Daily Archives: February 24, 2017

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats join activists at a gun control rally at the Capitol last year. A new liberal group, Swing Left, is working to help House Democrats pick up seats in the 2018 midterm elections. Photo by REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Ethan Todras-Whitehall was disappointed when Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. After his victory, sitting on your hands and just reading the news was intolerable, said Todras-Whitehall, a 36-year-old freelance writer and GMAT tutor from Amherst, Massachusetts. It still is.

So in the weeks after the election, Todras-Whitehall called two friends, Joshua Krafchin and Miriam Stone, and proposed a plan of action: creating a grassroots organization aimed at helping Democrats win back control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections.

The result is Swing Left, part of a loosely-connected network of liberal groups, like Indivisible, that pundits across the political spectrum are calling the lefts answer to the conservative Tea Party movement that emerged after President Barack Obamas victory in 2008.

Democrats havent been as focused on the House because weve held the presidency, Todras-Whitehall said. But now that Republicans control the White House along with both chambers of Congress, he said, regaining control of the House went from the last thing [liberal activists] think about to being a top priority.

To that end, Swing Left was specifically designed to target competitive House races, while leaving safe Democratic seats alone. Volunteers sign up by entering their ZIP code. From there, Swing Left points them to the closest swing district, in the hopes of boosting engagement in areas where Democrats have the most potential to pick up seats.

The model is based on the idea that its easier for people to volunteer close to home, where they feel they can make a difference on a regular basis, Todras-Whitehall said.

The group is targeting 52 House districts where the winners margin of victory in 2016 was 15 points or less. If the party wins 80 percent of those races, Democrats can regain a majority in the House, the group says.

Republicans currently hold 238 seats in the House, the GOPs largest majority in eight decades. Democrats control 198 seats; there are four vacancies.

Given those numbers, flipping control in the House is a tall order for groups like Swing Left, whose founders dont have much political organizing experience. Krafchin and Stone have never worked on a campaign; Todras-Whitehill did some phone banking for John Kerrys presidential campaign in 2004 and ran a small get-out-the-vote campaign in Ohio in 2008.

Most political experts agree the Democrats chances of regaining control of the House and Senate next year are slim.

No one thinks they can take back the House or the Senate in 2018, Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser, a former Tea Party organizer, said.

Congressional Republicans have taken note of the energy on the left since Trumps election, said Matt Gorman, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOPs campaign arm.

But House Republicans plan to stick to their agenda in the face of the top-down effort from liberal activists to oppose Trumps presidency and make gains in Congress, Gorman said.

Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event last August in Ashburn, Virginia, a town in GOP Rep. Barbara Comstocks district. Swing Left is targeting swing districts like Comstocks in the 2018 midterms. Photo by REUTERS/Eric Thayer

Despite Swing Lefts long odds, the group is gaining traction. Roughly 300,000 volunteers have signed up with the group, Todras-Whitehall said.

Linda Keuntje said when she saw an advertisement for Swing Left on her Facebook newsfeed after the election, she immediately signed up to volunteer in Virginias 10th congressional district, a swing seat now held by Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock.

My coping strategy is to act, said Keuntje, a Democrat who lives in Arlington, Virginia. I feel like Im doing something to improve the situation.

Experienced organizers including some former Clinton campaign staffers have also signed up with Swing Left, Todras-Whitehall said.

Swing Left is helping volunteers plan house meetings next week so activists can meet in person and start organizing. After that, Todras-Whitehall said he hopes volunteers will begin canvassing, knocking on doors and registering voters in swing communities.

I want people to know their local swing district better than they know their own [district], he said.

In addition to targeting swing districts, Swing Left also plans to play defense in Democratic seats where voters shifted right and voted for Trump, like Rep. Matt Cartwrights district in eastern Pennsylvania. Obama carried the district in 2008 and 2012. But in 2016, Trump won the district and Cartwright was narrowly re-elected by a 7.6 percent margin.

