Last Night's Primary Election Results-- Wins And Losses

Ballots are still being counted almost everywhere. Kentucky has already announced that there will be no final vote count until June 30-- which is when the state's two biggest counties, Jefferson (Louisville) and Fayette (Lexington) plan to release their results. Both are considered strongholds for Charles Booker and not a single vote is in the preliminary totals, which represent the 2,005 counted precincts out of a statewide total of 3,685-- 54.41%. This morning Schumer's establishment candidate, Amy McGrath led progressive Charles Booker 27,668 (44.7%) to 22,564 (36.5%), with a second progressive, Mike Broihier a distant third with 3,900 votes (6.3%). As of June 3rd, Massie had raised almost $41 million to Booker's $788,525. She spent $21,492,634 to his $503,623.

The only other Kentucky contest worth noting was the Republican primary in the 4th district, 12 counties that go from the suburbs east of Louisville and south of Cincinnati right into coal mining country as far as the West Virginia border. Trump and the GOP DC Establishment made an attempt to replace independent-minded, libertarian incumbent Thomas Massie with extremist Trumpist robot Todd McMurtry. As of the last FEC deadline, Massie had spent $996,338 to McMurtry's $328,026. An ad hoc Trumpist SuperPAC called Civic PAC spent $132,500 smearing Massie. It didn't work and he has apparently won in a landslide. With 85.42% of precincts counted (463 out of 542) Massie has 16,801 (88%) votes to McMurtry's 2,300 (12%).

Before we get to New York, there were also some relatively sleepy contests in Virginia-- except one. Progressive champion Qasim Rashid beat Lavangelene Williams 21,768 (52.8%) to 19,469 (47.2%) in the first congressional district, an amalgam of 18 almost random counties from the exurbs of DC to the exurbs of Richmond plus James City and Fredericksburg city. Most of the voters live in very blue Prince William County, very red Hanover County and swingy Stafford County. The district PVI is R+8 but Trump just won it with 53.6% in 2016 and incumbent Rob Wittman was reelected last cycle with just 55.2% and could be ousted by Qasim in November.

Now, New York. Let's go through the congressional results district by district, although I want to begin with NY-14, the Bronx and Queens district won in 2018 by AOC. A transpartisan coalition-- funded largely by Wall Street-- backed a Wall Street Republican pretending to be a Democrat, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and spent immense sums of money smearing AOC with an intensity and virulence no one ever sees in a Democratic primary. The voters weren't buying it and AOC kicked her ass, 27,103 (72.6%) to 7,254 (19.4%). Two vanity candidates drew almost 3,000 votes (close to 8%). Caruso-Cabrera can't switch back to the GOP and run as a Republican in November-- although she is evacuating her Queens apartment and moving back to Trump Tower-- so the GOP is running some guy named John Cummings. You can contribute to AOC's November campaign here.

NY-01 is eastern Long Island, most of Suffolk County and Democrats were vying to see who would take on GOP incumbent Lee Zeldin. There was some fear that the two moderately progressive candidates, Perry Gershon (who Zeldin beat in 2018, 51.5% to 47.4%) and Nancy Goroff, would split progressive votes and allow a more conservative Democrat, Bridget Fleming to win the nomination. Instead, there's an incredibly tight race for number one between Gershon and Goroff, that is unlikely to be decided 'til every last vote is counted and, probably, recounted. As of this morning with all 473 precincts counted:

• Perry Gershon- 5,166 (35.5%)
• Nancy Goroff- 5,022 (34.4%)
• Bridget Fleming- 4,062 (27.9%)
• Gregory-John Fischer 322 (2.2%)

NY-02, the south shore Long Island district that includes parts of both Nassau and Suffolk, should have been a hotspot election... but wasn't. Peter King announced her retirement and Republican Andrew Garbarino will run in his place. The DCCC picked Jackie Gordon-- a typical DCCC pick-- as their candidate and she beat Patricia Maher, who has run unsuccessfully against King before. Sleepy race and Gordon, predictably won with about 73% of the vote (374 precincts out of 524 counted-- about 70%).

The north shore district, which includes some of Suffolk County and a tiny bit of Queens is mostly Nassau and the incumbent is New Dem Tom Suozzi. With just 45.6% of precincts accounted for, he seems to have beat back a weak challenge from the left by Melanie D'Arrigo, 58.9% to 32.7%. It's considered a swing district but Suozzi is an effective and popular congressman and is likely to beat Republican George Santos by something like 60-40% as he did in 2018 against Republican Dan DeBono.

One of my big disappointments of last night was Gregory Meeks' apparent win over Democratic Socialist Shan Chowdhury, although as of this morning, only 39 of 492 precincts have been counted. Predictably-- Meeks being the Queens County machine boss-- NY-05 was the capital of voter suppression and election fraud. I spoke with Shan this morning and his lawyers are investigating how Meeks was able to steal the election and what they can do about it.

The next district with a seriously contested primary was NY-09 a Brooklyn district stretching from Sheepshead Bay to eastern Park Slope, with Prospect Park, Brownsville, Brooklyn College, Flatbush, part of Midwood and Crown Heights in between. Yvette Clarke has one of the most progressive voting records in Congress-- and the second most progressive of any New Yorker in Congress (even higher on the ProgressivePunch list than AOC!) but was primaried from the left again. Grassroots super-progressives Adem Bunkeddeko and Isiah James took about 27% of the vote between them. With all 532 precincts reporting, Clarke was reelected with 62.3%.

In the 10th district (incongruously Manhattan's West Side and Brooklyn's most Hasidic neighborhoods) Jerry Nadler beat back two opponents, an internet progressive and a gay Zionist, former Andrew Yang staffer, to win with 61.8%.

Tragically, odious Blue Dog Max Rose had no primary opponent in the Staten Island, south Brooklyn 11th district. The NRCC chosen candidate, Nicole Malliotakis, won the Republican primary with 70.4%.

In the 12th district there is an incredibly tight race that will probably be finalized next week. Wall Street shill Carolyn Maloney may be defeated by Suraj Patel in this Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens district.

NY-15 in the South Bronx was a real clustefuck on several levels. Longtime progressive incumbent Jose Serrano decided to retire, triggering a complicated primary with a dozen candidates, each appealing to a narrow segment of the population. The common enemy was pretend Democrat Ruben Diaz, Sr., an anti-Choice, homophobic sociopath and Trump supporter and there was tremendous anxiety that the more progressive candidates would split the vote and elect Diaz, who has the most name-recognition in the district. With all 490 precincts counted, this is how the top vote getters fared:

The most closely-watched race in the state was for the Bronx-Westchester district where incumbent Eliot Engel was the designated Joe Crowley of 2020 and faced off against progressive reformer Jamaal Bowman. The most corrupt of the Democratic establishment backed Engel-- Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bob Menendez, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff as well as the DCCC, and a pack of sleazy local politicians. Jamaal was endorsed by virtually every progressive organization in the country as well as by Bernie, AOC, Elizabeth Warren, Ayanna Pressley, Katie Porter, Zephyr Teachout, Marianne Williamson and progressive state legislators Alessandra Biaggi and Jessica Ramos. With 91.5% of the precincts in, Jamaal won 21,851 (60.9%) to 12,769 (35.6%), an ignominious finish to Engel's career as Netanyahu's top shill in the House. This was Jamaal's statement this morning:

From the very beginning, we anchored our campaign in the fight for racial and economic justice. We spoke the truth-- about the police, about systemic racism, about inequality-- and it resonated in every part of the district.

