Friday Fun Thread! - Politics

Friday Fun Thread!
Discussion Thread: 2019 Statewide Elections
Bipartisan Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United Introduced
Ocasio-Cortez floats 70 percent tax on the super wealthy to fund Green New Deal
Rachel Maddow Breaks Down Where Donald Trump Gets His Conspiracy Theories
Newly empowered House Dems pass funding plan without wall
Nancy Pelosi Fires Warning at Trump, Says Constitution Considers Them Equals as New Congress Opens for Business
Rashida Tlaib Refuses to Apologize for Calling to Impeach 'Motherf***er' Trump: ‘I Will Always Speak Truth to Power’
Pelosi gets standing ovation over climate change
The shutdown ball is now in Mitch McConnell's court
Joe Scarborough Calls for 25th Amendment After Trump Press Conference, Says President Is 'Not Fit to Hold the Office'
Donald Trump Was Never Vetted
Unpopular Trump pushes unpopular wall as federal employees, services suffer
New Rep. Tlaib on Trump: 'Impeach the motherf--er'
Liberal Rachel Maddow and conservative David Frum both warn on Trump's bizarre Kremlin talking points
While federal workers go without pay, senior Trump administration officials are poised to get $10,000 raises.
New Dem Bills Aim To Eliminate Electoral College, Prevent Trump From Pardoning Himself, His Family And His Administration
House Judiciary chair says Democrats are 'not going to wait for the Mueller report' to investigate Trump
Statehood for Puerto Rico must be in the 116th Congress’ agenda
Donald Trump Could Be Stopped From Pardoning Himself And His Family Over Mueller Investigation
WSJ Editorial Board Slams Trump For ‘Absurd Misstatement Of History’
Fed chief Jerome Powell says he would not resign if Trump asked him to
US national debt has increased $2 trillion since Donald Trump took office, new data shows
Trump curiously well versed in specific Russian talking points
Trump's trade war is probably hitting the US economy a lot harder than China's, HSBC says
Democrats unveil first new bill, with requirement for presidential candidates turning over their tax returns
Pelosi: Impeachment is 'divisive' but colleague's coarse language no worse than Trump's

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 09:26 PM PST

It's finally Friday! That means it's time to sit back, have some sparkling cider, shitpost, and talk about what we all got for Christmas.

As always remember to follow our civility rules and save any meta feedback for our modmail.

submitted by /u/Qu1nlan
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Discussion Thread: 2019 Statewide Elections

Posted: 04 Jan 2019 05:04 AM PST

Introduction

Happy New Year /r/Politics!

The 2018 midterm election may have only been a couple of months ago, but in this country, elections happen all the time. While the vast majority of states synchronize their state legislative and gubernatorial elections with regularly scheduled federal elections (either midterms or presidential), 5 states hold such elections in odd-numbered years.

This year, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia will be holding statewide elections. With the exception of Virginia, all of these states are not considered competitive on a presidential level, but state politics is considerably more competitive, and both parties are expected to invest heavily in these races. Below you'll find a chart showing primary, general, and registration deadlines:

State	Primary	Primary Deadline	General	General Deadline	Register to Vote
Kentucky	05/21	04/22	11/05	10/07	SOS website
Louisiana*	10/12	09/11	11/16	10/16	SOS Website
Mississippi**	08/06	07/08	11/05	10/07	SOS Website
New Jersey***	06/04	05/14	11/05	10/15	SOS Website
Virginia	06/11	05/20	11/05	10/15	SOS Website

^{*Louisiana does not have true primaries - all candidates regardless of party compete in a general election, with the top two advancing to a runoff if no candidate attains a majority of the vote. Dates listed are for the general and runoff elections}

^{**Mississippi also has a primary runoff scheduled for 8/27.}

^{***For the primary election only, New Jersey also has a change of party registration deadline on 4/10 if you are registered with a party that you do not want to cast a ballot in the primary for.}

Description of Races

Many of these races are deemed competitive. Below are brief previews of these contests:

Kentucky

Kentucky is a solidly red state at the federal level, with no Democratic presidential candidate having carried it since Bill Clinton in 1996. Much of the state has shifted to the Republicans owing to traditional allegiance to the coal mining industry, despite once having a double digit Democratic registration advantage.

