who was involved in any illegal activity.

Democrats in the state have accused Taylor’s campaign staff of forging the signatures of dozens — possibly hundreds — of people in Virginia’s 2nd District to help Shaun Brown get her name the ballot as an independent in order to siphon off votes from Democratic nominee Elaine Luria in the hotly contested race. 

“You have my word that if anyone in my campaign did anything that was wrong, that was illegal, that was inappropriate or something like that, I would fire them in a second,” Taylor said in a Facebook Live broadcast to his supporters on Aug. 6.

Taylor said he would not spare even his “closest advisers, who I wouldn’t want to fire, but I would.” 

He already ousted his campaign manager over a different matter, he said, and after reports emerged about his staffers and the petition signatures, he swiftly axed his campaign consultant.

Yet one of Taylor’s campaign staffers, Lauren Creekmore, who has been accused of forging the signatures of at least 10 people on petitions for Brown, indicated as recently as Wednesday evening that she is still working for Taylor.

“So proud to work for Scott Taylor,” Creekmore posted on her personal Facebook page Wednesday, linking to a Facebook Live video of Taylor campaigning in his district.

Creekmore is also the host on Facebook of a “Volunteer Night” for Taylor’s campaign on Wednesday evening at the Republican Party of Virginia Beach’s office. As of Monday morning, she was still making updates to the event page.

“This event will be a volunteer event in the evening for Rep. Scott Taylor,” the event description reads. “We will be putting yard signs together, stuffing mail, and making phone calls.”

A spokesman for Taylor’s campaign could not be reached for comment at press time. 

Taylor’s campaign paid Creekmore a shade over $2,400 per month from mid-April through June as part of its payroll expenses, according to the Federal Elections Commission records. 

Jake Rubenstein, a spokesman for the Virginia Democratic Party, said in a statement that Taylor’s failure to fire Creekmore despite his promises to take such steps should undercut his rapport with voters.

“Scott Taylor’s credibility dwindles by the day,” Rubenstein said. “We now know that one of the staffers that forged voters’ signatures is still involved with his campaign. How can anyone believe a word that comes out of Scott Taylor’s mouth?”

A special prosecutor has been assigned to investigate the matter, and the state Democrats have filed suit to delay election officials from printing the ballots until the judge resolves their claim.

Taylor has said he knew some of his campaign staffers were working to get Brown on the ballot, but he denied the Democrats’ charge that his team undertook the effort to divide the Democratic vote.

Instead, Taylor said, his five staffers were helping Brown because they believed she had been railroaded and “disenfranchised” by the Democratic Party.

In all, Taylor’s five staffers submitted 584 signatures to help get Brown’s name on the ballot.

As part of the state Democratic Party’s lawsuit, 10 district residents signed affidavits saying their names appeared on the papers Creekmore submitted — but that the signatures on those documents were not theirs.

Democrats have submitted 31 other such affidavits to the court so far.

When election officials combined the Taylor staffers’ submissions with the petition papers Brown’s actual supporters had previously filed on her behalf, they found she collected more than 1,900 signatures — though just 1,030 of those were declared valid by the state board of elections.

That was still enough to get her on the November ballot, though she is facing prosecution in October for allegedly defrauding the federal government through a summer meal program for kids.

Brown ran against Taylor in 2016 as the Democratic nominee. But she announced in March that she would be running as an independent over objections to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee weighing in early on Luria’s behalf.

Though Taylor defeated Brown by 23 points to win a first term, the race this year is projected to be closer.

President Donald Trump carried the district by just 3 points over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Leans Republican.

 

No, see illegal voting and illegal signatures are totally cool for Republicans, especially if the voter or signature collector is white. Republicans do it so easily that they must accuse Democrats as well. It's kind of like a cheater constantly accusing their significant other of cheating.

[AmazonGrace]