Blue Wave News
Before we get to the good Blue Wave news (and there is a lot!) an URGENT message for Texas voters:
There is a bug in the Texas voting machines where people who click on straight party ticket may have their vote switched from Beto to Ted. It seems that despite the fact that state officials are aware of it, it never got fixed (grrrr….). Here is an ABC news story about it. Anyway, WE can help fix this ourselves by getting the word out to everyone in Texas to NOT use the straight ticket option but to pick candidates 1 by 1.
Please, if you know Texas voters, SPREAD THE WORD!
Now, onto the good news:
Poll: Dems lead GOP by double-digits in generic House ballot
A new poll released Friday showed Democrats lead Republicans by double-digits on a generic congressional ballot less than two weeks before November’s midterm elections.
The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found that 50 percent of registered voters said they would vote for the Democratic congressional candidates in their district if the election was held today.
Republicans trail 10 points behind with 40 percent of support .
Five percent of respondents said they wouldn’t vote for either political party and 6 percent were undecided.
Likely independent voters gave Democrats a 10-point boost, with 44 percent saying they would vote for a Democrat compared to the 34 percent who would for for a Republican.
I don’t usually worry about individual polls and about slight rises and drops in Trump’s job approval ratings, but I know people have been worried so here is some news to cheer you up → Trump’s job approval rating drops three points in NPR poll
Trump’s approval rating stands at 39 percent, down 3 percentage points from last month, according to a new poll released Friday.
The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found that 39 percent of American adults approve of Trump’s job performance, compared to 53 percent who disapprove. Eight percent of respondents were unsure.
That rating is a 3 percentage drop from his 42 percent approval rating the same day last month, which is his personal best in the Marist poll.
Record early voting in El Paso driven by young, irregular voters
El Paso is shattering early voting records this year because infrequent voters are flocking to the polls, analysis of county election data shows. Younger voters are also coming out in much larger numbers than in previous midterm elections.
More than 39,000 El Pasoans cast ballots in the first two days of early voting Monday and Tuesday, exceeding the turnout for all 12 days of early voting in the last midterm election in 2014.
With El Paso’s Beto O’Rourke on the ballot as the Democrats’ Senate nominee against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz, El Paso’s normally lethargic electorate is staging an unprecedented turnout.
Among those who voted Monday and Tuesday, 52 percent did not vote in the 2014 midterm election, at least not in El Paso.
This Sunday, October 28th, come out for No Voter Suppression Sunday at the I.B.E.W. Building at 501 Pullium Street in Atlanta! No one tells our elders they can't vote. Come out for rides in our fleet of buses, food, gospel music, & fellowship! #BlackVotersMatter #TheSouthIsRising pic.twitter.com/FfaJvlsewK
— Black Voters Matter (@BlackVotersMtr) October 24, 2018
Heitkamp collected an eye-popping $12.5 million during the first 17 days of October, more than three times the $3.8 million she raised during the entire July-to-September fundraising quarter. Donors who give in small amounts fueled about 60% of her individual contributions.ctober’s cash windfall left Heitkamp with $11.1 million stockpiled for the final sprint to Election Day, campaign reports filed Thursday night with the Federal Election Commission show. Cramer had less than $1 million remaining.
In gubernatorial races, however, there’s no gerrymandering or Electoral College to worry about. So in some ways, they’ll make for the purest test of whether there really is going to be a “blue wave” this year.
And in FiveThirtyEight’s gubernatorial forecasts, which we (finally!) launched on Wednesday, the gubernatorial news is good for Democrats. They are projected to wind up with governorships in states representing about 60 percent of the U.S. population, compared with 40 percent for Republicans.
These 8 Attorney-General Races Could Make A Big Difference To Trump’s Agenda
Over the past year and a half, Democratic attorneys general have sued Trump and his administration over a variety of his administration’s decisions, including those on immigration, the environment and birth control. Now, Democratic candidates are making the case to voters that their down-ballot campaigns could be the key to holding Trump accountable. “The unfortunate reality is that we have a federal government that is acting lawlessly,” said Phil Weiser, a Democrat who is running for Colorado’s open attorney-general seat. “I believe the state attorney general is uniquely situated to step in and protect people’s rights.”Republicans currently control 27 attorney-general offices, while Democrats control 22 (one is an independent).1But that balance of power could shift if Democrats win even a handful of races. This means a “blue wave” of Democratic attorneys general is possible — and it could be one of the most important outcomes of the election.
