'18 Midterms: Dems win House by largest midterm raw vote margin ever
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Eric Holder’s Group Targets All-G.O.P. States to Attack Gerrymandering
By ALEXANDER BURNSFEB. 6, 2018
Eric H. Holder Jr., of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said in an interview that the group was determined to deny Republicans so-called trifectas in state governments — places where a single party controls the governorship and legislature. Jared Soares for The New York Times
A Democratic group backed by former President Barack Obama intends to pour millions of dollars into an eclectic array of elections in a dozen states, in an effort to block Republicans from single-handedly drawing congressional maps after 2020, officials leading the group said.
The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, formed last year under the leadership of Eric H. Holder Jr., the former attorney general, has settled on a strategy to contest a combination of governorships, legislative seats and more obscure state offices to chip away at Republicans’ sweeping control of the redistricting process.
Mr. Holder said in an interview that the group was chiefly determined to deny Republicans so-called trifectas in state governments — places where a single party controls the governorship and an entire legislature, as Republicans do in Ohio and Florida, among other critical battlegrounds.
The group’s list of high-priority states includes most of the critical states in presidential elections. Mr. Obama, who has made redistricting a focus of his attention since leaving office, plans to visit some of those states in 2018, and Mr. Holder reviewed his strategy with the former president in Washington on Monday, aides said.
States at the top of the just-finalized target list include traditional purple states like Michigan and Wisconsin, where Republicans can currently design maps without Democratic input, and others — including Colorado, Minnesota and Nevada — where Democrats have significant influence in government but must defend it in the 2018 elections.
“From my perspective, success is if you break a trifecta,” Mr. Holder said, adding: “I don’t think that in December of 2018, you measure success only by whether you have assumed control of a particular state.”
2018 Election Calendar and Results
A full list of elections for the House and Senate, including which races matter most for congressional control.
Because of the broad authority Republicans hold in many states, and the favorable maps many Republican lawmakers have drawn for themselves, Mr. Holder said his group would spend money wherever Republicans appear to be vulnerable. In Ohio, that will mean pursuing not only the governorship but also the offices of state auditor and secretary of state, both of which play a role in shaping congressional maps. In Wisconsin and Florida, Mr. Holder’s group will help Democrats compete for the governorship and the State Senate majority.
In North Carolina, where there is a Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, but Republicans have control of the legislature by vast margins, the redistricting committee hopes to shave seats off the current Republican supermajorities.
Mr. Holder said he would campaign aggressively himself in some of these races, beginning with an election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court this spring. Both he and Mr. Obama will focus heavily on mobilizing African-American voters, Mr. Holder said.
The strategy has the potential to inject a new volume of money, on the Democratic side, into typically low-profile elections. Mr. Holder said the group has raised more than $16 million out of a previously announced $30 million goal, but it has not disclosed how much cash it has on hand.
The tug of war over congressional maps has begun years before the 2020 census, which will collect the data used for reapportioning seats in Congress. Democrats have already sued to throw out congressional maps in several states and the United States Supreme Court is expected to consider a number of cases this year involving gerrymandered maps.
Republican leaders have long described control of the redistricting process as one of the party’s prized assets. Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio, the party’s campaign chairman in the House, said in an interview with Politicothat “the congressional lines” were one of the Republicans’ great advantages in 2018.
But Republicans have also stressed that it is not gerrymandering alone that has kept them in power in the states. “Republicans won because they were better candidates with better visions for the people of their states,” said Matt Walter, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, which spends millions in state legislative elections.
Mr. Walter has warned that Mr. Holder’s group represents a new force in state-level politics, and urged Republicans to prepare for better-funded Democratic efforts than in the past.
But absent Supreme Court intervention, Democrats may face an arduous, yearslong campaign to peel back Republicans’ overwhelming advantage in the states. A model for Democratic efforts, several strategists said, might come from Pennsylvania, where an all-Republican government implemented an elaborately gerrymandered map after the 2010 elections. Democrats later captured the governorship and the State Supreme Court, which recently voided the existing district lines and forced an icy standoff between Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, over the creation of a new map.
Mr. Wolf said in an interview on Monday that he was optimistic Republican leaders would ultimately agree to redraw a “fair map” with his input. Mr. Wolf, who is running for re-election in 2018 in a race Mr. Holder’s group intends to target, said Pennsylvania could be a case study in bipartisan redistricting: “If I do it right, it is a model.”
