Category Archives: Democrat

If you cant win, change the rules thats what we were taught in grade school, right? The political left certainly seems to think so.

Democrats are using voting rights litigation to secure through unelected courts a partisan advantage that theyve failed to achieve through politically accountable legislatures. They create standards they pronounce to be unassailably fair and demand election administrators disregard the rules and procedures agreed to through the compromise of the legislative process. Their latest endeavor was a lawsuit that threw Wisconsins April election into chaos and now theyre bringing the act to Nevada.

In Wisconsin, the Democratic Party asked a judge to blow past the deadlines to register to vote and to request and return an absentee ballot; to disregard critical voter ID requirements for absentee ballot requests; and to ignore Wisconsin state law requiring witness verification of absentee ballot voters. Whats the saying about never allowing a crisis to go to waste?

This lawsuit was filed less than three weeks before Election Day, forcing judges to make quick decisions about things they dont really know much about such as administering elections in a fair and secure manner. Wisconsin voters were left confused by the legal whiplash.

Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske finds herself the Democrats next target. They demand more in-person early voting locations, potentially putting poll workers and voters at increased risk of coronavirus infection. They demand that ballots be sent to all registered voters, not just active voters, knowing full well this will result in undeliverable ballots washing around the postal service. In Nevada, a voter becomes inactive if a postcard the Election Department sends is undeliverable to the voter at the address on file. Why should they send a ballot to an address where they know a voter doesnt receive mail? Wisconsins recent election was full of examples of voters who requested ballots but never received them. Then tubs of ballots appeared at local post offices, after Election Day, undelivered and unreturned.

In Nevada, Cegavske is a veteran public servant who knows how to properly administer a fair and secure election even an election impacted by unprecedented circumstances. While in the legislature, Cegavske chaired the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections. She was the states top election official during the 2016 election that saw over 1 million Nevadans cast ballots. Nevadans re-elected Secretary Cegavske in 2018 and for good reason.

Nevadas voters know the plan to conduct the 2020 primary election as an all-mail contest has the support of Nevadas election officials. The liberal lawsuit isnt designed to benefit the voters; its designed to help the Democrats.

Democratic lawyers are trying to overturn the will of the people across the country, as expressed by their politically accountable legislatures, for partisan gain. We all know thats what this is really about: defeating President Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpNew Mexico governor extends stay-at-home order: 'We're not ready to ease up' Coronavirus culture war over reopening economy hits Capitol Hill Challenge China and the WHObut not while the pandemic rages MORE. And if they can wreak havoc with state election laws from now until November, thats just an added benefit.

Austin Chambers is the president of the Republican State Leadership Committee. Prior to joining the RSLC, Chambers served as the consultant for several successful gubernatorial campaigns. You can follow him on Twitter @achambersgop.

Andrew Wynne leads the Republican State Leadership Committees Judicial Fairness Initiative. He has managed successful voter education campaigns to elect rule of law justices to the State Supreme Court in several states.

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Democrats wreaked havoc in Wisconsin's elections now they've set their sights on Nevada | TheHill - The Hill

Rigas is holding down two jobs at the moment: He also was named late last month as the acting deputy director of management at the Office of Management and Budget.

Since taking charge, Rigas has put his stamp on OPMs front office and is bringing George Nesterczuk on board as a senior adviser, according to two people familiar with the matter. He previously did organizational and HR consulting for government contractors and management consulting firms.

Nesterczuk had been Trumps first choice to head up OPM but withdrew in August 2017 after criticism from federal employee unions who didnt like the role he played in trying to enact a pay system based on performance at the Defense Department and raised questions about his work for the Ukranian government. He served two stints at OPM during both the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations and has also worked on Capitol Hill and at the Departments of Transportation and Defense.

Rigas has told colleagues that he questions the constitutionality of the 1883 Pendleton Act, which codifies using merit to pick government officials, and believes that all executive branch employees should be political appointees, according to a person who has discussed the matter with him.

The arrival of Rigas comes amid a push by McEntee and his allies to install other Trump loyalists across the executive branch.

