The Supreme Court OK's Voter Suppression

Did Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) all vote to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court in April, 2017 because they thought he would make a good justice? Or was it because they're cowards who knew he would suck but were afraid of the politics? Today Yesterday, Gorsuch voted to give Republican-controled states, in this case Ohio, to kick voters off the rolls for missing-- for whatever reason (like being in the hospital in a coma, for example-- a single election. This is aimed disproportionately at, low-income voters (non-property owners). The only dissenter was Sonia Sotomayor. Very disappointing (that she was the only dissenter). Justice Alito’s opinion for the five-justice conservative majority described the state’s process:

Ohio uses the failure to vote for two years as a rough way of identifying voters who may have moved, and it then sends a preaddressed, postage prepaid card to these individuals asking them to verify that they still reside at the same address. Voters who do not return this card and fail to vote in any election for four more years are presumed to have moved and are removed from the rolls.

Justice Alito’s majority opinion and Justice Breyer’s dissenting opinion for the four liberal justices parse the very dense provisions of the Motor Voter law and HAVA to figure out if starting the purge process as Ohio does is illegal. A federal district court said it wasn’t, a divided opinion for the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit said it was, and the Supreme Court now says it isn’t. (The federal government long held that laws like Ohio’s were illegal, a position the Trump administration reversed when it took Ohio’s side in the Supreme Court.)

Whether Alito or Breyer had the stronger analysis of the interplay of the statutory provisions is unclear to me, but both opinions said little about the key political issue underlying the case, an issue Justice Sotomayor flagged in her separate dissent. After noting that Congress passed the Motor Voter law in light of a history of using restrictive registration and purge rules to suppress the vote, the Justice pointed to evidence showing that the process “has disproportionately affected minority, low-income, disabled, and veteran voters.” She noted evidence that in Hamilton County, Ohio, “African-American-majority neighborhoods in downtown Cincinnati had 10% of their voters removed due to inactivity” since 2012, as “compared to only 4% of voters in a suburban, majority-white neighborhood.” She also cited amicus briefs explaining “at length how low voter turnout rates, language-access problems, mail delivery issues, inflexible work schedules, and transportation issues, among other obstacles, make it more difficult for many minority, low-income, disabled, homeless, and veteran voters to cast a ballot or return a notice, rendering them particularly vulnerable to unwarranted removal under” Ohio’s process.

Justice Sotomayor pointed out that another provision of the Motor Voter law requires that any removal program “be uniform, nondiscriminatory, and in compliance with the Voting Rights Act,” and this part of the law provides a potential path forward. As more states enact laws like Ohio’s, it will become further apparent that these laws have discriminatory effects.

And aside from lawsuits, worries about voter suppression have energized the left to fight such laws politically. In at least some states, discriminatory laws like Ohio’s can be fought through legislative battles and at the ballot box.

Justice Alito’s response to Justice Sotomayor is quite telling. He rightly noted that the challenge in this case was not about whether Ohio’s law was discriminatory. But he added that Justice Sotomayor did not point “to any evidence in the record that Ohio instituted or has carried out its program with discriminatory intent.”

Contrary to Justice Alito’s intimation, plaintiffs alleging a violation of the Voting Rights Act need not prove discriminatory intent; discriminatory impact is enough. Justice Alito may be subtly signaling where the Court’s conservative majority is likely to go in future years. At some point the Court may well consider striking down as unconstitutional that part of the Voting Rights Act that holds it is illegal for states to pass voting laws that have a discriminatory impact. He may require plaintiffs to come up with proof of intentional racial discrimination, which is much harder to do.

Fortunately, as of now this part of the Voting Rights Act still stands, and Justice Sotomayor has laid out a two-part strategy to try to reverse discriminatory laws like Ohio’s. Today voting-rights activists lost the battle, but the war is not yet over.

Voter Registration, The Democrats' Sleeping Giant

-by Alice Marshall

In 1980 The AFL-CIO's Committee On Political Education hired me to run a voter education project in Virginia's 4th Congressional District. I made my headquarters in Franklin, Virginia, a paper mill town 40 miles west of Norfolk Virginia. My job was to contact union members who were not registered to vote and persuade them to register as well as contact members who were registered to vote and persuade them to vote for the candidates the union had endorsed.

I was given two computer print-outs of union members, one of union members who were registered to vote and a second, and far larger list, of members who were not registered to vote. Again, my job was to persuade unregistered members to register to vote, and persuade both groups to vote for the union endorsed candidates. So I went about contacting members at the factory gate, by phone, and by mail. In Franklin I went to each shift change at the paper mill, 6 AM, 3 PM, and 11 PM, and distributed fliers urging workers to register and giving the times and places that they could register. I made sure that everyone knew that the registrar kept evening hours on Wednesday evenings. In those days there was no mail-in registration, that was put in by Bill Clinton. So if you could not get to the registrar during regular office hours, there was only one evening you could go to register. Wednesday is prayer night in the South, every church, black and white, has their prayer meetings, choir rehearsal, bible study, and so on, on Wednesday evenings. So by offering extended hours only on Wednesday evenings, the local establishment could effectively disenfranchise workers. Unless, of course, someone like me came to town and asked every worker to register to vote.

The local registrar told me that 1980 had seen the largest increase of voters of any election in her career. In 1976 Franklin had gone for Gerald Ford. In 1980 Franklin voted for Jimmy Carter. I suspect that it was one of the only jurisdictions in the country that flipped from Republican to Democratic in 1980. That experience taught me the power of voter registration. I don't think we could have saved the country from Reagan merely by voter registration. But there is no doubt that Democrats have lost many elections by failing to incorporate voter registration into their campaign strategy.

I am told that it isn't worth the effort to mobilize marginal voters, that it is too expensive. But Republicans don't think so. Republicans spend millions of dollars on voter suppression. For some reason Democrats have never drawn the obvious conclusion, that they can win elections by pushing back against voter suppression. Somehow Democrats think they can win elections even when much of their base stays home.

When I became Chair of the Voter Registration for the Fairfax County Democratic Committee, I knew that I could dramatically increase the Democratic vote merely by targeted voter registration efforts. By 1998 Bill Clinton had changed the law so that every state had mail-in voter registration. This meant that it was no longer necessary to create satellite registration sites, it was no longer necessary to persuade voters to go to the registrar's office. Now all you had to do is to get boxes of voter registration applications from the registrar's office, print up a flier asking people to register to vote, and distribute them. And so, this is precisely what I set about to do. Carefully examining precinct returns to identify those areas with Democratic vote of 60% or better, I identified low rent garden apartments all over Fairfax County for my campaign.

At first I went out by myself; no one on the committee understood what I was doing. But after I was able to report that indeed, voter registration applications were trickling into the registrar's office, committee members began to volunteer. After a few months I had a regular group who could be depended upon to go out, even in the hottest weather, and distribute fliers and forms in every low rent garden apartment complex in the county.

