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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Monday is naming 19 membersto the Frontline Program for its most vulnerable incumbents in 2018.

The initial Frontline roster, obtained first by Roll Call,is about half freshman members. Eight members won in districts President Donald Trump carried last fall. And all of them, save for one, are National Republican Congressional Committeeinitial targets.

Seven of the members on this years list were also on the DCCCs initial 2016 Frontline list. Out of the 12 Frontline members on the 2016 list who sought re-election last fall only Nebraska Rep. Brad Ashford lost.

Each of these Democrats knows how to win tough races proven by their success in a difficult national environment in 2016, DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Lujn said in a statement.

The Frontline Program will help these members again build strong campaigns, maximize resources and take advantage of the energy from the grassroots, so that they can continue to fight on behalf of the hardworking people in their districts, Lujn added.

Democrats need to gain 24 seats to win control of the House next year, which makes protecting their incumbents a high priority during a midterm year when turnout is typically less favorable for the party.

The NRCC named 10 members to its incumbent protection program last month.

Here are the 19 members on the Frontline roster, which is subject to change as the cycle develops:

Republicans have identified 36 targets for 2018, a third of which are in Trump districts. But several of those members are absent fromthe initial Frontline roster.

Trump carried Minnesota Rep. Collin C. Petersons 7th District by more than 30 points, which led Peterson to have a closer-than-expected re-election against an underfunded challenger. The same was true for fellow Democratic-Farmer-Labor Rep. Tim Walz, who won re-election by less than one point. Both seats could be strong pick-up opportunities for Republicans if open. ButInside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzalescurrently rates them bothLean Democrat.

Republicans also have their sights set on Pennsylvania Rep. Matt Cartwright, whose 17th District Trump won by 10 points. Inside Elections rates his seat Democrat Favored. Trump more narrowlywon Wisconsin Rep. Ron Kind's district. His seat is also rated Democrat Favoredbut could present a stronger opening for Republicans if Kind runs for governor.

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Excerpt from:
Democrats Identify Vulnerable Members for 2018 - Roll Call

Progressive rage over the 2016 election, an 18-candidate scramble, and President Donald Trumps underperformance in a suburban Georgia district have Democrats believing they can flip a seat that has been in GOP hands since Jimmy Carters administration.

Ordinarily, the 6th Congressional District would attract little attention outside of Georgia. The Cook Political Report rates it as a Republican +12 district, and Democrats have not closely contested it since 1990, when then-Rep. Newt Gingrich defeated Democrat David Worley by just 978 votes.

When John Lewis says someone is worth backing, thats a signal progressives everywhere have to take seriously. In Ossoffs case, wow, has that meant an insane amount of money.

Tom Price, whose selection as health and human services secretary triggeredthe special election, never faced a tough race and cruised to re-election in November with 61.7 percent of the vote. But Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton here by only a little more than 1 percentage point.

Winning the district would be a coup for Democrats looking for evidence of apolitical comeback after a fall that saw the party lose control of both houses of Congress, nearly 1,000 state legislative seats, and the White House.

It could be the Democratic equivalent of Republican Scott Browns January 2010 victory in a special election to replace liberal icon Ted Kennedy as a senatorfrom deep-blue Massachusetts. That win foreshadowed a GOP wave election 10 months later that brought the GOP back to power in the House of Representatives.

Newly minted Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez sees a golden opportunity.

We have got opportunities right here in Atlanta, where I sit today, Congressional 6, which is Cobb County, he told CNN last month. Were going to take the fight there.

Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old documentary filmmaker who worked as a an aide to Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), came in first in a recent poll, fueling hopes on the Left that the seat can be turned. He has the backing of Johnson and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), as well as the Daily Kos, aleft-wing blog that reportedly helped him raise more than $1 million.

When John Lewis says someone is worth backing, thats a signal progressives everywhere have to take seriously, Daily Kos Political Director David Nir told The Daily Beast. In Ossoffs case, wow, has that meant an insane amount of money.

In a sign of how invested progressives are in the contest, the political action committee End Citizens United has pledged to activate a donor base of 40,000 Atlanta-area residents to support Ossoff.

The 6th District covers the northern part of Fulton County outside Atlanta and takes in parts of eastern Cobb County and northern DeKalb County. Voters will winnow the field to two on April 18. Those candidates will face off in June.

Campaign Leadership Fund, a pro-Republican super PAC, is sufficiently concerned about Ossoff that it announced this month it is dropping $1.1 million into the race on negative ads. One spot features video of Ossoff in college yukking it up with his friends, pretending to be Han Solo and drinking from a keg.

The ad clearly aims to undercut the young filmmaker's claim to be prepared for Congress. But just in case there is any doubt, the it ends with the tagline, "Jon Ossoff: Not honest. Not serious. Not ready."

