The Midterm Elections

[Flossie]

Oh Tony, you'd do that for us?  Feel free to use a dull knife.

[Howl]

11:19am CST: Still no final word.  Some absentee ballots to be counted as well as ballots from overseas....If Lamb is declared winner, I wonder if Saccone will do a Roy Moore and refuse to concede....because, you know those Lamb people, they just HATE GOD, you can see it in their faces.  And obviously, voter fraud. 

I'm guessing some pissed off Republican will definitely call for a recount.  

[onekidanddone]

Please Rufus you are all powerful over all things. Please 

[AmazonGrace]

Thread: 

 

A GOP person running as Green

[Audrey2]

5 hours ago, fraurosena said:

This tweet made me lol...

... because MSNBC is saying Connor Lamb is the apparent winner in Pennsylvania. 

 

Tony, we'd like to see proof of you and your balls separated.

[onekidanddone]

3 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Tony, we'd like to see proof of you and your balls separated.

Just like Hannity promised to have himself waterboarded, Ted Fuckgent said he would be dead, and Rush said he would leave the country if Obama won. 

[JMarie]

5 hours ago, fraurosena said:

This tweet made me lol...

... because MSNBC is saying Connor Lamb is the apparent winner in Pennsylvania. 

 

Oh, Tony Tony Tony.  I'm in Pennsylvania, the southeast corner where I bleed Eagles green, I say wooder, not WHAT-er, when I'm thirsty, and I'm jonesing for a Zitner's butter krak egg.   My home is NOT Trumpland, and I did not vote for Trump.  Speak for yourself.

[Howl]

2 hours ago, JMarie said:

Zitner's butter krak egg

OMG, what have I been missing? 

Anyway, from the NYT: 

Quote

The victory still may be contested, but Mr. Lamb’s 627-vote lead Wednesday afternoon appeared insurmountable, given that the four counties in Pennsylvania’s 18th district have about 500 provisional, military and other absentee ballots left to count, county election officials said.

Woot! 

[JMarie]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

OMG, what have I been missing? 

Be prepared to swoon....

http://www.nj.com/food/index.ssf/2016/03/zitner_philly_candy.html

[GreyhoundFan]

The NYT is calling Lamb as the winner.

Quote

...

The Republican candidate, Rick Saccone, may still contest the outcome, but Mr. Lamb’s 627-vote lead Wednesday afternoon appeared insurmountable, given that the four counties in Pennsylvania’s 18th district have about 500 provisional, military and other absentee ballots left to count, election officials said.

That slim margin — out of almost 230,000 ballots cast in a district that Mr. Trump carried by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016 — nonetheless upended the political landscape ahead of November’s midterm elections. It also emboldened Democrats to run maverick campaigns even in deep-red areas where Republicans remain bedeviled by Mr. Trump’s unpopularity.

Republican officials in Washington said they were likely to demand a recount through litigation, and the National Republican Congressional Committee put out a call for voters to report any irregularities in the balloting. Matt Gorman, a spokesman for the committee, said the party was “not conceding anything.”

...

 

[fraurosena]

This kind of candidate, this kind of change is what America needs!

I love how these 'Brand New Congress' candidates run on grassroots campaigns without taking PAC money. 

[AmazonGrace]

I would vote for him.

Beto O'Rourke, not Bill Maher.

[GreyhoundFan]

Good riddance to bad rubbish: "Republican who called Parkland teen a ‘skinhead lesbian’ drops out of Maine House race"

Spoiler

In the past month, the vocal teenage survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, with their ballooning social-media followings and national TV appearances, have emerged as the newest and youngest voices in the push to beef up gun-control laws in the United States.

And critics who have bad-mouthed the teens on the Internet or the airwaves have found their own vitriol turned back on them by people sympathetic to the plight of students who became activists after seeing their classmates and educators slaughtered.

There was the aide to a Florida legislator who was fired after he called the school shooting survivors crisis actors who travel from tragic place to tragic place making impassioned but bogus political pleas to take away gun rights. Then there was Donald Trump Jr., who was blasted after he liked a tweet saying one of the most vocal students had been coached by his FBI agent father to peddle “anti-Trump rhetoric and anti-gun legislation.”

And several naysayers have been castigated for criticizing the teens for smiling on the set of CBS’s morning news show, saying the students were “posing for the photos like they are partying rock stars.”

 

And then there is Leslie Gibson.

A week ago, the Republican was the only declared candidate to represent the 57th District in Maine’s House of Representatives. On Friday, his fortunes vastly changed as he quit the race to represent the towns of Greene and Sabattus, according to the Associated Press.

