The Last Senate Seat To Fill For 2018: Mississippi

It's shocking that 45.2% of the folks who voted in the midterms, voted for a Republican. That "OK, we suck, but we're not as bad as they are" Party may be celebrating that 8.6 million more voters cast ballots against Republicans than for them, but... how is it possible that any non-KKK members and Nazis voted for Republicans at all? NBC News reported that it's the biggest margin the Democrats have had since Watergate. Sounds good but... look at the competition. The Dems scored 53.1% (58,990,609 votes) while Republican candidates scored 45.2% (50,304,975 votes). That many of our fellow citizens brainwashed by Fox, Hate Talk Radio and Satanic "churches" pretending to follow Jesus! Very sad-- but apparently what happens when a country's educational system falls apart.

It looks like the new House is going to be 235 to 200 (unless TJ Cox flips CA-21 and replaces David Valadao, which looked increasingly likely as another big batch of votes were counted yesterday), not that impressive when you consider... Trump... and how awful the GOP has been over the past decade. That's what people want? How's that possible? I watched the full, painful Ed Balls BBC documentary on the plane returning from Turkey and I'm not convinced any Trump supporters have 3-digit IQs. This is the trailer, which is painful enough:



Next Tuesday is/isn't on the ballot again-- this time in a Senate special election in Mississippi to fill out the final 2 years of Thad Cochran's term. Mississippi? That should be a slam dunk for Republicans, right? Well... true the PVI is R+9 and true Trump beat Hillary there 700,714 (57.86%) to 485,131 (40.08%)-- even more than by how much McCain and Romney beat Obama. Of Mississippi's 82 counties, Trump won 55. There were half a dozen counties that went for Trump with over 80% of voters. Sicker yet, Bernie didn't win a single county in the state in the 2016 primary. The state Senate has 32 Republicans and 20 Democrats and the state House has 72 Republicans and just 48 Dems.

On November 6, the other Mississippi Senate race, GOP incumbent Roger Wicker beat Democrat David Baria 515,131 (58.8%) to 342,905 (39.2%). 875,621 Mississippians voted, Slightly more people voted in the first round of the special-- 883,697 people. But no one reached 50%, meaning there would be a run-off... next week.

As of November 7, Cindy Hyde-Smith had spent $3,354,107 (with $204,460 left) and Mike Espy had spent $2,184,465 (with $248,211 left. Right wing groups have spent $3,400,847 smearing Espy while outside Democrats have spent just $715,421 attacking Hyde-Smith. Hyde-Smith has wrapped herself around Trump entirely.






It's all about Trump but, as the Cook Report put it this week, it's also all about turnout.

The run-off contest between Hyde-Smith and Espy started the day after the general election when Hyde-Smith went on air with a positive television spot as the Mississippi Victory Fund aired an ad portraying Espy as a liberal who would oppose President Trump’s agenda and would have voted against Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. The NRSC followed days later with a spot that focused on Espy’s time as a lobbyist. The Senate Leadership Fund, Senate Republicans’ super PAC, brought up a scandal that enveloped Espy when he was Agriculture Secretary in which he was indicted on 39 counts of bribery and fraud, among other charges, arguing that Espy would be part of the “Washington swamp” if elected. What the ad didn’t say is that Espy was cleared of all those charges; the Espy campaign aired a spot detailing his innocence and invoking the name of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Espy and the Senate Majority PAC, Senate Democrats’ super PAC, have aired their own television spots. One Espy ad features the candidate speaking directly to the camera about his experience bringing people together and his support for the re-election of Republican Gov. Haley Barbour in 2007. His campaign’s ads have also taken Hyde-Smith to task for voting for a bill that provided millions in state economic development funds for construction of a beef plant that never opened. A Senate Majority PAC ad took aim at the contributions Hyde-Smith has taken from insurance companies, suggesting that she will side with them over the interests of voters.

Hyde-Smith has made a number of unforced errors that could combine to hurt her at the polls on November 27. First, while praising a supporter, she said, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.” The comment is widely perceived as racist, particularly in the South, and carried more weight since Espy is African American. Hyde-Smith’s campaign said that the comments were blown out of proportion and she would not apologize. Days later, Hyde-Smith seemed to support voter suppression, although it came across as more of a joke than a sincere endorsement of any effort to keep liberal college students away from the polls. The newest television ad from Espy’s campaign hits Hyde-Smith on both these comments, saying that she reinforces old stereotypes and that “Mississippi is better than this.”

Domestic Terrorism: The Oval Office by Nancy Ohanian

Democrats hope that Hyde-Smith’s missteps will energize African-American and non-Republican white voters and that these two groups will turn out in high enough numbers to topple Hyde-Smith. Sound familiar? It should as it is the same proposition that Democrats used to win the special election in Alabama in December of 2017. There are indeed some similarities. On November 6, African Americans made up 33 percent of the electorate and Espy got 94 percent of that vote. In addition, non-Republican white voters (Democrats and independents) made up another 16 percent and Espy won the vast majority of these voters. According to some Democratic strategists, Espy can win the run-off if the African-American turnout ticks up a couple of points and the percentage of non-Republican white voters stays about the same. Democrats relied on a very similar formula in Alabama to push Doug Jones across the finish line.

If there are similarities, there are also differences. The most important is that Hyde-Smith is not former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, the GOP nominee in the Alabama special election. Hyde-Smith may be proving to be an inept candidate, but unlike Moore, no one is stepping forward to accuse her of being a pedophile, nor has she been suspended from the state Supreme Court twice for ignoring the Constitution. On the flip side, Espy, who has been a fixture in state politics for decades, has a lot more credibility with the voters he needs to turn out on November 27 than Jones, a relative newcomer to politics, did with similar constituencies in Alabama.

Democrats can make an argument that Espy has a path to victory next week, but they acknowledge that the terrain is pretty steep. As one Democratic strategist put it, “we have a puncher’s chance,” a boxing term that means an outclassed boxer can win if he lands one good punch.

Republicans are fairly confident they will win, though they acknowledge that the race has closed and Hyde-Smith is ahead by just five points. They say, however, that President Trump’s job approval rating is in the mid-50s, and both Hyde-Smith’s job approval and favorable ratings are above 50 percent. There hasn’t been a public poll released in the race since the middle of October.

Both parties have plenty of boots on the ground working to identify and turn out voters. Democratic U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey have stumped for Espy in an effort to fire up African-American voters. Numerous Democratic U.S. Senators have lent their assistance to help raise money. The Espy campaign is also touting an endorsement from former Vice President Joe Biden. President Trump intends to do two rallies on Hyde-Smith’s behalf on Monday, November 26, the day before the run-off election. As we saw on November 6, Trump did manage to motivate his base on behalf of a number of GOP Senate candidates.