Nevertheless, state level Democrats have done remarkably well in this state even as 2010 began a gradual realignment, and state Democrats are again targeting the Governor's race as incumbent Republican Governor Matt Bevin has suffered from low approval ratings. Leading Democratic candidates include current Attorney General Andy Beshear, who is the son of the Governor immediately preceding Bevin, and Rocky Adkins, former Speaker of the Kentucky House. For his part, Governor Bevin has kept mum on whether he intends to seek reelection, which has led to no serious GOP candidates seeking the nomination. All other row offices are also up for election, including Attorney General should Beshear win the Democratic nomination for Governor.

Louisiana

Louisiana is also a solidly red state at the presidential level, yet has been receptive in the past to electing Democrats. In 2015, now-Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, pulled a decisive margin over then-Senator David Vitter, attacking the Senator on his part in the DC Madam scandal from 2007.

Governor Edwards has had decent approval ratings, leaving a number of high profile Republicans to sit the race out, including House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, state Attorney General Jeff Landry, and US Senator John Kennedy. Still, this is a very red state trending towards further Republican consolidation, and Congressman John Abraham is the first federal representative to join the race.

Mississippi

Mississippi has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1976, and Democratic fortunes have eroded since the 2010 realignment, which saw Democratic majorities in the state legislature evaporate. Nevertheless, Democrats have landed what they hope to be a top tier candidate for this open seat race (incumbent Governor Phil Bryant is ineligible to seek a third term).

Democratic state Attorney General Jim Hood was at one point dubbed the last statewide elected Democrat in the Deep South, a distinction he held from 2011 until the election of Louisianan Governor John Bel Edwards in 2015. In his prior reelection bids, he has won at least 55% of the vote. Mississippi is home to the largest, by percentage, black population in the US, and Magnolia State Democrats are looking to the upset win by Senator Doug Jones in neighboring Alabama as inspiration for possibly winning the Governor's race for the first time since 2004.

Despite Hood's popularity, Republicans remain confident that the seat will remain under their control. A unique provision of Mississippi law holds that the winner of the gubernatorial election must win not only a majority of the popular vote, but also a majority of the state's house districts, or else the race is decided by the state House from the top two vote getters (a similar provision exists in Vermont, where the state legislature decides the winner if no gubernatorial candidate attains a majority of the popular vote). Prominent Republicans such as Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeve have also already announced for the race.

New Jersey

New Jersey will hold elections for its General Assembly, with its state Senate having been elected in 2017. Democrats hold a supermajority in the chamber, and have been on the upswing in the state, having won all but one of its federal congressional districts in the 2018 election. It's not expected that this election will endanger the Democratic majority in the state, although demographic trends in the state held Democrats to only a single pickup in 2017.

Virginia

Virginia will hold elections for both its House of Delegates and State Senate. In 2017, Democrats defied expectations, picking up 15 seats in the HoD and coming within literally a coin toss of tie-ing the even numbered chamber while electing the first trans person to a legislative seat in the country. Democrats hope to expand those gains this year in an attempt to flip the narrow 2 seat Republican majority.

In the state Senate, Republicans again hold a narrow 1 seat majority (in the event of a tie, the Lieutenant Governor, a Democrat, would cast the tie-breaking vote). The State Senate was not up for election in 2017, so Democrats believe there are a number of Republican seats where the political demographics have shifted.

Further complicating these elections is the possibility of newly drawn maps for part of the House of Delegates. 11 districts had been found by a 3 judge panel federal court to constitute a racial gerrymander, and a special election expert has been called upon to redraw them. The case is pending before the Supreme Court.

If you live in any of these states, please make the effort to cast your vote. The 2018 midterm election showed that, no matter whether you are voting to Make America Great Again or to #Resist, your voice matters in the process. Even if you are not in a state holding statewide elections, numerous other states are holding local and other elections all the time. Be sure to also check that your voter registration is current. Democracy isn't a spectator sport. If you want to be change you want to see, the starting point is the ballot box!

submitted by /u/Isentrope
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Bipartisan Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United Introduced

Posted: 04 Jan 2019 07:37 AM PST