Elections
A PUERTO RICAN FOR PRESIDENT? Luis Milhouse for the White House?
I can't even wrap my head around this piece of news via Gabo Pagán. I mean, seriously, how stupid does the GOP think Latinos? Absurdly Premature 2012 Watch, Vol. 2: The Governor of Puerto Rico ... for President? - The Gaggle Blog - Newsweek.com
A party whose base is animated in part by its opposition to illegal immigration is probably not going to "import" someone, as it were, for the biggest job in the land. But in the age of Obama, the GOP is suffering from a serious dearth of credible minority leaders—people who can speak with authority to an increasingly multiethnic electorate. And the shortfall is especially glaring in regard to Latinos, who are the country's fastest-growing minority group (they represented 7.4 percent of the electorate in 2008, up from 6 percent in 2004 and 5.4 percent in 2000) but are trending heavily Democratic, despite their religious, family-first leanings (George W. Bush took 44 percent of the Latino vote in 2004 versus only 31 percent for John McCain in 2008).This is where Fortuño comes in. For Republicans, using Fortuño to fuel the eternal flame of 2012 speculation serves to make the GOP seem, at least, like a more welcoming place for Latinos—however whimsical his chances of reaching the White House currently are.
The stupidity ... it burns.
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QUICK THOUGHT: Obama's CHANGE is bad for the Democratic Party
Earlier today I tweeted the following:
blogdiva: DUDE! Deeds hurt Deeds. The moron ran as ANTI-Obama! RT @DavidAll: RT @POStqia: Shhh —Don’t Tell Anyone, But Obama Hurt Deeds in Virginia (24 minutes ago from TwitterGadget)
It was a quick quip about how I don't believe Obama hurts Democrats in the way Republicans want everybody to believe. I threw that out there and Michael Turk hit back with the following:
MichaelTurk: @blogdiva This was the Deeds campaign's GOTV mailer, it barely has his name n it:
http://is.gd/4RQsH (10 minutes ago from TweetDeck in reply to blogdiva) MichaelTurk: @blogdiva This notion that he tried to distance himself from Obama is bullshit. (21 minutes ago from TweetDeck in reply to blogdiva)
MichaelTurk: @blogdiva You are smoking crack! Deeds tethered his entire campaign to Obama. I know, I sat through the commercials. (21 minutes ago from TweetDeck in reply to blogdiva)
I was going to twitter back a response but I think it merits a quick blog post with a WHAT IF: What if the problem with Obama is NOT that he is a bad politician or a so-so President? What if the problem with Obama is that he won because he sold himself as a third-party candidate? What if the problem with Obama is that he won't be able to be a truly outstanding President unless he stops playing by the Democrats rules? What if the Democratic Party and anybody who has been a willing player can't win with the "Obama Change" formula because they are the "more of the same" that needs to be wiped clean for real change to happen?
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What can we learn from last night's electoral victories and losses?
First of all, congratulation to John Liu for becoming the first Chinese-American to be elected to city-wide office in New York City. That's a huge slap on the face for the New York Democratic Party establishment; an establishment that's never been too keen on grassroots movements unless they can co-opt to solidify their status-quo.
The other big grassroots story of the night was Bill de Blasio. He walloped Mark Green, one of the darlings of the New York political elite, in a run-off election and breezed into the Political Advocate's office with 76.9% of the vote.
For a political establishment that doesn't support grassroots movements unless it's ready to line their pockets --remember of all the so-called grassroots progressives and Democrats defecting to the Bloomberg campaign?-- these two wins are a wake-up call for the NY Dems political establishment.
We'll have to see how these two fare for or against the status quo in the next four years.
1. Obama is not the Democratic Party.
Virginia is the best example of this phenomenon: Even though Obama carried the state, voters repudiated the slim pickings pushed on them by the local Democratic party. Creigh Deeds, the genius Democrat who lost the election, ran as an anti-Obama Democrat. In a state that Obama basically swept during the general elections.
WHAT KIND OF STRATEGY IS THAT? Oh right, the strategy of a Democrat who rightfully doesn't look at Obama as representing him.
The biggest mistake for the Democratic Party was to sucker themselves into thinking that whatever genius political strategy Plouffe and Axelrod were able to use in getting Obama elected was going to absolve them of their state and local sins of nepotism, cronyism, corruption but most importantly utter ineptitude.
