What Wisconsin Democrats learned from the spring election – Politico

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Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler talked about what he learned from the election in his state two weeks ago, how it can be applied to November and more in a Campaign Pro Q&A.

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The #MeToo movement is fracturing over how to handle Tara Reades allegations of sexual assault against Joe Biden.

More lawsuits looking to expand voter access piled up on Wednesday, highlighting the even more intense legal battle on the horizon ahead of the election.

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Days until the absentee ballot deadline for the Ohio primary: 5

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Q&A TIME Democrats took home a major victory in Wisconsin when liberal challenger Jill Karofsky defeated incumbent state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly. But the technically nonpartisan election (as you may remember) was one marred in controversy after the last-minute legal battle over if in-person voting shouldve taken place.

Score spoke with Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler about his takeaways from the election, the redistricting fight in his state and more. The full interview is available only for Pros, but heres part of our conversation.

What lessons did you learn from the election? How will they apply ahead of November?

[Absentee voting] went from five to 71 percent. It is totally amazing. Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Florida all have no-excuse absentee voting.

And what we learned from April 7 is that we can spend the next six and a half months helping people request and cast absentee ballots for the first time in their lives, and transform an election even if Republicans refuse to change the rules.

It takes hand holding for a lot of folks to navigate the absentee ballot process. But volunteers are motivated, voters are motivated. It's just the work of connecting the dots to help people vote safely. And while I wish that we can all agree to start from principles of public health and enfranchising everyone when it came to setting election rules, if Republicans insist on sticking with the rules we got, we can make them work for Democrats.

What programs are Wisconsin Democrats standing up?

Were using every tactic that doesnt involve getting within six feet of a voter. That means sending people postage-paid envelopes for absentee ballot request forms and voter registration forms. It means texting people to walk them through the process. It means working through people's personal social networks to make sure we're in touch with folks who don't respond to messages from volunteers they havent met.

What kind of changes are you making at the Wisconsin Democratic Partys headquarters? (Or virtual headquarters, in this case?)

At the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, weve been singing from the hymnal of year-round organizing since the spring of 2017. We started building neighborhood teams And now those teams are organizing their communities virtually. Despite the usual reluctance to spend until the final stretch of an election, we've been pouring resources and time into building a field apparatus that operates year round in our state. I thought that was a good investment in the old electoral environment but it is a spectacular investment now.

Im going to try to do Q&As more regularly. If someone comes to mind that you think will be an interesting person to talk to, email me. Dont just pitch me your bosses and clients!

#METOO MOVEMENT Prominent figureheads of the #MeToo movement are grappling with Reades allegations of sexual assault against Biden, which he denies. After making it more socially acceptable for sexual assault survivors to come forward and helping bring down dozens of powerful men, the #MeToo movement is facing a new challenge: how to grapple with the allegations against Biden without tearing itself apart. Celebrity #MeToo activists have publicly fought over Reades claims, POLITICOs Holly Otterbein and Marc Caputo wrote.

More from Holly and Alex: Supporters of President Trump, who has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by multiple women, have seized on Biden and other Democrats past comments about believing womens accusations as proof of hypocrisy. And victims worry that what they see as the botched handling of Reades allegations by fellow activists, the media and politicians has threatened one of the movements hardest-fought gains.

The debate is complicated by another factor: Some worry about the prospect of inadvertently advancing the political fortunes of a president who has been accused of assault himself, and is deeply loathed by feminists and Democrats.

DELEGATE HUNTING Our Revolution, the nonprofit founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders, is now activating to convince voters to still back Sanders in the remaining states so that he can continue to win delegates. In the absence of an active Bernie campaign, we are pushing folks to vote for the delegates, Paco Fabian, the groups director of campaigns, told CNBCs Brian Schwartz.

STAFFING UP Biden said he intends to name the advisers guiding him in his vice presidential search by May 1 on the Tuesday night edition of The Late Late Show with James Corden. (Sorry folks, I was already asleep by the time it aired.)

Multiple Democratic operatives said that the Biden campaign has a hiring freeze to CBS News Bo Erickson, Musadiq Bidar and Nicole Sganga. The Biden campaign told CBS that they are building onto all aspects of the campaign, especially digital, and have begun to hire additional people.

BATTLEGROUND BONANZA Three new swing-state polls out on Wednesday all showed Biden leading President Donald Trump:

Florida: Biden led Trump, 46 percent to 42 percent, in a Quinnipiac University poll (April 16-20; 1,385 registered voters; +/- 2.6 percentage points).

Michigan: Biden led Trump, 49 percent to 41 percent, in a Fox News poll (April 18-21; 801 registered voters; +/- 3.5 percentage points).

Pennsylvania: Biden led Trump, 50 percent to 42 percent, in a Fox News poll (April 18-21; 803 registered voters; +/- 3.5 percentage points).

THE PROCESS More lawsuits were filed on Wednesday over voter access, and dont expect these to slow down anytime soon. The toplines for the lawsuits, plus other updates from across the country:

Kentucky: The states June 23 primary will have a significant expansion of mail-in voting, Secretary of State Michael Adams said on Tuesday, per the Lexington Herald-Leaders Jack Brammer. More: Adams, a Republican who has staunchly opposed efforts to expand voting by mail in Kentucky, said he and Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, are working on a plan for conducting the election during the COVID-19 pandemic and have a self-imposed deadline of this week to reach an agreement.

