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Cavid Qara, a candidate for parliament in Azerbaijans northern Quba region, admits that many of his would-be constituents arent moved by his declaration of a climate emergency.

But he says that when he frames it in terms that rural voters relate to water quality, irrigation, pollution they get it. We have to word it in a different way, to link it to farming and how global warming will affect farming and how its affecting it already, he said. When you link it like that, its interesting for them.

In previous elections, Azerbaijans opposition politicians have traditionally been focused on a single message: the need to get rid of the corrupt, authoritarian ruling regime in Baku. What, precisely, would be the plan after that has not been a large part of the discussion.

But Qara, 28, is one of a group of young activists who are taking a novel approach in the upcoming February 9 vote: a focus on ideas and ideology. Qara has put environmental issues at the forefront of his campaign.

Im the only candidate in our district that has a clear platform, the other ones have short brochures with some abstract claims, he told Eurasianet.

The activists are mostly part of a new bloc, Hereket (Action), that is non-partisan but definitely opposition-leaning, in the words of Turgut Gambar, one of the blocs founders and himself a candidate in the election. Hereket includes a wide variety of ideologies, from the leftist Togrul Veliyev (the Azeri Bernie Sanders) to the libertarian Samed Rahimli.

The emergence of Hereket has been one of the few notable developments in an otherwise unremarkable election season, which an interim report by OSCE monitors described as low key with limited visibility.

Compared to the last parliamentary elections in 2015, the current electoral period is accompanied by increased political activeness in the pre-election period, where some positive elements are noticed, wrote one independent group, the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center, in a pre-election report. Especially, the participation of the growing number of young opposition-minded candidates in the elections in an independent manner has drawn attention.

What we see now, for 20 years the general anti-government campaigns havent worked, Rahimli said. Thats why were trying a different strategy left, or right, or libertarian, or Marxist, or social democrat, some kind of coherent ideology. Ideology is important without ideology, pragmatism doesnt work.

Rahimli, a prominent human rights lawyer, has been taking his message of small government decentralization, lower taxes and abolishing military conscription to tea houses and cafes in his Baku district. He said he has faced skepticism from voters about whether the ideas are workable. Many people say, this is a very crazy thing for Azerbaijan, it cant be done in Azerbaijan. And I say: I know, but we should talk about it.

Despite their disagreements on principles, the activists in Hereket cooperate on logistical matters like making promotional videos or posters and in organizing election monitoring the day of the vote. Rahimli said that in a freer political environment, he would be competing against a leftist, not cooperating with him. But because of the political reality, we are in the same electoral bloc, he said.

Not everyone in Hereket believes that ideology should be the focus of the campaign.

Nurlana Jalil describes herself as a feminist, and as she campaigns for a seat representing Zaqatala, in northwestern Azerbaijan, empowering women is a plank on her platform. But its behind more technocratic promises like budget transparency and agricultural development.

Jalil said that, in an environment of heavy government oppression, political parties and civil society groups have barely been able to form.

In this situation how can we develop an ideology? she asked. In this moment, we independent young politicians have to build a new era in Azerbaijan. First, we can enter parliament and be the voice of the population, and maybe then after some years we can create the field for some ideologies. Maybe in five years, in the next election, we can run on ideologies. But in this case, its impossible.

There is room for both approaches, Gambar said.

The main argument was that yes, we can all have different political points of view and ideologies, but first its necessary to solve the issue with the government and then we will have elections and we will know whos who, he said. This is still a very popular approach, and I dont necessarily think that its wrong, because only in a truly democratic society where elections are free, the political party system and ideological system can truly develop. At the same time, I think its very good that there are people challenging this view and who want to do their work based on ideological lines. I think thats good as well.

It remains unclear whether any of this will matter on February 9. Independent monitors have reported that, in spite of the governments rhetoric that it is modernizing and liberalizing, significant obstacles to a free and fair vote remain. One of major opposition blocs, the National Council of Democratic Forces, is boycotting because it believes the conditions are unfair. Candidates supported by President Ilham Aliyevs ruling New Azerbaijan Party benefit from substantial support from state institutions and it will be a major upset if any opposition candidate is elected.

The young, independent candidates have faced varying levels of official harrassment. Jalil was the target of an online campaign attacking her, which she attributed to government troll armies. Qara said police in Quba invited him to the station for a conversation on February 5, but he declined, and said he hasnt suffered any repercussions. He also said he is bracing for fraud on election day, but has organized dozens of observers to watch polling places.

The Baku-based candidates have faced fewer problems. In general, they [the authorities] ignore me, Veliyev said.

The day before speaking to Eurasianet, Veliyev had knocked on 300 doors in his Baku district, spreading the word about his platform of eliminating university fees and raising pensions, among other proposals. My campaign is based on leftist ideas, he said. Were thinking about people, not the economy in general.