Voters in his district are desperate for economic change and backed Trump because he effectively painted himself as the economic candidate, Cartwright said in a phone interview.

Nevertheless, I dont intend to change my messaging one iota, Cartwright said. Those are core values for me, and theyre not going to change cause the wind changed directions.

Political observers said it was too early to tell if liberal groups had the kind of organizing Democrats need to defend districts like Cartwrights and make further gains in the House.

Its really easy to join a march, sign a petition, said Emily Ekins, a research fellow at the right-leaning Cato Institute. Its quite another [thing] to do the hard tedious work of local and political activism.

But Steinhauser, the Republican strategist, said he saw some similarities between the Tea Party movement and the grassroots activism growing on the left today.

When [voters think they] see a disaster coming, you fight like hell to say no, Steinhauser said.

Originally posted here:

How one liberal group is trying to help Democrats win back the House in 2018 - PBS NewsHour

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017. Susan Walsh / AP

The comments were red meat to conservatives but varied only slightly from Pence's usual stump speech.

Pence echoed campaign trail promises from then-candidate Donald Trump that the replacement to Obamacare would allow Americans to buy healthcare over state lines. Congressional Republicans released a broad outline of a

The vice president also pushed for a states' rights approach to health care that allows local governments "to take care of the least fortunate in the best way that will work in their state and their community."

Related:

The vice president also spoke passionately about Israel, promising that "under President Trump, America will stand with Israel." He did not elaborate on the Trump administration's vision for an end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Pence mixed comedy with conservative bluster in his remarks and used part of the speech to whet the audience's appetite for Trump's speech at the conference Friday morning.

Contrasting himself with the president, Pence quipped that Trump was "known for his bigger than life personality, charm, and charisma. And I'm, like, not."

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Pence to CPAC: Obamacare Will Fall Despite 'Liberal Activists' - NBCNews.com

The fascination of liberal-leaning outlets with a fringe character like Richard Spencer is a cowardly attack on Trump voters. Liberal journalists focus on Spencer not because they want to understand why people voted for Trumpbut to marginalize and stigmatize people who did vote for himby associating themwith a white nationalist they had never heard of.

Lets lookat thekey swingstate of Pennsylvania. In 2008, Obama won Elk County with 51 percent of the vote. In 2012, Romney won Elk County with 57 percent of the vote (though with lower turnout.) In 2016, Trump won Elks Country with 70 percent of the vote and with a larger turnout than 2in 012.

From the numbers, it looks like quite a few 2008 Obama voters stayed home in 2012and that a large number of one-time and two-time Obama voters switched to Trump in 2016. How to explain the behavior of these former Obama supporters? The obvious answer is to ask some fool who goes around giving heil-Trump salutes. Who better, right?

Imagine you were trying to understand the appeal of Bernie Sanders to the young. You could interview an African-American 19-year-old who voted for Bernie while her parents voted for Clinton, or you could interview some freak from the fringe Workers World Party who is ranting about North Koreas resistance to global capital. Which interview would be more representative of Bernies appeal?

If the liberal media treated Sanders voters the way they treat Trump voters, we would be seeing profiles of Leninists as the coming thing in Democratic-party politics. Its all socialism, right?

The attempt by liberal journalists to elevate Spencer (with his cooperation, of course) is a smarmy and passive-aggressive attempt to slur Trump voters under the guise of trying to understand them.

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Richard Spencer, Liberal Journalists, and Bad-Faith Explanations - National Review

I get a kick out of the Republican members of Congress who claim the angry constituents at their town hall meetings are paid agitators. I remember how Democrats tried to dismiss noisy tea party protesters the same way in 2009.

Not surprisingly, President Donald Trump doesn't see it that way.

"The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans," Trump tweeted Tuesday, "are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad!"

Gee, imagine that: Angry liberals are strategically encouraging people to come out and let their lawmakers know what's on their minds. Liberals are calling it grass roots politics while some conservatives are calling it "AstroTurf politics."

