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RandySF's JournalTo Ease Election Day Crowding, UNH And Durham Will Offer 'Early Voting' On Campus
University of New Hampshire students will have access to several "early voting" sessions on campus in October. It's part of a strategy to cut down on crowding and long lines at Durham's polling place, which is often one of the busiest in the state during high-turnout elections.
Since any eligible New Hampshire voter can cast an absentee ballot early this year, Durham and UNH officials have come up with a plan to allow students to take care of the whole process — from registration to returning their absentee ballot — on the spot, if they choose.
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According to Ann Shump, a Durham voter checklist supervisor who's working with the university to coordinate the early voting sessions, "Students can come, register to vote and actually fill out a request for an absentee ballot, get that absentee ballot, sit down at another table and vote, and turn in their absentee ballot right there, all rolled into one."
Durham officials regularly offer pre-election registration opportunities to students ahead of big elections. While those are usually open to anyone, students will have to register for a limited number of spots in advance of the upcoming “early voting” sessions because of social distancing concerns.
https://www.nhpr.org/post/ease-election-day-crowding-unh-and-durham-will-offer-early-voting-campus#stream/0
IL-13: Illinois congressman blames Biden for Trump's taxes
If the question is President Trump’s taxes, the answer is Joe Biden — at least to Illinois Congressman Rodney Davis.
The Taylorville Republican, who is running for re-election, says the former vice president has taken advantage of the tax code to save significant sums.
“That is something most Americans don’t get a chance to do, because they don’t make that money,” Davis said.
If it’s legal for a multi-millionaire or billionaire to legally pay only $750 in federal income taxes — as Trump reportedly has done in recent years — shouldn’t Congress tighten the tax code?
“Those are the things we’re happy to address in Washington,” Davis said. “But the bottom line is the Democrats want to actually give the ultra-wealthy more advantages by putting some of the loopholes back into the tax code that we took out just a few short years ago.”
https://www.radio.com/wbbm780/news/local/illinois-congressman-blames-biden-for-trump-taxes?fbclid=IwAR2uqOu6IOdWgPvfnOaNi-u6QqyPXrik9lcc6w4UVMurqkx-bMipwxKbi2c&utm_medium=social&utm_medium=social&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=WBBMAM&utm_term=WBBMAM%3Futm_campaign%3Dsharebutton%3Futm_campaign%3Dsharebutton&utm_term=WBBMAM
MO-02: Health Care is on the Ballot
“Jill Schupp is giving Rep. Ann Wagner the challenge of her political career” by running on access to health care, contrasting herself with Wagner’s disastrous record on the issue.
Wagner has voted five times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would gut protections for pre-existing conditions, and still supports a partisan lawsuit to dismantle the law, despite our country being in the midst of a pandemic with Missouri experiencing a large surge in positive cases.
National Journal: Despite misgivings, Republicans campaign on health care
Kirk Bado
Privately, some Republicans are worried that if the 2020 race for the House is decided on health care, then their already narrow path back to power might be cut off, according to interviews conducted by National Journal.
In August, the state expanded Medicaid eligibility through a ballot measure, with support from voters in suburban “areas that have been voting in support of Republicans for more than a decade,” according to the Kansas City Star.
“We knew health care was an important issue before the pandemic,” Schupp said in an interview with National Journal last week. “The difference between Ann Wagner and me is that she voted against the Affordable Care Act time after time and continues to support the lawsuit to undo the ACA, even during the pandemic.”
Republican strategists working with competitive campaigns who spoke with National Journal said that ultimately, health care is a losing issue for them.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare a sticking point for Democrats in Wagner-Schupp race
Nassim Benchaabane
Health care, especially the future of the Affordable Care Act, has emerged as a leading issue in the hotly contested 2nd Congressional District, where challenger Jill Schupp accuses U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner of seeking to eliminate protections for people with preexisting conditions …
In an ad aired earlier this month, Schupp slammed Wagner for voting to “gut protections for preexisting conditions” by voting several times with fellow Republicans in Congress to reverse the ACA — also known as “Obamacare” after former President Barack Obama — and to support a federal lawsuit that seeks to overturn the law.
