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Reporter: Dems Trying To Cuss Their Way Back to Power

Democrats seem to be taking a page from President Trumps often-earthy language and are letting loose four-letter words in public speeches and interviews, notes McClatchys Alex Roarty. So much for the old maxim that politicians campaign in poetry but govern in prose. Democratic Chairman Tom Perez has charged that Republicans dont give a s about people. And New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said that if Democrats cant help people, we should go the f home. Perez, in fact, has repeated his foul-mouthed criticism of Republicans in interviews and statements since, making it something of a catchphrase. Apparently, last years surge in [voter] anger has left many Democrats racing to catch up, hoping to prove they feel the same visceral disgust. Conservative take: New York AGs Enviro Activist Pal

Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer appears to be the new owner of the New York State Attorney Generals office, charges Drew Johnson at The Hill, asking what it took to make AG Eric Schneiderman a pawn in his plan to vilify ExxonMobil and ramp up global warming hysteria. Apparently, he says, it was the prospect of campaign contributions, since public records show the AG launched a climate change investigation targeting ExxonMobil while he was urging Steyer to help fund a possible gubernatorial run. And as the probe expanded, Steyer began pouring money into rallies supporting Schneiderman and his fellow AGs through his political action committee, NextGen Climate Action. In other words, Steyers fingerprints are all over the ExxonMobil investigations.

From the right: Did Assad Just Use Saddams WMDs?

Eliminating Saddam Husseins stockpile of weapons of mass destruction was a major justification for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, recalls Mark Hemingway at The Weekly Standard, but they were nowhere to be found. A popular theory at the time proposed by, among others, James Clapper, who went on to become Barack Obamas director of national intelligence is that they were smuggled into Syria. Indeed, Clapper cited a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria just before the invasion. So it might be time to reassess whether the intelligence that Iraq had WMD was as faulty as we thought. Especially since we now know that the Obama administration was knowingly spreading falsehoods about removing chemical weapons from Syria. From the left: All-Out Resistance Wont Stop Trump

Ever since Trumps election, observes John Judis at The New Republica, the consensus view on the left has been to demand full-on resistance to everything this president does. They argue that its not merely a moral imperative: Its also the smartest way for Democrats to stage a comeback, citing how Mitch McConnell and the GOP opposed President Barack Obama. But, Judis notes, McConnell was too crafty for total resistance and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democrats should be, too. GOP opposition was actually quite selective, focusing mainly on health care and the stimulus, because McConnell knew that total obstruction was a dead end. To regain voters trust as the party that cares about ordinary Americans, they shouldnt follow the path of all-out resistance but of the smartest resistance.

Liberal take: The Millennial Lefts Rude Awakening

The millennial left has had to deal with some uncomfortable truths since Trumps election, notes Erin Gloria Ryan at The Daily Beast. But one of the more unmooring is that when it comes to issues like immigration and foreign relations, many of the actions that President Obama took, and many of the actions that President Hillary Clinton would have taken, are not necessarily in line with what they think those candidates values are. Many on the left were disturbed by Trump ordering an airstrike against Syria. But then Clinton supported the attack. And the similarity in their stances presents an important truth that people who consider themselves left-leaning should consider: that what young people on the left think their leaders are isnt necessarily in line with reality.

Compiled by Eric Fettmann

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Democrats' foul-mouthed strategy and other comments - New York Post

DNC chair will speak at SC Democrats' fundraising dinner The State (blog) The head of the Democratic National Committee will give the keynote address at S.C. Democrats' annual fundraising dinner. DNC chairman Tom Perez will speak at the April 28 Blue Palmetto Dinner in Columbia. The dinner will be at the Medallion ...

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DNC chair will speak at SC Democrats' fundraising dinner - The State (blog)

All around the country, Democrats interested in running for office are crawling out of the woodwork.But how many of these potential candidates will turn into serious congressional candidates?

