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HOUSTON For weeks, Democratic lawmakers in Texas were hearing that select members would be breaking ranks and returning to the Capitol.

But as they gathered on Thursday morning for their daily Zoom call, there was no indication their 38-day walkout was about to fall apart.

More than 50 Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives fled Austin for Washington last month to prevent a quorum and effectively kill a sweeping election overhaul bill that would have introduced new restrictions to voting. Just one member, Garnet F. Coleman, had been expected to return to the Capitol on Thursday, still leaving Republicans two Democrats short of a quorum.

Later that same day, however, many Democratic legislators were shocked and disappointed when they saw two other members enter the House chamber with Mr. Coleman enough to call the House to order and begin work on a lengthy list of conservative goals set by Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican.

By Friday, the tenuous alliance among Democratic House members split into open confrontation, as 34 of them released a joint statement criticizing their colleagues who returned to the Capitol. The caucus chairman, Chris Turner, did not sign on.

We feel betrayed and heartbroken, the Democratic members wrote in their joint statement. But our resolve is strong and this fight is not over.

State Representative Jessica Gonzlez, a Democrat from near Dallas, said she was particularly frustrated with the suddenness of the decision, with no advance warning that the other Democrats would be returning.

Whats most disheartening, Ms. Gonzlez said, is that so many of us have stuck together on this, so many of us have made sacrifices, and the least that people can do is just at least have a conversation as a caucus, as a whole. That way people can make their own decisions, too.

The return of the three absent Democrats on Thursday injected a new wave of uncertainty into the national battle over voting rights, one that will most likely be felt as far as Washington. The sudden crumbling of the Democratic blockade opened the door to passage of a new voting law containing restrictions Texas Democrats considered so strident they broke quorum twice.

But with passage of federal voting legislation still a long shot in Washington, Democrats in Texas find themselves with no clear path forward, and divisions remain on the best course of action.

The Texas House remains adjourned until Monday afternoon with no planned activity over the weekend. The voting bill, known as S.B. 1, passed the State Senate last week but has not advanced at all in the House. It was scheduled for a committee hearing on Monday, and would still need to go through another committee before it could come to the floor for a vote, setting up a potential showdown next week.

Some Republican representatives were not physically present in the Capitol on Thursday, despite being counted toward the total number there, leading many Democrats to claim the quorum was illegitimate.

But Rafael Ancha, a Dallas Democrat who is the chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said he believed the Republican leadership would rally their members by Monday and that it made sense for him to return to Austin now.

There are a lot of bad bills, Mr. Ancha said. In no particular order, Ive got a large L.G.B.T. population that I need to go fight for. I need to go fight for the parents of school-aged children who are unvaccinated.

With a quorum in the House, Republicans could try to vote to suspend the normal rules and speed through a vote on the election bill and other bills on Monday. He said that in order to prevent that from happening, Democrats would be needed to vote against it.

We need a core group of members there to make sure there is no vote to suspend the rules, Mr. Ancha said.

Yet other Democrats held out hope that they could again prevent a quorum, given the thin margins involved.

There is a core of us, myself included, who still want to continue this fight, and still want to hopefully bring enough Democrats back into our coalition of holding the line, Ms. Gonzlez said. And so we havent given up.

The anger some Democratic lawmakers felt toward their colleagues was palpable on Friday. But for John Whitmire, a long-serving Houston state senator, such a reaction was a waste of time.

You cant stay gone forever, even if some members would suggest such a move, said Mr. Whitmire, who was among 11 breakaway Democrats who denied a quorum to the State Senate in 2003 to halt a redistricting bill by Republicans. After five weeks, he returned to Austin the first among his colleagues to do so.

Mr. Whitmire said he had spoken with several of the absent House members about whether or not to return.

I told them to do what they thought was best, to think for themselves and represent their districts, Mr. Whitmire said.

Though the current election bill in Texas resembles the version from May that first sparked a Democratic walkout, Democrats did win some concessions and Republicans altered or removed some of the most restrictive provisions. Sunday voting hours remain protected, and Republicans added an extra hour of mandatory early voting for weekdays. A provision that was designed to make it easier to overturn elections was also completely removed.