[…S]upport for coverage protecting preexisting conditions has only increased, said Liz Hamel, director of public opinion research at the Kaiser Family Foundation. A national poll by the foundation in July found that a majority of Americans want to preserve protections for preexisting conditions, even if the ACA is struck down.
In the Aug. 4 primary, 53% percent of Missouri voters chose to expand Medicaid under a provision of the ACA that allowed states to expand who can get the coverage, joining 37 other states and the District of Columbia that voted for expansions.
https://dccc.org/health-care-is-on-the-ballot-in-mo-02/
IN-05: Will The Fifth District Follow America's Suburbs Left?
Indiana’s 5th looks to be one of the most competitive congressional races in the country. But if the Republican-drawn stronghold flips from red to blue this fall, it won’t be because of Donald Trump. Or Joe Biden.
Like a polo field in the middle of Indiana, there’s more happening in Indiana’s 5th than meets the eye. Appearances can be deceiving. For years, Republicans could all but expect wins in districts like the 5th because of their inherent small-c suburban conservatism. But what happens when the Republican base is drawn to far-right candidates like Spartz, while at the same time, suburban moderates are softening their views on everything from racial issues to gun violence? Spartz and Hale are about to find out.
The 5th Congressional District as drawn in 2011 is something of a political and demographic pitch-in, to put it in Hoosier parlance, a casserole of Carmel and Zionsville’s McMansions, Anderson and Tipton’s hulking factories, and the sprawling family farms of Noblesville and Yorktown. There are Subaru-driving soccer moms from Fishers and BabyBjörn-wearing dads from Broad Ripple. From its southern tip along 38th street, near the Eagle Creek Reservoir, it ambles north all the way toward the northeastern boundary of Grant County. From west to east, it runs roughly from the polo fields in Boone County to the Nestle USA plant in Anderson. If you drove the district’s perimeter, it would take roughly six-and-a-half hours.
Some 795,000 people live here, 96.6 percent of them white, and just one percent Black and one percent Hispanic. The core of the 5th, though, is Hamilton County, where 40 percent of the district’s population resides. It is the 35th-richest county in the nation, and has the highest median income in Indiana. In both Carmel and Fishers, young and more diverse families have poured into suburban developments from Indianapolis and elsewhere across the country.
“Indiana 5 is like no other district in Indiana,” says Christine Matthews, a native Hoosier and the president of Alexandria, Virginia-based Bellwether Research, as well as a former Gov. Mitch Daniels pollster. “If you look at the college education attainment in Indiana 5, it’s like 45 percent. The average of all the other districts is 25 percent. It’s much more like suburban Denver and suburban Chicago than other districts in the state. They’re not Richard Mourdock voters [the former state treasurer and Senate candidate who lost to Joe Donnelly after saying pregnancy resulting from rape is something God intended]. They’re not even Mike Braun voters. In 2016, that was an anti-Hillary vote. You tend to see a split on abortion, more pro-choice than any other district. Split on a lot of things. But they’re economically conservative. They don’t want their taxes raised.”
In other words, the district may lean Republican, but in a more Mitch Daniels way than MAGA one. In many parts of the district, for example, yellow-and-blue “Pence Must Go Signs” popped up in front yards after the former governor’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which could have allowed business owners to refuse service to LGBTQ+ customers, inflamed the culture wars in 2015. Three short years later, in 2018, State Senate District 29, which includes Carmel, is represented by the first openly gay Indiana state lawmaker, J.D. Ford.
https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/news-and-opinion/politics/will-the-fifth-district-follow-americas-suburbs-left
OH-01: 'Kate Schroder is a nightmare for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy'
Kate Schroder is a nightmare for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.): She's a 43-year-old political newcomer who has a real chance to knock off an entrenched Republican congressman in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Schroder is one of the stars of a surprisingly strong collection of Democratic challengers in Republican-held seats. Republican hopes of recapturing control of the House are fading fast.