Gibson had become known outside his little corner of Maine for what many say was his rage-tweet against the vocal survivors of the shooting that killed 17 in Parkland, Fla.

“There is nothing about this skinhead lesbian that impresses me and there is nothing that she has to say unless you’re a frothing at the mouth moonbat,” the now-deleted tweet read.

The 17-year-old girl he was referring to is Emma González, who has emerged as one of the most outspoken activists in the Parkland group.

She has, for example, called President Trump’s plan to arm teachers as a first line of defense school shooters “stupid.”

“First of all, Douglas ran out of paper for, like, two weeks in the school year, and now all a sudden they have $400 million to pay for teachers to get trained to arm themselves?” she says. “Really? Really?”

Sometimes, she has led people in “Shame on you!” chants directed at lawmakers.

Gibson’s tweet last week was a response to a report on González’s rocketing number of Twitter followers, the AP reported. But she wasn’t the only Parkland survivor he targeted.

He also criticized David Hogg, another Parkland student who has become a prominent activist following the shooting, calling Hogg “a bald faced liar.”

The reaction was swift. Hogg, who also saw a precipitous increase in his Twitter following, asked whether somebody, anybody, would run against Gibson.

The next day, Eryn Gilchrist, a 28-year-old Democrat who also hails from Maine’s 57th District, announced that she would also run for the seat, according to CBS News, because she was “horrified and embarrassed” that Gibson would represent her in the legislature.

And Thomas Martin Jr., a Republican, said he “couldn’t sit back” after reading Gibson’s comments and felt compelled to enter the race, according to the Portland Press Herald.

Gibson said he made the decision to quit after meeting with friends, family members and colleagues. Those consultations included what he calls a “very positive conversation” with Martin, the newspaper reported. Dropping out, he said is “the best decision for myself, my family, the Maine GOP and for candidate Tom Martin.”

Just as they have criticized politicians for what they say is inaction on gun control, the students have also gone head-to-head against their critics.

“I just think it’s a testament to the sick immaturity and broken state of our government when these people feel the need to peddle conspiracy theories about people that were in a school shooting where 17 people died, and it just makes me sick,” Hogg told BuzzFeed News. “It’s immature, rude and inhuman for these people to destroy the people trying to prevent the death of the future of America because they won’t,” he said.

Late Friday, he took to Twitter again. This time he was sharing news that Gibson was out of the race.

[GreyhoundFan]

Cue a hissy fit from Dumpy: "Supreme Court refuses to stop new congressional maps in Pennsylvania"

Spoiler

The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request from Republican legislative leaders in Pennsylvania to block the implementation of a redrawn congressional map that creates more parity between the political parties in the state.

The practical impact is the 2018 elections are likely to be held under a map much more favorable to Democrats, who scored an apparent victory last week in a special election in a strongly Republican state district. The 2011 map that has been used this decade has resulted in Republicans consistently winning 13 of the state’s 18 congressional seats.

Monday’s action was the second time that the court declined to get involved in the partisan battle that has roiled Pennsylvania politics. The commonwealth’s highest court earlier this year ruled that a map drawn by Republican leaders in 2011 “clearly, plainly and palpably” violated the free-and-equal-elections clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court deliberated nearly two weeks before turning down the request to stop the map from being used in this fall’s elections. Generally the justices stay out of the way when a state’s highest court is interpreting its own state constitution.

The action came shortly after a three-judge federal panel also turned down a separate attempt by Republican legislators and members of Congress to stop implementation of the map.

The Supreme Court’s order gave no reasoning for the decision, only that it was considered by all nine justices. There were no noted dissents.

Under a new map drawn by a nonpartisan expert and adopted by Democratic justices of Pennsylvania’s elected Supreme Court, analysts say Republicans start with an edge in 10 of the 18 districts. Pennsylvania, traditionally a purple state, has a legislature controlled by Republicans, a Democratic governor and a U.S. senator from each party.

Candidates face a Tuesday deadline to qualify to run for the redrawn seats.

Political analysts say the changes in Pennsylvania might aid national Democrats in their attempt to flip the House from Republican control. Democrats need to take about two dozen seats to win the majority, and Pennsylvania could provide some of that total. Six incumbents, five of them Republicans, have said they will not be on the fall ballot.

Pennsylvania’s top Republicans have fought the imposition of a new plan since the state Supreme Court ruled. They have received encouragement from President Trump, who tweeted they should challenge the new map “all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.”

