Steve Flowers: Further analysis of general election – winners and losers
Now that the dust has settled on this year’s elections, let’s look back at who are the big winners and losers of the year. The obvious winner in the Heart of Dixie is the Republican Party. The GOP retained the reins of the state’s highest office and every other statewide Constitutional position. Kay Ivey was elected governor, overwhelmingly, as was Will Ainsworth as Lt. Governor, John Merrill as Secretary of State, John McMillan as State Treasurer, Rick Pate as Agriculture Commissioner, Jim Zeigler as State Auditor, Jeremy Oden and Chip Beeker as PSC members. Our entire judiciary is Republican, all members of the Supreme Court, and Courts of Criminal and Civil Appeals. There are 29 statewide office holders and all 29 are Republican. However, more importantly the Legislature is overwhelmingly Republican. More than two-thirds of both the House and the Senate are Republicans. That’s what you call a super majority. Our Republican legislature can pass anything they want without a Democratic vote or letting Democrats speak. Our Congressional delegation is made up of six Republicans and one lone Democrat. Folks, that makes us a pretty red state. Several years ago, I had the honor of being a keynote speaker at the Boys State 75th Anniversary. I had attended Boys State 45 years earlier as a high school leader and aspiring young politico. I shared with these future political leaders this advice, “If you plan to run for statewide office in Alabama even if you believe you are a Democrat, you will need to run as a Republican.” This year’s election reaffirmed and confirmed that truth. Winning the GOP Primary in Alabama is tantamount to election. Therefore, to pick the biggest individual winner of the year, you have to look back to the GOP Primary. Young Will Ainsworth, a 37-year old Sand Mountain Legislator/businessman emerges as the Gold Star award winner of the year in Alabama politics. His victory as Lt. Governor has propelled him onto the state political scene as the most prominent rising star. He was the top vote getter in the state on November 6th. He is a clean-cut, successful, family man who has been vetted by a high profile, statewide race. The second biggest winner of the year was the loser of the GOP Primary for Lt. Governor, Twinkle Cavanaugh. In all my years of following Alabama politics, I have never seen a more graceful and gracious second place finisher. She only lost by an eyelash. She genuinely smiled on election night and said she had not gotten the most votes, even though she could have contested such a closely defined outcome. She had entered the race as the favorite having been elected three times statewide. During October, she held a fundraiser for Will Ainsworth in her Montgomery home. She will never be seriously challenged in her post as President of the PSC. Speaking of rising stars, the third runner up is a young 18-year old fellow from Geneva County. Weston Spivey became the youngest elected official in the state by winning a County Commission seat in his home county. He won the GOP Primary before he was graduated from high school at Ridgecrest Christian School in Dothan. Young Spivey is also a volunteer firefighter with the Slocomb Fire Department. You should keep your eye on young Weston Spivey. He may become Governor of Alabama before he is 30. Besides Will Ainsworth, there were two other Republicans who were top vote getters. Governor Kay Ivey and Secretary of State, John Merrill. The biggest loser has to be the Democratic Party and our current anomaly, junior Democratic U.S. Senator Doug Jones. Mr. Jones won this seat until 2020. Because he was on the other side of the ballot than Roy Moore in the 2017 special election. Every left wing, ultra-liberal group and individual in the country gave to Jones to beat Moore. Jones has never hidden the fact that he is a liberal, national Democrat. He showed his true colors when he voted against President Trump’s Supreme Court appointee, Brett Kavanaugh. Jones voted against this highly qualified jurist to appease his contributors in San Francisco and his like-minded Democratic buddies, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, and Diane Feinstein. We essentially have only one U.S. Senator. We have ceded our second seat to California. Jones believes in the old adage, “You dance with the one who brung ya.” Hope he is renting in Washington because Alabamians are the ones that vote in 2020. By the way, if you have Richard Shelby as your Senior Senator, you really don’t need a second senator. See you next week. ••• Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in more than 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Election fallout: Blame abounds in House GOP leadership race
The speaker’s gavel now out of reach, Republican Kevin McCarthy is poised to take over the shrunken House GOP caucus in closed-door elections that will determine party leadership and set the tone for the new Congress. The race for minority leader is McCarthy’s to lose Wednesday, but the Californian, who is an ally of President Donald Trump, must fend off a challenge from conservative Rep. Jim Jordan, who has support from the right flank and outside groups as a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus. “We’ve got a plan,” McCarthy told reporters as he ducked into a closed-door meeting of House Republicans late Tuesday. Trump has stayed largely on the sidelines ahead of elections that will determine party leadership not only for House Republicans, but also for Senate Democrats and Republicans. Voting for the biggest race, Rep. Nancy Pelosi‘s bid to return as the Democrats’ nominee for speaker, is later this month. On Wednesday, Jordan told “Fox & Friends” the GOP lost its House majority because it didn’t deliver on promises to Americans to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, fund Trump’s wall and replace the Obama health care law. “Some key things we told them we were going to do, we didn’t,” Jordan said. At Tuesday’s meeting, McCarthy and Jordan encountered frustration, finger-pointing and questions as lawmakers sorted through an election defeat and began considering new leadership for the next congressional session. Republicans complained about the unpopularity of the GOP tax law they blamed for losses in New York and other key states, some attendees told reporters after the meeting. Some in the meeting said Republicans should have