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2014 Mid Terms

Re: Record number of black candidates seeking office


After push to mobilize new voters,​
turnout surges in Texas
​




20141020_zaf_m67_007.jpg

Wendy Davis exits the Early Voting Center after casting her vote on the first day of voting at
the Charles Griffin Sub-Courthouse in Fort Worth, Texas on Oct. 20, 2014. Max Faulkner/TNS/Zuma
​


After an energetic Democratic campaign to get new Texas voters to the polls, turnout rates spiked on the first day of early voting in the state.

According to figures released by the secretary of state’s office, Texas’ six largest counties all saw increases in voting Monday compared to the first day of early voting in 2010, the last midterm election.

The voting surge came amid an intense push by groups supporting Wendy Davis, the Democratic candidate for governor, to register and mobilize millions of new voters, many of whom are minorities. The effort was led by Battleground Texas, a group of former Obama campaign veterans aiming to make the state competitive over the long term. Texas has long had some of the lowest voting rates in the country.

Of course, the high profile of the governor’s race also likely played a role in motivating voters. Davis, a state senator, sparked enthusiasm among progressives with her dramatic filibuster of an abortion bill last year. She still trails Republican Greg Abbott, the state’s attorney general, in the polls, though.

The turnout numbers were striking. In Tarrant County, which contains Davis’s home base of Fort Worth, 29,391 people voted Monday, nearly three times the comparable number for 2010. Heavily Hispanic El Paso County also saw a nearly threefold increase.

Harris County, which contains Houston, saw 61,735 voters Monday — an increase of more than 11,000 compared to the number who voted on the first day in 2010. Bexar County, containing San Antonio, saw an increase of nearly 7,000 voters. In Dallas and Travis (Austin) counties, the increases were respectively nearly 3,000 and nearly 1,000.

More than one-third of Texans live in those six counties.
​


http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/after-push-mobilize-new-voters-turnout-surges-texas


 
source: Daily Kos


Since the minute the Civil War ended, Texas has been suppressing the vote of African Americans


Texas_Rebels.jpg

In the view of certain Texans today, these guys (from Company C of the Eighth Texas Cavalry),
had the right idea about voting by African Americans.
​

Despite the scathing 143-page evisceration of Texas' strict new voter ID law by District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, the Supreme Court gave the go-ahead Saturday for that law to be implemented for this election cycle. That's a hint that when the law's constitutionality is ultimately ruled on, the Court will probably give that the okay, too. Estimates are that as many as 600,000 eligible Texans don't have one of the four IDs accepted as a requirement for casting a ballot: a driver's license, a military identity card, a passport or a gun license.

This isn't the first voter-suppression rodeo in Texas.

Keeping African Americans away from the polls began as soon as Emancipation was announced on Juneteenth (June 19), 1865. The state refused to grant blacks political rights. And a year later, the all-white constitutional convention voted against giving suffrage to blacks, even those who were literate or who had never been slaves. That was followed by the all-white legislature refusing to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and passage of the first Black Codes that constrained African Americans from certain economic pursuits, racial intermarriage, officeholding, jury service and, of course, voting.

But, the Republican convention of 1867 included black delegates, and, even though the Ku Klux Klan and other purveyors of anti-black violence were viciously active, blacks participated in their first statewide vote in 1868, voting in a referendum to hold another constitutional convention. With their white allies, they won that referendum. The convention affirmed some basic rights for African Americans, although not all that they had fought for, and made readmission of Texas to the Union possible in 1870. From then it was downhill.

Read below the fold as Erika Eichelberger at Mother Jones tallies some historical Texas voter suppression efforts.
1895: The first all-white primaries begin. In the mid-1890s, Texas legislators pushed a law requiring political parties to hold primaries and allowing those political parties to set racist qualifications for who could participate.

1902: The poll tax. The Legislature added a poll tax to Texas' constitution in 1902, requiring voters to pay a fee to register to vote and to show their receipt of payment in order to cast a ballot. [...]

1922: Texas tries a new type of all-white primary. In 1918, black voters in Texas successfully challenged a nonpartisan all-white primary system in Waco. The state Legislature got around this snag by enacting a law banning blacks from all Democratic primaries. Because the Democratic Party was dominant in the South at the time, the candidate it selected through its primary would inevitably win the general election. Anyone voting in the party's primary had to prove "I am white and I am a Democrat."

