19 Sunday Dec 2021
Posted in campaign finance
Yesterday at the Missouri Ethics Commission for another right wingnut PAC from Rex Sinquefield:
C180684 12/18/2021 American Dream PAC Rex Sinquefield 244 Bent Walnut Lane Westphalia MO 65085 NA Retired 12/18/2021 $250,000.00
[emphasis added]
Here we are. One person’s dream is another’s nightmare.
Previously:
Campaign Finance: piling on (December 12, 2021)
Campaign Finance: No, seriously, tell us what you really want. (December 16, 2021)
01 Friday May 2020
Posted in Uncategorized
The campaign continues.
Joe Biden (D) [2020 file photo].
From a press pool report of a Biden Campaign virtual fundraiser with Obama Administration and Campaign alumni held this afternoon.
On the COVID-19 pandemic:
“Our job isn’t just to win this election or implement a plan to end this crisis. Those are just the table stakes. Getting back to where we were in January 2017 isn’t enough. This crisis is shining a really bright light on the inequities and failures that plague our society. That’s a devastating, devastating problem that’s playing out in the cruelest ways. But it’s also an opportunity. We need an overwhelming moral response to meet this moment and to heal the fissures in our society to address those inequities. I want to get us through this immediate crisis to resurrect America in a way that reflects our values. I think it’s a moral imperative that from this moment we rebuild our nation, our economy, our health care system, our education system, our justice system, our energy system, everything in a way that truly brings everybody along, leaves no one behind, no community behind. That’s the idea at the heart of this campaign. And that’s a tall order. I know.”
On Donald Trump:
“Donald Trump is–Can I say politely?–just about the worst possible person to handle a crisis like this. He seemed completely overwhelmed by it. He doesn’t have a team, the temperament or, quite frankly, the moral authority to take it on. And frankly, he doesn’t put a high enough value on American lives to make this fight and make the right calculations, the right choices. To tell the truth. His priorities are elsewhere and it shows.”
On talking to Obama about running mates:
“What he said when talking about to me about vice president, who I should think about etc. and how I should go about it, he made the point, he said, ‘Find people who can make up for what you don’t have as much experience in doing.’”
More on the COVID-19 pandemic:
“When I announced, I said I’m running to restore the soul of America. Well, let me tell you, we’re seeing the soul of America. Look at all those people. Look at all those ordinary people risking their lives. And some lose their lives to care for everybody else without asking what your race, religion, ethnicity, without asking where you’re from. Just stepping up, stepping up and doing it in circumstances where they know they’re putting their lives at risk because they don’t have a proper protective gear.”
On the right wingnut astroturf at the Michigan capitol building:
“Can you imagine? Can you imagine any former Republican president, I’m talking from Reagan and the two Bushes condoning people in the state capital, carrying AR 15s and semi-automatic weapons?” he said, noting he saw a swastika in one of the photos. “Can you imagine any former president not condemning that to try to intimidate a governor, the legislature? And the responsibility of meeting that threat falls to us.”
On Tara Reade:
“Your trust and faith has always meant a great deal to me. So first, let me say unequivocally, this claim is simply not true. It did not happen. Now, my knowledge that it isn’t true does nothing to shake my belief that women have to be able to be heard and that all the claims be taken seriously. It isn’t enough just to simply take my word for it and to dismiss it out of hand. Frankly, that shouldn’t be enough for anyone, because we know that this sort of approach is exactly how the culture of abuse has been allowed to fester for so long.
So I’m heartened to see it, although it’s painful sometimes, that by and large journalists are doing what they’re supposed to do. They’re going out there listening to the allegations. They’re taking it seriously and they’re investigating it. And they’re talking with folks who were there at the time, scrutinizing personnel records, examining the evolution of the claims, looking into the culture of our office. And I’m not concerned about what they might find, because I know the truth of the matter. I know that this claim has no merit. But as a candidate for president, I’m accountable to the American people. And I welcome that accountability and the scrutiny of the press as well.
Those of you who know me know that my entire life from public service and motivated by one issue above all else, identifying and eliminating the abuse of power, whatever form it takes. It’s why I wrote the Violence Against Women Act in the first place as a senator. It’s why I consider it my proudest achievement. As vice president, I worked with many of you making these issues a priority, elevating the Office of Violence Against Women at the Justice Department, starting with the It’s On US campaign to make sure college campuses are stable, engaging men and recognizing that sexual assault was their problem, too. And they had to step up and step in. They had a duty to speak out. Our country has made incredible strides and it’s been gratifying to see the change because we were fighting for what it was. It was a pretty lonely cause to begin with, and has taken on added urgency with Donald Trump now trying to roll back the progress we’ve made in our lives and on our culture. So I want to promise you as president, I will not for one second back off my life’s work of making every part of America, from campuses to military bases to boardrooms to family homes to digital space, places of safety and security for all women, free from abuse, free from the abuse of power.”
