Letter: Let’s give credit to the Republicans who believe in our democracy
Delaware News Journal Letters to the Editor January 19, 2022
After the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection, it is time we recognized the true heroes of the Republican Party.
They are not the dopey louts who rampaged through our nation’s capitol and the moral cowards who still cover for them. They are not the ranting demagogues exploiting the emotions of the resentful. They were the unsung people not seeking attention, but doing their jobs: from poll workers to police officers.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney walks with his daughter Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wy., vice chair of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection, in the Capitol Rotunda at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022.
They were Republican state legislators and governors who did not bend to pressure to overturn the elections in their state. They were Republican judges who did not allow mere allegations unsupported by credible evidence to deny votes that happened. They were a Vice President who stayed loyal to the Constitution and the rule of law above any man. They were Republican congressional representatives and senators who did not fear to try and hold their own president accountable, and dared to stand on their conscience instead of follow the majority in their party.
They did not win. But they showed more bravery than the majority in their party who did.
It is Republicans like those who could save the soul of the party from being lost to a band of fascists, if they find the nerve to do so.
My father was a lifelong Republican who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the sacrifices that generation made to defeat fascism, I’m glad he was not alive to see his party dishonored by America’s Mussolini.
Joe Manchin sees ‘no use’ in holding a vote on voting rights that is almost certain to fail — thanks in part to him
Brent D. Griffiths January 19, 2022
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia speaks with reportersTom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images
Joe Manchin wants to avoid an expected vote that will divide the Democratic Party.
Manchin still wants his party to continue to work on voting rights.
Top party leaders have brushed off efforts to delay a vote.
Sen. Joe Manchin said that he doesn’t see the point of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer forcing a vote later Wednesday on the party’s major voting rights proposals given that they are virtually destined to fail, thanks in part to his stance.
“I would like to see us stay on the bill. There’s no use to try to bring this to finality by having a vote that’s going to fail tonight,” Manchin of West Virginia told CNN’s Manu Raju ahead of a pivotal day for Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has pledged to force a vote that weakens the Senate’s filibuster after Republicans blocked the party from passing voting rights legislation. Democrats, including Manchin, are united behind the party’s two bills but Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema are steadfast in opposition to changing filibuster rules.
Republicans are expected to block Democrats from passing their legislation. Schumer is then expected to force senators to consider changing the filibuster, the de-facto 60-vote threshold for most legislation, but due to Manchin and Sinema’s opposition that effort will also fail.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Schumer’s expected moves a “sad spectacle.” Schumer and President Joe Biden have repeatedly said the party’s voting rights proposals are about the continuation of the American experiment itself. Schumer has stressed that it is important for all senators, including his fellow Democrats, to put their views on the record.
Manchin told CNN that he will also speak on the Senate floor later today. On Tuesday night, Manchin emphatically declared that he would oppose any changes to the filibuster even if it led to a future primary challenger.
Top party leaders are also eager to move on to other topics. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, chair of the House Democratic caucus, told reporters that Senate Democrats will soon return to Biden’s massive spending plan known as Build Back Better.
Staff writer Grace Panetta contributed to this report.
100+ Ultra-Rich People Warn Fellow Elites: ‘It’s Taxes or Pitchforks’
“History paints a pretty bleak picture of what the endgame of extremely unequal societies looks like,” reads an open letter signed by millionaires and billionaires calling for higher taxes on people like themselves.
Jake Johnson January 19, 2022
A demonstrator gestures in front of a bonfire during a protest against Chilean President Sebastian Pinera’s government in Santiago on March 13, 2020. (Photo: Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images)
A group of more than 100 millionaires and billionaires on Wednesday presented fellow members of the global economic elite with a stark choice: “It’s taxes or pitchforks.”
In an open letter published amid the corporate-dominated virtual Davos summit, 102 rich individuals—including such prominent figures as Disney heiress Abigail Disney and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer—warned that “history paints a pretty bleak picture of what the endgame of extremely unequal societies looks like.”