McEntee is working in concert with Paul Dans, OPMs new White House liaison and senior adviser, whose rapid efforts to consolidate his control over other agency appointees has irritated some officials.

Dans has also castigated other OPM officials for relying on career employees he suspects are Democrats, according to two people familiar with the interactions. He also has been asking how many policy jobs the government can shift from career officials to political appointees, a line of inquiry the people saw as an effort to install Trump loyalists in key posts.

Dans had no comment, but an OPM spokesperson said: "All employees in the executive branch have an obligation to carry out administration policy at the direction of the president, who is elected by the American people."

Other recent conversations inside the personnel office have raised further hackles. For instance, the Trump administration has had discussions on creating a new schedule, which regulates how agencies hire people, so they could make more jobs excepted service to make it easier to hire and fire people who are involved in policy jobs.

PPO is also trying to assert more control over who gets hired into political appointee jobs at some Cabinet departments, including the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and a number of defense agencies, according to a former Trump administration official. Depending on the position, Cabinet agencies have typically had more latitude in choosing lower-ranking political hires.

But starting a few weeks ago, before some agencies fill a job, they now have to submit the opening to PPO to see if the White House has someone to place into the position. If they dont have anyone, only then can the agency submit a name, the former official said. The result has left the personnel office much stronger than they ever have been before, this person said.

With greater authority has come a new round of clashes between various parts of the executive branches over personnel, with veteran officials in Cabinet agencies accusing McEntee of installing unqualified appointees in key posts.

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Democrats blast Trump team's handling of federal workers in coronavirus crisis - POLITICO

Democrats presumptive presidential nominee for 2020, former Vice President Joe Biden, at a September 2019 debate in Houston with then-candidates Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has the backing of the overwhelming majority of Democrats and Democratic-leaning registered voters in the November general election contest against Donald Trump.

But after a primary campaign that saw the most diverse group of candidates in the partys history including six women, several black, Hispanic and Asian candidates and the first openly gay contender 41% of Democratic registered voters say they are bothered that the likely Democratic nominee for the 2020 election is a white man in his 70s. About six-in-ten Democratic voters (59%) say this does not bother them, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Democrats attitudes about the outcome of the 2020 presidential primary contests. We surveyed 4,917 U.S. adults April 7-12, 2020. In this analysis, we look at the 2,349 respondents who are Democratic or Democratic-leaning registered voters and who took the survey after Bernie Sanders suspended his presidential campaign (April 8-12). Everyone who took part in the survey is a member of Pew Research Centers American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATPs methodology. Here are the questions asked for this report, along with responses, and its methodology.

Democratic voters who are bothered that the likely nominee is an older white man are more liberal, more educated, younger and more likely to be white than those who are not bothered, according to the survey, which was conducted just after Bernie Sanders suspended his presidential campaign.

Democratic voters with a postgraduate degree are the only educational group in which a majority (58%) say they are bothered the likely Democratic nominee is a white man in his 70s. In contrast, 76% those with no college experience and 59% of those with some college experience are not bothered by this.

More than six-in-ten Democratic voters 50 and older (65%) say it does not bother them that the likely Democratic nominee is a white man in his 70s, while those under age 50 are more divided in their views (47% say this bothers them, 52% say it does not).

These views also differ by race and ethnicity. About seven-in-ten black (72%) and Hispanic (70%) Democrats say they are not bothered the likely nominee is a white man in his 70s. By comparison, white Democrats are divided on this question: 49% say they are bothered and 51% say they are not.

Perhaps not surprisingly, these views are associated with which candidate voters backed on the eve of the first primaries and caucuses.

Nearly eight-in-ten of those who said in a January survey that Biden was their first choice for the Democratic presidential nomination (79%) now say the likely Democratic nominee being a white man in his 70s does not bother them. A narrower majority of those who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders in January (58%) say the same.

However, about six-in-ten Democratic voters who supported other candidates in January now say they are bothered that the likely Democratic nominee is an older white man. Voters who preferred Sen. Elizabeth Warren are particularly likely to hold this view: Nearly three-quarters (73%) say this, as do 57% of those who backed Pete Buttigieg and 52% of those who supported other candidates at the beginning of the year.