In stark contrast to Donald Trump (r).
Joe Biden (D) [2020 file photo].
08 Wednesday Apr 2020
Posted in Uncategorized
…at the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri. March 7, 2020.
Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) [2020 file photo].
A very different time. Just a month ago.
Previously:
Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) – campaign rally at the Liberty Memorial – Kansas City – March 7, 2020 (March 8, 2020)
Joe Biden (D) – Missouri Presidential Preference Primary (March 11, 2020)
20 Thursday Feb 2020
While we’re at it, NBC’s Chuck Todd is a useless tool.
Senator Bernie Sanders (D) [2016 file photo].
In 2016, at the Missouri State Democratic Convention the four elected positions on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) went to supporters of Bernie Sanders.
In the period since 2016 the DNC revised the 2020 party presidential caucus/primary/convention process to exclude so-called “Super delegates” (Uncommitted Party Leader Elected Official) on the first presidential nominating ballot at the national convention. These PLEO delegates would/can vote if no candidate for the nomination receives 50% + 1 on the first ballot. In addition, as what has always been the case, committed delegates are only bound on the first ballot. After that they can vote for anyone.
The last time a Democratic National Convention went to a subsequent ballot for the nomination of the party’s presidential candidate was 1952.
In 2004, in part of the process in Missouri to elect committed PLEO delegates (by the state party committee), I was asked, in passing, of my interest in running for one of those allocated delegate spots by a representative of a candidate I did not support or vote for in the Missouri primary. I declined. If I had managed to get elected as a delegate I would have been committed to that candidate on the first ballot. If there were any subsequent ballots, in this hypothetical situation, I would have most definitely voted for another candidate.
One of the rules of the delegate selection process is that all candidates have the right of approval for any individual running for one of their national delegate spots. In Missouri these are allocated by formula based on the outcome of the presidential preference primary vote.
In 2016, at the state Democratic Party Convention, 88 individuals filed for eight at-large Hillary national delegate slots. Hillary’s campaign did not strike any individuals from that list. The eight delegate slots were filled by the vote of the Hillary caucus. At the same convention 21 individuals were listed as vying for seven nation delegate slots allocated to Bernie Sanders. I was curious about the disparity. I later learned that over 100 individuals had filed the paper work to run, but the Bernie Sanders national campaign struck most of those individuals from their approved list, without apparently notifying them of the how and why. This upset a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters at the state convention. So much so that there was a motion from the floor to open nominations for national delegate slots from the floor.
Why would a national campaign piss off so many of their supporters? It wasn’t until last night that I finally understood a possible explanation for the underlying why.
In 2016, if, for some reason, the 2016 convention went to a second ballot (brokered), the Bernie Sanders campaign only wanted true believers in their delegate slots. A true believer be more likely to stick with their candidate over multiple ballots, after being released from that first ballot commitment.
Last night NBCs Chuck Todd asked a process question of all of the candidates. If one candidate had a plurality and not 50% + 1, should they be entitled to be the nominee. All of the candidates, but one, replied no, there’s a process in the rules to deal with the selection of a nominee in that situation. The lone dissent: Bernie Sanders.
The irony here is that Bernie Sanders supporters on the DNC (including the four elected from Missouri in 2016) ostensibly voted to approve the caucus/primary/convention rules for 2020, which also removed the vote of uncommitted PLEO delegates on the first ballot.
There is no rule that allows for a plurality of delegates to select the party’s nominee. None.
Here’s a hypothetical situation. Candidate A has 35% of the delegates, candidate B has 30% of the delegates, and candidate C has 21% of the delegates. No one gets to 50% + 1 on the first ballot. Candidate B and C and their delegates come together – one will be the presidential nominee, one will be the vice presidential nominee. On the second ballot they get 51% of the vote. That’s how a subsequent ballot can select the party’s nominee.
After Chuck Todd’s admittedly stupid process question and Bernie Sanders’ dissenting opinion there were discussions on social media, with some Berniebros going on about the unfairness of it all. With the same temperament as the responses from 2016. Think about that for second. Their revolution’s representatives to the DNC ostensibly voted for those rules. Now, somehow, they’re unfair. They feel entitled enough to want to replace their rules midstream with some nonexistent plurality rule. Because.
