Posts Tagged ‘elections

09
Nov
11

rise and shine

By Chipsticks 247 Comments
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Joe Biden: “Tonight the people of Ohio delivered a gigantic victory for the middle class with their overwhelming rejection of a Republican attempt to strip away collective bargaining rights. Fundamental fairness has prevailed. By standing with teachers and firefighters and cops, Ohio has sent a loud and clear message that will be heard all across the country: The middle class will no longer be trampled on. The people of Ohio are to be congratulated.”

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Time

MSNBC

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Steve Benen: Going into Election Day 2011, the conventional wisdom said that voters would offer some clues about prevailing political attitudes and what’s to come in 2012. As the dust settles on last night’s results, if the conventional wisdom is right, Republican optimism about next year is badly misplaced.

From coast to coast, Democrats and progressive goals not only won, but in most instances, won big. Some of the highlights….

Full post here

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PPP

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Wednesday:

4:15: The President holds a bilateral meeting with President Silva of Portugal.

8:35 PM: Delivers remarks at the National Women’s Law Center’s annual awards dinner.

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Thanks Ladyhawke

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Father of the year Joe Walsh’s meltdown:

Thanks Loriah

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Aaaaaaaaw!

Bloomberg: The Senate President of Arizona and author of the state’s hard-line laws against illegal immigration lost a recall election seen as a bellwether on “extreme” politics.

Republican Russell Pearce, lost by 53 percent to 45 percent with all precincts reported, according to the Maricopa County Elections office. Pearce, 64, was defeated by Jerry Lewis, a Republican school administrator who has said he opposes Pearce’s enforcement-only approach to immigration policy.

“There is a deep dissatisfaction in Arizona for what is viewed as politics in the extreme,” said Earl de Berge of the Phoenix-based Behavior Research Center, a nonpartisan polling company. Pearce “symbolizes a very hard-nosed view on conservative policies.” The loss will show moderates that they can win in the state, de Berge said. “It is going to be a sea change in Arizona,” he said.

More here

Thanks amk

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Morning everyone ;-)

10
Aug
11

‘dems come up just short in wisconsin’

By Chipsticks 30 Comments
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Steve Benen: In the closely-watched Wisconsin state Senate recall elections, Democrats and their labor allies needed to pick up three GOP seats yesterday to win control of the chamber. As the dust settled last night, Dems came up one seat short:

Democrats won two state Senate seats in Tuesday’s historic recall elections, but failed to capture a third seat that would have given them control of the chamber.

By keeping a majority in the Senate, Republicans retained their monopoly on state government because they also hold the Assembly and governor’s office. Tuesday’s elections narrowed their majority — at least for now — from 19-14 to a razor-thin 17-16.

Republicans – in Wisconsin and DC – are understandably delighted, and no doubt feel quite relieved. For the left in general, this has to feel like a tough setback.

But I still consider the events of the last several months in Wisconsin rather remarkable….Also note the specifics of the electoral battleground: these six Wisconsin districts elected Republican state senators in 2008 — a great year for Democrats. In other words, yesterday’s recall elections were held in districts that can safely be described as GOP strongholds, making the left’s efforts that much more difficult. And Dems still managed to flip two districts from “red” to “blue.”

The trees are clearly disappointing for much progressives, but the forest still looks pretty impressive to me…..

Full post here

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Greg Sargent: …. There’s no way to sugar-coat it: Unions and Dems failed in their objective as they defined it, which was to take back the state senate, put the brakes on Scott Walker’s agenda, let the nation know that elected officials daring to roll back public employee bargaining rights would face dire electoral consequences.

But nonetheless, what they failed to accomplish does not diminish what they did successfully accomplish. The fact that all these recall elections happened at all was itself a genuine achievement. The sudden explosion of demonstrations in opposition to Walker’s proposals, followed by activists pulling off the collection of many thousands of recall signatures in record time, represented an undiluted organizing triumph.

At a time of nonstop media doting over the Tea Party, it was a reminder that spontaneous grassroots eruptions of sympathy and support for a targeted constituency are still possible and can still be channeled effectively into a genuine populist movement on the left. At a time when organized labor is struggling badly and GOP governors earn national media adulation by talking “tough” about cracking down on greedy public employees, what happened in Wisconsin, as John Nichols put it, amounted to “one of the largest pro-labor demonstrations in American history,” one that carried echoes of the “era of Populist and Progressive reform in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.”