But Mr. Wolf cautioned Democrats in other states not to twist electoral lines to their advantage and urged the few gerrymandered blue states to abandon their partisan maps. In states like Maryland and Illinois, Republicans have denounced Democrats for warping district maps even as Democrats denounce gerrymandering on the national level.
Beyond the traditional swing states, Mr. Holder said his group is eyeing some more daunting targets, including Georgia’s open governorship and the Texas Legislature, where Democrats hope to chip away at huge Republican majorities. And the group is monitoring a number of state-level ballot initiatives that could put anti-gerrymandering laws up for a vote this year.
“In some ways, that’s the best way to do it,” Mr. Holder said of referendums, “but state constitutions don’t allow that to happen in all 50 states.”
Correction: February 6, 2018
An earlier version of this article misstated the National Democratic Redistricting Committee’s plans for North Carolina. The group hopes to break Republican supermajorities in the State House and Senate. It does not hope to empower the governor to veto legislative maps, as the governor in North Carolina does not have that power.
Eric Holder’s Group Targets All-G.O.P. States to Attack Gerrymandering
By ALEXANDER BURNSFEB. 6, 2018
Eric H. Holder Jr., of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said in an interview that the group was determined to deny Republicans so-called trifectas in state governments — places where a single party controls the governorship and legislature. Jared Soares for The New York Times
A Democratic group backed by former President Barack Obama intends to pour millions of dollars into an eclectic array of elections in a dozen states, in an effort to block Republicans from single-handedly drawing congressional maps after 2020, officials leading the group said.
The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, formed last year under the leadership of Eric H. Holder Jr., the former attorney general, has settled on a strategy to contest a combination of governorships, legislative seats and more obscure state offices to chip away at Republicans’ sweeping control of the redistricting process.
Mr. Holder said in an interview that the group was chiefly determined to deny Republicans so-called trifectas in state governments — places where a single party controls the governorship and an entire legislature, as Republicans do in Ohio and Florida, among other critical battlegrounds.
The group’s list of high-priority states includes most of the critical states in presidential elections. Mr. Obama, who has made redistricting a focus of his attention since leaving office, plans to visit some of those states in 2018, and Mr. Holder reviewed his strategy with the former president in Washington on Monday, aides said.
States at the top of the just-finalized target list include traditional purple states like Michigan and Wisconsin, where Republicans can currently design maps without Democratic input, and others — including Colorado, Minnesota and Nevada — where Democrats have significant influence in government but must defend it in the 2018 elections.
“From my perspective, success is if you break a trifecta,” Mr. Holder said, adding: “I don’t think that in December of 2018, you measure success only by whether you have assumed control of a particular state.”
2018 Election Calendar and Results
A full list of elections for the House and Senate, including which races matter most for congressional control.
Because of the broad authority Republicans hold in many states, and the favorable maps many Republican lawmakers have drawn for themselves, Mr. Holder said his group would spend money wherever Republicans appear to be vulnerable. In Ohio, that will mean pursuing not only the governorship but also the offices of state auditor and secretary of state, both of which play a role in shaping congressional maps. In Wisconsin and Florida, Mr. Holder’s group will help Democrats compete for the governorship and the State Senate majority.
In North Carolina, where there is a Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, but Republicans have control of the legislature by vast margins, the redistricting committee hopes to shave seats off the current Republican supermajorities.
Mr. Holder said he would campaign aggressively himself in some of these races, beginning with an election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court this spring. Both he and Mr. Obama will focus heavily on mobilizing African-American voters, Mr. Holder said.
The strategy has the potential to inject a new volume of money, on the Democratic side, into typically low-profile elections. Mr. Holder said the group has raised more than $16 million out of a previously announced $30 million goal, but it has not disclosed how much cash it has on hand.
The tug of war over congressional maps has begun years before the 2020 census, which will collect the data used for reapportioning seats in Congress. Democrats have already sued to throw out congressional maps in several states and the United States Supreme Court is expected to consider a number of cases this year involving gerrymandered maps.
Republican leaders have long described control of the redistricting process as one of the party’s prized assets. Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio, the party’s campaign chairman in the House, said in an interview with Politicothat “the congressional lines” were one of the Republicans’ great advantages in 2018.
But Republicans have also stressed that it is not gerrymandering alone that has kept them in power in the states. “Republicans won because they were better candidates with better visions for the people of their states,” said Matt Walter, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, which spends millions in state legislative elections.
