Mediaboss Marketing

AUSTIN Rep. Harold Dutton returned to the House floor in Austin on Tuesday after joining breakaway Democrats in Washington last week and even launched a solo effort to wrest concessions in a GOP-backed election bill.

Dutton, the third longest-serving member of the Texas House and one whos not afraid to defy his fellow Democrats surprised Republican colleagues with his return.

Hed missed seven days of the special session, and his absence helped Democrats block action on the voting bill and all other items that Gov. Greg Abbott has placed on the agenda.

In an interview at his Capitol office, Dutton explained that he decamped from Washington, D.C., on Saturday for family reasons his sister, who lives in Phoenix, Ariz., is staying at Duttons home in Houston while she undergoes chemotherapy.

Over the weekend, after tending to domestic items such as having a broken garage-door opener repaired, Dutton said he heard about the outbreak of coronavirus infections among his Democratic colleagues in Washington.

Dutton said he decided it was unwise for him to return to the nations capital.

I thought, I cant do that because I cant expose myself [to COVID-19] and then I come back home to her because her white blood cell count is down because shes taking chemotherapy, he recounted.

So I thought, I cant go back there. So I thought, Well, OK, maybe Ill just go to Austin. Ill go to see Murr.

Dutton was referring to Junction GOP Rep. Andrew Murr, the Houses lead author of the election integrity bill for the special session, House Bill 3. Republicans say the bill is needed to prevent voter fraud, while Democrats say it would suppress the votes of minorities and give credence to former President Donald Trumps unfounded claims the 2020 election was stolen.

In Washington, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Chris Turner of Grand Prairie on Tuesday noted that Dutton stopped short of signaling early last week that hed be AWOL for the remainder of the 30-day session. It must end no later than Aug. 6.

Representative Dutton was with us for a few days in DC, Turner said. He was not, however, one of the 57 members who signed a letter last week when we left [Austin], instructing the journal clerk at the Texas House of Representatives to lock our voting machines until we returned.

Dutton suggested one reason he was free to return to Austin was that his sisters son finally arrived in Houston.

Im taking it day by day, he said when asked what he plans to do for the rest of the special session.

Although Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and most of the 83 House Republicans who have remained in Austin have voted to ask the chambers sergeant-at-arms go find the missing Democrats, and use peace officers if necessary to compel their return, Dutton said the Texas Department of Public Safety didnt find him after he returned to Houston.

Nor did they catch him speeding as he drove to Austin early Tuesday, he quipped.

In the regular session, Dutton, 76, whos served in the chamber for 36 years, clashed with many fellow Democrats over a Senate-passed measure that would bar transgender children from competing in athletic contests with members of a sex different from the one listed on their birth certificates.

Dutton, whom Phelan this year appointed as chairman of the Public Education Committee, helped Republicans revive the bill, which was believed to be dead, in early May.

LGBTQ advocates said Dutton did so to retaliate against members of his own party whod derailed his bill to virtually guarantee replacement of Houston school trustees with a state-appointed board. Dutton disputed that accusation, telling the Texas Tribune he had been consistent in putting bills up for a vote if they had the support to pass the committee.

Recriminations continued for several days, though the transgender sports bill died because the full House didnt take it up before a bill-passing deadline in late May.

On Tuesday, Dutton said he decided to take a stab at wresting some concessions on the voting bill.

The bill constricts access, even though it does it in sort of a benign way, he said. But the reality is it has a disproportionate impact on Black and brown people.

Asked what specifically hed ask Murr to change, Dutton cited a provision that would give freedom of movement at polling places to partisan poll watchers.

It gives more authority on Election Day to a poll watcher than it does to a precinct judge, he said.

Dutton also objects, he said, to the bills prohibition on experiments to expand participation, such as Harris Countys allowance last fall of drive-through voting and 24-hour voting at a few locations.

The people who benefitted from that were more Black and brown than they were white, he said.

Link:
Breakaway Texas Democrat returns for family reasons, goes to Austin to seek voting bill changes - The Dallas Morning News

One of six Texas lawmakers who fled to Washington to stop a controversial voting bill and later tested positive for COVID-19 said he and the others are showing few symptoms and vowed to keep fighting from his hotel room.

It wasn't expected. But here we are. We'll be fine, said Rep. Ramon Romero of Fort Worth.

