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South Dakota Democrats are set to vote on a set of constitutional amendments this weekend that would push up their party officer elections and possibly trigger a contest for party chair.

Democratic candidates for the South Dakota House of Representatives Karen Soli, left, and Ann Tornberg, right, visit during the South Dakota Democratic Party's Election Night event Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, at the Holiday Inn Sioux Falls City Centre in downtown Sioux Falls.(Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)Buy Photo

The biggest weekend of the year for South Dakota Democrats could also usher in a whirlwind contest aimed at ousting the party's chair.

Central committee members learned this week that those in attendance will vote Saturday to amend the party's constitution to shorten the terms of party officers and to push elections from winter months following gubernatorial elections to the spring of odd-numbered years.

The proposal comes with the latest call to unseat South Dakota Democratic Party Chair Ann Tornberg and has been considered a coup by some party insiders.

Supporters of the proposal to swiftly alter party rules say the change is needed to make the party more competitive moving forward, while opponents say it will damage consistency and experience among the Democrats' top ranks.

In a letter first published on progressive blog Dakota Free Press,party member Rachelle Norbergof Vermillionsaid she brought a variety of proposals to clean up language in the party's constitutionas well as the two election reforms in hopes of holding an election for a new party chair this weekend.

"We dont hold Ann Tornberg responsible for all that ails the SDDP. She has tried her best, and for that we thank her," Norberg wrote."What we do hold her responsible for is a severe lack of management ability that has led to low fundraising, dropping voter registration numbers, a nearly invisible message, and at the center, zero of anything resembling a strategic action plan for the State Party."

Tornberg said Tuesday that she wanted to respect the proposals and the democratic process bygiving them consideration in committee. She also said she felt she'd effectively managed the party since she was elected in 2014, despite the outcome of the 2016 elections.

"I feel like I worked very hard and there was a lot of indications of effectiveness," Tornberg said. "I understand the frustration with South Dakota Democrats as there are frustrations all over the country about the election of Donald Trump."

Calls to recall Tornberg and to "shake up" party leadership rang out following sweeping losses in 2016. Former U.S. House candidate Paula Hawks said the party didn't provided her enough support and urged party then leaders tobe more aggressive.

Hawks didn't return a call requesting comment Tuesday.

There could be hundreds of county party representatives that show up to vote on Saturday. A majority will have to support the amendments and it's unclear whether an election could take place the same day.

At least half of the eligible members in attendance would have to sign a recall petition and present it to central committee leadership.

Heather Halverson, chair of the Minnehaha County Democratic Party, said she felt the efforts to elect a new chair nearly half way through Tornberg's term seemed "sudden." Despite that, she said she would listen to arguments on both sides and decide how to vote on Saturday.

"If it seems like something that might help the party move forward, then I might vote to support it," Halverson said. "But if it's too much of an upheaval, I'm not sure I can vote for that."

Jeff Barth,who challenged Tornberg for her position in 2014, said he wouldn't be in attendance at the meetings Saturdaybut felt the effort to oust the party head was being brought in poor taste.

"I don't particularly care much for the ploys intended to manipulate the process essentially at the last second," Barth said.

Follow Dana Ferguson on Twitter @bydanaferguson, call (605) 370-2493 or email dferguson@argusleader.com

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Democrats to consider replacing chair at party meeting - Sioux Falls Argus Leader

Democrats wasted little time Wednesday in seeking to capitalize on President Trumps plans to attend a fundraiser Friday in Georgia for the Republican candidate in a special congressional election.

Trumps SO scared of losing that hes leaving work early to crush our historic momentum, said an email solicitation sent out by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The organization said it had created an Emergency Response Fund to match the piles of cash Trump will rake in for Republican Karen Handel.

[Trump to appear at fundraiser for GOP congressional candidate in Georgia]

Handel finished second in the April 18 special election to Democrat Jon Ossoff, and the two will face each other in a runoff June 20. The race is being closely watched nationally as a test of how Trump is affecting down-ballot races.