Mr. Walter has warned that Mr. Holder’s group represents a new force in state-level politics, and urged Republicans to prepare for better-funded Democratic efforts than in the past.
But absent Supreme Court intervention, Democrats may face an arduous, yearslong campaign to peel back Republicans’ overwhelming advantage in the states. A model for Democratic efforts, several strategists said, might come from Pennsylvania, where an all-Republican government implemented an elaborately gerrymandered map after the 2010 elections. Democrats later captured the governorship and the State Supreme Court, which recently voided the existing district lines and forced an icy standoff between Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, over the creation of a new map.
Mr. Wolf said in an interview on Monday that he was optimistic Republican leaders would ultimately agree to redraw a “fair map” with his input. Mr. Wolf, who is running for re-election in 2018 in a race Mr. Holder’s group intends to target, said Pennsylvania could be a case study in bipartisan redistricting: “If I do it right, it is a model.”
But Mr. Wolf cautioned Democrats in other states not to twist electoral lines to their advantage and urged the few gerrymandered blue states to abandon their partisan maps. In states like Maryland and Illinois, Republicans have denounced Democrats for warping district maps even as Democrats denounce gerrymandering on the national level.
Beyond the traditional swing states, Mr. Holder said his group is eyeing some more daunting targets, including Georgia’s open governorship and the Texas Legislature, where Democrats hope to chip away at huge Republican majorities. And the group is monitoring a number of state-level ballot initiatives that could put anti-gerrymandering laws up for a vote this year.
“In some ways, that’s the best way to do it,” Mr. Holder said of referendums, “but state constitutions don’t allow that to happen in all 50 states.”
Correction: February 6, 2018
An earlier version of this article misstated the National Democratic Redistricting Committee’s plans for North Carolina. The group hopes to break Republican supermajorities in the State House and Senate. It does not hope to empower the governor to veto legislative maps, as the governor in North Carolina does not have that power.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
The Hill
3 hrs ·
House Democrats have announced plans to target over 100 GOP-held congressional districts in the 2018 midterm elections — the most in a decade — as momentum builds after Democratic candidates flipped 35 seats in special elections since President Trump took office.
House Dems to target over 100 GOP-held districts in midterms
Democrats need a net gain of 24 seats to win back the House.
THEHILL.COM
3 hrs ·
House Democrats have announced plans to target over 100 GOP-held congressional districts in the 2018 midterm elections — the most in a decade — as momentum builds after Democratic candidates flipped 35 seats in special elections since President Trump took office.
House Dems to target over 100 GOP-held districts in midterms
Democrats need a net gain of 24 seats to win back the House.
THEHILL.COM
I mentioned this before in regards to that intercept story where the DCCC isn’t backing any candidates besides established fundraisers and how it mentioned a lot of candidates have been advised not to put up policy positions because they need to wait for polling and don’t want to upset “moderates” or have republicans say something mean about it at the wrong time.
I mentioned the guy running for senate in my state , granted its not under the umbrella of the DCCC, appears to be following this advice. I checked to see if he still hasn’t put up any issues and it appears he hasn’t.
Phil Bredesen for U.S. Senate | Tennessee
Keep in mind National Democrats pretty much told the more progressive candidate who almost raised a million dollars while being an unknown by December and gaining momentum was told he would not get any support and that they decided already to support the moderate former governor. He dropped out as a result.
He wasn’t afraid to state what he stood for
James Mackler for U.S. Senate
I mentioned the guy running for senate in my state , granted its not under the umbrella of the DCCC, appears to be following this advice. I checked to see if he still hasn’t put up any issues and it appears he hasn’t.
Phil Bredesen for U.S. Senate | Tennessee
Keep in mind National Democrats pretty much told the more progressive candidate who almost raised a million dollars while being an unknown by December and gaining momentum was told he would not get any support and that they decided already to support the moderate former governor. He dropped out as a result.
He wasn’t afraid to state what he stood forJames Mackler for U.S. Senate
ExodusNirvana
Change is inevitable...
I'm hoping for some upsets. About damn time we get some Dems with backbones.
_____
Progressives storm Democratic primaries
Veteran blue-state incumbents are hitting unexpected turbulence this year.
By LAURA NAHMIAS and LAUREN DEZENSKI
02/11/2018 05:30 PM EST
Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who is challenging Rep. Mike Capuano (D-Mass.), acknowledges there are few policy differences between her and the progressive incumbent. | Elise Amendola/AP Photo
Progressive insurgents are launching challenges to Democratic members of Congress in some of the country’s bluest districts, sparked by deep frustration with the party establishment and anti-Trump anger.