tried harder to fulfill Trump’s priorities, like funding for the wall with Mexico. They also warned that they need a new fundraising mechanism to compete with the small-dollar online donors that powered Democrats to victory. “There’s a little rawness still,” Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., who is running unopposed for a down-ballot position as vice chair of the GOP conference, told reporters outside the meeting room. “But there’s an opportunity for us to come together and get single-focused on the message.” Jordan told reporters that he made a pitch to his colleagues at a sometimes-tense session in the Capitol basement focused on three questions: “Why’d we lose, how do we get it back and what we’re up against.” The former college wrestling champ said he told Republicans they need a fighter to confront Pelosi and her new majority. “I think we’re entering a world we haven’t really seen,” Jordan said, rattling off the names of the Democratic chairmen who are poised to investigate Trump. “It’s going to take an attitude and an intensity about standing up for the truth and fighting.” Most GOP lawmakers, though, prefer McCarthy’s more affable approach, and he remained favored to win Wednesday. GOP Whip Steve Scalise, the Louisiana Republican who was gravely wounded in last year’s congressional baseball practice shooting and is running unopposed for another term in leadership, said McCarthy “knows what he needs to do” to win over his colleagues — and win back the majority — and is well-positioned to do both. “You always look in the mirror and see what you can do better,” Scalise said as he entered the room. Republicans, he said, “need to do a better job of letting people know what we stand for.” Rounding out the GOP leadership team will be Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who wants to bring a more aggressive stance to the GOP’s communications and messaging strategy in the No. 3 spot. The biggest leadership race is among House Democrats, where Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California is seeking another term as speaker, but that contest will not be held until after Thanksgiving. A group of Democrats seeking to stop Pelosi’s rise claim they have the votes to block her. But Pelosi says she’s confident she’ll have enough support to win and challenged her opponents Wednesday to put forward an alternative candidate. “Come on in, the water’s warm,” Pelosi said. In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to win another term, but the most interesting race is down-ballot, where Republicans are poised to elect their first woman to leadership in almost a decade, as they try to smooth the optics of a GOP side that’s dominated by men. Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer has made a bid for vice chair of the conference “to help bring our party’s big tent together.” She faces GOP Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa. The rest of the GOP line-up is expected to shuffle slightly. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the GOP whip, is being forced out by term limits. That allows Sen. John Thune of South Dakota to move up to the No. 2 spot. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming and Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri take over the third- and fourth-ranking spots. Senate Democrats are keeping their team headed by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, even though one of the two new Democratic senators-elect, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, has said she wouldn’t vote for him. Newly elected lawmakers in the House and Senate will cast their first votes during closed-door meetings Wednesday even before they’re sworn into office as part of the new Congress in January. Dan Meuser, a new Republican from Pennsylvania, said he’s talked with both McCarthy and Jordan in recent days about their plans for the new minority and has been giving his vote “a lot of thought.” “I would say I have not made a decision yet,” said Meuser at freshman orientation. He said he’s “gotten close with Kevin McCarthy. I think very highly of him. I think he’s a very good conservative, he’s showed a lot of leadership. He’s certainly earned the position. On the same note, I think Jim Jordan’s a smart, tough, focused individual. So I respect him as well. So, yeah, we’ll see.” McCarthy has been here before, and he’s making the case that he’s best suited to lead his
With a withered state party, Alabama Democrats on their own
The election of Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate last year has given hope to Democrats in deep-red Alabama, a state where they haven’t had hope in a long time. But the party’s candidates have been largely on their own in trying to get their message out. Enfeebled by years of Republican dominance and plagued recently by infighting and debt, the Alabama Democratic Party doesn’t have the means to offer much help to what some members see as their best slate of candidates in years. ___ Editors: After decades of losing ground across most of the South, Democrats are finding unexpected energy in the region during the 2018 midterm elections. Even in states traditionally seen as deeply red, the party is finding hope for a resurgence – in local and state races as well as on a national stage. In this four-part series Southern Inroads, The Associated Press looks at a few key areas of Southern states where Democrats are focusing energy as Election Day approaches. ___ From the port city of Mobile to the northern hub of Alabama’s aerospace industry, Democratic candidates say Republicans have failed to address longstanding problems in education and health care. And at a recent gathering at a Democratic club in a leafy Birmingham suburb, residents joked that they didn’t even know there were other Democrats in their largely-red neighborhood until they met campaigning for Jones. But as grassroots energy bubbles, the party, which just recently increased to two paid staffers, has little manpower to devote to advertising and phone banks and has been dormant for months at a time on social media. “It’s just a very frustrating situation for Democrats,” said Peck Fox, a political veteran whom Jones unsuccessfully tried to install as party leader. Jones in his 2017 race said his campaign had to build its own databases to identify and target potential Democratic voters. Political parties can also sometime lead — or at least augment — the