Mediaboss Marketing

Written by AJ Vicens Sep 29, 2022 | CYBERSCOOP

House Republicans on Wednesday asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to brief a congressional committee by Oct. 5 on what they say are politically-motivated cyberattacks intended to silence supporters of conservative causes.

The Republicans pointed to a string of hacks dating back to September 2021, when hackers claiming to be carrying out an Anonymous operation attacked the Texas Republican Party website after the state passed an anti-abortion law. More recently, in July 2022, pro-choice hacktivists leaked roughly 74 gigabytes of data from a Florida hosting company that serviced a number of conservative and religious organizations.

The hackers message posted alongside hosting company leak specifically called out the Liberty Counsel, an organization that made headlines after Rolling Stone revealed that an official from one of its ministries claimed to have prayed with several Supreme Court justices even as the organization filed briefs taking sides in issues before the court.

Subsequent analysis of the hacked hosting company data showed that nonprofit organizations controlled by Liberty Counsel encouraged supporters to vote for former President Donald Trump despite IRS rules that prohibit such entities from directly or indirectly endorsing candidates for political office, the Intercept reported Aug. 25.

Direct attacks against religious people deserve no place in our society and undermine the ability of citizens to express their viewpoints without fear or harmful retribution, the Republicans wrote in the letter, first reported by the Washington Post Cybersecurity 202. They added that the attacks are intended to chill the speech of religious and conservative Americans, as well as efforts to prevent them from happening in the future.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter referenced, but didnt name, a self-described cyberterrorist whod claimed credit for the February hack of Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo. That hacker, a Canadian named Aubrey Cottle, told CyberScoop that hed been raided by Canadian police Aug. 30 and that the FBI is involved. The FBI referred questions about its involvement to Canadian authorities, who declined to discuss the matter.

Cottle did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.

Here is the original post:
House Republicans want DOJ briefing on conservative group hacks - CyberScoop

Latino voters will make up 20% of the electorate this fall in Nevada, where Democrats and Republicans expect the growing constituency's voice will sway a competitive race that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.

Polls show incumbent Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, the first Latina elected to the Senate, slightly behind Republican Adam Laxalt. With early voting starting next month and campaigns hitting the final stretch, both sides are courting Latino voters with a closing message centered around the economy.

Republicans say the state's high inflation rate and rising economic anxiety gives the GOP its best chance to make inroads with working-class Latino voters and flip a crucial Senate seat.

"The Latino vote is going to help us get the victory in November," said Jesus Marquez, a special advisor to the Laxalt campaign. "If we get 35%, that would mean a victory across the board but I estimate that we're going to get 40% of the Latino vote."

Republicans also point to gains former President Donald Trump made with Latinos in Nevada in 2020 as reason for optimism.

Trump won 35% of the Latino vote in Nevada two years ago, a seven point increase from 2016. According to CBS News exit polls, Trump also made significant gains among Latino men nationally, going from 30% in 2016 to 43% in 2020.

Nevada's voting population split into thirds with registered independents coming in second behind registered Democrats. While President Joe Biden won the Latino vote in Nevada 65%-35% in 2020, he barely won the state, coming up on top by just 33,600 votes.

That narrow victory in the state despite the significant margin with Latino voters is why Democrats and Republicans are racing to turn out Latino voters. Their vote will help decide the winner of this Senate seat and potentially decide which party takes control of the U.S. Senate. With the Senate currently divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, every race is essential to both parties.

Nationally, more than half of Latino voters say they plan to support Democrats and highlight the economy as the main issue driving their vote, according to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll. But Latinos are nearly split when it comes to which party they agree with on economic policy: 43% say they prefer Democrats' solutions to the economy while 41% say they prefer Republicans.

"The economy has just been a powerful issue for Republicans in the state," a GOP strategist familiar with the Laxalt campaign told CBS News. The strategist also said that Laxalt's campaign will demonstrate through its closing message that "Cortez Masto is a part of the problem that created this economy."

The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted Nevada's economy, which is heavily reliant on the hospitality and tourism industries. Shutdowns at the height of the pandemic led to nearly 30%unemployment rate, twice the national average.

Latinos, who make up a large portion of the workforce that was impacted during the pandemic, also contracted COVID in greater numbers relative to their share of the population in Nevada.