Most of the challengers are long shots at the moment. But some are putting a scare into entrenched incumbents, thanks to their muscular fundraising and a message of liberal disaffection on issues including Wall Street, criminal justice reform and single-payer health care.
Six veteran incumbents already face energetic primary challenges from younger candidates in New York and Massachusetts. In Illinois, two Chicago-based members are being targeted from the left.
“I think Donald Trump getting elected president is part of it — the old institutional political knowledge we had about the way things works clearly just doesn’t work. And now people are knocking down the door,” said Bill Hyers, a political consultant and campaign strategist for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. “There’s a new energy and excitement out there in a new way, and it's palpable.”
In New York, Adem Bunkeddeko is one of three young Democrats taking on longtime incumbents. Bunkeddeko, who is challenging Rep. Yvette Clarke in the Brooklyn-based 9th Congressional District, points out that Clarke hasn’t been able to pass a bill in Congress since she arrived there. He’s running on a platform to bring new subsidized housing to his district and enact criminal justice reforms — ending cash bail, changing sentencing laws and legalizing marijuana.
He’s garnered support from some unusual places — including longtime Democratic political adviser Vernon Jordan and former New York lieutenant governor and civic booster Richard Ravitch. In the most recent fundraising quarter, he raised roughly $121,000 — not far behind Clarke’s $164,000.
“People are tired of having a seat in which no one is speaking truth to power, and no one is giving voice to folks whose voices aren’t heard,” said Bunkeddeko, a Harvard MBA-holding community organizer whose parents raised him in New York after fleeing war-torn Uganda. “She does carry the advantage of being the incumbent, but the mood, the landscape — that’s in our favor.”
Several Democratic challengers have posted even stronger fundraising numbers than Bunkeddeko. In Chicago, Marie Newman outraised seven-term Rep. Dan Lipinski in the most recent quarter — $262,000 to the congressman’s $228,000 — according to Federal Election Commission figures. In New York, where 34-year-old entrepreneur Suraj Patel is taking on Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Patel reported raising nearly $550,000 over the past quarter, outraising Maloney by a factor of 4 to 1.
Maloney last faced a significant primary challenge a decade ago. But her district is home to scores of young Democratic voters who threw their support to Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
“This is a remarkably aware, awakened, active new generation looking at politics as not an option anymore but an obligation. I looked around and I saw a Democratic Party not doing much at all to welcome that group to the fold,” Patel told POLITICO, when asked why he decided to run.
Patel said he disagreed with Maloney’s vote in favor of going to war in Iraq and with her resistance to the Iran nuclear deal brokered under President Barack Obama. He said he’s running to pump some energy into a political system that has grown complacent and caters to the needs of the people who regularly vote, rather than the entire electorate.
“I’m not running against Carolyn Maloney,“ he said. “I’m running against apathy.”
Maloney’s campaign has called Patel's decision to run against the incumbent congressperson in his first bid at elected office "the height of egotism." But to Patel, that’s exactly the problem — Democrats are sending mixed signals to the young people they urged to run for office after Trump was elected.
“Here’s the problem. We’ve been asked across this country to enter politics, and yet when someone like me steps up and runs for office, you're being told, ‘No, wait your turn,’" he said. “I refuse to wait my turn in an establishment that doesn't make sure that people are competing. That’s one of the things the Democrats need to grapple with.”
In the past, Democratic challengers like Patel might have been easy to ignore. But the volatile political environment and Patel’s fundraising prowess makes him impossible to overlook. The same is true of Illinois' Newman, who has amassed a series of endorsements from major progressive interest groups and organizations.
Even Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat who has not had a primary challenge since winning his Chicago-based seat in a 2009 special election, is looking over his shoulder. Facing several little-known progressive challengers, Quigley recently made his first ad buy of the campaign.
One of the hallmarks of this year’s class of insurgent candidates is its diversity — many are women and racial minorities. In New York’s Queens and Bronx-based 14th District, Rep. Joe Crowley is facing his first real primary challenge in 15 years from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old former Sanders campaign organizer and community organizer who has never run for office before.
It’s an understatement to say the underfunded Ocasio-Cortez has an uphill battle. Crowley is chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, controls the Queens Democratic Party and outraised her more than 30-to-1 in the most recent fundraising quarter.
