Daily Archives: February 5, 2022

Laura Ingraham pointed out that some Democrats appear to be encouraging former first lady Michelle Obama to run for president in her "Ingraham Angle" on Friday.

Ingraham said the exercise shows Democrats still haven't learned why they're losing ground in the polls with the average American they think their main issue is their brand, rather than their failing and, at times, dangerous political policies.

Former first lady Michelle Obama. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

"Michelle to the rescue? You might ask yourselves, how much trouble are the Democrats really in?" she said.

"They actually might try to convince Michelle Obama to run for president. Remember, just a few months ago, even Joe Rogan got in on that act."

Rogan, a Spotify podcaster and mixed martial arts expert, recently made headlines for allowing open discourse about coronavirus mitigation on his show. Previously, Rogan entertained that Obama is the "wife of the best president we have had in our lifetime in terms of a representative of intelligent people."

Podcaster Joe Rogan. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

Ingraham noted that Obama was recently polled as the most popular Democrat in the world, but added that she has "zero relevant experience" to govern except for her former title as first lady.

A Michelle Obama push would be akin to Republicans trying to encourage former first lady Laura Bush to run in 2008, Ingraham added.

She clarified that former President Donald Trump also had no previous governing experience, but he managed a major American corporate empire with diverse holdings and was able to translate that business sense into politics.

"He used that experience and a keen sense of the political undercurrents to quickly galvanize a populist conservative movement," she said. "He was offering a set of ideas that his party had not fully embraced at the time, from strict border enforcement to tougher trade deals to less military intervention abroad."

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Presidents Biden and Putin. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)

"By contrast, the entire point of a Michelle Obama movement would be to take her fame and celebrity, then tie them to the same failed ideas that destroyed the Democrat Party over the last year and destroyed American cities as well."

"Democratic officeholders, they're not flailing and failing because they're not charming or glamorous," Ingraham said. "They're failing because their policies cannot and do not work. Look at the state of Blue America right now."

"Despite all the speculation, it is really hard to see any scenario under which Michelle Obama would actually agree to this nonsense. She's intelligent enough to realize that a lot of her popularity stems from the fact that her husband was beloved and usually, not always, but usually she tends to stay above politics Plus her husband was savvy enough to keep the far left at bay. Middle-class Americans didn't like radicalism when he was president, and [former President Barack Obama] knew it."

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Ingraham: Democrats think their problems are branding, not policies - Fox News

In December of that year, Senator Tim Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota, had a cerebral hemorrhage, putting the slim, newly won Democratic majority in jeopardy. Though he was gone for months, Mr. Johnson ultimately returned the next fall and won re-election in 2008 despite continuing health struggles.

In another recent case, Senator Mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois, had a stroke in January 2012 and was gone almost an entire year. No requirement exists for senators to step aside for health reasons if they choose not to, and there are many earlier instances of ill senators being away from Washington for lengthy periods, forcing their colleagues to adjust accordingly.

With Democrats able to approve a nominee themselves with their 50-vote majority, Republicans have so far signaled that they do not intend to dig in too hard against the pick, allowing them to show that Supreme Court confirmations can be conducted without becoming hyperpartisan spectacles. But any uncertainty about the Democratic ability to produce a sure 50 votes could quickly change that calculation and give Republicans more leverage over the nominee and the proceedings themselves.

Based on what has happened in the past, Republicans will tread carefully, not wanting to be seen as trying to gain advantage from the illness of a colleague and recognizing that like many things in the Senate, the tables can quickly turn.

On Wednesday, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, said that the entire Senate was praying and pulling for Mr. Lujn and that it was encouraging to read that our friend and colleague is expected to make a full recovery.

Though Mr. Lujns medical issue was more serious, the Senate has already contended with frequent absences this year as members dealt with positive coronavirus tests and family issues, forcing leaders of both parties to keep close track of attendance to guide their scheduling. Mr. Lujns condition and the approach of a Supreme Court debate have now put such issues in the spotlight.

Thats just what we live with every day in a 50-50 Senate, said Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan. We are all human beings, and something can happen to someone at any time.

Emily Cochrane and Annie Karni contributed reporting.