The biggest unknown in this race is the degree to which voters are engaged enough to head to the polls. They are certainly being bombarded with ads across all media platforms, but they are also thinking about Thanksgiving, college football, Black Friday bargains and holiday decorating. Where does going to the polls on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving fit on that list of priorities?

The odds of Hyde-Smith winning this contest are far greater than of Democrats pulling an upset, but observers might be surprised by how close the margin ends up being. The race will remain in the Lean Republican column.

Trump will be down there campaign for Hyde-Smith himself next week.

Long Past Time To Retire Brenda Snipes AND Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Florida is in the news— and at least it isn’t a hurricane. I think the first time we rang an alarm bell about Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s crooked crony, Broward County elections chief Brenda Snipes, we were picking up on a Politico report by Marc Caputo. In the 2016 cycle, she worked to steal the election for DWS, as sure as DWS worked to steal the presidential primary for Hillary. Snipes broke the law by destroying ballots cast in the tight primary election between Wasserman Schultz and Tim Canova after Canova sued to get access to the ballots. Canova, according to Caputo "wanted to inspect the optical-scan ballots cast in his Aug. 30 primary race against Wasserman Schultz because he had concerns about the integrity of the elections office. Under longstanding federal law, ballots cast in a congressional race aren’t supposed to be destroyed until 22 months after the election. And under state law, a public record sought in a court case is not supposed to be destroyed without a judge’s order. Snipes’ office, however, destroyed the paper ballots in question in October-- in the middle of Canova’s lawsuit-- but says it’s lawful because the office made high-quality electronic copies. Canova’s legal team found out after the fact last month.”

She wasn’t fired and was never held accountable so… of course, she took that as a green light to just keep fucking up. People are more concerned that she’s made it impossible to ever know who really won the gubernatorial and senate races in Florida than they are about how she stole another race from Tim Canova on behalf of DWS. Below is an email Canova sent his followers in Broward and Miami-Dade yesterday:

Since Election Day, the eyes of the nation have been on Broward County. While all other counties in Florida completed their counting of ballots, Broward continued finding new ballots to be counted, nearly swinging the election results for U.S. Senate and Florida Governor from Republicans to Democrats. Now there’s a state-wide machine recount, and the likelihood of lawsuits and possible hand recounts.

It’s been more than a year since we discovered that Brenda Snipes, the Broward Supervisor of Elections, illegally destroyed all the ballots cast in our 2016 primary against Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The news media refused to cover the story. If not for this double-trainwreck that landed in Broward, with both Governor and Senate races hanging in the balance, the media blackout would have continued. Instead, because of her role in the middle of the contested races for Governor and Senator, the mainstream media is finally asking questions about Snipes.

I warned for months that the failure to remove Snipes and her cronies from office would undermine public trust and result in continuing election irregularities, frauds, and illegal conduct. Since Election Day, I have heard from countless Broward residents from across the political spectrum expressing the same view, that they have lost faith and confidence in Broward election results, from non-partisan city commission and judicial elections to primaries and Congressional elections. Many ran for office as outsiders fighting for clean government, and now are horrified to see the level of corruption in our elections.

Two years ago, I first sought to inspect the ballots cast in our 2016 primary in an effort to verify the vote. Instead, we discovered that Snipes and one of her directors, Dozel Spencer, conspired to obstruct justice and tamper with evidence. This is not a theory, but an actual conspiracy that was established by a mountain of evidence discovered in our public records lawsuit against Snipes. In sworn videotaped depositions, Snipes and Spencer admitted to the ballot destruction. The Florida Circuit Court then granted us summary judgment in a 10-page order finding that Snipes obstructed justice, lied to the court, illegally tampered with evidence, and violated numerous state and federal criminal statutes, some punishable as felonies.

I reached out to Florida Governor Rick Scott months ago, as well as Democratic and Republican party officials, state and federal law enforcement agencies, and every member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. None responded, no one saw fit to investigate, and Republican Rick Scott failed to remove Snipes from office, an abdication of his responsibility as Governor to uphold the rule of law and protect us from official corruption.

The journalist Chris Hedges has said that the corruption today is so bad that they don’t even try to hide it. Barely a week before the recent election, Snipes campaigned openly with Wasserman Schultz. And why not, she had already destroyed ballots with impunity. I warned for months that if her crimes went unpunished, Snipes would have every incentive to engage in future illegal conduct and rig another election against us. The burden should not be on campaigns like ours to prove fraud when someone with Snipes’ record is left in charge of elections.

Snipes and her top staff should have been prosecuted months ago. Allowing someone with her record of lawlessness to continue supervising the recent primary and general election taints all those results by creating “incurable uncertainties” about the election outcomes. That’s why a growing number of Broward residents and former candidates are now arguing that recent election results from the primary and general elections should be invalidated, and that the courts should order new elections with appropriate safeguards— namely, hand-marked paper ballots that are counted by hand in public.

Our campaign has also uncovered other disturbing irregularities in the recent election. One campaign volunteer smelled a rat on Election night, and took video on her smart phone of a line of private vehicles driving up and transferring the blue satchels containing paper ballots to a rented truck. The ballots should have been in the possession of two people at all times. They were not. In addition, the ballots should have been transferred only to a sheriff’s deputy who should have signed a receipt for the ballots. None of this happened, which destroys the “chain-of-custody” of the ballots and casts doubt on any potential paper ballot recount.

Like many other candidates who have lost under highly suspicious circumstances, we are still assessing our options moving forward. One thing is certain, whatever happens to our campaign, we will continue calling for Snipes and her staff to be removed from office and prosecuted for their crimes. The criminal justice system must be used to clean up the swamp in the Broward elections office.

I’m going to guess that U.S. District Judge Mark Walker would tend to agree with Tim. NPR reported that Walker slammed Florida yesterday for repeatedly failing to anticipate election problems, and said the state law on recounts appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided the presidency in 2000. “We have been the laughing stock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this.” Key word there is "chose."