Corry Bliss, the super PAC's executive director, said in a statement that Ossoff is deceiving voters and noted reports that the candidate lives outside the district. He also teased more embarrassing ads.

"It is sad that the hope of the Democratic Party rests on a 30-year-old frat boy who has spent his adult life living outside of Georgia's 6th District playing dress-up with his drinking buddies," Bliss said in the statement.

GOP Front-Runner Touts Record Former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, the Republican front-runner, shows little interest in bashingOssoff or her Republican competitors. Instead, she focused during an interview with LifeZette on her own record and vision to fix the nation's big problems. She touted her successful efforts to close a $100 million budget shortfall as chairwoman of the Fulton County Commission in 2004, and endorsements from 31 elected officials.

Georgia 6th District Scramble

Source: Clout Research

As secretary of state, she said, she implemented a photo identification law while working to make sure every eligible voter had proper ID. Handel said she intends to focus on repealing the Affordable Care Act, reforming the tax code and securing America's borders.

"I'm just gonna to focus on my race and what I can offer to the people of the 6th District," Handelsaid. "As I look at this, Republicans, we've had eight years to talk about all the things that we want to do. Now is out opportunity and our obligation to deliver I am the one candidate in this race who has a solid track record of delivering on her commitments time and time again."

In addition to leading all Republicans in the Clout Research survey, she also is the only candidate in the field who has won statewide office.

Republican Bob Gray, who finished third in the poll, said he believes Democratic dreams of capturing the district are unrealistic. A business executive, Gray compared himself to David Perdue, a businessman who won the 2014 GOP U.S. Senate primary against Handel and others and went on to win the general election.

"I am the one candidate in this race who has a solid track record of delivering on her commitments time and time again."

"People are just tired of the insiders and the politicians," he said. "People do want experience, but it's a different kind of experience."

Other Republican contenders include former state Sens. Dan Moody and Judson Hill, and Bruce LeVell, who headed Trump's national diversity coalition.

For his part, Ossoff seems eager to turn the race into a referendum on Trump.

"I think people are embarrassed by him," he told The Washington Post. "People are concerned he's dishonest and not competent."

Republicans and independent observers remain skeptical, however.

"We're not worried at all," said Maddie Anderson, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Campaign Committee. "The underperformance by Trump is the only reason Democrats think they can win here. Basically, they're using the same failed playbook from the last election, which is making it about the top of the ticket."

Anderson attributed the narrow gap between Trump and Clinton in the district to the fact that the GOP nominee appealed to different kinds of voters. But she added that the district has not changed overnight.

Upset Would Be 'Stunning' M.V. Hood III, director of the University of Georgia's Survey Research Center, agreed. He said there are signs of Democrats making inroads in the suburbs. Clinton, for instance, became the first Democratic presidential candidate since 1980 to win Cobb County and the first since 1976 to carry Gwinnett County which is not in the district but is in the Atlanta suburbs.

But Hood said the 6th District remains Republican-leaning. He added that novice candidates like Ossoff rarely win congressional races.

Hood acknowledged that anger at Trump has the Left more energized that normal.

"That's completely different from saying this district is energized," he said. "I'm not willing to go that far."

Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, said an upset would be "stunning." He said it is risky for Democrats to make the election about Trump when the final voting is still three months away.

"Who knows what Donald Trump will have done by then," he said. "He could be walking on water by then, or he could be sunk."

Julianne Thompson, a Republican strategist and co-chairwoman of the Atlanta Tea Party, said it will not work to make the election about Trump.

"That's going to backfire," she said. "It certainly backfired for them in 2016."

Thompson said she believes two Republicans will make it into the runoff. She said the top Republican campaigns are building sophisticated door-knocking efforts and other efforts that will be crucial in a low-turnout special election, but she warned against overconfidence.

"I don't see the same sort of grassroots ground game from the Democrats," she said. "I do not think any of the Republican candidates in the race need to take it for granted that they're going to win, because the Democrats are going to work hard."

Excerpt from:
Democrats Seek 'Scott Brown Moment' in Red Georgia District - LifeZette

File photo of voting booths in Florida on November 8, 2016. GREGG NEWTON / AFP - Getty Images

If there is one priority that Democrats need to own is to expand access to the voting booth for Latinos and other voters. Automatic voter registration should be a priority for all Democratic lawmakers.

So it's a shame that in New Mexico two Democrats didn't vote for a bill that would have gotten closer to automatic voter registration. Instead, they voted for a second bill that is less "automatic," thus diluting the purpose making voting easier for Latinos and other voter groups.