Democratic registered voters who are bothered the likely nominee is an older white man are slightly more likely than those who are not bothered by it to say they would vote for Biden in the November general election contest against Trump (89% vs. 83%). And they are especially likely to have a negative evaluation of the president: Nearly all in this group (97%) say they disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job in office, including nine-in-ten who strongly disapprove. Among Democratic voters who are not bothered the presumptive nominee is an older white man, 85% disapprove, including 72% who do so strongly.

Note: Here are the questions asked for this report, along with responses, and its methodology.

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Some Democrats are bothered nominee is an older white man and they solidly back Biden in November - Pew Research Center

Sen. Bernie Sanders makes a point to former Vice President Joe Biden during the Feb. 19 debate in Las Vegas. (Photo by Mark Ralson/AFP via Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) The first three Democrat presidential debates held this year on Jan. 14, Feb. 7, and Feb. 19 contained a single, passing reference to the coronavirus outbreak that had emerged in China weeks earlier and was starting to spread.

That sole reference came from former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, during the Feb. 7 debate in Manchester, N.H., who said, The next president is going to face challenges from global health security, like what were seeing coming out of China.

None of the other candidates raised the issue, and neither did the ABC News moderators. The word coronavirus was not mentioned. (Neither was COVID-19, although the World Health Organization only came up with that name for the disease on Feb. 11.)

Apart from Buttigiegs comment, China did come up during the Feb. 7 debate, but in the context of climate change (Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Amy Klobuchar) and its mistreatment of Muslim Uighurs (Sanders).

By Feb. 7, China was reporting more than 34,500 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 700 deaths, while 288 cases were reported in 24 other countries including 12 in the United States along with the first death outside China, in the Philippines.

That debate came five days after U.S. travel restrictions, barring entry to any non-U.S. national who has visited China in the previous 14 days, came into effect. It also came eight days after the WHO had declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern.

A little over a fortnight before the New Hampshire debate, a Democratic presidential debate was held in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 14.

There were no references during that debate to the outbreak in China, although China was mentioned, in relation to trade (Biden, Sanders), North Korea (Biden) and the economic threat (Klobuchar).

Although Jan. 14 was early in the context of the outbreak, by then the CDC had issued a travel health notice for Wuhan, established a coronavirus incident management system, and issued an advisory to state and local health departments and health care providers. Thailand had just reported the first confirmed case outside China.

Almost two weeks after the New Hampshire debate, another was held, in Las Vegas, on Feb. 19. None of the candidates raised the coronavirus issue, and neither did the NBC News/MSNBC moderators.

China did come up, but again in connection with climate change (Biden, Buttigieg, and Mike Bloomberg).

By Feb. 19, China was reporting more than 74,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 2,100 deaths, while more than 1,070 cases were confirmed in 26 other countries including 15 in the United States along with eight deaths outside China (in the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, France, and Iran.)

By Feb. 19, the China-related U.S. travel restrictions had been in effect for 17 days.

It never even was a part of their dialogue

During a White House press briefing on Sunday evening, President Trump drew attention to an observation by Fox News Bret Baier that the Feb. 19 debate in Las Vegas had not featured the words coronavirus, virus or COVID-19.

That was February 19, thats way after I closed entrance from China into our country, Trump said.

I just thought that was a very interesting because, you know, you hear these people, some of the people, the Democrats, said oh, this, that. It never even was a part of their dialogue. Now they bring it up because you see what happens now. But they didnt bring it up, he said. But I brought it up.

Coronavirus first featured in a Trump tweet on Jan. 24, when he thanked China for working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. At the time the CDC had reported two confirmed cases in the U.S.

On Jan. 29, the White House announced the formation of the coronavirus task force, and on Jan. 31 Trump declared the outbreak a public health emergency. When he delivered his State of the Union on February 4, Trump said the administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from the coronavirus threat.

After Las Vegas, the next Democratic debate was held on Feb. 25, in Charleston, S.C., and for the first time, the coronavirus situation was brought up by a moderator, CBS News Gayle King. (By then there were 53 COVID-19 cases in the U.S., but no deaths had been attributed to the disease.)