I like Bernie Sanders. I find his ideas compelling, though he’s not my first choice. I find myself listening to him and appreciating his voice. And then I encounter a significant (not all) number of his supporters, too many, who are serious assholes. [Fuck you if you start in with me, “what about?”] And then I remember 2016 all over again.
Previously:
Your $27.00 won’t get you into heaven anymore (June 19, 2016)
A text from Bernie 2020 (December 18, 2019)
Nevertheless, she persisted (February 20, 2020)
31 Friday Jan 2020
Posted in Uncategorized
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Former Congressman John Delaney (D) [2019 file photo].
John Delaney Announces Decision to Withdraw From 2020 Race
Posted by Team Delaney on January 31, 2020DES MOINES, IA – Today, 2020 Presidential candidate John Delaney announces his decision to withdraw from the 2020 race. This decision is informed by internal analyses indicating John’s support is not sufficient to meet the 15% viability in a material number of caucus precincts, but sufficient enough to cause other moderate candidates to not to make the viability threshold, especially in rural areas where John has campaigned harder than anyone. He strongly believes the Democratic Party should advance candidates with progressive values on the big issues of our time, but who are committed to governing with pragmatic, fact-based, bipartisan solutions. This approach – which is what successfully won back the House in 2018 – beats Trump, unifies our nation and gets things done. We have many candidates in the 2020 race, running in Iowa and otherwise, who meet these criteria. John does not want the good work of his campaign to make it harder for those like-minded candidates on the bubble of viability in many Iowa precincts to advance in the Iowa caucuses and garner delegates.
John’s statement:
“It has been a privilege to campaign for the Democratic nomination for President, but it is clear that God has a different purpose for me at this moment in time. I leave this race with a profound sense of gratitude to the voters who shared with me their hopes and concerns for our magnificent country, in admiration for the other contenders for the nomination and proud of the work we did to change the debate.
I want to thank my team members, particularly those who loyally stood with me these last few months, our volunteers, supporters and friends for their incredible work, encouragement and support during our campaign. It was a privilege to work with you on this journey, I will be grateful for you until my last days and I look forward to our work ahead. Most importantly, I want to thank my extraordinary wife, April, and my amazing daughters, Summer, Brooke, Lily and Grace, for their love and encouragement. I thank God, every day, for the love and blessing of my family.
We need to provide workable solutions to the economic issues facing hardworking Americans, create opportunity for young people in all communities, restore a sense of unity and common purpose to our nation, and re-establish the United States as an engaged global leader. I believe our campaign was unique in its consistent focus on these four themes. Our economic, environmental and technological future is dependent upon the choices we make and the actions we take. For too long we have made bad choices and failed to act; we must change course.
This race was never about me, but about ideas and doing what’s right for our nation. The unique and data-driven ideas that our campaign generated – on how to create a functional universal health care system, price carbon, advance trade, invest in rural America, cure disease, help workers, launch negative emissions technologies, reform education, and expand national service – are now ideas for the party and I will continue to advocate for them in my next chapter. In addition, I encourage the party to sharpen its focus on the growing opportunity inequality that exists in both rural America and struggling urban communities. The concentration of start-ups and investment capital in a small number of areas is troubling and smart public policy is needed to encourage entrepreneurs to start businesses everywhere. Smart public-private partnerships can encourage entrepreneurs to locate in small-town America and struggling inner cities.
Never bet against the United States of America. This is a remarkable nation full of wonderful and patriotic people. People who love their country, their neighbors and their families. People who work tirelessly, who innovate, and who give of their time and resources. People who care, deeply, about the character and decency of this nation. Because of them, we have every advantage any nation could possibly want to have in 2020, except for one problem: we are a deeply divided nation. The good news is that we can fix that problem, but we have to fix it together. Step one is to beat Donald Trump and restore decency to the Office of the President. In many ways, this is all that matters and I am fully committed to supporting our nominee and fulfilling that mission. Step two is to get our government working for the American people again. Step three is to focus on the future and leave the world better than we found it. The Democratic party must respond to this calling.
Let’s stop the nonsense of unrealistic and divisive campaign promises and be the party the American people need – a decent, unifying, future-focused and common-sense party. And please don’t listen to the cynics, the naysayers and the dividers; while we have significant challenges and too many Americans are struggling, the world gets better every year and the United States of America has driven much of this progress – let’s keep it that way.
Onward and upward and God Bless America.”