It was difficult to persevere. I remember a very hot Saturday in July distributing forms in the Vista Gardens apartment complex. My volunteers distributed forms to each of the 1200 apartments. Of these, only 11 were mailed in, a return of less than 1%. Furthermore there is an excellent chance that 3 of these new voters were Republicans. Virginia does not register by party, so this is only a guess. But if the guess is correct we registered a net gain of 5 Democratic votes. However, when you consider that Jack Kennedy won the 1960 election by an average of less than one vote per precinct, you realize that 5 new voters per precinct is a significant gain. Moreover, there were several large apartment complexes in that precinct and we worked all of them. And yes, each weekend saw a return of less than 1%. But altogether we added something like 60 new voters in that precinct that year, and almost certainly at least 50 of them Democrats, for a net gain of 40 votes. 40 additional Democratic votes in a single precinct is a major gain. Furthermore, all the voter registration activity in that precinct had the effect of mobilizing those people who were already registered to vote. The Democratic vote in that precinct increased by an additional 10 points, one of our best gains. Only some precincts offer the opportunity for this sort of gain. But it breaks my heart that local Democratic committees are walking away from these opportunities.

In his great documentary, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Greg Palast observes that before they take away your job, your pension, your house, first they must take away your vote. If progressives are to protect jobs, collective bargaining, pensions, and the rest, first progressives must defend voting rights. If you are not doing voter registration and voter protection, can you really say you are a progressive?



The cumulative impact of my voter registration work in Fairfax over successive years helped shift the entire county. In 1999 Democrats won a State Senate race, school board race, and Board of Supervisor's race based on the increase of the Democratic margin in Democratic precincts. There can be no doubt that we could shift the whole country with such efforts.

This post is addressed to members of local party committees, precinct captains. Candidates and campaign managers will not understand this. Candidates and campaign managers are interested in winning their election. They are focused only on the campaign season at hand. They are not interested in cultivating the Democratic vote in a single precinct over time.

Most of the Democratic politicians in Fairfax County did not understand or support my work. Gerry Connolly was one of the few who understood my work and supported it. I know that he is not popular with progressives. But there are reasons that he remains popular with Democratic activists in his district.

If you live in Virginia, New Jersey, Kentucky, or any state which has elections this year, I encourage you to start planning a voter registration effort now. People will tell you that you will not get a good return in an off-year election. Yet  it is precisely in low turnout years that voter registration can play a crucial role in victory. It is true that you will not get anything like the response you would get in a presidential year. But in a low turnout election, 40 additional votes in a Democratic precinct is the difference between winning and losing. For more information about voter registration, voter protection, and pushing back against voter suppression read my book: The Precinct Captain's Guide To Political Victory.

Can Idealists Accomplish Stuff? Their Progress Is The History Of America's Success-- Meet Pramila Jayapal From Seattle

The last Republican presidential candidate to win Washington was Reagan in 1984. Although Washington is basically a blue state-- Obama beat McCain 58-40 and beat Romney 56-41, both U.S.senators are Democrats and every governor for over 30 years has been a Democrat-- the state Senate is narrowly controlled by the Republicans + one renegade conservaDem, Tim Sheldon from a district across the Puget Sound from Seattle. Sheldon's idea of "bipartisan" is to hand the majority role to the Republicans and to join them in voting against marriage equality and backing their toxic agenda.

But there's a very different kind of bipartisanship, often practiced by some of the most progressive legislators in the country. We touched on it last week with a look at Mike Lux's book, The Progressive Revolution-- How The Best in America Came To Be, and the claims by conservative Democrats that Bernie's aspirations for single payer would cause political gridlock and were not feasible. American history is filled with good progressive ideas opposed by conservatives that, through hard work and determination, eventually become part of the fabric of our country, Social Security, universal suffrage, Medicare, public education, being just a few of them.

In the U.S. Senate, Bernie Sanders' bills for veterans affairs usually have massive support across the aisle. In the U.S. House, Alan Grayson has passed more legislation than any other member of Congress, even with the GOP in control. That's because they focus on items of common interest that are popular with the backers of both political parties. In Olympia, the most progressive member of the Washington state Senate, Pramila Jayapal, currently running for Congress, has been working the same kind of bipartisanship-- bringing up bills to lift the statute of limitations on rape and sexual assault sand for free community college education. There is plenty of common ground on issues like that with members of both parties.

Monday she testified at a hearing in the Senate Governmental Operations committee on her bill to expand democracy through automatic voter registration (SB 6379). She worked on the bill with Washington's Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman. When the bill passes and is signed by the governor it will automatically register eligible voters who sign up for programs that already require citizenship verification, including enhanced driver’s licenses, commercial driver’s licenses, as well as certain programs through the Department of Social and Health Services or the state Health Benefits Exchange. The bill provides an opt-out opportunity for those who decline to be registered. The bill also would update addresses for those who are automatically registered. The idea was to design a bill that responds to the specific circumstances of a state that grants driver’s licenses to residence regardless of citizenship. She had to craft the bill so as to not inadvertently grant voting rights to any non-citizens.

"The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy," she explained when she introduced it. "Yet while our state is a leader in so many things, we are struggling to get Washingtonians to cast ballots and have their voices heard. It is the duty of elected officials, regardless of party, to ensure everyone has the opportunity to be heard. That is the goal of this bill. There should be no barriers between the people and voting, and with this bill one more barrier has been removed. We have worked very hard over the past several months to develop a bipartisan piece of legislation that fits Washington’s particular needs."

Secretary Wyman concurred: "I am pleased to join Senator Jayapal and a bipartisan group of legislators in proposing this welcome expansion of access to the voter rolls. We have a sizable group of people who have not chosen to register through the normal routes of online, motor-voter, mail or in-person registration. We know that some of these potential voters have already given proof of citizenship to the DOL or to health exchange, and so automatic registration should be allowed for them. Our goal in the election community is to register every eligible voter, to remove any barriers to voting, and to promote robust turnout."

Analysis shows that automatic voter registration boosts numbers of registered voters as well as turnout at elections. In addition to increasing voter rolls, SB 6379 reduces paperwork and streamlines the registration process, allowing agencies to integrate voter registration services into existing forms and online prompts. "Passing a bill like this with support from both sides of the aisle helps rebuild trust that we can break political gridlock," said Jayapal. "While voting issues can be divisive at times, we have a bipartisan mandate with this bill. Let’s get it passed through the Legislature and onto the governor’s desk for signature."

If you'd like to help bring this kind of approach to Congress, please consider contributing to Jayapal's grassroots campaign here at the Blue America page for candidates who have endorsed Bernie and are running on the same issues as he is. WA-07, by the way, is the most progressive district in Washington and has a PVI of D+29. Neither McCain nor Romney were able to get even 20% of the vote against Obama and Jim McDermott was reelected in 2014 203,954 (81%) to 47,921 (19%) against Republican Craig Keller. This is exactly the kind of district that is perfect for an innovative, stalwart, values-driven progressive like Pramila Jayapal.