Democrats See Way to Stop Trump’s Shady New Census Question
Republicans have politicized and weaponized the census. Ironically, it could take a Democratic triumph at the polls in November to have a chance at a fair and accurate count.
Latinos feel worse off under Trump, and more energized to vote
Latinos in the United States — who make up the country’s largest minority group — see their life becoming harder under President Donald Trump.
But Latinos also vote at lower rates than most other racial demographics. In 2016, Latino voters turned out to vote at lower rates than white, African-American, and Asian voters, as Vox’s Li Zhou reported.
That could change this year: About 60 percent of Latino voters, both Republican and Democrat, say they are more enthusiastic about this year’s elections than in past midterms, the Pew report said.
In key House districts sought by Democrats, fear of defeat becomes fuel
After two years of energizing rallies, fist-pumping speeches and talk of a building blue wave, Democrats in recent days have begun to feel a last-minute bout of nausea wash over them.
Terrified of reliving the dejection they awoke to on the morning of Nov. 9, 2016, they are attempting to harness those nervous emotions and inject a bit of fear in the hearts of their supporters.
“Democrats are freaking out because the election is two weeks from now,” Wasserman said, recalling a similar Republican freakout in October 2010 just before the party gained 63 seats.
“What we’re seeing is so many people who said, ‘I didn’t do enough in 2016 and I woke up the next day asking myself what more could I have done?’ ” she said. “I don’t think anyone wants to feel that way this year.”
Dear Democrats,
You can do this. Stop fretting and second-guessing. Get out of your own way. Concentrate on turning out the vote, and remember you have everything to gain in this midterm election and nothing to lose.
I say you have nothing to lose because that is literally true. Republicans control both chambers of Congress, most governorships, most state legislatures — and, of course, the White House, which isn’t up for grabs this time. The great blues artist Muddy Waters put it best: “You can’t spend what you ain’t got. You can’t lose what you ain’t never had.”
The White House is planning a political rescue mission in Florida, fearing a wipeout in a key swing state next month that could damage President Donald Trump’s reelection hopes.
Trump is expected to visit the state at least twice, according to two people familiar with the plans. Visits from several Cabinet members are likely, as well. Presidential text messages are being sent to Floridians who still haven’t cast their absentee ballots. And discussions are underway about blanketing the state with robocalls from Trump.
A record number of U.S. companies are giving workers paid time off to vote. https://t.co/MN0pQNUYB0
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 22, 2018
Michael Bloomberg’s political action committee has launched a major ad campaign aimed at unseating Republican Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Steve Knight of Palmdale.
The intervention by the former New York City mayor has further tilted California ad spending in Democrats’ favor in the final two weeks before the Nov. 6 midterm election.
L.A. Metro will offer free rides on buses and trains on election day
In an effort to boost Los Angeles County’s historically poor voter turnout, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials agreed Thursday to offer free fares on the sprawling bus and rail system on election day.
On Nov. 6, rides on Metro’s six rail lines and 2,200 buses will be free from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Eliminating the $1.75 fare for a day will cost the agency an estimated $600,000, officials said.
BREAKING: In a major victory for student voting rights, New Hampshire court strikes down restrictive voter registration law aimed at college students: Congrats to @prioritiesUSA and the @PerkinsCoieLLP team.
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) October 22, 2018
Wednesday was the first day of early voting in WV. Here in Monongalia County I have been running an independent canvass (through the Working Families Party) on behalf of our local Dems. So far we have contacted about 8000 voters. Here is the message I just sent out to our donors and supporters:
The results from Wednesday, the first day of voting, have been released by the Secretary of State (see attachment). They are amazing, especially in Mon County. Not only was our local number historically high, but there were also almost twice as many Democrats who voted as Republicans. Even if all the independents voted Republican (they didn’t) Democrats were at 54%.
Out of the 65,844,954 million votes for Hillary, do you think a single one of them has changed their mind?
Now ask yourself; out of the 62,979,879 million votes for Trump, do you think anyone changed their mind?
If these numbers hold up (and I don’t see why they wouldn’t) we are headed for a wave election here in WV. And if we can pull it off, any place can.
To close out this section: a great video on voting from Everytown For Gun Safety:
Russia Russia Russia… And Other Possible Crimes
U.S. Says ‘Others’ Are Under Scrutiny in Cohen Grand Jury Probe
The grand jury investigating President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen is also scrutinizing “others” who may not be aware of prosecutors’ interest in them, the U.S. said in a court filing.
well that sounds yummy! Who might those others be?