But the bill still bans voting advancements from Harris County, home to Houston, that were enacted in the 2020 election, including drive-through voting and 24-hour voting, and it bans election officials from proactively sending out mail ballot applications, or promoting the use of vote by mail.

The bill also greatly empowers partisan poll watchers, weakening an election officials authority over them and giving them greater autonomy at polling locations, and creates new barriers for those looking to help voters who require assistance, such as with translations.

The voting bill is far from the only item on Mr. Abbotts agenda. The list also included a host of conservative goals, like restricting abortion access, limiting the ways that students are taught about racism, restricting transgender student athletes and tightening border security.

As Democrats fretted, Republicans celebrated, racing to the Capitol to fill ranks and give Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican, enough members for a quorum.

The rush was enough to pull one member, Steve Allison, a Republican from near San Antonio, from isolation after he tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this week. He remained by himself in a side room of the House chamber but was counted as present.

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End of Walkout Splits Texas Democrats on Voting Rights - The New York Times

Earlier this month a coalition of progressive groups announced they were going to spend upwards of $100 million on television and digital ads to boost President BidenJoe BidenHenri downgraded to tropical depression as it dumps rain on northeast Britain to urge G7 leaders to consider adopting sanctions against Taliban: report Five lawmakers to watch ahead of key House budget vote MORE and the Democrats. When in doubt, flood the airwaves. What a waste!

I have a serious confession: For decades I have specialized in doing television and radio ads for Democratic candidates and groups. From the 1980s to the early 2000s our firms primary method of delivering a message and communicating with voters was paid ads. In a course on campaign advertising that I taught at George Washington Universitys Graduate School of Political Management for 20+ years, and in counseling candidates, I used to hold fast to the notion that 70-80 percent of most candidates budgets should be devoted to paid ads.

No more.

Is paid media important? Of course, but these ads dont do what they used to in the era of three major networks, very limited cable and no such thing as the internet. Not to mention when Amazon and Netflix and a myriad of other ways to watch programming without advertising came on board.

Yet we are stuck in the practices of yesteryear and instead of using our funds to enhance political organization, personal door-to-door campaigning, sophisticated targeting and communication, we throw what we have against the wall and see what sticks.

Democrats have tended more than Republicans to focus on the shiny objects of TV ads, instead of organizing and motivating our base to reach out and convince potential voters on the ground.

To be blunt: Democrats are not putting nearly enough of the billions raised into early, hard-core organization and way too much into glitzy TV ads.

How much of that $100 million goes to organizing? How much PAC money or candidate money goes to hiring staff and paying people to contact voters? How much goes to identifying voters interests and learning about what interests them?

Look what is happening to rural voters. Trump won rural voters with 59 percent of the vote in 2016; he won with 65 percent in 2020, despite losing the overall popular vote by over 7 million votes. Have you driven through rural America lately? Have you seen the signs and the barns painted TRUMP, the caravans during opening day of fishing season in Minnesota with flags flying and horns honking, even the t-shirts being worn at Target and Walmart?

Where are the Democrats? Where are the yard signs and supporters outside metro areas? Where are the local neighborhood headquarters in peoples living rooms? Have we given up on independent minded, less politicized citizens who may not always vote in every election? That is a big mistake.

An important recent Pew poll shows that of those who did not vote in the high-turnout election of 2020, Biden was favored over Trump by 15 points. Many of these were voters under 50 years of age and are not obviously committed voters by any means. These are critical voters for Democrats to target.

Many pundits and prognosticators have written the Democrats political obituary for the 2022 off-year elections. They are usually a disaster for the party in power, losing on average 26 House seats and 4 Senate seats. Their other reasons are many: the razor thin margin of less than a half dozen Democratic seats in the House and an even count of 50 in the Senate; redistricting that will cost Democrats seats, as Republicans game the system in southern and western states; a polarized nation where President Biden hovers around 50 per cent popularity.