1927: Texas tries a third type of all-white primary. After the Supreme Court struck down Texas' all-white Democratic primaries, the Legislature got crafty again, passing a new law that allowed political parties—instead of the state government—to determine who could vote in party primaries. The Texas Democratic Party promptly adopted a resolution that only whites could vote. [...]

1971: The state attempts to keep black students from the ballot box. Once 18-year-olds got the right to vote in 1971, Texas' Waller County became a majority black county. To stave off the wave of new African American votes, county officials fought for years to keep students at the county's mostly black Prairie View A&M University from accessing the polls. [...]

2011: And again. A year later, a three-judge federal court ruled in Texas v. United States that the state's local and congressional redistricting maps showed evidence of deliberate discrimination.
​
That last was the same year Texas passed its new voter ID law. It was blocked initially under the Voting Rights Act, but the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the VRA in 2013 and state officials acted to implement it. Judge Gonzales blasted it Oct. 9 and issued an injunction blocking its use for this year's election. But the appeals court and then the Supreme Court stayed her ruling.

So here we are. Almost a century and a half since Emancipation was declared and some Texas lawmakers apparently would be more comfortable wearing gray uniforms than business attire.
 
For Tim Scott, incumbency is best campaign tool

For Tim Scott, incumbency is best campaign tool
Associated Press
By MEG KINNARD October 19, 2014 12:13 PM

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Tim Scott has had virtually no opposition as he marches toward winning the remaining two years in the term of former Sen. Jim DeMint. And, given his name recognition and incumbent status, the South Carolina Republican has been able to rely less on campaigning and more on the visibility that accompanies his official duties.

Scott is seeking to add two years to his tenure — what's left of the term of DeMint, who left the Senate in January 2013 to take the helm of the Heritage Foundation. Scott had just won a second U.S House term when Gov. Nikki Haley appointed him to DeMint's seat.

The election marks South Carolina's first-ever U.S. Senate contest between two black major-party candidates. Scott's Democratic opponent, Richland County Councilwoman Joyce Dickerson, has done some campaigning but remains mostly unknown outside of the Columbia area, hamstrung by negligible finances. The most recent fundraising totals showed her with less than $3,000 on hand. Scott had more than $3.6 million.

Scott's strong position allows him to do his senatorial job and save his multimillion-dollar campaign war chest for a likely full-term run in another two years.

"He's not spending money he doesn't need to spend," said Gibbs Knotts, a political science professor at the College of Charleston. "Dickerson just doesn't have the statewide name recognition and doesn't have the financing."

In the U.S. House and the South Carolina House before that, Scott represented coastal constituents and had limited statewide exposure. Earlier this year, Scott's campaign pressed to get him exposure throughout the state, visiting all 46 counties.

Throughout those visits, Scott spoke of fostering success for South Carolinians from all walks of life. He's run the same message for months now in television ads, focusing on his ability to connect with "everyday people."

While he's done some traditional campaigning, in the waning weeks of the general election campaign, Scott's public appearances in South Carolina have focused primarily on the official business of being a senator. Earlier this month, he participated in a round table discussion with the Pee Dee Black Chamber of Commerce in Florence, as well as the grand opening of an elementary school in North Charleston. In the coming week, he's kicking off a series of workshops aimed at helping veterans prepare for and find civilian jobs.

In a written statement, Scott said he's taking the campaign seriously and running ads statewide, but added that, "my job is to represent South Carolina in the Senate. Just because there is a campaign does not mean I am going to stop carrying out my official duties."

"Scott's in a great position," Knotts said. "Scott's in the right party. He's in the right state. ... It makes sense that he's doing as well as he's doing."

History tends to favor Republicans in South Carolina. A Democrat hasn't beaten a GOP incumbent here since 1998, and a sitting U.S. senator hasn't lost a race in the state in nearly 50 years.

A recent Winthrop University poll had Scott with more than 52 percent, compared to Dickerson's nearly 32 percent. With American Party candidate Jill Bossi, who is white, polling in the single digits, South Carolina is poised to elect its first black candidate in a statewide race since Reconstruction.

Dickerson has made appearances across the state but said she's been ignored by national groups that traditionally back Democratic nominees. She said she's received lots of support but hasn't been able to afford television or radio advertising, relying instead on small group appearances.

