Mediaboss Marketing

You can still munch on a corn dog, wash it down with a lemon shake-up and then head over to marvel at the Butter Cow.

But if Democratic stem-winders are more to your taste, dont look to the Illinois State Fair this year.

A political tradition dating back at least half a century at the fair will look and sound a bit different this year.

When Democrats gather on the fairgrounds in Springfield for the 2017 version of Democrat Day, it will not feature the traditional mid-day political rally a partisan powwow aimed at ginning up support for candidates and incumbents.

Rich Miller of the Capitol Fax blog was first to report the rallys demise.

Steve Brown, a spokesman for Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, the chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, said the rally wasnt canceled because nothing was ever scheduled in the first place.

The focus of Democrats on the 17th of August will be chairmans brunch, Brown said, adding that more than 1,000 attendees were expected.

The Democratic county chairmans event is another longtime staple of the event. But it was always the outdoor rally, held on The Directors Lawn that was the days centerpiece.

Mayor Richard J. Daley, waving, leads the Chicago contingent at Democrat Day at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, August 14, 1969. File Photo. | United Press International Wirephoto.

Every year, fair organizers set aside two days for Democrats and Republicans to hold speeches and other party events. The party that holds the governors office calls its day Governors Day. This year, Aug. 16 is Governors Day, and August 17 is Democrats Day.

For Democrats, the big outdoor rally also took a backseat in 2016, when the Democrat Day breakfast was the backdrop for speeches meant to drum up party support.

The rally has also been the scene for some awkward moments over the years. In 2012, Gov. Pat Quinn after being heckled by labor union leaders mixed up the names of President Barack Obama and slain al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is shown as the the Flying Elvi perform behind him during Democrats Day at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Ill., Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2003. (AP Photo/ Illinois State Fair, David Blanchette)

Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, left, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, center, and Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, right, confer while participating in a Democrats rally at the Illinois State Fair on Governors Day in Springfield, Ill., Wednesday, Aug 19, 2009. File Photo. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

Ten years earlier, then-candidate Rod Blagojevich was campaigning for governor and squabbling with Madigan. The speaker, who is also state Democratic Party chairman told reporters: I dont plan to get into any criticism of Blagojevich. I could do that. I could talk about his indiscretions, but Im not going to do that because I believe in solidarity within the political party.

Madigan never elaborated on what indiscretions he was talking about.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama is surrounded by reporters as he attends a Democrat Day rally at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Ill., Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006. (AP File Photo/Seth Perlman)

Democrat Roland Burris addresses a crowd at a rally during Democrat Day at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield in 1997. File Photo. (AP Photo/Randy Squires, File)

Here is the original post:
Democrat Day at State Fair to be a bit quieter this year - Chicago Sun-Times

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he wants to make federal funding of Obamacare subsidies permanent before working with Republicans on other reforms to the troubled health care law the GOP has been unable to repeal.

Schumer said "there is a thirst" among Republicans to work with Democrats on reforming Obamacare following early Friday's defeat of the Republican plan to repeal the law.

"At the very beginning, we should stabilize the system," Schumer said Friday. "Make permanent the cost sharing, which keeps premiums low."

Schumer said he also wants to negotiate with the GOP on reviving insurance bailout payments from the federal government, known as reinsurance, as well as a plan by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., to provide healthcare coverage in rural areas where there are no policies offered.

"That is what we should do initially," Schumer said. "Then, we should sit down and trade ideas."

Schumer emerged Friday with the attitude that his party now has leverage in the healthcare reform debate after Republicans failed to find enough support within their own party to begin the process of repealing Obamacare. A "skinny" repeal measure failed thanks to three GOP senators who voted against it, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Schumer said he has already talked to Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., about a bipartisan collaboration on rescuing the law, which is suffering from a collapse of the individual insurance marketplaces.

Schumer said Republicans approached him in the Senate chamber early Friday morning as it became apparent the GOP bill would fail and thanked him for pushing bipartisan talks, and told Schumer they want to be involved. "There is a thirst to do it," Schumer said.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who suffered a major defeat when the bill failed to pass, remained silent Friday afternoon about the path forward.