But that's what a lot of liberals called it when the conservative tea party movement erupted in 2009. Now many of those tea party critics are trying to employ the same tactic.

Angry constituents have made headlines across the nation, upset over everything from the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and evidence of Russian interference in the U.S. elections and the Trump White House's travel ban, just for starters.

As for "liberal activists"? Republican have known since December that a growing number of liberal organizations and activists have been sharing strategies for ways to encourage voters to light up town halls with tough questions for members of Congress.

More than a thousand local groups have popped up across the country, organizing around an online how-to manual called "Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda."

Drafted by former Democratic congressional staffers who say they came up with the idea at an Austin, Texas, bar a couple of days after Thanksgiving, the manual has gone viral on the web, helped along by some prominent liberal groups such as Organizing for Action, in promoting the Indivisible Guide.

Following the tea party model makes more sense than the Occupy Wall Street movement, which captured public attention for a few months, then faded without much follow-up. By contrast, the tea party grew potent enough to help take away the Democrats' House majority in 2010, its second year. President Barack Obama's momentum was never the same.

Does Indivisible have a chance to do the same to Trump? That depends mainly on how well local organizers can keep their enthusiasm and momentum going.

The first big test for this new Indivisible movement may not come until next year's midterms, just as it did for Republicans in 2010.

That's a good test because Democratic Party turnout tends to drop in midterm elections. The most recent and notable exception was 2006. Dissatisfaction over President George W. Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War and a series of scandals involving Republican politicians, among other woes for the Grand Old Party, resulted in a Democratic sweep. The donkey party captured both houses of Congress and a majority of governorships and state legislatures.

Could they do it again? The election map doesn't look nearly as good for Democrats this time, but that, too, makes 2018 important. State lawmakers will be elected that year who will draw the electoral maps for 2020.

And Democrats have another unusual asset: President Trump. Defying traditions, as he loves to do, he has continued to focus on whipping up his conservative base without making the traditional pivot that others have made toward the political center.

The result has been approval ratings in almost all of the major polls that are historically low for a new president. A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, for example, found only 38 percent of voters think he is doing a good job while 55 percent said he is doing a bad job.

Worse for the GOP, a Pew Research Center poll released the day before showed rank-and-file Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are still so psyched up for Trump that 52 percent of them say they are likely to side with Trump in a dispute with party leaders.

If Trump fails to keep his promises, even his core support could erode.

But, of course, Trump only gives Democrats someone to vote against. Let's see whom they offer us to vote for.

Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at http://www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage.

cpage@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @cptime

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Original post:

Are town hall crowds stirring up a liberal tea party? - Chicago Tribune

New York Times

Alan Colmes, Sean Hannity's Liberal Partner on Fox News, Dies at 66 New York Times Alan Colmes, who for 12 years was a mild-mannered and moderately liberal sparring partner to the conservative firebrand Sean Hannity in Fox News Channel's most conspicuous effort to fulfill its fair and balanced credo, died on Thursday in Manhattan. Alan Colmes, Sean Hannity's Liberal Foil on Fox News, Dies at 66NBCNews.com Remembering Alan Colmes, a liberal who could laughFox News Alan Colmes, co-host of 'Hannity & Colmes' and liberal in 'lion's den' of Fox News, dies at 66Washington Post Daily Beast -Chicago Tribune -Slate Magazine (blog) -Fox News Insider all 149 news articles »

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Alan Colmes, Sean Hannity's Liberal Partner on Fox News, Dies at 66 - New York Times

