Daily Archives: May 10, 2020

Its ridiculous, said one Democratic operative familiar with the dispute, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about the situation. There were dozens of candidates [with qualified employees] and the parties are being asked to prioritize the rich guys staff over everyone elses.

David Bergstein, the DNCs director of communications for battleground states, did not dispute that the DNC is pushing some state parties to hire ex-Bloomberg aides. But he said that every potential staffer goes through a competitive hiring process.

Bergstein added that the Bloomberg campaign ended with a very large pool of available and talented staff in many battlegrounds, and were making sure they, along with others who are interested, have opportunities to apply to our state organizing programs."

The state parties' resistance has in turn irked Bloombergs team. If people don't want the money, they can return it and it will be put to use in alternative efforts to defeat President Trump," a Bloomberg spokesperson told POLITICO. The Bloomberg campaign made the largest transfer in DNC history, $18 million, to help boost the DNC's coordinated efforts, including by enabling them to hire field organizers of ours who wanted to continue through November. It is certainly our hope that effort not only continues, but accelerates.

The rancor has highlighted Bloombergs growing influence in the Democratic Party as a donor and power broker after his failed presidential campaign, which now extends to hiring and contracting decisions. The rift over Bloomberg staffers is not an academic matter for Democrats: As Joe Biden ramps up his digital operation and shifts increasingly to online campaigning, the battleground organizers are some of the only on-the-ground infrastructure Democrats have in swing states right now.

Bloombergs digital operation has also been a point of contention since he left the race. The digital firm he started, Hawkfish, is seeking to take over large parts of Bidens digital operation for the general election, a possibility that has caused a clash inside the campaign.

Part of the disagreement over the staffers seems to stem from differing expectations of what Bloombergs money would be used for. The Bloomberg team argued that $18 million is enough to hire 500 additional organizers, but the DNC said it is using that money to hire people faster and ahead of schedule rather than increasing the expected size of its battleground organizing teams.

The DNC has also been committing money to other areas, such as recently reserving $22 million in YouTube ads for the fall.

One of the three senior state party aides said some of the Bloomberg staffers were underqualified and overpaid on his presidential campaign, and had outsized expectations. Entry-level organizing staffers on the Bloomberg campaign were paid at a rate of $72,000 a year, nearly double the salary of similar positions on other presidential campaigns.

Theyve been frickin spoiled, the person said. The two trends we noticed: They overshot what they were applying for and some felt as though they should have been compensated more than we were willing to go.

[The DNC] did make it clear it was a priority for them, the state party aide added. It was clearly a priority that they be able to show that they hired a lot more ex-Bloomberg [staffers] than they had to that date.

Other state party officials expressed gratitude to the DNC and Bloomberg for the large infusion of resources.

These early investments have helped us dramatically grow our organizing programs and ensure we have the folks we need to connect with voters early and across the Commonwealth, Lauren Reyes, Virginias Democratic Coordinated Campaign Director, said in a statement through a DNC spokesperson.

Even state party officials who were frustrated by the pressure to hire Bloomberg staffers, however, said they ultimately blamed Bloomberg for the problem. In order to ramp up his campaign quickly, Bloomberg enticed employees with a pledge that they would have jobs through November. After he lost the primary, Bloomberg abruptly fired most of the 2,400 members of the staff, leaving them unemployed and without health insurance amid an economy in freefall. The former New York City mayor, who is estimated to be one of the richest 10 people in the world, is facing two class-action lawsuits from former aides over the situation.

After a barrage of criticism, Bloomberg relented last week and offered to pay for health care coverage for his former campaign staff through COBRA until November, citing these extraordinary circumstances.

Original post:

Democrats fume over having to clean up Bloomberg's mess - POLITICO

It was a shocking margin of victory in what was expected to be a close race: an 11-point blowout by a liberal judge over a conservative incumbent for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Now Wisconsin Democrats are working to export their template for success intense digital outreach and a well-coordinated vote-by-mail operation to other states in the hope that it will improve the partys chances in local and statewide elections and in the quest to unseat President Trump in November.

Their top officials have gone on a virtual nationwide tour, extolling the virtues of their digital campaign efforts in hopes Democrats and liberal activists elsewhere can replicate their victory, when Jill Karofsky, a liberal judge, ousted State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly.

The first chance comes Tuesday in a special election for a Republican-heavy House district that covers the northern third of the state. It is the nations first partisan contest since Wisconsins April 7 election, and it will provide more evidence as to whether Democratic vote-by-mail success in that race is repeatable.

State party officials have spoken regularly with counterparts in other states, addressed a national virtual gathering of union activists and wrote a public memo with Stacey Abramss Fair Fight Action detailing lessons learned that can be applied elsewhere.

