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A coalition of Texas unions and members of Congress is calling on the Biden administration to ensure workers rights are protected in the buildout of offshore wind infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a letter sent out Thursday morning, Democratic Reps. Al Green, Lloyd Doggett, Sylvia Garcia, Marc Veasey, Veronica Escobar, Vicente Gonzalez, Sheila Jackson-Lee and Joaquin Castro, who all represent districts in Texas, called on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to ensure that Gulf-based wind power projects are built by union labor.

The representatives noted that due to organizing obstacles at the state level, union membership among workers is about one-third the national rate in Texas.

In the letter, the members called on BOEM to ensure that leasing terms for wind projects in the Gulf include a requirement for a project labor agreement (PLA), or a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement between construction unions and contractors.

The members also called for the use of a community workforce agreement, a PLA with a goal of hiring low-income workers for construction projects.

The letter follows a public comment submitted in February by the Texas Climate Jobs Project, a coalition of labor unions in the Lone Star State that aims to bridge the gap between addressing climate change and the needs of workers. The group cites what it says is endemic wage theft in the construction business in Texas, and called on BOEM to incorporate local working conditions into its environmental analysis.

What were asking for is when they do issue those leases, that those leases have requirements in there for job quality, for the ability of workers to come together and community benefits so that even as we build this renewable capacity, were making sure that working people, and people who have historically been disadvantaged by the way energy has been produced in Texas, have a real seat at the table, Rick Levy, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, said in an interview with The Hill Wednesday.

Levy described offshore wind as the ideal project to assuage what he said was unease among parts of organized labor about renewable energys effect on jobs.

The reason we got involved in this project was to make sure that number one, it happens, and number two, when it does happen, that we make sure that these are good jobs and that people have a voice in these jobs and that the jobs really benefit the whole community, he said.

The Biden administration has set a broader goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity deployed by 2030, but has yet to formally announce lease sales in the Gulf. Last June, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the department would explore opportunities for renewable development in the area.

Updated at 9:27 a.m.

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Texas Democrats, unions call on Interior to protect workers rights in offshore wind leasing - The Hill

Academics associated with the University of Chicago, including Mr. Posner and Mr. Bork, built a case for sharply limiting antitrust enforcement during the 1970s. Their ideas began to take hold even before they were put on the bench. The Supreme Court issued one of its first rulings limiting the scope of antitrust enforcement in a 1977 case, Continental T.V. v. GTE Sylvania. Justice Lewis Powell Jr., who wrote the decision, left a scribbled record of his intellectual debts in the margin of a case memo. It read, Posner, Baxter, Bork.

Baxter was William Baxter, a Stanford law professor whom Mr. Reagan installed as the head of the antitrust division at the Justice Department. Mr. Posner and Mr. Bork ended up on appeals courts, where they became influential interpreters of antitrust law. Other important Reagan picks included Frank Easterbrook, a law professor at the University of Chicago; Douglas Ginsburg, a Harvard Law professor with a distaste for regulation; and, a few years later, Justice Scalia, whose opposition to antitrust enforcement is perhaps best illustrated by a case he did not decide. Shortly after his unexpected death in 2016, Dow Chemical said it would pay $835 million to settle an antitrust case that had been about to come before the court. With Mr. Scalia gone, Dow could no longer rely on a favorable outcome.

On the bench, these men and their allies replaced a broad effort to check corporate power with a narrow focus on consumer welfare. Pretty much anything that didnt raise prices was OK. The courts also made it increasingly difficult for the government to win. Perhaps the last merger raised prices, but who could be sure about this one?

In 2017, Mr. Posner, addressing an antitrust conference at the University of Chicago, puckishly asked the audience, Antitrust is dead, isnt it?

The conservative jurists received important support from centrist and liberal justices who took a jaded view of the broad goals of the nations antitrust laws and saw enforcement efforts as inconsistent and even counterproductive.

What they left standing has proved woefully inadequate. The rise of corporate concentration is harming consumers, suppliers, employees and democracy itself.

Restocking the courts is only a part of the solution, and it is a long-term project. Antitrust cases brought by the Biden administration will be adjudicated mostly by judges appointed by Mr. Bidens predecessors. Eighteen federal judges named by Mr. Reagan are still serving.