Democrats have sought to parlay anti-Trump sentiment nationally into an upset in a Republican-tilting district previously represented by Tom Price, now Trumps health and human services secretary.

Trump is traveling to Atlanta on Friday to address a conference of the National Rifle Association and will appear at the fundraiser afterward, according to a copy of the invitation. Tickets start at $2,700 apiece, while hosts are asked to contribute or raise $25,000 per couple.

The Democratic solicitation seeks contributions of $1 to help elect Jon and Democrats like him.

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Democrats seeking to raise money off Trump's planned Georgia fundraiser - Washington Post

When Fortune magazine unveiled its annual ranking of the worlds greatest leaders last month, there was a surprise at the top of the list: Theo Epstein, the president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs. Some people never heard of him, Fortunes Geoff Colvin said in a video introducing Epstein. (Pope Francis, a previous holder of the top spot, was third). But, Colvin added, Baseball fans really know him well because he has done the impossible. Indeed. In 2004, Epstein, then the 30-year-old general manager of the Boston Red Sox, presided over the teams first championship in 86 years. Seven yearsand two more titleslater, he decamped to Chicago, where he engineered the remaking of the long-suffering Cubs, and ended an impossibly longer drought, 108 years, with a World Series win last fall. (Time added to Epsteins rsum last week when it named him one of the worlds 100 most influential people).

As Epstein has made his mark on baseball he has also been a visible figure in Democratic political circles. In 2004, he stumped for John Kerry, getting in a dig at President George W. Bush on the campaign trail. Its only been four years, but it sure feels like 86, he told a crowd. Last year, Epstein attended a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in Chicago just before the playoffs started. It is no wonder then that when the Cubs visited the White House on January 16, President Barack Obama joked of Epstein, He takes the reins of an organization thats wandering in the wilderness and he delivers them to the promised land. Ive talked to him about being [Democratic National Committee] chair.

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Plenty of others have speculated about Epsteins political future. He is telegenic, well-spoken and has a demonstrated interest in public service, having started a foundation that has donated millions of dollars to support urban youth and families. His grandfather wrote the screenplay for Casablanca. Epstein's father, Leslie, won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford and is a Boston University English professor (He also happened to predict Donald Trumps defeat of Clinton.). When Epstein was hired by the Red Sox, then the youngest general manager in baseball history, his father quipped, At Theos age, Alexander the Great was already general manager of the world. More recently, Leslie Epstein has mentioned that his son could run anything from the United Nations to the Ford Foundation after his baseball career.

Last fall, when ESPN the Magazine convened a roundtable to discuss Epsteins place in history among baseball executives, the conversation turned to politics. If Theo ever went into politics, I'd see him as more of an executive-branch typea governor, rather than a congressman ... , wrote Buster Olney. And when Epstein earned the mantle of Worlds Greatest Leader, the chatter continued. Ive often said that someday Theo Epstein will be a Democratic senator from Massachusetts or Illinois, and hell one day run for president and win, wrote the longtime Boston Globe baseball writer Nick Cafardo.

Curious what the political pros think of Epstein, and with Democrats on the lookout for a new generation of talent, I turned to Chicagos most notable kingmakerand Cubs fanDavid Axelrod. We discussed the possibility of Epstein in the Senate seat that once belonged to Obama, the similarities between the two leaders and if Axelrod expects a surge of celebrity candidates in the age of Trump.

Politico Magazine: You interviewed Theo Epstein for a piece you wrote in the New Yorker last fall, where you called the Cubs season the most pleasing campaign of 2016, and noted how similar the feel around the team was to President Obamas 2008 campaign. Do you see similarities between Epstein and President Obama?