Many doubted that we could overcome the power and money of a 31-year incumbent. But the results show that the people of NY-16 aren’t just ready for change-- they’re demanding it.

We brought people together across race, across class, across religion, across gender, to fight for justice, to fight for equality, and to fight to create a country that works for all of us. We didn’t let them divide us. And we did it all without accepting a dime from corporate PACs or lobbyists.

The world has changed. Congress needs to change too. But if we can take on entrenched power and wealthy interests here in Westchester and the Bronx, then we can do it all across this country.

I’m a Black man who was raised by a single mother in a housing project. That story doesn’t usually end in Congress. But today, that 11-year old boy who was beaten by police is about to be your next Representative.

I cannot wait to get to Washington and cause problems for the people maintaining the status quo.

Just north of NY-16 is the 17th, also in Westchester plus Rockland County. The incumbent Pelosi-ally is retiring and Mondaire Jones, the most progressive candidate running, had already declared he would primary her. Instead he beat a pack of corporate big money Dems and right-wing state Senator David Carlucci. Mondaire is black and gay and progressive, not the profile anyone would have predicted for the 17th.

In Syracuse, NY-24 nominated progressive Dana Balter by a wide margin (64.5% to 35.5%) over conservative Democrat Francis Conole. In the Rochester district (25), conservative New Dem won renomination against progressive challenger Robin Wilt, who picked up 35.2% of the vote.

And the open 27th in western New York, between the suburbs of Buffalo and the suburbs west of Rochester, had a special election to fill the open seat left behind by Trump ally Chris Collins when he was found guilty on multiple economic fraud charges. An heir to a fortune, Republican Chris Jacobs beat Democrat Nate McMurray but the two will face off again in November's general election, when McMurray is thought to have a better chance to win. You can contribute to Nate's general election campaign-- and to the general election campaigns of Mondaire Jones and Jamaal Bowman-- by clicking on the 2020 Blue America congressional thermometer on the right.

One last thing: there was a special election primary runoff in North Carolina yesterday where 24 year old new-comer Madison Cawthorn defeated Lynda Bennett for the GOP nomination to replace Trump's latest chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Both Meadows and Trump had endorsed Bennett. Cawthorn will now face retired Air Force Col. Moe Davis, the Democratic nominee in the heavily Republican district (PVI is R+14, the reddest in the state, and Trump won the district in 2016 with 57.2%). And, yes, he's a total Trumpist.

A Republican soon-to-be congressman (right)

Better To Declare Victory After Victory Has Come

He's young, he's probably gay and probably a murderer and definitely a fascist... but he's young

Reid Wilson isn't exactly who I look to for good electoral news for progressives, but his post at The Hill yesterday, Wins by young progressives start reshaping establishment, was almost suspiciously, if not downright prematurely, optimistic. "The left wing of the Democratic Party may have lost the war over the party's presidential nomination," he wrote, "but its members are quietly winning battles in states and cities across the country. Progressive candidates have knocked off incumbent officeholders in places such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., and New Mexico in recent weeks in elections that are marking the end of an older generation of the political establishment. Those elections may be a preview of the rest of the primary season, when long-serving Democrats find themselves the targets of well-organized campaigns to oust them." Hmmmm... key words: "may be."

There were a few legitimate big wins of national import (Marie Newman in Chicagoland and Kara Eastman in Omaha)-- and, yes there were some nice local races too, where progressives won but he seems to be hung up on "young" as a end-all for, perhaps forgetting that the youngest members of Congress when they were elected included not just AOC, but far right extremists like Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Aaron Schock (R-IL) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL), as well as shitbag ConservaDems Harold Ford, Jr. (Blue Dog-TN) and Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL). In this argument, I'm afraid, "age" is over-rated.

At least four Pennsylvania Democratic state legislators lost their seats in last week's primary. Two of the winning challengers in the Philadelphia area scored endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). In Pittsburgh, Emily Kinkead, a progressive making her first run for office, ousted state Rep. Adam Ravenstahl (D), the brother of the city's former mayor.

Two other Democratic incumbents trail their rivals by margins narrow enough that they could be reversed as more ballots are counted.

"I consider myself to be a proud progressive," said Amanda Cappelletti, who beat a sitting state senator to claim the Democratic nomination in a Philadelphia-area district. "I wanted to figure out the best way that I could serve and help people, and this would be a good opportunity to use my skills."

She beat Daylin Leach, the Pennsylvania legislature's "liberal lion" and I'll be happy to see if she's half as good a state senator as Leach has been. I hope so. Because his legislative record is pretty amazing.

In New Mexico, insurgent progressive challengers ousted five moderate and conservative Democrats, including state Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen and state Sen. John Arthur Smith, the chairman of the Finance Committee.

...Advances in technology have allowed progressive candidates to make inroads in big cities once dominated by party bosses, said Waleed Shahid, who directs communications for Justice Democrats, a progressive group that backs insurgent challengers.

"The internet is defeating these political machines. Where 20 years ago you would have to have the blessing of local party leaders just to get on the ballot, now you can have a good social media operation and leapfrog the party leadership and establishment networks," Shahid said.

This year, another progressive, marketing consultant Marie Newman ousted Rep. Dan Lipinski in Illinois's Democratic primary in March.

More surprises are likely ahead. After Ocasio-Cortez upset Rep. Joe Crowley (D) in 2018, progressives have made a point to go after Engel and Clarke.

He wrote that José Serrano (D-NY) and Nita Lowey (D-NY) "opted to retire rather than face what would have been almost certain primary challenges," without mentioning that Serrano is one of the most far left members of Congress and may well be followed by either a Republican pretending to be a Democrat or a garden variety middle-of-the-road Democratic hack. There's also a chance a real progressive like Serrano could win, say Tomas Ramos-- but that will be tough. Lowey's time was up and if Mondaire Jones wins a crowded primary, there will be a real improvement... but that will be no cakewalk either.

"In September, Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) will face off against Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse (D), who has proved an adept fundraiser," wrote. Fingers crossed. "The primary challenges are coming as a younger, more progressive millennial generation becomes a potent force in politics." I'm certain Wilson doesn't pay attention at all, but progressive stars who lost so far are almost too numerous to mention, from Jessica Cisneros (TX), Rachel Ventura (IL), Kim Williams (CA), Mark Gamba (OR), Jennifer Christie (IN) and Jim Harper (IN) to Mckayla Wilkes (MD), Nabilah Islam (GA), Michael Owens (GA), Robert Emmons (IL) and Tom Winter (MT), all of whom lost to much more conservative candidates. And that doesn't include the dozens of sad cases who thought copying Bernie's platform, finding a couple of like-minded idealists and then playing on social media all day meant you could win a congressional seat.