###
Previously:
Progress Iowa Corn Feed – Cedar Rapids, Iowa – July 14, 2019 (July 14, 2019)
13 Monday Jan 2020
Posted in Uncategorized
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Senator Cory Booker (D) [2019 file photo]
Today, from Cory Booker’s (D) 2020 presidential campaign:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 13, 2020Cory Booker: I’ve made the hard decision to suspend my campaign for president.
Friend,
Nearly one year ago, I got in the race for president because I believed to my core that the answer to the common pain Americans are feeling right now, the answer to Donald Trump’s hatred and division, is to reignite our spirit of common purpose to take on our biggest challenges and build a more just and fair country for everyone.
I’ve always believed that. I still believe that. I’m proud I never compromised my faith in these principles during this campaign to score political points or tear down others. And maybe I’m stubborn, but I’ll never abandon my faith in what we can accomplish when we join together.
I will carry this fight forward — I just won’t be doing it as a candidate for president this year.
It’s with a full heart that I share this news — I’ve made the decision to suspend my campaign for president.
[….]
It was a difficult decision to make, but I got in this race to win, and I’ve always said I wouldn’t continue if there was no longer a path to victory.
Our campaign has reached the point where we need more money to scale up and continue building a campaign that can win — money we don’t have, and money that is harder to raise because I won’t be on the next debate stage and because the urgent business of impeachment will rightly be keeping me in Washington.
So I’ve chosen to suspend my campaign now, take care of my wonderful staff, and give you time to consider the other strong choices in the field.
I’m proud of the ideas we brought to this Democratic primary and, more importantly, the values we championed throughout — that the only way we make progress is by bringing people together — even when we were told that our approach couldn’t win. Because our values must always be our values, even when that’s not convenient.
Over the past eleven months of this campaign, we rallied around bold ideas to tackle some of the biggest challenges we face as a nation. We moved the debate forward on gun violence — introducing a plan with the most aggressive gun safety measures our country had ever seen. We advocated for progressive, swift change to our criminal justice reform system. We fought to protect and strengthen reproductive rights and access to abortion. Together, we spoke out and stood up for people and communities that have been left out and left behind.
We never backed down from our commitment to being a campaign powered by the people. I’m so grateful to the supporters who invested time, money, and resources into building this organization. I’m forever indebted to you and your activism.
I will be doing everything in my power to elect the eventual Democratic nominee for president, whomever that may be, and to elect great Democrats to the Senate and up and down the ballot. 2020 is the most important election of our lifetimes — we have to beat Donald Trump… but beating Trump is the floor, not the ceiling.
We must remember that throughout the campaign to come, and as we work to build a more just America in Trump’s wake. It’s activists like you who are going to be so important in this election and I feel so lucky to have you on my team.
We may have not reached our ultimate goal, but over the last year I’ve had the pleasure of meeting so many incredible, inspiring, engaged people all over this country, and I am more confident now than ever that together we will rise.
Cory
# # #
Damn.
Senator Cory Booker (D) with Iowa Public Television interviewer David Yepson. [2019 file photo]
Previously:
Sen. Cory Booker (D) in Indianola, Iowa – March 16, 2019 – “Hope is the active conviction that despair will not have the last word.” (March 16, 2019)
Sen. Cory Booker (D) – “Conversations with Presidential Candidates” – Iowa Public Television – Ankeny, Iowa – July 15, 2019 (July 15, 2019)
Campaign Finance: Senator Cory Booker (D) – on the way to $1,700,000.00 by September 30th (September 22, 2019)
02 Thursday Jan 2020
Posted in Uncategorized
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Well, damn.
Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro (D) at the Progress Iowa Corn Feed – Cedar Rapid, Iowa – July 14, 2019.
A press release from Julián Castro’s (D) presidential campaign.
Secretary Julián Castro Suspends Presidential Campaign
SAN ANTONIO, TX (January 2, 2019) – On Thursday, January 2, 2019, presidential candidate, former Obama Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, Julián Castro, announced that he would immediately suspend his campaign for President of the United States.
[….]
“I’m so proud of the campaign we’ve run together. We’ve shaped the conversation on so many important issues in this race, stood up for the most vulnerable people, and given a voice to those who are often forgotten,” said Secretary Castro in the video. “But with only a month until the Iowa caucuses, and given the circumstances of this campaign season, I have determined that it simply isn’t our time.” The video concludes, “So today it’s with a heavy heart and with profound gratitude, that I will suspend my campaign for president. To all who have been inspired by our campaign, especially our young people, keep reaching for your dreams—and keep fighting for what you believe in. ¡Ganaremos un día!”
[….]
Julián Castro (D) [2013 file photo].