David Axelrod: They both have two kinds of intelligence: emotional intelligence and a more linear intelligence. They both have the self-confidence to surround themselves with very smart people. Theos had a core group around him (general manager Jed Hoyer and head of amateur scouting Jason McLeod) since the beginning in Boston. Its striking how much he relishes smart people around him and has the confidence to be challenged ... Obama had it, too. I would add that Epstein has learned on the job. In Boston, he was a pioneer [in using statistical analysis] ... Hes told me that he used to be dismissive of the touchy-feely stuff [in evaluating baseball players], but now his scouts write five-page essays about the guys theyre going to draft. In the same way, Obama would tell you he was a better president at the end of eight years than at the beginning. He was smart enough to learn on the job, too.

Politico: Are any of the skills Epstein has exhibited in building championship baseball teams transferable to politics?

Axelrod: Baseball seasons are very much like campaigns in that you need to know going in that there are going to be ups and downs and that all of them are going to play out under the watchful eye of millions of people, all of whom think they can do this better than you There are going to be some things that force you to change ... In baseball, it might be injuries. In politics, its some unforeseen event, or some gaffe. The ability to keep an even keel ... is another quality that Epstein and Obama share.

Politico: Lets imagine the messaging of a hypothetical Epstein campaign. Could he sell himself as the ultimate turnaround artist? First, the Red Sox, then the Cubs, next the state of Illinois, for example?

Axelrod: [laughs] It would work if he were running for alderman on the North Side of Chicago, but I suspect voters might resist the idea that turning around a baseball team is commensurate with turning around a city, a state or a country A good example would be Bill Bradley (a former New York Knicks star who became a Democratic senator from New Jersey). When he ran he did very little referencing of basketball. He was actually even self-conscious about being a jock, so I think you have to separate yourself a little bit from sports ... One thing that is transferable is the notion of building a team and getting people to work together. You could use that as a bridge to say what we need in this country is to regain the sense that were all on the same team and that were only going to prosper if we work together and find a way to build that bridge. That would be a winning message.

Politico: He could also say hes worked across the aisle because his bosses, the Ricketts family, own the Cubs. (Pete Ricketts is the Republican governor of Nebraska and Joe Ricketts, the family patriarch, has been a prodigious funder of Republican candidates.).

Axelrod: You could certainly say that. Your next call should be to them to ask would you support him for office [laughs] ... Obviously, the Ricketts family was not particularly supportive of President Obama, but to the credit of the Ricketts family and to Theo, theyve teamed up on one endeavor and thats to build the best baseball team they can. I dont think anyone gives a rats ass about the politics of folks involved.

Politico: Could Epstein win a statewide race in Illinoiseither for governor or Senate?

Axelrod: Yeah, he could. Hes got a positive image here and hes a very bright, elegant thinker. Very public spirited. His ego is in check. Hes got a lot of the requisite qualities except one: the desire to hold public office.

Politico: I want to come back to his desire shortly, but, first, would you enjoy working on a Theo Epstein campaign?

Axelrod: Im sort of done with campaigns, but I would be an avid supporter of his ... He would find the whole thing amusing that were even discussing it, but he seems like a really, really good guy to work with. One of the reasons I retired from politics is after Barack Obama I didnt think I would find a better candidate. I think Theo would be that kind of client.

Politico: So if youre the Democratic Party and youre looking for an infusion of new leadership, would you be calling Epstein to recruit him?

Axelrod: Hes an attractive guy, hes got a lot of great qualities ... He does well when hes in public, hes incredibly articulate. Take a look at his speech at the White House. Its Obamas last eventObama being a very, very prominent White Sox fanand Theo couldnt have handled it better. His remarks were graceful, funny, disarming and yet inspiring. So he has those abilities and he is by the way, like Obama, a very fine writer ... but he genuinely is an introvert ... He doesnt like the spotlight, he doesnt thrive on the attention. And Im not sure he would like the constant personal exposure that one has in that job. My doubts, again, are not about him as a candidate, but his desire to do such a thing. Im sure there are people who will talk to him about [running]. I dont think theres any doubt about it. Its not like theres a long line of superstars out there.

Politico: But you dont think hell take the bait?