“For all our well-being—rich and poor alike—it’s time to confront inequality and choose to tax the rich.”
“For all our well-being—rich and poor alike—it’s time to confront inequality and choose to tax the rich,” the letter reads. “Show the people of the world that you deserve their trust.”
The letter was released hours after an analysis conducted by the Fight Inequality Alliance, the Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, and Patriotic Millionaires showed that a modest annual wealth tax targeting the world’s millionaires and billionaires would raise $2.52 trillion dollars a year, enough to lift billions of people out of poverty and vaccinate the world against Covid-19.
But signatories to the new letter note that such a solution is unlikely to win broad support among attendees of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the yearly gathering of global elites that’s typically held in Davos, Switzerland. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s WEF is taking place virtually.
“If you’re participating in the World Economic Forum’s ‘online Davos’ this January, you’re going to be joining an exclusive group of people looking for an answer to the question behind this year’s theme, ‘How do we work together and restore trust?'” the letter reads. “You’re not going to find the answer in a private forum, surrounded by other millionaires and billionaires and the world’s most powerful people. If you’re paying attention, you’ll find that you’re part of the problem.”
The letter—signed by rich individuals from Denmark, Germany, Austria, and other nations—continues:
Trust—in politics, in society, in one another—is not built in tiny side rooms only accessible by the very richest and most powerful. It’s not built by billionaire space travelers who make a fortune out of a pandemic but pay almost nothing in taxes and provide poor wages for their workers. Trust is built through accountability, through well-oiled, fair, and open democracies that provide good services and support all their citizens.
And the bedrock of a strong democracy is a fair tax system. A fair tax system.
As millionaires, we know that the current tax system is not fair. Most of us can say that, while the world has gone through an immense amount of suffering in the last two years, we have actually seen our wealth rise during the pandemic—yet few if any of us can honestly say that we pay our fair share in taxes.
This injustice baked into the foundation of the international tax system has created a colossal lack of trust between the people of the world and the elites who are the architects of this system…
To put it simply, restoring trust requires taxing the rich. The world—every country in it—must demand the rich pay their fair share. Tax us, the rich, and tax us now.
Made significantly worse by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, skyrocketing income and wealth inequality has been at the heart of recent mass protest movements in South America, the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and elsewhere—grassroots uprisings that have frequently been met with brutal police repression.
“It’s time we right the wrongs of an unequal world.”
But little of substance has been done in recent years to reverse the decades-long trend of staggering wealth accumulation at the very top and declining standards of living for large swaths of the global population.
According to an Oxfam analysis published earlier this week, the 10 richest men in the world have seen their combined fortunes grow by more than $1.2 billion per day since the coronavirus pandemic hit two years ago while tens of millions worldwide have been pushed into poverty.
Progressive advocates and lawmakers have long argued that raising taxes on the rich—while far from a panacea for deep-seated societal ills—would help rein in soaring inequities and raise revenue for governments to spend on alleviating poverty, providing universal healthcare, and meeting other basic needs.
Gemma McGough, a British entrepreneur and a founding member of Patriotic Millionaires U.K., reiterated that case in a statement Wednesday.
“A common value most people share is that if something’s not fair then it’s not right. But tax systems the world over have unfairness built-in, so why should people trust them?” said McGough, one of the new letter’s signatories. “They are asked to shoulder our shared economic burden again and again, while the richest people watch their wealth, and their comfort, continue to rise.”
“It’s time we right the wrongs of an unequal world,” McGough added. “It’s time we tax the rich.”
New Mexico Republican who signed bogus electoral certificate says he has ‘no regrets whatsoever’
Algernon D’Ammassa January 18, 2022
A bogus electoral certificate signed by prominent New Mexico Republicans and sent to the national archive in the wake of the 2020 presidential election has gotten new scrutiny over the past week.
The peculiar action received scant attention in the shadow of a lawsuit from President Donald Trump’s campaign on the day that New Mexico electors gathered at the state Capitol building in Santa Fe to deliver New Mexico’s five electoral college votes to Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for president and vice president.
