Mediaboss Marketing

Salena Zito Published 11:00 p.m. ET Nov. 25, 2020

Howland Township, Ohio Tim Ryan says there is a certain kind of letdown you feel when you lose your home county even in an election that you win.

"It certainly does sting," he said bluntly.

The former presidential candidate won his 10th congressional race over Republican Christina Hagan to represent the five counties of Mahoning, Portage, Stark, Summit and Trumbull that make up the legendary "valley" by 7 percentage points. But he fell short by 1.5 points in the place he calls home.

"It was a tough year for a lot of moderate Democrats around here and around the country," said Ryan.

Ryan lays the blame on a brand that voters in Middle America do not trust to have their back, Zito writes.(Photo: Nati Harnik, AP)

Youngstown State University political science professor Paul Sracic said when the 13th Congressional District seat was drawn after the last census, it was one of the most Democratic seats in the Ohio delegation.

"Ten years later, the core of the district has seemed to have turned Republican," he said. "In Trumbull County alone, we lost a state senator. We lost the state rep. We lost the long-term county commissioner. In Portage County, we lost the state rep. We lost a county commissioner in Stark County and five countywide elected seats."

Ryan lays the blame on a brand that voters in Middle America do not trust to have their back, which especially hurts in a district legendary for its support from working-class Democrats.

"Our brand is not good," he said. "We have 70 million people who either hate us or are afraid of us or believe there is this vast spread of socialism in our party. It is why we lost so many seats in the House, or some seats were a lot closer than we wanted."

Ryan points to a quote he heard last week from Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report that he says summarizes how much elections have changed: "It used to be that all politics are local, now it seems that all local politics are national."

Going into last Tuesday, Republicans were projected to lose 15 to 20 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Not only did that not happen but Republicans may also gain up to 13 new seats.

Ryan also lays the blame on Twitter, where too many staffers, congressional members and the media volley outrages back and forth at each other or set social justice lines in the sand. Such issues never fly in places like his hometown of Niles, Ohio. While it leads everyone in the vacuum of Twitter to think those are the issues voters care about, Ryan adamantly disagrees.

"That is just not the case. Voters don't care about the last Twitter fight," Ryan said. "They care about jobs and the economy."

On Sunday, a dust-up between Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Conor Lamb erupted on Twitter, when she called the lack of digital presence in his campaign a poor strategy for Democrats, highlighting his tight race in western Pennsylvania.

He clapped back with a remark about her not having to face a real challenge in a general election, and Twitter went crazy. It is the very thing in which Ryan says he has no interest in engaging.

Ryan acknowledges members like Ocasio-Cortez have a much larger megaphone than he or any other centrist Democrats trying to do their best to represent their districts. But he's hoping Joe Biden's megaphone is the one that prevails.

"In the election, I thought he did a good job. He fended off the energy stuff. He fended off the police stuff, saying we got to sit down with the police and law enforcement and the civil rights groups and take the temperature down," Ryan said. "I mean, he had good answers to these provocations, and that's why I think he's got a real shot to rebrand the party."

Ryan's frustration with his party's leadership and brand is nothing new. Four years ago, he ran against Nancy Pelosi for the House speaker position after the 2016 presidential election results had placed the Democrats in a historic minority.

Pelosi won. But the Democrats gained back seats in 2018, only to lose many of them again on Election Day. This time, he says, he won't challenge her for the speakership role.

"There are many people who think my party has abandoned them," Ryan said. "I think if we start having really tangible results on the economy, on COVID, a good infrastructure package, we have the chance to head toward the midterm on a pretty good economy."

He went on to say: "Then it could be an interesting time to be running for a Democrat. Under a new brand with a good economy, it could look more li the Clinton economy of '96, than the Clinton economy in '94."

He added, "Joe Biden has a moment to put a new name, a new brand on the party. If he can do that, we can stop our losses."

Salena Zito is a CNN political analyst, and a staff reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. She reaches the Everyman and Everywoman through shoe-leather journalism, traveling from Main Street to the beltway and all places in between.

Read or Share this story: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2020/11/26/opinion-moderate-democrats-party-our-brand-not-good/6406182002/

Read more:
Opinion: Moderate Democrats on the party: 'Our brand is not good' - The Detroit News

Activists who have been pushing to rein in the excesses of a highly punitive system hope the resulting glow will help advance their agenda, which includes such measures as banning no-knock warrants, making police disciplinary records public and rethinking lengthy sentences for juveniles.