campaign assault on an opponent’s record, letting candidates focus their advertising money on more positive messaging. But Alabama candidates this year have gotten little assistance. The Old Confederacy was once the Solid South for the Democratic Party. But Alabama and other Southern states shifted to Republican control as white Southerners increasingly flocked to the GOP in a trend largely set in motion by the civil rights movement more than 50 years ago. The GOP holds 98 of 140 seats in the Alabama Legislature and six of the state’s seven U.S. House seats. President Donald Trump won the state with 62 percent of the vote in 2016. (Alabama voters do not register by party.) Republicans had a lock on all Alabama statewide offices until Jones’ narrow win last year over Republican Roy Moore, who was already deemed too extreme for many moderate voters before he was accused of sexual misconduct with underage girls. Jones became the first Alabama Democrat elected to the Senate in 25 years. The Alabama Democratic Party took in a little more than $500,000 in its federal account over the past two years, compared with the state GOP’s $1.7 million. During an August party meeting in an old Montgomery theater near the site of Rosa Parks‘ arrest in 1955, Jones called for an overhaul in direction. He said his 2017 campaign had “no real help or support at all” from the state party. Alabama Democratic Party chairwoman Nancy Worley, who narrowly defeated the challenge, bristled at the criticism. She said the party’s doing everything it can with limited resources. “When you are not in the majority, which we have not been since 2010, everyone likes to point the finger at someone other than themselves,” Worley said. “I mean, I take my share of the responsibility, but every Democrat out there has to take his or her share.” The state organization has faced tension from within about the amount of clout wielded by the party’s old-line powerbrokers and complaints that Hispanics and Asians aren’t adequately represented in leadership. Worley said the party has printed campaign cards for all 2018 candidates and will make signs and other written materials targeting voter groups. That’s more than the party could do four years ago, when it was $500,000 in debt — which it’s still paying down. Others say the organization could do more, including banging the drum on Democratic issues and leading attacks on the opposition. The state party went six months this year without posting anything on social media. Democrats are fielding candidates in most Alabama races this year, with a handful of mostly young candidates considered among their strongest contenders. Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox is the Democrats’ nominee for governor. Joseph Siegelman, son of the state’s last Democratic governor, is running for attorney general. Bob Vance, who nearly defeated Moore in the 2012 chief-justice race, is running again. Former Miss America Mallory Hagan is running for Congress. In brick train shed turned event venue in Opelika — a mill town adjacent to Auburn University— folks cheered for Hagan. The 29-year-old city native is challenging a longtime GOP incumbent. “When rural hospitals are closing and infant mortality is the worst in the nation, we need a representative who is focused on our issues and not lighting money on fire and sending it to space. The space force is not going to keep our hospitals open,” Hagan said, referencing GOP support for Trump’s space force. All the Democratic candidates face an uphill battle. Statewide, Democrats often get no more than 40-something percent of the vote. Some Democratic observers are accordingly modest in their expectations. Anti-Trump sentiment has energized Democrats nationwide, but it may not make much of a difference here, given the president’s popularity. Democratic candidates must be careful about Trump attacks. “Democratic voters feel their values are under assault almost daily because of Trump. Your average anti-Trump voter, even in Alabama, is more energized than your average pro-Trump voter,” said Zac McCrary, a pollster and former communications director for the Alabama Democratic Party. “Of course,
Familiar 2016 figures deployed as midterms hit last 2 weeks
President Donald Trump is battling Democrats for control of Congress. But you might think it’s 2016 all over again. As the 2018 midterms shifted to the final two weeks of campaigning, Trump was staging a large Monday night rally in Houston, Ted Cruz‘s hometown, to help the Texas senator and 2016 presidential rival fend off a tough challenge from Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke. During the 2016 primaries, Trump mocked Cruz as “Lyin’ Ted,” insulted his wife’s appearance and suggested Cruz’s father played a role in the Kennedy assassination. Cruz assailed Trump as a “sniveling coward” and told Trump to leave his wife alone. But campaigns have a way of letting bygones be bygones. Democrats dispatched former President Barack Obama to Las Vegas to help Nevada Democrats while former Vice President Joe Biden was barnstorming Florida. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who tried to wrestle the 2016 Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton, was in Wisconsin, one of the states that propelled Trump to his stunning upset. And California Sen. Kamala Harris, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, was kicking off a two-day trip to Iowa, her first to the home of the nation’s first presidential caucus. Democrats are trying to flip nearly two dozen House seats to regain control of that chamber. Republicans are trying to maintain a slim Senate majority and defend several governors’ mansions. A look at midterm campaign activities Monday: __ PELOSI PREDICTS: House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says if the election were held today, her party would “handily” win back control of the House. But she’s raising the possibility of an unpredictable finish to the midterms, adding, “I can only speak in the present tense because you never know.” Democrats have been wary about potential foreign interference in next month’s elections, concerned that Russia might again try to sow discord in the political system. House Democrats are expected to reopen the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election if they win the majority. Pelosi told CNN’s Dana Bash at CITIZEN by CNN political forum that Democrats will “own the ground” to produce a