"Though Ocasio-Cortez has become the symbol of the rising generation of progressive officeholders," wrote Wilson, "the movement is increasingly looking to down-ballot races both as an avenue for making policy changes at the state level and as a way to build a bench for the future. 'You can feel a change in the focus that grassroots progressives have put on some of these local races, really since 2016. I think part of it came from a recognizing, waking up from the Obama years just how much Democrats had lost,' said Neil Sroka, who directs communications for Democracy for America and also won a city council seat himself. 'The Trump moment exposed the ways in which cities and local offices could be a real buttress against a government that was 100 percent in the control of right-wing Republicans. I think that there has been a real awakening.'"

I don't discount this-- and entirely encourage it all I can-- but Congress is where power to stand up to conservatives like Trump and Biden rests, not on the city council. Yesterday, the American Prospect published an essay by Alexander Sammon, Chuck Schumer’s Very Bad Week-- Corporate Democrats for Senate limp to the finish line. I doubt Schumer is crying; he won his races and we won't hear him whining unless his milquetoast establishment picks lose in Colorado and Kentucky. But so far, he's won them all with the worst slate of Democrats I can ever remember up for Senate. Sammon correctly stated that "Early on in this election cycle, things were going great for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. In nearly every contested Democratic Senate primary, Schumer and his caucus’s campaign arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), got the desired result, either clearing the field of competitors to his hand-picked preference before voting even began or winning comfortable victories. Bloodless centrist Cal Cunningham triumphed in North Carolina over progressive State Sen. Erica Smith to take on shaky Republican Sen. Thom Tillis; Smith had been leading in polls before Schumer made his endorsement. Real-estate developer Theresa Greenfield triumphed easily in Iowa; the Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC spent $6.7 million on her behalf in the primary. Schumer selection M.J. Hegar also cruised over multiple progressives in the Senate primary to take on Republican John Cornyn, though she still must finish the job in a run-off in July. Other races in Arizona and New Mexico saw the Schumer-backed candidate chase out all competition. When Schumer stamps a candidate with DSCC approval, he also marshals big money in support of them. In other words, Schumer doesn’t just get what he wants because he’s good at picking moderates with broad appeal. He just picks people who are inoffensive to the DSCC donor base, and then uses their money to stack the deck in their favor. Bob Moser documented this highly dubious and clearly anti-democratic practice, in great detail, in a recent issue of The Prospect." And now for the speculation and hopefulness we share with Sammon:

[S]everal of Schumer’s high-profile picks are starting to falter, rapidly losing ground to underfunded progressive upstarts just ahead of election day.

The most prominent instance comes from Kentucky, where Schumer intervened in the primary early. Back in February 2019, Schumer was already actively stumping for former fighter pilot Amy McGrath to challenge Mitch McConnell, the case for her candidacy predicated almost entirely on a popular TV ad last cycle that propelled her within 3 points of winning a swing House seat in Lexington.

McGrath is exactly the sort of moderate that only a Schumer could love. Her sales pitch so far has been her willingness to work with Trump once in office, which, if you believe in the Joe Biden campaign, or the Democratic Party at all, is an extremely confounding message. Of course, thanks to Schumer’s minting, McGrath was the immediate beneficiary of an incomparable torrent of cash, which initially prevented any meaningful primary challenge. She’s raised over $41 million, and spent $21.8 million to date. But last November, Charles Booker, a first-term progressive state senator from Louisville, announced a late bid for the seat.

Booker, despite having spent barely $500,000, is now ascending, racking up endorsements from national politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as popular eastern Kentucky sports radio host Matt Jones (an important figure in the state who almost ran for the seat himself) and the Louisville Courier-Journal, Kentucky’s highest circulation newspaper. Despite McGrath outspending him an astonishing 40 to 1, the race is somehow closer than ever, with recent polling showing him within a handful of percentage points. That certainly doesn’t bode well for McGrath’s attractiveness as a candidate.

Booker has assumed newfound national prominence with his participation in Louisville’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations, repeatedly taking to the streets to protest the death of Breonna Taylor at the hands of Louisville PD, and Louisville restaurateur David McAtee by the Kentucky National Guard. McGrath, meanwhile, hasn’t turned out to a single protest. She’s instead training the DSCC’s funding firehose on television buys, hoping to extinguish the flames that are lapping up her campaign ahead of this month’s primary.

Meanwhile, another Schumer pick, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, finds himself embroiled in a new corruption scandal. A local news investigation just uncovered millions of dollars in off-the-books donations from corporations and private foundations to Hickenlooper’s office, dating back almost two decades. The startling revelation shows that during his eight years as governor, Hickenlooper expanded the “public-private partnership” program, which took corporate donations and used them to fund departments and positions in his administration with no oversight.

The donations ran in the millions of dollars during his two terms as governor. Among the biggest donors was Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, one of Colorado’s biggest fracking operators. In one instance in 2017, the company donated $25,000 to the governor’s office, just days after a deadly explosion in the state, caused by a leaky underground pipeline owned by the company. Over the course of four years, Anadarko gave Hickenlooper’s office more than $330,000, money that was then used for government activities, but of which there is little accounting.

Hickenlooper, who already bears the handle “Frackenlooper” for his role in expanding fracking as governor, is taking on Andrew Romanoff for the chance to do battle with Republican Sen. Cory Gardner in November, in what is almost certainly the most flippable Senate seat in the country. Hickenlooper, briefly a presidential candidate, was considered a prized recruit when Schumer talked him into running for Senate. (He’d previously said, “I’m not cut out to be a senator.”) But his reputation on environmental issues, along with this new corruption scandal, has imperiled his chances. Romanoff, former speaker of the Colorado State House, won April’s Democratic Assembly vote in dominant fashion, securing top-line designation in the June 30 primary. Schumer and the DSCC knew that Hickenlooper was weak as far back as August, when they began pressuring consultants from at least five firms not to work with Romanoff, according to The Intercept. If Hickenlooper pulls it off, it will only be because of the fundraising advantage bestowed on him by the DSCC.

Want to help? The 2020 non-Schumer Senate candidates thermometer is just above. Click on it and if you see a name you like, chip in a few dollars. And the House candidates still in there, still fighting to make the House Democratic more-- not less-- progressive, which is clearly the intention of Blue Dog Cheri Bustos and the DCCC. On the right is the 2020 Blue America congressional thermometer. Here's where you'll find the candidates like Jamaal Bowman (NY), Keeda Haynes (TN), Shan Chowdhury (NY), Eva Putzova (AZ), Tom Guild (OK), Hector Oseguera (NJ), Robin Wilt (NY) still working to replace establishment hacks and conservatives in primaries-- as well as progressives like Marie Newman (IL), Jon Hoadley (MI), Audrey Denney (CA), Cathy Kunkel (WV), Kara Eastman (NE), Julie Oliver (TX), and Liam O'Mara (CA), who have already won their primaries and are up against right-wing Republican incumbents.

Will Kentucky Democrats Shut Down Boss Hogg-- I Mean Boss Schumer?