Schroder began to run last year for the seat held by 12-term, 67-year-old incumbent, Steve Chabot, in a Republican gerrymandered district. A public health expert and cancer survivor, she focused on expanding health care coverage and keeping Obamacare protections for people with pre-existing conditions, which the Trump administration and her opponent have opposed.
The pandemic has elevated her profile and passion: “I don't have to explain the importance of public health,” she told me.
In Cincinnati, Schroder is outraising incumbent Chabot, who faced a serious challenge two years ago until a largely bogus issue was raised against the Democrat. This time the ethics issue may be working against Chabot, whose former campaign chairman is under FBI investigation for fraud; there are missing campaign funds. The polls show a toss-up.
Schroder, a member of the Cincinnati board of health, is a good fit in a district that leans Republican but is trending moderate.
It's a hard sell to paint her as a left winger. If elected, she wants to join the bi-partisan “problem solvers” caucus to work across the aisle on issues like infrastructure, gun safety — “you can be for gun ownership as well as gun safety” — as well as expanding the Affordable Health Care Act and investing more in public health.
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/517717-kate-schroder-in-ohio-among-democratic-challengers-squelching-gop-hopes-for
TX-10: Internal poll finds Siegel, McCaul separated by 2 points
USTIN (KXAN) — A new internal poll from the Democratic nominee for Texas’ 10th Congressional District, Mike Siegel, showed the race against Rep. Michael McCaul within just two points.
The poll found a narrowing lead for McCaul, who defeated Siegel by four points in 2018. McCaul holds a 45-43 lead over Siegel with just over two weeks remaining before early voting begins, according to the poll.
The poll was conducted Sept. 21-24 by GBAO Strategies, a progressive polling firm in Washington. The results are based on live phone calls to 400 likely voters with a margin of error of 4.9%.
GBAO Strategies conducted a poll for the Siegel campaign in August which showed McCaul leading by seven points, according to a release. That poll was not made public by the campaign.
https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/internal-poll-finds-siegel-mccaul-separated-by-2-points-in-texas-10th-congressional-district/
How Cory Gardner's War Against Obamacare Propelled Him to Power--and Is Now a Driver of His Likely D
At his first campaign rally for U.S. Senate, on a snowy day in 2014 at a Denver lumber yard, Cory Gardner warned that Obamacare was “destroying this country.”
The words may sound harsh today, but they came easily to then-Congressman Gardner. His attacks on the country’s new health care law were a centerpiece of his first successful run for Congress four years earlier, when he raised the specter of 17,000 new IRS agents “storming” America in search of Obamacare cheaters and of the health care law failing because people just wouldn’t sign up.
Torching Obamacare in interviews and ads, Gardner cruised into the House in 2010 and edged his way into the Senate four years later.
But in an irony that’s lost on no one who’s followed Colorado’s Republican senator over his ten years in Washington, Gardner’s long war against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is now a driver of his likely downfall.
https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/feature/how-gardners-war-against-obamacare-propelled-him-to-power-and-is-now-a-driver-of-his-demise/
CO-SEN: In Shift, Gardner Now Says He Blocked Garland Because He 'Disagreed with the Selection'
Ever since refusing to meet with Judge Merrick Garland, whom President Obama nominated to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) has insisted his objection to Garland was about the process, not the person. In an interview last week, however, Gardner said his decision to block Garland was because he “disagreed with the selection.”
Watch Gardner here, speaking via video to the 20/20 Growth Cannabis Public Policy Conference III on Sept. 23:
nterviewer: “In February of 2016, you said, ‘The next election is too soon. We shouldn’t appoint a new justice, need to let the American people decide this.’ I can read your exact quote, if you want. But now you’re saying that, it’s September 2020, and it’s not too soon, you’re interested in appointing new justice immediately versus qualified. So I guess my question is, why was February of 2020 — of 2016 — too close to an election but September of 2020 not?
