Displaying posts categorized under

POLITICS

ELECTIONS ARE COMING…VERMONT EDITION

https://pjmedia.com/election/vt-dem-primary-features-a-bernie-sanders-staffer-a-greenie-a-transgender-and-a-14-year-old-boy/
Vt. Dem. Primary Features a Bernie Sanders Staffer, a Greenie, a Transgender, And a 14-Year-Old Boy byTyler O’Neil

On Tuesday, voters in Vermont will nominate candidates for the governor’s race in November. Democrats have quite a cast of characters to choose from: a Bernie Sanders staffer, an environmental activist, a transgender person, and a 14-year-old boy.

The first two may not be quite that far outside the norm. Brenda Siegel, an activist who champions relief for victims of the opioid epidemic and the Brattleboro hurricane, worked for Bernie Sanders before he was cool. Siegel interned for Sanders when he was in the U.S. House of Representatives (1991-2007).

A classic big government Democrat, Siegel supports a $15-per-hour minimum wage, universal health care, an emphasis on green energy, and “a deep look at our transportation system.”

James Ehlers may upstage Siegel on environmental issues, however. Executive Director of the local green (or should I say “blue?”) group Lake Champlain International, Ehlers also supports the far-left activism that categorizes the Democratic Party in the increasingly radical Green Mountain State. His website declares that “healthcare is a human right,” backs paid family leave, advocates for more funding to Planned Parenthood, champions a $15-per-hour minimum wage, demands water quality, supports unions, and pushes more government in general.

Ehlers enjoys the backing of the AFL-CIO and the Vermont Building and Construction Trades Council.

Green energy may not be sexy enough in this race, however. (Or should I say, “gender-y?”) Christine Hallquist, a biological man who identifies as a woman, has launched a powerful bid to become the first transgender governor in American history.

The former CEO at the Vermont Electric Cooperative, Hallquist became the first CEO to “transition” while in the job. “My path to being my authentic self was certainly not easy,” Hallquist said at a campaign kickoff. “However, it’s always been important to me to live openly and honestly. I chose to transition in a very public way because I felt I owed it to those at Vermont Electric Cooperative who put their trust in me.” CONTINUE AT SITE

Keith Ellison Gets His #MeToo Moment The DNC deputy chair’s alleged pattern of abusing women. Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271025/keith-ellison-gets-his-metoo-moment-daniel-greenfield

Until last week, Karen Monahan’s progressive credentials had been impeccable. But now the activist is one of two women who have accused one of the top figures on the left of physical and emotional abuse.

Born in Iran before the Islamic Revolution, she was adopted by American parents and not only identified as an Iranian-American, but also worked with the pro-regime National Iranian American Council (NIAC).

Keith Ellison was also a NIAC regular. He had spoken before the Iranian group and had received fundraising support from it. The first Muslim congressman from Minnesota, with a list of Islamist and leftist connections as long as his right arm, was a natural NIAC ally.

Monahan had also been an organizer with the Sierra Club and worked with the Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota (EJAM). Ellison was one of the founders of EJAM. Both Ellison and Monahan were leftists moving through the same claustrophobic maze of Minnesota leftist political organizations.

At some point after Ellison’s divorce from his wife, Kim Ellison, they began a relationship that lasted for years until it ended in 2016. Now, Karen Monahan is accusing Ellison of domestic abuse. Her tweets and statement allege that Ellison assaulted her, cheated on her and badly traumatized her.

The Kavanaugh Document Fight Grassley is following the precedents set by Democrats on Kagan.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-kavanaugh-document-fight-1534202892

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced Friday that confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will begin September 4, nearly two months after his nomination. That’s more than enough time for Senators to examine his voluminous public record, but Democrats are alleging a cover-up.

“We are seeing layer after layer of unprecedented secrecy in what is quickly becoming the least transparent nominations process in history,” declared Minority Leader Chuck Schumer last week.

We hear that communications are strained, if they exist at all, between the staffs of Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking committee Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who is holding her breath and stomping her feet in tune with Mr. Schumer. The California Democrat is running for re-election against a left-leaning Democrat who claims she’s not doing enough to resist all things Trump. She isn’t about to be outflanked on the left regarding Judge Kavanaugh.

In any event, Democrats are the ones demanding the unprecedented. Their latest complaint is that documents from Mr. Kavanaugh’s years in the White House counsel’s office are being vetted for release by William Burck, a former colleague in the George W. Bush White House. “Unless it was produced by the National Archives, every document you see from Judge Kavanaugh’s White House tenure was selectively chosen for release by his former deputy, Bill Burck. This is not an objective process,” said Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin.