Schumer picked a slate of miserable status quo Democratic Senate candidates for 2020. Not one of them stands for any change except the superficial change of replacing a corporate Republican with a corporate Democrat. If there's an anti-red wave, some of them will win. They define why there is no blue wave. There's nothing to vote for-- just a series of less-of-two evils races:

• Arizona- Mark Kelly (a recent Democrat)
• Alaska- Al Gross (not even a Democrat)
• Arkansas- Schumer neglected to recruit a candidate against Tom Cotton
• Colorado- Frackenlooper
• Georgia- Jon Ossoff*
• Iowa- Theresa Greenfield*
• Kansas- Barbara Bollier (a recent "Democrat")
• Maine- Sara Gideon
• Montana- Steve Daines (even a clock is right twice a day; Schumer got it right once)
• New Mexico- Ben Ray Luján*
• North Carolina- Cal Cunningham*
• South Carolina- Jaime Harrison (a lobbyist)
• Texas- MJ Heger*

The asterisk (*) denotes candidates whose photos could be in the dictionary next to the phrase "born loser." and then, at least symbolically, there's the most important Senate race of the cycle: Kentucky, where majority leader and professional impediment Mitch McConnell-- the most hated man in poll after poll-- in American politics. Schumer picked a "born loser" candidate and the media, obediently accepted her as THE candidate and treated it as a fait accompli... until last week, when, despite Schumer's attempt to pretend his candidate, Amy McGrath, was the candidate Kentucky Democrats started asking themselves who some lug from Brooklyn, fully owned and operated by Wall Street, gets to pick their nominee. Especially since there's a better candidate in the race, Charles Booker.

As of June 3rd, Booker had raised $788,270, almost entirely from grassroots donors. The Schumer candidate-- with lots of help from Schumer-- brought in $40,825,989. A consultant for Schumer's candidate persuaded her to come off as a pro-Trump Democrat, something that hasn't exactly impressed Kentucky Democrats. Booker's vibrant, progressive grassroots coalition helps explain his growing appeal-- and why the state's two most important newspapers, the Louisville Courier Journal and the Lexington Herald Leader endorsed him so effusively last week.

Schumer must have been going crazy on Wednesday when someone told him the Courier Journal endorsement was going to make much harder for him to quietly slip his nothing candidate into the nomination, the way he had already done in North Carolina, Georgia, Iowa and Texas. "This," wrote the editorial board, "is a historic time in our state and nation. A time when young and old, black, white and brown are calling for change-- not just incremental change, but sweeping reform that will usher in true equality and justice for all. To get there, we need political leaders with insight and vision, who understand the challenges of our times and are willing to put forth bold ideas and fight for everyday people. Voters in Kentucky and around the country deserve the chance to consider candidates who have strident beliefs and the courage to go beyond scripted, milquetoast politics." Schumer is all about pickinging "scripted, milquetoast" hacks. "Political leaders with insight and vision" scares the hell out of him and infuriates him. They wrote that Booker "is the kind of political leader and change agent that our commonwealth needs" but that the Schumer candidate-- doing exactly what Schumer directed her to do-- "has not shown the progressive ideas and bold leadership necessary to move our state forward. She has been overly moderate, measured and cautious throughout this campaign, focusing more on her military service (which we applaud and sincerely respect) or her motherhood than offering a sweeping vision for the commonwealth-- especially in these turbulent times. Unfortunately, her message to voters has been unimaginative and uninspiring."

The Herald-Leader described her as Schumer's "anointed front-runner with a war chest of donations that might even rival McConnell’s usual corporate haul," but Kentucky Democrats have been unimpressed by a campaign that has entirely ignored them and been focussed on appealing to Republicans and independents, once even saying she would have voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court!

By February, Blue America was convinced that Booker is the candidate to beat McConnell and we endorsed him in early March. Since then, AOC and Bernie weighed in for him, as did a whole slew of progressive organizations. The headline at Politico yesterday isn't what Schumer wanted to see: Insurgent threatens to derail McGrath-McConnell showdown in Kentucky. "State Rep. Charles Booker has captured late momentum in the June 23 primary, fueled by prominent endorsements and Amy McGrath's stumbles," wrote Jim Arkin and Burgess Everett. Booker, they wrote "now has all the momentum in the closing days of the election," which takes place June 23. You can contribute to his campaign by clicking on the Blue America Senate 2020 thermometer on the right.

McGrath is the favorite of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm and many sitting senators, and it’s hard to imagine she could lose a primary in which she’s outspent her opponents combined by a nearly 30-1 margin through early June. But there are signs it's turning into a real race: Booker is panning McGrath as a bland national Democrat who is predictably tacking to the center, while McGrath is biting back at Booker, accusing him of talking a big game on health care and voting rights but not backing it up.

"I don't really know what position Amy McGrath takes because she goes back and forth on everything depending on what consultants seem to say,” Booker said in an interview. “I know that Kentuckians can smell BS from miles away.”

...McGrath had a bumpy rollout last year, saying in one of her first interviews that she would have supported Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, only to reverse herself later that day. More recently, Republican governors and Cindy McCain, the late Sen. John McCain’s widow, condemned ads of hers using their images to attack McConnell.

And McGrath has few substantial in-state endorsements, while Booker has been endorsed by prominent Kentucky media and close to two-dozen elected officials.

...McGrath is positioning herself somewhere in the realm of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), a moderate Democrat [a values-free conservative opportunist] elected in 2018 who works with Republicans more than her own party leaders. McConnell himself declined to pinpoint whom he would rather face.

Sanders' and Ocasio-Cortez’s backing helped boost fundraising for Booker, and he raised nearly $1 million in nine days, three times his entire first-quarter haul. Newspaper endorsements and backing from sports radio host Matt Jones gives Booker legitimate in-state boosters outside his base in Louisville.

After coronavirus stalled any effort at toppling McGrath, the protests against police brutality are sparking newfound momentum for Booker.

“How do you run your campaign when you can't go anywhere? And then these protests come around, and I think it helped Charles find his footing and find his voice,” said Jones, who considered running for the seat and criticizes the DSCC. He acknowledged that McGrath remains the favorite but predicted a close finish.

“I don't know that I’ve ever seen a race where somebody has this much money and seems to be struggling,” he added.

Most Democrats declined to criticize McGrath on the record. Even Sanders gave a guarded response when asked why he felt the need to weigh in.

“We’re going to support progressive candidates who are fighting for the issues that we believe in,” Sanders said this week.

Democratic leaders were perplexed by Sanders’ intervention. As Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) put it: “Bernie may have made some promise to someone along the way.”

“She is in the mainstream of Democratic thinking, and I think is very electable in the commonwealth of Kentucky,” said Durbin, who is from neighboring Illinois.

Despite the intrigue in the primary, Kentucky is not central to Democrats’ campaign for the majority. Party officials say that it’s one of the longest shots to flip this election, and the money soaked up by McGrath would arguably go much further in North Carolina, Montana and Iowa.

“Those polls that show it tied are real. But the composition of the undecideds should give us great pause. I am more bullish on South Carolina, Texas-- I mean, almost every other race,” said one Democratic senator familiar with party strategy.

McGrath has been squeezed on both sides down the stretch: Booker is running an ad claiming she’s not a “real Democrat” and suggesting she’s too pro-Trump, while McConnell’s campaign released a new ad attacking her support for Trump’s impeachment and calling her “extreme.”

“You can’t run against McConnell from a defensive crouch with a playbook that was obviously cooked up by consultants. You have to perform every day, drive a message and keep him on his back foot,” said Adam Jentleson, who was a top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). "Only Charles will be able to do that."

