Month: October 2018

Pretty good! Smart, too, as the party in power can’t go wrong with “great economy” as its closing argument before a big vote. It’s just … not very Trumpy. It’s way too sunny and hopeful.

A Trumpy ad would have ended with a caravan of illegal-alien Antifa members storming the concert hall and murdering the daughter onstage, all because mom voted for a Democrat.

I think we would have gotten that ad if the economy were less than great. As it is, it might be great enough to hold the Senate and limit losses in the House. Might.

Trump’s approval rating is current 42-43% (per 538). That’s not *awful*, but it’s *bad*. It comes despite an economy that voters feel very good about. It seems to go higher when Trump is relatively removed from the scene (e.g. during Kavanaugh), not when he’s Trump Being Trump.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 29, 2018

Silver is right about the effect of the Kavanaugh wars on Trump’s job approval. Check the numbers and you’ll find that he took a nasty tumble in the first half of September, dropping nearly three full points on average from where he was in late August. Then the Christine Blasey Ford news broke big — and POTUS, uncharacteristically, held back. He wasn’t on TV as much; when he was, he was low-key and respectful of Ford. By October 1, not only had he recovered all the ground he’d lost in his job approval, he’d reached the highest mark he’d managed since early June. It’s tempting to say that’s because the right rallied to him during the Kavanaugh wars but righties were already all aboard the Trump train. What probably happened is that he picked up some support from independents who were sympathetic to Kavanaugh and got to spend two weeks without being reminded of Trump’s more irritating foibles.

Probably the best thing he could do for the GOP over the next 10 days is lie low, keep running ads like this, and not tweet out tone-deaf incendiary garbage:

There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2018

Nine hours a day of “executive time” is nine too many. Exit question: Say, which news network is that that’s featured in the ad reporting on the excellent jobs numbers? It looks familiar but the onscreen logo is suspiciously missing.

They don’t count to Democrats.

Democrat caught on tape spewing racial slurs at Black & Latino Republicans while he was rallying support for Democratic Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ).

**WARNING: Video contains racially offensive language** pic.twitter.com/769VfRpyZE

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 29, 2018

Antonio Delgado (L) and John Faso (R) / @nyitwitter/The Times Union

BY: Cameron Cawthorne Follow
@@Cam_Cawthorne

October 29, 2018 1:48 pm

Voters in New York’s 19th Congressional District have received misleading mailers about the district’s Republican nominee from the Center for Voter Information, a Washington, D.C.-based group that sells itself as “nonpartisan” but has a long history of supporting Democratic candidates.

The group sent out mailers to residents in upstate New York with the names of Rep. John Faso (R., N.Y.) and his Democratic opponent, Antonio Delgado, along with their supposed policy positions on Medicaid, access to firearms, and health care coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions. After listing the policy positions, the group wrote, “We have done our best to represent each candidate in a fair and reasonable way.”

The Faso campaign slammed the mailer in a press release on Monday, saying “the D.C. liberal shadow group” was attempting to influence the congressional election. The campaign then marked up the original mailer in red ink as a fact check on the original mailer. They argued all three policy positions that the group attributed to Faso were “false.”

“John Faso has always voted for and supports guaranteed coverage for individuals with preexisting conditions (H.R. 1121),” one of the fact checks read. “Antonio Delgado supports government-run health care system that would eliminate employer insurance, end Medicare as we know it and double your taxes.”

“This deceitful group and this mailer perfectly encapsulate the underhanded tactics of Nancy Pelosi and Antonio Delgado. By masquerading Democratic attacks in a mailer that looks more like a bill or government correspondence, this group has attempted to trick voters into thinking this information is truthful,” said Joe Gierut, Faso’s communications director. “In reality, this is just another ploy used by Democrats in their desperate attempt to win this race and put Nancy Pelosi in the Speaker’s chair.”

The signatory on the mailer is Lionel Dripps, who has a history of working for Democratic causes. Dripps’ current role is listed on Linkedin as the managing director for program and digital at the Voter Participation Center (VPC), a 501(c)(3) organization associated with the 501(c)(4) Center for Voter Information. Page Gardner, VPC’s president and founder, is also the principle officer at the Center for Voter Information.

Dripps previously served as the vice president of the Pivot Group, a Democratic campaign mailer firm founded by Trish Hoppey, who is considered ”one of the top Democratic direct mail consultants in the country.” He also served as executive director of the Democratic Senate Campaign Fund and was regional director of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, according to his Linkedin profile.

The entirely of the Center for Voter Information’s expenditures in the current election cycle have been spent against Republican candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The center labels the non-profit “liberal.”