Mike Kelly (R-PA) Tied to Voter Fraud Arrest, Continued Lack of Leadership And Ethics

Brad Friedman--on the case

Colin Small, 23, of Phoenixville, PA was arrested Thursday night for throwing thousands of Democratic voter registration forms away in a dumpster. He now faces eight felony and five misdemeanor counts related to voter fraud. Republicans are always claiming they're looking for voter fraud-- and they finally found it... in the mirror, as usual. According to the Los Angeles Times, Small was “working as a supervisor as part of a registration operation in eight swing states financed by the Republican National Committee,” run by a company called Strategic Allied Consulting (owned by Romney operative and notorious election fraudster Nathan Sproul).  When questions arose about Strategic’s practices, including allegations of “submitting forged forms and of dumping Democratic registrations” in Palm Beach County, Florida, the RNC fired the company, at which point Small and his team were re-hired by the Republican Party of Virginia. Small’s online LinkedIn resume states that he is employed by the Republican National Committee and previously worked for multimillionaire teabagger Mike Kelly, a loudmouthed, self-entitled avatar of Greed and Selfishness.

While working as an intern for Kelly last year, we can only guess what college student Small learned, or, more to the point, did not learn. Predictably, it seems that his experience in this professional work environment did not instill any notion whatsoever of ethics in him. We already knew that this was the most bitterly partisan and unproductive Congress yet, but now we see the effects that our elected leaders are having on the next generation. Kelly and his like-minded staffers must not have taught Small about honesty, integrity, or the principles of democracy, like equal representation, the right to vote, and the right to free speech.

Kelly is focused on a constituency of one, himself. He has millions tied up in oil and gas stocks, so he works tirelessly to push through pro-fracking legislation to line the special interest lobbyists’ pockets and his own. He owns a car dealership that sells Hyundais and Kias, so, of course he pushed for the South Korea Free Trade Agreement. Small’s online resume claims he helped work on the research for the free trade agreements, that means he was witnessing first-hand the self-enrichment schemes of his boss at the expense of American workers and on American taxpayers’ dime.

The current Republican Party does not have any good policy ideas to offer the American people right now. They do not want to come to the table and negotiate new policies that will benefit our country. Instead, they rely on worn-out and discredited ideas like tax breaks for the “job creators,” which is simply a reworked version of trickle-down economics that never reached the middle class. Knowing that they can’t convince voters with these poor policies, they are trying to cheat the election process by predetermining who can and cannot participate on Election Day.

Again and again, Kelly has remained silent instead of showing the courage and moral fortitude to stand up and speak out against the forces in his party who are steering this country in the wrong direction. He did not speak out against Pennsylvania State Representative Mike Turzai when he “spilled the beans” that Voter ID was merely an opportunity to deliver Pennsylvania for Mitt Romney. He remained silent when local Republicans violated free speech and tore down a Democratic group’s billboard in support of his opponent, Missa Eaton. He was also silent when Rep. Todd Akin made his infamous remarks regarding "legitimate rape." This pattern demonstrates Kelly’s lack of ethical leadership and unwillingness to use his office for democratic and just purposes. It is unfortunate that this behavior is now appearing in the younger generation of the Republican Party, as evidenced by Thursday’s arrest.

The arrest goes much further than Colin Small though. It really is a Republican Party-wide issue. This is the party whose standard bearer, Gov. Mitt Romney, hired a paid consultant named Nathan Sproul, who is an almost universally recognized as a “shady” character. Sproul was recently in the headlines for the voter fraud scandal in Florida, where his company had been hired by the Republican National Committee. It is yet to be determined if Sproul owns the company that hired Small, but both are using similar methods to thwart people’s right to vote. Their tactic is to purposefully misrepresent themselves as a non-affiliated pollsters and ask who the potential registered voter plans to support. If the person answers “Obama,” the employee moves on to the next person. If someone answers, “Romney,” then they are offered a chance to register. This allows the employees to register only Republicans in states like Virginia that do not have voters identify their party preference.

If we fail to elect leaders who are not afraid to debate the real issues, who are not afraid to face the voters-- all of the voters-- then we are going to sink into even pettier politics. We have complex problems that need thoughtful debate and aggressive action. It is clear to me that Mike Kelly is not that kind of person, but Missa Eaton IS that kind of leader. If you'd like to help Missa replace Kelly in Congress and help clean up and reform an institution that really needs clean-up and reform, you can find her on this page supporting Prosperity as opposed to the Austerity (Voodoo) agenda being pushed by Paul Ryan and Mike Kelly.

Jammin' The Vote With Dave Matthews, Wilco, Phish and Bob Weir

PDA is going to be registering people to vote and talking with them about progressive solutions to American challenges at Crosby Stills and Nash concerts across America starting next month. And they'll be talking about progressive candidates who can make a difference, like David Gill in Illinois and Norman Solomon in California. Blue America will be working with them on a project that will put a rare and beautiful numbered, signed Neil Young art print into the hands of one lucky winner. You'll be hearing more about that very soon. But there's another organization working the rock'n'roll circuit, particularly the jam band circuit to register voters and that's Headcount. Like PDA, Headcount is a grassroots organization; unlike PDA, Headcount is a non-partisan group. It's primary function is to use the power of music to register voters and raise social consciousness. Since 2004, HeadCount has staged voter registration drives at over 2,000 concerts and signed up over 175,000 voters. With questions looming about young voter turnout in this election cycle-- between disappointment with promises from 2008 and GOP efforts to disenfranchise young voters, some major rock bands are hosting voter registration drives at all their summer concerts.

Headcount's “Great American Road Trip,” is a cross-country trek taken by young volunteers who are following the Dave Matthews Band, Wilco, Phish and Furthur (Grateful Dead) across the country, just to register voters at each stop on each tour. Because, as our friends at Headcount like to ask, "what's more American than rock'n'roll?

They expect to register voters at 103 concerts and cover 15,000 miles. Each band has been assigned a crack Headcount team of 2 to 4 volunteers who will be augmented in each city by another 10 local volunteers. Anyone 18 years of age or older can sign up to volunteer at HeadCount.org.

The HeadCount team is traveling to each Dave Matthews Band show in a Volkswagen Routan minivan-- and filing dispatches from the road on the HeadCount blog. Volkswagen of America, Inc. and Dave Matthews Band’s Bama Works Fund are covering all the volunteers’ travel costs.


HeadCount set an all-time record for a single concert tour when they registered 12,161 voters with Dave Matthews Band in 2004. That year, turnout by voters age 18 to 24 jumped 11 percent. It was by far the largest increase among any age group. In 2008 that trend continued, with young voters being the only age group to show an increase in turnout.

However, it will take some work if that trend is to continue. A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that only 43 percent of young voters said they were very interested in the Presidential election, compared to 65 percent in a poll taken at the same time of year in 2008. Another poll by Gallup said that only 56 percent of registered voters under the age of 30 plan to cast their ballot in November.

One of the best ways to increase voter turnout is by welcoming new voters into the democratic process. In 2008, over 72 percent of the voters registered by HeadCount turned out to vote, according to an independent study by the Washington, D.C.-based New Organizing Institute. That same study said that over 4 million votes were cast that year by individuals who registered to vote through independent groups like HeadCount.