Alternative electoral certificates from New Mexico and six other states were first published by American Oversightand have taken on greater significance as the U.S. House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol scrutinizes efforts by Trump supporters to subvert the certification of Biden’s election win in several states.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, described a similar action by Republicans in that state as “election fraud” and referred the case to federal prosecutors while continuing to mull state charges as well, Ann Arbor News reported.
In this Feb. 26, 2019, file photo, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas talks during a news conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, also a Democrat, has similarly referred the New Mexico Republicans’ certificate to U.S. Attorney Fred J. Federici.
“Election laws are the foundation of our democracy and must be respected,” Balderas said in a statement. “While review under state law is ongoing, we have referred this matter to the appropriate federal law-enforcement authorities and will provide any assistance they deem necessary.”
New Mexico Republicans, for their part, including the signers who argued they might be the rightful electors, have mostly been silent. One of the signers, however, told the Las Cruces Sun-News he has “no regrets whatsoever.”
The state Republican Party did not respond to queries for this story.
Undermining the 2020 election
It was Dec.14, 2020 when Democratic electors cast their votes after Biden won New Mexico’s popular vote by 501,614 votes to President Donald Trump’s 401,894. The result was executed on a certificate of ascertainment by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and filed according to regular process.
On the same day, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit over New Mexico’s use of drop boxes to collect completed ballots, one of a series of measures taken to enhance public safety in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Weeks later, the campaign dropped the matter, but the president continued to assert false claims of widespread voter fraud and insist he was the rightful winner, all evidence — in the wake of audits and recounts in multiple states — to the contrary.
Also on Dec. 14, New Mexico Republican electors also turned up at the state capitol and were refused admittance, but nonetheless signed their own election certificate in support of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
FILE – Vice President Mike Pence presides over a joint session of Congress as it convenes to count the Electoral College votes cast in November’s election, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stands at right. Pence did not bend to President Donald Trump’s extraordinary pressure to intervene and presided over the count in line with his ceremonial role. He announced the certification of Biden’s victory before dawn, hours after a mob of Trump’s supporters violently ransacked the building. (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP, File) ORG XMIT: WX106
The signers were businessmen Jewll Powdrell and Lupe Garcia; Deborah Maestas, a former state GOP chairperson; Rosie Tripp, a former GOP national committee member from Socorro who has held elected offices; and Anissa Ford-Tinnin, who signed as a substitute for oil businessman (and another former state party chairperson) Harvey Yates.
According to the document, the parallel certification was undertaken “on the understanding that it might later be determined that we are the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from New Mexico.”
The certificate was then signed and filed with the National Archives and Records Administration. There was, however, never any merit to the claim that New Mexico’s election result might be overturned in favor of Trump.
“It didn’t have any real impact on the counting of electoral votes,” Alex Curtas, a spokesman for New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, told the Sun-News, adding, “They didn’t disrupt the actual authentic electoral college count. The election went off as it should have.”
Weeks later, on Jan. 6, 2021, supporters of the president assaulted Congress as it met to finalize the election, after Trump called on them to march to the Capitol during a fiery rally near the White House.
After order was restored and the proceedings continued, newly sworn Congresswoman Rep. Yvette Herrell, a Republican representing southern New Mexico, objected to certifying election results in Biden’s favor from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell, R-N.M., objecting to certification of Pennsylvania’s Electoral College results for the Nov. 3, 2020 presidential election, on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021.
Herrell’s office did not respond to queries from the Sun-News about the GOP electoral certificates or her thoughts, in retrospect, about the validity of Biden’s election.
Despite Republican objections in Congress, the election results were confirmed and Biden and Harris were inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021 in the presence of heightened security at the Capitol and throughout Washington, D.C.
‘No regrets whatsoever’
Powdrell, a Rio Rancho businessman identified as chairperson on the Republicans’ electoral certificate, told the Sun-News he had “no regrets whatsoever” about signing the certificate that day.