Trump Rallies Drove Montana Voters To The Polls Bigly-- But They Voted For Democrat Jon Tester

Montana has been a pretty red state. In 2016, Trump clobbered Hillary there 56.5% to 35.9%. Hillary won only 6 of the state’s 56 counties. Democrats had plenty to worry about for their senator, Jon Tester. When he was first elected in 2006, he barely beat Republican incumbent, Conrad Burns— 199,845 (49.2%) to 196,283 (48.3%). With less than 50% of the vote, senators know they’re going to have a tough reelection fight. And sure enough in 2012, Tester was forced into a battle with Denny Rehberg, a sitting congressman. The result was another squeaker— 236,123 (48.6%) to 218,051 (44.9%). This cycle he knew another tough race was coming, as he faced off against State Auditor Matt Rosendale. Billionaire-funded Republican SuperPACs poured $16,993,026 into a non-stop smear campaign against Tester that blanketed the airwaves from Carter county in the southwest to Lincoln County in the northwest, but especially in the population centers of Cascade County, Flathead County, Gallatin County, Lewis and Clark County, Missoula County, Ravalli County and Yellowstone County.

And yet… Tester celebrated his first win over 50%! With immense turnout on both sides, he beat Rosendale 246,291 (50.1%) to 230,974 (47%). And he won Cascade, Gallatin, Lewis and Clark and Missoula counties as well as some of the rural parts of the state where Trump had trounced Hillary.

As Aaron Zitner and Dante Chinni reported for the Wall Street Journal last week, that Trump had “focused heavily on Montana this year, holding four rallies there since the summer. His visits, and the publicity they generated, likely are a central reason for high turnout. Vote tallies exceeded 2016 presidential levels in 15 of the state’s 56 counties.” The problem was that the controversial Trump circus inspired voters on both sides of the aisle. “Trump,” they wrote, “appeared to have an effect on both parties. In 10 of the counties where vote tallies topped 2016 totals, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester received a similar or greater share of the vote than he did in his last election, and he won more than 50% of the vote statewide.”

Trump’s first hate rally for Rosendale, from Great Falls on July 5, was broadcast nationally. Pence campaigned for him 19 days later. On September 6 Trump was back, this time in Billings. Three weeks later, Trumpanzee, Jr. held an in-state fundraiser for GOP fat cats. On October 2, Pence campaigned with Rosendale in Bozeman. A week later the candidates had their first debate and Tester wiped the floor with Rosendale, prompting Trump to rush out to Missoula a few days later to try to salvage the wreckage. Tester surged in the polling and Trump tried one more timep— November 3 in Bozeman. It wasn’t enough.

This ad, from McConnell’s smear machine linked Tester with Bernie and Medicare-for-All, shooting himself in the foot and driving up Tester’s polling numbers. Remember, McConnell is the most hated politician in America. Bernie is the most popular. In fact, in the 2016 primaries Bernie beat Hillary by 7 points, won most of the counties and beat Trump in some of them. These were the results in rural Glacier County:

• Bernie- 1,074
• Hillary- 928
• Trumpanzee- 357
• Cruz- 38

And these were the results in more urban and suburban Missoula county:

• Bernie- 13,271
• Hillary- 8,115
• Trumpanzee- 7,23
• Cruz- 1,026

Linking Tester to Bernie might have been smart for a closed GOP primary, where only Fox brainwashed zombies are allowed to vote, but in a general election just a couple of weeks away: really dumb.

Some Good News The Morning After

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat Joe Crowley again last night

The NY Times defines what happened as a wave. It didn't feel like a wave to me last night-- not with Beto, @IronStache, Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams losing-- not to mention all those Senate races. But the Democrats did take back the House-- pretty substantially, and appear to have defeated Putin's favorite congressman, Dana Rohrabacher. The Senate is very bad news. Although Jacky Rosen beat Dean Heller in Nevada, Kyrsten Sinema appears to have lost to Martha McSally in Arizona. Marsha Blackburn defeated Phil Bredesen in Tennessee and, tragically, Beto O'Rourke lost to Ted Cruz in Texas. Democrats also lost Senate seats in Missouri (Claire McCaskill), Florida (Bill Nelson) and Indiana (Joe Donnelly) and Jon Tester may have lost in Montana; still too close to call-- with 83.4% of precincts counted, Matt Rosedale is leading narrowly-- 48.9% to 48.2%. Sorry... this was meant to be a good news post.

So far, though, Democrats have managed to flip several state legislatures-- both Houses in New Hampshire as well as the state senates in New York, Connecticut (which had been tied), Colorado, Maine and Minnesota. So, preliminary numbers show that of the 900 state legislative seats, the Democrats lost during the Obama years, about a third of them were won back last night. Unlike the DSCC and the DCCC, both of which failed again, the DLCC did very well and deserve to be congratulated.

Voters in Idaho, Nebraska and Utah voted Republican for virtually all the offices they could-- with the likely exception of Utah's 4th district where Blue Dog Ben McAdams leads Republican incumbent Mia Love 93,994 (51.3%) to 89,280 (48.7%) this morning with 68.4% of the vote counted. BUT voters in all 3 states approved propositions to expand Medicaid (under ObamaCare) that there legislatures had refused to do. That brings the total to 36 states who have opted to bring low-cost, quality healthcare to individuals who can't afford expensive healthcare.

USA Today reported this morning that "Florida voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to restore voting rights to an estimated 1.5 million former felons, including roughly 500,000 African-Americans" and that Michigan Utah and Missouri legalized marijuana.

Democrats, though losing crucial governors races in Florida and Ohio, as well as in Iowa, took 7 gubernatorial mansions away from the Republicans: Kansas (Kobach gone), Wisconsin (Scott Walker gone), Nevada, Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico and Maine.

Now, What Actually DID Happen In Florida?

Donna! Donna! Donna!

Democratic performance was up... but not by enough. There was a little good news. In Miami-Dade, two red seats flipped blue, although both are fairly strong blue districts. FL-27, where Ileana Ros Lehtinen retired, has a PVI of D+5. Hillary beat Trump there by TWENTY points-- 58.5% to 38.9%, so you wouldn't think it would take a wave. A very weak Democrat, Donna Shalala, beat a fairy strong Republican, Maria Salazar 127,144 (51.7%) to 112,638 (45.8%). Next door, Carlos Curbelo tried distancing himself from Trump and fought a tough battle against Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell but the district is too blue (D+6) for a Republican in a year like this with such a xenophobic, anti-Hispanic "president." Hillary beat Trump there 56.8% to 40.5%. Mucarsel-Powell beat Curbelo 116,626 (50.7%) to 113,326 (49.3%). As of the Oct 17 FEC reporting deadline Shalala had outraged Salazar $3,402,023 to $1,542,470. The DCCC kicked in $1,031,865 and Pelosi's PAC put in another $636,302. The NRCC put in $1,493,272 and Ryan's PAC threw in $273,123. All in all each candidate had about $2 million in negative ads thrown against them.