Nevada's unemployment rate has come down to 4.4%, but the state's inflation rate of 15.4% is among the highest in the country. Nevada also has the third-highest average of gas prices at $5.21 per gallon, according to AAA.

Republicans in Nevada are hoping this will lead to Latino voters expressing their frustration by voting out the party in charge.

But Democrats argue that voters' concerns around the economy is an opportunity for them to highlight President Biden's legislative victories like the passage of the Build Back Better Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.

"Everything we are talking about relates to the economy," said Josh Marcus-Blank, communications director for Cortez Masto's campaign. "We are going to continue to talk about ways that the senator has supported the Latino community, the small businesses that she saved, and the good union jobs coming."

The Cortez Masto campaign has also been running ads promoting the Inflation Reduction Act, which allows Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors. Democratic advocates say their party can't shy away from bragging about their accomplishments and need to highlight those wins when engaging with the Latino community.

"Latinos are in a constant persuasion window, they're actually some of the most persuadable voters we have in the electorate," said Tory Gavito, co-founder and president of Way to Win, a national Democratic advocacy group that's investing $2.3 million to bring out voters of color in Nevada. "When you tell them what Democrats are doing to support them in this economy, they will vote Democrat," she added.

That is the playbook that Make the Road Nevada, a left-leaning organization focused on turning out 76,000 Latino voters in the East Las Vegas area, is attempting to execute on the ground.

"When my community needed assistance, the Republican Party was nowhere to be found," said Leo Murrieta, director of Make the Road Nevada. "They didn't open food banks, they didn't open vaccination clinics, they didn't do any of that. It was Democrats who came together and made that sh** happen so that our families could literally survive."

It's the same message that Culinary Union is pushing as it deploys 270 full-time canvassers on behalf of Democrats in Las Vegas and Reno to knock on over 1.1 million doors, nearly doubling their effort from 2020.

Ted Pappageorge, the union's secretary-treasurer, said they are reminding voters that resources from Democrats allowed the group to convert one of its training facilities to a food bank that supported an average of 1,800 members per day for over a year.

While Republicans feel confident they can attack Cortez Masto on economic issues, her campaign also sees an opportunity to go on the offensive by talking about abortion rights and highlighting Laxalt's involvement with Trump's campaign (Laxalt served as the Trump's 2020 Nevada co-chair) andan op-ed Laxalt wrote claiming thousands of improper ballots were cast in Nevada.

Marcus-Blank said Cortez Masto's campaign will portray Laxalt as "the face of the Big Lie" in Nevada. Cortez Masto has also focused on abortion rights and made the issue a central theme of her campaign after the Supereme Court's decision on Roe v. Wade.

More than 70% of eligible Latino voters support a woman's right to choose, according to a recent poll conducted by UnidosUS, one of the largest Latino advocacy organizations in the country. In Nevada, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks after pregnancy and Republicans acknowledge the electorate in the state is pro-choice.

But the Cortez Masto campaign sees abortion as a way to mobilize Latino voters and attack Laxalt.

"It is also about reminding folks of the threat that Adam Laxalt poses. He would be an automatic vote for a federal abortion ban," Marcus-Blank said. The GOP strategist familiar with Laxalt's campaign said abortion protections are set into law in the state and "voters know that's not going to change," adding, that Laxalt opposes a federal abortion ban.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham recently proposed a bill that would ban abortion federally after 15 weeks. In response to whether Laxalt would support the bill, a spokesperson for Laxalt said the proposal "has no chance to pass Congress," adding, "the law in Nevada was settled by voters decades ago and isn't going to change."

As the campaign heads into the final weeks, Cortez Masto and Laxalt are both running ads in Spanish. Earlier this month, Laxalt launched an ad in Spanish that highlights the economy. Cortez Masto is on air in Spanish discussing union jobs, healthcare, and abortion. The Cortez Masto campaign also rolled out endorsements from more than 200 Latino community leaders in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month.

Outside groups like the Somos PAC, a left-leaning Latino voter mobilization group, are also spending money airing Spanish ads. Democrats have reserved nearly $90 million in ad space in the final few weeks of the election while Republicans have put aside more than $70 million.

CBS News reporter covering the intersection between politics and tech.

See the original post:
Democrats and Republicans are courting Latinos on the economy in Nevada's tight Senate race - CBS News

click to enlarge

Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Kevin McCarthy has proven an exceptionally weak Republican majority leader, easily brought to heel by Donald Trump and the far-right members of his caucus.