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already talked to 275people in 68 districts wanting to run 20 peoplein one Illinois district alone.

Groups interested in more than just congressional races have received even more knocks on the door. Since the election, more than 10,000 women have reached out to EMILYs List about running for all levels of office. (By contrast, 1,000 women contacted the group during the two-year 2016 cycle.)

Democrats say theyve never seen this level of interest from this many potential candidates this early in the off-year of a midterm election cycle. Many chalk it up to the surprise election of President Donald Trump.

For a party that took a beating at the ballot box last fall, the emergence of fresh blood, much of it in red House districts, is both salve for last years wounds and a source of inspiration for 2018.

Harnessing that enthusiasm is the job of lawmakers and political consultants. In many cases, the appeal of these potential candidates is that they havent run for office before or dont have much political experience. But that also means the wake-up calls about what it really takes to run a competitive congressional campaign will be more shocking.

Im very candid about it, said Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos, whod made 10 recruitment calls the previous weekend to people all around the country interested in running.

The former vice chairwoman of recruitment for the DCCC, Bustos has piloted a boot campto train Democratsin her district to run for office thatthe DCCC is now trying to replicate across the country.

The worst thing you can do is to have someone make a decision to run, and then all the sudden, theyre like, Oh, I didnt know I had to spend this kind of time making phone calls to make sure I have resources to win this race,said the three-term congresswoman, whos made female recruitment her passion.

Other members have their own priorities. Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, for example, is deeply involved with recruiting veterans. On Tuesday of this week alone, three veterans announced their campaignsfor Congress in three different districts. Theres also an increased effort to recruit small business owners and scientists.

Potential candidates, even if they havent run before, know 2018 could be a good year for Democrats, who need to gain 24 seats to retake the House. Theyve heard the statistics about the party out of the White House making gains in midterms.

And Trump adds a whole new level, said North Carolina Democratic consultant Morgan Jackson. Theyre fired up.

Thats not enough, though. Its easy to get excited about running for Congress. Anybody can make a decision with that info to do it, Jackson said.

But then a consultant like Jackson has to tell them about the hours of time theyll have to invest in making fundraising calls.

Show them the hard part and then if the excitement is still there, youre good to move forward, hesaid.

Fundraising is a significant and daunting part of running.

No one is expected to be able to map out how theyre going to raise $1.5 million, said Pennsylvania-based consultant J.J. Balaban. But if they cant at least chart a rough course to six-figures, Congress might not be the right office for them.

EMILYs List knows that many of the 10,000 women who have approached them this winter wont run for Congress or even for any office this cycle. But the abortion rights group is excited about building a bench for the future.

And with redistricting at play soon, some liberalsbelieve its even more important to channel Democratic enthusiasm toward the state level.

Even if people interested in running for Congress drop down to running for lower office, Democrats think theres enough enthusiasm from enough people to portend a strong recruitment year for the 2018 House map.

Three Democrats, two of whom teach at the same law school, are already in the race against California Rep.Mimi Walters, a Republican who won re-election by 17 points last fall.

That kind of early campaign launch is changing the political dynamic on the Democratic side.

For one thing, its keeping consultants busier.

I have a lot more miles on my American Airlines card so far this year, said Democratic consultant Achim Bergmann.

With multiple candidates in the same districts, consultants are having to vet potential clients the same way the campaign committees would evaluate them as prospectivecandidates.

Thats a trend Republicans are familiar with.

Business is usually better after a bad year, one North Carolina GOP consultant said, suggesting Democrats are smart to field candidates in red districtsin case theres a midterm wave.

In North Carolina alone, Democrats expect to fieldcompetitive challengers toRepublican Reps. Robert Pittenger, Ted Budd, George Holding, Richard Hudson and Walter B. Jones. Trump carriedthose districts by anywhere from 9 to 24 points.