Now, those are serious head winds. But one way to counter them is to increase our focus as Democrats on voter identification, turnout, and serious persuasion. We have the right messages for many of these voters child care and early childhood education, expanded community college, child tax credits for struggling families, direct care worker help for seniors, expanded Medicare coverage for dental care and prescription drugs. This is a pro-work, pro-families and pro-community agenda. And, by the way, solve COVID, pass the infrastructure and budget legislation before Congress that truly helps people and show ourselves to be the party that gets the job done.

If we organize around these messages and go after voters with sophisticated targeting, starting early, and go back to the future with person-to-person and door-to-door engagement, we might find ourselves maintaining the majority. This means real political money for rural areas, tracking our base, keeping a focus on less-likely voters and convincing them of what is at stake in 2022 and, yes, not wasting so much on expensive and less impactful TV ads.

Peter Fenn is a long-time Democratic political strategist who served on the Senate Intelligence Committee, was a top aide to Sen. Frank Church and was the first director of Democrats for the 80s, founded by Pamela Harriman. He also co-founded the Center for Responsive Politics/Open Secrets. Follow him on Twitter@peterhfenn.

Excerpt from:
How to prevent Democrats from digging their own grave in 2022 | TheHill - The Hill

Rockland County Democratic Committee members have traditionally been spliton policies and politics, but now add COVID vaccination and testing requirements for members who would attendits upcoming nominating convention.

Acting Chairman Christian Sampson of Ramapo has rejected theexecutive committee'svote to require committee members to showproof of vaccination or a negative COVID test in order to attendThursday'sconvention.

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The executive committee said italso found an outdoor venue for the convention to fill committee vacancies, choose a new chairperson and recommended anelections commissioner.

But despite those maneuvers, Sampson remained adamant that the indoor event would take place at 7 p.m. at the West Haverstraw Community Center.

TheRockland Democratic Party standoff involving the extent of precautions against the deadly COVID-19 virus is wrapped up in a political split between the party's progressive wing and other Democrats, including the influential Ramapo Party who are backed by the Hasidic Jewish bloc vote.

The party has 600 members, though numerous vacancies exist,and some could be filled at the convention, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the West Haverstraw Community Center, 50 W. Broad St.

Sampson, a former Ramapo Town Clerk and East Ramapo School Board member, said the West Haverstraw venue will have mandatory mask-wearing and spacing of seats. He said the building has a state-of-the-art air filtration systemthat kills COVID and many other viruses.

Sampson said for those party members concerned about the virus, the party bylaws allow for a proxy vote so their choices will be counted.

The executive committee vote was not overwhelming, Sampson said, estimating it was 13-11 for the notifications.

"I was quite surprised they indicated they wouldexclude folks who were not vaccinated and didnt have a negative test," Sampson said. "I dont believe we canlegally exclude people. It's certainly not what our party stands for.We have a proxy process in our bylaws."

The standoff likely means more votes by proxy, where party members votes are cast by others attending the convention.

Aa COVID numbers in Rockland increase and areas in the county have full vaccination rates among adults as low as16%, some executive committee members raised concerns about anin-person gathering. The leadership voted on Joseph Coe's recommendation to require certification of vaccination and/or a negative COVID test result.

This was an easy yes vote, said Dr. Ivanya Alpert, an executive committeemember, apediatrician and a former Piermont trustee. With the delta variant on the rise and with so many of our committee members vulnerable, including senior citizens, and parents with unvaccinated children, it is incumbent on the chair to put measures in place to ensure the safety of our members and the community at large.

Alpert wrote Sampson that the vaccination and COVID testing requirement waslawfully voted on and adopted.

"While you may disagree with this vote, you as chair do not have the power to unilaterally overrule a vote of the EC," Alpert said. "Moreover, by NOT mandating proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test, you are limiting meeting access for those who are elderly, disabled, or who have medical conditions."

Trudi Feiner, 93, an Orangetown resident and decades-long party member, said she may not attend theconvention.

Ive been a member of this committee for many years, and I know how important my vote is, but Im also not sure Im willing to jeopardize my health and possibly even my life in order to attend," Feiner said in a statement. "I would ask someone to carry a proxy for me, but everyone I know feels just as uncomfortable attending an indoor convention with people who may not be vaccinated."