FL-26 was more fiercely contested. Curbelo raised $4,751,998 to Mucarsel-Powell's $3,746,206. The DCCC spent $4,566,411 and Pelosi's PAC put in another $2,608,655. The NRCC spent $2,725,738 and Ryan spent $2,893,997.

The other Florida races where the DCCC had hoped to make headway were all flops, primarily because they had weak candidates... and a weak wave. In the 6th district (DeSantis' seat) Michael Waltz took every county and beat Nancy Soderberg (New Dem) 187,322 (56.3%) to 145,137 (43.7%). PVI is R+7 and Hillary had lost to Trump 56.9% to 39.9%. Soderberg outraised Waltz $2,826,532 to $1,702,312. The DCCC didn't spend in this one but Pelosi put in $499,932 and Bloomberg's PAC put in $1,623,370. Neither the NRCC nor Ryan's PAC spent but a right-wing billionaires PAC, (American Patriots) put in $1,102,500.

One of the only decent candidates the DCCC had in Florida, Kristen Carlson, went up against Ross Spano for Dennis Ross' seat (FL-15) in the Tampa suburbs and exurbs. The PVI is R+6 so even with Carlson outperforming she still lost 149,555 (53.1%) to 131,876 (46.9%). She had outraised Spano, $1,297,512 to $581,690. But while the DCCC spent just $694,360, Ryan's PAC put in $1,744,302 (on top of Club for Growth's $637,403).

In FL-16 Vern Buchanan held onto his seat 195,693 (54.6%) to 162,633 (45.4%) against David Shapiro. Brian Mast beat back a challenge from DCCC recruit Lauren Baer 183,376 (54.4%) to 153,543 (45.6%). Buchanan's district is R+7 and Mast's is R+5. And, a seat the DCCC thought they'd have a chance in, FL-25, was retained by Mario Diaz-Balart against another decent Democratic candidate Mary Barzee Flores, 126,713 (60.6%) to 82,220 (39.4%).

The dual catastrophe of the night was in the two big statewide races, where Rick Scott edged Bill Nelson 4,035,815 (50.4%) to 3,977,352 (49.6%) and, even more shockingly, Ron DeSantis beat Andrew Gillum for the governor's mansion, 4,013,976 (49.9%) to 3,934,962 (48.9%).

Nationally, the wave sure wasn't a tsunami, but the Democrats did win the House and a lot of gubernatorial seats and we'll get into the rest of that mañana and the day after mañana. I have to chill. We're going to suspend the DWT schedule for a week or two and just post now and then instead of by set times. Bare with us, ok?

Other Than The Blow Voters Are Delivering Trump Today, Will We Defeat Any Of The Worst, Most Vile GOP?

You know who I'm thinking about, not the run-of-the-mill Republican garbage who "just" want to take away peoples' healthcare and see them starving in the streets; I'm mean the real neo-Nazi's inside the pup tent. Many of them are in blood red districts that are infested with brain-washed Fox zombies, like, for example, Matt Gaetz in Florida. But there are a handful up for reelection today who could go down, as long a shot as each case is. The defeat of Chris Collins (NY-27) and Steve King (IA-04) would be immense wins for political decency. So would an abrupt end to the political career of Devin Nunes (CA-22).

No one likes being lumped into the same category as Steve King, but there is another Republican incumbent-- a substance abuser currently out on bail and kicked off his committee by Paul Ryan as a national security risk-- who has earned the company: suburban and exurban San Diego County's Druncan Hunter (CA-50). And there are still hours and hours of voting left in California. Yesterday The Atlantic allowed McKay Coppins to lay the whole ugly Trump Era mess out: Duncan Hunter Is Running the Most Anti-Muslim Campaign in the Country. Before we start down this road though, it's important to know four facts about his progressive Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar. (Yeah, I know, tough name, but otherwise as all American a kid as anyone you'll ever meet; besides, did you pick your name?)

• Ammar was born and raised a Christian and has been active in his church for his whole life
• Ammar was born 16 years after his grandfather in question had died. (For any Trump fan who might be reading this: that means he never met his grandfather.)
• Ammar worked in the Department of Labor and was thoroughly vetted for the Secret Service, passing a test that Druncan Hunter couldn't pass if his life depended on it
• Ammar, when asked, told me his favorite band is Metallica.

Hunter's problem isn't that his R+11 district has changed, it's that he was indicted of various and sundry corruption charges, arrested by the FBI and is hoping to be reelected despite being out on bail. Coppins is a gentleman and steers clear from some of the tawdry details of Hunter's lifestyle-- the hookers, untreated alcoholism, bribery, etc-- but even the polite stuff is eye-popping enough. He explained that "on August 22, federal prosecutors charged the lawmaker and his wife with stealing $250,000 in campaign funds. In a 47-page indictment littered with galling details, the Hunters were accused of using campaign cash to fund lavish family vacations; to pay for groceries, golf outings, and tequila shots; and even to fly a pet rabbit across the country. To cover their tracks, the indictment alleged, the Hunters often claimed that their purchases were for charitable organizations like the Wounded Warrior Project. The political backlash was swift and severe. Hunter was stripped of his committee assignments in the House. His fund-raising dried up, and Democratic money flooded into the district. When he tried to defend himself on Fox News, he exacerbated the crisis by appearing to pin the blame for the scandal on his wife." You want that for a congressman?

Publicly disgraced, out of money, and facing both jail time and a suddenly surging challenger-- what was an indicted congressman to do?

Eventually, Hunter seemed to arrive at his answer: Try to eke out a win by waging one of the most brazenly anti-Muslim smear campaigns in recent history.

In the final weeks of the election, Hunter has aired ominous ads warning that his Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, is “working to infiltrate Congress” with the support of the Muslim Brotherhood. He has circulated campaign literature claiming the Democrat is a “national security threat” who might reveal secret U.S. troop movements to enemies abroad if elected. While Hunter himself floats conspiracy theories from the stump about a wave of “radical Muslims” running for office in America, his campaign is working overtime to cast Campa-Najjar as a nefarious figure reared and raised by terrorists.

As multiple fact-checkers in the press have noted, these smears have no basis in reality. Campa-Najjar-- a 29-year-old former Barack Obama aide who is half-Latino, half-Arab-- is a devout Christian who received security clearance when he worked in the White House. His grandfather was involved in the massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics, but he died 16 years before Campa-Najjar was born, and the candidate has repeatedly denounced him. (Growing up, Campa-Najjar became estranged from his father, a former Palestinian Authority official, and was raised primarily by his Mexican American mother.)

