ZoNATION: Liberals Won? Part Three: It #39;s the Republicans Fault That Democrats Oppress You
This is part 3 of 4 of Zo #39;s examination of a liberal meme that blames conservatives and credits liberals for a list of policies and issues in American histor...
By: PJ Media
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ZoNATION: Liberals Won? Part Three: It's the Republicans Fault That Democrats Oppress You - Video
TAMPA If they hope to unseat Florida Gov. Rick Scott in November and regain a foothold in state government, Florida Democrats will have to overcome a handicap that has plagued them for years voter drop-off in nonpresidential elections.
Florida traditionally sees declines in voter turnout of up to 20 percentage points in nonpresidential years compared to presidential years.
The decline favors Republicans, experts say, because its greatest among the most reliably Democratic voting groups minorities, young voters and unmarried women. Those individuals are less likely to go to the polls when there isnt a high-profile presidential race.
The effects were clearly visible in the March special election to replace the late U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young in Pinellas County, an election with even less voter-drawing power than a normal off-year election.
In that March 11 vote, Democrat Alex Sink narrowly lost to Republican David Jolly, even though the Pinellas County congressional district has been trending Democratic in recent years. The district voted for President Barack Obama in both the last two presidential election years.
Its a topic of national concern amongst Democrats, Sink said. Its an historical pattern that weve dealt with in many election cycles how can we make our core voters as passionate and motivated as it seems the core Republicans are?
Sink said Scotts unpopularity among Democrats may provide some of the motivation Democrats will need to spur turnout in November.
Sometimes you need to have a face on the enemy, she said. I think we wont have as much trouble motivating our voters to go to the polls in November.
But a new analysis of voting patterns by a liberal research group that studies voting, Washington, D.C.-based Voter Participation Center, includes a sobering estimate for Florida Democrats.
In 2014, blacks, Hispanics, unmarried women and voters under 30 will send 1.5 million fewer voters to Florida polls than in 2012, said the study, done for the organization by the Democratic-oriented polling and research firm Lake Research Partners.
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Democrats push for a constitutional amendment in Florida that would make it the first Southern state to legalize medical marijuana. They hope the measure will galvanize young voters who have a historically weak turnout in non-presidential election years. Photo by Rick Wilking/Reuters
Party operatives are pushing a constitutional amendment that would make Florida the first state in the South to legalize some pot use. Polls show the measure has widespread public support, and its particularly popular among young voters a critical part of the Democratic coalition with historically weak turnout in non-presidential election years. I wish that it didnt take medical marijuana on the ballot to motivate our young voters to go and vote because theres far too much at stake for them and their children, said Ana Cruz, former executive director of the Florida Democratic Party. But listen, well take it any way we can get it.
At stake is the Florida governors office, as well as a handful of competitive House seats. But the nations political world will be watching Floridas turnout in November for clues to whether pot on the ballot could draw young people to the polls.
In 2012, both Washington and Colorado saw spikes in youth turnout when marijuana initiatives were on the ballot. This year, Florida could be a critical test case for whether those increases were an anomaly or the start of a trend in advance of the presidential election in 2016, when activists plan to launch legalization campaigns in at least six states, including battleground Nevada.
Its a smart move on the Democrats part, said David Flaherty, a Colorado-based GOP pollster. Its going to help them, no doubt about it.
The marijuana initiative may be one bright spot for Democrats in an election year that could be grim for the party. President Barack Obama remains unpopular, and Republicans are trying to make the elections a referendum on his health care law. Gov. Rick Scott is making the health care overhaul a central issue in the governors race and outside conservative groups, such as Americans for Prosperity, are funding a barrage of negative ads against Democrats in a handful of swing-voting House districts.
I would rather have it on the ballot than not, said Steve Schale, a Democratic consultant who managed Obamas Florida campaign in 2008. It could have a marginal impact, and a marginal impact in Florida could be the difference between winning and losing.
A Republican victory in a special House election last month in Florida underscored the Democrats turnout problem. The St. Petersburg-area district has 2.4 percent more registered Republicans than Democrats, but GOP voters outnumbered Democrats by 8 percentage points among those who cast ballots.
While far from a cure-all, Democrats say the medical pot measure could help counter Republican energy by motivating young and independent voters. According to a national survey sponsored by George Washington University last month, nearly 40 percent of likely voters said they would be much more likely to vote if a legalization measure was on the ballot, with another 30 percent saying they would be somewhat more likely to vote.
Organizers of the medical marijuana effort plan to raise and spend $10 million on their campaign, with much of the money devoted to a turnout operation aimed at registering voters to cast absentee ballots.