Dear readers, there could be no bigger boost to Joe Bidens re-election if Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos bank accounts made an evil money baby and gave it to that crypto billionaires weird Democratic super PAC. (Lets also assume that Biden runs again, which I suspect he will.)

A scant five-vote majority is a massive miss on expectations, for starters. It probably means that Democrats keep the Senate, limiting House Republicans ability to do anything more than hold six months of hearings into Hunters laptop and indict Biden for, like, breathing wrong.

It leads to a circular firing squad. Whats left of the establishment (correctly) recognizes that the party squandered an opportunity by running fringe candidates and wants to sever ties with all things Trump; the MAGA crew blames the establishment for not being MAGA enough.

House Republicans also give Biden a foil, the same way Bill Clinton turned Newt Gingrich and company into cartoon villains ahead of the 1996 campaign. (To be fair, not hard.) When they pass abortion bans and manifest other right-wing fever dreams, Biden can remind voters that this is what a Republican presidency will look like.

But most importantly, and most consequentially, theres probably an 80% chance that a small, radical GOP majority leads to an economic catastrophe, and Biden will waltz past the burning carcass of America into a second term.

If he wants it anymore. If anyone does.

To explain: Kevin McCarthy has proven an exceptionally weak Republican majority leader, easily brought to heel by Donald Trump and the far-right members of his caucus. Hes shown no ability to twist arms. He would be a weak speaker under any circumstances. With five votes to spare, hell be the weakest speaker in generations, at the mercy of the Freedom Caucus: Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and so on.

He will become speaker because they allow it. If they get the rule changes they want allowing them to evict the speaker mid-sessionMcCarthy will be in a groveling mood before the leadership vote, so theres a good chancehell remain speaker because they permit it.

The Freedom Caucus is also demanding that he commit to only bringing to the floor legislation that has majority support from House Republicans, severely restricting McCarthys ability to cut deals. Again, hell go along.

At the same time, hell need House Republicans to do what they havent done in, well, a long time: govern like grown-ups.

McCarthys caucus is inherently oppositional and ideologically orthodox. Most of its members come from gerrymandered, deep-red districts, and many have no interest in or understanding of policy. Even when Republicans controlled Washington, they couldnt pass meaningful legislation that wasnt a tax cut.

They make grandiose promises about what theyd do with power. In power, theyre the proverbial dog that caught the car (c.f., the congressional shitshows of 2011-2013 and 2017-2019).

And in this iteration, Kevin McCarthy will be on Jim Jordans very short leash.

With that as background, next summer we will return to the stupidest of American political traditions: the debt ceiling crisis, the pointless yet potentially disastrous exercise in which Congress must increase the amount the government can borrow to prevent a debt default, which would be well, bad doesnt quite capture it.

Pension funds would implode, the stock market would collapse, credit markets would freeze, businesses would fall, the dollar would go into freefall, inflation would surge, and the U.S. would lose its primacy in the global economy.

A recession is a given. A global depression is possible.

As we always do during a Democratic presidency, we meandered to the brink in 2021 before Mitch McConnell agreed not to tank the economy for no good reason. This became a normal practice after the Obama administration ransomed spending cuts in exchange for McConnell agreeing not to tank the economy for no good reason in 2011.

The kidnappers kept taking hostages until Democrats stopped playing along.

Last year, Republicans did a performative dance before folding. But McConnell is cynical, not insane. Im not sure the same can be said of the Freedom Caucus.

Axios reported on Wednesday that Republicans and their business patrons are starting to freak out about how Speaker McCarthy would handle a debt ceiling crisis. In no small part, its because Rep. Jason Smith, a Missouri hardliner, might take over a key committee.

And Smith believes he can force Biden to reverse his radical policies by threatening to default. If Republicans are trying to cut spending, surely [Biden] wouldnt try to default," Smith told Axios.

When this gambit inevitably failswhen Biden doesnt budge, when Senate Dems tell Smith to piss off, when the few House Republican moderates go weak in the face of terrible poll numberswill the Freedom Caucus back down?

Will McCarthy go around them even when Trump and Taylor Greene and the Fox News crowd call him a RINO sellouteven if it costs him his job?

Everything in McCarthys quisling history says he wont.