Liberals are getting rowdy at GOP town halls. Its become so intense that it appears that some of them are avoiding these events altogether, especially Republicans who are considered vulnerable in 2018. Thats still not good. This is part of their job and they just cant flee like scared wombats when a group of liberals confront them. Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) has been dealing with these protesters, diffusing some of the tension with humorbut uncompromising in his positions. Cortney wrote about how Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) also voiced his support for people who attended one his town halls, even though they probably hate his guts. In a previous post, I wrote about how one groupIndivisiblewhich was launched by ex-Democratic aides, shows one of the reasons why this so-called movement will fail: its not organic. Ex-Republican aides didnt start the Tea Party, but before we get into whether the Democrats have a liberal Tea Partylets not forget that the Left tried this with Occupy Wall Street. They stuck around for a bit, but it ultimately failed. I feel that rowdy town halls will continue to be rowdy, but it will do next to nothing to change the composition of the next Congress. Case in point, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) had a rather intense town hall, but he was re-elected with almost 74 percent of the vote. I doubt hes going anywhere if even more liberals vote against him in the next election. Yet, one area that the GOP needs to get a better grasp on is what theyre going to do with Obamacare, which has been one of the main rallying cries with this group of people, but I digress.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) was on MSNBC with Hallie Jackson who was adamant that these are organic protests, though he cited the Womens March as his main example and admitted to Jackson that liberal activists were organizing these town hall protests.

Hallie Jackson: But congressman there are groups though. I mean, you dont deny that there are groups of more liberal activists who are helping to organize some of these protests at town halls

Rep. Lieu: Well, yes, there are groups that are organizing people to show up at town halls, but these are people who are constituents of these members of Congress. Thats what people do. They show up at town halls and they give their voices to these members of Congress and youre seeing this huge reaction to Donald Trumps extreme and cruel policies.

Okayso thats another reason why Republicans probably shouldnt panic with these town hall events, especially congressmen like Chaffetz and Amash who won in landslide re-elects. These are liberals who have probably never voted for you anywaytheyre just more vocal about it.At any rate, the GOP majority is fine thanks to the partys dominance at the state level, which keeps the congressional maps drawn in their favor. Second, moreDemocratsare livingin urban areas than ever before, so liberal organizers will have to tap into that well to bring havoc to the heartland in their campaign to stop Trump.The well of support is rather depleted on the Democratic side in rural America.

TheGOP should continue to hold town halls and engage with these people. Its not like liberal anger was going to be a factor once Trump beat Hillary Clinton. In all, to say that this movement is wholly organic, as some havesuggested iswellsimply not true. Congressman Lieu admitted it.

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Democratic Congressman: Yes, There Are Liberal Groups ... - Townhall

Updated February 24, 2017 18:27:34

Liberal preselection nominations for 18 South Australian state seats have closed, and among the candidates is a former Liberal minister who retired from politics more than 10 years ago.

Wayne Matthew was the member for Bright from 1989 to 2006, and held ministerial portfolios including police and emergency services in the Brown and Olsen governments.

He has nominated for the seat of Davenport and is one of many candidates who are taking a tilt at preselection, as boundary redistributions appear to have made a Liberal election win more likely.

Alex Brown, the son of former premier Dean Brown, has nominated for Colton, while six candidates are vying for retiring MP Isobel Redmond's seat of Heysen.

There is also strong interest in two Labor-held seats, with five nominees for both Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan's seat of Lee, and Sports Minister Leon Bignell's Mawson electorate.

Both seats have become more marginal under boundary redistributions.

"It is fantastic to see such a high calibre of people nominating for preselection to represent the Liberal Party at the next state election," Liberal state director Sascha Meldrum said.

"The party is calling for hard-working candidates committed to representing their local communities as part of a newly elected Liberal state government that will provide responsible leadership and deliver a clear pathway for the state's recovery and success."

Sitting MPs Rachel Sanderson, Corey Wingard, Vickie Chapman, David Speirs, Vince Tarzia and Dan van Holst Pellekaan have all been preselected unopposed.

The names of the other candidates remain confidential until they are endorsed by the party's review committee next week.

Topics: government-and-politics, states-and-territories, liberals, sa

First posted February 24, 2017 18:22:49

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Liberal candidates revealed as preselection closes for South Australia election - ABC Online