Previously:
Julián Castro (D) – running for President in 2020 (December 12, 2018)
Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro (D) – Progress Iowa Corn Feed – Cedar Rapids, Iowa – July 14, 2019 (July 14, 2019)
Six years ago, in Iowa (September 14, 2019)
18 Wednesday Dec 2019
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
Senator Bernie Sanders [2016 file photo].
I keep getting texts sent to my [stupid] phone from Bernie [Sanders] 2020. I never signed up for them:
Hi [….]! It’s [….] with Bernie 2020. Bernie believes we have a corrupt political and economic system that needs major change. He’s running for president to make our economy, our government, and our health care system work for all of us, not just the wealthy few. Are you in for Bernie?
Wed, Dec 18 1:33PM
From: [….]
No. Not ever. Not after the last 3 years. Now you know how 2016 felt. I’d vote for tulsi before bernie. And she’s a russian dupe.
Wed, Dec 18 1:51PM
To: [….]
Ok, I understand. Do you mind telling me who you plan on supporting?
Wed, Dec 18 1:53PM
From: [….]
Any of the others.
Wed, Dec 18 3:25PM
To: [….]
This on the day the U.S. House of Representatives is debating and (probably) voting on the Articles of Impeachment for Donald Trump (r).
Previously:
Your $27.00 won’t get you into heaven anymore (June 19, 2016)
03 Tuesday Dec 2019
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
A short while ago:
Douglas Emhoff @douglasemhoff
I’ve got you. As always.
[….]
12:08 PM · Dec 3, 2019
From Senator Harris (D):
I am suspending my campaign today
Kamala Harris
Dec 3Eleven months ago at the launch of our campaign in Oakland I told you all: “I am not perfect. But I will always speak with decency and moral clarity and treat all people with dignity and respect. I will lead with integrity. I will speak the truth.”
And that’s what I have tried to do every day of this campaign. So here’s the truth today.
I’ve taken stock and looked at this from every angle, and over the last few days have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life.
My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue.
I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete.
In good faith, I can’t tell you, my supporters and volunteers, that I have a path forward if I don’t believe I do.
So, to you my supporters, it is with deep regret — but also with deep gratitude — that I am suspending my campaign today.
But I want to be clear with you: I am still very much in this fight.
And I will keep fighting every day for what this campaign has been about. Justice for The People. All the people.
Our campaign has been about fighting for people whose voices that have not been heard or too often ignored.
We will keep up that fight.
Let’s remember: we were the first to put the injustice of inadequate teacher pay on the national agenda.
We will keep up that fight.
We were the first to demand justice for our children, declaring we would take bold executive actions to stop gun violence.
We will keep up that fight.
We were the first to demand justice for women with a plan to block unconstitutional state abortion laws.
We will keep up that fight.
And our campaign uniquely spoke to the experiences of Black women and people of color — and their importance to the success and future of this party. Our campaign demanded no one should be taken for granted by any political party.
We will keep up that fight because no one should be made to fight alone.
And I believe our campaign showed every child in America — regardless of their color or gender — that there are no limits to who can lead and hold positions of power in our country.
In that way — this campaign has been so much bigger than me.
I am extremely grateful to the hundreds of staff who moved and uprooted their lives and sacrificed time away from their families. I know our fight has been personal for each of them.
Of course, I could not have done this without my husband Doug and my entire family and friends who gave up so much to embark on this journey with me and have supported me every step of the way.
And I am grateful to the thousands of volunteers and contributors who chipped in, who knocked on doors, who made calls and who put their faith and trust in me. It has been the honor of my life to be your candidate.
And I want to be clear: although I am no longer running for President, I will do everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump and fight for the future of our country and the best of who we are.
I know you will too. So let’s do that together.
Let’s keep fighting for the America we believe in, an America free of injustice. An America that we know we can be unburdened by what has been.
Thank you.
— Kamala
Damn.
Senator Kamala Harris (D) [2019 file photo].
Previously:
Telling (September 27, 2018)
Sen. Kamala Harris (D) – West Des Moines, Iowa – August 10, 2019 (August 11, 2019)
Iowa – Meta – #ForThePeople – August 10, 2019 (August 11, 2019)
Sen. Kamala Harris (D): Iowa bus tour campaign ad (August 28, 2019)
He ain’t ever been the brightest bulb in the chandelier (October 11, 2019)
Mic drop (October 26, 2019)
12 Monday Aug 2019
Posted in Missouri Governor
State Auditor Nicole Galloway (D) [2019 file photo].
State Auditor Nicole Galloway (D) is running for Governor in 2020: