Archive for the ‘Democrats’ Category

Crawford County Democratic Committee: Committee

Meet the current Crawford County Democratic Committee:

Chairman

Patrick Donahue

Pat is a lifelong Meadville resident, and political junkee since he was a teenager. He attended Allegheny College, served on the Meadville City Council, and has been involved in many campaigns. Most recently, he served on the Obama and Missa Eaton campaigns. He is a local business owner, and currently has two adult daughters and three granddaughters.

Vice Chairwoman

Diane Adsit

Secretary

Christopher Seeley

Christophers work with the Democratic Party began in 2004 when he enlisted as a volunteer with the David Barasch campaign for Pennsylvania Attorney General. In the following years, he became active in the Pennsylvania Young Democrats (PAYD). He was selected in 2005 to serve as the northwest caucus director for the PAYD and was charged with advocating on behalf of a 13-county area at the state level. In November of the same year, he was elected mayor of Linesville Borough, becoming the youngest elected mayor in the history of the Commonwealth. He was re-elected on both the Democratic and Republican ballots in 2009. He has served as Linesville Borough Committeeman since 2006 and, in 2010, was elected to Democratic State Committee. During his tenure, he was a member of the State Committee Executive Board representing the 50th Senatorial District.Christopherwas elected Linesville Borough auditor in 2011 and served until he was appointed County Auditor in 2013. He has served as secretary of the Crawford County Democratic Committee since 2011.

Outside of politics,Christophermaintains memberships in numerous fraternal, service, and artistic organizations. He is a Past Master of Pine Lodge #498, F & AM, a member of the Board of Directors of the Academy Theatre and of the Meadville Rotary Club, a member of the Sons of the American Legion Post 462, Valley of Erie Scottish Rite, Tall Cedars of Lebanon, Zem Zem Shrine of Erie, and the Richard Wagner Society of Washington DC. He is an avid musician and stage performer.Christopheris a Music and Political Science graduate of the Allegheny College Class of 2010.

Treasurer

Meggan Bradshaw

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Crawford County Democratic Committee: Committee

Third Senate Democrat announces support for Gorsuch – CNN

"After meeting with Judge Gorsuch, conducting a thorough review of his record, and closely following his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I believe that he is a qualified jurist who will base his decisions on his understanding of the law and is well-respected among his peers," the Indiana Democrat said in a statement.

Donnelly is the third Senate Democrat to support Gorsuch, joining Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

CNN's whip list has 36 Democrats saying or suggesting they will filibuster Gorsuch's nomination. Another two Democrats say they'll oppose Gorsuch in the final confirmation vote, but it's unclear where they will stand on a potential filibuster.

In his statement, Donnelly added the Senate "should keep the current 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees."

"It's highly, highly unlikely that he'll get 60," Schumer said.

"Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed this week," McConnell said. "How that happens really depends on our Democratic friends. How many of them are willing to oppose cloture on a partisan basis to kill a Supreme Court nominee."

If Schumer is able to halt the vote, McConnell could move to change the rules of the Senate by invoking what is referred to as the "nuclear option," which would allow the leadership to overcome a filibuster of Supreme Court nominations with a simple majority, or at least 51 votes. Republicans hold a slim, 52-48 majority in the chamber.

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Third Senate Democrat announces support for Gorsuch - CNN

Democrats looking to challenge solidly GOP seats – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Tom Prigg has climbed Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. Hes scaled Mt. Blanc du Tacul in France. He even scaled a building in Pittsburgh as a stunt for a 2013 film. But the McCandless resident may be facing his steepest climb yet: challenging 12th district Republican Congressman Keith Rothfus in 2018.

People I talk to are like, This is really daunting. And it is, said Mr. Prigg, a brain researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. But Mr. Prigg said that pundits who write off Democrats in the district arent listening to the people. People want to earn a livable wage, better prospects for their children, equal opportunity for higher education and careers later on.

Mr. Prigg already has a volunteer campaign team, a website, and a record as an Army veteran. Hes also counting on a base of Democratic voters outraged by the 2016 election of Donald Trump and Republican majorities in Congress. After people protest, they want to take direct political action.

Since January, those protests have included nationwide marches, raucous town hall meetings, and protests of Mr. Rothfus, Sen. Pat Toomey and 18th district Congressman Tim Murphy.

A weekly protest outside Mr. Murphys Mt. Lebanon office was to get our congressman to meet with us and address our concerns, said Mykie Reidy, an organizer of the event. But considering there has been no movement in that area, and his voting record, were looking down the road to 2018.

Lack of challengers in recent years has been a problem, she said. And when there has been, the candidates didnt have the resources, in part because party leaders wrote the districts off. But this year, she said, Democrats are now looking to groups like ours as an asset.

Most carbon-based life forms arent thinking of 2018s elections yet, and much of Western Pennsylvania is unforgiving terrain for Democrats. But the next several months may determine the landscape of the 2018 election. And if this years political ferment translates into credible challengers next year, it may be a victory in itself.

You never know what the mid-term environment is going to be, said Kyle Kondik, of the University of Virginias Center for Politics. I think the folks stepping up are doing their party a favor.

Some potential

Democratic insiders say several potential candidates -- most of whom have not run for office before -- are already mulling runs locally. Most are keeping quiet, but University of Pittsburgh professor David Miller of Mt. Lebanon is talking a bit. An aide to former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy and founder of CONNECT, an initiative to encourage regional cooperation among local governments, he said, We need to make sure we have a lot of competitive races in 2018.

Given Mr. Trumps travails in office, Mr.Miller said, One could anticipate the environment in 2018 would be very good. But its speculation at this point. I have made no decision so far.

Also weighing a run is retired Bethel Park civil engineer Peter Kohnke.

I was disgusted to see nobody running against our congressman, said Mr. Kohnke, a longtime leader on the Montour Trail Council. I talked to a lot of people about running and got a lot of no thank yous, so maybe its one of those things you have to do yourself.

Other Democrats are eyeing down-ballot races. Emily Skopov, a television writer, hopes to challenge state House Speaker Mike Turzai for his North Hills seat.

I get hugs from strangers, and the most common response is Oh, bless you, said Ms. Skopov, who runs a nonprofit that has restaurants donate kids-menu crayons to needy children rather than throwing them away.

Shes already drawn some national fundraising support because of an essay she wrote for Pantsuit Nation, a website popular with aggrieved backers of Hillary Clinton.

People support me because they understand the importance of swing states, she said. Due to the prominence of Mr. Turzai, who is pondering a gubernatorial run, this race is local but it has statewide consequence.

State and national Democrats have been calling for such efforts since last fall.

In February, the since-elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, told the Post-Gazette he wanted the party to implement the every zip code strategy to compete in every district. Earlier that month, state party chair Marcel Groen urged local party leaders to find people to run for every single office, instead of conceding more rural areas to the GOP.

We can already see people stepping up to run at unprecedented rates, said Craig Auster, director of the political committee for the League of Conservation Voters. While left-leaning organizations like his want to back sophisticated campaigns, We need to be open to a lot of different kinds of candidates, including people who are becoming active for the first time.

One of the lessons of 2016, he added, is that voters are definitely hungry for not the status quo.

Tough terrain

No one thinks it will be easy.

Political prognosticators regard Western Pennsylvanias non-Pittsburgh congressional districts as solidly Republican, in part because Mr. Trump won Western Pennsylvanias Congressional Districts by 20 percentage points or more. A handful of more competitive Philadelphia-area districts almost certainly will command more attention and resources. The Democratic Congressional Campaign committee, which seeks to elect House members, is already targeting the east, while showing little interest in the Pittsburgh area so far.

A lot of [the outlook] has to do with recent election results, said the University of Virginia's Mr. Kondik, who handicaps House races for the highly regarded Larry Sabatos Crystal Ball. Democrats used to be be a lot more competitive in Western Pennsylvania.

Mr. Murphy hasnt faced a challenger the past two cycles: Since 2002, he has beaten Democratic challengers by margins ranging from 16 to 34 points. Mr. Rothfus has held off two challenges from Democrat Erin McClelland with relative ease.

The 12th and 18th districts were drawn by Republicans after the 2010 Census, and the maps make it tough to be too aggressive in the west, said consultant Marty Marks, who works with candidates backed by organized labor. Unions, a key Democratic bloc, also are focusing on the east, he said.

Because the 12th and 18th bridge both Allegheny County and its rural cousins, a candidate who appeals in one area may not resonate in another.

Henry Boldyzar, a Westmoreland County labor leader who pondered challenging Mr. Murphy in 2016, said Democrats are really struggling out here. They push social issues, which are killing them in counties like this.

An even larger hurdle may be money.

As much energy as were seeing, you still have to have the resources to get out your message, said Jason Henry, a campaign consultant who worked on Ms. McClellands 2014 bid, and Democratic Senate candidate Katie McGintys 2016 campaign.

A Congressional race likely would cost upwards of $2 million, he said, and while party leaders and donors would love to expand the battleground in Western Pennsylvania, they arent going to waste money. You have to show youre serious.

That could mean raising six-digit sums each quarter, And youll be competing for attention with [Senator] Bob Caseys and Gov. Tom Wolfs re-elections.