Last night was a big wake-up call for Democrats who think they'll be able to coast on the coattails of Obama for the next 3-7 years.
Which takes me to the big story of the day: Bill Owens will for New York's Congressional District #23. What's the moral of that story?
2. Carpetbaggers better not fuck with upstaters.
The sleepy corner of upper New York state became an ideological battle ground for the extreme right of the Republican party with a non-Palin-looking Dede Scozzafava being muscled out of the election by the GlennBeckian non-resident of the district Doug Hoffman. Yet in the process of eating their own, out-of-state extremists revealed the awful truth about the New York State Democratic Party: They suck.
Democrats in New York state are rarely differentiated from their Republican counterparts. Abortion is not a political lightning rod for New York politicians. On the contrary, NYC boasts a rather disturbing amount of African American and Latino right-to-lifers on their Democratic Party rolls. What separates Republicans from Democrats is the amount of money they're willing to put at the feet of the political establishment in both Albany and Washington DC.
NY23 happened to be one of those districts that NY Dems didn't look as particularly profitable for them until the teabaggers came into town. And that's basically their modus operandi: Many districts in the state are marked as losses from the get go. NY23 proved what a dangerous strategy that is --especially in a year when one more Democrat in Congress could make a huge difference in Health Care and Immigration legislation.
The challenge for true progressives in New York state will be to not only get rid of anti-gay, misogynist, immigrant hating Republicans. The challenge will be to find progressives to run against Democrats with similar political views, from local all the way up to Congressional, regardless of whether it is a "red district" or not.
3. Michael Turk put it best, Can we now agree that 2008 was a referendum on Bush and GOP arrogance, and not a vote for radical liberalism?
This bears repeating over and over and over again. Obama wasn't a choice for radical liberalism. Obama wasn't even a choice for the Democratic Party. Obama didn't even win because he was a centrist. Obama won because he successfully sold himself as an outsider from the political establishment who had a vision of a United States that could be better without partisan politics.
In other words: Obama won because he was the ANTI-IDEOLOGICAL, ANTI-PARTISAN candidate. He didn't win because people believed he could change the swamp of Capitol Hill or the rats' nest of the Democratic Party. He won because he not only wasn't part of the swamp or the rats but because he aspired to transcend all of that with his presidency.
Michael Turk's comment was directed to Republicans but you might as well use it to bash into the heads of Democrats why they can't rest on Obama's laurels. 90% of the Democratic Party does not represent "Change We Can Believe In" and that's what got played out in all of lat night's electoral losses.
4. All the money int he world is not going to win you a mandate
The race was called in favor of Bloomberg when he was winning by 3%. He ended up tallying a 4.58% win. That means that the Boss Bloomberg plunked down $21,834,061.1 per each point in his margin of win. That's an obscene amount of bribe money; yet it proves that if New York City had a true political grassroots movement represented in the Democratic Party, Thompson would have squeaked in a victory.
5. New York City is ready for a grassroots renaissance
Thompson didn't win because he was one of the ultimate insiders just like his losing predecessor, Freddy Ferrer. It's not just that Freddy was Puerto Rican and Bill was black. It was really the fact that these two have been part of the political establishment of New York City for far too long. Every single Democratic mayoral loser since Dinkins has been part of the party establishment.
Yet look at the massive margins that got both de Blasio and Liu elected. If any of these two guys want to become mayor the lesson is very simple: FIGHT MICHAEL BLOOMBERG FOR THE NEXT 4 YEARS.
You can't raise $100 million to buy yourself the local and national media? Fine. Then fight the man every single step of the way for the next 4 years. Govern like you were still campaigning. Amass grassroots support and boost the numbers of your independent allies. Most importantly though, KEEP YOUR FACE IN THE LOCAL MEDIA. That means every single week, every single month, you gotta get yourself out there in front of the cameras, on the newspapers and most importantly on the blogs to move your message over and over and over again.
Michael Bloomberg doesn't have a mandate. Liu, de Blasio and every single Democrat who wants to become the next mayor needs to keep that in mind until 2013.