Among the candidates responses, Biden said if he were president he would be putting pressure on China to allow American experts to visit.

Heres the deal, he said. I would be on the phone with China and making it clear, We are going to need to be in your country. You have to be open. You have to be clear. We have to know whats going on. We have to be there with you, and insist on it, and insist, insist, insist.

I could get that done, Biden added. No one up here has ever dealt internationally with any of these world leaders. Im the only one that has.

Eight days before Biden made those remarks, a 25-person WHO-led team of experts, including U.S. scientists from the CDC and NIH, had finally arrived in China on a mission delayed for weeks by the Chinese government. Back on February 7 the New York Times had reported that China had been ignoring both CDC and WHO offers of help for weeks.

The rest is here:

Coronavirus Was All But Ignored in First Three Democrat Debates of the Year | - CNSNews.com

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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

Days until the 2020 election: 194

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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.

Read more:

What Wisconsin Democrats learned from the spring election - Politico

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Democrats Are Insulting American People by Repeatedly Saying 'Next Time' on Real Covid-19 Relief - Common Dreams

Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee Thursday called on President TrumpDonald John TrumpNew Mexico governor extends stay-at-home order: 'We're not ready to ease up' Coronavirus culture war over reopening economy hits Capitol Hill Challenge China and the WHObut not while the pandemic rages MORE to resume funding for the World Health Organization (WHO), calling his policy misguided and a distraction from the administrations own response.

In a letter sent to Trump, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Eliot EngelEliot Lance EngelHouse Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats call on Trump to resume WHO funding The Hill's Campaign Report: Florida in play as Biden takes lead in poll Liberal group backs challenger to Engel in Democratic primary MORE (D-N.Y.), and 25 Democratic colleagues criticized the president's funding freeze and ending support in the middle of a crisis.

President Trump last week announced a 60- to 90-day halt in funding for the WHO, slamming the organization and claiming that it has a China-leaning bias. The president also criticized the health body for failing to condemn Beijing for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Democrats letter acknowledged shortcomings of the WHO, saying the organization is not perfect, but they cautioned against hobbling an organization at the helm of the global virus response.

This policy is profoundly misguided and appears to be an effort to scapegoat the WHO in order to deflect attention from your administrations mismanaged and politicized response to the pandemic, the Democrats wrote.

Halting funding to the WHO at this time is like cutting funding to the fire department in the middle of a blaze. Retreating from global health institutions at this time will only hinder our ability to fight the Coronavirus, thus putting our national security and American lives at risk," the letter said.

The letter was also sent to Secretary of State Mike PompeoMichael (Mike) Richard PompeoChallenge China and the WHObut not while the pandemic rages Export bans on medical supplies can be lethal Trump escalates WHO fight by redirecting funds to other groups MORE and acting U.S. Agency for International Development Director John Barsa.

Original post:

House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats call on Trump to resume WHO funding | TheHill - The Hill

New polling from Portland firm DHM Research shows most Oregonians are looking to public health expertsnot elected officialsto decide when to reopen the state. But that's not true of the state's Republicans, who said they trusted President Donald Trump more than any other authority.

That gulf is displayed in the suspicion respondents displayed toward leaders of the opposing party. Democrats deeply distrust President Trump to tell them when to reopen Oregon, while Republicans distrustthe governor nearly as strongly.

Sixty-eight percent of Oregon Republicans said they had "high" or "very high" trust in Trump's timing to reopen the state, more than the percentage who trusted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (56percent) or the Oregon Health Authority (44percent). Just 21 percent said they trusted Brown.

Support among Democrats for Brown's judgment was slightly less solid. Fifty-eight percent trust her timing for reopening the stateless than the share who trust the Oregon Health Authority (74percent) or theCDC (70percent). But Democrats' distrust of Trump is so complete it borders on absurd: Just 6 percent of Democratic respondents said they'd rely on his timing to reopen Oregon.

Independents and nonaffiliated voters were skeptical of everyone, but expressed greater trust for health officials than politicians.