Re-electing Mr. Wolf and Mr. Casey are without a doubt a priority for organizations like Planned Parenthood, said Sari Stevens, who heads the health providers state political arm.

Recent polling suggests just over one-third of voters approve of Mr. Trump so far, but in Western Pennsylvania areas where he won by great margins, people still believe hes doing a good job, Ms. Stevens said. For Democrats to prevail, They need those people to change their minds.

Some Western Pennsylvanians, meanwhile, hope to raise money themselves.

A Squirrel Hill group is launching its own political action committee, Pittsburghers for America, to support Democratic challengers. PAC chair Jake McBride said organizers decided to start a new committee, rather than contribute nationally, because keeping the money at home was part of our goal. And we can advance our [agenda] here. On the national stage, its not realistic.

In the 18th district, meanwhile, Andrew Zahalsky has launched a political committee, BACPAC PAC, to raise money for the candidate who will challenge Mr. Murphy.

An oncologist who spent over $50,000 of his own money in a losing race against state Representative John Maher last year, Dr. Zahalsky said he knows Mr. Murphy will be hard to beat.

But a credible fundraising effort could push Mr. Murphy to the center, he said, by showing his constituents are serious enough to put their money where their mouths are.

Democratic enthusiasm means the ground is shifting under peoples feet, said Matt Blizek, the elections director for progressive advocacy group MoveOn.Org. He pointed to an imminent special election in Georgias 6th District, where Democrat Jon Ossoff is running strong in a staunchly Republican district.

Thats an even more conservative district than the ones in Western Pennsylvania, Mr. Blizek said. You have to compete everywhere, because you never know which race is going to go your way.

Chris Potter: cpotter@post-gazette.com

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Democrats looking to challenge solidly GOP seats - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

‘Bathroom bill’ compromise angers Democratic gov’s allies – ABC News

Gay rights groups that fiercely supported Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's winning campaign last fall because of his pledge to repeal North Carolina's "bathroom bill" now say he betrayed them by accepting the recent compromise, calling it a "dirty deal" with Republicans.

Many fellow Democrats also were upset with the compromise, which got rid of the provision requiring transgender people to use public restrooms corresponding to their birth certificate but kept state lawmakers in charge of future bathroom policies. That provision in particular angered businesses, the NCAA, the NBA and others who withdrew events and expansions from North Carolina at a steep cost.

"I am torn apart because I want to support my governor, and I want to support the efforts that we are trying to make, to make things at least a little bit better," Democratic Rep. Yvonne Holley of Raleigh said during debate on the legislation, adding that it reminded her of past disputes in North Carolina history over racial equity. Although she voted for the compromise, she said: "there is more to this than about using the bathroom."

Indeed there is: The law known as House Bill 2 also had prevented local and state governments from passing nondiscrimination ordinances protecting on the basis of categories such as sexual orientation and gender identity. It was replaced by a moratorium on local governments passing them in most cases for nearly another four years.

For months, opponents of the law insisted they would accept only a full repeal. Some joined hard-line conservatives in opposing the bill, though their reasons differed: Many Republicans saw no need for any repeal.

"It kicks HB2 down the road until 2020, keeping most of the awful law on the books for someone else to deal with," said Chris Sgro, executive director of Equality North Carolina. "That's not leadership, Gov. Cooper."

Cooper said the compromise was the best he could get with Republican leaders holding veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate. But he said it got HB2 repealed and restored some local LGBT protections for workers and contracts.

"This is not a perfect deal, and it is not my preferred solution," he said during a news conference.

HB2 caused the NCAA to cancel championships in the state this year and has discouraged some companies from relocating to or expanding in the state. An Associated Press analysis last week found that HB2 would cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years.

The NCAA set a deadline of last week for action on HB2 or North Carolina likely would miss out on holding championship events through 2022. Officials now say they'll decide this week whether the new law goes far enough.

"The jobs are leaving now. The money's going out of pockets from people now. ... We had to repeal this law now," Cooper said. As for gay rights groups opposing the bill, "I hope that they will see and that they will know my heart and they will see that I will continue to fight for LGBT rights."

To be sure, Human Rights Campaign, Equality NC and other groups also leveled plenty of blame on GOP legislative leaders. But many of the same people who spent last year protesting Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who signed HB2, protested Cooper.

"Roy Cooper forfeited the chance to make a principled stand against a new bill that essentially is window-dressing," said Grayson Haver Currin of Raleigh, a registered Democrat who last year led weekly blastings of air horns and noisemakers near the Executive Mansion in protest of HB2. He and about 50 others performed again Thursday evening across the street to oppose Cooper's signing of the new bill.