The lawmakers, State Reps. Daymon Ely and Debbie Rodella

In short, an "opt-in" provision means that a person filling out an online form for a driver's license would also be presented with a box that asks them if they also want to register to vote. The box, however, would not be automatically ticked, meaning the person would need to affirmatively tick the box to register.

An "opt-out" provision is much more effective; it would present the applicant with a box that is already ticked and the registrant would need to affirmatively untick the box if they did not desire to register to vote. The difference is subtle but critically important.

Rep. Ely said in a

More troubling is Rep. Rodella, who

Here's why Rep. Rodella is wrong.

According to a recent study by Wendy Weiser, automatic registration helps millions of Americans who change residences, without it many fall off the voter rolls.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, one in four eligible citizens is not registered to vote, one in eight voter registrations in the United States is invalid or significantly inaccurate, and one in four voters wrongly believes their voter registration is automatically updated when they change their address with the Postal Service. This is shameful.

When the amended bill was presented again, it was presented with the opt-in provision and without the opt-out provision. In other words, it's not really automatic voter registration. The two Democratic lawmakers voted for this bill instead.

Expanding access to the democratic process is an imperative that Democrats at least pretend to want, but the Republican Party has been busy pushing for legislation to stymie this right across the country. From news laws that punish the

The democratic process requires more than just citizen participation, but a government that accepts its share of the responsibility over voter participation. The academic research on this is clear; political participation is not only about citizens going to politics, but about politics going to its citizens.

Automatic voter registration is the law in other democratic countries, such as Australia, Peru, Germany, and others. The research has also shown that automatic voter registration helps boost voter

This is even more important for Latinos. A

Much of the confrontation in democratic governments has been over access to the political process. Historically, voter registration laws have been a hurdle to participation for minorities and politically disaffected groups. Whether it is voter id laws, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, or disenfranchising citizens with a criminal background, registration laws have been precision tool to discriminate against the powerless behind a disingenuous veil of concern over securing our democracy.

The discussion over how the Democrats recover from their stunning loss to Donald Trump has generally focused on what Democrats can do to counter the Republican Party, whether by appealing to working-class white voters or by doubling down with progressive values that may hinder their outreach to rural towns that catapulted the President to an electoral college victory.

But also of immediate concern for Democrats is holding their own representatives accountable for violating the values and interests of their own party at the local level. And pushing for easier access to the voting booth and vigorously supporting automatic voter registration is a must for the party not only because Democrats need Latino voters, but because it is the right thing to do.

If Democrats expect to have a chance at winning back Congress it must start with local officials getting the message that they have to fight for the democratic process. The answer is supporting and better yet, introducing bills to make voting easier, including automatic voter registration. This is their job.

Originally posted here:
Opinion: Democrats Can't Drop the Ball on Automatic Voter Registration - NBCNews.com

Editorial board, The Republic | azcentral.com Published 9:05 p.m. MT March 5, 2017 | Updated 8 hours ago

The Department of Homeland Security issued a sweeping set of orders Tuesday that implement President Trump's plan to increase immigration enforcement. Wochit

John Moore/Getty Images Our national political leaders committed the real crime of illegal immigration. The United States needs comprehensive immigration reform in order to solve its border problems. Increasing the numbers of Border Patrol agents and spending billions on surveillance and security efforts are not enough.(Photo: Getty Images)

Immigration reform matters to Arizona for reasons that range from humanitarian to economic. That made last week a wild roller-coaster ride.

It was encouraging to hear reports early in the weekthat the Trump administration thinks the time may be right for reform including a pathway to legalization.

Donald Trumps history of bashing immigrants gives him a Nixon-in-China opportunity to muscle comprehensive reform through Congress, so this was promising.

But the presidents address to Congress Tuesday did not capitalize on that opportunity.

Instead, he hurled the usual unrelenting litany of blame at the undocumented. He also made the ridiculous assertion that our southern border is wide open for anyone to cross.

With the conciliatory tone toward the countrys undocumented population absent from the speech, it looked likecomprehensive reform was off the agenda.

Instead of proposing to solve the long-standing problem of 11 million people living and working in shadows of a great nation, Trump used his bully pulpit to tout his new office of Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement, which is ostensibly to support victims of crimes by undocumented immigrants.

DIAZ: Do you believe Trump's immigration reform is possible? Not me

Should such victims be supported? Of course. All crime victims should get the help they need.

Should dangerous criminals be deported? Of course. Quickly and permanently.

But Trumps new VOICE office is an official U.S. government platform from which to promote the fallacious idea that undocumented immigrants as a whole are prone to committing violent crime.

They are not. And portraying them as dangerous inflames the discussion and makes reform much more difficult.

That was the low point of the roller-coaster ride.