Jackson, the Democratic consultant, remembers seeing the same phenomenon only in reverse in the 1994 cycle, when Republicans ran for offices that Democrats had had on lockdown. Suddenly, even Democrats who had run unopposed in 1992 had serious challengers.

If theres a downside for Democratsfromthe heightened interest in running, its that therell be more primaries.

Bustos and her colleagues in the Illinois delegation gathered for dinner earlier this month to discuss how, with so many potential candidates, theyd land the best candidates in tough districts. Theyve decide to take a wait-and-see approach to watch who puts in the time and surrounds themselves with good teams.

Clearing the field is going to be a more difficult endeavor, said Balaban, the Pennsylvania consultant.

Primaries can help strengthen a candidate before a general election fight, but they can also drain money, and depending on how nasty they are, can even damage a candidates reputation.

But thats why Democrats are impressed that some of these strong, first-time candidates are getting in so early.

Even though maybe the bio of the newcomer could make a better general election candidate, they often dont succeed in the primary because they get in too late, Jackson said.

Hes hoping that wont be an issue this cycle.

Ive really been surprised by the number of people who are seriously talking about raising money more than a year before primary, hesaid.

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With Enthusiasm High, Democrats School Potential Candidates on Realities of Running - Roll Call

The state House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on the controversial issue of gender pay equity, but Democratic leaders said the bill is still not finalized and they don't know how many Republicans will vote in favor.

House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz has been supporting a vote on pay equity after a one-week delay amid concerns about the wording of the bill and partisan squabbling between lawmakers.

While lawmakers have been working on six different versions of the bill, they said the final wording was still not ready for release on Wednesday morning.

The biggest stumbling block to the bill is an ongoing dispute over whether employers should be blocked from asking applicants about their salary history. Democrats want that provision, but employers say they need to be able to ask about salary history to see how much previous employers valued the worker. The 10,000-member Connecticut Business and Industry Association has been lobbying against the bill, saying that the state simply needs to enforce the existing law.

Just minutes before the House session began Wednesday, Aresimowicz said it was still unclear whether the bill's "Section D'' on salary history would be included in the final version.

"It's a game-time decision,'' said Aresimowicz, a longtime football coach.

It is already illegal under federal law for men and women to be paid differently for equal work. But lawmakers say the practice still happens, even when illegal.

"It's hard to enforce, and that's the purpose of this bill - to actually strengthen what's already on the books,'' said Rep. Robyn Porter, a liberal Democrat from New Haven. "We find that it actually occurs more with top earners, as opposed to low-wage earners.''

Porter said the inequity often comes more often with workers such as high-paid nurses, rather than minimum wage workers.

When Democrats sought to bring the legislation up last week, state Rep. Matthew Lesser, a Middletown Democrat, said there were two reasons to vote against the bill, and one of them was bigotry. That prompted a sharp response from House Republican Leader Themis Klarides of Derby, who said passionately that Lesser was describing Republicans as bigots. She blasted Democrats on the measure and said they were guilty of name-calling and bullying.

Lesser later said that his comments at a press conference had been directed at employers and were never meant to refer to Republican legislators.

But Klarides took the remarks as an attack on Republicans and an affront to any legislator who opposed the bill.

"You want to talk about gender?'' Klarides asked Capitol reporters. "I am the first woman leader of the House Republican caucus. I have the highest percentage of women of any caucus in this building. I pay my women staffers more than we pay our men staffers. They can't say that in the House Democrat caucus. ... Don't make this that you're anti-women if you don't like a bill that doesn't solve a problem that you say we have."

CBIA has been opposing two different versions of the bill, saying that "enforcing current law is the answer to eliminating any real or perceived discriminatory practices.''

Aresimowicz and other Democrats said repeatedly that last week's postponement of the bill was not related to the Lesser vs. Klarides dustup and instead came because attorneys could not agree on the final wording of the bill.

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Democrats Plan To Vote On Pay Equity Legislation Wednesday - Hartford Courant

WINCHESTER, Va.