They also hope that voters will distinguish between calls to defund the police, which Republicans used to vigorously attack Democrats, and bipartisan efforts to improve accountability and fairness. Mr. Trump kept the two issues separate, attacking Democrats relentlessly for what he said was their failure to support law enforcement, while running a Super Bowl ad about a woman to whom he gave clemency.

I actually think the winning argument was you can be for law and order, and you can be for second chances, said Holly Harris, the executive director of the Justice Action Network, a nonpartisan advocacy group. You can be supportive of the police and also think the punishment should fit the crime.

This nuance does not always play with voters. In Georgia, Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican, trashed her Republican opponent, Representative Doug Collins, for his support of criminal justice reform, edging him out to face the Democratic challenger, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, in a runoff.

But outside of bitter political contests, criminal justice reform offers something for just about everyone: social justice crusaders who point to yawning racial disparities, fiscal conservatives who decry the extravagant cost of incarceration, libertarians who think the government has criminalized too many aspects of life and Christian groups who see virtue in mercy and redemption.

At the federal level, both parties have proposed police accountability bills. Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has recently signaled that he is open to reinstating parole for federal prisoners, which was eliminated during the tough-on-crime 1980s. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has promised to reduce incarceration and supports abolishing mandatory minimum sentences and expanding mental health and drug treatment.

Relatively few voters ranked the criminal justice system at the top of their list of concerns, even after the killing of George Floyd in May thrust policing into the national spotlight.

Go here to read the rest:
Here's One Thing Republicans and Democrats Agree On: Criminal Justice Reform - The New York Times

MONROE, Iowa (AP) This swath of southeast Iowa isnt supposed to be a nailbiter for Democrats.

For more than a decade, voters in the college town of Iowa City powered Democratic candidates to Congress. But that changed this month when conservatives who dominate the more rural parts of the district turned out in droves, eager to support President Donald Trump and other Republicans on the ballot.

Nearly three weeks after Election Day, a winner hasnt been declared in Iowas 2nd Congressional District. Thats a sign of the unexpected strength Republicans demonstrated in House races across the country, taking down at least 10 Democratic incumbents and dashing Speaker Nancy Pelosis bold prediction of expanding her majority by double digits.

Instead, it appears Democrats made a serious miscalculation in assuming their antipathy toward Trump would fuel victories across the country. They failed to anticipate that Trumps supporters would show up, too, with even greater force than before in rural areas.

Its the Trump factor, Jasper County Republican Chairman Thad Nearmyer said on his farm outside Monroe. People were super excited to vote for the president.

Of course, Trump lost the presidency and Democrat Joe Biden will move into the White House in January after winning nearly 80 million votes nationwide, a historic high. But the enthusiasm for Biden or for defeating Trump didnt trickle to other Democrats down ballot.

That leaves the party confronting a reckoning over how to move forward. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which supports the partys House candidates, is beginning a deep dive examination into what happened.

Early interpretations blame a series of missteps. Chief among them was allowing Republicans to portray Democrats as radical, which overtook the partys messaging in some cases on guaranteeing health insurance during a pandemic and rebuilding the economy. Democrats also failed to grow their appeal among some Latinos, particularly Cuban Americans in south Florida.

Other strategic decisions are coming under scrutiny. Democrats scaled back in-person campaigning and canvassing because of the novel coronavirus, seeking to protect their candidates and staff, and to model good behavior during a public health crisis.

But that gave Trump an opportunity to rally his supporters. The presidents nearly 74 million votes is the second-highest in history and fed massive turnout that helped reshape House races, especially in rural areas.

In the final stretch of the campaign, Iowa was seen as competitive. But Trumps visit to the capital of Des Moines two weeks before the election is credited with helping him build momentum to carry the state by 9 percentage points.

That dominance lifted downballot Republicans, including Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the 2nd Congressional District. Miller-Meeks vote total was 15 percentage points higher than the Republican who ran for the seat in 2016, when Trump also won Iowa.

The same dynamic helped Republican Ashley Hinson beat first-term Democratic Rep. Abby Finkenauer in northeast Iowa and, perhaps most notably, lifted Republican Michelle Fischbach to unseat 30-year Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson in rural southern Minnesota.

The poison of Trump was deeper into the bloodstream of the electorate than anyone noticed, said Bradley Beychok, who ran an advertising program for the Democratic super PAC American Bridge targeting Trump in northern swing states.

There were few bright Democratic spots beyond rural areas, as the partys congressional candidates around the country fell short.

Democrats gave up seats in south Florida and California, and failed to gain any in Texas, despite targeting 10. Rep. Max Rose lost on New Yorks Staten Island and Rep. Joe Cunningham couldnt win reelection in South Carolina territory that includes Charleston, nor did Utahs only congressional Democrat, Rep. Ben McAdams.

