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Over the next couple months, Joe Biden needs to put together a team to help him rebuild a shattered economy, fight a global pandemic and recover from one of the most polarizing elections in U.S. history. Sounds easy, right? POLITICO's Megan Cassella breaks down who is in contention for some of the toughest jobs in the nation.

A dozen races remain uncalled, and Democrats caution they wont have all the answers for months. But many in the party are warning that the biggest priority for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee must be overhauling its message. They say it needs to craft a proactive campaign that counters GOP attacks on everything from Medicare for All to fracking if they have any hopes of keeping their majority in 2022.

"There were ads being run all over the country about socialism and about the Green New Deal and in some parts of the country that didnt help, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said in an interview. "I think it would be irresponsible for a person in our family in the Democratic Caucus family who is concerned about it not to mention it."

Others were more blunt: "From my standpoint, as a moderate Democrat ... its crystal clear we need a different message than what weve been having, added Rep. Kurt Schrader (Ore.).

Top Democrats had braced for the GOP police-focused ads. DCCC polled the issue over the summer as nationwide protests over social justice began dominating the headlines, finding it incredibly damaging, according to a Democratic strategist familiar with the data.

Shortly after, DCCC partnered with the Congressional Black Caucus political arm to attempt to produce a campaign message that addressed the systemic inequalities without handing the GOP a win on the policing debate. They created some ads, including ones focused on policing reform that aired in the Black community in seats held by vulnerable Democrats.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Black caucuses campaign arm, CBC PAC, said its clear the party came up short. He added that its urgent for the party to quickly recalibrate if Democrats want any hope of winning two longshot Senate runoffs in Georgia in January, their only chance at taking control of the upper chamber.

We want the caucus to be accurately depicted. And if you look at the Democratic Caucus, if youre going to accurately depict it unlike what Republicans did were not for defunding the police and were not socialists, Meeks said. Were going to be doing all that we can to make sure that we win in Georgia.

He added that he worked closely with DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos on the issue and has no complaints about her leadership despite the campaign arm failing to counter Republicans in several key races.

Most endangered Democrats struggled to counter the flood of GOP ads on the issue: Republicans aired roughly 70 different broadcast ads that mentioned defund the police, according to data from Advertising Analytics, a media tracking firm.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a top GOP super PAC, said they saw the early potential of those hits, making them at least somewhat confident they could help overcome the sheer amount of campaign cash that Democrats had.

Democrat advertising barely uttered a word besides Donald Trump and preexisting conditions and these were messages that just did not move voters down-ticket, said CLF President Dan Conston. We spent the better part of a year testing the most effective ways to lay out the Democrats' economic agenda as well as their most radical ideas, when 'defund the police' came up as a core issue.

In a Staten Island-based seat with a large population of cops and firefighters, CLF saw Democratic Rep. Max Roses image rating drop 21 points in the months after they began airing defund the police spots.

Republicans were relentless as they aired 30-second attack ads that swarmed vulnerable incumbents. In red-leaning districts, such as Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi's (D-N.Y.) in upstate New York, the defund the police ads emphasized violent protestors and looters. In a purple suburban Philadelphia seat held by GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who won reelection, the ads featured a mom who worried a smaller police budget would make her family less safe from robbers.

Democrats tried repeatedly to combat these law-and-order attacks. Some, like Rose, an Army veteran, vowed in a TV ad never to defund law enforcement. And money was not the issue Democratic candidates were outspending their GOP opponents by a nearly 2:1 ratio in the final weeks. Yet they struggled to overcome the hits.

Rose who conceded on Thursday is among the nine Democratic incumbents who lost so far. As of Thursday, the House GOP was poised to gain seven seats.

Tracking the appointments, the people and the power centers of the next administration.

Republicans unexpected surge also exposed polling weaknesses in unexpected places, like districts in south Florida and Orange County in California that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016. It also sabotaged Democratic hopes of flipping as many as 10 seats in Texas, where the campaign arm had invested heavily and even opened an outpost in Austin.

Bustos, who announced this week she would not seek reelection as chair, has defended the campaign arm in the days since the election. Several of her allies have argued that the polling flub was impossible to predict.