You do get to learn from these things, said Ramsey Reid, the battleground states director for the Democratic National Committee, who has facilitated calls between Wisconsin officials and their counterparts in other states. You get to train more volunteers, you get to build habits around voters and apply lessons learned to states that have challenges.

While officials are publicly bragging about tactics like video calls with voters who need hand-holding to navigate often-cumbersome absentee ballot request forms, theyve been more circumspect about efforts theyve employed in the event of a narrow defeat.

In Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania and other states with upcoming June primary elections, state parties, along with Ms. Abramss organization, are collecting hundreds of legal affidavits from Democratic voters who have trouble acquiring and casting a ballot. The documents are intended to be used for court battles ahead of the November general election and in Wisconsin that tactic would have been employed to challenge the results of the Supreme Court race had the conservative candidate prevailed.

Like in Wisconsin, Democrats in other battleground states with virtually no history of mail voting have for now shifted overnight to an all-mail get-out-the-vote effort. President Trump, on the other hand, has repeatedly attacked mail voting, and Republicans have said they would push ahead with plans to limit its expansion in Michigan, Minnesota and other key states.

In Georgia, more than 1.2 million people have requested absentee ballots for the states June 9 primary compared to just 36,200 requests for the 2016 presidential primary. Nearly as many Georgians have applied to vote by mail in the Democratic primary as cast ballots in the partys 2016 contest, when there were still competitive races for both parties nominations.

New Hampshire has no history of significant numbers of voting by mail. The state has no online portal to request an absentee ballot some municipal clerks accept requests via email while others do not. Democratic Party officials have been warned by their Wisconsin counterparts that, if hundreds of thousands of voters seek to vote by mail, local clerks will quickly become overwhelmed by the volume.

The New Hampshire Democratic Party has always run a voter protection hotline on Election Day and the few days before, but we are going to need to have that running for a much longer period of time, said Liz Wester, the director of the New Hampshire Democrats coordinated campaign, who has spoken extensively with officials in Wisconsin since April 7. It will be for months.

And Pennsylvania Democrats have found themselves struggling to convince wary voters that sending ballots through the mail is safe.

There is something about voting on Election Day, said Sincer Harris, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. Its something theyve known, theyre comfortable doing it, especially in the African-American community, you can count on it. Theres a little hesitancy when it comes to the mail system.

Last month in Wisconsin, a New York Times analysis found that Ms. Karofsky, the liberal candidate in the states nonpartisan Supreme Court race, performed about 10 percentage points better in mail voting than she did at the polls, suggesting Democratic voters were more likely than Republicans to request and return absentee ballots.

Republicans who control the state legislature have refused to allow all-mail elections, despite the pandemic. Health officials in Milwaukee said this week that 26 voters may have contracted the coronavirus while voting in April though the study said it was unclear precisely how they became infected.

The first test of whether Wisconsin Democrats April 7 methods can be repeated comes Tuesday, in the special House election that pits the Democrat Tricia Zunker, a school board president from Wausau who is an associate justice on the Ho-Chunk Nation Supreme Court, against Tom Tiffany, a two-term Republican state senator who has campaigned as a supporter of President Trump.

Officials say the contest is less about which candidate will hold the seat for eight months the two candidates are expected to face off again in November for a full two-year term than it is an exercise in training volunteers and voters in how to vote by mail. Each of the 110,000 voters who requested an absentee ballot for the Tuesday election had the chance to opt in to receive a mail ballot for the November general election. Its not known how many Wisconsin voters have already requested ballots for November, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Elections Commission said.

Our county only had four cases of Covid-19 and I think they are recovered by now, said Jim Kurz, the Democratic Party chairman in Rusk County. Most other counties in this district also had few cases, so I dont think fear of disease will keep voter turnout down.

Neither party considers the Wisconsin congressional election to be one Democrats have much chance of winning both Democratic and Republican internal polling shows Mr. Tiffany with a double-digit advantage but the margin between the two candidates could serve as an indicator of the state of the two parties enthusiasm.

In 2016, President Trump carried the district by 20 percentage points. But in last months Supreme Court race, the conservative candidate won the district by just 6 points while losing statewide by 11, according to an analysis by the University of Virginias Center for Politics.

Like the April 7 election, Tuesdays special election will take place with polling places open across the districts 700 municipalities in 26 counties. The Wisconsin National Guard will once again dispatch its members to help communities staff poll sites.

Mr. Tiffany, a two-term state senator who works as a dam tender on the Willow Flowage in northern Wisconsin, served as a poll worker during the April 7 election and said voters across the congressional district are less afraid of contracting and spreading the coronavirus than their counterparts in the states urban centers to the south.