What’s more, no matter how many times conservatives falsely assert that labor and Dems subverted the popular will by fighting Walker’s proposals, in reality precisely the opposite happened.

Full post here

09
Aug
11

‘this is what democracy looks like’

By Chipsticks 203 Comments
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John Nichols (The Nation): The Wisconsin recall elections that take place Tuesday provide one of the most remarkable accountability moments in modern American history. After Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his Republican allies used their control of the executive and legislative branches of state government to attack labor rights, local democracy, public education and basic services, mass demonstrations erupted across the state—culminating in an early-March protest outside the state Capitol that drew 150,000 people to one of the largest pro-labor demonstrations in American history.

Despite the protests, despite polls that showed broad opposition to the governor’s agenda, Walker’s legislative allies continued to advance their wrecking-crew agenda.

So the Wisconsin movement dusted off an old accountability tool developed during the era of Populist and Progressive reform in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the recall. Wisconsin is one of nineteen American states that allow citizens to collect signatures on petitions and force sitting official to face a special election.

In Wisconsin, six of the Republican state senators who voted with Walker face recall elections on Tuesday. While the labor and community forces that organized the recall drives had little trouble collecting the tens of thousands of signatures needed to force the election, they faced unprecedented obstacles in getting to this point.

Terrified by the threat to his authority, Walker and his allies tried to thwart the recall drive with procedural, legal and electoral challenges—going so far as to file “fake” Democratic challengers, all of whom lost to real Democrats in July 12 primaries. Walker allies also launched recall drives against a half-dozen Democratic senators, on the theory that defeating Democrats might allow them to offset losses by Republicans. (Only three of the Republican petition drives attracted sufficient support to force recalls of Democrats; one of the targeted Democrats has already been re-elected, while two others face tests August 16.)

With the approach of Tuesday’s election, Walker’s allies in national movements to privatize public schools, undermine unions and create a pay-to-play politics that favors corporate interests over those of citizens and communities have pumped millions of dollars into local elections with an eye toward defeating the Democratic challenges…..

Full post here

12
Apr
11

buyers’ remorse …. use your brains next time, folks

By Chipsticks 21 Comments
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Public Policy Polling: PPP’s newest national poll finds that after a little more than 3 months in charge House Republicans have fallen so far out of favor with the American public that it’s entirely possible Democrats could take control of the House back next year.

43% of voters think that House Republicans are doing a worse job now than the Democrats did, compared to only 36% who think the GOP has brought an improvement. 19% think things are about the same. 62% of voters thinking that the Republicans have either made things worse or brought no improvement to an already unpopular Congress does not bode particularly well for the party.

46% of voters say that if there was an election for Congress today they would vote Democratic, compared to only 41% who would vote Republican. That five point advantage for Democrats is only a hair below the margin Republicans won by in the national popular vote last year. A victory of that magnitude for the Democrats next year would at the very least result in the party taking back a large number of the seats it lost last year, and it could be enough to take back the outright majority…

….These poll numbers also point to the reality that Republicans taking control of the House may have been one of the best things that could possibly have happened for Obama’s reelection prospects … voters may not love Obama as once they did but they’re finding him to be more reasonable than the alternative and that means it will be hard for the GOP to knock him off next year without a top notch nominee.

One thing is very much for certain – it’s not 2010 anymore.

Political Wire: … Stunningly, independent voters now say they’d vote Democratic for the House by a 42% to 33% margin, representing a 28 point reversal in a span of just five months.

05
Apr
11

‘will 2010 medicare ads come back to haunt gop?’

By Chipsticks 12 Comments
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This is a real Tea Party banner. Seriously.

CBS: The proposed 2012 budget that Republican Rep. Paul Ryan put forward today seemingly plays right into Democrats’ hands by proposing massive changes to Medicare…

The Republican party launched aggressive attacks against Democrats in the midterm elections for voting for President Obama’s health care reforms, which also included significant changes to the program….

Ryan’s plan would dramatically transform the health care plan for seniors. Instead of providing those over 65 with government-run health care, seniors starting in 2022 would receive “premium support” (subsidies given directly to insurance providers) to get the health care of their choice from private insurers….