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, and John McCain, R-Ariz.(Photo: Rob Schumacher/The Republic file)

A couple of Republican senators began the uphill climb from there.

ArizonaSen. John McCain and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham understand the difference between criminals and hard-working mothers a distinction that Trump misses.

RELATED:McCain, Graham: Deportation efforts should focus on serious criminals

Among the questioners at a CNN town hall the senators attended Wednesday were Angel Rayos, the son of Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, a working woman who was deported after checking in with Immigrationand Customs Enforcement in Phoenix, and Jamiel Shaw Sr., whose 17-year-old son was murdered by an undocumented immigrant.

Graham told them:

"Here's what I think: Most Americans want the man who killed your son to be deported yesterday, and never come back," Graham said. "I think most Americans want your mother not to have been deported. I can tell the difference between your mother and the person who killed his son. Don't you think most Americans can see that difference?"

Now another Phoenix parent has been deported after what was supposed to be a routine visit to ICE. The children of Juan Carlos Fomperosa Garcia are left wondering why. Their father was following ICE requirements, they say.

The president should be able to see it and explain it to the American people.

McCain said: "We have to have comprehensive immigration reform, which gives people a path to citizenship, but it's a long, hard, tough path.

Arizona has known the need for that kind of reform for many years. Our state has been through the spasm of anti-immigrant nativism on which Trump built his political career.

MORE:Phoenix church said no 2 years ago, is now asanctuary for migrants

It didnt work here, and it wont work on the national level either.

The very important job of reforming our immigration policies should bring lasting order to the border and assure this country has a legally authorized workforce. But reform can't ignore11 million people whose presence is a result of our flawed immigration policies.

Nor will continuing to vilify those people create an atmosphere conducive to the kind of compromise necessary to achievemeaningful reform.

Many undocumented people are relatives, friends and neighbors of Arizonans. They have family and social ties to our communities. They have also contributed their labor and their talents to our collective success.

Arizona knows this very well, and Arizona has a great deal to gain from rational, humane immigration reform.

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Our View: Another wild ride on the immigration reform roller coaster - AZCentral.com

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officialsannounced Friday the governmentwould suspend the premium processing route for its H-1B visa program, which allows companies to speed up the approval of temporary legal residency for skilled foreign hires. The change startsApril 3 and will last for up to six months, officials said.

Over the fiscal year, 85,000 H-1B visas are reserved for foreign nationals with a bachelors degree or higher related to their specialty occupationdefined by USCIS as jobs in engineering, math and business, as well as technology fieldsand a clear relationship with the employer petitioning for their legal immigrant status. The premium processing service allows employers to draw down a potentially extensive wait time to 15 days, for a fee of $1,225.

While USCIS cast the decision as an effort catch up on the high volume of incoming petitions and the significant surge in premium requests over the past few years, many worried the move would be only the first attempt to dismantle a worker pipeline program President Donald Trump pledged to eliminate while on the campaign trail. Already, Trump angered the tech community with aJan. 27 executive orderthat banned entry to the U.S. by citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, without making exceptions for H-1B visa holders. (The ban was later struck down by federal judges, but the White House announced Monday a new ban against six countries.)

The U.S. government is clearly telling companies not to depend on the H-1B visa going forward, Kris Lakshmikanth,chairman of IT recruitment firm Headhunters India, told Quartz, adding that he expected the suspension to force businesses to pay a higher price for labor, due to higher demand for soon-to-be scarce H-1B workers. Companies dont typically keep H-1B visa holders on the bench, so there are no such employees to spare for new projects. That means companies will have to hire H-1B holders from other companies if they get new projects. That will come at a high cost now that H-1B holders are in demand.

Others pointed out that the move would place businesses in decision-making limbo, despite its ostensible goal of prioritizing those whove waited months for their applications to be processed.

"The message specifically mentions they want to bring down the backlogged time, but I worry about my clients, employers and individuals who will be affected by these delays," Tahmina Watson, an attorney at Seattle-based Watson Immigration Law, told CNN. She said the suspension would keep employers from being able to plan for their businesses and act accordingly and was not good for American businesses by any means."

Opponents of the program, which predominantly benefits Indian workers and companies, note that it attracts tech workers who beat out American competition with their willingness to work for lower pay. One requirement for H-1B applicants, however, is that they earn the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific occupation in the area of intended employment.

USCIS did not halt its expedited processing servicea step up from premium processing used in cases of emergency, severe financial loss, a national interest situation, humanitarian reasons or a furtherance of the cultural and social interests of the U.S., according to its website.

Excerpt from:
Immigration Reform 2017: Trump Suspends H-1B Visa Program Premium Processing For High-Skilled Foreign Workers ... - International Business Times