Bustos said DCCC did spot some trouble spots for their incumbents before it was too late. The committee helped Reps. Haley Stevens in Michigan, Susie Lee of Nevada and Peter DeFazio in Oregon, and all three won reelection.

When we saw a race slipping late, we made quick, aggressive investments in the final stretch that helped us win some very tight races, Bustos told members on a call this week.

Still, some Democrats said there were signs from vulnerable districts that the party did ignore.

Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) said her biggest takeaway from the GOPs upset in South Florida, where two incumbents were unseated, is that Democrats failed to take her warning seriously in early 2019 that GOP attacks on socialism were resonating with her home states expat community, including many Cubans and Venezuelans who fled communist regimes decades earlier.

I was constantly ringing the bell on this, said Murphy, whose family was rescued by the U.S. Navy as they fled communist-led Vietnam in the late 1970s. Trump too outperformed among Latinos in Southern Florida.

I'm not sure that as a party we took that attack head on, and provided our counter narrative, Murphy said. Its not enough to say what youre not, you have to define what you are. And we have to define it in a way that doesnt scare the American people.

But other Democrats argue that the overall strategy and message mattered less than the GOPs turnout. Vulnerable incumbents were suddenly and unexpectedly forced to outperform Biden by double-digits, and many simply couldnt, showing the strength and popularity of Trump.

Expectations did get high. But if were being honest, it wasn't just expectations. We all missed something in our analytics and our polling data, and we really have to take a deep objective look at what were missing, said Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), chairman of the moderate New Dems Action Fund. Weve got to break the party down and rebuild what our brand is.

Excerpt from:
Inside the House Democrats post-election reckoning - POLITICO

Democratic and Republican candidates and elected officials in the 15th Legislative District said theyre optimistic about their parties futures in the wake of this years election results.

The districts boundaries were redrawn in 2011, creating the states first majority Latino district. It covers the eastern part of Yakima County, taking in part of Selah and Yakima and winding into the Lower Valley, including Toppenish, Sunnyside, Grandview and part of Wapato.

Election results lately have shown a pretty consistent conservative-liberal split, with about 60% of votes cast for Republican candidates compared to about 40% for Democrats.

About 12,000 more people voted in the District 15 House races in 2020 compared with 2018. The vote splits for Republicans and Democrats were nearly identical.

Republican Jeremie Dufault of Selah, recently re-elected to his second term for the districts Position 2 House seat, said his values, and the values of the larger Republican Party, resonate with the districts Latino voters.

I am a family-oriented, pro-life, Catholic entrepreneur who believes in smaller and smarter government, Dufault said. I believe strongly in the value of education and the need to work hard and to take personal responsibility for your actions. Those values put me squarely in line with most of my constituents, including Latinos.

Dufault defeated Democratic challenger A.J. Cooper with 59% of votes to Coopers 41%. In 2018, Dufault received 60% of votes to Coopers 39%. About 45,890 people voted for the two candidates this year in the race, compared with 33,545 total votes in 2018.

This year was an outlier year in many races, but Republican candidates continued to do well in the 15th District, Dufault said. I am grateful to my constituents for giving me more votes than any other state legislative candidate has ever received in the current 15th District.

Cooper said the 15th Districts Democrats are a resilient group, ready to bounce back.

Cooper also noted that the Yakama Nation is split into two different legislative districts, as is the city of Yakima. Selah also is split, with part of the community falling into the 13th District with Ellensburg and Moses Lake.

Position 1

Longtime Republican state Rep. Bruce Chandler of Granger, recently re-elected to Position 1, also faced off against the same challenger, Jack McEntire of Selah, from 2018. Chandler received 58% of votes this year compared to about 60% in the previous election cycle.

McEntire said he believes the majority of District 15 residents are Democrats, but that lower percentages register and vote. He sees the Democratic foothold growing as more people realize the importance of voting and turn out to elections.

The working person is the majority, he said, and the Democratic Party is poised to serve the working person. People are gravitating toward candidates that show respect to others, respect the norms and traditions of governance, and health care, and this is an issue Democrats are prepared to handle.