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Florida Democrats hope medical pot measure will boost voter turnout
DES MOINES, Iowa House Democrats on Monday called for expanding the Legislatures probe into alleged improprieties by the Branstad administration, including the authorization to call witnesses, administer oaths, issue subpoenas, make contempt cites and hire an independent investigator if need be.
Rep. Ruth Ann Gaines, D-Des Moines, a member of the House Government Oversight Committee, said the independent legal counsel was be asked to make recommendations for legislative action or prosecution as the probe unfolded.
Gaines, flanked by 10 House Democrats, said representatives will file a resolution directing the Legislatures Government Oversight Committee to expand its investigation looking into allegations of secret hush money payments included in confidential employee settlements, the closing of the Iowa Juvenile Home, the compiling of do not hire state employee data bases, and misconduct at Iowa Workforce Development.
We can no longer count on the Branstad administration to provide accurate or timely information to lawmakers or the general public when allegations of misconduct arise, Gaines told a Statehouse news conference. We feel its time for the Legislature to investigate, get to the bottom of these scandals, and restore faith in our state government.
Branstad dismissed the Democrats contentions as partisan politics at a time when lawmakers should be focusing on the priorities they need to address before adjourning the 2014 session later this month. This sounds like partisanship at its worst, Branstad told his weekly news conference. What we really need to do is try to improve public policy instead of making all of these accusations using all these charged words. They ought to be sitting down and working with us.
If approved by the Iowa House, the House Oversight Committee would be authorized to call witnesses, administer oaths, and issue subpoenas. It also gives the committee power to hire independent legal counsel that would make recommendations for legislative action or prosecution.
The people of Iowa deserve an unbiased, full investigation into hush money paid to state workers who were dismissed from their jobs, including firing and hiring practices as well as bonuses, added Oversight Committee member Rep. Curt Hanson, D-Fairfield.
House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, the leader of the House Republicans who hold a 53-47 majority, said if minority House Democrats were serious about bringing more transparency to the oversight process, they would have supported House File 2462, which he said goes a long way to answering the question as to why these settlements occurred in the first place. Their resolution accomplishes nothing. It is simply a new act in the Democrats political theater.
However, Gaines called the House bill cover-up legislation and Rep. Vicki Lensing, D-Iowa City, who served on the Government Oversight Committee through investigations like the Iowa Film Office, Iowa Association of School Boards, and Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium (CIETC), said lawmakers are tasked with finding the facts, getting to the truth and protecting taxpayers interests regardless of politic parties or partisan considerations.
Last week Paulsen and Senate GOP Leader Bill Dix of Shell Rock told reporters they are concerned Democrats are trying to use the committee format as a platform to promote Sen. Jack Hatchs gubernatorial campaign.
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Legislative Democrats Try to Widen Investigation of Branstad
The GOP chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Thursday he is satisfied with how the military responded to the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
Republicans are pressing ahead with multiple congressional investigations, but Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., said the military did what it reasonably could during a chaotic night of two separate attacks on Sept. 11, 2012. The assault killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
"I think I've pretty well been satisfied that given where the troops were, how quickly the thing all happened and how quickly it dissipated, we probably couldn't have done more than we did," McKeon told reporters at a roundtable discussion. "Now, we've made changes since then. We've got more Marine fast teams that we built up security around the world."
Republicans accuse the Obama administration of misleading the American people about a terrorist attack weeks before the presidential election by blaming the assault on protests touched off by an anti-Islam video. An independent investigation and a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report earlier this year blamed inadequate security and faulted the State Department.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the Obama administration has not been forthcoming.
"They owe the American people the truth. And when it comes to Benghazi, we've got four Americans who are dead. And their families deserve the truth about what happened, and the administration refuses to tell them the truth," Boehner told reporters at a separate news conference.
McKeon said five committees are investigating. His panel and members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee interviewed retired Gen. Carter Ham, who headed the Africa command, for nearly seven hours on Wednesday. McKeon said he was told lawmakers heard nothing new in the testimony by Ham, who has spoken to investigators at least six times.
"We have been working on this for a long time. We issued a preliminary report," McKeon said. "At some point, when we run out of people to talk to, or we run out of people to talk to two or three times, at some point, we think we'll have as much of this story as we're going to get and move on."
Democrats have called for an end to the investigations, arguing that Republicans are on a futile search for information to embarrass the Obama administration. Republicans reject those calls and insist there are numerous unanswered questions and that they owe it to the families of the dead Americans to investigate.
The Armed Services Committee's interim report released earlier this year said the military's response "was severely degraded because of the location and readiness posture of U.S. forces, and because of lack of clarity about how the terrorist action was unfolding. However, given the uncertainty about the prospective length and scope of the attack, military commanders did not take all possible steps to prepare for a more extended operation."
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