But Ocasio-Cortez has support from progressive PACs with close ties to the Sanders campaign, including Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats. She argues that her challenge is already having an impact — a month after she announced her candidacy, Crowley signed on as a co-sponsor to a Medicare For All bill, after long opposition to it.
The daughter of a Puerto Rican native, Ocasio-Cortez recalled that after the recession hit she waitressed and bartended while her mom cleaned houses and drove school buses to stave off foreclosure on the family home. She contends Crowley’s donations from corporate PACs and Wall Street interests will work against him.
“What this is about is that if we reelect the same Democratic Party that we had going into this mess, then we’re going to have the same exact result,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “In order for the country to move forward, the Democratic Party has to transform.”
In Boston, Brianna Wu, a video game developer taking on centrist Rep. Stephen Lynch, also sees the party as an institution desperately in need of reform.
“This year, I don’t feel like I’m running against Stephen Lynch,” said Wu, who gained national attention as a target of abuse in the so-called Gamergate controversy that exposed widespread sexism in the video game culture. “I feel like I’m running against the Democratic machine in Massachusetts, which really likes the things the way they are.”
Wu is one of three women in Massachusetts mounting intraparty challenges against older, white male incumbents. Race and gender aren’t explicit campaign themes in those races, but they provide an unmistakable backdrop in a liberal state where the nine-seat, all-Democratic congressional delegation includes no people of color and just two women.
Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, an African-American who is challenging Rep. Mike Capuano, acknowledges that there are few policy differences between her and the progressive incumbent. But she stresses the benefits of a more representative delegation, as well as her firsthand experience with sexual trauma, and as the child and spouse of previously incarcerated individuals.
“I’ll say the obvious: We’re both good Democrats. We care about a lot of the same things," but "my lens is different,” Pressley said.
Long considered a rising star in local and national circles, Pressley has seen many Democratic unions and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh close ranks behind Capuano. But despite the pushback, Pressley has so far managed to raise enough money to remain competitive: Within a week of announcing her candidacy, her campaign says, Pressley raised more than $100,000.
Across the state in western Massachusetts, lawyer and first-time candidate Tahirah Amatul-Wadud points to Trump’s election as part of her motivation to run against Rep. Richard Neal, who was first elected in 1988. She’s running on a more progressive platform than Neal — the top Democrat on the powerful House Ways and Means committee — which includes support for single-payer health care.
“My district has the lowest median income in the commonwealth, with the most senior congressman in the delegation,” Amatul-Wadud said.
Democratic fundraiser and philanthropist Barbara Lee said it’s no coincidence that Massachusetts would see so much primary election activity.
“Something big is stirring in American politics, and it’s a more than a moment, it’s a movement. Massachusetts is the original ‘old boys' club,’” said Lee. “Voters are fed up with the status quo and see a vote for a woman candidate as a vote to shake up the system in a sea of male, mostly white, politicians.”
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
The Hill
54 mins ·
Nancy Pelosi raised over $50 million in just over 200 fundraising events during 2017 as the Democratic Party announces plans to take aim at an unprecedented 100 GOP-held congressional districts in 2018.
Pelosi raises record-setting $50 million for House Dems
Democrats need a net gain of 24 seats to win back the House.
THEHILL.COM
how awful
54 mins ·
Nancy Pelosi raised over $50 million in just over 200 fundraising events during 2017 as the Democratic Party announces plans to take aim at an unprecedented 100 GOP-held congressional districts in 2018.
Pelosi raises record-setting $50 million for House Dems
Democrats need a net gain of 24 seats to win back the House.
THEHILL.COM
how awful
The Hill
54 mins ·
Nancy Pelosi raised over $50 million in just over 200 fundraising events during 2017 as the Democratic Party announces plans to take aim at an unprecedented 100 GOP-held congressional districts in 2018.
Pelosi raises record-setting $50 million for House Dems
Democrats need a net gain of 24 seats to win back the House.
THEHILL.COM
how awful
Isn’t that a good thing?
I am fine with Dems challenging Dems if the issue is to push the incumbent leftward some
I am not fine with rat fukking
Dems better not fukk up in purity pissing contests and end up losing a winnable seat to repubs
Idgaf what y'all say, a mod Dem is 10x that any repub
I am not fine with rat fukking
Dems better not fukk up in purity pissing contests and end up losing a winnable seat to repubs
Idgaf what y'all say, a mod Dem is 10x that any repub
*Waits for the Nancy hate that always sounds like it came straight from breitb*rt or redst*te...
Coincidentally*