Against All Odds: Democrats Pour Money Into Longshot Races

Snip

The November midterms are on pace to shatter records for political spending. While more than $1 billion raised so far nationally is helping finance battlegrounds that are poised to decide control of Congress, restless donors aren’t stopping there — they’re also putting cash into races and places they never have before to help underdog Democrats.

But driving donors’ eagerness to open their wallets to longshot candidates, supporters say, is a mix of anti-Trump enthusiasm and optimism following upsets like Democrat Doug Jones’ last year in a Senate race in Alabama. Campaigns, meanwhile, say donors are simply responding to finally having better candidates in historically lopsided districts that previously attracted only fringe contenders who made little effort to professionally fundraise or run hard.

In few places is the surge of money more evident than in Texas. At the top of the ticket, Rep. Beto O’Rourke is outraising Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in a state where Democrats have not won a statewide race since 1994. Seven Democrats also outraised their GOP opponents between April and June in districts held by Republicans, bolstered by primary runoffs that forced campaigns to double down on fundraising. (Read more)

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/against-all-odds-democrats-pour-money-into-longshot-races

After Saying Trump Asked Comey To Give Flynn 'A Break,' Giuliani Denies Comment

Talk about verbal gymnastics.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Sunday that he definitely didn’t say what he said President Donald Trump said last month, but that if he did say what he said Trump said — which he did — he was saying what former FBI Director James Comey said Trump said, and that he would never have said Trump said that himself.

Huh?

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday, Giuliani denied ever saying that Trump had at one point asked Comey to give fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn “a break.”

In fact, Giuliani did say that to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos last month.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/after-saying-trump-asked-comey-to-give-flynn-a-break-giuliani-denies-comment

Russia Doesn't Need to Change Votes -- Just Sow Confusion!

Two states left nearly 200,000 people off voter rolls earlier this year, leading to confusion and anger when those people tried to cast a ballot in the primaries. Election security experts fear it could happen again in November. While the problems stemmed mainly from computer glitches and human error, the chances of a repeat could be even greater if foreign adversaries, like the Russian government, successfully hack voter registration information.

The confusion in primary elections in Maryland and California illustrated that Russia wouldn’t need to change votes to disrupt America’s electoral process, said Maurice Turner, a senior technologist at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C. Simply changing voter registration information or spreading disinformation about voting places and times could be catastrophic, he said.

(Snip)

To sow confusion in the fall, Russia could hack voter registration systems, altering names, addresses or party affiliations, said Jonathan Brater, a counsel at the New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice.

“If there is some sort of successful effort, the consequences could be significant on Election Day,” Brater said. “Incorrect information leads to long lines, which could mean they leave and give up on voting.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/russia-doesnt-need-to-change-votes-just-sow-confusion_us_5b6c4496e4b027b231c4fdbf

Improperly recorded vote counts found in Kansas

These repugs are really something else!

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach saw his lead in the Republican gubernatorial primary shrink to just 91 votes after Kobach’s office said it had improperly recorded vote counts from a county in northwest Kansas.

The adjustment is the latest development in the race between Colyer and Kobach, who are separated by a razor-thin margin following Tuesday’s primary. While ballots are still being counted, the contest will likely go to a recount. As the state’s chief election official, Kobach is responsible for overseeing that process, but some say it would be appropriate for him to step aside. Kobach has no legal obligation to do so, however, and has suggested that he will not do so because county officials oversee the nuts and bolts of the recount process.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kris-kobach-kansas-governors-race_us_5b6ca1aae4b0ae32af968225

Really repugs? Ohio just found 588 previously uncounted votes in a Columbus suburb.

What a shocker. Not!

COLUMBUS – The tight race between Democrat Danny O'Connor and Republican Troy Balderson just got tighter.

Election officials in Franklin County found 588 previously uncounted votes in a Columbus suburb. The result: O'Connor had a net gain of 190 votes, bringing the race's margin down to 1,564.

"The votes from a portion of one voting location had not been processed into the tabulation system," according to a Franklin County Board of Elections news release.

Balderson declared victory Tuesday night in the closely watched congressional district race in central Ohio. But O'Connor says he's waiting for all votes to be counted.

That includes 3,435 provisional ballots and 5,048 absentee ballots, which will be tabulated by Aug. 24.

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2018/08/08/ohio-midterm-uncounted-votes-danny-oconnor-troy-balderson/941603002/

Are six more Republicans about to go down along with Chris Collins?

According to an article in Raw Story - former Secretary Tom Price, TX Congressman John Culberson, TX Congressman Mike Conaway, CO Congressman Doug Lamborn, OK Congressman Markwayne Mullin, and MO Congressman Billy Long appear to have been convinced by Collins’ tip to make the stock purchase as well.

"If you get in early, you’ll make a big profit,” Collins reportedly told House Republicans last summer.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/6-republicans-connected-insider-trading-scandal-just-exploded-trump-loving-congressman/

trumpy's buddy Congressman Chris Collins arrested & indicted for insider trading

Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) was arrested and indicted on federal insider trading charges Wednesday.

The charges, brought by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, relate to securities of Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biotechnology company on whose board Collins served.

Collins’ son Cameron and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron Collins’ fiancée, were also listed as defendants.

Collins was the first congressman to endorse Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and has been a loyal defender of Trump’s agenda on Capitol Hill.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/chris-collins-arrested-indicted-insider-trading-securities-biotech

So now trumpsters are wearing "I'd rather be a Russian" t-shirts? Really?

"Something Big is Happening in the Background"

According to Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo....

(Snips)
It’s easy to see President Trump’s tweet today, which says Jeff Sessions should fire Bob Mueller, as yet more of the cacophony of mania and aggression that spews forth from his Twitter account daily like water flowing over a waterfall. But I fear that may not be the case. President Trump has criticized Jeff Sessions many times. His anger at him is notorious. But I don’t think he has ever so clearly in public told Sessions to fire Mueller or given him such a specific “cause” for doing so. I do not think this is an accident or a random escalation.

Regardless, it’s definitely something. Something new. Some dramatically escalating threat. How can we know this? We can’t know it as a matter of fact. But all the history of this case suggests this kind of direct cause and effect.

I think we should be prepared for the President to fire Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein in order to claw his way toward either finding someone who will fire Mueller or simply doing the job himself – something I suspect, constitutionally, he can do.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/something-big-is-happening-in-the-background