We Don't All Get To Vote On Creeping Fascism The Way Maine Does

Le Bouffon

How did a "sensible" state like Maine wind up with a deranged fascist and self-proclaimed teabagger like Paul LePage as governor? As they often do, the Democrats nominated an uninspiring, conflicted hack. Libby Mitchell did inspire one thing-- an independent opponent, Eliot Cutler. So while the two Democratic congressional incumbents, Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud, won easy reelection and drew 316,156 votes between them, that very same day, Libby Mitchell wound up with 109,387-- a stunning 19%. Cutler, the Independent, took 208,270 votes, 37%, and nearly won. But he didn't. LePaul beat him by 1%. Yes, Paul LePage, one of the most radical right governors-- on a par in terms of demented extremism with the Koch-owned Scott Walker (WI), Rick Scott (FL), Rick Snyder (MI), John Kasich (OH) and Rick Perry (TX)-- became governor of Maine with 38% of the vote, which he interpreted as a mandate to turn the state upside down and inaugurate a dangerous ALEC-dictated fascist agenda. Last week, in fact, the Boston Phoenix delineated LePage's Koch-connections.

If you're looking for a poster child for the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics, you'd have a hard time doing better than the American Legislative Exchange Council.

ALEC is one of the nation's most powerful and most secretive lobbying entities, and it focuses exclusively on state legislatures. Disguised as a non-partisan professional association for legislators, it is actually a corporate-funded mechanism to allow business interests to write their own bills without leaving fingerprints for the public and their elected representatives to see. ALEC hands out model laws to willing or naïve legislators-- including some in Maine-- which are drafted by secret task forces and approved by ALEC's corporate donors, who provide virtually all of its funding. Major donors include the infamous Koch Brothers, the American Petroleum Institute, ExxonMobil, and big drug and tobacco companies. The laws seek to deregulate industry, protect the powerful from responsibility for their misdeeds, or dismantle and privatize government. Hundreds of ALEC-written laws are passed in state houses every year, usually without anyone realizing who really wrote them.

Guess who is the new corporate chair of ALEC for the state of Maine?

Confidential documents from ALEC's annual meeting last month in New Orleans obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy reveal it is none other than Ann Robinson, a trusted advisor to Governor Paul LePage who simultaneously maintains her day job as a corporate lobbyist at Preti Flaherty Beliveau & Pachios. (Her legislative co-chair is Senator Richard Rosen, Republican of Bucksport.)

Robinson was the author of the governor's infamous "Phase I" regulatory reform agenda, which sought to roll all of Maine's environmental laws back to weaker federal standards, restore the endocrine disruptor Bisphenol-A to baby's bottles and sippy cups, gut product-recycling legislation, and rezone 30 percent of the Maine North Woods for development (see "LePage's Secret Puppeteers," February 11, by Colin Woodard). We later obtained documents showing she did so by cutting and pasting language provided by major North Woods landholders, the producers of many currently recycled products, the pulp and paper industry, and her colleagues at Preti (which represents PhRMA, Medco, Merck, the Toy Industry Association of America, and other interested parties; see "The LePage Files," July 22, by Colin Woodard). She's the governor's first choice to fill a vacancy on the board of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network (which he tried to de-fund; see "Governor to Nominate Favored Lobbyist to MPBN Board," August 19, by Colin Woodard) and already sits on the committee that vets his potential judicial nominees.

Long ago the extreme right-- whether monarchists, plutocrats or fascists-- identified democracy itself as a mortal enemy. And the right has never stopped trying to undermine it. As soon as Lepage was inaugurated he got to work, ALEC agenda in hand, on overturning Maine's democratic traditions and, more important, laws. Fascists all over the country are doing what they can to abolish the legal framework for universal suffrage. Ari Berman covered much of the story in Rolling Stone last week, although he concentrated more on Ohio and Florida when it came to discussing cutting back on early voting.

After the recount debacle in Florida in 2000, allowing voters to cast their ballots early emerged as a popular bipartisan reform. Early voting not only meant shorter lines on Election Day, it has helped boost turnout in a number of states-- the true measure of a successful democracy. "I think it's great," Jeb Bush said in 2004. "It's another reform we added that has helped provide access to the polls and provide a convenience. And we're going to have a high voter turnout here, and I think that's wonderful."

But Republican support for early voting vanished after Obama utilized it as a key part of his strategy in 2008. Nearly 30 percent of the electorate voted early that year, and they favored Obama over McCain by 10 points. The strategy proved especially effective in Florida, where blacks outnumbered whites by two to one among early voters, and in Ohio, where Obama received fewer votes than McCain on Election Day but ended up winning by 263,000 ballots, thanks to his advantage among early voters in urban areas like Cleveland and Columbus.

That may explain why both Florida and Ohio-- which now have conservative Republican governors-- have dramatically curtailed early voting for 2012. Next year, early voting will be cut from 14 to eight days in Florida and from 35 to 11 days in Ohio, with limited hours on weekends. In addition, both states banned voting on the Sunday before the election-- a day when black churches historically mobilize their constituents. Once again, there appears to be nothing to justify the changes other than pure politics. "There is no evidence that any form of convenience voting has led to higher levels of fraud," reports the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College.

Maine, most of it tucked away between Québec and New Brunswick, often gets overlooked-- something that has allowed LePage to operate somewhat undercover with his schemes, at least in the eyes of most Americans. Most Mainers, on the other hand, are very much aware of what he's been up to. And in a few weeks the state has a handy little referendum coming on LePage's hard swing towards fascism-- or at least one aspect of it: the state's cherished same day voter registration law. The Rolling Stone was already out by the time the Bangor Daily News reported this blockbuster:

Maine’s secretary of state has certified enough petition signatures to ensure a statewide people’s veto referendum in November that asks voters to support or reject a new law banning Election Day voter registration.

Charlie Summers made the announcement late Thursday afternoon, exactly 30 days after Protect Maine Votes, a coalition of progressive advocacy groups, submitted more than 80,000 signatures for consideration.

About 70,000 of those signatures were validated, well above the 57,277 required of the campaign by state law.

“More than a thousand volunteers worked tirelessly to protect a system that has worked well for more than 38 years,” said Mark Gray, campaign manager for Protect Maine Votes. “There’s no reason to change it.”

Per state law, the people’s veto question will be listed first on the ballot, and it will read: “Do you want to reject the section of Chapter 399 of the Public Laws of 2011 that requires new voters to register to vote at least two business days prior to an election?”

In June, the Republican-controlled House and Senate voted largely along party lines to pass LD 1376, An Act To Preserve the Integrity of the Voter Registration and Election Process. Supporters said the aim was to improve the voting process and alleviate stress on municipal election clerks, although some, including Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster, said it would reduce voter fraud.

Supporters of same-day voter registration, however, said voter fraud is not a problem and the 38-year-old law allowing Election Day registration simply makes it easier for Mainers to vote.

“During this tough economy, a lot of people in Maine have to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet,” said Barbara McDade, president of the League of Women Voters of Maine, one of the coalition members. “Election Day registration makes it possible for many hardworking Mainers to participate. Voting is fundamental to our democracy. We shouldn’t create new ways to make participation harder.”