Thats fueling an intense round of finger-pointing among Democrats. Some say the enthusiasm for Trump was compounded by unease among voters about some of the most progressive ideas that were debated during the Democratic presidential primary, including the Medicare for All health care plan and the Green New Deal to combat climate change.

When demonstrations over institutional racism swept the country, many Democrats also struggled to respond to false Republican attacks that they supported defunding the police. Voters for months watched Republican ads featuring unrest with narrators ominously attacking Democrats as anti-police, often with little response.

The defund-the-police thing was not helpful at all, said Democratic strategist James Carville, an architect of Bill Clintons presidential campaign.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, countered there is just no way forward for Democrats unless they confront the central challenges in American life, including systemic racism and inequity. She urged the party to embrace a national truth commission to probe racism in the U.S. along with a group to study reparations.

Running away from these things is never going to work. We have to actually do bold things, brave things, Jayapal said. Anybody who thinks that elected officials at any level, especially the congressional level, can or should control the messages and the demands and the urgency of movements that erupt on the street for justice are really fooling themselves about their power and their role.

Still, Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from the Texas-Mexico border city of Laredo, said the combination of suggestions that his party opposed police, embraced socialized medicine and would sacrifice jobs in key industries like oil and gas to combat climate change gelled into a narrative that doomed candidates.

The progressives, I admire their passion, their commitment, their energy, said Cuellar, who beat back a primary challenger from the left. Nobodys trying to silence anybody. All were saying is, within the Democratic Party, there will be different thoughts on ways of doing things.

Oregon Rep. Kurt Schrader, one of the Houses more conservative Democrats, was more blunt. He called the debate over defunding the police toxic.

Our national brand, with the exception of the president-elect, is in really tough shape, Schrader said.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC which spent $140 million promoting general election Republican House candidates, claimed success tailoring broader attacks on Democrats on issues like defunding the police to individual races.

In Roses Staten Island district, for instance, ads focused on how his support for demonstrations against systemic racism insulted local police.

To help defeat Democratic challenger Christina Finello in suburban Bucks County, Pennsylvania, meanwhile, an ad featured a mom speaking about how funding cuts to police could jeopardize her ability to pick up the phone and know that a police officer could be there at a moments notice.

We needed to move out of the national, charged language and make this about peoples individual lives and how this would affect them, said CLF President Dan Conston, who also praised GOP efforts to recruit more women and people of color to run.

Ads criticizing the Green New Deal warned of tax increases in many areas, but highlighted the potential impact on the oil and gas industry in energy-rich places where Republicans ousted Democratic House incumbents, including New Mexico and Oklahoma.

By contrast, Democrats focus on health care proved less influential than during the 2018 midterms, after Republicans had unsuccessfully sought the repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act. According to the APs VoteCast, a national survey of the electorate, voters top concern was the pandemic, followed closely by the economy, which favored Republicans.

Democrats needed to further embrace major reforms and counter messages from the opposition, said Wendell Potter, a former health care industry executive who leads the progressive Center for Health and Democracy, which supports Medicare for All.

Youve got to make sure people understand that what were talking about here aint anywhere close to socialism, Potter said.

Though Democrats have soul searching ahead, Jasper County Republican Nearmyer notes one GOP advantage will be gone in 2022 Trumps name on the ballot.

Thats one thing that makes me nervous, he said.

___

Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Alan Fram in Washington contributed to this report.

Read this article:
How Democrats came up short in bid to expand House majority - The Associated Press

President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks about the economy on Nov. 16, as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris looks on. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption

President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks about the economy on Nov. 16, as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris looks on.

Multiple coronavirus vaccines appear to be on the horizon, but the U.S. economy is on shaky footing, and before those vaccines are expected to become widely available, millions of Americans could first fall off an economic cliff.

Some 12 million people are expected to lose unemployment benefits the day after Christmas, and moratoriums on evictions and student debt payments are set to expire at the end of the year.

Yet Congress has been unable to reach a compromise that would alleviate that economic hardship. Despite months of on-and-off negotiations, Republicans and Democrats haven't agreed on the terms of another COVID-19 relief bill.

Then, last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the Federal Reserve it must wind down a series of pandemic lending programs. Congress had given the Treasury Department $454 billion in the spring to backstop the Fed on emergency loans. Much of that money had remained untapped, and, in theory, could have been used by the Biden administration. But by ordering the Fed to return the money, the Trump administration is essentially tying the incoming administration's hands.