During the 2018 election cycle, the group has sent out over 270,000 absentee ballot applications across the country and spent over $92,000 against Republicans in Pennsylvania and California. While the “liberal” group does not disclose its donors, the Center for Responsive Politics shows the group is a vendor of NextGen Climate Action, a political action committee associated with liberal billionaire Tom Steyer. The PAC has made seven payments to the Center for Voter Information totaling over $1.7 million since last October.  The most recent payment was made in August. The Center for Voter Information has also donated over $26,000 to Americans for Patriotic Values, a progressive PAC.

Outside of New York’s 19th District, the group has been cited causing confusion and implementing shady tactics in numerous states across the country, including Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

Earlier this month, State elections officials in Wisconsin warned voters about absentee ballot applications being sent out by the Center for Voter Information, according to to News 3.

A voter from Oregon contacted News 3 to say that information she received in a mailer sent by The Center for Voter Information included her incorrect name and, while she lives in Oregon, directed her to send her ballot application to the village of Prairie Du Sac.

Nancy Warner said she got the mailing Tuesday and immediately checked out the contents of the letter, which was from a group she hadn’t heard of. The letter was addressed to her but used two incorrect middle names.

Warner said she has lived and voted in Oregon for many years, but the information already filled out on her ballot application and on the prepaid return envelope said she would vote in the Village of Prairie Du Sac.

The Austin Daily Herald also reported last month that the Mower County Auditor’s Office in Minnesota experienced an increase in “confused voters” coming to the government center concerned about applications sent to them by the Center of Voter Information.

“We’re afraid that if they send that application in, we’re required to give them an absentee ballot,” said Steve Reinartz, Mower County treasurer and auditor. “They cannot vote in the polling place again on Election Day. They won’t be able to vote, and may create some confusion if they have never voted absentee before.”

“Angry liberals” appears accurate as a description, as the video of the incident shows, if not quite a “mob.” At a rally yesterday in Tennessee, Senate candidate Rep. Marsha Blackburn called for a moment of silence to honor the victims of the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue the day before — and a moment was all she got. Just as soon as the crowd buzz receded, someone yelled, “Marsha Blackburn is a white supremacist!”

Police arrested one protester and ordered others out of the arena:

Security officers forcibly dragged a demonstrator out of a rally for Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn Sunday night, according to reports and video posted to social media. …

The heated exchanges escalated when Blackburn paused for a moment of silence to honor the victims of the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday.

“Marsha Blackburn is a white supremacist!” a protester called out in a video posted to YouTube by a Blackburn supporter, only to be drowned out by boos and chants of “USA! USA!” from the crowd.

Blackburn described the disruption as “despicable” and pointed the finger at her opponent, former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen.

Blackburn might as well send a thank-you note to these protesters, who picked the worst possible timing for their stunt. Bredesen seemed to realize this too, scolding the protesters while pointing out that Blackburn’s supporters have been protesting his own campaign events. Perhaps that’s true, but unless they screamed ad hominem insults during a moment of silence for victims of toxic bigotry, then it’s hardly the same thing. This plays directly into Republicans’ late-cycle claim that voters have to choose “jobs, not mobs” by voting against Democrats in the midterms.

Lindsey Graham, whose own apperance got disrupted by protesters acting out in mob-like fashion, amplified those attacks afterward in an interview with Peter Doocy. “They have every right to their opinion,” Graham says, but these disruptors “have a view of the government that would make us Venezuela”:

Sen. Lindsey Graham got a warm welcome at a rally for the Senate campaign of Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., by hundreds of Republicans excited to greet the lawmaker who helped get Brett Kavanaugh confirmed to the Supreme Court.

But just like the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, Sunday’s program repeatedly was disrupted by protesters, including one who shouted during a moment of silence for victims of Saturday’s shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, and others who needed to be physically restrained and removed by police officers.

“Judge me by my friends and the people that want to yell at me,” Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News in an interview. “The only people wanting to yell at me would turn the country into a mob.”

True enough, but it’s certainly a useful mob for Republicans eight days out from the elections. The images of these disruptions — especially during a moment of silence — will stick with voters long enough to see them through Election Day. It might even convince a few more loosely engaged voters to turn out, at least in Tennessee.

Given that opportunity, Graham blamed the mobs on Chuck Schumer and urged voters to reject Democrats to send a message on tactics:

Graham warned the audience Democrats at the national level invested $12 million in the Tennessee U.S. Senate race. He also said they wouldn’t invest that much money unless they knew exactly what they were getting in return.

“As to the Democratic nominee in this state (Bredesen), you can say anything you want, but we know exactly what you are going to do,” Graham said.

“I want Chuck Schumer to know he wasted his money. And I want every Democrat to know that If you go down the road of the mob then this is your fate.” …

“If I spoke for you then I am very pleased and proud. There’s only one way to fix this problem. Beat them (Democrats) at the ballot box.”

They’re certainly giving Graham plenty of evidence to make that case.