But facts do not appear to be Hunter’s chief concern. The political strategy here is self-evident: Feed on anti-Muslim prejudice to scare enough conservative voters into pulling the lever for the incumbent-- indictment be damned.

California’s Fiftieth District hasn’t drawn much attention from horse-race obsessives this year. There are other races with tighter polls, other House seats more likely to flip. But what’s unfolding here in the suburbs of San Diego represents an unnerving microcosm of this campaign season: white Republicans frightened by cynical conspiracy-mongers; religious minorities frightened by the fallout; a community poisoned by Trumpian politics-- and a bitter question hovering over the whole ugly affair: Will it ever get better?

Duncan Hunter is not an easy man to find these days. He rarely holds campaign rallies, and doesn’t attend town halls or debates. When I emailed his office asking for an interview, I was politely told my request would be added to the “list”-- and then ignored when I tried to follow up.

...On the whole, Campa-Najjar said he was surprised by how ham-fisted Hunter’s strategy had been. “I thought there would be more finesse to it,” he told me.

Now, though, he was more confident than ever that victory was at hand. With Obama-esque audacity, he began ticking off all the reasons to be optimistic. The district was more diverse than many realized. “McCain Republicans” were repelled by the Muslim-bashing. While his own campaign was infused with idealism and “youth,” Hunter’s was cloaked in the stench of “desperation.”

Very soon, he assured me, the good voters of the California Fiftieth would reject the ugly politics that had permeated their community this year and send him to Congress.

Perhaps detecting my skepticism, Campa-Najjar tried to conjure an alternative happy ending. “And if we fall short,” he tried, “we proved that we exceeded expectations and that...” but then he stopped himself. He couldn’t do it.

“I think we’re going to win.”

3 more hours to vote

Come to think of it, one of the House's most horrible creatures, Marsha Blackburn is running for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee. That's a very red state-- PVI is R+14 and Trump beat Hillary there 1,522,925 (60.7%) to 870,695 (34.7%). The results between Blackburn and Bredesen won't look like that tonight. Here's why:

• Early voting in Tennessee is at 95% of the total turnout for 2014.
• Early vote turnout among 18 and 29 year olds is up 317% compared to 2014.
• Early vote turnout among first time voters increased by 973% from 2014 (57,253). New voters represented 8% of the total early vote.
• 566,666 Tennesseans who did not vote in 2014 voted early this year. In other words, 40.81% of this year’s early voters did not vote in 2014.
• 105,487 Tennesseans (8% of the early voting electorate) did not vote in August 2018, 2016, or 2014. Half of these voters are under 50 years old.
• Women 40 years and younger increased their early vote participation by 266% from 2014.
• African American midterm early vote increased by 169% compared to 2014, largely due to increased participation among young African American voters.
• African American women vote increased by 172% compared to 2014.

Compared to all other states, Tennessee is now:

• #1 in overall increase of early votes cast compared to 2014
• #1 in the increase of 18-29 year olds voting

Still... it is Tennessee, so don't get your hopes up too high.

Meanwhile, NBC News reported this morning that top Republicans are shitting a brick over Trump's racist, xenophobic closing message. He's costing them independents and he's costing them the suburbs. Most of them believe "that his campaign rhetoric has gone too far and will cost some GOP candidates their races and jobs. Trump has spent the final stretch of this election season in some of the most conservative areas in the country, rallying his base of supporters by warning that Democrats will usher in an age of 'socialism' and 'open borders' if voters put them in charge of either chamber of Congress... [A]s voters head to the polls, some Republicans worry that message could backfire and cost some of the most vulnerable GOP House incumbents and candidates in suburban districts or in districts with larger minority populations." Because the fools looking for red meat and cheap entertainment who come to his rallies cheer all his lies, Trump has lost the ability to understand that 65% of the country doesn't believe a thing he says.

One Republican strategist said that Rep. John Culberson, who is in a tough re-election bid in a solidly Republican district in the Houston area, was polling four points ahead of his opponent, Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, in the days after the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

After Trump escalated his anti-immigrant rhetoric and visited Houston, internal polling showed Culberson down three points.

In some races, including Culberson's, “the certain tone and the certain issues he’s chosen to focus on is not helpful” the Republican strategist said.

...Other vulnerable Republicans are trying to counter Trump by focusing their campaign on local issues. Rep. Jeff Denham, who represents an agriculture district with a large Hispanic population in central California, has ignored Trump's national messaging on immigration and instead focused largely on water, a crucial issue there.

But if Republicans lose a large number of seats, someone will be blamed. And some Republicans are already pointing the finger at Trump.

Food fight coming tomorrow!

What's Happening With Florida Today? Plus-- A Note From Matt Haggman

Politico: "The general consensus among Republicans is that they will lose the House, and end up in at least a five-seat minority-- that would correspond to a 28-seat loss. Senior Republicans tell us that even in a worst-case scenario, they do not expect to lose 40 seats. A prescient prediction or famous last words?"

Of all the senior Republican lawmakers they spoke with over the weekend, "only one made the case that the GOP will keep the House." If it's who I think it was, he was staggering drunk for the entire weekend. Many Republicans expected the House races to tighten up by election day. Instead the generic ballot polls have gotten even worse for them. The last one for CNN by SSRS shows an absolutely massive 55% to 42% preference for Democrats among likely voters. As I've said before, the pollsters' likely vote modeling is wrong because it is not taking increased Latino and millennial voting into account. Polls predicting less than 30 flipped seats will all be off by as much as 100% tonight.

Let's look at Florida. Yesterday's Marist poll shows Andrew Gillum leading Ron DeSantis in the gubernatorial race-- 50% to 46%-- and Bill Nelson leading Scott in the Senate race by the same 50% to 46%. Democrats are very lucky to have Gillum at the head of the ticket instead of dull conservative Gwen Graham, who had been the establishment candidate and who would have dragged the party down the toilet with her. But it's a shame Florida doesn't have any good congressional candidates who could ride the wave and Andrew's coattails into office. Instead, it's a bunch of DCCC-recruited backs from the Republican wing of the party-- New Dems and Blue Dogs. This is the key today: "Democrats in both races are performing better than their Republican counterparts with likely voters who are independents, minorities and women."