McEntire also predicted Republicans will remain a minority of representation in Olympia, and anticipated people who want Central Washington concerns heard in the state Capitol will see a need for a Democratic representative.

More and more people are feeling empowered to get out there and vote, believing that their voices matter, he said.

Chandler agreed with Dufault, saying the majority of Yakima voters still staunchly support Republican values.

Historically the Yakima Valley was an area where people came to start a new life or redeem their lives, he said. There are still high expectations for families, opportunities, and the Valley being a good place to live, and a lot of interest in the conservative values and the priorities of Republicans.

Issues

District 15 candidates had different takeaways as well from this years election results about voter values.

Cooper noted Democratic candidates pushed for keeping communities safe and healthy during the pandemic, while supporting small businesses and those who had lost their jobs or health care. The party also focused on other important issues, such as water conservation and clean water, education, livable wages, accessible health care and ensuring that everyone, including communities of color and LGBTQ individuals, were included and kept safe, she added.

Dufault said a major takeaway was that Yakima County voters showed they wont stand for new taxes. While Democrats in Seattle have started conversations about higher property, business and gas taxes as well as an income tax, Dufault said election results from Yakima County show where voters priorities lie.

When given the chance to vote directly on taxes, local and even statewide voters consistently point out that Olympia has a spending problem, not a revenue problem, he said.

For McEntire, who has a degree in microbiology and immunology from the University of Washington, debates locally and nationwide about COVID-19 and climate change highlighted that the Democratic Party stands behind science, a value he said is resonating with increasing numbers of voters.

Chandler said agriculture will remain a cornerstone and economic driver, as will the Yakima airport and employment through Hanford.

See original here:
Democrats, Republicans both see bright future for their parties in District 15 - Yakima Herald-Republic

JTA Elissa Slotkin, the rare Democrat who won reelection in a district where US President Donald Trump got a majority, is urging her fellow Democrats: dont make a shanda before the GOP.

There are people both inside and outside the party who are looking to split it apart, Slotkin told Politico in a story posted Friday, the last in a series chronicling her bid to keep her Michigan district straddling Detroits suburbs and Lansing.

And thats the least strategic thing I can think of its handing these anti-democratic forces that Im so concerned about a gift, she said. While I disagree with a lot of people in my party, I still have a lot in common with them. And it would be what we call in Yiddish a shanda, a shame, a deep shame, if internal politics led to a strategic opening for these completely anti-democratic forces.

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Slotkin and several others who flipped Republican seats in 2018 kept their districts, but many are out; Republicans gained at least 15 seats this election, although Democrats have maintained the majority.

Slotkin, a moderate who was elected after a long career in the national security sector, later told the Jewish Democratic Council of America that she was proud to use the Yiddishism.

There was a Politico article out today, she said in the Zoom call. We did like a series for Politico, and in my district, we have less than 4,000 Jews, we have a very small Jewish community, but I got the word shanda into that article, and then they had to explain it, including the journalist who never heard it, and so I feel Im doing my part to further the culture of the Jewish people.

Tim Alberta, the journalist in question, confirmed his prior ignorance on Twitter. My Yiddish is rusty, he said.

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Jewish congresswoman warns Democrats infighting leading to shanda - The Times of Israel

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader in the Senate, said on Monday that Trump was "100% within his rights" to consider legal challenges to the election results, and he lambasted Democrats as hypocrites.

But the reality is, while Democrats expressed disappointment at the 2016 election results, most of the party's leadership in Congress, the White House and at the Democratic National Committee congratulated then-President-elect Trump. They also pledged to work with his team to facilitate the transition and to work with his administration where their views aligned, while promising to stand up for their values when he challenged them. Their behavior four years ago mirrors the tradition followed by most administrations before them, and underscores how Trump and his allies have broken with decades of precedent in how transfers of power are conducted.

Emily W. Murphy, Trump's head of the General Services Administration, has refused to recognize the incoming Biden administration. The GSA's recognition would kick off the formal transition process, and by refusing to acknowledge Biden's victory the agency is making clear that it won't get ahead of the President.