A five-vote cushion means hell have very little room to maneuver. If he cant whip votes from his own sideincluding from hard-right members who promised to never raise the debt ceilinghe has to make a deal with Democrats. If he cant bring himself to do that, default is coming.

The alternative, of course, is that we dont hand petulant children the codes to nuclear weapons they dont understand. Then again, by a 54-37 margin, Americans apparently think Republicans will be better for the economy.

So maybe well get the default we deserve.

Visit link:
When Republicans win the house, Kevin McCarthy is screwed - Creative Loafing Tampa

Three Republicans running in what should be winnable races this year have been all but abandoned by the national GOP, leaving them in limbo with just over a month to go until Novembers midterm elections.

In Pennsylvania, state Sen. Doug Mastrianos bid for governor is failing to gain traction. In Arizona, Senate nominee Blake Masters has seen funding dry up for his bid to unseat incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly. And in Ohio, J.R. Majewskis challenge to the longest-serving woman in the history of the House of Representatives was hobbled last week after a national Republican campaign group pulled its advertising for him.

To be sure, all three candidates could still win in November. But right now theyre struggling, and their fellow Republicans dont seem keen to help.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Sept. 3. (Mary Altaffer/AP)

Doug Mastriano won the May primary for the Republican gubernatorial nomination easily, securing more than 40% of the vote in a crowded field. This came despite an unsuccessful effort by more moderate Republicans to consolidate around an alternative candidate, which was undercut by former President Donald Trumps last-minute endorsement of Mastriano.

A former Army colonel, Mastriano didnt rely on traditional advertising during the primary. Instead, he played to hard-right Pennsylvania Republican voters on social media, and won a following by opposing anti-COVID-19 efforts and supporting Trumps baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

GOP power brokers in the state were trying to stop Mastriano because they felt his views were too extreme for general election voters in Pennsylvania, a key swing state. Mastriano attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally in Washington, D.C., and has sued the committee investigating the events of that day for wanting to question him. Hes also said that he would put in place new voting restrictions and has called for a complete ban on abortion.

There is also concern that if elected, Mastriano would try to throw out Pennsylvanias election results in 2024 should the state be won by a Democratic presidential candidate.

Story continues

Former President Donald Trump and Mastriano at the rally in Wilkes-Barre. (Mary Altaffer/AP)

The Republican Governors Association has not thrown financial support behind Mastriano, instead focusing on other races. At an event last month, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey the RGA chairman said the group would not fund lost causes.

You have to show us something, you have to demonstrate that you can move numbers and you can raise resources, Ducey added, in remarks recently reported by Axios.

Last week a Mastriano campaign adviser called for supporters to push the RGA to get involved in the race. Appearing in a Facebook livestream, Mastriano noted he was really not finding a lot of support from the national-level Republican organizations. Mastriano has avoided talking to the press, and a Saturday rally in the state capital of Harrisburg was sparsely attended.

The governors race was seen as winnable. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who is not running again due to term limits, is unpopular. But the Democratic nominee going up against Mastriano, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, has already won two statewide races, emerged unscathed from the gubernatorial primary in which he was the only candidate, and has been a successful fundraiser, giving him a major financial edge.

While Mastriano has been mostly absent from the airwaves, Shapiro started running ads criticizing Mastrianos positions before Mastriano had even won the GOP nomination. Shapiro explained the tactic to Yahoo News in May, saying he felt it was apparent Mastriano would win the nomination and adding, We think theres a clear contrast in this race and we want to make sure were out in front highlighting those differences and getting a jump on the general election.

Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvanias Democratic nominee for governor, at Franklin County Democratic Party headquarters on Sept. 17 in Chambersburg. (Marc Levy/AP)

Jim Wertz, the Democratic Party chairman in Erie County, told Yahoo News that hes had some Republican donors approach him at events asking how they could help Shapiro. Erie is one of the states most important swing counties, with Trump winning it in 2016 while winning the state and Joe Biden doing the same in 2020.

Its a real sign of trouble for the Republican Party that they continue to nominate characters that a sizable portion of the party cant support or defend, Wertz said. That said, we take nothing for granted. There is still a large contingent of election deniers and insurrectionists in the heart of the Republican Party, and we cant ignore their enthusiasm for extremist candidates and how that might affect the outcome of these midterm races.

The Mastriano campaign did not respond to Yahoo News request for comment.

Recent polling on the race has been both sparse and varied: While some surveys show Shapiro with a double-digit lead, others have Mastriano within a few points.

Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters at a rally on July 22 in Prescott, Ariz. (Ross D. Franklin/AP)

Blake Masters won a crowded GOP Senate primary thanks in large part to the financial backing of billionaire Peter Thiel and Trumps endorsement. But since August, the fundraising gap between Masters and his opponent, Democratic incumbent and former astronaut Mark Kelly, has only grown.

Thiel and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell fought over who should be on the hook for backing Masters in the general election. As a result, a super-PAC aligned with McConnell canceled nearly $10 million in booked advertising across television, radio and digital last week. Thiels super-PAC, meanwhile, has bought ads supporting Masters, but Thiel himself has been reluctant to spend more of his personal fortune on the rookie candidate.

As of the most recent filings, Kelly had raised $52 million versus $4 million for Masters.

Masters, a 36-year-old venture capitalist who has worked closely with Thiel for years, won a contentious primary for the GOP nomination by hewing close to Trump. Masters has promoted the conspiracy theory that Democrats are plotting to win elections by importing immigrants to replace native-born voters; called the Jan. 6 Capitol riot a false flag operation, claiming that one-third of the people outside of the Capitol complex on January 6 were actual FBI agents hanging out; has blamed Black people, frankly for Americas gun violence problem; and has suggested privatizing Social Security.

Masters has been particularly hard-line on abortion, calling for a federal personhood amendment, which would criminalize the procedure nationwide.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., in the U.S. Capitol on July 27. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

Last year Masters said support for abortion rights had become demonic and likened the procedure to religious sacrifice. Yet amid waning polls and fundraising numbers, Masters scrubbed his website of extreme language pertaining to reproductive rights last month. Abortion remains a key issue in Arizona, where a judge ruled last week that a near-total ban dating back to an 1864 law should go back into place.

According to a recent New York Times report, Masters was in Washington, D.C., last week at an event with McConnell pressing potential donors, saying, We dont need as much money as Kelly, just enough to get the truth out.

Polling earlier this month showed Kelly with double-digit leads on Masters, but two recent surveys indicated the race has tightened. Both the nonpartisan Cook Political Report and University of Virginia Center for Politics give Kelly the edge and have the race rated as lean Democrat. In their decision to move the race from a toss-up toward Kelly last week, Cook analyst Jessica Taylor wrote that Masters was emblematic of candidates beset by problems and anemic fundraising.

Republican congressional candidate J.R. Majewski at a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Sept. 17. (Tom E. Puskar/AP)

Republican groups were fully behind Majewski in his race to defeat Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who represents the Ninth District, which runs along the states northern border with Lake Erie. Kaptur became a top Republican target earlier this year when a redrawn Ohio map made her district significantly more Republican.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy campaigned with Majewski in August, and the political novice spoke at a Trump rally earlier this month. All of this support came despite Majewskis attendance of the Jan. 6 rally and his ties to the QAnon conspiracy theory.

However, last Thursday, multiple outlets reported that the National Republican Congressional Committee had withdrawn a nearly $1 million ad buy. The day before, the Associated Press reported that Majewski had misrepresented his military service. According to military records, he was primarily stationed at an Air Force base in Japan but served a six-month deployment in Qatar loading planes to support the Afghanistan war effort in 2002.

Majewski, right, at the VFW Post 2529 annual corn roast in Sandusky, Ohio, on Aug. 20. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

This is in contrast to the language of his campaign, where he refers to himself as a combat veteran, and a biography published by national Republicans, which refers to him as part of a squadron [that] was one of the first on the ground in Afghanistan after 9/11. The AP also found that Majewski had likely exaggerated his professional experience, unable to find evidence to support his claim that he was an executive in the nuclear power industry.

Majewski has said the AP report is incorrect. At a press conference Friday, he said that his deployments to Afghanistan were classified, he had photos of himself in Afghanistan he might share and he was considering suing the AP over the story.

Let me be clear, Majewski said. Anyone insinuating that I did not serve in Afghanistan is lying. I served in our United States of America, across multiple countries in many roles, but that didnt matter to the liberal media, who wrote a politically motivated hit piece on me.

Kaptur's campaign released a statement saying the appearance left Ohioans with more questions than answers.