He signaled on the Senate floor following the defeat of the GOP bill that he would not be willing to simply pour more federal money into Obamacare, which suggests the cost sharing and reinsurance proposals would not happen without concessions from the Democrats.

Schumer said Friday he understands that dynamic.

"There has to be a give and take," Schumer said. "My colleagues and my caucus know that."

Schumer said he believes there is new impetus to work in a bipartisan way, even though Democrats passed Obamacare in 2010 without a single Republican on board.

McCain's surprise vote against the measure, Schumer said, could prompt new bipartisanship.

"Sometimes you need a spark that inspires the forces of coming together that outweigh the forces of pulling part," Schumer said. "And John McCain may have done that."

See more here:
Chuck Schumer outlines Democrat terms for healthcare talks with GOP - Washington Examiner

A former Miami Dolphins cheerleader hassplit from her husband in what isbeing described as the Trump divorce. The womanissued a press release stating that the couple were forced to end their marriage due to their political differences.

In the statement, 37-year-old Lynn Aronberg, who once cheered for the Florida football team, was described as a staunch Republican and supporter of President Donald Trump, the Palm Beach Post reported.Her husband, Florida state attorney for Palm Beach County Dave Aronberg, is a Democrat.

According to the statement, their political differences drove the couple apart afterLynn Aronbergs favor for the president caused her to feel increasingly isolated in the marriage."

Daily Emails and Alerts - Get the best of Newsweek delivered to your inbox

Despite their political differences, the former couple, who were wed in May 2015, have remained amicable throughout the separation and signed a divorce settlement earlier in the week. Lynn Aronberg will reportedly receive a $100,000 settlement, which includes a new BMW and $40,000 in cash.

The Aronbergs are notthe first couple to end their marriagedue to their partisanship. In May, Arlington, Virginiabased polling firm Wakefield Research released a study that found one in 10 couples, married or not, had ended their relationships because of political disagreements. The study, which included 1,000 participants across the U.S., found millennialsin particularwereseparating at an increasing rate after 22 percent said that they broke up with their significant other over political differences.

Twenty-four percent of participants said that they had disagreed or argued about politics more than ever following Trumps election victory, while 22 percent of participants said that they knew a couple, either married or in a dating, whose relationship had been negatively impacted specifically due to President Trump.

Trump aside, divorce rates in America are up in general, almost doubling since the 1990s, according to a March 2017 Pew Research report. The study, which was based on marriage data recorded from 1990 to 2015, setdivorce rates for adults ages 50 and up at10 for every 1,000 married persons in 2015 compared withfive for every 1,000 married persons in 1990. Adults ages 40 to 49 had a divorce rate of 21 adults per 1,000 in 2015 compared with18 per 1,000 in 1990.

People 25 to 39 were the only group to see a slight decline, with the divorce rate set at 25 adults for every 1,000in 2015 compared with30 adults per 1,000 married persons in 1990.

See more here:
Trump Divorce: Miami Dolphins Cheerleader Splits From Democrat Husband in Support of Trump - Newsweek

* Mostly true

* Democrat Day itself has not been canceled. Party members will still get their free tickets to the fair just like Republicans will on Governors Day. But the traditional noontime rally has been canceled.

Steve Brown told me part of the problem with Democrat Day over the years was that the same people make pretty much the same speeches at both the county party chairmans brunch and then at the state fairgrounds rally a couple of hours or so later. It gets boring and repetitive and kinda pointless. It can be a real drag sitting in the hot sun listening to the same speech you just heard at brunch.

So, it looks like this could be the end of a very long era. I dont know how far back the tradition goes, but its a very long time. Back in the day, the first Mayor Daley would send trainloads of people to the fair. It used to be a huge deal, but the rally crowds for both parties have seemed to taper off in recent years and I dont think that Speaker Madigan likes doing it, either. Maybe itll restart if the Democrats elect a governor again, whenever that might be, because then Madigan wont have to be in charge.

* From a Crains column I wrote back in 2014

The Illinois State Fairs Directors Lawn is a tree-lined venue far from the corn dogs, grandstand concerts and beer tents.