Stoking domestic terrorism goes over especially badly with independent voters

Results from Quinnipiac are nearly identical: seven point leads for both Gillum and Nelson, entirely because of double-digit leads for both among women, minorities and independent voters. Writing Sunday for the Miami Herald Steve Bousquet reported on the surge in early voting for Democrats. On Sunday, "Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough and Orange, the five biggest 'blue' counties, all reported their highest one-day early voting totals of the 2018 campaign. As a result, on a day when President Donald Trump rallied thousands of Republicans in Pensacola, the GOP’s ballot advantage over the Democrats shrank to six-tenths of 1 percentage point (0.6), with GOP ballots at 40.8 percent of the statewide total and Democrats at 40.2 percent." By Monday morning Dems had a +0.5% lead over Republicans in ballots cast. In 2014 Republicans held almost a 6% lead over Dems going into election day.

So how many Democratic candidates will Gillum's coattails and the anti-red wave drag to victory in Florida today? Most of the candidates are so terrible that it's hard to say-- but even the worst of them are less horrible than the Republicans they're opposing. Donna Shalala, as bad a candidate as you'll find anywhere, will probably beat Maria Salazar in bright blue FL-27 (PVI- D+5) despite herself. Nate Silver gives her a 6 in 7 chance to win (84.7%). Next door in Carlos Curbelo's district (FL-26-- where the DCCC and Pelosi's PAC have spent $7,175,066 attacking Curbelo-- another weak Democrat, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell looks like she'll take the seat (PVI is D+6). Silver gives her a 5 in 9 chance (55.6%). The other Republican-held Miami-Dade seat, Mario Diaz-Balart's 25th district (PVI- R+4) has the best of the 3 Democratic challengers, Mary Barzee Flores, but in the toughest race. Silver gives her a 2 in 7 chance (27.8%) to beat Diaz-Balart. The wave will have had to have turned into a tsunami tonight for her to win.

Silver gives Wasserman Schultz a 99.9% chance of retaining her seat in a 3-way contest against progressive Tim Canova and some Republican sacrificial lamb, more or less the same chance Joe Crowley had in beating Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The only polling in the district-- by a GOP firm-- shows Wasserman Schultz exactly tied with Canova.

The DCCC has 4 other Democratic candidates on their Red to Blue page-- Nancy Soderberg (FL-06, Ron DiSantis' open seat with an R+7 PVI), Kristen Carlsen (FL-15, Dennis Ross' open seat stretching from the Tampa suburbs to the Orlando area with an R+6 PVI), David Shapiro (FL-16, Vern Buchanan's Sarasota, Bradenton seat with an R+7 PVI) and Lauren Baer (FL-18, Brian Mast's Treasure Coast district with an R+5 PVI). Silver doesn't give any of them much of a chance to win. Soderberg 1 in 4, Carlsen 3 in 7, Shapiro 1 in 7, and Baer 1 in 12. Soderberg, Baer and Shapiro (as well as Mucarsel-Powell) are all New Dems. The 2 Florida candidates in red districts with the best shot are 2 normal Dems, Kristen Carlsen and Mary Barzee Flores. The DCCC has spent modestly in a few of the races-- $499,932 in FL-06, $146,362 in FL-16, $868,290 in FL-18, and $694,360 in FL-15
.




Matt Haggman is one of the progressive Democrats Blue America endorsed this cycle but who didn't win his primary, losing out, in this case, to an establishment nothing with lots of name recognition and money but with nothing to offer the voters except that she's not a Trumpist. Tragic waste of a blue seat but Matt has been good sport about it, endorsed her and has been working to help elect her. He agreed to catch us up on what he's been up to down in South Florida. He reiterated that "This is the most important mid-term election in our lifetimes. It’s a moment when we will decide as a country who we are and who we are not. Here in Florida I have been working to help Andrew Gillum, Donna Shalala, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Mary Barzee Flores and Bill Nelson all win. Just this weekend I was out canvassing. But, before this, I was a candidate. I was one of the many across the country who left good jobs to up and run for Congress following the 2016 presidential election. For me, it didn’t go as hoped. I lost to Donna Shalala in Florida’s Congressional District 27. Howie asked that I share a blog post I wrote in the weeks after the Aug. 28 Florida primary. It’s a reminder of the reasons why this mid-term is so important. Why each of us can have a big impact even if we’re not on the ballot. And why, whether a candidate or supporter, we must do all we can to ensure everyone gets out to vote this Election Day to turn a new page in our politics."

Until Next Time, Thank you

It’s been a few weeks since the primary election. Obviously, for me, it was a disappointment. But the many great wishes since election night from friends and supporters has been wonderful. I wanted to write a post and say thank you. And also reflect a bit on the past 13 months campaigning for US Congress.

Before doing that, I again congratulate Donna Shalala on her victory. This is a moment in our politics that is bigger than any individual and it’s critical that the Democratic party take control of the U.S. House of Representatives. We must unite behind her. In addition, we have to elect Andrew Gillum as our next Governor! His campaign has energized us all, and it’s time to bring it home.

Looking back on the primary, my overriding feeling is gratitude. I’m extremely thankful to my wife Danet, who supported me in this effort, and thankful to all of the people who propelled our campaign--  the volunteers, fellows, staff, donors and, ultimately, voters. I had never run for any elected office, yet so many went all-in supporting our campaign. Thank you very, very much.

Our fellows were, in particular, an inspiration to me. We recruited more than 50. Most were in college, some still in high school. Working on the campaign after class or full-time during summer break. Weekends, nights. Calling voters, knocking on doors. They were passionate and dedicated. Now, they are back on campus. At schools from Miami Dade College and Michigan to Boston University and Palmetto Senior High School. At a time when our political system badly needs a reset, they showed what it means to take hold of our democracy. With them, our future is so blazingly bright.

Along with our fellows, what I loved about being a candidate was talking with voters and being out in the community. I loved it. Going door to door on sweltering summer afternoons in Kendall, or Little Havana, or Richmond Heights. Evenings canvassing in Westchester or Palmetto Bay. Unfiltered and alone, it was just us; talking about our community and country. On those days and nights there was no place I would rather be.

Life revealed itself in its many forms on these unannounced visits. The couple celebrating their daughter who was headed to college. The single mom working three jobs to keep current on her mortgage. The middle-aged woman who tried to chat amiably but, after a time, couldn’t hold it back any longer, sharing that she’d just been diagnosed with cancer. “I need a hug,” she said, a tear running down her cheek, which she quickly and defiantly wiped away.

The conversations were always so real--  standing at front doors, sitting in living rooms, meeting people where they are, learning about their hopes and concerns, aspirations and struggles. At a time when Washington has so fundamentally and collectively lost its way, at the grassroots people are making sense. We need to spend more time listening to them.

Indeed, throughout the campaign I often said the best ideas come from the community, not candidates. I really meant it. Change happens from the ground up, and that’s never been more true than today. From start to finish, our campaign sought to stay true to that ethos. Namely, we focused on voters, rather than cutting down competitors as a means to win.