Yet the day after the 2016 election, then-President Barack Obama ordered the White House to ensure a smooth transition, including the GSA.

Clinton delivered a speech the day after her election loss congratulating Trump.

CNN's KFile reviewed statements from Democratic leaders and Clinton allies in 2016 acknowledging their loss. Here's what they said:

Sen. Chuck Schumer

In comparison with McConnell's refusal to acknowledge Trump's loss, Chuck Schumer of New York, the then-incoming Democratic minority leader in the Senate, took the opposite approach, and congratulated Trump.

By contrast, the then-outgoing minority leader, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, was less diplomatic. Reid was retiring and didn't have to work with Republicans or Trump and, though he acknowledged Trump's victory, he harshly criticized him, saying Trump was "a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate."

Rep. Nancy Pelosi

Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California refused to acknowledge Trump's loss on Thursday and declined to say if Biden should receive classified intelligence briefings.

In 2016, Nancy Pelosi of California was House minority leader for the Democrats and acknowledged the election results the day Trump's victory was called.

Pelosi concluded her statement by saying: "I congratulate President-elect Trump and his family, and pray for his success."

Then-Rep. Joe Crowley

In 2016, then Rep. Joe Crowley of New York was vice chairman of the House Democrats, and he congratulated Trump the day after the election.

Then-Secretary of State John Kerry

On November 10, 2016, one day after the race was called, then-Secretary of State John Kerry took the opposite approach: congratulating Trump and pledging a peaceful transfer of power.

"I sent a note to all of our personnel within the State Department this morning reiterating what I have said to them personally before I left the country to come here, and that is that we have a time-honored tradition of a very peaceful and constructive transfer of power within administrations when that occurs in the United States."

Then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter

"Last night our fellow American citizens voted for a new President," Carter said. "I am very proud of the way each and every one of you conducted yourselves during this campaign, standing apart from politics and instead focusing on our sacred mission of providing security. I am committed to overseeing the orderly transition to the next Commander in Chief."

Former Secretary of Defense Mike Esper was fired by Trump on Monday and the President named Christopher Miller, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, as acting secretary. Neither Esper nor Miller has publicly commented on the election or the transition to the Biden administration.

Interim DNC Chair Donna Brazile

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has refused to acknowledge Trump's loss, echoing his claims about voter irregularities.

"We want to congratulate President-elect Donald Trump for his apparent Electoral College victory last night," Brazile said. "After this fierce campaign, now is the time for leaders from both parties to strive in good-faith to bridge our deep political divides, and work together in service to our one United States of America."

Clinton campaign Press Secretary Brian Fallon

In comparison, the national press secretary for Clinton's campaign, Brian Fallon, sent out a tweet the day after the election congratulating Trump.

Sen. Jon Tester, then-head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the incoming chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is tasked with electing Republicans to the Senate, encouraged Trump to challenge the election results last Saturday after national media outlets called the election for Biden.

By contrast, Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, the then-head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, took the opposite approach and said he'd be willing to work with Trump.

Read more:
How Democratic leaders handled the 2016 election loss and transition - CNN

Democrats everywhere should say Thank you to President Trump for believing them capable of stealing the presidential election. His accusations imply a grand organizational genius that many would have thought was beyond them. As we all know, it took a mastermind to enlist innumerable people to alter millions of votes in multiple states under the noses of thousands of poll watchers and election officials, many of whom were Republicans. And in total secrecy without one single co-conspirator breathing a word!

Ill bet the Democrats wish they had paid as much attention to fixing the down ballot races. Then they wouldnt have lost so many House seats and would have retaken the Senate.

The president hasnt spoken this highly of his opposing partys abilities since he described the coronavirus pandemic as a Democratic hoax. Its hard to believe that they were able to cancel the Olympics, shut down whole countries and tank the worlds economies, just so they could hinder the presidents reelection effort. But, the president said it. So, it must be true, right?

If the Democrats are capable of everything the president says, maybe we ought to vote for them. If they can pull off these plots, imagine what they could do with the economy, global warming, immigration and world peace.

See more here:
Your View: Democrats should thank Trump for believing them capable of stealing election - Bristol Herald Courier