Voters are receptive to new voices, he said. People are tired of the old faces, the same faces, he said.

There can be some confusion about leftist ideas, though. While canvassing, Veliyev met some government supporters and told them he was a socialist. They said oh, socialism, we love Stalin! We said no, we are not Stalinists, we are socialists, we want a more equal society, he said with a laugh. They said they would vote for us.

Even if they dont achieve success on election day, the candidates say their strategy is a long-term one.

Parliament is not our main goal. Our main goal is society. We change society, we change the culture, and we will change our future, Rahimli said. Because we are younger, we have a lot of time, this isnt the last election for us.

Jalil said she may not win this time. But, she added: This is not the end for me. Next elections I will run and I will win and I will sit in parliament.

Read this article:
Young Azerbaijani opposition candidates have a plan for that - Eurasianet

When Michael Bloomberg entered the 2020 race, some declared his $60bn fortune an asset for taking on Donald Trump, who once claimed he was going to self-fund his own campaign.

Trump and his party raised a record-shattering nearly half a billion dollars in disclosed donations last year a number that does not include the hundreds of millions in dark money non-profit groups will spend on social media and TV ads.

How did we end up with such a broken system where billionaires can openly or anonymously spend millions to distort election results in our representative democracy?

Charles Koch whose mega-corporation Koch Industries is running a PR campaign with the tagline We made that helped make that, or rather helped break that.

Newly uncovered documents reveal Trump and Bloomberg owe thanks in part to Koch for the power to tap their enormous personal fortunes to run for office.

Koch claimed in 2014 that it was only in the past decade that I realized the need to also engage in the political process. The truth is he got involved in elections and trying to overcome election laws 45 years ago.

Archives show that Koch funding for the Libertarian party helped subsidize the legal effort that resulted in the infamous Buckley v Valeo decision, which equated spending money with free speech.

Buckley also created a loophole that allowed David Koch to self-fund his campaign for vice-president in 1980, establishing perhaps one of the most extreme examples of privilege in politics today: most Americans cant afford to max out in campaign contributions, but a couple of billionaire white guys have what amounts to a supreme court-divined right to spend an unlimited amount on their own elections.

The big money of a tiny few is swamping the voices of most Americans

Until now, however, few people outside the Koch inner circle knew it was really Charles who was bankrolling that political party and its attacks on federal election laws, before Davids failed run.

After Buckley, the FEC gave the Libertarian party an advisory opinion to allow Koch to give the party 25 times the limit Congress had adopted. Koch then bundled money with his family to become that political partys biggest donor, giving it an amount that seems small now but was big then and was the start of something bigger.

Two years later, he pledged to match at least $50,000 raised by the party (despite the $25,000 limit). The year after that, he was one of the largest donors helping to fund lawsuits attacking federal campaign laws.

Buckley litigation also laid the foundation for the discredited Citizens United decision.

Since that ruling in 2010, American elections have been conducted like the Koch-funded Libertarian wishlist circa 1976: the uber-rich have virtually no real limits on how much they can spend to influence the outcome of our elections because they can deploy non-profits to escape donation and disclosure rules applicable to candidates, political parties, and Pacs.

As a result, non-profit groups collectively spent more than all candidates in 28 congressional midterm races, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The $2.6bn in independent expenditures in 2018 also exceeded spending by both political parties combined.

And, just days ago, Kochs operatives announced their biggest election effort ever for 2020. Koch spending down the ballot will help buoy Trump, without naming him, as it did in the 2016 Senate races.

Kochs use of secret billionaires cash to secure the Senate and states is not new. To win in 2016, Koch planned to amass and spend $889m Koch Industries even bought the URL: 889million.com.

The new reality is that billionaire-funded dark money groups, like the ones run by Charles Kochs network with its sophisticated voter databases, can operate like a shadow political party but they are more powerful, unbound by donation limits and disclosure rules that govern parties.

And because personnel is policy, this means Koch often gets the policies and judges he wants. Despite Charless public posture of disdain for the president, Trump policy is largely Kochs. When Charles Koch decided that Trump represented a once-in-a-generation chance to change the tax code to slash taxes for the richest few, Koch got it.

The same goes for Koch helping to pack the supreme court, which Charles flagged as another top priority for his network of billionaires.

Koch has touted the help of Leonard Leo, who sits at the helm of a dark money operation that has spent more than $250m to change the makeup of the federal and state courts through the secretive funding of groups like the Judicial Crisis Network. Leo recently bragged to donors that America is on the precipice of a revolution to roll back nearly a century of legal precedents.

If successful that revolution would mark a return to the robber-baron era of limited democratic control over corporations, which Koch fueled in innumerable ways. But with the devastating climate changes under way, more is at stake than the chains he and Leo want to put on the power of American democracy.