Pelosi attacks NBC By Thomas Lifson

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/08/pelosi_attacks_nbc.html

President Trump isn’t he only party leader who believes that some institutions of the mainstream media are out to get him. And like him, she may be right. Nancy Pelosi went on MSNBC yesterday to complain about NBC News having a “jag” against her. Speaking to the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart as he filled in for Joy Reid, and asked her is she’d be willing to step aside as leader of the House Democrats, she said, “”First of all, I know NBC has been on a jag, this is one of their priorities to undermine my prospects as speaker.” (full video embedded below)

Andrew Kugle of the Free Beacon describes the conversation:

Capehart asked Pelosi about the growing number of Democrats who are running for Congress who’ve publicly stated they wouldn’t support Pelosi becoming speaker. NBC News reported that over 50 Democratic candidates are opposing Pelosi, including nine incumbents.

While reporting on Democrats opposing Pelosi doesn’t require bias, because it is a major story, I think that she is actually correct, but in a way that she would never admit. NBC would like to step aside because they see that she is harmful to Democrat candidates and incumbents in many House districts. They may well believe that if she were to step aside as a candidate for Dem leader, and potentially speaker, it would deprive the GOP of an effective argument for their House candidates. Consider this graphic posted during the interiew:

ProPublica: The fate of the republic rests on Kavanaugh’s Nats +1, or something Ed Morrissey

https://hotair.com/archives/2018/08/13/propublica-fate-republic-

Consider this the most boring version of “Where’s Waldo” ever. The investigative journalists at ProPublica, a left-leaning organization that has done substantial work in the past, has launched a new effort to get to the bottom of Brett Kavanaugh’s judicial temperament. And by “judicial temperament,” they mean Kavanaugh’s judgment in sharing his season tickets to the Washington Nationals.

We think it’s important to figure out as much as we can about a nominee’s background before he is confirmed. So we’re turning to you.

Figuring out who Kavanaugh brought to games could be relevant to his confirmation. It would help:

Understand more about his relationships and any potential questions they might raise for the Supreme Court justice.
Get a better sense of what went into this unusual amount of debt for a judge in his position.
Or maybe just affirm that the guy really does love baseball for the judicial inspiration.

We’re not sure what we’ll find. But we do know that people take a lot of pictures at baseball games. Did you see Judge Kavanaugh at a game? Did you attend a game with him? Do you have any photos, and if so, will you send them our way?

“We’re not sure what we’ll find” appears to be journalistic code for we’re on a fishing expedition. The report mentions in the lead that Kavanaugh “accrued as much as $200,000 in debt” to buy season tickets, which is accurate as far as it goes. He fronted the costs for several season tickets shared between friends and got reimbursed, and it’s highly unlikely that it amounted to anything close to $200,000. The debt was reported in a range between $60K and $200K, and the most expensive season tickets run about $6,000 each. ProPublica wonders “how … this was treated for tax purposes,” which is a strange question for reimbursements of shared costs. There are as many tax implications for that as there would be for anyone — none whatsoever.

Conservative Combat Vet Seeks GOP Senate Nomination In Wisconsin There’s a lot on the line right now. For goodness’ sake, Wisconsin, send in the Marine.By Amy Sikma

http://thefederalist.com/2018/08/13/conservative-combat-vet-seeks-gop-senate-nomination-in-wisconsin/

MADISON, Wis. — The outcome of a hotly-contested “insider versus outsider” Republican primary in Wisconsin could potentially decide which party holds the Senate after November.

The outsider is Kevin Nicholson — a young, decorated veteran-turned-businessman who walked away from the Democratic Party during his service in the U.S. Marine Corps. The insider is state lawmaker Leah Vukmir — a nurse-turned politician with almost sixteen years in the Wisconsin legislature. The winner of Tuesday’s primary will face incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin in what Democrats are treating as a vulnerable seat this year. Baldwin has a large war chest, but her attempt to moderate away from her hyper-liberal, Madison-centric former congressional district has been marred by several controversies that offer the eventual GOP opponent plenty of ammunition.

Republicans tried to seize this seat in 2012 when then-Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl retired. As it turned out, a bad year for Republicans nationally compounded by an aging GOP nominee who had spent his entire adult life in elected or appointed office gave Baldwin the opening she needed.

Nicholson knows this history, and so his biography as a problem-solving businessman and veteran who is running for office for the first time represents a different formulate for winning the seat. Politico — hardly a friend of conservatives — touted him as a Republican “dream candidate” with one small caveat: he used to be a Democrat.

His Democratic past isn’t something Nicholson r

Wisconsin Race Shows the Weakness of Old-Style GOP Politics By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/12/wisconsin-race-show

Kevin Nicholson is the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate who neither the Wisconsin GOP chieftains nor the Democratic incumbent wants to win. But the political novice—a decorated Marine combat veteran—embraces his role as the establishment party-crasher trying to unseat Senator Tammy Baldwin and give Republicans a surprise pickup in the Badger State.