I bet you can figure out on your own why this is the post I chose to kick off today's 9/11 remembrances... right? But if anyone can figure out where so-called "moderate" U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe stands on this, please let me know. I bet there are a lot of people in Maine who would like to know.

McCain Wants To Talk About Dangerous? OK

coattails

This morning CBS News reported that Lagging In The Polls, Palin Shifts To Fear Tactics. Can anyone in their right mind take A Know Nothing Winky-Dinky seriously enough to fear the nonsense that comes randomly shooting out of her lipsticked trap? Apparently not in Virginia, where Obama now holds a double-digit lead over McCain. She keeps using words like "dangerous," "fearful" and "afraid" in the increasingly hysterical and desperate speeches the McCain team writes for her and it only reminds voters of John McCain's career-long erratic behavior, hair-trigger temperament, and of the serial hysteria his campaign has degenerated into.

USAToday noted that today was the end of a record-breaking registration campaign in half the states in the nation-- record-breaking for Democrats, heart-breaking for Republicans.

Democrats have added more than 800,000 voters and Republicans have lost 300,000 in eight of the most tightly fought states in the presidential race: Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico and New Hampshire. Changes occur when voters switch parties or are removed from registration lists because they moved, died or haven't voted in recent elections.

No wonder McCain is so desperate and has decided to turn the rest of the campaign into a brutal slash and burn gutter exercise that even Karl Rove says is over the top and even Tom DeLay has qualms about!

And like Virginia, Ohio is also slipping further and further from McCain's clammy grasp. Yesterday's Columbus Dispatch reported that Obama is now up by 7 points statewide. If that holds, McCain needn't bother staying up late for the 2 remaining debates. The sweetest part of McCain's nosedive is that he's dragging the entire Republican Party down with him, just the way he did in the special congressional elections in Illinois, Louisiana, and Mississippi, where 3 red districts rejected McCain and his candidates-- running the same kind of viciously negative campaign McCain is doing now-- for moderate Democrats supported by Obama. McCain's coattails look like they will be the most toxic in the history of the Republican Party.

In 2006 rubber stamp Republican Randy Kuhl beat security-oriented progressive Democrat Eric Massa 52%-48%. This year the two campaigns have around the same amount of money on hand (Massa- $534,000 and Kuhl $572,000). According to a Republican polling firm, McLaughlin & Associates, January showed Kuhl way ahead, 46-26%. That's a steep hill to climb. Eric has climbed it. Today's release of a Beneson Strategy Group poll has Eric at 47% and Kuhl trailing with 42%.

We're seeing results like this on the local levels everywhere in the country. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Al Franken (D-MN) have pulled ahead of incumbent Republican rubber stamps Gordon Smith and Norm Coleman. And national Republicans have virtually written off any chance Elizabeth Dole has for keeping her seat in North Carolina. Politico: "Top Republicans say they have no hope for Dole in North Carolina. 'There’s no point in even counting the votes,' said a top McCain official." They say the only Republican chance for a pick-up in the Senate is if Lieberman makes his jump to their side official.

Similarly, there are no Democrats with endangered seats except for Chris Carney (PA) who has been voting like a Republican and deserves to lose his seat; unfortunately, even a reactionary scumbag like Carney will be helped by an Obama landslide. Heavily red House seats that are looking like they will elect Democrats in November include the at-large Alaska seat, currently held by bribe-taking Don Young, but even non-criminal types in the GOP are getting ready to start hunting for jobs on K Street after November. Some of the most likely Democratic prospects (all races where the Democrat is currently polling ahead or even):

Charlie Brown (CA-04)- up 5%
Alan Grayson (FL-08)- up 4%
Parker Griffith (AL-05)- up 5%
Jim Himes (CT-04)- dead heat
Walter Minnick (ID-01)- up 6%-- and yes, that's Idaho in a district with a PVI of R+19!
Betsy Markey (CO-04)- up 9%
Frank Kratovil (MD-01)- dead heat
Mark Schauer (MI-07)- up 6%
Gary Peters (MI-09)- up 4%
Ashwin Madia (MN-03)- up 5% (brand new poll)
Larry Kissell (NC-08)- up 11%
Martin Heinrich (NM-01)- up 6%
Harry Teague (NM-02)- up 4%
Dina Titus (NV-03)- up 11%
Michael McMahon (NY-13)- GOP has given up
Dan Maffei (NY-25)- up 1%
Steve Dreihaus (OH-01)- dead heat
Vic Wulsin (OH-02)- dead heat
Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15)- up 5%
John Boccieri (OH-16)- up 8%
Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03)- up 4%
Gerry Connolly (VA-11)- up 31%
Gary Trauner (WY-A-L)- dead heat

Most district have no polling available. If you're interested in helping your favorite Democrats in House races, there's a People For the American Way contest going on right now, where you can leverage even a small donation for your favorite candidate into a big check. Right now Judy Feder (VA-10), Gary Peters (MI-09) and Russ Warner (CA-26) are battling it out for the top slot, but it's very early going and already Marin Heinrich (NM-01), Dennis Shulman (NJ-05), and Debbie Cook (CA-46) are starting to move up. Click here to take a look.

And if you're wondering why Eric Massa took that gigantic jump in the polls, I think this video will help you understand:




UPDATE: GOP HOUSE CANDIDATES CRUMBLING

I spoke to a friend of mine in Minnesota tonight who told me the GOP has pretty much just thrown in the towel on holding on to Ramstad's seat with right-winger Erik Paulsen. Ashwin Madia has been beating him in the polls and Paulsen is hiding from the press. And it's not an isolated phenomena. Tomorrow's Roll Call paints a grim picture (grim if you're a Republican).

Democrats have opened up significant leads in seven marquee House races that are rematches of 2006 contests, according to new polls conducted exclusively for Roll Call.

Whether the race involves a Republican who was ousted last cycle and is seeking a political comeback, a shaky GOP incumbent who might be in even greater jeopardy this time, or a Democrat who won an open-seat race in a conservative district, Democrats everywhere seem to be benefiting politically from the recent wave of bad economic news. Democratic Congressional contenders are even leading in districts where Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) trails Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the Roll Call survey.

...In Illinois’ 10th district, marketing consultant Dan Seals (D) led Rep. Mark Kirk (R) 52 percent to 44 percent. In Indiana’s 9th, Rep. Baron Hill (D) led ex-Rep. Mike Sodrel (R) 53 percent to 38 percent. In New Hampshire’s 1st, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D) led ex-Rep. Jeb Bradley (R) 50 percent to 41 percent. In New York’s 29th, retired Navy officer Eric Massa (D) led Rep. Randy Kuhl (R) 51 percent to 44 percent. In North Carolina’s 8th district, teacher Larry Kissell (D) led Rep. Robin Hayes (R) 49 percent to 41 percent. In Pennsylvania’s 4th district, Rep. Jason Altmire (D) led ex-Rep. Melissa Hart (R) 54 percent to 42 percent. And in Wisconsin’s 8th district, Rep. Steve Kagen (D) topped former state Speaker John Gard (R) 54 percent to 43 percent.