large voter turnout, promising lower prescription drug costs and infrastructure spending if Democrats win back the House. Asked if she believes House Democrats will elect her speaker again if they regain the majority, Pelosi says “it’s up to them to make that decision but I feel pretty comfortable where I am on it.” __ SANDERS IN WISCONSIN: Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders told college students and other young supporters in Wisconsin that they could “transform” the nation if they show up and vote in the upcoming fall elections. Sanders headlined an early voting rally at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee aimed at defeating Republican Gov. Scott Walker and re-electing Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis. Organizers said there were more than 1,100 people at the rally. “Let’s tell Trump and his friends — let’s tell Trump and Walker and all of these guys — that we want a government and an economy based on justice, we want a government and an economy that represents all of us and not the 1 percent,” Sanders said alongside Baldwin. Wisconsin is one of the campaign’s epicenters. Trump is returning to the state Wednesday for a rally with Walker and Leah Vukmir, Baldwin’s Republican opponent. Obama is coming to Milwaukee Friday for an early voting event. Polls show Walker’s race against state education chief Tony Evers to be a tossup, while Baldwin has consistently led Vukmir. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Mallory Hagan says state removed many voters from rolls, labeled inactive
Congressional hopeful Mallory Hagan on Thursday held a press conference on the steps of the Tuskegee Courthouse where she announced a “shockingly high” number of Alabama voters from her district had been removed from active voter lists over the past year, prompting her to create a Voter Protection Committee. Hagan is the Democratic nominee in Alabama’s 3rd U.S. District where she is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers. She said her campaign found “well over 55,000 voters have been disqualified or labeled ‘inactive’ since February of 2017 in the 3rd Congressional District alone.” “Eight months ago, I chose to run for this office because I saw the people around me, the people I know and love, struggling.” said Hagan. “…not through a fault of their own, or through an act of god, but struggling because every day the people of East Alabama face unnecessary bureaucratic burdens. Our schools lack funding, our college students drown in debt, our veterans are denied the care they need, our leaders are wallowing in corruption and our hospitals are closing. My community and our state’s people deserve better.” She continued, “Today, I tell our voters that we must be on high alert… According to our most recent findings, more than 1 in 10 voters here in East Alabama have been removed from the active voter rolls. These voters are either entirely disqualified or have been marked ‘inactive’… We have reason to believe this number is much higher.” Hagan said the Voter Protection Committee was created in order to protect voters from voter suppression efforts between now and election day.The committee will be comprised of lawyers throughout the district working pro-bono to assist in monitoring and addressing voter suppression concerns. “To the voters of East Alabama, I say this: we have your back. If you fear your voice will be lost in the system, if you don’t trust that a government that has failed you could ever be fixed, know that change will not happen until we step up, even when the going gets hard. We cannot allow complications to derail the very elections which are the foundation of democracy. Check your registration status today, find your polling place, and get your ID ready,” Hagan added. Voter roll removal Beginning in January of 2017, as required by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office began a process of contacting all 3.3 million registered Alabama voters. This process, also required under state law, is a two-part mailing program to contact voters and give them the opportunity to verify or update their voter registration information. Additionally, this process provides for the removal of voters that fail to respond to the mailer for that four year election cycle and do not participate in any election during that same four year period. The process begins with non-forwardable postcards being mailed to every registered voter in Alabama. The post card asks the recipient to review their registration information and if the information is accurate they are asked to retain the card. If the information is incorrect or needs to be updated or if the voter on the card no longer lives at that residence the voter is asked to mark return to sender on the card and place it back in the mail. When the voter places the card back in the mail each postcard is delivered to the local county board of registrars office. At that time, it is scanned into the system and recorded that the card was returned. A second post card follows the first mailing but is only sent to the registered voters for which the first postcard was returned to sender. This postcard is allowed to be forwarded to voters that may have a forwarding address on file with the post office. These post cards inform voters that the initial mailing was marked return to sender and that they should either update their information or contact the registrars office to have their name removed if they are no longer located in the state. Voters are also able to update their information through the Secretary of State’s online voter registration platform or the Vote for Alabama app (available for Android and iOS devices). Voters that do not respond to this mailing or that have their postcard returned to sender will be marked as inactive. Inactive voter registration status means that a voter is able to vote as a normal voter on election day but they will also be asked to update their voter registration information when they visit the polls on election day. Voters that wish to check their registration status can do so in a multitude of ways. To check your status electronically voters can visit https://myinfo.alabamavotes.gov/VoterView/Home.do. To check via phone voters can call the Secretary of State’s Office at (334) 242-7210 or their local board of registrars office. The last day to register to vote is Monday, Oct. 22. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 6.