Is It Really Possible That History Will Judge Mitch McConnell More Harshly Than Trump?

Yesterday, The Nation published a piece by Jeet Heer, Mitch McConnell Is Even Worse Than Trump, which notes that both are now basically AWOL is the pandemic crisis. While Trump spends his days "stirring up culture-war controversies with the media and Democrats as a way to move the discussion beyond the pandemic and the economic crisis. A distraction strategy makes sense because Trump has effectively given up on crafting any serious policy response to the pandemic. As Greg Sargent of the Washington Post notes, 'Trump’s war on reality has veered into a new place. Trump is responding to our most dire public health and economic crises in modern times with a concerted, far-reaching effort to concoct the mirage that we’re racing past both. The signs of this,' Sargent observes, 'are everywhere: in a new federal testing blueprint that largely casts responsibility on the states. In Trump’s new rage-tweets at the North Carolina governor over whether a full convention will be held under coronavirus conditions. And in demands for liability protections for companies so sickened workers can’t sue.'Trump’s response to the pandemic, now that the first wave has peaked and is perhaps beginning a slow decline, is to ride it out. He is going to do as much as he can to pretend that it is all but over and to distance himself from any responsibility for the continuing deaths."

Trump has in effect gone AWOL. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has been equally derelict, taking repeated breaks from Washington and focusing his energies more on filling court vacancies than crafting a policy response to the pandemic. In mid-March, the hashtag #WheresMitch gained currency because he recessed the Senate to return to his home state of Kentucky to celebrate the elevation of a protégé, Justin Walker, to the federal bench.

Last Friday, the Senate started another recess, this one lasting three weeks. That leaves the $3 trillion relief package that the House has passed in a limbo, awaiting McConnell’s return for negotiations to even start deliberating about any Senate revisions. McConnell’s decision to delay the relief package comes at a time when unemployment rates are about to approach 20 percent, a catastrophic level not seen since the Great Depression. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell warns that the recession could last until the end of 2021.

Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are often treated like an odd couple, a pair of opposites who have been forced together. Trump is the loud outsider who has no real understanding of how government works. McConnell is the low-key consummate insider, skilled at gaming the system through backroom deals.

Jane Mayer’s in-depth profile of the Kentucky senator in the New Yorker quotes many Washington observers who draw a contrast between the two men. One former Trump administration official told Mayer, “It would be hard to find two people less alike in temperament in the political arena. With Trump, there’s rarely an unspoken thought. McConnell is the opposite-- he’s constantly thinking but says as little as possible.” The official added, “Trump is about winning the day, or even the hour. McConnell plays the long game. He’s sensitive to the political realities. His North Star is continuing as Majority Leader-- it’s really the only thing for him. He’s patient, sly, and will obfuscate to make less apparent the ways he’s moving toward a goal.”

But as Mayer makes clear, McConnell’s single-minded focus on keeping his position as majority leader aligns him in a deep way with Trump, despite their superficial dissimilarities. Both Trump and McConnell are nihilists, eager above all to hold on to power and to serve the wealthy donors of the Republican Party. Mayer quotes John David Dyche, a conservative lawyer in Louisville who had been a McConnell admirer until recently and wrote an admiring biography of him. According to Dyche, McConnell “of course realizes that Trump is a hideous human being and utterly unfit to be president” but doesn’t do anything about it because the senator has “no ideology except his own political power.”

Far from being an odd couple, Trump and McConnell are a perfectly paired duo. They work well together as a grifter team. Trump is the clown who grabs all the attention, while McConnell picks the pockets of the distracted crowd.

As grotesque as Trump is, McConnell is worse. McConnell has been around longer and has helped create the conditions that made Trump’s rise possible. McConnell’s obstruction during the Obama years, including blocking the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland, contributed to the demoralization of the Democratic base and the larger feeling in America that Washington is hopelessly gridlocked. In 2016 Trump skillfully exploited the anxiousness created by gridlock and sold himself as the outsider who can fix it.

Democrats are eager to defeat Trump in the fall election. But they should bear in mind that McConnell is the bigger villain. The goal should be to make sure McConnell loses his position as majority leader. Even sweeter would be if he were ejected from his seat.

Charles Booker resigned from his state Rep job to run full-time against McConnell. This morning he told me that "The reality is that Mitch McConnell controls so much of what happens in Washington. As reckless and dangerous as Trump is, it is Mitch McConnell’s absolute abandonment of his oath, our constitution, and our lives that has allowed Trump to balloon our deficit, uproot our progress on the world stage, and willfully ignore the chances to lead in the face of COVID-19. Donald Trump is an idiot, but Mitch McConnell is intentional. There is no progress for our country that includes him remaining in office. That is why I am building a movement of fed up and fired up Kentuckians to beat him."

The other progressive in the Kentucky Democratic primary is Mike Broihier, who has been endorsed by Marianne Williamson, This morning, Mike told us that "It was the slow realization that Trump was a symptom and McConnell the disease that pulled me into the fight to rid the Republic of him. In rare moments of honesty McConnell himself will tip his hand and tell us he is, '...changing America for ever,' with his agenda of, 'Judges, judges, judges.' The smoke and noise from the daily dumpster fire at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is perfect cover for him packing the federal bench with unqualified, ideologically driven judges with lifetime appointments. Judges that are hostile to women, hostile to racial minorities, hostile to LGBTQ persons, hostile to labor and hostile to immigrants. Long after Trump is gone and long after McConnell is gone generations of Americans will be dealing with the fallout of this tactic."

McConnell And The GOP Would Like To Force State Governments Into Bankruptcy, Something That Would Absolutely Cause The U.S. To Collapse Economically

Some states-- most of them blue-- pay far more into the federal government than they get out. Kentucky-- like many more economically backward red states-- get much more than they pay in. The 6 states that pay the most per capita for the least return are Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Colorado and Nebraska. And the states that get the most after giving the least are Virginia, Kentucky, Alaska, New Mexico, Maryland and Alabama-- with Mississippi and West Virginia almost tied with Alabama. That said, the senior senator from Kentucky, Miss McConnell, was making an awful lot of noise yesterday about the federal government cutting off aid to states most afflicted with COVID-19 so far and letting them go bankrupt. These are the states with the most cases per million population (with the raw number of confirmed cases in parenthesis):

• New York- 13,687 (268,512)
• New Jersey- 11,258 (99,989)
• Massachusetts- 6,287 (42,944)
• Connecticut- 6,274 (22,469)
• Rhode Island- 5,921 (6,256)
• Louisiana- 5,519 (25,739)

McConnell's staff refers to the idea of helping the states hardest hit by the pandemic so far a blue state bailout." The New York Daily News wasn't amused and noted that in Kentucky almost 40% of the state's budget comes as handouts from DC, much of that financed by the very states that are hardest hit how. The state is either the 4th or 2nd most dependent on on the federal government.

Kentucky, which, despite having 3.8 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 residents, collected $1.7 billion from D.C. in the massive new virus-focused stimulus, which works out to $377 per resident. New York, with a per capita death rate 20 times that, got roughly the same amount per resident.