It was Powdrell’s first time serving as a presidential elector for his party, and he recalled that after being refused admittance at the state Capitol building, the group signed the certificate in the lobby.
He dismissed renewed attention on the certificate as a “non-issue.”
“Now that the election is over, why are we talking about it?” he asked, laughing. “How can you undermine an election that had already been done?”
His intention in signing the certificate was “to say I support the Republican Party,” he said, not to undermine the process.
Asked whether he accepted Biden’s victory in the election as genuine, Powdrell hedged, first saying, “The election was what it was and unless you’ve got definitive, undisputable, irreversible facts to refute it, it is what it is.”
He then suggested that such evidence might exist, but that courts refused to hear it. The Trump campaign and allies filed lawsuits and motions to intervene in several states and before the U.S. Supreme Court in the weeks following the election. None of the challenges prevailed.
“The courts won’t hear it,” Powdrell said, “so maybe it’s time that you presented those facts to the general public and let the general public decide.”
‘They have real consequences’
Curtas said the Secretary of State’s Office supported further investigation of the Republicans’ certificate, saying what seemed like a stunt in December 2020 was subsequently revealed as part of a darker picture following Jan. 6 and subsequent revelations of efforts to overturn the election for Trump.
“It’s exactly those kind of acts and the narrative they perpetuated that led to the violence on Jan. 6,” Curtas said. “They have real consequences and really can undermine our democratic processes.”
Since the Jan. 6 uprising, Curtas said, “Voting rights is very much in the narrative right now both at the state and federal level,” including an ambitious package of election proposals Toulouse Oliver and the governor have presented to state lawmakers for the current legislative session.
However, he said proposals to address problems such as counterfeit or “alternative” electoral certificates are hard to define, noting that the effort did not disrupt the election process directly even if it served to seed doubts in the process.
Voice of the people: Republican voters must decide – autocracy or democracy
The Ledger January 19, 2022
Republican voters must decide – autocracy or democracy
This is the year that Republican voters must take a deep look into their values and decide, autocracy or democracy? Believing the truth or the Big Lie and other conspiracy theories? Freedom and justice for all or limited voting rights for minorities?
Watching today’s GOP leaders, a term I use loosely, I see a governor overstepping his bounds with top-down policies to local governments, a governor who requests his own police force (can you say “Brownshirts?”), and a cultural warrior for imaginary foes like voter fraud while ignoring the real fraud that the GOP was involved in with the ghost candidates scandal. Then there is the effort to stop the teaching of Critical Race Theory in our public schools. Let’s be truthful, CRT has never been taught in any public schools.-
What is driving the self-respecting Republicans away from GOP values of the past may well be the Great Replacement Theory, a fear that they are being replaced, discounted and losing control of an ever-increasing population of immigrants. Remember Charlottesville chants, “Jews will not replace us!” This is the basis for GRT.
Republicans are the only ones who can end this tomfoolery perpetrated by Trump and his cronies.
Bruce W. Paulson, Winter Haven
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Democracy is at risk from repeated Republican lying about the 2020 election. You can stop this nonsense.
USA Today-Wisconsin Editorial Board – January 19, 2022
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, left, and former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, right.
This story was republished on Jan. 19, 2022 to make it free for all
Voting is the beating heart of democracy, the way we claim control of this government of the people. But in Wisconsin, an infection in the bloodstream of the body politic is threatening our ability to be self-governing.
Donald Trump’s repeated lies about the 2020 election over the past year have put our democracy at grave risk, but he has not done this alone. His enablers, from U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, have refused to stand up to a dangerous man.
If they won’t do their duty, then citizens must: Tell Johnson, Vos and the rest to stop undermining confidence in Wisconsin elections.
Here are the facts. Donald Trump lost the popular vote in Wisconsin by about 20,600 votes; he lost nationally by 7 million. Recounts in Milwaukee and Dane counties last year confirmed that he lost. Courts repeatedly threw out ludicrous challenges by Trump backers.