Romero said he tested positive on Sunday.

The latest news from around North Texas.

The only thing causing me to take notice was that I had a little runny nose, he said. Its been really tough for me.

He said its tough because he has to quarantine for two weeks in his hotel room not because of the illness itself.

Romero said he was vaccinated in January and was not sick previously.

A photo of Romero and other Democratic lawmakers flying on a private plane from Austin to Washington showed none of them wore masks. They said at the time they were safe because they were all vaccinated.

Asked if he regrets not wearing a mask on the plane, Romero said, You know, I can't say I necessarily regret it. I regret not understanding this virus fully."

Early in their trip. Romero and his colleagues met with Vice President Kamala Harris. She later tested negative.

Romero said he has no idea where any of them got the virus, adding he'll always wear a mask in public now and take other precautions.

"If you've been exposed to someone out there in public you really should really quarantine whether you've been vaccinated or not, he said.

As for the standoff with Republicans, Romero described Democrats as united like never before.

"There is work to be done and God knows we have time on our hands, he said.

Read more here:
We'll Be Fine': Fort Worth Democrat With COVID-19 in Washington Vows to Keep Up Fight - NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Political polls regarding US elections in 2020 overstated Democratic support across the board, US political scientists found, while understating support for Republicans and Donald Trump.

The finding, which will alarm Democrats aiming to hold on to their narrow control of the US House and Senate in 2022, is contained in a new study by the American Association for Public Opinion Research.

Josh Clinton, a Vanderbilt University professor and AAPOR taskforce member, told the Washington Post: There was a systematic error that was found in terms of the overstatement for Democratic support across the board.

It didnt matter what type of poll you were doing, whether youre interviewing by phone or internet or whatever. And it didnt matter what type of race, whether Trump was on the ballot or was not on the ballot.

Polls were better at predicting support for Joe Biden against Trump in the presidential election than for Democrats in state elections, the study said.

In 2020, polling pointed to Democratic gains in the House, only for Republicans to eat into the majority which made Nancy Pelosi speaker in 2018.

Parties which hold the White House often lose seats in midterm elections. Republicans in Washington are duly bullish about their chances of retaking the House next year, boosted by GOP-run state governments implementing laws meant to restrict voting among communities likely to vote Democratic and to make it easier to overturn results.

Speaking at a conservative conference earlier this year, the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, said: Were going to get the majority back I would bet my house.

The AAPOR study found that polls were more accurate in predicting a popular-vote win for Biden, a contest he eventually won by more than 7m ballots.

The electoral college result was 306-232, the same margin by which Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, when the Republican lost the popular vote by only 2.8m.

On Monday, the AAPOR website was down for maintenance. As quoted by the Post, its study said: That the polls overstated Bidens support more in whiter, more rural, and less densely populated states is suggestive (but not conclusive) that the polling error resulted from too few Trump supporters responding to polls.

A larger polling error was found in states with more Trump supporters.

Josh Clinton, the Vanderbilt professor, said: Its possible that if President Trump is no longer on the ticket or if its a midterm election where we know that the electorate differs in the presidential election, that the issue will kind of self-resolve itself.

But if the polls do well in 2022, then we dont know if the issue is solved or whether its just a phenomenon thats unique to presidential elections, with particular candidates who are making appeals about Dont trust the news, dont trust the polls that kind of results in taking polls becoming a political act.

Read more:
Polls overstated Democratic support across the board in 2020 elections, study shows - The Guardian

Most Americans approve of letting people work from home. But like many things in the US, that perception depends on ones politics.

While Republicans are overall positive about remote work, they were less likely to approve of it compared with Democrats (81 percent versus 89 percent), according to a new poll by Vox and Data for Progress.

Additionally, Republicans were less likely to say remote workers labored just as hard or harder than non-remote workers (50 percent versus 75 percent).

Republicans were also less likely than Democrats to say remote workers were equally or more productive than non-remote workers (57 percent versus 71 percent).

The survey of more than 1,000 people was conducted online earlier this month and is weighted to be representative of the US adult population.

Despite the difference between Republicans and Democrats, the high approval rate overall is a good sign for those who would like to continue working from home after the pandemic. Positive perceptions about remote work could help ensure its continuance especially since workers and their employers have some disagreements about the future of remote work.