People in the cities and suburban areas tend to vote more absentee, he said. With this being a more rural district, youll probably see fewer absentees than you did in the April 7 election.

Ms. Zunker had put thousands of miles on her car driving across the 26-county district before travel and public gatherings were restricted. Her campaign manager only moved to Wausau three days before Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin implemented the states Safer at Home ordinance that effectively ended all in-person campaigning.

She painted her race Tuesday as the first step toward former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. carrying Wisconsin in November.

When we put this seat back to blue, the state is blue again. The pathway to winning the presidential race starts on May 12, Ms. Zunker said in an interview last week.

Anything less than a double-digit victory for Mr. Tiffany will be seen as yet another indicator of Democratic momentum in what is certain to be among the most contested states on the presidential map.

The district is loaded with people who became tired of being looked down upon by urban people and so that has been exploitable by the Republican candidates in the past three elections or so, said David R. Obey, a Democrat who represented northern Wisconsin in Congress for 42 years before retiring after the 2010 election. Trump, he turns the dial a little bit, and I just dont know how much.

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Democrats Vote-By-Mail Effort Won in Wisconsin: Will It Work Elsewhere? - The New York Times

Addressing the inequalities in the United States exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic served as a major motivational force for Democrats running for Congress in central Virginia.

Political campaigns have had to adjust how they get the word out to voters while maintaining social distancing. So instead of a forum held at a high school or community center before a crowd of voters, the four Democrats participated in an online forum on Saturday.

The candidates all brought the issues they discussed, from health care to voting rights, back to the coronavirus pandemic as a reason to make bold improvements to policy at the federal level.

The four candidates are:

n Roger Dean Huffstetler, Marine veteran and Charlottesville entrepreneur who lost the Democratic nomination for the same seat two years ago

n John Lesinski, Marine veteran and former Rappahannock County supervisor who works in commercial real estate

n Claire Russo, Marine veteran and Albemarle County resident

n Cameron Webb, director of health policy and equity at University of Virginia

Voters will choose their nominee June 23. The Democrat will face Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Nelson, or Bob Good, who are competing in a heated convention that will take place in the next several weeks at a date still to be determined. While the district is favorable to Republicans, House Democrats are targeting the seat.

The 5th Congressional District is Virginias largest district, stretching from Fauquier County to the North Carolina border and including Franklin County and part of Bedford County.

Health care and economic inequality emerged as two of the most pressing issues during the forum, moderated by Del. Elizabeth Guzman, D-Prince William.

This coronavirus pandemic has told us one thing: 2020 will be the health care election, said Webb, who has made fixing the health care system the main focus of his campaign.

Webb, an internal medicine doctor, said making sure people can access affordable health care is more complicated than a three-word slogan. He worked on a White House health care team during the Obama administration to help implement the Affordable Care Act. He said the country can do better than having health insurance tied to employers, and there should be a public option.

Weve got to fix private insurance so were putting people over profits, Webb said.

Huffstetler and Russo both supported a proposal U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has reintroduced before called Medicare X, which would create a new public option for health insurance. Lesinksi also supported a public option.

This pandemic has clearly demonstrated to all of us that every American must have access to health care, Russo said.

The candidates said the pandemic has fueled a large growth in telemedicine. But Lesinski said people in rural areas dont have that same access because they lack broadband.

He said that as the country emerges from the coronavirus crisis and tries to rebuild its economy, rural America will fall behind unless it has the broadband needed to attract employers and to allow for people to work from home.

Its the rural electrification issue of our time, Lesinski said.

Huffstetler emphasized his familys working class roots and said his campaign is focused addressing economic inequality. He said the economy has been changing, and people dont always keep the same job for more than 30 years, and workers need to upgrade their skills. Hed like to work on developing a program so community colleges and industries partner together to maintain a skilled workforce.

My legislative priorities are making sure that when people work hard in this country, the country has their back, Huffstetler said.

Russo said the federal government did not prepare for the pandemic as it should have done. Citing her own background as a Marine officer training Marines and an intelligence officer learning lessons from past wars and applying them to the future, she said shes equipped to work on steering the country out of the crisis and preparing for future ones.

Its never been more clear that its going to take bold leadership to guide this country out of this crisis in a fair and just manner, Russo said.

Lesinski connected the poor planning for a viral outbreak to the lack of bold action on climate change. Climate change is a legislative priority for Lesinski, who said reducing the countrys carbon footprint and shifting to renewable energy will create new jobs.

Its a canary in the coal mine for fighting climate change, because if we dont get on this now, were going to lose a lot more lives, he said.