We are in a continuing constitutional crisis, where the big money of a tiny few is swamping the voices of most Americans. And Charles Koch helped make that.

Lisa Graves is the former chief counsel for nominations on the US Senate judiciary committee and is the founder of the new watchdog group True North Research, where she manages the new clearinghouse website about Charles Koch, KochDocs.org

Link:
Love the billionaire bucks flooding US 2020 elections? Thank Charles Koch - The Guardian

It won't get much media attention, but there was a Republican presidential caucus in Iowa tonight, too, and it was as dramatic as it was predictable: President Donald Trump absolutely clobbered primary opponents Bill Weld and Joe Walsh.

The most persistently unpopular president since the end of World War II was at a Castro-like 97 percent of the vote with 79 percent of precincts reporting, while Weld and Walsh were at 1.3 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively. This race has never been close, but man, that's not close.

Weld, a former Republican National Convention keynoter and twice-elected governor of Massachusetts who ran in 2016 as the vice presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party, stressed in his closing argument to Iowa voters his limited-government bonafides.

"I'm running to offer the opportunity to elect a president who actually believes in the principles of limited government, free and fair markets, and economic opportunity for all. Principles that, until recently, were the trademarks of a great political party," Weld wrote. "I don't believe trillion-dollar deficits are okay. I believe in markets, not trade wars.We believe in the Rule of Law, and that it applies to everyone, including the President. We believe the Constitution means what it says, rather than scoffing at its limits on the power of presidents and the federal government. And we believe the purpose of foreign policy and our military is to make us safer."

Walsh, who served one term in the House from nearby Illinois as a Tea Partier and then transitioned to (and then out of) conservative talk radio, has been emphasizing the president's poor character, though he also foregrounds issues such as free trade, spending cuts, gun rights, and criminal justice reform. "If you want four more years of a president who wakes up every morning and makes every day about himself," Walsh said in Ankeny, Iowa today, "then vote for Donald Trump." The crowd booed him out of the room.

There is no demonstrated market for limited-government opposition to Trump within the modern GOP. Trump's approval rating among Republicans, as measured every couple of weeks by Gallup, has not dipped below 87 percent since December 2018. He's been up by more than 80 percentage points among GOP primary voters in national polls for most of the race.

The fundraising numbers for the challengers are, if anything, even worse. Fourth quarter campaign finance results were announced at the end of January, and they were brutal: $411,000 for Weld, $245,000 for Walsh, $45.98 million for Trump. Add the $72.3 million raised in the last three months of 2019 by the Republican National Committeewhich, remember, effected an unprecedented merger with the Trump campaign in December 2018plus a couple of other big-money operations, and the incumbent is outraising the competition combined by a ratio of more than 230 to 1.

Weld and Walsh combined failed to raise as much in the 4th quarter as Steve Bullock, John Delaney, Michael Bennet, Marianne Williamson, Deval Patrick, Beto O'Rourke, and several other Democratic presidential candidates, many of whom have dropped out.

Worse even still, the ankle-biters have been spending what funds they raise, which means that the results they produced tonight, and whatever they gin up in New Hampshire next week, represent something close to maximum effort. Weld had just $37,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, Walsh just under $10,000, compared to Trump's war chest of $195 million. And the Trump-run GOP has been canceling primaries across the country.

Weld is more competitive in New Hampshire, where he owns one home and is close to his base of operations in Boston. He is hoping for a Pat Buchanan-style 1992 surprise, but runs the risk of having a 1972 Pete McCloskey loss as a best-case scenario.

Read the rest here:
Donald Trump Stomps Bill Weld and Joe Walsh in Iowa - Reason

In politics, what a difference a week can make.

On Jan, 21 in the West Newton Lions Club, Democrats chose Robert Prah Jr. as their nominee in the upcoming special election in Westmoreland Countys 58th Legislative District.

At the time, no Republican was listed as a candidate on the Pennsylvania Department of State website. GOP conferees werent meeting until the night of Jan. 23.

The candidate who emerged from the gathering at the Herminie VFW Post was Eric Davanzo, 43, of Smithton.

But the political process didnt end there. Monday was the filing deadline for the special election and a third candidate emerged.

Ken Bach, 52, who finished in Democratic balloting with 14 votes to Prahs 42 in the first and only round, made a trip to Harrisburg to resurrect his candidacy in the March 17 special election as a Libertarian.

I left the party, Bach said Tuesday of Democrats in a conversation from his automotive repair shop in Smithton.

Ive always had Libertarian thinking on many issues, so thats why I became a Libertarian. Property owners are in revolt. Our representative has to stand up for us, the little working people.

I guess Im a one-issue candidate, if nothing else, to get this out and make (my opponents) talk about it.

A 12-year member of the Yough school board, Bach is a member of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association property tax reform task force.

Prah, 37, said he is taking an unpaid leave of absence from his job as the director of military and veterans affairs at California University of Pennsylvania to campaign.

A major in the U.S. Army Reserve, he was a U.S. Army infantryman, infantry officer and military intelligence officer during the Iraq War.

Prah, who now lives in Fellsburg, Rostraver Township, is a Smithton native and firefighter. He served for eight years on Smithton borough council and one term as mayor.

Davanzo, the Republican nominee, identified himself as a union carpenter for nearly 20 years. As a superintendent, he said in a news release he is responsible for managing million-dollar budgets, controlling costs and ensuring his projects are completed on time, skills that will serve him and taxpayers in the State House of Representatives.

In light of all that is occurring in government today, I believe we need a true fiscal and social conservative who will stand up for our values. This includes making government do more with less to protect taxpayers, creating a fairer property system that does not force seniors from their homes and reforming welfare so those most in need get the help they deserve.

We must expand vocational-technical training schools to prepare students and adults for good-paying jobs in the trades and expanding rural broadband to ensure all families have access to high-speed internet. It also includes fighting for our Constitutional rights and the sanctity of life.

There is a vacancy in the 58th District Legislative seat due to the resignation of Justin Walsh, who became a Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court judge this year.

Although the state relaxed some rules regarding absentee ballots and pre-election voter registration, the changes apply only to contests taking place April 28, the date of the primary, or thereafter.

For the March 17 special election, 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, is the deadline for the Westmoreland County elections bureau receiving applications for absentee ballots.

Friday, March 13 - also 5 p.m. - is the last day for voted absentee ballots to be returned to the elections bureau, 2 N. Main St., Suite 109, Greensburg, PA 15601.

The person who is elected to the House of Representatives in the special election will serve the remainder of this year, the equivalent of Walshs unexpired term.

The seat will also appear on the 2020 April 28 primary and Nov. 3 general election ballots for a two-year term that will begin in early January 2021.

The 58th Legislative District includes Monessen, Rostraver Township and Smithton and North Belle Vernon boroughs, plus parts of two other townships, all of Sewickley and South Huntingdon townships, and seven other boroughs.

See the article here:
Field of candidates triples in special election for the 58th District - Uniontown Herald Standard

Ipswich man Anthony Bull has put his hand up to run for Division 2 in this year's historic election.

Mr Bull, a second generation Ipswich resident, works in digital marketing and analytics.

"I went to Redbank Plains State School before moving to Westside Christian College, then I actually enrolled at the University of Queensland at Ipswich before the business element got shut down and moved to St Lucia," he said.

"My history here (Ipswich) also extends to my parents; my dad used to be the president of one of the local soccer clubs. He has a field named after him at Westminster Soccer Club; the Kevin Bull field down in Redbank Plains.

"My mother works in a couple of charities here and my wife is from Ipswich as well."

Mr Bull said he wanted to run for council because he had a passion for politics and believed he could do better than the previous council.

"The previous council was a perfect example of an unchecked government," he said

"I'm a big believer in government transparency and government accountability; that the people who work in government have to answer to the people who voted them in."

Mr Bull has three main focuses if elected to council, which include not only streaming council meetings but having audio transcribed as a way of ensuring accountability.

"The other two issues that my platform is about are ending the gouging of rate payers by looking at some of the policies that were implemented by the previous government," he said.

"Perhaps some of the services we agreed to aren't the best service at the same price.

"The fact that there was corruption makes me think that there are some services there that need to be looked at."

Mr Bull was very open and admitted he hadn't done any specific research as to why he thought rates were higher but has looked at some previous budgets made by council.

He said he also wanted to support business growth, believing that embracing more business would make way for more jobs in the region.

Mr Bull registered with his wife as a group for council election in order to run as a Liberal Democrat because the party is not registered with the Electoral Commission of Queensland.

"The Liberal Democratic Party of Australia is only registered at the federal level at this stage but not at the state level," Mr Bull said.

"I kind of convinced her to run with me, I didn't want to run as an independent," he said.

"I wanted to let my flag fly and who I am is a member of the Liberal Democrats and for that reason I needed her help.

"You can't run as a group with one person and for her she's really helped me out a lot, she's mostly in it to help me out. She was thinking about running but she's mostly here to help me out for sure."

Mr Bull's wife, Jacinta, is registered as a Division 1 candidate but has since decided to change to Division 3.

"We just sort of did some polling and found there was more support in that area we did some research and thought that (Division 3) was a better fit."

Mrs Bull is not taking media interviews regarding her candidacy for Division 3.

Originally posted here:
Proud Libertarian to run in upcoming council election - Queensland Times