Among the other findings in today's polling results: Most Oregonians don't expect to visit a salon or barber shop for another two months, board an airplane for another five months, or attend a sporting event for another six months. (The Portland Trail Blazers would typically open their season in seven months.)

Fifty-eight percent of respondents said the availability of widespread COVID-19 tests was an important condition for returning to normal activities.

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Polling Shows Oregon Democrats Don't Trust President Trump's Timing to Reopen the State, While Republicans Don't Trust Gov. Kate Brown - Willamette...

WASHINGTON A Trump administration request for quick approval of $250 billion in additional loans to help distressed small businesses weather the coronavirus crisis stalled Thursday in the Senate after Republicans and Democrats clashed over what should be included in the latest round of government relief.

The dispute was a prelude to what is likely to be a far more complicated and consequential set of negotiations over a larger infusion of federal aid that lawmakers expect to consider in the coming weeks on the heels of the $2 trillion stimulus law enacted late last month. The White House had asked lawmakers to move in the interim to inject more money into a new loan program intended to keep small businesses afloat and allow them to avoid laying off workers as the pandemic continues to batter the economy.

But Democrats argued that as long as Congress was providing additional aid, it should include more money that was urgently needed for hospitals, states and cities confronting the coronavirus, as well as additional food assistance for Americans coping with its punishing economic toll.

Republicans balked at that effort, saying the time for negotiating such additions was later.

My colleagues must not treat working Americans as political hostages, said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader. With the Senate not scheduled to return until April 20, he added, lawmakers should have focused discussions on urgent subjects without turning every conversation into a conversation about everything.

During a choreographed exchange on the Senate floor, Mr. McConnell tried to push through the $250 billion in funding for small-business loans during a procedural session, a maneuver that would have required the support of all senators. Democrats objected as promised and proposed doubling that request by adding $100 billion for hospitals and $150 billion for state and local governments, as well as placing conditions on the small-business funds and adding oversight requirements for the administrations coronavirus response.

Yes, we know we need more money for this program, Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said on the Senate floor. But for goodness sake, lets take the opportunity to make some bipartisan fixes to allow this program to work better for the very people its designed to help.

When Mr. Van Hollen countered with the Democrats proposal, Mr. McConnell blocked it, ensuring that the Senate could not move forward on the issue until another procedural session scheduled for Monday.

Democrats said they had been blindsided by Mr. McConnells announcement this week that he would quickly move to approve the administrations request for additional money for the small-business program, and charged that he was merely looking to score political points by trying to do so without making any effort to reach an agreement with them.

There was no effort made to follow the process that we could to get this done, so it wont get done, said Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, one of the architects of the small-business loan program. He called Mr. McConnells move a political stunt.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, speaking during a news conference call, said that Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, had called her on Tuesday and asked for a quarter of a trillion dollars in 48 hours with no data.

Although she acknowledged that the offer formed the basis for some negotiation, she reiterated that without the additional aid Democrats were seeking, it could not pass the House. She said that the dispute would not be solved before Easter this Sunday.

I dont have any intention of spending any one second on Sunday trying to convince anybody that it is necessary to address the needs of everybody in our society, Ms. Pelosi told reporters. If they dont share that value, theyre not going to get it on Sunday.

Mr. McConnell, leaving the Senate floor on Thursday, told reporters that lawmakers would have a continuous discussion as to how to move forward.

No one is necessarily against additional assistance, he said. Much of the rest of the money has not gone out yet. So its hard to measure the effect of that and the additional need.

Republicans and administration officials have said that the soaring demand for the small-business loan initiative, called the Paycheck Protection Program, warrants a stand-alone bill, while other demands should wait for negotiations on the broader package that lawmakers have begun referring to as Phase 4 of their coronavirus aid efforts.

With most of the funds from the $2 trillion economic stimulus plan just beginning to trickle out to agencies and taxpayers, they argued that it was premature to allocate billions more dollars this week.

The president has been very clear, Mr. Mnuchin said Thursday in an interview with CNBC. Hes happy to talk about other issues such as hospitals and states in the next bill, but we wanted to go and get money for the small-business program.