The candidates all agreed that the pandemic has highlighted the need to expand voting rights. Huffstetler said there should be automatic voter registration when people get their drivers license. He said working people cant always make it to the polls on Election Day, so he said being able to vote absentee without providing an excuse is essential.

There is no reason under the sun we should be making it harder to vote, Huffstetler said.

Lesinki said that even though states are making progress in expanding voting rights, more needs to be done at the federal level. He referenced the federal court decision this week to waive the witness requirement to cast absentee ballots in the June primaries in Virginia.

Republicans tried to retain the witness requirement, citing the risk of voter fraud. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud with voting by mail.

The strategy here clearly is voter suppression, voter suppression of those individuals the Republican Party feels is going to be a continued threat to them winning or gaining a majority, Lesinski said.

During the last election, Riggleman defeated Democrat Leslie Cockburn by about 20,000 votes. Webb raised the issue of 38,000 black residents who arent registered to vote in the district, and more than 30,000 registered black voters didnt vote in the last election.

I think when we field the full team as Democrats, when we expand the electorate, we win, Webb said.

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Fixing inequities worsened by pandemic main issue for 5th Congressional District Democratic candidates - Roanoke Times

Provided by Washington Examiner

House Democrats want the next round of coronavirus aid to include a massive bailout of the U.S. Postal Service, which has, for years, experienced declining revenue exacerbated further by the coronavirus epidemic.

But Republicans and President Trump want significant reforms implemented before providing new funding.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters shell include a $25 billion bailout of the postal service in a massive economic aid package that is likely to top $1 trillion.

"We have to fight for the Postal Service," Pelosi said this week. "And people across the country are all tweeting and writing to me and stuff like that, saying we really protect our post office."

The post office bailout proposal is similar to a plan House Democrats proposed earlier this year. It was ultimately excluded from the $2.2 trillion spending bill passed by Congress on March 27.

House Democratic leaders are eager to get federal aid for the post office in the next round of economic aid.

It is an essential service that we need to maintain, and I think there is a consensus in the House of Representative's Democratic Party leadership and the members that that is necessary and appropriate, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said. So, we want to see that included.

Republicans and Trump say the post office is in need of significant reforms needed to boost revenue and cut costs.

A Government Accountability Office report released this week reported the USPS suffered a net loss of $78 billion from 2007 to 2019.

USPSs current business model is not financially sustainable due to declining mail volumes, increased compensation and benefits costs, and increased unfunded liabilities and debt, the GAO reported. Absent congressional action on critical foundational elements of the USPS business model, USPSs mission and financial solvency are increasingly in peril.

The GAO called on Congress to consider new reforms to the Postal Service to improve operations and financial health. Congress last implemented post office reforms in 2006, but Republicans say new measures are needed.

Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in January asked Postmaster General Megan Brennan for a 10-year business plan to restore financial stability to the USPS. Brennan has yet to produce that plan.

The top Republican on Oversight who requested the plan, former Rep. Mark Meadows, is now Trumps chief of staff.

House Oversight Republicans issued a statement Friday, urging Brennan to finally provide the Committee with the USPS proposal for a sustainable, long-term business plan that was promised over a year ago.

Hoyer told reporters this week he talked to White House officials in March about providing money to the post office.

Brennan warned Friday it cannot keep operating without a bailout due to accelerated revenue loss caused by the pandemic. The USPS calculates it will lose $13 billion this year due to the coronavirus and $54.3 billion in additional losses over the next decade.

"Although the pandemic did not have significant impact on our financial condition in our second quarter, we anticipate that our business will suffer potentially dire consequences for the remainder of the year, and we are already feeling those impacts during the last half of March, Brennan said Friday. At a time when America needs the Postal Service more than ever, the pandemic is starting to have a significant effect on our business with mail volumes plummeting as a result of the pandemic.

In April, the Postal Service Board of Governors asked Congress to appropriate $25 billion to offset coronavirus-related losses, $25 billion to modernize the post office, and another $25 billion in unrestricted borrowing authority from the Treasury.

The White House has so far frowned on providing significant new revenue to the USPS without reforms.

Trump signaled last month he wants the Postal Service to find a way to increase revenue, suggesting they charge companies such as Amazon more money to deliver its packages.

Brennan is retiring next month. Trump has appointed Louis DeJoy, a North Carolina businessman and top Trump donor, to serve as the next postmaster general, beginning June 15.

The post office should raise the price of the packages to the companies, not to the people, Trump said on April 24. And if they did that, it would be a whole different story.

Trump added, If they dont raise the price, Im not signing anything.

More:

Democrats on collision course with Trump and Republicans over Postal Service bailout - msnNOW