Kentucky, where the unemployed are getting help, thanks to an additional $600 in weekly help the feds are delivering, that adds up to much more than their average wages, as opposed to New York, where it’s far less.

Kentucky, which has pocketed loads of federal transportation aid, a fact that of course has nothing to do with the fact that McConnell’s wife runs the federal Department of Transportation.

“All 100 senators may have one vote,” McConnell proudly proclaimed last year, “but they’re not all equal. Kentucky benefits from having one of its own setting the agenda for the country.”

He may want states to restructure their finances rather than take any more federal cash, but he’s the one who’s morally bankrupt.

Moscow Mitch by Chip Proser

At a press conference, Andrew Cuomo called McConnell's idea for states like New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts going bankrupt "one of the really dumb ideas of all time... You will see a collapse of this national economy. The entire nation is dependent on what the governors do to reopen. But then you’re not going to fund the state government? You think I’m going to do it alone? How do you think this is going to work? You want to see that market fall through the cellar? Let New York declare bankruptcy... I would’ve insisted that state and local funding is in this current bill because I don’t believe they want to fund state and local governments. And not to fund state and local governments is incredibly short sighted. They want to fund small business, fund the airlines, I understand that, but state and local government funds police, and fire, and teachers and schools. How do you not fund police and fire and teachers and schools in the midst of this crisis? When you don’t fund the state then the state can’t fund those services... How ugly a thought. I mean, just think of what he’s saying: People died, 15,000 people died in New York, but they were predominantly Democrats, so why should we help them?"

CNN reported that Long Island Congressman Pete King (R-NY) slammed McConnell's comments Wednesday night, tweeting that his 'dismissive remark' is 'shameful and indefensible.' To say that it is 'free money' to provide funds for cops, firefighters and healthcare workers makes McConnell the Marie Antoinette of the Senate."

And New York isn't the only source of criticism for McConnell's horrible comments. Louisville state Rep. Charles Booker is one of the progressives going to take McConnell on in November. Yesterday he sent his own supporters an e-mail noting that McConnell "is dead wrong. Let me be clear: bankrupting state and local government threatens vital services, and it means that every hardworking public employee is in danger of losing his or her job, health care, and retirement benefits. We’ve already had 30 million people lose their jobs in this pandemic; we don’t need to add to that. What McConnell proposes would undoubtedly lead to a recession. I’ve been fighting for the past two years to protect the pensions of our hardworking public employees in Kentucky, and I’ll be damned if we’re gonna let Mitch McConnell kick our families off the cliff. Mitch McConnell is a bully, and we’ve beaten bullies before in Kentucky."

Earlier this week, one of McConnell's home-state political allies, state Rep. Robert Goforth, a serial sex offender and former GOP gubernatorial candidate, was arrested and charged with assault, strangulation and terroristic threatening.

The victim told police that she tried to flee from Goforth, and that he made several attempts to “hog tie her,” according to the citation. He also allegedly strangled her with an ethernet cable to the point where she said she thought she was going to pass out, according to the citation.

She also told police that Goforth said he was going to kill her during the altercation, according to the arrest citation.

The alleged victim told police she was able to escape by promising to unlock her phone, the issue that set off the incident, according to the citation.

Police determined that Goforth didn’t appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol once they made contact with him, and the three children were found safe, according to the report.

Goforth was released from jail later Tuesday on a $25,000 cash bond, according to court records. He could not be reached for comment.

Goforth of East Bernstadt, represents the 89th District, which covers Jackson County, as well as parts of Laurel and Madison counties.


The Kentucky Democratic Party called on Goforth to resign Tuesday following the arrest.

“State Representative Goforth must resign immediately,” Kentucky Democratic spokeswoman Marisa McNee said in a statement. “This is not the first time a victim of Mr. Goforth’s violent assaults has come forward. Republican Leadership has ignored this for far too long, it is time for them to take action. Goforth needs to go.” 
During his run for governor in 2019, Goforth faced sexual assault allegations, which he denied.

Goforth pulled in nearly 40 percent of the vote in the Republican primary when he ran for governor, but lost to incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin who lost to Democratic challenger Andy Beshear.


Kentucky hasn't been hard hit by the pandemic yet-- just 3,373 confirmed cases-- in large part because the Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, moved relatively fast to implement social distancing rules. But with groups of Republican protestors ignoring them, Kentucky is bound to see increased problems as the pandemic thrives in places where people ignore precautions.

One Thing Is Sure: Trump And McConnell Won't Be Resurrecting The U.S. Economy Or Our Shattered Lives

Pro-Life Republicans by Chip Proser

The idiot didn't mean any harm when he wished his Twitter followers a "Happy Good Friday" or when he told a TV audience later in the day to have a "great" Good Friday. He just doesn't know any better--and apparently the hucksters and carnival barkers who pass this spiritual black hole off as a Christian-- if not a saint-- never explained this one to their beloved meal ticket. Good Friday, which commemorates the day Jesus was crucified, is not like a Merry Christmas kind of holiday.

Unlike Trump, Louisville state Rep. Charles Booker, the progressive running for the McConnell-held Senate seat in Kentucky, grew up in the church. Both of his parents are ministers. While the Pope was urging Christians to avoid in-person Easter Sunday services, Trump was calling for people to pack the churches-- a perfect manifestation of the GOP Death Cult. Charles Booker told us that "It pains me to be away from my church this weekend as we celebrate the Resurrection. The decision to ask Kentuckians to stay home this weekend is not an infringement on faith; it comes as a necessity to save lives, and from the principles of our faith that tell us to care for one another." Trump doesn't get that; neither does Mitch McConnell. In an e-mail to his supporters, Booker noted that "Mitch is (once again) pandering to his religious conservative base by saying COVID-19 efforts to keep Kentuckians safe this Easter weekend threaten religious liberty. He’s undermining our local leaders’ efforts to save hundreds if not thousands of lives for the sake of a cheap political stunt. Not today, Satan." McConnell demanded that Governor Beshear exempt Easter services from his stay at home rules. Beshear, however, isn't afraid of McConnell and his crackpot supporters. CNN reported that people who show up at church today will be ordered to self-quarantine for two weeks.

Officials are aware of about six churches planning to hold in-person services, Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement. The state police will record attendees' license plates and notify them it is a misdemeanor violation of orders issued by state health officials, the governor said.

"Local health officials then will contact the people associated with those vehicles and require them to self-quarantine for 14 days. This is the only way we can ensure that your decision doesn't kill someone else," Beshear said.

It's crucial for the state to take the measures especially after an outbreak that left dozens sick and multiple people dead in Hopkins County was traced to a church revival there last month, he said.

"Folks, we shouldn't have to do this," he said. "What we're asking is for you to love your neighbor as yourself. We shouldn't have to do this."

This weekend, John Pavolvitz explained the Easter story for anyone-- like Trump-- who doesn't know it or understand it: "An innocent man tortured, murdered, and buried in a tomb. Three days of breathtaking grief. Three days of hopeless silence. Three days of painful waiting. Then, in the pre-dawn hour, a group of mourning friends reach the tomb, and the stone covering it has been pushed to the side and the space emptied. They initially assume their friend’s body has been stolen by his executioners, but their despair soon becomes momentary disbelief, and then breathless exhilaration when they are given the news by two strangers-- that their beloved friend is among the living. They rush to tell the world the unthinkable news: He is not dead, he has risen!"