And an Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in six battleground states that the former president complained about found fewer than 475 votes in dispute. Biden won Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin; the disputed ballots represent just 0.15% of his margin in those states.
In other words, there was no steal and nothing to investigate. Just lies.
But the Republican sycophants in Wisconsin insist on appeasing Trump.
After Trump hectored him last summer for not doing enough to investigate and spread the former president’s lies, Vos launched a partisan review with former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman at the helm. Gableman bungled it, choosing to talk to more conspiracy theorists than election experts. His work has been an embarrassment to the state, even to many Republicans.
In November, Johnson literally called for the takeover of federal elections by the partisans in the Wisconsin Legislature. In other words, his own party. Johnson said local officials should ignore the bipartisan Elections Commission that his own party set up six years ago.
The stench of racism permeates much of this, especially efforts by Republicans to clamp down on access to voting. People of color are likely to be most affected.
But the lying also corrodes trust in the most basic act of democracy.
A wide majority of Republicans — 68% nationwide according to a Marquette University Law School Poll in November — don’t have confidence in the 2020 election.
This growing lack of trust opens the door for more problems in 2024. If every election a politician loses is now somehow “rigged,” then the very idea of elections is suspect.
This breakdown in faith could lead to what Trump falsely claims happened to him: a stolen election.
Imagine if in 2024 a Democrat once again carries the popular vote in Wisconsin in a close presidential election, but the Republican-dominated Legislature chooses to certify an alternative slate of electors to cast the state’s 10 electoral votes. It could make the chaos following the 2020 vote look like child’s play.
Johnson would be happy to take the first step toward such a corruption: He would seize control of election oversight — taking that job away from a bipartisan commission. Similar efforts are ongoing in other battleground states.
Laura Thornton, director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, has seen it all before. The German Marshall Fund is a non-partisan policy organization that advocates for democracy and human rights around the world.
“I spent more than two decades living and working overseas to advance democracy and credible elections — giving me plenty of opportunity to see the lengths to which autocrats will go to gain power,” Thornton wrote of Wisconsin recently.
“Even so, the proposed Wisconsin power grab is shocking in its brazenness. If this occurred in any of the countries where the United States provides aid, it would immediately be called out as a threat to democracy.”
We believe the state should do all it can to make it easier for everyone to vote. With that in mind, we supported drop boxes and other outreach, especially with a deadly pandemic raging. But there is also no doubt that the conduct of elections can be improved.
Installing cameras to monitor drop boxes strikes us as a reasonable idea. Beginning the counting of absentee ballots before election night so the final results can be learned earlier is another.
Nick Saban, others urge Manchin to protect voting rights
Leah Willingham January 18, 2022
Alabama head coach Nick Saban watches warm ups before the College Football Playoff championship football game against Georgia Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WVa., speaks to the media after senate democrats luncheon, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022. Biden is meeting privately with Senate Democrats at the Capitol, a visit intended to deliver a jolt to the party’s long-stalled voting and elections legislation. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban and other prominent sports figures with ties to West Virginia have urged U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin to support sweeping legislation to protect the right to vote.
Saban was joined by NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West, a fellow West Virginia native, in a Jan. 13 letter penned to the Democratic senator ahead of the Senate’s debate of the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. The Senate took up the bill Tuesday, and it appeared headed for defeat.
The package before the Senate would make Election Day a national holiday and require access to early voting and mail-in ballots that became overwhelmingly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. Voting advocates nationwide have warned that Republican-led states have passed laws making it more difficult for Black Americans and others to vote by consolidating polling locations, requiring certain types of identification and ordering other changes.
In the letter, the group said the principles that help ensure fair and free elections are “now under intentional and unprecedented challenge.”
“We are all certain that democracy is best when voting is open to everyone on a level playing field; the referees are neutral; and at the end of the game the final score is respected and accepted,” the letter reads.