If Mudcat Saunders were running things, he would never have approached bringing his beloved Democratic Party together by uninviting one faction of the divided party.

Well, that would not have been my tactics; if your party is divided, well, how do you bring it together if you dont invite all sides? he asks, confounded by the decision.

But that is exactly what they did to Saunders, a legendary Democratic operative with a deep Southern drawl, a commanding presence and a fierce loyalty to his party, despite its sharp turn left beginning along the fringes with Al Gore.

Saunders is the Democrats outspoken liaison between progressive candidates and rural voters in order to help them soften their message to longtime Democratic voters who still like God and guns and find themselves in a church pew every Sunday. He was unceremoniously uninvited to the very event that was supposed to bring rural and progressive Democrats together ahead of the governors races this year.

He said: Like I said, not exactly the way I would have approached it. I think every voice needs to be heard; we are losing rural Democrat support and I think we really need that for this governors race in order to win.

In short, Democrats believe that because of their populous numbers in the urban suburbs in Northern Virginia, they dont need rural voters. And they arent showing any willingness to petition, engage with them or win them over.

Their beef with him involves his unwillingness to vote for Hillary Clinton last year. It doesnt help that he was pretty outspoken about it.

They dont have to. And this is why we are the minority party, said Dane Strother, a Washington, D.C.-based Democratic strategist with deep Southern roots. If we remain uninterested in the rural vote we will remain the minority party.

Virginia Democrats are in the midst of a civil war that is only getting worse since the election of Donald J. Trump. Virginia did not go for Trump, but its rural voters, a decent amount of them Democrats, voted decisively for Trump over their partys nominee.

That civil war has escalated as the Democratic primary race for governor moves front and center. Candidates Ralph Northam, an Eastern Shore native, and Tom Perriello, who once represented the 5th Congressional District, both come from rural Virginia.

Mudcat supports Northam. He said: Perriello used to be pro-life, now hes not. Perriello used to be pro-gun, now he is not. He is running away from the moderate Democrats and right into the arms of the left of the party and its disappointing.

Earlier this month, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the de facto leader of the Democratic Partys progressive wing since he effectively harnessed energy among the partys far left during last years primary contest with Clinton, endorsed the former congressman in the governors race.

The former Blue Dog-like Democrat came into the House majority one cycle after the wave of moderate Democrats swept Republicans into the minority.

Northam is the current lieutenant governor of Virginia, a position elected separately from the governors office.

He is moderate and populist and liked by the states Democratic Party. He also voted for George W. Bush for president twice.

One of these guys will soon be the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia, said Strother: It is one of only two states New Jersey is the other that hold governors races this year. I think this contest in a purple state will show us the direction my party is going. Will they go full progressive? Will they include blue-collar and working-class rural Democrats in a message that they can rally around? I sure hope so, or we are in a world of hurt.

Strother said the decision in Roanoke to disinvite Mudcat was a stupid one: This is a defining race for us. We have to have a developed, authentic message that reaches these voters and stop alienating them or we will remain in the wilderness.

Here in the Shenandoah Valley, those exact types of voters are turned off by progressive politics and the state, despite going blue three presidential elections in a row. The numbers for Democrats have softened in those cycles, not hardened.

The story to watch first is: Where do Democrats go in their primary race this summer? Do they continue to push out moderate voices like Mudcats? Do they find a way to bring them in with a message that appeals to all? Or do they march leftward? And, if so, does that march keep them in the wilderness, or do they find victory in the fall?

It is certainly the race to watch. Why? Well, because the Democrats need the Mudcats of this world in their party not just here but across the country and they need to let them have a voice. If not, they risk remaining the minority party up and down the ballot.

Salena Zito is a CNN political analyst, and a staff reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. Contact her at info@creators.com or visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at http://www.creators.com.

2017, Creators Syndicate

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Salena Zito column: Why the Democrats need the Mudcats of their party - Richmond.com