That-- at the very heart of Christianity-- is very likely beyond Trump's ken.

The resurrection story of Easter is one that some people of faith claim as literal and factual; the tangible proof of their tradition and the evidence that they are a people saved from the permanent constraints of death.

Others embrace it as a symbolic reminder of the things we overcome here: of life breaking through, of restoration happening, of figurative resurrection taking place, of glorious rebirth happening, of miracles in our midst.

Yet, here on the ground, whether we claim a religious worldview or not, we all face the stark reality that the people we lose don’t physically come back and greet us on the path of our grieving, that we aren’t given an Easter morning miracle of their rebirth, that people we love get sick and die and they stay dead.

Because of the coronavirus’ presence, this strange Easter Sunday is one marked by physical separation from people we love and from those we feel affinity with who are still alive. We are disconnected from family and friends and and faith communities.

...For many, this Easter will be a magnifier of our losses, of our days of breathtaking grief, of hopeless silence, of painful waiting. It will underscore the loneliness we feel every day. Yes, we will eventually be released from this quarantine time of pause, to return to normalcy-- but we’ll still be missing some in front of tombs with the stone firmly in place.

In days marked by so much death in the news, it can be an impossible task to find hope and to move forward. I’m not going to tell you to find it in some hope of heavenly reunion with your loved ones or the in the idea of eternity waiting for you-- and I’m not going to give you empty platitudes about the metaphorical resurrections in your life, because that will not bring the people you love back to you. It won’t restitch those severed ties or revive their bodies.

I’ll only tell you that when you wake this Easter morning and you are feeling the emptiness of your loved one’s loss and the sting of the many current physical separations and you are grieving the resurrections that will not come, know that you share this place with a multitude of similarly stranded and waiting people who are mourning this Sunday morning.

American Families Need Income During The Pandemic Trump Has Extended With His Early-- And Continuing-- Incompetence

Pramila Jayapal-- still moving the country forward

Yesterday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus let Pelosi know what they expect to be included in the next federal COVID-19 relief package. Although Pelosi was once a co-founder and active member of the caucus-- and although it's the biggest of the Democratic groupings in Congress-- Pelosi pays far more attention to what the Blue Dogs and New Dems want than what the mainstream of the Democratic Party wants. The letter, which was sent by CPC co-chairs Pramila Jayapal and Mark Pocan, identifies four key areas that should be prioritized in order to ensure a just, effective, and equitable response to the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Keeping people on payrolls
• Providing economic relief
• Protecting public health
• Safeguarding our elections

The letter also highlights three principles that should underpin all Democratic efforts on the COVID-19 crisis. Progressives want everyone, regardless of tax or immigration status, age or disability status, to be eligible for robust assistance. This including parity for tribal residents, U.S. territorial residents, and people living in the District of Columbia, all of whom conservatives always seen to disregard. Progressive also insist that financial assistance must last the duration of the crisis through automatic triggers that tie assistance to economic conditions. "Every action taken by Congress," wrote Jayapal and Pocan, "must address inequality and strengthens racial equity and economic equality."

J.D. Scholten, the progressive Democrat taking on Trumpist reactionary Steve King in Iowa feels strongly that the CPC is going in the right direction. "Our response," he told me yesterday, "should focus on what is essential and what is not. Our essential priorities must be the health and well-being of all people, especially our frontline workers; providing relief directly to people-- not CEOs; lifting up small businesses and nonprofits; and ensuring the safety of our elections. Steve King has been on the wrong side of this crisis since the beginning. He voted against the Families First Coronavirus Act that provides free coronavirus testing and paid leave, he consistently shares memes making light of this crisis, and he wants to publicly share the names, addresses, pre-existing conditions, and health status of every confirmed COVID-19 case. Sharing this personal information would endanger public safety and likely result in chaos, violence, and potentially, hate crimes."

Arizona progressive Eva Putzova still has a primary opponent, Blue Dog and "ex"-Republican Tom O'Halleran. She's In full agreement with the CPC COVID-19 relief proposals to Pelosi. She acknowledges "It is an effort to fully fund and support income, healthcare, housing, food, and other assistance to those millions of people who lost jobs, income, housing, food, and  health insurance from the pandemic shutdown. Naturally, my opponent, the incumbent, is not a signatory to this CPC appeal to the Speaker because he doesn't lead on anything. He sits back quietly and pursues small-bore reforms while the world is collapsing around us. We can no longer afford such a representative. We need bold, outspoken, and progressive leadership that fights for a future worth living in. When elected to Congress I will be that kind of leader."

Mike Siegel, the progressive candidate taking on Trump crony Michael McCaul inTexas' newly purple 10th district, has every intention of joining the CPC when he's elected. "Representatives Pocan and Jayapal," he told us, "are leading the way and articulating a progressive vision for how our government should take care of the people. Here in the Texas 10th we have a runoff July 14, and I'm the only candidate who supports this program including monthly cash assistance, student loan cancellation, an eviction and foreclosure moratorium, compassionate release of prisoners and detainees, and universal vote-by-mail. While my opponent has called programs like Medicare for All and a Green New Deal 'fools gold' and 'selling false hope,' I see these policies as an essential foundation for a more just, sustainable future. How we respond to this crisis could determine our collective future for decades to come. That's why it's so important that, in this moment, we keep fighting for a society that works for everyone."

Robin Wilt is a strong Berniecrat running for a congressional seat in the Rochester, NY area currently occupied by a hackish New Dem with nothing to offer. Robin told me she's grateful to the CPC "for assuming leadership in centering both the needs of people and equity as a guiding principle in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Quite the opposite of a first responder, my opponent has taken the sidelines, deferring to the local and state response to the pandemic and advising constituents to 'contact the New York State Department of Health and the Monroe County Department of Health with any questions or concerns.' In contrast, I believe these times demand true leadership in not only identifying and meeting constituent needs, but also in establishing the underlying principles that the governmental response to the crisis will follow. The CPC highlighted three guiding principles that I strongly support:

1 that everyone should be included in the relief package, regardless of immigration status
2 that people (not corporations) should be the primary beneficiaries of stimulus
3 that stimulus response must not exacerbate racial and economic disparities, but rather be grounded in equity

COVID-19 has exposed existing gaps in the country’s social safety net. An approach that fails to proactively address the disparities that rendered some of us more vulnerable to that system’s inadequacies, can only exacerbate those disparities. That my opponent has not stepped up to chart any course through the crisis, let alone an equitable, people-centered one, should disappoint us all as constituents. A public health crisis is no time to shy away from leadership. Members who have signed on to this letter have demonstrated the true leadership that Rochester and Monroe County deserve."