The letter was also signed by former NFL players Oliver Luck and Darryl Talley, both of whom are West Virginia University graduates, as well as former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
The group said that lawmakers must “guarantee that all Americans have an equal voice in our democracy and that Federal elections are conducted with integrity so that the votes of all eligible voters determine the election outcomes.”
The voting bill was the Democrats’ top priority this Congress, and the House swiftly approved the legislation, only to see it languish in the Senate, opposed by Republicans. With a 50-50 split, Democrats have a narrow Senate majority — Vice President Kamala Harris can break a tie — but they lack the 60 votes needed to overcome the GOP filibuster.
Attention is focused intently on Democrats Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who were singled out with a barrage of criticism during Martin Luther King Jr. Day events for their refusal to change what civil rights leaders call the “Jim Crow filibuster.”
Martin Luther King III, the son of the late civil rights leader, compared Sinema and Manchin to the white moderate his father wrote about during the civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s — a person who declared support for the goals of Black voting rights but not the direct actions or demonstrations that ultimately led to passage of the landmark legislation.
Both Manchin and Sinema say they support the package, but they are unwilling to change the Senate rules to muscle it through that chamber over Republican objections.
Asked about the letter Tuesday, Manchin told reporters that Saban had added a footnote, that was not included in the released letter, saying he supports the filibuster and to not get rid of it.
“We should all support the right the vote, everyone, but not breaking the rules to make new rules,” Manchin said.
Nick Saban and Jerry West sign letter pushing West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin to support voting rights bill
Nick Bromberg, January 18, 2022
Alabama coach Nick Saban and NBA legend Jerry West are among five prominent West Virginia sports figures pushing Sen. Joe Manchin (D) to support the Freedom to Vote Act.
Manchin and Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have refused to support making a filibuster exception for the voting rights bill. A bill can be filibustered in the Senate if it doesn’t have 60 votes; if the voting rights bill was exempt from the filibuster and Manchin and Sinema voted for it, the bill would pass a 50-50 Senate by virtue of a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.
The letter, also signed by former West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, and former Buffalo Bills linebacker Darryl Talley, urges “Congress to exercise its Constitutional responsibility to enact laws that set national standards for the conduct of Federal elections and for decisions that determine election outcomes.”
Elections open to all Americans: Our democracy is at its best when all Americans are encouraged to participate. We support measures to provide voters with arange of opportunities to obtain and cast a lawful ballot, including robust in-person, early, and absentee voting options. We support the use of election security, equipment and record-keeping measures that are reliable and evidence-based, and clearly support the integrity of election processes.
Impartial conduct and score-keeping. Election administration and vote certification must be nonpartisan, professional and transparent. State legislators and other officials cannot apply or change rules, standards or procedures, prospectively or retroactively, in amanner that may nullify Federal election results by excluding voters or overruling voter choices.
The voting rights bill would allow for no-excuse absentee voting, expand the voter registration process and make Election Day a federal holiday among other provisions. Republicans have been mostly united in their opposition to the bill and a filibuster exception for it.
There is a footnote at the bottom of the letter that says Saban “is not in favor of getting rid of the filibuster in the Senate.” That footnote, however, does not specify if Saban is specifically referencing an exception for the voting rights bill or the concept of the filibuster in general.
West and Saban supported Manchin’s re-election bid
The letter is perhaps the most outspoken the most successful coach in modern college football has ever been regarding politics, though Saban and West have been longtime supporters of Manchin, a Democratic senator in a state that former president Donald Trump won by nearly 40 points in 2020. Saban was born in West Virginia and West stayed in his home state to play basketball at West Virginia before he was chosen with the No. 2 pick in the 1960 NBA draft.
Saban, West and West Virginia coach Bob Huggins endorsed Manchin in an ad a month before his re-elction in November of 2018. Saban, who said he grew up with Manchin in the ad, spoke glowingly of the senator in the commercial. Manchin, 74, has been in the Senate since 2010 and is one of the most conservative Democrats in the legislative body.