Many Republicans have praised Ryan’s efforts today, but much of the praise has been reserved for Ryan’s leadership, rather than the substance of the proposal itself. Some of those Republicans may have 2010 in mind, when the GOP hammered the Democratic health care plan, which included $500 billion in Medicare cuts.

“Seniors do not want senators fooling with Medicare,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor on Dec. 4, 2009, ahead of the congressional votes on the legislation. “Let me say that again: Seniors do not want senators fooling with Medicare. They want us to fix it, to strengthen it… not raid it like a giant piggy bank to create some entirely new government program.”

…the Democratic health care plan provided potent fodder for the midterm elections. Republican Dan Coats, now the junior senator for Indiana, ran an ad against his 2010 opponent, Democratic Rep. Brad Ellsworth that blasted him for failing to “protect seniors”…….Coats office has not responded to an inquiry from Hotsheet as to whether he supports Ryan’s proposed budget.

Similarly, Republican Pat Toomey, now the junior senator for Pennsylvania, ran a 2010 ad railing against his opponent Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak for supporting the health care overhaul.

…”This budget is more proof that Tea Party extremists have toppled the Republican House leadership and completely taken over,” said Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg (N.J.). “The House Republican Tea Partiers started with cuts to Head Start, education and medical research, and now they want to privatize Medicare. If you are a child seeking an education or an older American seeking health care, the Tea Party budget is toxic to your future.”

Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey (Calif.) said the Ryan plan is “one of the most callous and reckless proposals I’ve seen during 18 years in Congress” and it amounts to “destroying Medicare.”

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus (Mont.) said that expert analysis shows the Ryan plan would “make deep cuts to the Medicare benefits seniors count on. It would end Medicare as we know it and funnel Medicare dollars directly into private insurance companies’ pockets.”

Full article here

07
Nov
10

‘yes, he still can’

By Chipsticks 6 Comments
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Why Barack Obama is looking good for a second term in 2012

by Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer (UK)

Extracts:

The midterm drubbing for the Democrats masks the many encouraging auguries for the president…

….Republicans, intoxicated by their victories, are making a major mistake. That is to confuse a protest vote against the Democrats with enthusiasm for Republicans. Some of their most prominent figures are vaingloriously bragging about heading to Washington to “take our government back” and undo everything Obama has enacted since he arrived in the Oval Office. That is a misinterpretation of the mood. In polls, 48% of voters agreed with the Republicans that Obama’s healthcare reforms should be repealed. But 47% said they wanted to retain or expand those reforms. Cutting the deficit should be the priority of Congress, according to 39%; spending money to stimulate the economy is preferred by an almost equal 37%.

….This election did not represent a ringing endorsement of the Republican platform. It could never be that when there wasn’t anything that you could dignify with the name of programme.

….By capturing the House of Representatives, the Republicans have acquired a slice of the power and a share of the responsibility for government. Responsibility is going to expose postures that are riddled with contradictions. They want a smaller government and a reduced deficit except in those many areas where they demand bigger government and more spending.

They are also riven with factionalism …. Despite the rebuffing of the Tea Party in some seats, the Republicans will continue to be dragged to the right by Sarah Palin and her fellow travellers. The threat of the self-styled Mama Grizzly running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 terrifies the party’s establishment as much as the prospect delights Democrat strategists.

Palin is an intensely polarising figure and a narcissist in love with her own shtick. Having had two years to raise her game, she continues to demonstrate an alarming lack of grip or coherence on policy…. Two out of three American voters believe Palin is not qualified to be president. The very things about her and the tea baggers which excite right-wing voters are those which repel the more moderate ones.

Moods ebb and flow in big waves. Success goes to the sort of politician who is skilled at surfing the swells of public opinion, one who can ride the crest and also keep his balance when it breaks. Barack Obama is that sort of politician.

In the wake of the midterms, he has voiced a willingness to work with the Republicans in Congress. He will prosper by being seen as the one who attempted to compromise only to be rebuffed by a Republican party sucked into confrontationalism by its overconfident right. His original appeal was as a healing politician who could lift America above ugly partisanship. The extremism of Tea Partyism will help him to be that attractive, unifying centrist again. My money is on Barack Obama securing a second term in 2012 and quite possibly winning big. Yes, he still can.

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