Tom Guild is also up against a conservative Democrat, in his case, an incumbent Blue Dog, Kendra Horn, one of the most Republican-allied Democrats in Congress. "My opponent," he said, "is very timid and incremental in her approach towards many issues. She tends to side with corporate Democrats in Congress and even worse, many times votes with the Republicans. Sometimes she is one of less than a handful of Democrats frequently voting with the GOP in the House. I fully support the proposal put forward by the Progressive Caucus. It is bold, comprehensive, and helps repair the safety net during the current national crisis. It puts people first and will help many families survive the current onslaught on their health, safety, and economic welfare. Since you can’t much improve on near perfection, I’m excited to endorse what our progressive congressional caucus has put forth. We are lucky to have dedicated and far sighted progressive leaders fighting for working people, economically disadvantaged Americans, and those who will have the most difficult time repairing the damage done to their lives and fortunes that were already hanging by a thread, and who now face devastation without quick and bold action to bring them the necessary assistance this progressive package provides."

You can read the whole CPC letter here. Right now I want to focus on just two very different goals-- ensuring safe elections and guaranteeing every America a paycheck during this Trump-created catastrophe. First off, people are worried about Trump's tendency towards authoritarianism and "winning" at all costs. That's why the CPC is insisting on including three ideas in the next relief bill that Pelosi should not disregard:

• Enact a vote-by-mail requirement for 2020 federal elections while maintaining access to in-person voting for those who do not have access to mail voting.
• Ensure the protection of voting rights through the passage of core pieces of the Voting Rights Advancement Act.
• Invest in state election integrity efforts by appropriating at least an additional $3.6 billion for state-administered elections.

Pramila Jayapal and Bernie introduced bicameral legislation guaranteeing paycheck continuity. Yesterday she told me that "We are in the middle of an unprecedented public health and economic crisis, and it is critical that Congress take bold action to prevent mass unemployment, provide immediate relief to those in need, protect public health and safeguard our elections. And in order to truly get through this pandemic, we have to ensure that relief lasts the duration of the crisis, that every single person has access to assistance and that every single action we takes strengthens-- not weakens-- racial equity and economic equality." Both her legislation and the CPC letter to Pelosi work to achieve exactly that.

The letter includes several clauses to prevent layoffs and protect paycheck continuity, including keeping small businesses (and nonprofits) alive:

• Improve the federal workshare program by allowing businesses in every state to fully participate, with no minimum employee limit, by reducing required work hours to allow small businesses to ramp back up and permitting additional hours to be covered by UI.
• Create a federal Paycheck Guarantee program for employers, including small businesses and nonprofits, to ensure all workers are protected and businesses can quickly return to normal after the emergency ends; with strong conditions for federal assistance.
• Ensure federal dollars flow to workers by strengthening industry bailout oversight through repealing waiver authority that override prohibitions on stock buybacks, dividends and compensation limits; providing subpoena power and independence for the newly-created Special Inspector General; respecting collective bargaining agreements, and ensuring strong reporting requirements on all funds; and by prohibiting the waiver of civil rights obligations on all funds.
• Provide expanded and monthly direct cash assistance of at least $2,000 per person to adults, plus $1,000 for children...
• Expand social safety net programs by expanding Earned Income Tax Credit & Child Tax Credit; waiving TANF work requirements; increasing maximum SNAP benefit by 15% and doubling the minimum monthly SNAP benefit to $30; and barring rules that would tighten eligibility for SNAP. Expand safe access to food by rapidly expanding the SNAP online purchasing program and allocating emergency funding for SNAP recipients to use for grocery delivery fees.
• Support small businesses by placing a moratorium on commercial evictions, limiting small business debt collection, and preventing predatory small business lending. Find more ways to address small business and nonprofit losses via grants and forgivable loans.

Pramila's PAYCHECK GUARANTEE ACT is meant to end mass layoffs, keep workers in their jobs and connected to their health care and other benefits, prevent employers of all sizes from being forced to close permanently, and ensure that the economy is ready to restart when the COVID-19 pandemic ends. Her initial House co-sponsors are Mark Pocan (D-WI), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Brendan Boyle (D-PA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Andy Levin (D-MI). The bill is also endorsed by leading economists, labor unions, businesses and a diverse set of national and local organizations. Here's the thinking inside her office that went into the bill and here's a short summary of the legislation which is meant to create "a streamlined program to provide a three-month federal guarantee for 100 percent of worker salaries of up to $100,000 to ensure employers of all sizes keep workers on the payroll and continue to provide employer-sponsored benefits. This paycheck guarantee would automatically renew on a monthly basis until consumer demand rebounds to pre-crisis levels. The bill also includes strong worker protections and fraud prevention measures." Jayapal: "A federal paycheck guarantee is a real solution that matches the scale of the crisis. Mass unemployment is a policy choice. We can and should choose differently. A federal paycheck guarantee would stanch more layoffs and unemployment, and quickly and reliably deliver relief to workers. Workers would not be forced to apply for unemployment insurance, overwhelm that system and then have to once again find a job. Businesses of all sizes would be able to keep workers on payroll and benefits-- and be able to quickly re-open-- partially or fully-- without having to rehire and retrain their workforce."

One of America's top progressive economists, Gabriel Zucman, is fully behind Jayapal's legislation. "Congress needs a more forceful response to the job crisis. If nothing changes, the unemployment rate will soon exceed 20 percent. The federal government needs to guard against mass unemployment by guaranteeing paychecks, like many other countries are already doing. Rep. Jayapal’s Paycheck Guarantee Plan is a critically important step that would save millions of jobs and put the United States on track for a faster recovery."

Both the AFL-CIO and the SEIU are firmly behind the bill, which may help prevent Pelosi and Hoyer from burying it. Mary Kay Henry, president of the SEIU: "Congress must take action on the Paycheck Guarantee Act to help to end mass layoffs, keep working people paid and connected to their healthcare and other benefits. This type of bill is vital to ensuring that the economy is ready to restart when the pandemic ends by protecting the health, safety and long-term economic well-being of working people across America."

This is what Jayapal intends for the legislation-- if McConnell doesn't block it in the Senate-- to accomplish:

• Cover 100% of wages for workers earning salaries up to $100,000 to ensure that employers keep workers paid and out of the unemployment line
• Keep workers enrolled in employer-sponsored benefits, including health care
• Encourage employers to rehire recently laid-off or furloughed workers by covering payroll retroactively to the start of the crisis
• Cover essential business expenses like rent, to ensure that businesses don't shutter completely and can re-open when the pandemic ends
• Get support to workers and employers as quickly as possible, using existing payroll tax infrastructure to facilitate delivery of payments
• Keep workers attached to the labor market and businesses ready to reopen, speeding up the economic recovery.  

The best way to end Mitch McConnell's poisonous political career would be to elect Louisville state Rep. Charles Booker to replace him. Yesterday Booker told his supporters that McConnell blocked the newest pandemic relief bill and is now undermining Kentucky’s state and local leaders working to control the outbreak of the coronavirus. "Governor Beshear, Mayor Fischer, and local leaders are working around the clock to flatten the curve and save Kentuckians’ lives during this pandemic," said Rep. Booker, "and it is dangerous for Mitch McConnell to undermine their leadership. In an attempt to pander to religious conservatives, Mitch McConnell is willing to endanger the lives of thousands of Christians and people of faith across the Commonwealth on Easter weekend. Both of my parents are ministers, and I grew up in the church. It pains me to be away from my church this weekend as we celebrate the Resurrection. The decision to ask Kentuckians to stay home this weekend is not an infringement on faith; it comes as a necessity to save lives, and from the principles of our faith that tell us to care for one another."