Bernie Sanders says he would support primary challengers to Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema if they continue to oppose scrapping filibuster
Bryan Metzger, Grace Panetta. January 18, 2022
Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Bernie Sanders at the Capitol on July 29, 2020.Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Bernie Sanders said he’s open to supporting primary challengers to Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
The moderate duo have been stalling Democrats’ agenda for months and oppose changing the filibuster.
“They’re gonna have to go home and explain to their constituents,” Sanders said.
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont opened the door on Tuesday to support primary challengers to Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin when both come up for reelection in 2024.
Speaking with reporters ahead of a caucus meeting, Sanders said the stakes for changing the Senate filibuster rules — which require 60 votes to end debate and thus currently gives Senate Republicans the power to block major pieces of legislation — are high.
“What’s at stake is the future of American democracy,” said Sanders. “And the fact that all over this country, Republican governors and legislators are moving aggressively to suppress the vote and to impose extreme gerrymandering, among many other things.”
“Anybody who believes in American democracy has got to vote to enable us to go forward with 50 votes to suspend the filibuster, at least on this vote,” he added.
Democrats are pushing reforms to the Senate filibuster to ensure passage of major voting rights legislation, and are expected to vote on a rules change to return to the so-called talking filibuster. Both Manchin and Sinema, however, have made their opposition clear to lowering the current 60-vote threshold to end debate on legislation. And Manchin opposes making changes to the senate’s rules along party lines.
Sanders left it up to voters when asked by Punchbowl News what he thought about potential primary challenges for the duo, and any other senators who oppose changing filibuster rules.
“There’s a very good chance that people in those states— it’s up to the people in those states but it’s not just even the voting rights,” he said. Asked whether he himself would support a primary challenger, Sanders answered in the affirmative without elaborating further.
As for Manchin, he said at a press conference outside his office on Tuesday that he doesn’t mind the prospect of a challenger.
“Bring it on,” he said when asked about the idea.
Manchin, who represents a deeply conservative state, easily defeated a progressive primary challenger, Paula Jean Swearengin, in 2018 with nearly 70% of the vote. Swearengin, whose run against Manchin was featured in the 2019 documentary “Knock Down the House,” was endorsed by groups including Justice Democrats and The People for Bernie Sanders (though not Sanders himself).
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also notably did not unequivocally oppose backing primary challengers to Manchin and Sinema when asked about the idea when taking questions from reporters on Tuesday evening.
“I’m not getting into the politics,” Schumer said, shaking his head in dismay at the question. “This is a substantive, serious issue.”
Democrats line up to challenge Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson
Christopher Wilson, Senior Writer January 18, 2022
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson’s decision to run for reelection has affirmed his position as a top target for Democrats in a race expected to be among the most hotly contested of the 2022 midterms.
Johnson, first elected to the Senate from Wisconsin during the tea party wave of 2010, had initially pledged to serve for only two terms but explained his change of mind in a Wall Street Journal op-ed and a campaign ad. He said that because Democrats have control of Congress and the presidency, he did not want to step down as he had originally promised.
“If you’re in a position to help make our country safer and stronger, would you just walk away?” Johnson said in the ad. “I decided I can’t. I’ll stand and fight for freedom.”
Wisconsin has been a key battleground state in recent years. Donald Trump carried the state by less than 1 percent of the vote in 2016, while Joe Biden won the state by a similarly narrow margin four years later. In 2018, Democrat Tony Evers was elected governor over incumbent Republican Scott Walker by just over 1 percent of the vote.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in September. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report currently rates the 2022 contest a toss-up, while the University of Virginia Center for Politics gives Johnson a modest edge.
Polls in recent months have indicated that Johnson is unpopular with Wisconsinites. At the same time, Democrats in the Badger State will likely have their work cut out for them. The party in power tends to struggle in midterm elections, and Biden continues to be dogged by low approval ratings.
Over the course of his second term, Johnson has emerged as one of the most prominent promoters of conspiracy theories on both the 2020 election and the COVID-19 pandemic. He has continually downplayed the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol violence, calling it a largely “peaceful protest” by people “who loved this country” and “truly [respected] law enforcement.”