The stimulus package enacted last month created the Paycheck Protection Program and provided $350 billion for it. Its rollout has been plagued with problems, even as it has been inundated with requests from companies desperate to avoid collapse.

Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida and a vocal program advocate, said as of 2 p.m. Wednesday, more than 400,000 small businesses had been approved for loans, at a value of more than $100 billion.

The program is going to come to a halt, and theres going to be millions of small businesses locked out, on the outside looking in, Mr. Rubio warned in a video posted on Twitter. It will be because today in the Senate, Senate Democratic leaders decided to take the program hostage, hostage as leverage for unrelated items.

In addition to providing more money, the Democratic proposal would have placed new conditions and disclosure requirements on the administration, according to a summary released on Thursday. There were additional guidelines to streamline the lending process through the Paycheck Protection Program, and to expand its eligibility to include farms.

Some of the new small-business loan funds would also be reserved for small, community-based lenders, disaster grants or loans. Those included $50 billion for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which has typically been used to help companies after natural disasters. The program has run low on funding, and applicants are unclear what aid, if any, they will receive.

There is a disparity in access to capital in our country, Ms. Pelosi said. We do not want this tragedy of coronavirus to exacerbate that disparity.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency would have had to report to Congress monthly on the administrations coronavirus testing strategy, as well as on the allocation of testing and supplies.

And the administration would have had to submit a separate report by May 15 on the demographics of patients who had contracted Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and its strategies for reducing health disparities related to it. That proposal came about after data emerged suggesting that the disease was infecting and killing black people in the United States at disproportionately high rates.

Alan Rappeport contributed reporting.

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Small-Business Aid Stalls in Senate as Democrats Demand More Funds - The New York Times

WASHINGTON A showdown is taking shape in Congress over how far Washington should go in expanding voting access to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, with Democrats pressing to add new options for voters and President Trump and Republicans resisting changes they say could harm their election prospects in November.

Democrats are determined to add new voting requirements for Novembers general election to the next stage of coronavirus relief legislation, a move that Mr. Trump and Republican leaders have vowed to oppose. But it is one that Democrats believe is necessary and all the more urgent in light of the confusion and court fights surrounding Wisconsins elections on Tuesday.

With public health officials encouraging social distancing and staying at home to slow the spread of the virus, the prospect of millions of voters congregating at polling places around the country to cast their ballots this fall appears increasingly untenable and dangerous. But the fight over whether the federal government should require states to offer other options by allowing voting by mail, extending early voting and instituting other changes to protect voters and voting rights is emerging as a major sticking point as lawmakers look to pass a fourth emergency aid measure in the next few weeks.

Democrats argue that changes are imperative, and Congress must make them now before it will be too late to put them in place for the November balloting.

We cant allow our democracy to go down the tubes because this administration did not prepare for this pandemic, said Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, which oversees election law. We have to come up with best practices and make sure that everyone can still vote.

Mr. Trump, who in recent days has been ratcheting up his criticism of voting by mail, intensified his resistance on Wednesday, instructing Republicans in a tweet to fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting and saying it doesnt work out well for Republicans. He also claimed there was tremendous potential for voter fraud, though there is little evidence to back up that assertion.

Elections experts say voter fraud in general is extremely rare, including fraud involving ballots mailed in by voters. Most mail-ballot fraud involves absentee ballots and is committed by corrupt campaigns or election officials, not voters and even that is rare and generally easily caught. (Mr. Trump conceded on Tuesday that he voted by mail in Floridas primary election in March.)

Still, the president made it clear last month that he regarded Democrats efforts to include broader voting access in the stimulus measure as a direct threat to Republicans electoral prospects. They had things levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, youd never have a Republican elected in this country again, Mr. Trump said then.

Voting by mail, which has been shown to increase turnout, is routine in many parts of the country and is the chief way of voting in states such as Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Yet some Republicans, taking their cues from Mr. Trump, have become increasingly open in making the argument that it is detrimental to their partys political fortunes.

In an interview with a local call-in show, David Ralston, the Republican speaker of Georgias House, said a proposed vote-by-mail option for the states May primary would be a disaster for his party, explaining that the president had said it best.