We visited every precinct, we knocked on some 45,000 doors. Again and again, I found a sincerity, thoughtfulness and a belief that things will get better. I always thought we lived in a special community, but over the last year I’ve vividly seen it with my own eyes in one neighborhood after another. Those thousands of conversations leave me today more hopeful and optimistic than ever.

If only our politics can be as good as them. I think it can, but we are going to have to change in big ways.

To me, election night 2016 was a shattering moment--  and it’s what ultimately prompted me to run. I had believed that America would never elect a person who said and did the things that Donald Trump said and did. I believed that America today would never elect a bully, a liar, someone who preyed upon our worst fears and sought to divide us to win support. We might come close to electing such a demagogue, but at this stage in our country’s history we would never actually do it. I was obviously wrong.

The better angels of our nature had given way to our most base sensibilities. A presidency built on hope was followed by one grounded in our worst fears.

In early January, as President Obama prepared to leave office, he gave his farewell address, warning that we can’t take democracy for granted. That it “falls on each of us to be anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy.” What the speech said to me is that, yes, America is a special place. But it’s only special because generation after generation has continually engaged in making it so--  even as there are setbacks, sometimes dramatic setbacks, along the way.

Then, at Danet’s urging, on January 21st we attended the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. My sister Meghan and our friend Lissette went too. It was an extraordinary day as millions around the world rose up. It was there that I thought to myself that this remarkable moment of protest must also be a moment of real and lasting change--  and wondered how to try and live that. It was there that I decided to run.

The reason I decided to drop everything, leave my job at Knight Foundation and do something I’d never done before was because I believed we were--  and are--  at a pivotal moment. This is not a normal election year.

I firmly believe that years from now people will ask about this time, what did we do?

What did we do when a President--  along with a compliant Republican-controlled Congress--  called for border walls, Muslim bans, tore thousands of immigrant children from their parents, bowed to a foreign power that meddled in our election, sympathized with neo-Nazis, sought to use law enforcement as a means to settle political scores, and declared the press an enemy of the state.

This election is our moment to reaffirm and declare who we are-- and who we are not--  as a country.

But, in doing so, we have to realize that this election is about what’s next. It can’t just be about what we’re against, but it has to be about what we’re for. Indeed, while Donald Trump has contributed much to our dysfunctional politics, the truth is that he’s the result of a dysfunctional system that has been spiraling for some time.

We are only going to achieve the change we need if we dispense with the incrementalism that has defined our politics for so long and think--  and do--  in dramatic new ways. And allow new leaders to emerge in a political system that’s long become stuck.

Put another way, it’s a two-part challenge: ensure that today does not become the new normal, and provide a vision for what tomorrow will look like. With that in mind, we sought to run a campaign that actually represented the change we seek.

At a time when money is undermining our democracy, we didn’t accept any funding from political action committees, federal lobbyists or special interests like big sugar.

At a time when so many have given up on politics, our campaign was powered by extraordinary campaign fellows who were the heart and soul of our effort.

At a time when so many are disconnected from our government, we built a field program that sought to personally engage voters in every neighborhood in every part of the district.

At a time when the leadership in Congress hasn’t changed in years, we called for an entirely new slate of people in leadership roles in the House. The new faces in the next Congress must not be just newly elected members, but the leaders at the top too.

Of course, our efforts did not result in a victory. But I have no regrets. After all, this is a moment to take chances. And throughout my life I’ve always sought to take chances by diving into entirely new things; and going all-in when I do.

Whether it was going to New Orleans to write a biography on Professor Longhair (still unfinished). Or moving to Miami-- where I didn’t know a soul (but met my soulmate)--  to become a journalist (where I had a great run that lasted nearly a decade). Or leaving the Miami Herald to join Knight Foundation (where I had an even better run), in which I launched an entirely new program that planted the seeds and propelled Miami’s rapidly emerging startup and entrepreneurial community.

I want to stretch myself, test boundaries and be willing to do entirely new things. Incumbent to that approach will be wins and losses. It’s the in-between that I want to avoid.

Make no mistake, I dearly wish I was part of the Blue Wave at this critical point in our country’s history. But I’m not. This moment belongs to candidates with names like Gillum, O’Rourke, Pressley, Lamb, Ocasio-Cortez, and so many others. I will be cheering every one of them on, and support in any way I can. We need them to win and be good leaders when a new Congress is sworn in in January.

And, each in our own way, we all need to lean in and help. The moment is too important. The challenges are too great. The stakes too high. No one can sit this out.

So what’s next? The short answer is, I don’t know.

I do know that I have many people to thank. I remember when I decided to run, a friend advised that people look at you differently when you’re a political candidate. He cautioned that you’ll be disappointed by friends you thought would be there. But he also said you’ll be surprised by the support from those you didn’t know before or never expected. Focus and delight in the latter, he said. And I will.

(One quick note: Danet and I took some time away after the election. If you haven’t heard from me yet, you’ll be hearing from me soon.)

After such an all-consuming period I also have many friendships to renew, which I am looking forward to doing.

Life is about chapters and seasons. The thing about political campaigns is the chapter ends so suddenly. After such an intense period, it’s quickly and suddenly over. It’s a crash landing. But a new chapter begins. There is power in blank canvases. I’ve experienced it before. It’s at moments like these when you can edit your life and think completely anew. It’s often at these moments when the unimagined happens, when you follow completely new paths and find unexpected success.

I have no idea what this next chapter will bring, but I’m excited to find out.

After the race, I spoke with Reggie, who is a great friend and the father of Joshua, my little through Big Brother Big Sister for more than a decade. Reggie said to me: “You gotta keep pressing on my man. It’s all good.”

That pretty much says it all. Keep pressing on.

2018 Senate Election Scorecard

Click to enlarge

by Gaius Publius

The chart above represents my best guess about the future split of the Senate, using only races that seem contested. Note:

• The Senate is currently divided 51-49 in favor of the Republicans, so the Democrats (and the two independents who caucus with them) are down two already.

• The column labeled "Change 1" shows a best-case result for Democrats. The column labeled "Change 2" shows a worst case result based on my read of the possibilities and probabilities.

The First Ten Races

Races in the above chart are numbered 1 through 15. The first ten all have clear leaders.

• Races 1–6 are all contests with Democratic incumbents where the Democrat is leading and expected to win, if only by single digits. Though there could be some surprises, they are not widely expected. Let's call those races for the Democrats. Net change: zero.