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One Illness Reminds Democrats They Have No Votes to Spare - The New York Times

The bills enjoy broad support the 42 co-sponsors of Ms. Spanbergers TRUST in Congress Act include Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Harris of Maryland, all firmly in the Trump wing of their party and if anything, they are putting Ms. Pelosi in the spotlight.

You have the speaker of the House out there trading, and her husband making millions and millions of dollars a year, Mr. Hawley said.

Democrats are just as eager to contrast their position with Ms. Pelosis. They said her refusal in December to consider a stock trading ban Were a free-market economy, she said when asked about the push made the issue a cause clbre.

The speaker, I dont want to directly call her out, but handfuls of members have put dozens and dozens of years here. They come at this from a different time and a different perspective, said Ms. Stevens, who has found herself almost certainly facing another Democrat, Andy Levin, in the upcoming House primaries in redistricted Michigan. Both signed on to last weeks letter demanding action on a trading ban.

Democratic leaders remain leery. They argue that once Congress begins trying to regulate its own members out of investments, it is difficult to draw the line between what is permissible and what is not. If stock ownership is forbidden because it could create a conflict with legislating, would having student loan debt make it inappropriate for a member to press for loan relief? Would owning real estate confer an improper personal interest in environmental or land-use policy?

Mr. Roy allowed that there were complexities, but, he said, a line had to be drawn.

If youre talking about dirt, well, are you talking about your family farm or are you engaging in thousands of real estate transactions? he asked. Are you buying and selling and engaging in commercial real estate transactions development while youre in Congress? There are limits to what were supposed to do.

Drew Hammill, Ms. Pelosis deputy chief of staff, said the speaker had asked Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and the chairwoman of the Committee on House Administration, to examine an array of proposals to regulate lawmakers trading, including a ban on owning stocks. Ms. Lofgren is also looking at increasing penalties for unacceptable noncompliance with the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, a 2012 law that mandates that lawmakers disclose their stock trading, a step he said Ms. Pelosi supports.

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Democrats Break With Leaders Over Congressional Stock Trading - The New York Times

ANDERSON Two Democrats have filed for the partys nomination in the 5th Congressional District to challenge incumbent Republican Victoria Spartz.

As of Friday, Spartz remained unchallenged for the Republican Party nomination as she seeks a second term.

Matthew Hall and Jeanine Lee Lake have declared their intentions to seek the Democratic Party nomination in the 5th District.

Hall, 50, has served with the U.S. Army for 28 years and did two tours of duty in Afghanistan. He remains a member of the reserves with the rank of major.

He served one year on the Lawrence Common Council after being appointed to fill a vacancy in 2018.

It was a great learning experience, Hall said during an interview with The Herald Bulletin. I got a free education in the political process.

Hall said he was considering running for a seat in the Indiana Senate or Indiana House and starting thinking about running for Congress.

Im excited about it, he said. This could really work and provide a way to serve more people.

Hall said he is not concerned about the makeup of the district, stating it has four distinct regions.

There is a rural area, union members around Kokomo, educators at Ball State and suburbs in Hamilton County, he said. I dont think Republican or Democrat is the challenging part. There is a wedge between the parties and theyre not talking to each other.

Hall said he wants to help the American people to trust their elected officials in the future.

Leadership is a way of life, he said. You can still be a leader in a lesser position.

Hall said he agrees with some of the policies of President Joe Biden.

I dont like the bundling of all these bills together, he said. There should be separate votes on each proposal.

If elected, he wants to see broadband internet service expanded to rural areas, work on economic development initiatives and invest in infrastructure in the district.

Hall said fundraising is a necessary evil and admits that incumbent Spartz has deep pockets.

There is a way to reach people without spending $5 million, he said. You can communicate with people online, and I will have a strategic plan with our spending.

Hall said too many members of Congress are getting wealthy with investments in the stock market.

Im not in it to make money. I want to help people, he said.

Hall has been in contact with the Indiana state party organization, which has indicated they will work with both candidates for the nomination.

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@KendelaBastide, or call 765-640-4863.

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Hall seeking Democrat nomination for 5th Congressional District - The Herald Bulletin

Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images

This week, New Yorks Democratic Party approved a redrawn congressional map that could net it three more seats in the House of Representatives and cut the states Republican representation in half. Governor Kathy Hochul signed the new map into law the following day, along with new maps for the state Senate and Assembly districts.

Democrats currently hold a thin 222-212 majority in the House, but the tendency for parties in power to suffer midterm losses plus less than ideal approval ratings for President Joe Biden has the party on edge. Because Democrats hold a legislative supermajority in New York, it was one of the few states in which the party could take control of the redistricting process and slightly improve its overall midterm prospects. The aggressive effort to do just that has prompted accusations of hypocrisy toward Democrats, who have frequently campaigned against gerrymandering. Party officials say they are merely matching an example set by Republicans across the country.

New York Republican State Committee chairman Nick Langworthy described the newly drawn districts as textbook filthy, partisan gerrymandering and voiced the possibility of a court challenge, though it appears one is unlikely to succeed.

We are reviewing all of our legal options to protect the voices of millions of New Yorkers, he said.

Not long after Hochul signed off on the new district lines, a lawsuit was filed in the Steuben County Supreme Court alleging that the new maps are unconstitutional.

The changes are wide-ranging. Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, represents the 11th Congressional District, which encompasses all of conservative Staten Island as well as Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights in Brooklyn. The new map links Staten Island with liberal neighborhoods like Park Slope and Sunset Park, drastically changing the districts demographics. This favors Democrat Max Rose, the former congressman who previously held the seat before losing to Malliotakis in 2020 (also, possibly, Bill de Blasio).

This is a blatant attempt by the Democrat leadership in Albany to steal this seat, even after New Yorkers voted twice by ballot referendum for nonpartisan maps, said Rob Ryan, a spokesman for the Malliotakis campaign, in a statement to Intelligencer.

Outside the city, the seats currently held by outgoing Republicans Lee Zeldin and John Katko were already seen as prime pickup opportunities. (Zeldin declared his candidacy for governor in early 2021, while Katko announced in January that he would be retiring from office.) But both congressmens districts have also been redrawn, with Zeldins First District on Long Island extending into Democratic areas and Katkos 24th District folded into the 22nd District, which will include the blue cities of Ithaca and Syracuse.

Another Republican congresswoman, Claudia Tenney, is opting to run in a new district entirely after a large portion of her 22nd District was redrawn into the 19th, currently represented by Democrat Antonio Delgado. Tenney will try her luck in the 23rd District, where the regions current representative, Republican Tom Reed, previously announced his plans to retire.

In 2014, New Yorkers backed a ballot proposal that would amend the state constitution and establish an independent redistricting commission responsible for redrawing state and congressional districts based on Census results. (In 2020, the state lost one seat in the House just barely.) In January, the ten-member panel submitted two maps to the state legislature after members failed to come to an agreement on a single proposal. The legislature rejected both maps and gave the panel additional time to present a new draft. But the panel reached an impasse, allowing the states legislative task force to step in and submit its own lines. State lawmakers moved quickly, citing the fact that candidates will have to begin petitioning to run for districts in March.

Steven Romalewski, director of the mapping service at the City University of New Yorks Graduate Center, said that the state legislatures actions are consistent with the law.

I think theres a big difference between what the perception is of what the voters voted on versus the reality. The constitutional amendment, for good or for ill, explicitly gives the legislature the ability to do exactly what theyre doing now, and that was part of the constitutional proposal that the voters approved, Romalewski said.

There has also been criticism that state lawmakers didnt provide enough time for public input into the creation of the new maps. The independent redistricting commission, by contrast, held public hearings and allowed members of the community to submit comments on the proposed maps.

Now you have these maps that are drafted by the legislature in the space of a week without any opportunity for the public to have any input, said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York. She called the commission fatally flawed from the beginning.

In Lerners view, for a redistricting commission to be truly independent, it has to be citizen-led and outside the purview of legislative officials.

Its virtually irresistible for politicians to be able to benefit themselves and to lock in their position. The pencils got to be taken out of their hands, she said.

Independent commissions have the final word on redistricting in states like Michigan and California. And in some places, such as Pennsylvania, state courts have stepped in to take control after determining that legislators maps were too partisan. But it looks likely that in New York, raw politics will determine the lay of the land for the next ten years.

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New York Democrats Have Gerrymandered Their Way to a Huge Advantage - New York Magazine

A second Democratic candidate says she's running for state representative in the new 91st House District.

McLean County Board member Sharon Chung said she's excited about the opportunity to advocate for central Illinois in Springfield.

"Right now, we have a really exciting opportunity to have great representation for the Bloomington-Normal community in Springfield. It's something we were lacking for many years, the way the districts were drawn," said Chung.

Previous maps favored Republican lawmakers. The new 91st was drawn as a marginally Democratic party-leaning district, Chung said. It takes in parts of central Bloomington and Normal and stretches west toward Bartonville and East Peoria.

The new district includes parts of Bloomington-Normal previously represented by Republicans Dan Brady and Keith Sommer. Neither veteran lawmaker is running for retention to the House. Sommer is retiring and Brady is making a bid for Secretary of State.

Chung said her three-plus years of experience on the county board would help her if elected.

"I've seen how the county works as a sort of arm of the state government and I'm excited to advocate for Bloomington- Normal and McLean County down in Springfield," said Chung.

She said one focus for her, if elected, would be education.

"The funding that we have had for education in the past has affected whether students decide to stay here in Illinois. I feel like when people go out of state for school, a lot of times they don't come back. I would really like to see what we can do to fund it from Pre-K up through higher education," said Chung.

Chung also said there is something to be made from the constellation of wind and solar generating capacity and electric vehicle manufacturing in the region.

"I'm really excited about this green initiative we have here in McLean County. With things like that, we are being a really interesting green energy hub and I would really like to advocate for that," she said.

Chung, a musician and music teacher, would face Karla Bailey Smith, a painter, in the primary. Normal Town Council member Scott Preston is running as a Republican in the 91st.

The primary is in June. The general election is in November.

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Democrat Sharon Chung to run for state representative in new 91st District - WGLT

Residents wait in line to vote outside of the Tippecanoe branch library on Oct. 20, 2020, in Milwaukee, Wis. Minimum standards for access to in-person early voting are one reform that both Republicans and Democrats have backed. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption

Residents wait in line to vote outside of the Tippecanoe branch library on Oct. 20, 2020, in Milwaukee, Wis. Minimum standards for access to in-person early voting are one reform that both Republicans and Democrats have backed.

Earlier this year, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called a targeted effort by some senators to reform the election certification process that former President Donald Trump attempted to hijack on Jan. 6, 2021, "unacceptably insufficient and even offensive."

Schumer wanted to go bigger.

He wanted to focus on much more expansive voting rights legislation, known as the Freedom to Vote Act, which would have overhauled essentially everything about the American election system: when and where Americans could cast a ballot, how they contribute to political campaigns and how states draw their political lines.

The proposal was trimmed down from an even larger elections bill, but it was still so massive that many election experts and even some Democrats privately say they never actually expected it to pass.

Then it failed.

Democrats in Congress haven't made it clear what they might pursue next, but experts see at least two paths toward a more piecemeal approach to putting in some guardrails around elections in the U.S.

The option gaining momentum recently is an update to the aforementioned rules around presidential election certification, known as the Electoral Count Act.

The law has been derided as poorly written and vague for decades, and its lack of clarity led to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters falsely believed Vice President Mike Pence had more power over the certification of Electoral College votes submitted by the states than he actually did.

A bipartisan group of senators has been meeting to discuss potential revisions to the law, and there are indications that Schumer's opposition to it may be softening since the larger Democratic effort on voting rights failed.

Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California-Irvine, said that he feels the voting reforms in the Freedom to Vote Act are necessary too, but Congress would be right to prioritize the ECA and other laws meant to prevent subversion of the results of a presidential election.

"As much as one might be concerned about voter suppression and I've written two books on the subject, I'm very concerned about it I put the concern about election subversion even higher," Hasen said. "If you don't have a system where votes are fairly counted, you don't have a democracy at all."

The bipartisan group of senators looking at changing the law is working in smaller groups focused on a number of different aspects of voting reform, according to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who spoke to reporters Monday night after the group met on Capitol Hill.

Each of the smaller groups has a Democrat and Republican co-chair, Collins said, and they are focused on protecting election workers and potential new funding for election administration, in addition to updating the ECA. But she made it clear she thinks whatever legislation that comes from the group will not look anything like the Freedom to Vote Act.

"My goal is to have a bipartisan bill that can secure 60 or more votes in the Senate," she said. "If we re-litigate issues that have already been rejected by the Senate, then I think it would be very difficult for us to reach the 60-vote margin."

The bipartisan group of 16 senators, which includes nine Republicans, is set to meet again on Friday and could start writing text for their proposal in the coming days or weeks. The GOP support is key, since Democrats would need 10 Republicans in agreement to pass a measure in the Senate.

"This group is full of members of the Senate that have experience in getting bipartisan bills to the floor of the Senate. So maybe this group will be more successful," said Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, a member of the group.

On Tuesday, a group of key Democratic senators also separately released their own potential draft update to the ECA. In some cases, the plan by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Angus King, I-Maine, mirrors proposals that were part of a House Administration Committee staff report released last month.

For example, it says that for an objection to a state's election results to be raised before Congress, the current threshold of only needing one member from each chamber should be raised. Rather, the Senate Democratic proposal, like the House staff report, suggests that one-third of each chamber should have to object. Both Democratic plans also say objections should be subject to a vote by a supermajority not a simple majority in both the House and Senate.

"We stand ready to share the knowledge we have accumulated with our colleagues from both parties and look forward to contributing to a strong, bipartisan effort aimed at resolving this issue and strengthening our democracy," Durbin, Klobuchar and King said in a statement on Tuesday.

King and several members of the bipartisan group agreed they see a potential to work together.

"I'm going to work with anybody who wants to work on the issue," King said.

Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, another member of bipartisan group, says the various efforts signal momentum.

"I think what that telegraphs is that this is important and it's something that we can move through on a bipartisan basis," Murkowski said.

The level of bipartisan engagement on the ECA never coalesced around the other voting rights reforms Democrats had hoped would come from this Congress, which have grown more urgent as some states across the country passed laws last year restricting voting access.

Republicans have often said they have no interest in federalizing the nuts and bolts of election infrastructure, so mandating things like automatic voter registration or no-excuse absentee voting was a nonstarter.

But Matthew Weil thinks there is another way.

Weil leads the elections project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, which recently released a report detailing what it sees as an "achievable" set of reforms for Congress to focus on.

"Both parties have prioritized elections to their voters," said Weil. "Democrats have been spending a lot of time talking about voter suppression and voters from the Republican Party are hearing that our election system is completely insecure."

BPC's proposal would address both concerns, Weil says, meaning there's a way for politicians to sell it to their voters no matter their affiliation.

Importantly, the BPC report does not argue for federal mandates, but instead argues for an incentivization structure where federal funding would be tied to whether states meet minimum accessibility and security standards such as:

Nine states that range across the political spectrum either currently already meet all of the report's minimum standards or meet all but one. Both Colorado and Georgia meet all of the proposed minimum standards for instance, even though Colorado is a vote-by-mail state and Georgia leans more heavily on in-person voting.

Because of the incentive structure, the proposal also might be an easier sell to Republicans like Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who worry about federal overreach. LaRose staunchly opposed the Freedom to Vote Act, calling it a power grab on the part of Democrats.

But in an interview with NPR recently, LaRose said he had read the BPC report and that he could see supporting similar legislation. Ohio already complies with more than 80% of the report's standards.

Weil, of the BPC, sees parallels to 2002 when Congress passed a bipartisan set of election reforms in the shadow of the 2000 presidential election, one of the closest and most contentious in modern history.

"Both parties had incentives to do something about the elections process," Weil said. "I think I see some of those same possibilities now."

NPR's Claudia Grisales contributed to this report.

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There are election reforms that both Democrats and Republicans seem to like - NPR