Did you read Glenn's piece at Salon today? He reprised a warning from last summer, warning he's ready to take action on:

What is the best course for those who want to battle against these civil-liberties-destroying, rule-of-law-trampling, war-making policies that the GOP leadership pushes and the Democratic Party leadership supports, enables, and/or passively accepts? In a two-party system where blind support for either party will do nothing but perpetuate these policies, how can they be undermined?

And some of the Democrats above are that type of Democrats-- nominal Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. There is no reason-- none whatsoever-- to rejoice because of the election of reactionaries like Baron Hill or Jason Altmire. They are useless in important battles and their cowardice and instinctual conservatism moves the Democratic caucus inexorably to the right.

Many of my friends are overjoyed that Miss McConnell may lose his seat. No one deserves that fate more. And no one wishes him worse than I do. But his opponent is Bruce Lunsford who will either replace Ben Nelson as the worst Democrat in the Senate or just jump the fence and become a Republican the first time that seems like a promising proposition, the same way Richard Shelby did in 1994. As much as I abhor McConnell, there's nothing in the world that would ever get me to vote for Bruce Lunsford.

Shpilkes In Little Havana For the GOP

Little Havana is part of Florida's 18th congressional district, currently represented by far right Cuban-American Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Ros-Lehtinen is a Bush rubber stamp at best and a bat-shit crazy extremist at worst. Next week's Time Magazine has a story that may well have Ros-Lehtinen and her allies, particularly corrupt Democrat Debbie Wasserman Shultz, zitstin' oyf shpilkes. Little Havana, and FL-18, used to be a reliably Republican district. Bush took 57% in 2000 and even after people experienced 4 years of his incompetent and venal rule, he still got 54% in 2004. After first being elected in 1989, Ros-Lehtinen has never gotten less than 60% of the vote and from 1994 until 2002 the Democrats didn't even run anyone against her! No one expects Ros-Lehtinen to have an easy ride to re-election this November, regardless of Wasserman Schultz' ongoing and ruthlessly determined campaign to undermine her Democratic opponent, Annette Taddeo. Little Havana, like FL-18, has changed dramatically, while Ros-Lehtinen has remained frozen in time, despite Wasserman Schultz' strategy of having her repeatedly scurrying across the aisle to vote with Democrats for the past 2 months-- hoping against hope that Miami-Dade voters will forget her nearly 2 decades of right-wing extremism.

Ironically, the Time article, like the NY Times story last month, used insidious Wasserman Schultz sources to push her "inevitability" meme-- that although the Diaz-Balart Brothers may lose their seats, Wasserman Schultz' best friend and partner in crime, Ros-Lehtinen, can't be beaten. This ignores what an atrocious representative Ros-Lehtinen has been, what an incredible alternative Annette Taddeo is, and the simple fact that FL-18 is the most Democratic of the three districts! Little Havana, which Time trumpets being so changed happens to not be in either Diaz-Balart district but in FL-18.

Time talks about a 5% lead that Mario Diaz-Balart holds over Joe Garcia but that was before the new voter registration numbers came out showing that GOP advantages have all but vanished. In the last 2 years the GOP voter registration advantage in Ros-Lehtienen's district has shunk from 22,000 voters to 8,000. By election time the advantage may well be with the Democrats. On top of that the 38-36% Republican registration advantage is negated by the fact that recent polls show the 23% of independents in the district breaking strongly (2 to 1) for Taddeo and against Ros-Lehtinen.

The unexpected tests spell trouble not just for the GOP but also for what has long been the staple of Miami politics: open hostility to the Castro regime in Havana. "These were once considered the safest Republican seats in Florida, if not the country," says political analyst Dario Moreno of Miami's Florida International University (FIU). "But waving the bloody shirt of anti-Castro politics is less effective now."

...Some of the shift stems from elderly voters like Coto, but younger Cuban Americans are restless too. Like their elders, they want to liberate Cuba, but they also want to get by in Miami, where the middle class is shriveling and home foreclosures are soaring. "I'm not running for President of Cuba," says Martinez. "Cuban Americans finally see themselves as part of the wider U.S.A., and they care about other issues."

Florida Democrats are drawing new strength from a growing number of non-Cuban Latinos. Miami's third Cuban-American Representative, 10-term GOP incumbent Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, usually faces token opposition, if any. Her 18th District is still 65% Latino, but it is less than 30% Cuban today. That has emboldened Democrats like her challenger, Colombian-American businesswoman Annette Taddeo, whose constituents worry less about Havana than about immigration, health care and U.S. indifference toward the rest of Latin America.

Still, a likely decisive issue in these races involves Cuba. In 2004, as a gift to conservatives, President Bush tightened restrictions on travel and remittances to the island. Cuban Americans--only those who have immediate family members in Cuba--can now visit just once every three years and send only $300 each quarter. The move backfired: most Miami Cubans oppose the new rules, according to an FIU poll, and they have been particularly unpopular among younger Cuban Americans. That was a big reason Miami computer programmer and lifelong Republican Joe Infante, 47, who has relatives in Cuba he can no longer visit, is now a registered Democrat. The regulations, he says, "have kept Cuban families separated but haven't put a dent in the Cuban regime." The move suggests that leaders of Florida's anti-Castro movement may have lost touch with the region's changing demographics. What would have worked in 1985 to deepen GOP support had the opposite effect in today's more diverse Miami. Says Garcia, sipping a café cubano in Little Havana: "Bush succeeded in dividing what was once a monolithic vote for his party."

Blue America has enthusiastically endorsed Joe Garcia and Annette Taddeo. For the next 24 hours anyone who donates to both candidates through our Blue America ActBlue page will get a brand new Matt Keating double CD, Quixotic.

Voter Registration Reversals Killing California GOP In Their Own Strongholds

Between January 22 and May 19, over 400,000 new voters registered in California. 75% of them registered as Democrats. The news gets much worse for Republicans; almost all the rest registered as independents (Decline-to-State). The GOP picked up less than 15,000 of those new voters (3.6%). Nor was this all happening in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The fastest growing area of the state, the heavily Republican Inland Empire is trending away from Republicans as well. Riverside County is growing faster than any other part of the state but the GOP has lost close to 34,000 there since the last presidential election.

And in the Fresno Valley-- Fresno, Tulare, Kings, Madera, Mariposa and Merced counties-- Republicans are feeling very threatened. Four very conservative congressmen represent the Fresno Valley, two far right extremist Republicans (George Radanovich and Devin Nunes) and two Blue Dogs from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party (Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa). McCain is likely to lose this former solidly Republican stronghold but there is no chance for any changes in Congress from the area. Although the 4 congressmen are all too right for the area, none had any primary opponents and neither the Blue Dog Cardoza nor the neo-fascist Radanovich faces an opponent in November. Nunes is certainly one of the worst representatives the state of California has ever sent to Congress-- half a step above out-and-out crooks like John Doolittle, Jerry Lewis, Dick Pombo and Gary Miller-- but he hasn't drawn effective opposition. Democrat Larry Johnson has raised $32,919 to Nunes' $961,183. And the Republican running against Blue Dog Jim Costa, James Lopez, is in even worse shape, having raised, as of June 30, nothing at all. The most important issue, in his mind, is to attack Costa for voting against Bush's highly unpopular trade policies (CAFTA)... a dead dog issue, even in an agricultural area like the Valley. Largely because f Lou Dobbs, people have a good understanding of how the Republican trade policies have helped wreck the middle class.