Days after Johnson announced he would be running again, the Senate Democrats’ main super-PAC announced a $1 million ad buy highlighting his broken two-term pledge as well as his push for a tax break that primarily benefited two billionaire families in Wisconsin.
Last summer, ProPublica reported that Johnson had said he would withhold his vote on the Republicans’ 2017 tax cut unless it included a special loophole that helped the two families, who had both contributed millions of dollars to his campaigns. Johnson told the outlet that his stance “had nothing to do with any donor or discussions with them” and instead stemmed from his belief that the tax code “needs to be simplified and rationalized.”
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, one of several candidates who may challenge Johnson. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
The question of who Democrats will select to challenge Johnson is still very much up in the air, with more than 10 candidates having declared for the primary, scheduled for Aug. 9. The major candidates who’ve created a gap in early fundraising are Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, state treasurer Sara Godlewski, NBA executive Alex Lasry and Outagamie County Executive Thomas Nelson.
Polling in the race has been sparse, but a November release from Data for Progress showed Barnes approaching 40 percent of the vote, which is in line with an internal survey recently released by the Barnes campaign.
Barnes, 35, served as a state legislator before winning the spot as Evers’s running mate in 2018. A Milwaukee native, he is the first Black lieutenant governor in Wisconsin history. Evers appointed him to run the state’s climate task force, and Barnes was outspoken in the aftermath of the 2020 police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha.
Barnes was critical of law enforcement when prosecutors failed to file charges against the officer who shot Blake. He also questioned why Kyle Rittenhouse, an Illinois teenager who killed two men during a violent protest following Blake’s shooting, was not immediately arrested. Barnes likewise criticized Rittenhouse’s acquittal.
“Over the last few weeks, many dreaded the outcome we just witnessed. The presumption of innocence until proven guilty is what we should expect from our judicial system, but that standard is not always applied equally,” Barnes said. “We have seen so many Black and brown youth killed, only to be put on trial posthumously, while the innocence of Kyle Rittenhouse was virtually demanded by the judge.”
It was a contrast to the statement issued by Johnson, who said, “I believe justice has been served in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. I hope everyone can accept the verdict, remain peaceful, and let the community of Kenosha heal and rebuild.”
Kyle Rittenhouse at the Kenosha County Courthouse on Nov. 15, 2021. (Sean Krajacic/Pool/Getty Images)
Godlewski, who entered the Senate race last April, points to her successful statewide run in 2018 as proof of her electability. Prior to running for office, she successfully advocated against a ballot measure that would have eliminated the treasurer office entirely. In October, Godlewski invested $1 million of her own money into her campaign, telling the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “I am putting my money where my mouth is.”
“As someone who has run two successful statewide campaigns, I know firsthand winning in Wisconsin is tough,” she said. “Ron Johnson, Mitch McConnell, and dark money groups are going to do whatever it takes to win, and I am not going to allow them to outwork us or outspend us.”
Lasry and Nelson were two of the earliest entrants into the race. Lasry is on leave from his position with the Milwaukee Bucks, which won the 2021 NBA Championship and are co-owned by his father, Marc, a billionaire hedge fund manager. A former staffer for the Obama White House, Lasry has also argued that he was instrumental in bringing the 2020 Democratic National Convention to Milwaukee.
Nelson served in the state Legislature, including as Democratic majority leader, before first winning the Outagamie County executive seat in 2011. The Wisconsin native supports Medicare for All as well as the Green New Deal climate package.
Barnes has received endorsements from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., while Godlewski has earned the support of EMILY’s List, a well-funded Democratic PAC. Lasry, meanwhile, has won support from the Teamsters Union, and Nelson the endorsement of the Wisconsin chapter of the progressive climate group Sunrise.
All four of the leading Democratic candidates have called for an end to the Senate filibuster, which makes it more difficult to pass legislation at the federal level.
