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You are forgiven if you did not realize that New York state is holding primary elections on Tuesday. There are a few other things going on in the world, from bombshell Supreme Court rulings to January 6 hearings to raging inflation. And the lack of attention has been enhanced by Governor Kathy Hochul, who has run a strikingly understated campaign, with few rallies and retail events, a strategy that has drawn alarmed hand-wringing from prominent fellow Democrats. Polls give Hochul a wide lead over her Democratic primary rivals, Long Island congressman Tom Suozzi and city public advocate Jumaane Williams. But Tuesdays outcome isnt the only concern.

Risky and stupid would be my assessment, a senior state Democrat says of Hochuls approach to trying to win her first full four-year term. The Rose Garden strategy, the prevent defense, almost always results in failure. I think shell make it through Tuesday. But shes lost the chance to engage voters and make herself better known through the primary process. If shes planning to follow this same strategy in November, then Im really scared.

Such worries are overblown, says Hochuls campaign spokesman, Jerrel Harvey. We have a paid field program out there. Weve got very robust digital engagement, probably the largest in state history. Were also doing paid mail and TV ads. Hochul has spent nearly $16 million on TV, radio, and digital adsand preserved more than $12 million for the general election. Last weeks Supreme Court rulings, striking down New Yorks law concealed carry gun law and overturning Roe v. Wade, had the collateral effect of handing Hochul free publicity platforms, demonstrating the power of incumbency. Even with our resources, we have to make decisions on where we invest. It cant just be a summer full of having our canvassers out there knocking on doors. Thats incredibly cost-intensive, Harvey says. We know that people pay attention closer to election time. So you have to be strategic and rev up the engine.

Which makes sense, unless the engine has idled too low and too long. I think people underestimate the trouble in blue states like New York when its a bad environment for Democrats nationally, a veteran Democratic consultant says. And this year is a very bad environment. I think theres enough GOP money out there this cycle that if polls show the Republican nominee getting within five or 10 points of Hochul, you could see an avalanche of independent expenditure money on the Republican side.

Tuesdays voting will also determine Hochuls opponent. Conservative Long Island congressman Lee Zeldin is the favorite in the Republican primary, but Andrew Giuliani, son of Rudy, has a real shot. Zeldin had been endorsed by former vice president Mike Pence; former president Donald Trump has so far not backed Giuliani, avoiding a proxy fight he could lose.

Still, the most intriguing action on Tuesdayand the greater chance of embarrassment for Hochulwill come on the Democratic undercard. Her first choice of lieutenant governor, Brian Benjamin, resigned in April after being indicted on campaign-finance charges (Benjamin has pleaded not guilty). Her second choice, Antonio Delgado, quit an upstate congressional seat to take the job in May. Delgado, like the governor, has spent plenty on TV and digital adsmore than $4 million since becoming L.G.while doing roughly one campaign appearance per day, most of them fairly low-key, before ramping up the pace along with Hochul on the weekend before the primary. His strongest primary opponent, progressive activist Ana Mara Archila, is trying to exploit Tuesdays likely low turnoutplus an endorsement from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezto pull off a major upset. Hes doing the same thing lieutenant governors have always donestay quiet, smile in pictures, and say nothing about the solutions that people desperately need, Archila tells me. I want the lieutenant governor to amplify the voices of people to create productive tension. I actually think we should invest in affordable housing instead of giving hundreds of millions of dollars for a football stadium.

Only six weeks ago, Lieutenant Governor Delgado launched his campaign and the response has been tremendous, responds his campaign manager, Allyson Marcus. Antonio is the only candidate in the race who will work in tandem with the governor to deliver for New Yorkers and protect families.

Delgado has vastly more campaign money than Archila, and the backing of influential labor unions. She has the support of grassroots groups, like Make the Road Action, that are practiced at harnessing progressive energy. Archila has run a dogged and meticulous grassroots campaign, says Bruce Gyory, a Democratic New York consultant. And progressives do best in caucuses and low-turnout primaries. The numbers so far in early voting are very low. Do I think she gets to the 45 or so percent shed need? I dont think so. But I wouldnt bet the mortgage on it.

One reason for the likely low voter turnout is that this primary has been greatly overshadowed by the one happening in August. For decades all New York primaries took place in September, followed by general elections in November. Simple enough. In 2012 a court ruling split the federal and local race primaries; this year a different court moved the federal races to August. Its the August primary thats been provoking headlines, because the states congressional redistricting mess has created dramatic clashes between Manhattans two oldest incumbents, Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler, and between a clown cars worth of candidates, including, very recently, former mayor Bill de Blasio, in a new district spanning Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.

The governor stands to have a complicated enough fall herself, whether the Republican nominee turns out to be Zeldin or Giuliani. Having an outspoken populist on the Democratic ticket with her, instead of her chosen lieutenant governor candidate, would make Hochuls general election more interesting than shed prefer.

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People Underestimate the Trouble in Blue States: Are Democrats Sleeping on the New York Governors Race? - Vanity Fair

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MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski pleaded with viewers during "Morning Joe" on Monday to vote for Democrats as the midterm elections get closer, saying that they "just might save our country."

"This is devastating, and you know, they ask me what we can do and I've got two words: please vote," she said. "Democrats somehow manage to get the most votes and lose the most elections. So they need more."

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case.

She said that it can be argued that the Democrats are "too weak, too fragile, too woke, too elitist" and "too disconnected from the realities of working Americans."

REPUBLICANS REJOICE, DEMOCRATS RAGE AFTER SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS ROE V. WADE

Demonstrators outside the Supreme Court Tuesday morning ahead of possible announcement on Dobbs v. Jackson (Photo by Joshua Comins/Fox News)

However, she continued, "the Democratic Party is the world's last best hope against fascism."

The MSNBC host said fascists dominate the "Trump wing" of the Republican Party and claimed they were "anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-contraception" and "anti-freedom."

"Now they're claiming control over your bodies, your health, your life. And they've promised they're coming next to take away your birth control pills and even what you do with another consenting adult in the privacy of your own bedroom," she continued.

Security fencing is in place outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Saturday, May 14, 2022, ahead of expected abortion right rallies later in the day. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

"What does Donald Trump's America look like?" Brzezinski asked. "In reality it looks like a 13-year-old rape and incest victim, being ordered by the state to have a forced birth of her rapist's baby. That is where we are in 2022. For all the Democratic Partys flaws, they're the only party that can stem this continued rise of fascism. Register and vote, work toward an overwhelming majority that can protect your body, protect your freedoms, and just may save our country," she said.

MEDIA PUSHES NARRATIVE THAT LEAKED ROE V. WADE DRAFT COULD BE MIDTERM GAME-CHANGER

Reporters and journalists have weighed in on what impact the overturning of Roe v. Wade will have on either party in the November midterm elections.

Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that it would be a "defining issue this fall."

First lady Jill Biden listens as President Biden talks to reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, June 17, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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President Biden slammed the decision after the opinion was released. He called on Americans to vote and Congress to act.

"Let me be very clear and unambiguous: the only way we can secure a womans right to choosethe balance that existedis for Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade as federal law," Biden said. "No executive action from the president can do that."

Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.

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MSNBC's Brzezinski pleads with viewers to vote for Democrats: They 'just may save our country' - Fox News

Those who seek to destroy or delegitimize the Supreme Court for upholding the Constitution are no better than those who desire to overturn or delegitimize presidential elections. In fact, they probably pose a greater long-term threat to American democracy.

Now, if you believe the above contention is hyperbole, consider that many leftists arent merely advocating for court-packing or nullification of the Dobbs decision; they justify those attacks with a litany of other grievances about the constitutional order.

Even as the Supreme Court relinquished its power, and threw the abortion issueunmentioned anywhere in the Constitutionback to the voters, a horde of j-school graduates and politicians, either ignorant of basic civics or contemptuous of them, descended with panic-stricken warnings about the demise of democracy. Almost none of their objections were grounded in any sort of legal arguments about the alleged constitutionality of terminating unwanted human beings. Instead, their case centered around the specious idea that the court had undermined the will of voters by no longer dictating abortion policy by judicial fiat.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who, at this point, sounds virtually indistinguishable from Senate leadership or the authoritarians writing at The Washington Post, points out that seven of the nine justices on the court were appointed by a party that hasnt won a popular vote more than once in 30 years, that one of their seats was stolen, and that several lied to Congress to secure their appointment

None of those contentions are true. Every single justice on the court, including the ones Democrats preemptively smeared as deviants to undermine the legitimacy of the court, was nominated using the prescribed constitutional method that is used by every party. And every senator who voted to confirm those justices did so using the only legal process available to them. The popular vote is not a real thing.