The Democrats on Thursday will look to replace Kristen Zebrowski Stavisky, who held the dual positions of party chair and elections commissioner. She has been appointed as the Democratic co-executive director of the New York State Board of Elections effective July 31.

Sampson said he will seek the party chair to fill the unexpired term of Zebrowski Stavisky, the elections commissioner since 2013. .Former Legislator Nancy Low Hogan of South Nyack, the party's first vice-chair, has indicated she's interested in running the party.

For elections commissioner, the Democrats are likely to choose between Kathy Pietanza, the deputy commissioner and a decades-long elections office employee, and Barbara Petlin, a Spring Valley resident whose spouse Joel is the Kiryas Joel schools superintendent.

Republicans and Democrats choose their own election commissioners and deputies. The Rockland Legislature has traditionally approvedthe party's recommendations.

The vaccine/testing mandate is not unprecedented. Manhattan's Democratic Committee mandated proof of vaccination and mask-wearing for its Aug. 5 Judicial Convention.

New York state law requires partiesto host the convention in person.

COVID cases continue to increase in the county as of Aug. 20, there were 731 active cases of COVID in Rockland. Less than a month ago, on July 27, 156 active COVID-19 cases were recorded. Health officials have said that the highly contagious delta variant is likely responsible for the overwhelming number of cases.

Rockland's vaccination rate stands at about 69.2% of the county's entire population.

However, certain areas still show low vaccination rates, particularly in areas of Ramapo.

A key fallout of the delta variants spread has been a climb in breakthrough cases or those among the vaccinated.

Rockland Countys COVID-19 dashboards were updated last week to show the vaccination status of people who are currently hospitalized with confirmed COVID. As of Friday, 17 people were being treated in Rockland hospitals for COVID; four patients were fully vaccinated, eight werent vaccinated and five had unknown vaccination status.

Rockland County Health Commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert said Thursday that vaccines remain key to protecting people from bad outcomes. "Most people who are hospitalized and who die of COVID still are unvaccinated."

As of Aug. 20, the last day of results, there have been 48,613 COVID cases confirmed in Rockland since the pandemic was detected here in March 2020. According to the Rockland County medical examiner, 970 Rockland residents have died due to COVID-related causes.

Steve Lieberman covers government, breaking news, courts, police, and investigations. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal. Read more articles and bio.

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy. Click here for her latest stories. Follow her on Twitter at@nancyrockland. Do you get the Rockland Angle? Subscribe here.

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Rockland Democrats will convene with extent of covid mandates an issue - The Journal News

The view from the Nantucket Ferry. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

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Some recent US figures on the distribution of income by party: 65 percent of taxpayer households that earn more than $500,000 per year are now in Democratic districts; 74 percent of the households in Republican districts earn less than $100,00 per year. Add to this what we knew already, namely that the 10 richest congressional districts in the country all have Democratic representatives in Congress. The above numbers incidentally come from the Internal Revenue Service, via Bloomberg, and are likely to be more reliable than if they came from Project Veritas via theblaze.com.

We have known for some time that the dark money of Charles Koch is answered by the conspicuous money of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, George Soros, Bill Gates, and a swelling chorus of others, none of whom identify Republican. Yet it has been comforting, in a way, to continue believing that real wealth resides with the old enemy: Big Oil and Big Tobacco and the rest. They were the ultimate source of the power that distorted American society and politics.

The income of their voters aside, Democrats enjoy the active, constant, all-but-avowed support of The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, all three of the old television networks, CNN, NPR, and the online mainstream of Slate, Salon, and HuffPost. Any sentient reader can easily add a dozen more outlets. But along with the benefits of this mutual understanding comes a liability. The warm handshake with a friendly media establishment can grow so familiar that you get out of the habit of seeing what it looks like when you strut your stuff in public. And no longer seeing what it looks like, you stop asking what it might look like to people not already on your side.