Twenty-one Democrats in the legislature voted against the compromise Cooper asked them to support. Some House Democrats said on the floor they couldn't support a measure that still keeps discrimination on the books.

The next gubernatorial election isn't until 2020. While some Democrats who voted for the bill could face primary challenges in 2018 because of their "yes" votes, the party also has a vested interest in eliminating the Republicans' veto-proof majorities to give the governor more leverage.

Mac McCorkle, a political consultant to the two previous North Carolina Democratic governors, said he doesn't think complaints from outside groups will hurt Cooper unless he disappoints them repeatedly. The electorate won't turn on Cooper if businesses consider the state again, he said.

"The barometer for most people is going to be the national economic developments," McCorkle said.

And despite the complaints, nearly 40 Democrats voted for the agreement. Democratic Rep. Mickey Michaux of Durham, a veteran of the civil rights movement, said it was the best deal the governor could assemble given the circumstances.

"I'm not going to throw my governor under the bus," Michaux said before voting for the bill. "I'm going to support my governor so that he has an opportunity for a second term."

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'Bathroom bill' compromise angers Democratic gov's allies - ABC News

Sorry, Democrats. Trump’s not going anywhere. You wouldn’t like who would follow anyway. – Washington Post (blog)

My friend Cheryl Pelicano is a blue sparkler in the circus of red that is South Carolina. And like all Democrats, she is aghast at everything related to President Trump. But all this Russia stuff, especially the latest involving Michael Flynn and his request for immunity, compelled Pelicano to ask me a series of how can we get rid of this guy? questions. So, I asked Laurence Tribe, legendary constitutional law professor at Harvard University, for the answers.

Democrats crossing their fingers in hopes of a miracle removal of Trump from the Oval Office should let the blood back in their digits. The prospects are slim to none. And if said miracle were to happen, Hillary Clinton would not be swooping in to save the day. This is one of those careful what you wish for situations.

[PODCAST: Why Larry Tribe thinks Democrats should battle the Gorsuch nomination in a blaze of fire.]

Were in totally uncharted waters here, Tribe told me via email. To say that he thinks Trump is illegitimately in the White House would be an understatement. The more we learn about the apparent existence of evidence pointing to collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to install Trump in the Oval Office, he said, the harder it becomes to view Donald Trump as a legitimate occupant of the office he has claimed.

That said, I believe deeply in Americas Constitution and in the rule of law, he continued. But the same commitment to the Constitution as our highest law requires me to abide by the Constitutions sole procedures for removing someone who has been sworn in as the president, however wrongfully.

Tribe said there are only two paths for presidential removal before completion of a four-year term. Removal upon impeachment and conviction is one, he told me. The other is the elaborate mechanisms of the 25th Amendment for displacing a president deemed by two-thirds of both Houses to be unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.

Now that Ive laid that groundwork, here are the questions from Pelicano and the answers provided by Tribe.

Pelicano: If it turns out that the election was heavily impacted, and Trump colluded with Russia, is the presidency illegitimate? If so, what happens?

Tribe: There is no mechanism in the Constitution and laws as they stand today for redoing a presidential election, however many people believe it was rendered illegitimate by treasonous or otherwise unlawful manipulation; and no institutional mechanism exists even for reaching an authoritative determination that a presidential election was illegitimate. Those who have imagined the Supreme Court might entertain a claim of that sort and order a new election are deluding themselves.

In contrast, the question whether Congress might conceivably have authority, under the Constitution as written, to enact a special law for making such a determination and holding a new national election is one that some people have been contemplating, but the odds that any such law could be passed over Trumps inevitable veto seem much too remote to warrant taking that option seriously.

Pelicano: Would that apply to Pences ability to ascend to office in the case that Trump were removed?

Tribe: Setting aside the virtually impossible scenarios Ive described, what lies ahead of us, if Trump fails to serve out his term, is clear: Vice President Pence, however tainted, will become the nations chief executive unless Pence, too, resigns or is removed from office after ascending to the presidency upon Trumps resignation, removal or displacement in which case the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 specifies that the Speaker of the House (Paul Ryan) would succeed to the presidency. Following Ryan in that line of succession would be the Senates president pro tempore (Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah), then the secretary of state (Rex Tillerson), and so on down the line of Cabinet members.

Pelicano concluded her email queries by asking, Am I just dreaming? Given what Tribe said, the short answer is yes. Sadly.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter: @Capehartj Subscribe to Cape Up, Jonathan Capeharts weekly podcast

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Sorry, Democrats. Trump's not going anywhere. You wouldn't like who would follow anyway. - Washington Post (blog)