• The next four races, numbered 7 through 10, are more in doubt. They feature two Democratic incumbents and two Republican incumbents. In all four, the Republican is leading. Though things could change, I expect a Republican winner in each of them.

This means that Claire McCaskill and Heidi Heitkamp will lose, and Ted Cruz will keep his seat despite a strong challenge by Beto O'Roarke. Polls in the Texas race range from Tossup to Likely Republican, with Leans Republican the mean result, implying a mid-single-digit win for Cruz. We'll see.

If the predictions for races 1–10 hold, Democrats have lost two seats already.

Races Considered "Even"

Let's treat the next six races, numbered 11 through 16, as three groups of pairs. All of these races are scored "even" by polling.

• In the first pair of "even" races, the outcome is a little more predictable than the others. These feature two Democratic incumbents, Joe Donnelly (IN) and Joe Manchin (WV). If those outcomes are split — if Democrats win one and Republicans win the other — the Democrats lose another seat, for a net loss of –3.

It appears now that Donnelly will lose and Manchin will win, so I'm counting these outcomes as likely in the best case column (Change 1) for a net no-change on the two races. In the worse case column (Change 2), both lose, and Democrats are now –4 seats so far. 

• The second pair of "even" races are much harder to predict. These feature incumbents Democrat Nelson (FL), who's running against former governor Rick Scott, and Republican Dean Heller (NV), who's running against Democrat Jacky Rosen. If those two races are split, the composition of the Senate will depend on which way the split goes.

The Change 1 column shows both Democrats winning, in which case Democrats pick up one seat (NV). In the worse case column, both Democrats lose, and Democrats are down –5 seats so far.

I think it's slightly more likely that Heller will lose (Nevada is home to the Harry Reid machine) and that Scott will beat Nelson., so a middle outcome would have the two races split — Democrats taking NV and Republicans taking FL — for a net no change on the pair.

• The final pair of races are for two open seats (AZ and TN), both of which were held by Republicans. I expect a split to be the most likely outcome, and if I had to guess, Democrats will win in Arizona with Kyrsten Sinema and Republicans will win in Tennessee.

That's the best case; if so, Democrats pick up a seat from this pair. In the worst case, Republicans hold both seats, for a net of no change.

Summary

In the best case scenario (Change 1 column), the first ten races go as expected (for a loss of –2), and in the "even" races, Democrats lose Indiana but pick up Nevada and Arizona. The total change is a loss of one seat, and the new Senate is split 52-48 in favor of Republicans.

In the worst case scenario (Change 2 column), the first ten races go as expected (for a loss of –2), and of the "even" races, Democrats lose all of them, for a total change of –5 seats. In that scenario, the new Senate split is 56-44.

A middle case: The worst case scenario plays out, except that Sinema wins in AZ and Manchin wins in WV. That's still a net loss of three seats, and the new Senate is split 54-46.

In all of these cases, Democrats lose ground in the Senate — in some of them quite a lot — and Chuck Schumer, I have to say, has presided over a failure, primarily because of his candidate selection and his dogged defense of people like Manchin, Heitkamp and Donnelly.

The Bright Side

Democrats were never going to take the Senate anyway, not with this set of candidates doing what they've been doing.

Claire McCaskill is closing out the 2018 campaign with a call for "civility" and also immigrant-bashing caravan paranoia https://t.co/yCNmijWFul

— Zach Carter (@zachdcarter) November 2, 2018

On the bright side, with this house-cleaning Democrats can build back up from a base set of senators that excludes Heitkamp, Donnelly, McCaskill, and maybe even Manchin and Sinema.

GP
  

Feinstein TV Ad Proves We Need Kevin de León

-by Dorothy Reik
President, Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains

Dianne Feinstein has no trouble stealing. In her latest commercial she even steals Kevin de Leon's campaign motto-- "California Values"-- as if she mirrors our values the way Kevin does! But she cannot steal his legislative accomplishments. After 24 years in the Senate you would think that Dianne Feinstein would have a laundry list bills signed into law that have helped her constituents but that is not the case. She points to three things-- money for subways, money for water and her long ago sunsetted assault weapons ban. What she does not point out is how she steered government contracts to hubby Richard Blum-- they have quite a lucrative partnership. Thanks to profits earned during her "service" on the Defense Appropriations Committee she and Blum were able to buy a $16 million mansion in San Francisco for weekends while spending the week in her $7 million dollar home in DC. Nice. And more recently (she was thrown of the Defense Appropriation Committee when her steering of contracts was discovered) Blum has gotten contracts on California's high speed rail and the selling off of our beautiful post offices-- one even went to Donald Trump!

Meanwhile Kevin de León in just a few short years has a list of accomplishments as long as your arm and, when he gets to DC, he will continue on his trajectory starting with endorsing Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All bill opposed by Feinstein. In his years in the Senate, two as the President Pro Tem, he has helped Californians more than her highness has in 24 years. He passed SB100 to mandate that California reach 100% renewable energy by 2045. He wrote and passed SB 54 to protect our immigrants and when Trump challenged it in court Kevin's bill, carefully crafted to withstand such an assault, was confirmed.

He insured that California would lead in achieving the $15 an hour wage by negotiating a bill instead of taking a chance on a proposition.

As we watch another shooting, this time in Pittsburgh, Kevin can take credit for authoring SB 1235 requiring background checks for buying or selling AMMUNITION! And he worked on No Place Like Home, legislation to provide permanent housing for the homeless with mental issues-- the only way they can get well-- because you cannot get will while you are living on the streets!

He created retirement security for low wage workers by passing the Secure Choice Retirement-Savings Program-- the first in that nation! And he saved the Disclose Act from dying in the Senate. And he has started us on the road to free public college working hard to pass AB19 to insure the first year of Community College will be free-- one step at a time we will get to four years of free college!

His foreign policy advisors include Jodie Evans of CODEPINK-- so we can be sure Kevin will not be voting for endless wars as Feinstein did and he will not be voting to secretly spy on American citizens as Feinstein also did. She only objected to the spying when she herself got spied on!

Kevin has traveled up and down California, meeting voters and listening to their concerns. He has been to corners of the state Feinstein has never even heard of! And if the "non-likely" voters turn out on Tuesday we could be fortunate enough to have a Senator who will stand up to Trump and his fascists in Washington just as he has stood up to them here in California. There is no better Senator for California than Kevin de León. We cannot let this opportunity slip away only to have Gavin Newsom appoint some worthless Blue Dog [note from editor: Adam Schiff recently left the Blue Dogs and joined the other half of the Republican wing of the Democratic Partry, the New Dems] once Feinstein decides to retire to her mansion on the Knob Hill.