For Barack Obamas 60th birthday, a celebration in Marthas Vineyard was planned for 500 guests and a staff of 200. Scaled back to minimize the bad optics, the numbers still looked to be in the hundreds; and this at a time when President Biden had lately advised Americans to re-mask and not assemble in large gatherings. Tom Hanks, Chrissy Teigen, Bradley Cooper, Beyoncall were present, making the scene, trailing clouds of glitz. The birthday message couldnt have been plainer: We work so hard, we are doing so much that you are not, every exception should be made for us. The leaked pictures were of undoubtedly cool people, worthy of their very cool host. MORE FROM David Bromwich

The display, however, brought back the memory of Gavin Newsom, caught dining unmasked with some donors after he declared his mask mandate, and more recently Muriel Bowser, caught doing the same just hours before declaring hers. Another dip into the past might recall the moment when Wolf Blitzer, at the height of the budget crush last October, confronted Nancy Pelosi over her stalling tactics on an emergency package to deny Donald Trump an assist at the polls. Blitzer said that he noticed people in city streets, hungry, homeless, and in immediate need. With an air of affronted virtue, Pelosi replied that no action taken by a Democrat like herself could be questioned: We feed them!

Even when a dissident wing of the party succeeds in a worthy causeas with the extension of the eviction moratorium effected by Cori Bush and her congressional alliesa suggestion of deserved status appears in an unpleasant light. A CBS reporter asked Bush about spending $70,000 on private security guards while less fortunate persons would be left to fend for themselves without the police she wants to defund. Bush pointed out that in earlier years she had been evicted three times, and yet she spoke in a voice weirdly similar to Pelosis: I have too much work to do. There are too many people that need help right now. So if I end up spending $200,000, if I spend 10, 10, 10 more dollars on [private security], you know what, I get to be here to do the work. So suck it up. And defunding the police has to happen. A Missouri TV station carried widely different reactions to her stance, from a woman who approved and a man who was having none of it. The citizen opposed to defunding was Black, working-class, in his middle years; the defunder was young, white, professional.

What has drawn the most attention around the eviction moratorium is Bidens risky politics in admitting that his extension probably wouldnt pass constitutional muster, but he was going to try it anyway. Just as interesting was the fact that Bush and her allies thought of landlords as the enemy. It did not occur to them to look higher up and ask for an extension of mortgage due dates to protect middle-class landlords (who depend on rent) from predatory banks.

The partys general tone sometimes seems to disparage the mass of people it cannot patronize. The truth is that property owners and shopkeepers of the middling sort, hard hit by the past 18 months if not the past 18 years, are pretty much off the radar of the new party of the rich. Even if, under Biden, the Democrats are union-friendly to an extent unimaginable in the Clinton and Obama years, the party as a whole remains closer to Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood than it is to the merchants who lost their livelihoods in the summer riots of 2020.

For all the good things they do, there are some things you can rely on the Democrats not to do. They wont push hard for a genuinely progressive income tax. They wont raise corporate taxes in a way that would darken the brow of Bezos and Dorsey, Zuckerberg and Gates, or increase the inheritance tax in a way that might make an impression on the grandchildren of the Stanford class of 1985. They have learned to talk about racism, which is good, with intellectual labor-saving devices like systemic, which is not so good. Will they ever talk so frankly aboutas Dickens put it in Our Mutual Friendmoney, money, money, and what money can make of life?

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Have Democrats Become the Party of the Rich? - The Nation

A Republican investment analyst who narrowly won a vacant state Senate district in the heart of Connecticuts wealthy suburbs this week has some Democrats nervous about their partys standing ahead of crucial off-year and midterm elections.

Ryan Fazio, 31, claimed 50.1 percent of the vote ahead of Democrat Alexis Gevanter, a gun safety advocate making her first run for public office in the Greenwich-based district. A former Democrat running as an independent claimed another 2.3 percentage points.

It is the first special election held since President BidenJoe BidenHenri downgraded to tropical depression as it dumps rain on northeast Britain to urge G7 leaders to consider adopting sanctions against Taliban: report Five lawmakers to watch ahead of key House budget vote MORE took office in which a Republican won a seat formerly held by a Democrat.