When Democrats win both the Senate and the White House, they have the power to nominate and confirm any justice they desire. But they also seem to be under the impression that when they win only the White House, theyre still authorized to dictate whom Republicans are allowed to confirm (as was the case with Merrick Garland). And when they are completely out of national power, they simply reject the legitimacy of justices who do not meet their invented, evolving, extraconstitutional standards. Democrats treat every victory of the opposition as dubiously attained.

The Founding Fathers wrote a constitution designed to prevent a tyranny of the majority, says former Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod. But what happens when you have a tyranny of the minority, gaming the system to promote a radical agenda that flouts the will of the majority under the guise of constitutionalism? Similar assertions were repeated across the left-wing punditsphere this weekend.

Axelrod, in true Obama fashion, begs the question. But the fact that the Electoral College doesnt align with the popular vote isnt a disqualifying aspect of American politics, it is the very point. If the Electoral College always synchronized with the outcome of the nonexistent direct democratic national tallies, it wouldnt need to exist. It isnt a loophole; it is a deliberately created mechanism that stops a handful of states from dominating policy. (Not only is the national vote immaterial, but we really have no idea what one would look like because (winning) candidates do not run up scores in big states, they campaign nationally.)

Though I do wonder what remedy Axelrod or Ocasio-Cortez have in mind for this supposed problem? Should the GOP abdicate the presidency to a Democrat every time it fails to win the nonexistent popular vote? Should Republican senators from smaller states ignore their constituents and ask Elizabeth Warren for permission to support judicial nominees? Sounds like one-party rule.

None of this is to even mention that a lack of national legislation on an issue isnt a tyranny of the minority. Its federalism. There is no other way to keep a sprawling, geographically, ethnically, culturally, religiously diverse nation free and self-governing. Thats why enumerated powers exist. And thats also why the increasingly radical progressive left is obsessed with getting rid of the filibuster, the only thing preserving some semblance of legislative limitation on federal power. The only people who refer to federalism as minority rule are people who believe that Americans need to be ruled over in the first place. Indeed, the court did not stop Illinois from making its own abortion policies. Its Axelrod who wants the court to compel, by edict, abortion policy in states like Mississippi.

Democrats want the Supreme Court, created to adjudicate the constitutionality of laws free from political pressures, to follow public opinion polls. The only way we can truly know how voters feel about abortion is by subjecting the issue to the democratic process. Whether Roe, a legal decision, is popular is irrelevantthough its unsurprising the majority of Americans, after decades of media championing abortion, know little about it. Because, at some point, voters will decide if the Democratic Partys new position, government-funded abortion on demand until crowning, or the position of states like Mississippi, 15 weeks bans, are more radical.

When the Supreme Court concocted the constitutional right to abortion in 1973, the pro-life movement didnt promise to dismantle the system; rather it spent 50 years creating an intellectual and political movement that would begin to restore proper constitutional limits. They voted for presidents who promised to put textualists on the bench and elected senators who would confirm them. If youre unhappy with those rules, you are free to amend the Constitution. But, for the contemporary left, democracy isnt just a euphemism for policies we support anymore, its a pernicious belief that Republicans have a responsibility to live in a political system that exists outside of the Constitution. And a system with two sets of rules is untenable.

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Democrats Have Become A Serious Threat To The Republic - The Federalist

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) Fridays Supreme Court ruling on abortion fueled a boisterous rally on Monday in the Pennsylvania Capitol by Democrats who vowed to take their fight for abortion rights to the ballot box.

Yes this is a call to action, said Amanda Cappelletti (D), Pennsylvania State Senate member. The fact that there is an election every six months in Pennsylvania and you should be out there voting in each and every one of them.

Republicans will go forward in further restricting abortions in Pennsylvania if left unchecked. Democratic lawmakers promised to check them and urge voters to send a message by choosing pro-choice candidates.

We are going to fight like hell to keep abortion access in the commonwealth for Pennsylvania, said State Senator Judy Schwank (D), Berks County.

Republican State Senator and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano held a press conference on a bill to increase penalties for fentanyl dealers on Monday. He calls abortion his number one issue and believes life begins at conception. Upon leaving the press conference, he ignored some reporters.

Fellow GOP Senator Ryan Aument did stop and talk about the abortion decision. I certainly applaud the ruling, he said.

Abortion will sway some voters in November, Aument concedes, but says it is not the top issue to his constituents.

The primary concerns are economic. Theyre mostly concerned about gas prices, concerned about inflation, Aument said.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is the Democratic Partys nominee for Governor, bothexpressed support for maintaining Pennsylvanias abortion law.