The GOP's decline is most obvious in Fresno County, where the losses have turned into an avalanche, even as the party gears up its efforts to keep the White House in GOP hands by electing Arizona Sen. John McCain as president.

The most recent voter registration numbers show the Democrats are closing the gap and are now fewer than 9,000 voters behind the Republicans.

At the peak in 2004, GOP registrations were ahead by more than 23,500 voters.

"We are concerned," said Fred Vanderhoof, chairman of the Fresno County Republican Party. "We're looking back, and we see they're gaining on us."

But the party seems unable to put its finger on how it lost almost 13,000 Fresno County voters in less than four years.

They acknowledge that some voters-- likely moderates younger than 35-- have migrated to the Democratic Party or have become independents, known in California as "decline-to-state" voters.
They think some fiscal conservatives also have left the party in disgust as the national debt soared under President Bush and, for most of his two terms, a Republican Congress.

At the same time, the cash-strapped state party organization has been unable to mount an aggressive registration drive to woo new voters.

Democrats most likely to gain from collapsing support for the GOP brand and for increased Democratic registration are Jerry McNerney, just north of the Fresno Valley, whose defeat was once a big GOP priority but looks more and more unlikely by the day, plus two southern California candidates, Debbie Cook and Russ Warner. Cook's and Warner's opponents, respectively Dana Rohrabacher and David Dreier, are being looked at seriously by dissatisfied voters for the first time in their careers. In fact Russ Warner's campaign just finished polling and discovered that almost 80% of respondents were unhappy with the direction of the country and two-thirds disapprove of the job Bush is doing (in a district that Bush took in 2004 with 55%). Even more encouraging is that Dreier’s favorability rating is below 50% and when participants were given unbiased info on each candidate they are in a statistical dead heat.

Florida has also had a tremendous upsurge in Democratic registrations. Since January, 2008, the Florida Democratic Party has gained 286,901 new members, including 236,214 newly registered voters and 49,575 former Republican who have switched to become Democrats. During this time, Democrats have seen huge gains in new registrations in all age and demographic groups-- 131,400 voters under the age of 35 (compared to just 63,392 who joined the GOP); 87,154 voters between 35 and 65 years old (compared to the Republicans 48,012); 49,381 new Hispanic Democrats (compared to just 19,759 Republicans); and 75,155 African Americans (compared to just 3,442 new African American Republicans). This is going to be a good year to be Annette Taddeo, Joe Garcia, Alan Grayson and Doug Tudor.

National registration figures: 27% of Americans are registered Republicans. 37% are registered Democrats. 31% of Americans are registered independents. The remaining 5% are classified as “other.” Seems to be that "independents" need some representation.

A Fundamental Shift More Important Than Mere Hope Tinged With Opportunism

Better than Kaine, worse than crap

If my pal Bil is correct and Obama names Bayh his running mate tomorrow, I'll endeavor to explain why I'm withdrawing my endorsement of him and why I'll be skipping the presidential line on the 2008 ballot. It's something I've never done before. And I certainly intend to vote and to continue supporting progressives who are running for Congress. The PAC associated with this blog, Blue America, has raised nearly $1.3 million and all of that is meant to help elect progressive leaders, not Evan Bayhs or Dan Quayles. And although Bil's prediction depressed me today, over all, my spirits are still high, primarily because the fundamental change in thinking of so many Americans is unstoppable. Conservative America is dying a death it has earned and a death that is long overdue.

This morning's NY Times talk about a landslide of Democratic registrations, perhaps even enough to overcome Republican voter fraud.

For more than three years starting in 2005, there has been a reduction in the number of voters who register with the Republican Party and a rise among those who affiliate with Democrats and, almost as often, with no party at all.

While the implications of the changing landscape for Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain are far from clear, voting experts say the registration numbers may signal the beginning of a move away from Republicans that could affect local, state and national politics over several election cycles. Already, there has been a sharp reversal for Republicans in many legislatures and governors’ mansions.

In several states, including the traditional battlegrounds of Nevada and Iowa, Democrats have surprised their own party officials with significant gains in registration. In both of those states, there are now more registered Democrats than Republicans, a flip from 2004. No states have switched to the Republicans over the same period, according to data from 26 of the 29 states in which voters register by party.

Now, in states where pluralities would be more comfortable living under a Nazi system-- Louisiana, Kentucky and Oklahoma-- Republican registration rose, but those were the exception to the rule and in traditional battleground states like Iowa, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania Democratic registrations swamped Republicans. In traditionally more Republican-leanings states, like North Carolina, Arizona and Colorado, independent registration has gone sky-high. The fact that this has been going on for 4 straight years is probably going to translate into a catastrophe for the GOP at the polls in November, at least in congressional races, regardless of how badly Obama continues to screw up.

“This is very suggestive that there is a fundamental change going on in the electorate,” said Michael P. McDonald, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an associate professor of political science at George Mason University who has studied voting patterns.

Yet while an unpopular war, a faltering economy and a president held in low esteem have certainly combined to hurt the Republican Party, Democrats are also benefiting from demographic changes, including the rise in the number of younger voters and the urbanization of suburbs, which has resulted in a different political flavor there, voting and campaign experts said. The party has also been helped by a recent willingness to run more pragmatic candidates, who have helped make the party more appealing to a broader swath of the electorate.

Many of the congressional races that Blue America is most heavily involved in are districts with the biggest swings away from Republican registration, like our three key Florida races in Miami-Dade and Orlando, races likely to see the political demise of Republican rubber stamps Ric Keller, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart. They are part of an Obama campaign priority and a long-term national trend, demonstrated in 26 states with registration data that shows Democrats gaining 214,656 voters while the Republicans lost 1,407,971!

This may well be compounded when it's time to draw new congressional districts.

Elected Democrats have made significant inroads even in places where Republicans have enjoyed a generation of dominance. In Colorado, for example, Democrats control the governorship and both houses of the Legislature for the first time in over four decades. Last year, Virginia Democrats gained a 21-to-19 majority over Republicans in the State Senate, the first time the party has controlled that body in a decade.

In New Hampshire, Democrats are in control of both the legislative and executive branches for the first time since 1874. In Iowa, Democrats have taken over the statehouse and the governor’s office simultaneously for the first time in a generation.

The Long Overdue End Of Chris Shays' Political Career?

A few days ago we talked with Jeff Merkley, the progressive Democrat challenging rubber stamp Republican Senator Gordon Smith in Oregon. Jeff makes it clear that Smith follows a pattern of rubber stamping the most extremist and narrow-minded Republican policies for 5 years and then in the year before he has to face the voters, he tries running as a "moderate" and an "independent," hoping no one has the time to examine his lockstep voting record. In the state where Bush has one of his lowest approval ratings Smith has a breathtaking record of unquestioning support for the entire Bush agenda. Interestingly his lifetime ProgressivePunch score is 19.09. This year, as he comes to grips with a disapproval number higher than an approval number, he has crossed the aisle more and more frequently to try to make himself look like a Democrat or even a moderate Republican; his ProgressivePunch score for 2007-'08 is a more respectable 42.66-- and shows a great deal of effort having been put in to deceive Oregon voters. The new Rasmussen polling data shows the ploy isn't working and that Merkley is beating him.

And this is a pattern around the country, with rubber stamp Republicans desperately trying to inoculate themselves from Bush, Cheney and McCain and the radical right agenda they have been rubber stamping. On the Senate side we have down-the-line Bush-Cheney supporters like Susan Collins (R-ME), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Smith of course, John Sununu (R-NH) and even lunatic fringe incumbents like Ted Stevens (R-AK), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Liddy Dole (R-NC) and Pat Roberts (R-KS) trying, absurdly, to pass themselves off as moderates and independent voices who have stood up to Bush. They're not and they haven't.

Less examined are identical claims being made by Republican members of the House. One of the most successful rubber stamp Republicans to pass himself off as a "moderate" has been Connecticut's deceptive Congressman Chris Shays. Tell me how moderate Shays' record on Iraq looks to you. Since voting in total lockstep with Bush-and Cheney on the 4 bills to authorize the use of force against Iraq on October 10, 2002, Shays has voted on 63 roll calls regarding Iraq. Of the 63 opportunities he's had to break with Bush and Cheney's catastrophic policies he refused to go along with them exactly 2 times. How "moderate" is that! One was to join bipartisan coalition demanding an end to no bid contracts; and the other was to join an even wider bipartisan coalition to change the status to Iraq rebuilding funds from grants to loans. He never once voted to end the war or occupation or to slow down Bush's aggression. At the same time Shays was rubber stamping Bush's entire policy of Middle east war he was voting against our active duty military personnel (he voted against them 21 times out of 23 roll calls-- and both were procedural votes whereas the votes like supplying body armor and up-armored vehicles for our fighting men... well Shays decided to support Bush and Cheney instead.) Military veterans have gotten the same treatment from Shays: of 24 rolls calls, Shays has stood behind American vets exactly one time and that was voting to approve the overall budget to fund the federal government, a budget that included relief for veterans that Shays had opposed!

OK, so he's bad on foreign affairs, war and the military, so how does he get his "moderate" cred, you ask? Don't think it's on domestic issues. When it comes to fair taxation, Shays is as anti-working family as Bush could want. There have been 134 rolls calls regarding fair taxation since 2002. How many time was Shays on the side of working and middle class families in Bush's battle to redistribute the wealth of the nation upwards? Six times, mostly on procedural votes of no real consequence on the Republican war against the middle class.

And on all of the most contentious recent votes, Shays has stuck with Bush. On June 20 Shays was with Bush and Cheney again as he voted to permit warrantless wiretaps and retroactive immunity for those who already used them illegally. Of course, in this instance Shays had a special little extra incentive-- $5,500 in campaign contributions from the very people who were so desperate for the retroactive immunity. Would you call that bribery? I would. Oh, and on the latest Bush request for money to keep the occupation in Iraq going, Congressman "Moderate" voted a resounding and consistent YES, yes for Bush, no for peace.

Blue America endorsed Jim Himes one year ago this week and he's proven himself very much worthy of our endorsement, fighting against the war and against Bush's and Shays' FISA bill. Jim has been running neck and neck with the corporately funded Shays when it comes to fundraising. Shays has scooped up $2,330,014 and Jim has taken in $2,087,832. But where Jim is absolutely kicking Shays' ass is in voter registration-- and it's what looks like the decisive factor in ending the shameful career of the last of the Connecticut fake moderates.

Democratic voter registration is up sharply in southwestern Connecticut's 4th Congressional District, and political analysts said Friday that Republican U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays may face the toughest challenge of his career.

In fact, if city Democrats in Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stamford show up on Election Day in a tide of anticipated statewide urban support for Sen. Barack Obama, Shays' narrow 5,747-vote margin of 2006 could evaporate into a forced political retirement.

...Since Jan. 1, 11,329 new Democrats have registered in the 17-town district. Only 3,462 Republicans have signed up so far this year and only 8,299 unaffiliated voters.

Traditionally, unaffiliated voters outnumber Democrats and current statewide totals still hold true, with 801,002 unaffiliated; 707,885 Democrats; and 408,376 Republicans, with registration open until Oct. 28. But statewide this year, more than 47,000 new voters have declared themselves Democrats, compared to 38,000 unaffiliated and 14,000 new Republicans, Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz announced on Friday.

That immediately prompted the Congressional Quarterly to change the race's rating from Leans Republican to Toss Up. The fact that the African-American population of Bridgeport wasn't enthusiastic enough of John Kerry's lackluster campaign to turn out in big numbers, worked in Shays' favor in 2004. With Barack Obama at the top of the ticket in November, it is clear that Shays' luck has hit a brick wall.

No doubt all those folks who are so worried about voter fraud (that they never bother to document) will be quick to support same-day registration

“For over 33 years, Minnesota’s same-day registration law has helped produce the highest voter turnout of any state. Same-day registration works, it encourages people to be engaged and interested in the issues facing our country--this bill gives a voice to every American who wants to vote.”
--Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar

Yesterday our constitutional maven Jon Dodson did his level best to find some way, any way, in which the Supreme Court's recent decision upholding the Indiana law requiring photo ID for voting makes a lick of sense, and came up empty. Setting aside the constitutional arguments (which increasingly seems to be how the Roberts Court works), the practical rationale is supposed to be to prevent "voter fraud," except that no one seems to have any evidence of this fraud actually occurring. It seems only too clear that what the proponents of these laws are actually trying to prevent is voting--that is to say, voting by groups of people who are likely to vote against right-wing interests.

Now three of our favorite U.S. legislators--Senators Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison--have proposed federalizing a solution that, as Senator Klobuchar argues above, has been a resounding success in her home state: same-day registration. According to a press release from Senator Feingold's office:

The Election Day Registration Act addresses chronic problems with the American electoral process--low voter turnout and archaic voter registration laws. Election Day registration is also seen as preferable to advance registration since voters are actually present when they register, reducing opportunities for fraud. The bill’s introduction comes days after the Supreme Court upheld an Indiana voter ID law that seriously impedes the ability of elderly and low-income Americans to vote. Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Jon Tester (D-MT), who represent states that recently enacted Election Day registration, are also cosponsors of the bill.

“The right to vote is at the heart of our democracy, and we should constantly be looking for ways to make it easier for Americans to exercise that right,” Feingold said. “Election Day registration has worked well in Wisconsin for more than 30 years and is a major reason why Wisconsin is a national leader in voter turnout. By allowing people to register in person on Election Day, we can bring more people into the process, which only strengthens our democracy.”

On the voter-fraud question, the press release notes:

Allowing Election Day registration can also address concerns about potential voter fraud. Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has called Election Day registration a “no brainer” and has said it is more secure than advance registration because “you have the person right in front of you--not a postcard in the mail.”