"We're just having fun," Dickerson told The Associated Press recently. "People are really happy that they have an alternative."

http://news.yahoo.com/tim-scott-incumbency-best-campaign-tool-145628647.html
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Warner's not going to match Obama margins among black voters. Warner can't afford to run behind Obama among white voters.</p>&mdash; Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) <a href="https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/529794959876956160">November 5, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Mia Love, the Obama of the Republican Party?

Mia Love, the Obama of the Republican Party?
AFP
By Michael Thurston
11 hours ago

Los Angeles (AFP) - Even her name is media friendly. Mia Love instantly became the darling of the Republican Party on Wednesday, after being elected as its first black female member of Congress -- and she is a Mormon to boot.

She has also rapidly drawn comparisons with Barack Obama, not least since she wowed her party's 2012 national convention with a tale of rags-to-political-riches, much like the young Senator Obama did in 2004.

"Many of the naysayers out there said that Utah would never elect a black Republican LDS woman to Congress," she said at her victory rally, referring to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons.

"Not only did we do it, we were the first to do it," said the 38-year-old, who was previously mayor of Saratoga Springs, a city 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.

Born Ludmya Bourdeau in Brooklyn to Haitian-American parents, Love catapulted herself into Washington's political spotlight by winning the Mormon-dominated western US state's Fourth Congressional District.

Love's parents came from Haiti in the mid-1970s, and she recalls in interviews how her father at times took second jobs cleaning toilets to pay for school for their three children.

She graduated from the University of Hartford, Connecticut with a degree in Fine Arts. A Catholic by upbringing, she found the Mormon faith before finding her white Mormon husband Jason Love.

Love is a minority in both her state and church: barely one percent of Utahans are black or African American, while only an estimated three percent of Mormons are. Mormons make up about 60 percent of Utah's population.


- 'Poster child' for GOP diversity -


She is fond of recalling what her father told her on her day of college orientation: "Mia, your mother and I never took a handout. You will not be a burden to society. You will give back," she notes on her own website.

Love made headlines when she took the stage at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida -- which nominated Mitt Romney, also a Mormon, as its presidential nominee.

"My parents immigrated to the US with 10 dollars in their pocket, believing that the America they had heard about really did exist," she told the crowd.

"When times got tough they didn't look to Washington, they looked within."

Damon Cann, politics professor at Utah State University, said Love is bound for greater things in Washington.

"Since the election of Barack Obama, the Republicans have been more serious about trying to showcase the diversity within the Republican Party," he told the Salt Lake Tribune.

"And Mia Love is potentially the poster child for diversity in the party," he added.

Despite proclaiming her first-black-Republican-congresswoman credentials in her victory speech Tuesday night, Love was keen Wednesday to downplay suggestions that her race or gender won the election.

"I wasn't elected because of the color of my skin, I wasn't elected because of my gender," she told CNN in an interview.

"Understand that Utahans have made a statement that they're not interested in dividing Americans based on race or gender, that they want to make sure that they are electing people who are honest and who have integrity.

"That's really what made history here. Race, gender had nothing to do with it."

Commentators agreed that Love is a real asset for the Republicans.

She "is poised to become an important symbol for the GOP as the party seeks to broaden its appeal among blacks and other minorities, who typically vote overwhelmingly Democratic," noted the Christian Science Monitor.

The Washington Post added: "A party threatened with electoral extinction among African Americans and immigrants now has someone to brag about in Washington.

"Love's compelling personal story is an oasis. She's not just a black face in what's often described as a party full of angry old white men. She's a path forward," it said.

http://news.yahoo.com/mia-love-obama-republican-party-202451661.html
 
First black senator elected in US South since Civil War era

First black senator elected in US South since Civil War era
AFP
22 hours ago

Washington (AFP) - Voters in South Carolina elected the first African-American to the US Senate from the South since the years immediately following the Civil War.

And in the western state of Utah, Mia Love became first black Republican woman elected to the House of Representatives.

Aged 38, Love is the former mayor of the town of Saratoga Springs, Utah. She won a congressional seat that had been held by a Democrat.

In South Carolina Tim Scott, 49, easily won the historic vote after having been appointed un-elected to the post in 2012 when the previous senator stepped down.

The son of a nursing assistant who grew up in poverty and later achieved success in business and local politics, Scott has long espoused conservative positions and his victory will boost the Republican party's bid to broaden its appeal beyond white voters.

He is the first black senator elected from the South since Reconstruction, the period after the country's Civil War, which ended in 1877 with the withdrawal of federal army troops.

And he will represent a state where the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861, with rebels firing on a federal ship in the port of Charleston.