Excerpt from:
Opinion | When Picking Judges, Democrats Need to Stop Ignoring Economics - The New York Times

Whether President Biden will seek reelection next year is one of the most discussed topics inside and outside the Beltway.

Biden has said he plans to run for a second term, privately telling former President Obama and other Democrats of his intentions.

The presidents allies say he is still the only one who can defeat a challenger like former President Trump or Gov. Ron DeSantis, of Florida.

But there are doubts he will follow through on his plans because of his age Biden would be 81 in November 2024 and because of the brutal political headwinds he and his party are now facing. Bidens approval ratings have sunk to the mid-30s in some polls.

If Biden chooses not to run for reelection, who else would be in contention?

Heres a look at the five Democrats best positioned to win the nomination.

Vice President Harris

Harris tops our rankings, as she would instantly be the leading contender to win the Democratic nomination for president if Biden decided to end his political career with one term.

She has the visibility at the White House, and the name recognition, and could give Democrats another chance at breaking the vaunted glass ceiling by becoming the first woman to be elected president.

But Harris is not a sure bet to win the nomination. She has been tripped up by a rash of negative headlines since she assumed the role of vice president and her poll numbers have taken a hit.

A Los Angeles Times analysis of national polls this month showed Harris underwater with a 40 percent approval rating.

She has fallen short of expectations, said one Democratic strategist.

Should Biden decide not to run, I dont think she has a lock on the nomination and shell have some viable competitors in 2024, the strategist added.

Some Democrats point out that while her 2020 presidential campaign started strong, it petered out when she ran into fundraising trouble and was unsuccessful in communicating a message for why she was the best candidate in a crowded field.

Pete Buttigieg

Bidens Transportation secretary surprised the Democratic establishment and political observers in 2020 with his come-out-of-nowhere campaign.

The former mayor of South Bend, Ind., a virtual stranger to Democrats, managed to win the Iowa caucuses, defeating a field of better-known candidates. He then came close to winning the New Hampshire primary.

Buttigieg has continued to make a name for himself, touring the country to tout Bidens infrastructure projects and visiting key swing states including Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Ohio.

Democratic strategists say he would be well positioned for a 2024 run. Still, even as a Cabinet secretary, some still wonder if he has enough political chops to make the leap to the Oval Office.

Elizabeth Warren

Warren maintains strong support from progressives and recently revved up the base when in the days following the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, she went to the Supreme Court and joined protesters.

Videos of her railing against the potential decision went viral.

She also wrote an op-ed for The New York Times in which she instructed on how Democrats could avoid disaster in the upcoming midterm elections.

Warren has said she has no plans to run for president.

Im not running for president in 2024, Im running for Senate, she said last month on NBCs Meet the Press. President Biden is running for reelection in 2024 and Im supporting him.

But if Biden doesnt run, Warren would instantly vault into contention and her plans would likely change.

Bernie Sanders

FewDemocrats think Sanders will run for president again.

But last month, the senator put himself back into the conversation when his aides circulated a memo revealing that he wasnt saying no to a third presidential bid.

Sen. Sanders has not ruled out another run for president, so we advise that you answer any questions about 2024, with that in mind, read the memo from Faiz Shakir, the Sanders adviser who served as his 2020 campaign manager.

Sanders, who is seen as the patriarch of the progressive movement, has also penned an opinion piece for Fox News calling for Medicare for All. But like Biden, Sanderss age hes 80 years old could cause potential problems for him should he choose to run again.

Amy Klobuchar

The Minnesota senator didnt perform too well in the 2020 presidential election, but if Biden doesnt run, Klobuchar could benefit, receiving support from moderate Democrats.

When she traveled to New Hampshire earlier this year to give a keynote address to state Democrats, political observers couldnt help but think she was quietly building the groundwork for a potential 2024 run.

It was one of the very first signs that some folks had started to eye the next election, one strategist said. Because few people think Biden is going to run again.

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Ranking the five Democrats most likely to win party nod if Biden doesnt run - The Hill

In my view, these solidly red states provide fertile ground for populist Democratic challengers who are willing to run against the party establishment and in favor of strong working-class appeals. In 2020 in Kentucky, Charles Booker took on his own partys favored candidate, Amy McGrath, in the Senate primary and almost won. Today, due to his resilience, he is the partys nominee to take on Rand Paul in November.

Consider Alabama. A state that has witnessed two campaigns to unionize Amazon in the past couple of years and has seen a brutal union-busting effort by the Warrior Met Coal company against its own workers. These worker-led movements have popular support in the state. Alabamians are hungry for someone to speak to their pain, carry their fight in the political area, and importantly, take on a struggle that necessarily entails friction with their wealthy corporate paymasters. Due to GOP Senator Richard Shelbys retirement, there is an open seat. This should be fertile ground for redefinition of the Democratic brand. And while the contest might not be immediately successful, waging this kind of battle is necessary for repositioning the party to potentially win down-ballot seats or even claim a Senate victory in the years to come.

The alternative is to simply give up. But it wasnt that long ago when Democratsbuffeted by FDR/New Deal branding and the molding of generations of Democratic votersheld Senate seats in places like Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, North Dakota, and Louisiana, all of which have races this year. Its just like Edison said: The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

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How the Democrats Can Become the Party of the People Again - The New Republic

Can Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock do it again?

In 2020, the pair played key roles in turning Georgia blue: Abrams turnout campaign helped deliver the state to Joe Biden, the first Democrat to win there in nearly 30 years, while Warnocks runoff victoryalong with that of Jon Ossoffgave the party its narrow Senate majority.

But theyre facing new challenges in 2022: Biden is languishing in the polls amid multiple international and domestic crises; the Senate majority has failed to enact some of his biggest agenda items, thanks to uniform Republican opposition and Democratic defections in Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema; and the GOP has weaponized Donald Trumps 2020 election lies to make voting harder in this cycle and beyond.

Democrats say they can overcome all that in Novemberespecially in Georgia, where the GOP candidates carry significant baggage. But there is also concern: Democratic victories in the state came by the slimmest of margins, and a loss in the upcoming midterms could have broad implications for everything from abortion access to voting rights.

From our vantage point, says Kendra Cotton, chief operating officer of the New Georgia Project Action Fund, democracy is essentially at stake.

Abrams, who ran uncontested in Tuesdays Democratic gubernatorial primary, will face Republican Governor Brian Kemp this fall in a rematch of their close, controversial 2018 matchup. Warnock, who has become one of his partys most formidable fundraisers, will defend his Senate seat against Herschel Walker, the former football star who won the 1982 Heisman Trophy playing for University of Georgia.

Each of the Democrats would seem to have some points in their favor, beyond their strengths as candidates: Kemp handily defeated Trump-backed David Perdue on Tuesday, but the former presidents ire at the incumbent for refusing to undermine Bidens 2020 win could chip away at Republican unity in the general election for governor. Walker enjoyed Trumps complete and total support in his winning bid for the Republican Senate nomination Tuesday, but lacks experience and qualifications and has faced disturbing allegations of domestic violencefactors that may matter more to voters in a general election than in a GOP primary. (Walker has denied breaking the law, but said in response to questions from Axios about his ex-wife's accusations that he is accountable to whatever [he's] done" and is better now than 99% of the people in America.)

Combine that baggage with shifting political dynamics in the state, thanks in no small part to Abramss leadership and the dedication of Black voters, and you have cause for optimism about the chances for Georgia Democrats, even in a political climate that has put them at a disadvantage nationally. We have to start from the premise that we won the state in 2020, says Tharon Johnson, a prominent Democratic strategist in Georgia. The people who just recently won in Georgia are the Democrats.

I think we stand to maintain what we have just built, Johnson added.

But the party also faces major challenges in the midterms. Historically, the party in power is at a disadvantage in off-year elections. But that dynamic could be even worse for Democrats this time around: Dogged by an array of crises, including inflation, Biden has suffered abysmal approval ratings that could taint down-ballot Democrats this fall. Republicans have made those issues the center of withering attacks, even as they routinely undercut efforts by Biden and the Democrats to address them. They have also rallied their voters around culture war issues while enacting legislation seeking to tamp down participation by Democratic-leaning voters. Democrats may have turned Georgia blue last cycle, but its not clear those gains are sturdy enough to stand up against the harsh political headwinds blowing this election season.

See the article here:
Democracy is Essentially At Stake: Georgia Democrats Are Trying to Prove that 2020 Was No Fluke - Vanity Fair