“Numerous uncharged third parties” are named in the documents, the government said. Protecting their privacy interests make it impractical to release the warrant papers in redacted form, they argued.
“The disclosure would almost certainly result in a very public guessing game in which the media and members of the public attempted to guess the identities of the uncharged parties described in the materials -– particularly the campaign finance portions” of the investigation, prosecutors said in the filing.
Mueller has evidence suggesting Stone associate knew Clinton emails would be leaked
Mueller’s team is investigating whether Jerome Corsi knew stolen emails would be leaked and passed information about them to Trump associate Roger Stone.
Mueller’s office has obtained communications suggesting that a right-wing conspiracy theorist might have had advance knowledge that the emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman had been stolen and handed to WikiLeaks, a source familiar with the investigation told NBC News.
Mueller’s team has spent months investigating whether the conspiracy theorist, Jerome Corsi, learned before the public did that WikiLeaks had obtained emails hacked by Russian intelligence officers — and whether he passed information about the stolen emails to Donald Trump associate Roger Stone, multiple sources said.
Mueller’s investigators have reviewed messages to members of the Trump team in which Stone and Corsi seem to take credit for the release of Democratic emails, said a person with direct knowledge of the emails.
Text Messages Show Roger Stone Was Working to Get a Pardon for Julian Assange
In early January, Roger Stone, the longtime Republican operative and adviser to Donald Trump, sent a text message to an associate stating that he was actively seeking a presidential pardon for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange—and felt optimistic about his chances. “I am working with others to get JA a blanket pardon,” Stone wrote, in a January 6 exchange of text messages obtained by Mother Jones. “It’s very real and very possible. Don’t fuck it up.” Thirty-five minutes later, Stone added, “Something very big about to go down.”
The recipient of the messages was Randy Credico, a New York-based comedian and left-leaning political activist whom Stone has identified as his back channel to WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign—a claim Credico strongly denies. During the election, Stone, a political provocateur who got his start working for Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign, made statements that suggested he had knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to publish emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, and other Democrats, and his interactions with WikiLeaks have become an intense focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Russian election interference. As Mueller’s team zeroes in on Stone, they have examined his push for an Assange pardon—which could be seen as an attempt to interfere with the Russia probe—and have questioned at least one of Stone’s associates about the effort.
Jerome Corsi is just the kind of far-right nutjob who’d have worked with Roger Stone to help Putin attack our democracy. I knew him in college debate and found him sinister even then. https://t.co/0w7zSj8oQM
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) October 25, 2018
Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, the Saudi intelligence chief taking the fall for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, hobnobbed in New York with Michael Flynn and other members of the transition team shortly before Trump’s inauguration. The topic of their discussion: regime change in Iran.
The New York meetings were attended and brokered by George Nader, a Lebanese-American with close ties to leaders in the United Arab Emirates who is currently cooperating with Mueller’s team. Also present at the meetings was Israeli social media strategist Joel Zamel, who has been questioned by Mueller for his role in pitching top campaign officials on an influence operation to help Trump win the election—overtures that could have broken federal election laws.
Steve Bannon was involved as well in conversations on Iran regime change during those two days in January, according to the communications.
He is waiting until after the midterms, but I predict that Stone and Corsi will be pulled in pretty soon after!
Other Good News
Big advertisers still shunning Ingraham’s Fox News show months after boycotts
It’s not unusual for advertisers to flee temporarily when controversy strikes a television program. But the sustained loss of advertising minutes and big, nationally recognized brands from “The Ingraham Angle” shows the power of activist-led boycotts and the depth of major corporations’ concerns about offending would-be consumers in the hyperpoliticized era of President Donald Trump.
Sahle-Work Zewde becomes Ethiopia’s first female president
Ethiopian members of parliament have elected Sahle-Work Zewde as the country’s first female president.
Ms Sahle-Work is an experienced diplomat who has now become Africa’s only female head of state.
Her election to the ceremonial position comes a week after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed a cabinet with half the posts taken up by women.
After being sworn in, President Sahle-Work promised to work hard to make gender equality a reality in Ethiopia.
That is it for today. Lots of good news to keep us energized!
My husband and I are going door to door this afternoon for a local candidate and I am writing another 20 postcards tonight.
What are you doing to get us over the finish line?
❤️ ✊ ❤️ Remind me why I am proud and lucky to be in this with you! ❤️ ✊ ❤️
Let’s do this everyone!
This is a Creative Commons article. The original version of this article appeared here.