Facebook’s election ‘war room’ takes aim at fake information
In an otherwise innocuous part of Facebook’s expansive Silicon Valley campus, a locked door bears a taped-on sign that reads “War Room.” Behind the door lies a nerve center the social network has set up to combat fake accounts and bogus news stories ahead of upcoming elections. Inside the room are dozens of employees staring intently at their monitors while data streams across giant dashboards. On the walls are posters of the sort Facebook frequently uses to caution or exhort its employees. One reads, “Nothing at Facebook is somebody else’s problem.” That motto might strike some as ironic, given that the war room was created to counter threats that almost no one at the company, least of all CEO Mark Zuckerberg, took seriously just two years ago — and which the company’s critics now believe pose a threat to democracy. Days after President Donald Trump‘s surprise victory, Zuckerberg brushed off assertions that the outcome had been influenced by fictional news stories on Facebook, calling the idea “pretty crazy .” But Facebook’s blase attitude shifted as criticism of the company mounted in Congress and elsewhere. Later that year, it acknowledged having run thousands of ads promoting false information placed by Russian agents. Zuckerberg eventually made fixing Facebook his personal challenge for 2018. The war room is a major part of Facebook’s ongoing repairs. Its technology draws upon the artificial-intelligence system Facebook has been using to help identify “inauthentic” posts and user behavior. Facebook provided a tightly controlled glimpse at its war room to The Associated Press and other media ahead of the second round of presidential elections in Brazil on Oct. 28 and the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 6. “There is no substitute for physical, real-world interaction,” said Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook’s director of elections and civic engagement. “The primary thing we have learned is just how effective it is to have people in the same room all together.” More than 20 different teams now coordinate the efforts of more than 20,000 people — mostly contractors — devoted to blocking fake accounts and fictional news and stopping other abuses on Facebook and its other services. As part of the crackdown, Facebook also has hired fact checkers, including The Associated Press, to vet new stories posted on its social network. Facebook credits its war room and other stepped-up patrolling efforts for booting 1.3 billion fake accounts over the past year and jettisoning hundreds of pages set up by foreign governments and other agents looking to create mischief. But it remains unclear whether Facebook is doing enough, said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters For America, a liberal group that monitors misinformation. He noted that the sensational themes distributed in fictional news stories can be highly effective at keeping people “engaged” on Facebook — which in turn makes it possible to sell more of the ads that generate most of Facebook’s revenue. “What they are doing so far seems to be more about trying to prevent another public relations disaster and less so about putting in meaningful solutions to the problem,” Carusone said. “On balance, I would say they that are still way off.” Facebook disagrees with that assessment, although its efforts are still a work in progress. Chakrabarti, for instance, acknowledged that some “bugs” prevented Facebook from taking some unspecified actions to prevent manipulation efforts in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election earlier this month. He declined to elaborate. The war room is currently focused on Brazil’s next round of elections and upcoming U.S. midterms. Large U.S. and Brazilian flags hang on opposing walls and clocks show the time in both countries. Facebook declined to let the media scrutinize the computer screens in front of the employees, and required reporters to refrain from mentioning some of the equipment inside the war room, calling it “proprietary information.” While on duty, war-room workers are only allowed to leave the room for short bathroom breaks or to grab food to eat at their desks. Although no final decisions have been made, the war room is likely to become a permanent fixture at Facebook, said Katie Harbath, Facebook’s director of global politics and government outreach. “It is a constant arms race,” she said. “This is our new normal.” Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Donald Trump tells AP he won’t accept blame if GOP loses House
Facing the prospect of bruising electoral defeat in congressional elections, President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he won’t accept the blame if his party loses control of the House in November, arguing his campaigning and endorsements have helped Republican candidates. In a wide-ranging interview three weeks before Election Day, Trump told The Associated Press he senses voter enthusiasm rivaling 2016 and he expressed cautious optimism that his most loyal supporters will vote even when he is not on the ballot. The AP asked Trump “if Republicans were to lose control of the House on November 6th — or a couple of days later depending on how long it takes to count the votes — do you believe you bear some responsibility for that?” “No, I think I’m helping people,” Trump said. Elaborating, Trump added: “And I will say that we have a very big impact. I don’t believe anybody’s ever had this kind of an impact. They would say that in the old days that if you got the support of a president or if you’ve got the support of somebody it would be nice to have, but it meant nothing, zero. Like literally zero. Some of the people I’ve endorsed have gone up 40 and 50 points just on the endorsement.” Trump spoke on a range of subjects, defending Saudi Arabia from growing condemnation over the case of a missing journalist, accusing his longtime attorney Michael Cohen of lying under oath and flashing defiance when asked about the insult — “Horseface” — he hurled at Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who accuses him of lying about an affair. Asked if it was appropriate to insult a woman’s appearance, Trump responded, “You can take it any way you want.” Throughout much of the nearly 40-minute interview, he sat, arms crossed, in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk, flanked by top aides, including White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and communications director Bill Shine. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway listened from a nearby sofa. The interview came as Trump’s administration was being urged to pressure Saudi Arabia to account for the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Instead, Trump offered a defense for the U.S. ally, warning against a rush to judgment, like with what happened with his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault. “Well, I think we have to find out what happened first,” Trump said. “Here we go again with, you know, you’re guilty until proven innocent. I don’t like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh. And he was innocent all the way.” Weeks away from the midterms, Democrats are hopeful about their chances to recapture the House, while Republicans are increasingly confident they can hold control of the Senate. Trump has been campaigning aggressively in a blitz of rallies aimed at firing up his base. He said he believes he’s doing his job, but allowed he has heard from some of his supporters who say they may not vote this November. “I’m not running,” he said. “I mean, there are many people that have said to me … ‘I will never ever go and vote in the midterms because you’re not running and I don’t think you like Congress.’” He added: “Well, I do like Congress.” If Democrats take the House and pursue impeachment or investigations — including seeking his long-hidden tax returns — Trump said he will “handle it very well.” The president declared he was unconcerned about other potential threats to his presidency. He accused Cohen of lying when testifying under oath that the president coordinated on a hush-money scheme to buy Daniels’ silence. Trump on Tuesday declared the allegation “totally false.” But in entering a plea deal with Cohen in August, federal prosecutors signaled that they accepted his recitation of facts and account of what occurred. Trump said that Washington lawyer Pat Cipollone will serve as his next White House counsel and that he hoped to announce a replacement for U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in the next week or two. He again repeated his frustration with Attorney General Jeff Sessions over the special counsel investigation, saying he could “fire him whenever I want to fire him, but I haven’t said that I was going to.” On the ongoing Russia investigation, Trump defended his son Donald Trump Jr. for a Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer offering damaging information about Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump called his son a “good young guy” and said he did what any political aide would have done. Trump again cast doubt on climate change, suggesting, incorrectly, that the scientific community was evenly split on the existence of climate change and its causes. There are “scientists on both sides of the issue,” Trump said. “But what I’m not willing to do is sacrifice the economic well-being of our country for something that nobody really knows,” Trump said. He added: “I have a natural instinct for science, and I will say that you have scientists on both sides of the picture.” Asked about his wartime leadership, Trump acknowledged that he has not brought U.S. troops home from conflict zones overseas and that there are more Americans serving in harm’s way now than when he took office. “It’s not a lot more. It’s a little bit more,” he said. Saying he’s trying to preserve “safety at home,” Trump added that if there are areas where people are threatening the U.S., “I’m going to have troops there for a period of time.” Trump increased U.S. troop totals in Afghanistan by about 4,000 last year. The president engaged on several other topics, including: He said he has given no consideration to pardoning Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman who was convicted of numerous financial crimes. He suggested that his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would happen after next month’s midterm elections and would likely not be in the United States. He broke with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell‘s proposed changes to
Q3 reports reveal Alabama’s federal candidates raking-in money
Election Day is only three weeks away, and candidates across the state are making their final efforts in hopes of victory on Nov. 6. Part of those efforts is the ever-important fundraising and Monday marked the midnight deadline for U.S. House candidates to file their Q3 quarterly campaign finance reports to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The reports detail how much much the candidates raised, how the spent said money, and how much cash they have left on hand between July 1 and Sept. 30 of this year. Across the board, filings reveal Republican incumbents are leading their Democratic challengers in the money race in all six of the state’s challenged congressional districts. Here’s a topline look at the Q3 filings: 1st Congressional District Bradley Byrne (Republican, incumbent) Total receipts: $1,235,766.41 Total disbursements: $645,973.06 Total cash on hand: $1,036,111.68 Robert Kennedy (Democrat, challenger): Total receipts: $17,426.64 Total disbursements: $12,176.64 Total cash on hand: $44,526.77 2nd Congressional District Martha Roby (Republican, incumbent): Total receipts: $300,443.30 Total disbursements: $571,207.30 Total cash on hand: $459,909.75 Tabitha Isner (Democrat, challenger): Total receipts: $167,455.90 Total disbursements: $117,346.47 Total cash on hand: $137,544.01 3rd Congressional District Mike Rogers (Republican, incumbent): Total receipts: $224,232.84 Total disbursements: $148,387.09 Total cash on hand: $1,100,276.29 Mallory Hagan (Democrat, challenger): Total receipts: N/A (not yet online) Total disbursements: N/A (not yet online) Total cash on hand: N/A (not yet online) 4th Congressional District Robert Aderholt (Republican, incumbent): Total receipts: N/A (not yet online) Total disbursements: N/A (not yet online) Total cash on hand: N/A (not yet online) Lee Auman (Democrat, challenger): Total receipts: $34,614.45 Total disbursements:$33,362.04 Total cash on hand: $10,238.47 5th Congressional District Mo Brooks (Republican, incumbent): Total receipts: $181,615.94 Total disbursements: $15,166.70 Total cash on hand: $767,904.50 Peter Joffrion (Democrat, challenger): Total receipts: N/A (not yet online) Total disbursements: N/A (not yet online) Total cash on hand: N/A (not yet online) 6th Congressional District Gary Palmer (Republican, incumbent): Total receipts: $229,517.37 Total disbursements:$232,486.22 Total cash on hand: $978,007.43 Danner Kline (Democrat, challenger): Total receipts: $76,664.17 Total disbursements: $44,450.29 Total cash on hand: $94,762.11 7th Congressional District Terri Sewell (Democrat, incumbent): Total receipts: $261,901.50 Total disbursements:$195,812.89 Total cash on hand: $1,622,089.61
Alabama polling firm tests Taylor Swift’s political influence
Oooh, look what she made you do. According to Vote.org, 28-year-old country-to-pop superstar Taylor Swift swayed more than 65,000 nationwide to sign-up to vote in the 24 hours following her surprise Instagram endorsement of Democrat Phil Bredesen in the Tennessee U.S. Senate race last week. But according to new a new poll released Tuesday by Alabama-based Cygnal, a Republican polling and research firm, Swift’s “big reputation” did little to actually move the needle in the race against Republican Marsha Blackburn. With only 23 days left until the November 6 midterm elections, Cygnal found more than 86 percent of those polled say their vote hasn’t changed, despite 82 percent of respondents indicating they were aware of the endorsement altogether. “Millennial and Gen Z voters are highly aware of the endorsement of the Democrat, but it did little to move their vote preference,” said Matt Hubbard, VP of Research & Analytics at Cygnal. “Swift’s endorsement is providing a boost to get-out-the-vote efforts, but we’re seeing minimal impact on the race.” The statewide survey, conducted October 13-14, of 414 likely general election voters under the age of 35 in Tennessee, shows Democrat Phil Bredesen (50 percent) with a 14-point lead over Republican Marsha Blackburn (36 percent) in this age segment. 10 percent of young voters remain undecided. “Anytime a celebrity endorses a candidate or speaks publicly about their political views, there’s always a risk of alienating fans on the other side of the aisle,” said Brent Buchanan, Cygnal’s President and Founder. “In this case, Swift’s endorsement may lead to ‘Bad Blood’ with her conservative fans.” Respondents that were swayed by Swift’s choice to ‘Speak Now’ were split between the candidates, with 5 percent saying that they would now support Bredesen, and 6 percent indicating they would now vote for Blackburn. The Swiftie Effect “Swifties” or Swift superfans, respondents who attended 4-5 of her concerts, heavily favor Bredesen: 48 percent-26 percent. His lead swells to +52 among concert-goers who’ve attended at least six of Swift’s shows, but the race is tighter among less passionate fans. Respondents who have attended only one of her concerts are evenly split between the two U.S. Senate candidates, with Bredesen polling +1. Swift’s endorsement This was Swift’s first political endorsement. The star has stayed silent on her political views for years. “In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” Swift wrote in her Instagram post. “I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country.” It remains to be seen whether this will be the first and last of Swift’s endorsements, or if she’ll do it over and over and over again. Read Swift’s full Instagram endorsement below: View this post on Instagram I’m writing this post about the upcoming midterm elections on November 6th, in which I’ll be voting in the state of Tennessee. In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now. I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent. I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love. Running for Senate in the state of Tennessee is a woman named Marsha Blackburn. As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me. She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values. I will be voting for Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives. Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values. For a lot of us, we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue, but we have to vote anyway. So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count. But first you need to register, which is quick and easy to do. October 9th is the LAST DAY to register to vote in the state of TN. Go to vote.org and you can find all the info. Happy Voting! 🗳😃🌈 A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Oct 7, 2018 at 4:33pm PDT
Ahead of election Kay Ivey urges support for pro-life Amendment Two
Governor Kay Ivey on Monday affirmed her support for Alabama’s Constitutional Amendment Two, which recognizes and supports the rights of the unborn. “Now, perhaps more than ever, is the time for Alabama to affirm the sanctity of unborn life,” said Ivey. “It’s unconscionable to me that Walt Maddox would join abortion rights activists from across the country in opposing this measure that simply recognizes the rights of our precious unborn babies.” Amendment 2 The Alabama Fair Ballot Commission explains the constitutional amendment, which was sponsored and passed by Montevallo-Republican, State Rep. Matt Fridy , with the following description: “Amendment 2 provides that it would be the public policy of the state to recognize and support the importance of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life; and to protect the rights of unborn children. Additionally, the amendment would make clear that the state constitution does not include a right to abortion or require the funding of an abortion using public funds.” Alabama is one of three states – joined by West Virginia and Oregon – voting on abortion-related measures next month. Ivey added, “I urge Alabamians to join me in this important fight by showing up to the polls on November 6 and voting yes on Constitutional Amendment Two.”