Axelrod: I think as soon as he gets that call, hes immediately changing his number ... I think Theo would be frustrated in public office because of the situation hes in now. He basically has free rein to do what he needs to do for the success of the organization. That is not the case in politicsyoure seeing that with the governor in Illinois (Bruce Rauner) right now. You have to deal with legislatures and all kinds of public stakeholders. And if youre used to making things happen, Im not sure the Senate would be a particularly satisfying job for you. When I talked to him on my podcast ... about what he might want to do next ... he allowed that he might want to own a team sometime and use that team or use that platform to try to impact on a community. He clearly cares about the larger world and wants to make an impact ... But there are many, many reasons I think Cubs fans can relax and enjoy the benefits of his leadership for many years to come.

Politico: Lets take this beyond Epstein for a moment. Given the success of Donald Trump, do you expect to see a spike in celebrity candidatesincluding sports figureswith no government experience? Tommy Tuberville, for example, the former football coach at Auburn is mulling a run for governor in Alabama.

Axelrod: Yes, Marc Cuban has talked about running for president, too. We live in a celebrity culture and that has been amplified by social media and Trump has proven that it can be done. But I also think there is a pendulum quality to our politics, relative to presidential politics. People never look for the replica of what they have; they look for the remedy. Barack Obama was the anti-George Bush in many ways. Certainly Donald Trump is the anti-Barack Obama. And Barack Obama left as a popular president. Trump may have spoiled it for the wealthy celebrity outsider, at least for the short run.

Politico: Will Trumps performance impact future candidates who want to run on their business records?

Axelrod: Trump built his brand through 14 years on television. So, yes, he has this patina of a can-do businessman. Especially for people who had grievances about the economy, that was useful. But how much of [his success] was [due to] that? How much of it was his celebrity and personality? I cant really parse.

Politico: I have to ask: Can a baseball executive really be the worlds greatest leader?

Axelrod: I was a little taken aback by that ... Theo is an extraordinary leader, theres no question about that He really understands how to build both a culture of an organization and how to push for constant innovation. While Im not sure that I would have nudged the pope out of the way, I certainly think theres a lot to be learned by the way hes run that organization.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Ben Strauss is the co-author of Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA, winner of the 2017 PEN/ESPN award for literary sports writing.

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Could Theo Epstein Perform a Miracle for the Democrats? - POLITICO Magazine

Sen. Ted CruzTed CruzCruz looks to boost space industry GOP super PAC pours millions into Ga. special election Cruz: 'Schumer and the Democrats want a shutdown' MORE (R-Texas) on Wednesday accused Senate Minority Leader Charles SchumerCharles SchumerCruz: 'Schumer and the Democrats want a shutdown' GOP fundraiser enters crowded primary for Pa. Senate seat Dems: Trump risks government shutdown over border wall MORE (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats of trying to force a government shutdown in order to satisfy a "left-wing radical base."

"I think Chuck SchumerCharles SchumerCruz: 'Schumer and the Democrats want a shutdown' GOP fundraiser enters crowded primary for Pa. Senate seat Dems: Trump risks government shutdown over border wall MORE and the Democrats want a shutdown," Cruz said on "Fox & Friends." "I think they're trying to provoke a fight, and Schumer is just trying to put more and more unreasonable demands, trying to force a shutdown to appease those who want total resistance, total opposition who don't want the Trump administration to succeed."

Cruz also blamed the left-wing base for encouraging the party to adopt a sweeping agenda of opposition that led Senate Democrats to filibuster Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch's nomination earlier this month. In response, Republicans voted to change Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.

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Onepossible spending billwould see Republicans agreeing to fund the cost-sharing program in exchange for Democrats agreeing to an additional $15 billion in defense spending.

Democrats also vowed to block a spending bill that included funding for President Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump seemed to back away from his demands to include such funding in the measure, saying on Tuesday that "the wall will get built" but not specifying when.

In 2013, Cruz was instrumental in shutting down the government in an attempt to defund ObamaCare.