This will be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia, Mr. Ralston said. This will certainly drive up turnout.

Other Republicans say their opposition to Democrats proposals is driven by a belief that states should control their own elections and that, beyond providing sufficient money to conduct safe and fair voting, the federal government should stay out of their way.

Im philosophically opposed to the federal government taking over elections, said Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, the top Republican on the Rules Committee and a longtime state elections official himself. It is a bad idea. Im pretty flexible about the amount of money, but Im not flexible about a federal takeover of the election process itself.

Adding to the intensity over the fight is that Democrats and their allies see the forthcoming legislation as probably the last chance to force changes before it will be too late for states and counties to make adjustments in their election procedures for November. In a private conference call on Wednesday with House Democrats, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would push to include $2 billion for voting assistance in the next sweeping coronavirus crisis response package that is expected to be debated this month, according to people familiar with the conversation who described it on the condition of anonymity.

Democrats say they realize that it would not be feasible to initiate nationwide mail voting in this election cycle and they are simultaneously pressing for other, potentially less contentious new rules.

One measure with strong Democratic support calls for guaranteeing that all states allow at least 20 days of early, in-person voting to enable people to spread out their trips to polling places rather than lining up on Election Day. Introduced in March by Ms. Klobuchar and Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, it would also loosen existing restrictions in some states on who can cast absentee ballots; allow registration online and by mail at least 21 days before an election, or closer if states allow; and require all jurisdictions to develop a plan for voting in the event of an emergency.

A big part of this will be voting at home, Ms. Klobuchar said, but it wouldnt be only voting at home.

Democrats fought to include their $2 billion request for significant changes in voting practices at the state level in the $2 trillion stimulus bill enacted last month. Republicans initially responded with an offer of $10 million, officials said, before the final amount was set at $400 million.

Democrats said they were disappointed with the absence of new voting accessibility requirements but did not want to hold up the emergency legislation over the election fight, since they assumed another bill would emerge and provide an avenue for enacting broad changes. Now, some lawmakers see a voting crisis emerging and promise that the coming fourth phase of government relief is their opportunity to do something about it.

On the next bill, I intend to be far more determined and fierce on insisting on vote-by-mail, said Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate subcommittee that funds elections. Mail voting is the method that best preserves the social distancing.

Despite calls for Congress to institute new ballot and voting protections after foreign interference in the 2016 elections and voting disputes around the country, Republicans have been reluctant to do so, though they have supported an infusion of funds to help local elections officials make changes they see as necessary.

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, had drawn intense criticism for failing to act on proposals from the House. Republicans are likely to dig in on that position now that the president has taken such a strong stance against any changes. Republicans argue that Democrats are calling for the new voting rules only because they believe the modifications will give them an edge in the upcoming elections.

Our Democratic friends want the federal government to take over elections, but historically those have been handled at the state level I think that makes the most sense, Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, told reporters. Actually thats the safest, in terms of interference from outsiders. Its actually our dispersed system that makes it harder for an adversary to come in and meddle with our elections. So, I dont see that as being a part of this coronavirus response.

Mr. Blunt said that local elections officials were best positioned to determine how to carry out their own elections and that federal interference would bog down decision-making. He said the federal government should provide the resources but leave the final say to local jurisdictions.

If the states want to do all these things, I have no problem with it, Mr. Blunt said. This is a responsibility that the states have always had, and I think they would do it much better than the federal government. The federal government cannot do everything.

But after the spectacle of thousands of Wisconsin voters risking potential exposure to the coronavirus while waiting in line to cast their ballots this week, and with elections around the nation being postponed, Democrats say it is time for the federal government to step in.

When you look at what is happening in Wisconsin and whats going on around the country, we cant let this happen in the fall, Ms. Klobuchar said.

She conceded that it was impossible to predict now what the state of the pandemic crisis would be in several months. But whatever it is, she said, there is no reason that this early on we cannot reform our election process.

Michael Wines and Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting.

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As Pandemic Imperils Elections, Democrats Clash With Trump on Voting Changes - The New York Times