More than half of Americans worked from home earlier in the pandemic. And it went surprisingly well, with workers, their managers, and objective studies reporting that employees maintained or increased their levels of productivity.

So it makes sense that over the course of the pandemic, employees desire to continue working from home increased, and so did employers willingness to let them. But theres still a gap between what employees want and what employers say theyre going to do, according to data from a study authored in part by Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom. Employees would like to work from home about half the time, while employers plan to let them do so about one day a week.

As the more acute effects of the pandemic are subsiding and the number of people who work remotely is declining, numerous surveys of employers as well as a giant increase in the number of remote job listings suggest that many Americans will continue to work from home at least some of the time even when the pandemic ends. Whats less clear is how often that will be.

As for the difference between Republicans and Democrats, its possible the survey responses reflect the political makeup of remote workers. The survey sample size wasnt large enough to accurately look at the political parties of those who worked remotely. However, the responses were equally positive among people who did and didnt work remotely. Thats consistent with data from Boston Consulting Group that said the majority of people, regardless of whether it was feasible in their industry, wanted to work remotely.

But we also know that states whose voters lean Republican had a lower rate of working from home during the pandemic (30 percent) than Democratic states (35 percent), according to the Bloom study, which measured the overall work from home rate at 33 percent from May 2020 to March 2021. The desire to work from home after Covid-19 was only slightly higher for Democrats (46 percent versus 45 for Republicans).

Trump aligned the Republican Party to being more working-class and less educated, and these jobs have a far lower ability to work from home, Bloom told Recode in an email.

Overall, though, working from home is a valuable perk, with the average employee saying its worth about 7 percent of their salary, according to Blooms study. Its not worth much more than that. Our survey, which asked whether people would prefer the ability to work from home or to receive a 10 percent pay raise, found that two-thirds of people would go for the raise.

In addition to the 25 percent of employed people whose jobs are currently fully remote, another 30 percent said some of their work could be done remotely. Its likely more jobs will have remote possibilities as employers use it as a perk to attract workers in whats a very tight job market.

How commonplace remote work ends up being remains to be seen, but proponents of the practice have public opinion on their side.

Will you support Voxs explanatory journalism?

An informed electorate is essential to a functioning democracy. Vox aims to provide clear, concise information that helps people understand the the issues and policy that affects their lives and its never been more vital than today. But our distinctive explanatory journalism is expensive. Support from our readers helps us keep our work free for everyone. If you have already made a financial contribution to Vox, thank you. If not, please consider making a contribution today from as little as $3.

The rest is here:
Democrats and Republicans opinions on working from home vary - Vox.com

Congressional Democrats introduced a bill Friday to rename more than 1,000 places in the US named with offensive language and racist slurs.

Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Edward Markey, and Rep. Al Green introduced the bill along with 25 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, all Democrats.

Lawmakers first introduced the bill last year with Rep. Deb Haaland, who now serves as the secretary of the interior as the first Native American cabinet secretary in US history.

"We need to immediately stop honoring the ugly legacy of racism and bigotry, and that's why I'm introducing the Reconciliation in Place Names Act with my colleagues," Warren said in a statement.

Read more: White farmers blocked a much-needed federal relief program for Black farmers. The saga proves Black farmers won't overcome racism unless they take their economic future into their own hands.

The bill would take aim at land units and geographic features, like forests, streams, and wilderness areas, with racist or bigoted names. It would create a process to review and rename places with inoffensive names. According to the statement from the lawmakers, questionable names have been identified for 1,441 federally recognized places.

More than 600 places have the word "n----," a slur for Black people, in their name, according to a database from the US Geological Survey. In Oklahoma there is Dead N---- Spring, so-named because a deceased Black person was found there, according to the USGS.

In New Mexico, there is a reservoir called W------ Tank, named with a slur for Mexican people living in the US. Nearly 800 results are returned by the USGS database when searching for the term "s----," an offensive word for Native American women.

"These terms are harmful relics from the era of invidious yet lawful discrimination that must be removed from public property," Congressman Green said. "Racism, even in geography, cannot be tolerated in a country that strives for liberty and justice for all."

The bill would establish an advisory board of civil rights experts and tribal organizations and solicit comment from the public on name change proposals. The board would then make renaming recommendations to the proper government body, such as Congress in the case of federal land units.

Read the original:
Democrats introduce bill to rename places named with racist slurs - Business Insider