Which gets me to my favorite peeve:
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Message to Linda Sanchez and Zack Space on Healthcare
I spend a great deal of time and money supporting Democrats all around the nation. Among those I fought to get elected, both with blogging time, appeals to friends for donations, and my own donations, were Linda Sanchez of California and Zack Space of Ohio. Long before that I also helped Linda's sister, Loretta Sanchez, with money...this was before blogging so I could only give money.
In general I do not regret helping even somewhat conservative Democrats get elected because they are always better than the Republicans they replace. But...sometimes I do get frustrated with what I see as a disconnect between the relatively progressive words they utter to get elected and the more conservative stands they take.
Right now America has a chance to FINALLY get real healthcare reform. I have blogged about how America's helthcare system is one of the most expensive in the world but only delivers mediocre outcomes, on par with places like Slovenia, Portugal, Albania, Bosnia, Kazakhstan...and even Cuba and North Korea. This takes into account a large number of measurable outcomes including probability of not reaching 60 years old, healthy life expectancy and respiratory disease child death rate. Our healthcare is both far more expensive and far less effective than the healthcare systems in Sweden, Canada, the UK and the Netherlands. We are doing it wrong in BOTH in terms of excessively high costs AND excessively poor benefits. We need reform and we need to reform in ways that learns from those nations that do it much better and even cheaper: Sweden, UK, Canada and the Netherlands.
Right now in Congress we have the chance to start reforming our system in the right way, a way that will overall reduce costs an improve outcomes. This is the public option.
Linda Sanchez and Zack Space: I helped get you two elected with both my time and my money because I trusted both of you to make the right decisions most of the time. Look carefully at the numbers. America is doing it wrong when it comes to healthcare and you have the chance to reform that for the better. I ask you to support a strong Public Option for healthcare. This may be the single most important thing you can do for working and middle class Americans: reduce their healthcare costs and improve their healthcare outcomes. The numbers speak for themselves. Sweden, Netherlands, UK and Canada are consistently, across almost all measures of quality for healthcare, better off than America for less money per capita. I trust you, Conrgesswoman Sanchez and Congressman Space, to see that and to start moving us away from healthcare that costs too much but barely beats the healthcare in places like Slovenia, Cuba and Albania to one that learns from the best there is in the world.
Do me proud. Make me happy that I put the time and effort into your elections. In the case of Zack Space I did so more than once and long before anyone else supported you. Do me proud.
Minnesota Supreme Court Opinions : Call him SENATOR Al Franken
About time Coleman v. Franken (PDF of case A09-697)was decided and in this case, unanimously:
1. Appellants did not establish that, by requiring proof that statutory absentee voting standards were satisfied before counting a rejected absentee ballot, the trial court's decision constituted a post-election change in standards that violates substantive due process.
2. Appellants did not prove that either the trial court or local election officials violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.
3. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it excluded additional evidence.
4. Inspection of ballots under Minn. Stat. § 209.06 (2008) is available only on a showing that the requesting party cannot properly be prepared for trial without an inspection. Because appellants made no such showing here, the trial court did not err in denying inspection.
5. The trial court did not err when it included in the final election tally the election day returns of a precinct in which some ballots were lost before the manual recount.
Affirmed. Per Curiam.
Progressive Wins in Wisconsin Election Yesterday
I have been posting the Progressive Majority endorsed candidates in Wisconsin's Spring elections. Well the election was yesterday and today the results are in. This is the statement from Progressive Majority on their big win:
Yesterday in Wisconsin, Progressive Majority's candidates won 11 of 13 local elections. This proves again that progressive values are winning values! From the cities of Kenosha, Racine and Beloit to Winnebago and Dane counties, progressive candidates won their spring elections.
We're really excited about changing not one, not two, but three school boards from conservative control to progressive control!
In Kenosha, all three of our school board candidates won and elected a progressive majority on the Kenosha School Board. Carl Bryan, who has been a Progressive Majority Farm Team member since he was a senior in high school, won his election by beating an incumbent. Pam Stevens and Mary Snyder also won there to secure the majority.
In Racine, Kim Plache beat an incumbent to win her election, and Gretchen Warner won her re-election, solidifying a progressive majority on the Racine School Board.
And in Beloit, Tia Johnson also beat an incumbent to give progressives control of the Beloit School Board.
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On This Day