“We are in an extremely good position to win,” Nicholson told me from the campaign trail on Saturday. “I would not want to trade places with either one of my opponents in the primary or the general election right now. They are the establishment. But voters know that only someone from outside the political class can bring change.”

On Tuesday, Nicholson faces State Senator Leah Vukmir in the state’s primary election. Vukmir has endorsements from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the Wisconsin Republican Party, and several Republican lawmakers. But recent polls show a tight race.

Nicholson, 40, spent the weekend traveling across the state—from Green Bay to Milwaukee to Sheboygan—trying to convince Republican voters to choose him on Tuesday.

“I feel good about our support and turnout in the northern part of the state and the rural areas,” he said. That is the same region that went heavily for Donald Trump in 2016, making Trump the first Republican since 1984 to win that state and snatch away critical electoral votes from Hillary Clinton.

Nicholson’s message is centered on policies and not on his opponent. The businessman and father of three young children has an impassioned, rapid-fire way of explaining why he decided to run for office for the first time (he apologized to me for talking too fast) and why the policies he now advocates policies are “best for everyone.”

Nancy Pelosi Is Damaging Democrats’ Takeover Chances

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/08/nancy-pelosi-damaging-democrats-midterm-election-chances/

Will her party reach out to swing voters by persuading her to step aside?

Will Democrats pull an “October Surprise” this year and announce that the highly polarizing Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco won’t be their candidate for House speaker after all? Growing up in the Bay Area, I saw Pelosi’s iron will and stubbornness up close for decades. The possibility of her stepping back seems remote. But she’s also the shrewd tactician who always tells moderate Democrats they can publicly spurn her because the imperative is “Just win, baby.” If the race for House control is close in October, many Democrats hope she’ll step back to deprive the GOP of a campaign issue.

Some Democrats are willing to publicly acknowledge that the highly liberal Pelosi alienates independents and moderates. “People pretend that it isn’t a problem, but it’s a problem that exists,” Representative Brian Higgins (D., N.Y.) told the Washington Post last week. He said frustrated colleagues told him that Republicans’ anti-Pelosi ads cost Democrats the House special election in Ohio, where they trailed by only 1,500 votes. One third of the national ads run by Republicans in that race mentioned Pelosi, and she became a real issue when Democrat Danny O’Connor, after first saying that Democrats need “new leadership,” finally admitted he would vote for her as speaker over a Republican if Democrats put her forward: “I would support whoever the Democratic party put forward.” This comment dominated local coverage of the House race for the week leading up to the special election.

Higgins says that challengers in other competitive districts are getting the same treatment when it comes to Pelosi: “They are stuck with that question, and they do not deal with it well. You equivocate, and it jams you up, and it costs you votes.”

ELECTIONS ARE COMING: RUNNING IN NEW YORK

CHELY FARLEY FOR SENATE AGAINST GILLIBRAND

Running, Conservative, Reform, Republican for U.S. Senate – Jr

https://www.chelefarleyforsenate.com/

NAOMI LEVIN FOR CONGRESS (r=R) DISTRICT 10
https://naomiforcongress.com/
Daughter of refugees turned activist turned candidate for Congress in NY CD10. There is so much momentum today behind new and radical changes in policy.

Another Ocasio-Cortez-Backed Primary Candidate Goes Down in Flames By Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/trending/another-ocasio-cortez-backed-primary-candidate-goes-down-in-flames/

Another candidate backed by democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has gone down to defeat in humiliating fashion. In the Hawaii First District Democratic primary, former congressman Ed Case easily bested Lt. Governor Doug Chin and Donna Kim with 40% of the vote to win the right to run against a sacrificial Republican in November.

The Ocasio-Cortez-backed candidate, democratic socialist Kaniela Ing, received only 6% of the vote despite OC campaigning for him personally this past week.

The Hill:

Case faced his toughest challenges from Hawaii Lt. Gov. Doug Chin and former state Senate President Donna Mercado Kim.

Chin, who was appointed to lieutenant governor in February, gained national recognition as attorney general for suing the Trump administration over every version of the travel ban. Trump announced his initial ban a week after taking office in late January 2017 and Hawaii sued shortly after that.

Mercado Kim, who’s been a state senator for 18 years, led the pack as the top fundraiser. She’s also held a number of local elected positions, including serving on the Honolulu City Council for 14 years.

Case also defeated state Rep. Kaniela Ing, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who ran on a platform of single-payer health care and free college tuition.

Ing had gotten a boost from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist who pulled off a massive primary upset against a longtime incumbent in New York. She campaigned with Ing in the days ahead of Saturday’s primary.

Even Hawaii, one of the bluest states in the union, decisively rejected the socialist messaging of Ocasio-Cortez. It’s no different than the results from last Tuesday’s primaries where Democratic voters opted for less radical alternatives to “the future of the Democratic party.”