Scott's election marks a stunning contrast to the senator who represented South Carolina for decades, Strom Thurmond, a hardline opponent of racial equality who fought for segregation for years.

http://news.yahoo.com/first-black-senator-elected-us-south-since-civil-133132391.html
 
Greed said:
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Click to expand...

Sen. Mark Warner declares victory over Ed Gillespie



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actinanass said:
*sigh*

Welp, how's everyone feeling today?
Click to expand...

Feeling fine cheerleader. Hope you are too. Oddly, any policy changes are likely to benefit rather than hurt me. It's the cheerleaders that I worry about - just choosing and loyal to a side, their best interest notwithstanding.
 
Here come the freshmen: Congress' newest class

Here come the freshmen: Congress' newest class
Associated Press
By ERICA WERNER
2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress' approval rating hovers around 15 percent, but there's one group of people excited about the institution: the newly elected lawmakers who are about to join its ranks.

The House will welcome 58 freshmen this coming week, including 43 Republicans and 15 Democrats, pushing the GOP majority to 246 members, the most since the Great Depression.

In the Senate, 13 new lawmakers, all but one of them Republican, will be sworn in, flipping control of the chamber to the GOP with a 54-vote majority.

The incoming classes will bring new gender and racial diversity to Capitol Hill, with 104 women in the House and Senate and close to 100 black, Hispanic and Asian lawmakers. The newcomers include the youngest woman elected to Congress, 30-year-old Elise Stefanik of New York, and the first black Republican woman, Mia Love of Utah.

As the new members prepared to arrive on Capitol Hill, several said they brought hopes of curbing the often partisan atmosphere in Washington and showing the public that they really can govern.

And, just maybe, getting Congress' approval rating back up past 20 percent.

"This election was not an endorsement of either party, it was a condemnation of, yes, the president's policies, but also of government dysfunction," said GOP Rep.-elect Carlos Curbelo, who defeated a Democratic incumbent in Florida. "I hope we can be different. ... I hope we focus on getting things done."

A few of the notable new arrivals:

___

THE MILENNIALS

Stefanik is one of several young new faces bringing fresh blood to Capitol Hill, where many lawmakers, especially senators, are in their 70s or even older. Others are Democrats Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who is 36, and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who's 35. The three all graduated from Harvard University and have friends in common, Gallego said.

Gallego said the three have already discussed areas of cooperation, such as infrastructure investments and bringing down the cost of college.

"We have talked actually a lot and I can definitely see us working together," Gallego said. "We all want the same things in the general scheme of things — a stable country, a prosperous future. We may not agree 100 percent on how to get there but I think Democrats and Republicans do want to find a way."

___

THE EXPERIENCED HANDS

Two of the newcomers to Congress are not new to Washington at all.

In Michigan, Debbie Dingell is replacing her husband, John Dingell, the longest-serving member of Congress, who retired after nearly 60 years.

In Virginia, Barbara Comstock is replacing her onetime boss, Frank Wolf, whom she served as a top aide and chief counsel on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee before joining the Virginia House of Delegates.

Dingell and Comstock are friendly and have spoken about how they can collaborate and improve relations and policy making on Capitol Hill.

"People don't get to know each other, and that relationship building and that sense of trust and knowing each other is part of what's missing," said Dingell, who wrote a master's thesis on civility in Congress. "And we've got to find ways for people to get to know each other and talk."

Comstock, who has started a women's leadership initiative in Virginia, said she, Dingell and other female lawmakers have met together and hope to forge coalitions.

"Debbie has been a great leader on her side and she knows Washington also so I think we will probably team up," Comstock said. Although they're from different parties, "Sometimes people get caught up in the labels. Good ideas are good ideas."

___

THE NEW REPUBLICAN DIVERSITY

GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate remain overwhelmingly white and male, but some of the new Republican arrivals break that mold.

In addition to Stefanik, Curbelo and Love, Republicans elected Will Hurd, in Texas. The GOP now claims two black House members and one black senator, and 10 Hispanic House members plus two in the Senate. There are 22 Republican women in the House and six in the Senate.

The newcomers could add diversity of ideas to the Republican conference. Curbelo said he would push House GOP leaders to support immigration overhaul legislation, something the party has resisted.

"Of course as a freshman our influence is limited but we can work within our class, our freshman class to build support," Curbelo said.

http://news.yahoo.com/come-freshmen-congress-newest-class-132800746.html
 

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