Fazio presented himself as a typical Republican who opposed the tax hikes that are a constant presence in Connecticut politics. But Blake Reinken, Gevanters campaign manager, told The Hill on Friday that Fazios real edge came from an excited Republican base.

Turnout was high, for a special, and turnout was much higher than we thought it was going to be. It was much higher than anyone thought it was going to be because their base turned out, and we had to push our base to turn out as well. But it was clear there was a lot more enthusiasm, not among the activists necessarily, but among the voters than there was on our side, Reinken said.

Reinken said the race could be a harbinger for other contests both this year, when Virginia voters head to the polls to elect a new governor and legislators, and in next years midterms. Republican activists loudly protested against mask mandates and critical race theory at several events Gevanter attended in the weeks before Election Day.

I saw a preview of what may be coming in 2021 and 2022, and I just want to warn other Democrats just to not take anything for granted, he said. Now that Trump is gone for the most part, we have to fight double as hard to make sure that we protect our gains.

Fazio will reclaim a seat that Republicans held from Franklin Roosevelts administration to the 2018 midterm elections, when opposition to then-President TrumpDonald TrumpKamala Harris should offer Vietnam 'market economy' status Supporters at Alabama rally boo Trump after he tells them to get vaccinated CNN posthumously airs final interview with late Rep. Paul Mitchell MORE drove a Democratic tide in suburban districts across the country. Trump lost the district to President Biden by more than 20 percentage points in 2020.

The fact that this seat that Biden won by about 20 points should be scaring people, Reinken said. It could be really scary this time.

Voters in the area were no Trump fans to begin with Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham Clinton'Childless cat ladies' and the long history of regulating who counts as an American Democrats sound alarm over loss in Connecticut suburbs GOP senator calls on Biden to fire Sullivan, national security team MORE won the district by 18 points in 2016, four years after Republican nominee Mitt RomneyWillard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyDemocrats sound alarm over loss in Connecticut suburbs Lawmakers flooded with calls for help on Afghanistan exit Bipartisan group of lawmakers call on Biden to ensure journalists safe passage out of Afghanistan MORE carried the district by9 points over then-President ObamaBarack Hussein ObamaObama's Joint Chiefs chair says US should have gotten out of Afghanistan earlier Biden blames others, but the errors are his in Afghanistan's crisis The mother of all difficult foreign policy decisions MORE.

In a very educated place and a very socially liberal place, Reinken said. We connected [Fazio] to Trump and we connected them to these issues and they didnt have to run from it as much as wed think.

Both Democrats and Republicans routinely downplay the importance of special elections, which are usually held away from regularly scheduled contests, feature low turnout and earn little attention from voters or the media.

Christina Polizzi, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said they did not see the Connecticut loss as evidence of any wave building on behalf of the GOP.

Democrats have had a string of special election victories in highly competitive districts across the country. In several of those races, the Democratic candidates outperformed President Biden's margin of victory. So make no mistake, we are fully prepared to challenge Republicans head-on and will continue to do so, Polizzi said in an email. This Connecticut district was previously held by a Republican for nearly a century before it flipped blue in 2018 and now its competitive. This is hardly a boon for Republican prospects in Connecticut or elsewhere.

But some special elections in recent years have foretold of trouble ahead: Two special elections in May 1994, in which Republicans won ancestrally Democratic seats in Oklahoma and Kentucky, were a preview of the Republican wave that swept Democrats out of control for the first time in 40 years. Two special elections in May 2008 when Democrats won deep-red seats in Mississippi and Louisiana hinted at the blue wave that would accompany Obama into office.

Biden won office, and Democrats saved control of the House in 2020, on the strength of his performance in suburban areas not unlike Greenwich. The narrow Democratic majority in the House means the party can ill afford any slippage in those neighborhoods.

We need to get our base fired up, Reinken said. We cant be afraid to admit that were on defense, in some ways. If you dont acknowledge the problem, it never gets addressed.

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Democrats sound alarm over loss in Connecticut suburbs | TheHill - The Hill