GOP ramps up election-season warning of ‘toxic’ Dem tactics
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell bashed Democrats and their liberal allies Thursday for statements and actions that he dubbed “toxic fringe behavior,” sharpening Republicans’ campaign-season rhetoric as the party tries rousing conservative voters to turn out on Election Day. The Kentucky Republican’s remarks on the Senate floor were an extended version of a message party leaders have delivered since last week. That’s when the GOP began accusing Democrats of condoning “mob rule” after raucous demonstrators opposing Brett Kavanaugh‘s Supreme Court nomination harangued GOP lawmakers at the Capitol last week. Some Republicans said they received death threats. McConnell described protesters “literally storming the steps of the Capitol and the Supreme Court,” confronting Republicans at restaurants and shouting from the Senate visitors’ galleries during last week’s debate and vote on Kavanaugh. “Only one side was happy to play host to this toxic fringe behavior,” McConnell said. “Only one side’s leaders are now openly calling for more of it. They haven’t seen enough. They want more. And I’m afraid this is only Phase One of the meltdown.” He added: “We will not let mob behavior drown out all the Americans who want to legitimately participate in the policy-making process.” McConnell’s comments come less than four weeks from elections in which Democrats are seen as having a strong chance at capturing control of the House but weaker odds of winning a majority in the Senate. Until the rancorous debate over Kavanaugh — he denied accusations by three women of 1980s sexual misconduct — polls suggested that GOP supporters were far less motivated to vote than Democrats, who are ardently opposed to President Donald Trump. Republicans have said the rowdy opposition to Kavanaugh has given conservative voters a new enthusiasm. McConnell has called it a political gift. The GOP rhetorical offensive also represents a flipping of the recent script, in which Democrats have accused Trump of intensifying divisions with nationalistic and at times racist appeals to his conservative base and personal attacks on political enemies. Almost a decade ago, Democrats also assailed the Tea Party, grassroots conservatives who rallied against President Barack Obama‘s health care law and who angrily shouted down lawmakers at town hall meetings. On Thursday, McConnell cited recent statements by 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former Attorney General Eric Holder. And he pointedly noted that these activities followed last year’s shooting of GOP lawmakers at a morning baseball practice by “a politically crazed gunman.” James Hodgkinson, who was killed at the scene by officers, was infuriated by President Donald Trump‘s election, his widow has said. Clinton said on CNN this week that “civility can start again” after Democrats capture the House or Senate in next month’s elections. In a video purportedly shot at a recent campaign event in Georgia, Holder says, “When they go low, we kick them,” paraphrasing former first lady Michelle Obama, who famously said during the 2016 campaign, “When they go low, you go high.” Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Steve Flowers: Democrats have three viable candidates, but Republicans will prevail
In politics, perception is reality. It is perceived and therefore factual that a Democrat cannot win a statewide race in Alabama. The proof is in the pudding. We have 29 elected statewide officeholders in the Heart of Dixie. All 29 are Republicans. In addition, 6 out of 7 of our members in Congress are Republican. We have one lone Democratic member of Congress. Terri Sewell occupies the seat in Congress designed to be held by an African American. We do have a temporary accidental anomaly U.S. Senator in Doug Jones. However, as any nominal political observer knows, he is only there until the next election. He is the epitome of the political adage that more people vote against someone than for someone. People were simply voting against Roy Moore and more liberal money poured into Alabama to beat Moore than has ever been sent into Alabama in history and probably ever will be. It was the only race in the country and every socialist liberal group or individual in the nation jumped on board to beat Moore. That anomaly will never happen again. To his credit, Jones is not a demagogue. He is and has always been a liberal national Democrat. He has been a card carrying, bonafide liberal his entire adult life. He is ideologically more at home and comfortable buddying around with Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi than with Richard Shelby, Robert Aderholt or Bradley Bryne. He has campaigned for, contributed to and been a Democratic delegate for Walter Mondale, Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He is a true believer. He has felt his oats a bit and gotten involved in trying to change the state Democratic Party organization, which by the way is not very organized. He endorsed his candidate Peck Fox against Nancy Worley for the chairmanship of the defunct Alabama Democratic Party. Worley prevailed because Joe Reed still controls the reigns of the Democratic Party brand in the state. Make no doubt about it, the Democratic Party is the party of African Americans in Alabama. There are a few liberal white Democrats in the state that Reed parades out as face cards. However, he wants it to remain his party, and essentially that is the case. Make no mistake about it, Alabama politics is still driven by race. Whites are primarily Republicans. Blacks are totally Democratic. Politics is nothing more than simply counting. Basic math if you will. There are simply more white folks that vote than black folks who vote. That is why 29 out of 29 state officeholders are Republican. The Democrats have fielded three viable candidates for statewide office in the upcoming November General Election. They will run good races, but they are not going to win. It will be 29 out of 29 come January. Walt Maddox is the best candidate that the Democrats have had in several decades for Governor. Maddox is 45 and has been Mayor of Tuscaloosa, one of Alabama’s premier and most prosperous cities for 10 years. He is better qualified and much more able to serve as Governor than Kay Ivey. However, Kay is a Republican quasi incumbent, running in a very good economic time. Her handlers are doing an excellent job of running out the clock and keeping quiet. All they have to do is show pictures of Kay cutting ribbons, claiming credit for economic expansion, aligning herself with Trump and clinging to Confederate monuments. The bottom line is she will win because she is the Republican candidate. Joseph Siegelman, the son of former Governor Don Siegelman, is a viable candidate for Attorney General. He not only is viable but is vibrant and attractive. He is 30-years old with movie star good looks and he also has a good-looking dog. He exudes integrity and ethics. However, Marshall will prevail over Siegelman because he is the GOP candidate. Although it may be surprising how many votes young Siegelman gets. A lot of folks, including a good many moderate Republicans, believe Siegelman’s dad, Don, was done wrong. He will reap a good many sympathy votes. The third viable Democratic candidate is Robert Vance, Jr., in the race for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He will run a good race. However, Tom Parker will prevail because he is the Republican candidate. See you next week. ••• Steve Flowers is Alabama leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