Originally posted here:
Cruz: 'Schumer and the Democrats want a shutdown' - The Hill

Adam Schiff and Donald Trump.

Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images and Molly Riley/Getty Images.

Because I was sentient 100 days ago, Im old enough to remember a time when American presidents were expected, as a matter of course, not to have paid foreign agents among their senior staff. Its hard to imagine what would have happened if Barack Obamas national security adviser were revealed to have recently been on the payroll of Turkeys Islamist government, as Donald Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was. And what if wed learned that a onetime campaign manager of Obama was a foreign agent of pro-Russian political interests in Ukraine, like Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort? And that he appeared to have kept this entanglement secret, in violation of the law? How about if one of Obamas foreign policy advisers had admitted to passing documents to a Russian spy, like Trump campaign adviser Carter Page? Wed either have an impeachment, armed right-wing militias marching on the capital, or both. Quotidian political life would, at the very least, have ground to a halt.

Michelle Goldberg is a columnist for Slate and the author, most recently, of The Goddess Pose.

It should be grinding to a halt now. But instead, 100 days into Donald Trumps terrible presidency, a strange miasma has settled over American politics. Its like a nightmare where you know something hideous is happening, but your legs are leaden and you cant scream. Certainly, the anti-Trump resistance is working its heart out, but few talk about avoiding the normalization of Trump anymore. The presidents main 100-day accomplishmentbesides sticking a reactionary on the Supreme Courthas been to make previously inconceivable levels of corruption and staggering breaches of national security appear normal.

On both the left and the right, people discuss the Russia scandal as something that may or may not be proved. Speaking for many left-leaning skeptics, Rolling Stones Matt Taibbi writes, [I]t might be a good idea to wait for evidence of collusion before those of us in the media jump in the story with both feet. This attitude shows how dramatically political standards have changed since Trumps election. Certainly, its true that we dont know if the Kremlin is blackmailing Trump with a tape of a peeing prostitute. Were also far from understanding exactly how many millions of dollars various Russian oligarchs may have funneled to Trump, and what they might have expected in return. We know that Trump publicly urged Russia to hack his opponent, but we dont know if he also did so privately.

But even if we never get to the bottom of the mysteries surrounding Trump and Russiamysteries that will haunt American culture, like JFKs assassination, for the rest of our liveswe already know enough to conclude that the Russia scandal is big. Lets look at what weve learned, over these past three months, about Manafort. We now know, thanks to an April New York Times story, that he went out of his way to insinuate himself into the Trump campaign, offering, for reasons that have never been explained, to work without pay. (Trump, a famous cheapskate, accepted.) And we know that earlier this month, Manaforts spokesman said he would retroactively register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent of proRussian Ukrainian political interests, a tacit admission that hed improperly failed to disclose this connection earlier. Whatever Trumps other ties to Russia, whatever aid he accepted from the Kremlin, he let a paid agent of an unfriendly country run his campaign. That alone should threaten to end his presidency.

Flynn, we learned on Tuesday, may have violated the law in accepting payments from Turkey as well as from Russia. The White Houses failure to properly vet Flynn before giving him one of the countrys most sensitive national-security jobs should, again, be treated as a massive dereliction, and investigated thoroughly.

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We also now know that one of Trumps foreign-policy advisers, Carter Page, has been suspected by American intelligence of being a Russian intelligence asset, and admitted to BuzzFeed that hed given documents about the energy business to a Russian intelligence operative. Yes, Pages influence in the campaign appears to have been minor, but he was privy to internal meetings. A hundred days ago, there was an expectation that American presidents would keep people who might be compromised by Russian spies off their foreign-policy teams. If one managed to slip through, there would be urgent calls to find out who was responsible.