Mastriano, however, hassupported outlawing abortionin Pennsylvania if elected in November. Following the Supreme Courts decision on Friday, Mastriano said the law was rightly relegated to the ash heap of history.

In Pennsylvania, abortion remains legal despite Fridays ruling.

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Pennsylvania democrats vow to put abortion on the ballot - ABC27

The coming increase of Connecticuts hourly wage to $14 on Friday was an opportunity Monday for Gov. Ned Lamont to share ground with some of his fellow Democrats who sometimes wish for a more progressive governor.

In a visit to a storefront office in Bridgeport that houses a non-profit organization serving marginalized youth, Lamont said he was there to remind Connecticut the minimum wage was about to change.

Unspoken was another reminder: Without his election in 2018, the bill increasing a $10.10 minimum wage in annual increments to $15 next June would not have become law given the opposition of Republican Bob Stefanowski.

The event Monday followed his endorsement Friday by the states largest labor organization, the Connecticut AFL-CIO, for reelection in his rematch with Stefanowski.

Election years have a way of unifying Connecticuts fractious Democratic coalition around the politics of pragmatism. As one union leader privately noted last week, its always better to have a governor with you 75% of the time than 0%.

When you are left with two choices, in this case Ned Lamont and Bob Stefanowski, I dont think you can find anyone from these unions who believes Mr. Stefanowski is a better choice, said House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford.

On Monday, two liberal Democrats from New Haven joined the governor in Bridgeport, as did Mayor Joseph P. Ganim, who challenged him for the Democratic nomination four years ago, and Sen. Marilyn Moore, D-Bridgeport, a member of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus.

I am so grateful to have you as the governor, Moore said. When we needed you, you were there to sign off on some of these important bills that influence and impact the lives of Black and brown people in big cities like Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven.

Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, who has clashed with Lamont in her pursuit of an aggressive labor agenda, including higher taxes on the wealthy, said her appearance with the governor should not be a surprise.

I believe in giving credit where credits due, and this was an opportune time to do that, said Porter, who pushed the $15 minimum wage as co-chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee. This wouldnt happen without his pen.

The minimum wage law requires the governor and legislature to consider a freeze if the economy retracts in successive quarters. Connecticuts gross domestic product has grown, but Stefanowski has made a central issue of inflation during the administrations of Lamont and President Joe Biden.

Stefanowski, who opposed the higher minimum wage four years ago as an ill-timed burden on struggling businesses, said Monday in an email he still has concerns about the impact on businesses and consumers.

While I support a minimum wage, most businesses are already offering higher wages to offset 40-year high Biden Lamont inflation making everything more expensive, Stefanowski said.

Lamont said inflation was more a reason to increase the minimum wage than to freeze it.

I think my least favorite way of dealing with inflation is having those that do a lot of essential work at the very lowest wages in our state and in our country not get a wage that at least keeps pace with inflation, which is what the increase does right now, Lamont said. Look, inflation has a lot of roots. Id say the minimum wage is probably number 1,388 on the list.

Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, is a labor-and-tax policy liberal who has developed a partnership with Lamont over increases to the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor, as well as the passage in 2019 of laws increasing the minimum wage and establishing a paid family and medical leave benefit.

The history of the minimum wage is that every few years, there would be an agreement that the minimum wage had fallen farther and farther behind inflation, and then there would be a consensus to perhaps pass a slight increase, and then the same cycle would repeat, Looney said.

Looney said Lamont helped break that cycle.

The 2019 minimum wage law set a schedule of increases in what then was a $10.10 minimum wage: $11 in October 2019, $12 in September 2020, $13 in August 2021, $14 in July 2022, and $15 in June 2023. After 2023, the minimum wage will be pegged to the Employment Cost Index, a measure of wage growth calculated by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Anyone who spends a day in Hartford would know that this bill only passed because there was an activist Democratic governor and a Democratic majority in the General Assembly who passed it and put it on his desk, where he was waiting with his pen in hand to sign it, Looney said. Thats how things get done. Thats how progressive things get done.

Ritter, who was not at the Bridgeport event, said the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade last week, upending a half-century of abortion law, also helped Democrats come together.

The fight sometimes in our party is on economic issues, but where we are unified is on social issues, Ritter said.

At his stop in Bridgeport, Lamont fielded more questions about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that legalized abortion in the U.S. through fetal viability, than the minimum wage.

The rest is here:
CT minimum wage increase is common ground for Democrats and Lamont - The Connecticut Mirror