Massachusetts: Secretary of State Bill Galvin said he is working on a legislative package that would expand mail voting in the state, but warned that he doesnt think every voter should automatically be mailed a ballot, The Boston Globes Matt Stout and Victoria McGrane reported.

Nevada: True the Vote, a right-leaning group, filed a lawsuit opposing Secretary of State Barbara Cegavskes plan to have a functionally all-mail primary election, per The Nevada Independents Riley Snyder. A second lawsuit previously filed by Democrats, which looks to make changes to add more in-person polling places and allow for ballot collecting, has made for some strange bedfellows, The Independents Michelle Rindels wrote.

Pennsylvania: A lawsuit backed by Priorities USA seeks to require the state to provide prepaid postage for ballots, count ballots that are received after 8 p.m. on Election Day if they were late because of a mail delay, allow for people to designate a third party to assist in collecting and submitting ballots (this is sometimes known as ballot harvesting) and give voters time to cure ballots. The Philadelphia Inquirers Jonathan Tamari has more.

Separately, Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, announced that his states Department of State would mail postcards to 4.2 million primary voters in the state telling them about the states postponed primary and urging them to apply for a mail-in ballot. The governors office said that 462,000 voters have applied for a mail-in ballot and 140,000 have applied for an absentee ballot.

South Carolina: The DCCC and the South Carolina Democratic Party are suing to expand voting by mail in the state. The case seeks to effectively make South Carolina a no-excuse absentee ballot state in the midst of the pandemic and also urg[es] the South Carolina Supreme Court to determine that COVID-19 severely threatens the administration of elections and every residents constitutional right to free and open elections. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and ACLU filed a similar suit. The States Emma Dumain has more on both.

THE HEAD COUNT The Census Bureau is scrambling to adapt to the coronavirus, but officials worry that the digital-focused efforts will miss certain populations. Local officials warn that millions could still slip through the cracks. Spotify may not reach the hardest to count parts of the U.S. population. Those are the people in-person canvassers normally try to cajole to fill out census forms in person or online, POLITICOs Maya King and Danielle Muoio reported.

And at least some Democrats are worried about the downstream effects on redistricting. We have a large concern that there will be a significant undercount in the census, unless the deadline is pushed further back, Matt Liebman, president of the Voter Protection Project, told them. If the current rate of participation holds, we feel that there will be a negative electoral impact for the Democratic Party heading into redistricting.

FIRST IN SCORE WEB WARS Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff is rolling out a series of digital ads highlighting his endorsement from Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights icon, ahead of the June Senate primary. Ive known Jon for many, many years. He will fight for our values, Lewis says in a 15-second clip, one of four videos from Ossoffs campaign. Theyre also releasing 10-second and 30-second ads, and 1:45 spot featuring a snippet of conversation between the two.

POLL POSITIONS The Fox News poll in Michigan also shows Democratic Sen. Gary Peters leading Republican John James, 46 percent to 36 percent (April 18-21; 801 registered voters; +/- 3.5 percentage points).

ON THE AIRWAVES Arizona Sen. Martha McSally is launching a new TV ad on the coronavirus response from Congress. The minute-long spot features news clips about the Senates legislative response, and several shots of McSally in a mask doing relief work in her state.

THE HOUSE MAP Mark Piterski, who recently retired as an Army brigadier general and is Deputy Commissioner for Veterans Affairs in New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphys administration, wont challenge Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer in NJ-05 after all. He said he was running as an independent on Tuesday, and then had an about-face on Wednesday and said he wouldnt run, per the New Jersey Globes David Wildstein.

Republican Shay Stautz ended his bid to challenge Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick in AZ-02, per the Arizona Republics Yvonne Wingett Sanchez.

Republican Eric Esshaki filed to run in MI-11 ahead of Tuesdays deadline, which he sued to delay, according to Michigan officials who appealed a federal judges ruling extending the filing period and reducing the number of signatures required. The state is appealing the judges ruling to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and said in its filing that Esshaki submitted roughly 1,200 signatures, more than the initially required 1,000, according to the Detroit News Beth LeBlanc.

WHAT ABOUT US? The American Association of Political Consultants appealed a lower courts decision to toss the trade groups challenge to the Small Business Associations rules that exclude businesses primarily engaged in political activity from receiving loans from the CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program.

TECH TALK A lot of you are going to be sending (or receiving) a heck of a lot more texts from campaigns. On that front, the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group, an organization that includes a slew of the top tech companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook and more published a best practices guide for campaign texting. Some of the recommendations include senders obtaining written consent, including clear opt-out instructions and more.

FIRST IN SCORE ENDORSEMENT CORNER The Democratic grassroots group Indivisible is rolling out its latest group of endorsements, which is a mix of battleground incumbents, open-seat candidates and challengers in safer Republican seats. The list: Chris Bubser (CA-08), Rep. Harley Rouda (CA-48), E. Thomasina Marsili (IN-08), Hank Linderman (KY-02), Cynthia Wallace (NC-09), Sri Kulkarni (TX-22) and Julie Oliver (TX-25). The group also backed Rep. Ben Ray Lujns bid for the Senate in New Mexico.

CODA LEDE OF THE DAY: Nine South Dakota [state] senators set the stage on Tuesday for their investigation into whether Senate leadership was intoxicated at the Capitol during the final hours of the 2020 legislative session. From the Sioux Fall Argus Leader.

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What Wisconsin Democrats learned from the spring election - Politico