The lawn spreads out in front of a rather dingy house used by the states director of agriculture, off a road marred by potholes and best accessed via a special gate that often is closed during the fair because theres so little public parking. A million or so people attend the fair each year.

The grass on the lawn is trampled flat. But no events ever are as crowded as the annual Governors Day and the accompanying rally for the party out of power.

Even in this era of high-tech campaigns, the twin events unofficially kick off the governors race, despite the fairgrounds somewhat rundown appearance. Politicians high and low attend. The more important ones give speeches, the less important mill about and try to interest others in shaking their hands. Every major media outlet sends reporters.

There usually are four crowds. Theres the true believers, young men and women who work or volunteer for the candidates. They wear matching T-shirts, carry signs and fire up the crowds by cheering or shouting slogans on command.

Then there are the older believers, folks who arent nearly as youthful or fired up but still strongly support their candidates. They sit in the front section with a clear view of the stage.

The space-fillers mostly are bused in to increase the crowd. They sit where they cant see the speakers, either behind the stands for the news media or off to the side under a canvas tent. They chat among themselves and enjoy the free food.

The fourth group is the hacks in the back. These are the political professionals, high-level campaign operatives, lobbyists and legislators. Theyve heard enough speeches, so they gossip at the rear of the lawn near the free beer.

No more free beer and hot dogs and politicking on the Directors Lawn this year, at least for the Democrats.

Be the first to comment.

Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.

The rest is here:
Annual State Fair Democrat Day rally canceled - The Capitol Fax Blog (blog)

In the year since Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination, party leaders have been reluctant to challenge a man who has formed a tight bond with conservative voters, even when he upset party orthodoxies and norms of presidential behavior.

But that reticence is breaking down. A convergence of contentious issues, as well as embarrassing infighting and shake-ups at the White House, have a number of Republicans suddenly in open resistance to President Trump on a number of fronts.

The most dramatic moment came in the early-morning hours Friday, when Sen. John McCain, an ailing war hero and onetime Republican presidential standard-bearer, joined two other GOP dissidents, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, to cast the deciding vote to kill a scaled-back plan to dismantle tenets of the Affordable Care Act and with it, perhaps, Trumps promise to repeal Obamacare.

But the signs of resistance went further.

Nearly every Republican in Congress voted with Democrats this week to approve legislation tying the presidents hands on a major foreign policy issue, making it harder for him to ease sanctions against Russia amid lawmakers concerns about Trumps friendly posture toward Russian President Vladimir Putin. Late Friday, the White House put out a statement saying Trump would sign the legislation; his veto would have been easily overridden.

Since Wednesday, some of the most conservative Republicans in Congress, as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have pushed back at Trumps surprise announcement on Twitter of a ban on transgender people in the military. The critics, including McCain, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and an array of conservative senators, objected both to the substance of the ban which threatened the status of thousands of active-duty service members and to the way in which it was unveiled.

Perhaps the most broad opposition came in response to Trumps continued public humiliation of his attorney general, Jeff Sessions. Conservatives from Congress whod served with Sessions when he was in the Senate, delivered clear messages to Trump in Sessions defense in the media and throughout the country.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Trump would have holy hell to pay if he fired Sessions, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, warned that he would refuse to hold hearings this year to confirm a new attorney general.

Graham went further, saying that should Trump try to dismiss Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating potential Trump campaign collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice, it could spell the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency.

What hes interjecting is turning democracy upside down, Graham told reporters, adding that he was considering legislation to prevent Trump from dismissing Mueller and shutting down the Russia investigation.

Political veterans and Republican critics say Trumps seeming inability to focus on his policy agenda, amid the distractions of investigations, media baiting and staff dysfunction, leave him little leverage with Congress. Beyond that, his threats against some Republicans and shows of disloyalty toward allies like Sessions give lawmakers little faith that Trump will back them if they need political cover for tough votes.

Trumps approval rating is in the 30s, he uses his bully pulpit to beat up on staff and hes got no policy agenda, said Rory Cooper, a former Republican leadership aide and George W. Bush administration official who has been a Trump critic.

President Trumps closing argument on healthcare was that his staff and attorney general are not trusted, Cooper added. Its clear that members of Congress have no support or leadership from the White House.

Many conservatives had been willing to put up with Trumps erratic governance in the hopes he could at least deliver on longstanding conservative priorities. But Fridays defeat on the healthcare measure, after Republicans seven years of promises to repeal Obamacare, left many despairing that other promises, especially on a tax overhaul, could be imperiled.

"The president told everyone that only he could do the job and he would drain the swamp, wrote Erick Erickson, an influential conservative radio host and blogger. Instead, hes dammed up the swamp, put a party boat on it, and has turned his attention to Twitter."

Trump, as he often does, blamed Democrats. But he upbraided Republicans as well on Friday, both on Twitter and during a Long Island speech that was supposed to be about cracking down on criminal gangs.

"They should have approved healthcare last night, but you can't have everything, Trump said in New York. They've been working on that for seven years. Can you believe that? But we'll get it done. I said from the beginning, let Obamacare implode and then do it."

Individual Republican lawmakers have walked a careful line with Trump throughout his first six months siding with him on many issues and withholding criticism on others, while disagreeing at times to show their independence, especially in opposition to Trumps proposed deep cuts in domestic and international aid programs.

But the healthcare bill proved more complicated to navigate. Polls showed that Republican efforts at repeal were widely unpopular, including among some conservatives, and prominent Republican governors were strongly opposed. Yet the party had promised repeal and replace since 2010.

John Weaver, a former longtime political consultant to McCain, said of the senators break with Trump on the healthcare bill, after two earlier votes in support, I dont think he took any joy in it.

But, Weaver said, I think he wanted to send a clear signal that whats happening in the White House is not normal and whats happening in the Congress is not normal.

Republican critics accuse Trump and his administration officials of combining arrogance with ineptitude, especially in how they carried out threats to wavering senators such as Murkowski and Nevada Sen. Dean Heller. Murkowski suggested to reporters that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke threatened federal funding to her state, which is heavily dependent on it.

The Murkowski threat was particularly striking, because she is chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which oversees Zinkes department. Murkowski held fast.

Who ever heard of a Cabinet secretary threatening the chairman of the oversight committee of his department? Weaver said. Its like Dumb and Dumber merged with The Godfather here.

Still, Trump has hardly lost his ability to work with his party. Many in Congress continue to fear his ability to stir their most passionate partisans who continue to back him strongly and to encourage primary challenges for their seats.

Also, Trumps allies in outside groups already have shown a willingness to spend money on political advertising against wayward Republicans. A pro-Trump group ran ads against Heller in June, during an earlier stage of the healthcare effort, though it pulled them after objections from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

But a Republican strategist with close ties to the White House, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions, said that weapon would be back on the table for the 2018 congressional election campaigns.

At the least, Trumps hold on the GOPs base could protect him against threats posed by the Russia investigations by Mueller and the congressional committees. But Trump is seeing that it would not be easy to thwart Muellers investigation by firing Sessions and getting his replacement to eliminate Mueller.

Republican senators have their guard up generally against presidential recess appointments, which allow presidents to fill jobs temporarily without Senate confirmation. If both parties agree, a senator will stay in town on a rotating basis to technically avoid having the Senate in recess.

Republicans did that to prevent President Obama from avoiding Senate confirmations and filling vacancies with recess appointments. But now they have signaled they are not willing to let Trump undercut their authority either.

Times staff writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

noah.bierman@latimes.com brian.bennett@latimes.com

Twitter: @ByBrianBennett, @noahbierman

ALSO

What in the world is going on in the West Wing? Seven revelations from one of the reporters who knows Trump best

Michael Bloomberg talks gun control, empowering cities and Trump: 'I was a manager; he was not'

What do booty shorts, classical music and whiskey have in common? President Trump's 'great again' slogan

See the original post here:
McCain's Obamacare vote isn't the only sign of GOP resistance to Trump - Los Angeles Times