“Your Original was correct!” Trump tweeted. “Don’t let the Dems take elections away from you so that they can raise taxes & waste money!”

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. turned down the state’s first request Feb. 5, after the state Supreme Court ordered a new map.

After the map was adopted, the legislative leaders were back, renewing their plea that the Pennsylvania justices were taking away the power that rightfully belongs to the state legislature to draw congressional lines.

“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court conspicuously seized the redistricting process and prevented any meaningful ability for the legislature to enact a remedial map to ensure a court-drawn map,” said state House Speaker Michael C. Turzai (R) and Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph B. Scarnati III.

But those who challenged the 2011 map as an improper partisan gerrymander said the state was making arguments the U.S. Supreme Court already has rejected.

“Their latest stay application is just another ploy to preserve congressional districts that violate Pennsylvania’s Constitution for one more election cycle,” said a brief for the League of Women Voters, adding, “It would be unprecedented for this Court to interfere with the state court’s determination about its own state’s law.”

The challengers pointed out that qualifying has already begun under the new map and that “at least 150 candidates in all 18 new districts have begun collecting voter signatures on nomination petitions” for May 15 primaries.

Pennsylvania election officials have said changing the process again would require postponing the primaries and could cost the commonwealth $20 million.

The victory in Pennsylvania for opponents of partisan gerrymandering suggests a new mode of attack, by challenging redistricting in state courts under state constitutions.

The U.S. Supreme Court has never thrown out a state’s redistricting plan because it has found it so infected with partisan bias that it violates voters’ constitutional rights.

But the court has on its current docket two cases — one from Wisconsin and one from Maryland — that raise the question.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

 

 

I honestly don't understand how somebody can just up and say, I'm running as a Republican candidate (or Democrat for that matter) without being a member of said party, or without the approval of said party. How is this even possible? Why can't the Republicans say, nope, no way, you are not running as a Republican, we don't want you, end of story? Or can they, but won't they?

[GreyhoundFan]

"Republican Rick Saccone concedes defeat to Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania special election"

Spoiler

Republican candidate Rick Saccone conceded defeat in the tight race for Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, clearing the way for Democrat Conor Lamb to be sworn in next month.

“Just got off the phone with my opponent,” Lamb announced on Twitter, “who congratulated me & graciously conceded last Tuesday’s election. I congratulate Mr. Saccone for a close, hard-fought race & wish him the best.”

Saccone and Republicans had suggested they might seek a recount in the tight race. But the official vote count, which began on Friday, found Lamb adding to his lead, ending Wednesday more than 800 votes ahead of Saccone.

Lamb will represent the Pittsburgh-area district through the end of the year. Both he and Saccone are now candidates in new districts drawn by the state Supreme Court after it overruled a Republican-drawn map.

Lamb’s victory, in a district that Saccone often referred to as “Trump country,” had embarrassed and worried Republicans. The president made two trips to the district, including a rally the weekend before the election. At a Tuesday fundraiser for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the president said that he had helped Saccone close the gap.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took a different view, with chairman Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) saying in a statement that Democrats would work to re-create Lamb’s upset across the country.

“There are more than one hundred districts more favorable for Democrats than this one and we look forward to competing hard in every single one,” said Lujan.

 

[JMarie]

9 hours ago, fraurosena said:

I honestly don't understand how somebody can just up and say, I'm running as a Republican candidate (or Democrat for that matter) without being a member of said party, or without the approval of said party. How is this even possible? Why can't the Republicans say, nope, no way, you are not running as a Republican, we don't want you, end of story? Or can they, but won't they?

I guess it really doesn't matter, since he has zero chance of winning in November.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/us/politics/arthur-jones-illinois.html

Quote

A spokesman for the Illinois Republican Party said those dollars would be used to support an independent candidate in the November general election. Party leaders are in talks with several potential candidates, the spokesman said, but have not yet decided which one to endorse.

The Third Congressional District of Illinois has not been represented by a Republican since 1975, and few people, besides Mr. Jones, believe he has a chance of winning the general election in November. Daniel Lipinski, a Democrat, has represented the district in Congress since 2005, and before that it was represented by his father, Bill Lipinski, since 1993.

The main political battle in the district this year has been a Democratic primary between Representative Lipinski and a progressive challenger, Marie Newman, 53. Both have denounced Mr. Jones.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

Defy voter suppression. VOTE.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[JMarie]

No words needed

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/woman-sneaks-anti-ted-cruz-message-during-photo-op-with-ted-cruz_us_5ab7ea95e4b008c9e5f88c7a?ncid= edlinkusaolp00000029