The focus for immediate aid is back to legislative action. Last week, in his first economic speech since the election, President-elect Joe Biden urged lawmakers to step up.

"Right now, Congress should come together and pass a COVID relief package like the HEROES Act that the [Democratic-led] House passed six months ago," Biden said.

The sticking point is that Democrats want over $2 trillion in economic assistance. Republicans insist the economy is doing significantly better than it was when Congress passed the CARES Act in March. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has called for $500 billion in new relief.

A question for Biden and his team is whether they should be encouraging Democrats to move quickly, to deliver aid faster, even if that means accepting a smaller deal. The dilemma is testing how he's able to influence Congress before he's sworn in to office.

On Friday, Biden met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to discuss an emergency aid package during the lame-duck session. A Biden spokesman rejected the idea that Biden is actively encouraging a smaller deal and says the president-elect "fully supports the speaker and leader in negotiations" with Republicans in Congress and in the White House.

But there's an open debate in Democratic circles about priorities for relief.

Jared Bernstein who was chief economist for Vice President Biden during the last recession and is now a transition adviser told reporters in a Q&A with the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing that typically an incoming administration would wait until it's officially in charge to put its fingerprints on policies.

"That's certainly what we did in the Obama administration where we had the Recovery Act in the field a month after President Obama took office," he said.

But Bernstein says the current environment is different.

"You hear the president-elect saying this is something that should happen now, and the reason is because the economy is at a very precarious moment," he said.

Bernstein says there are three primary factors to consider in framing a new stimulus package size, composition and speed. He singled one out.

"Composition is important, size is very important, but speed is so essential right now," he said in the SABEW interview.

It's a receptive argument for Jason Furman, who was a chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration.

"I think a meaningful something is a lot better than nothing, and holding out for more is a strategy to prolong suffering," he said in an interview with NPR.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there's a debate within Biden world of, '$500 billion sort of sucks but we may not be able to do better, and this means like the economy will be better under us,' " Furman imagined. "'And we don't need to take ownership for it' ... versus other people who won't want to look like they're party to a cave even before he's in office."

It would be complicated for some Democrats to look like they're giving in. But regardless, Harry Reid, who was Senate majority leader during the 2009 negotiations, says rarely does Congress pass much legislation around the holidays.

"I think it will be very difficult to get a meaningful relief bill done before Jan. 20," Reid said, referring to Inauguration Day.

Reid believes the dynamic will shift in Biden's favor once President Trump is no longer in office and McConnell will face more pressure from the public.

"I think it will put some wind under the wings of McConnell not to be the Grim Reaper," he said.

Reid thinks if anyone could work with Republicans to pass more aid, it'd probably be Biden. Reid helped Biden push through the last major stimulus bill under a Democratic administration. But back then, in 2009, Democrats controlled the Senate, whereas now control of the chamber depends on two Georgia runoffs in early January. And by then, regardless of which party wins those races, the economy could be even shakier.

Read the original post:
How Biden And Democrats Are Thinking About More COVID Relief - NPR

Congressional Democrats want the head of the General Services Administration to tell them why she is holding up the transition to President-elect Joe Biden. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption

Congressional Democrats want the head of the General Services Administration to tell them why she is holding up the transition to President-elect Joe Biden.

Congressional Democrats, angered by the Trump administration's refusal to begin the formal transition process to President-elect Joe Biden, are demanding a briefing on the matter from the head of the General Services Administration on Tuesday.

In a letter to GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, the Democrats say they can't wait another week, as the GSA has offered. The GSA said the deputy administrator would provide a briefing to lawmakers on Nov. 30.

The lawmakers, including the chairs of the House Appropriations and House Oversight and Reform committees, wrote on Monday: "We cannot wait yet another week to obtain basic information about your refusal to make the ascertainment determination. Every additional day that is wasted is a day that the safety, health, and well-being of the American people is imperiled as the incoming Biden-Harris Administration is blocked from fully preparing for the coronavirus pandemic, our nation's dire economic crisis, and our national security."

The 1963 Presidential Transition Act requires the head of the GSA to "ascertain," or determine, the winner of the presidential election, which Murphy has refused so far to do. Her denial means that Biden cannot access government office space or receive some $9.9 million to pay salaries to his transition personnel, and his team can't officially meet with members of the Trump administration.

Democrats, along with a handful of Republicans, as well as prominent health and national security experts, say the delayed start to the transition imperils national security and will harm the incoming Biden administration's ability to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 250,000 Americans.

Visit link:
Democrats Insist On Hearing From GSA Head On Delayed Transition : Biden Transition Updates - NPR