One could list 100 things that Trump has doneone for each debased day of his wretched presidencythat would be enough to impeach a Democrat. (Not all of Trumps violations involve Russia, of course, though a bizarre number of them do.) Bill Clintons entire presidency was haunted by multiple investigations into Whitewater, a 1978 Arkansas real estate deal in which he and his wife lost money, and no wrongdoing was ever uncovered. In 2008, a Russian oligarch massively overpaid for a Palm Beach mansion owned by Trump, and its at best a political footnote.

Thats because Trumps presidency, like his campaign, is a lowlife carnival; there are so many macabre sideshows and freakish violations of normal political behavior that were left stunned and dazed. Much of the mainstream media, and almost all elected Republicans, act as if the horror of this presidency were less than the sum of its parts. The outrages cancel each other out rather than accumulating. This massive inflation in what constitutes a scandal has the potential to be permanently corrupting.

Trump has not created this dynamic on his own. The Republican Party, convinced of its right to rule, has been ethically unbound since Richard Nixon. There is no Democratic equivalent of Watergate, or IranContra, or the deceit of George W. Bushs administration in selling the Iraq war. (The closest proximate thing was Bill Clintons lies about sexual relations with an intern in the Oval Office.) Over the past 50 years, Republican presidencies have been consistently more corrupt than Democratic ones. Yet Republicans have also treated our past two Democratic administrations as illegitimate and have undermined them with endless investigations into phony scandals like Whitewater and Benghazi. The result is that Democrats and Republicans operate under entirely different standards of appropriate political behavior.

Every day, Trump shows us what politics look like when the rules only apply to one party.

This double standard was determinative in electing Trump. On April 22, the New York Times published a long look into FBI Director James Comeys pivotal role in the 2016 election. It explains why Comey broke protocol to go public, just days before the election, with the FBIs decision to reopen its investigation into Hillary Clintons email server, even as he kept the FBIs investigation into the Trump campaigns Russia ties secret. Essentially, Comey bent over backward to avoid any hint of covering for Clinton, because he feared Republicans capacity to create a political uproar. Congressional Republicans were preparing for years of hearings during a Clinton presidency, said the Times. If Mr. Comey became the subject of those hearings, F.B.I. officials feared, it would hobble the agency and harm its reputation. Comey apparently had no similar fear of Democrats, even when he thought that they might control the White House.

Every day, Trump shows us what politics look like when the rules only apply to one party. Already, because of Trump, America is a more cynical, corrupt, lawless place than it was 100 days ago. There is only one way back from this, and that is to make sure that someday, when Democrats retake at least one chamber of Congress, they investigate every shady thing that Trump, his cronies, and his relatives have done either in achieving or using public power, even if it takes decades. We dont need Democrats chanting lock them up at rallies, but progressive activists should demand that politicians hoping to represent them promise to end Republican impunity. And then, when and if Democrats wrest back some measure of power from Republicans, activists should hold these politicians to their promises.

Were going to need a subcommitteemaybe more than oneon foreign emoluments. We should have one specifically devoted to Ivanka Trumps foreign businesses, as well as to the fund shes starting to invest in female entrepreneurs, since unlike her father, shes not exempt from federal conflict of interest statutes. (According to Axios, Ivanka already started soliciting foreign contributions to her funda move thats almost comically hypocritical, given the Trump campaigns attacks on foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation.) Were going to have to understand everything that went on at Mar-a-Lagohow Trump sold access to himself, and to whom, and what sort of security protocols were in place while he did so. Not only do we need a full, comprehensive airing of Flynns ties to Turkey and Russia, we also need to examine what the administration knew about the ways he might have been compromised. Comey should become the subject of protracted hearings over the political calculus that went into his decision-making during the campaign, just like he feared. The Russia investigation alone should dog Trump for the rest of his days.

One hundred days has not been enough time to fully grapple with how much damage Trump is doing to this country, and to figure out how handsomely he and his family are profiting from their rule. It is enough time to know that the project of holding him and his enablers accountable should stretch far into the American future, assuming that, after Trump, there is one.

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Democrats Must Investigate Every Trump Scandal, Even if It Takes Decades - Slate Magazine