Gardner: Yeah, I think it’s the same standard today that applied in 2016. The Senate majority exercising its advise and consent powers. In 2016, we did not move forward [garbled]. In 2020, I think it’s important we move forward to fill the judge. I disagreed with the selection in 2016. And I’m looking forward to a justice that is qualified, that won’t legislate from the bench, who will uphold the rule of law in the Constitution. So, that kind of a nominee put forward, my advice and consent will be to put that justice in place, just like it would have been in 2016, had that advice and consent been for a justice if admitted, that met and fit that criteria.”
This is a dramatic shift from his previous public position, which he has repeated since first announcing it in a March 2016 press release immediately upon Garland’s nomination.
https://www.coloradopols.com/diary/146960/in-shift-gardner-now-says-he-blocked-garland-because-he-disagreed-with-the-selection
IA-SEN: Ernst: Very Unlikely New Supreme Court Overturns Roe V. Wade
en. Joni Ernst said on Monday during an hour-long debate for the U.S. Senate race that she did not think President Donald Trump’s newest Supreme Court nominee would overturn abortion rights.
The Republican’s proclamation that the reversal of Roe v. Wade is unlikely came after she announced her status as “adamantly pro-life” when moderator David Yepsen asked what each candidate would do if the court overturned the ruling which made abortion legal across the nation. Trump has said nominee Amy Coney Barrett could be part of a court decision to overturn that ruling.
“I think the likelihood of Roe v. Wade is very minimal. I don’t see that happening, truly I don’t see that happening, but what we can do is certainly educate the public on how important life is,” Ernst said at the Iowa PBS studios in Johnston.
“The views that are being taken by Theresa Greenfield and those that are backing her from the coasts—from California to New York, it’s inappropriate and not acceptable to Iowa voters.”
https://iowastartingline.com/2020/09/28/ernst-very-unlikely-new-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade/
Tillis looked him in the eye and said: No court nominee in an election year. So much for that. BY NE
The evidence of Republican hypocrisy in pushing through a Supreme Court nominee in an election year is abundant, but still this little tale of Sen. Thom Tillis’ reversal should be added to the pile.
A Massachusetts man wrote to The News & Observer last week recounting his encounter with the senator. Mark Sternman was an employee of the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency when he went to a Boston meeting of the New England Council, a nonpartisan alliance of businesses, academic and health institutions that support economic development. The council regularly hears from elected officials and business leaders. On April 11, 2017, the featured speaker was North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis.
Sternman has attended many of the meetings, hearing mostly from Massachusetts politicians. But he keenly remembers the Tillis visit because North Carolina’s junior senator spoke with him personally. After Tillis delivered his remarks, he took questions from the audience. Sternman said he asked about the Senate’s refusal to consider President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016. Tillis assured him that if a similar situation arose involving a president of his own party, he would also refuse to consider a Supreme Court nominee in an election year.
he evidence of Republican hypocrisy in pushing through a Supreme Court nominee in an election year is abundant, but still this little tale of Sen. Thom Tillis’ reversal should be added to the pile.
A Massachusetts man wrote to The News & Observer last week recounting his encounter with the senator. Mark Sternman was an employee of the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency when he went to a Boston meeting of the New England Council, a nonpartisan alliance of businesses, academic and health institutions that support economic development. The council regularly hears from elected officials and business leaders. On April 11, 2017, the featured speaker was North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis.
Sternman has attended many of the meetings, hearing mostly from Massachusetts politicians. But he keenly remembers the Tillis visit because North Carolina’s junior senator spoke with him personally. After Tillis delivered his remarks, he took questions from the audience.
Sternman said he asked about the Senate’s refusal to consider President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016. Tillis assured him that if a similar situation arose involving a president of his own party, he would also refuse to consider a Supreme Court nominee in an election year.
https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article246058445.html#storylink=cpy
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