His misleading claims need to be addressed, and its incumbent upon him to provide honesty and clarity not continued evasiveness and deflection, said campaign manager Kyle Buda. He has provided no evidence refuting these reports, and Ohioans need to know the truth.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, at the VFW corn roast. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

Kaptur has also taken pains to separate herself from national Democrats in her newly drawn district that Trump would have won by 3 points if it had been in place in 2020. In August she even released an ad criticizing President Biden for his China policy.

Marcy Kaptur: She doesnt work for Joe Biden; she works for you, the ad says.

Cover thumbnail photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Mary Altaffer/AP, Rick Scuteri/AP, Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images

Here is the original post:
Why the GOP has shunned some Republicans in key races - Yahoo News

Kansas Republicans have spent the past two weeks trying to move on.

The landslide Aug. 2 vote preserving abortion rights in the state constitution was a stunning defeat for many anti-abortion Republicans. GOP candidates up and down the ballot quickly pivoted to the Nov. 8 general election.

Rather than continuing the fight over abortion, Republicans were hoping to shift the focus back to inflation and President Joe Biden as they seek to tie incumbent Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Rep. Sharice Davids to the president whose popularity has sagged in recent months.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the Republican nominee for governor, and former Cerner executive Amanda Adkins, the Republican nominee in the 3rd Congressional District, have both shown little desire to make abortion a central focus on their campaigns following the Aug. 2 amendment vote.

The recount wont dramatically move the needle on the more than 165,000 vote lead. But it will keep the issue top of mind for voters as Republicans seek to win back the governors office and the 3rd District in November.

Neither Schmidts campaign, nor Adkins campaign, responded to questions about whether the GOP candidates supported the recount effort.

Whats ironic is the very people who I think it hurts are on the side of the people continuing to keep it in the spotlight, said Stephanie Sharp, a former moderate Republican state legislator who now operates a political consulting firm.

She added that she believes the recount hurts Amanda and Derek but the right cant let it go.

Schmidt and Adkins, Sharp said, already had support from voters on the right. Now they need to convince voters in the middle, many of whom voted no. The 3rd District is one of the most competitive congressional seats in the country and key to Republicans hopes of winning the U.S. House.

In a statement, Davids pointed out the 95,000-vote lead no had in Johnson County alone.

Im grateful to the election workers and officials who are doing their jobs here, but the recount is a waste of money and time from dangerously out-of-touch politicians who are unwilling to accept defeat, and should be called out as such, Davids said.

While Davids GOP opponent Adkins remained mum on the recount, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sought to tie the Johnson County Republican to the effort. The DCCC called it an attempt by radical election deniers and conspiracy theorists working to overthrow the will of voters in KS-03.

Recounts began Tuesday morning in Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee, Douglas, Crawford, Harvey, Jefferson, Lyon and Thomas counties. All but Thomas had a majority of voters reject the amendment. The counties combine to account for roughly 59% of votes cast in the August primary election.

Election workers in Johnson County began sorting ballots into piles by precincts on Tuesday. Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman said at a news conference that he hopes the actual recounting of ballots begins on Wednesday. Counties have until Saturday to complete the recount.

At least 46% of the no votes in the counties would need to flip in order to change the results of the election.

The Kansas Republican Assembly is a hard-right group unaffiliated with the official Kansas Republican Party. Over the years, it has taken on a number of ultraconservative and anti-government positions, including opposition to fluoridated water among other issues.

In Sedgwick County, Republican officials are trying to distance themselves from the Value Them Both failure. David Thorne, chairman of the county party, said the party made no effort to sign up volunteers for the recount.

The partys not involved with that, at all, Thorne said. The race is over, by a large margin.

Thorne said many Sedgwick County Republicans signed up to help with the recount on their own. Sedgwick County officials confirmed, as of Tuesday afternoon, that they had an overabundance of Republican volunteers to help count ballots and a lack of interest from Democratic counters.

We do have a lot of volunteers, and some of them on their own are probably going to be involved and just become a counter, Thorne said. But, the fact is, weve moved on. Were focusing on growing the Wichita economy and setting the vision for that and winning in the general.

A distraction?

Schmidt attempted to reset the political conversation this week by attacking Kelly on education, a major emphasis in her first campaign for governor. Schmidt aimed to hit Kelly on student achievement and school shutdowns of early COVID-19.

The new front in the race came several days after Schmidt quietly posted a statement online in the wake of the amendment defeat that declared he had never supported a total abortion ban and preferred exceptions for instances of rape, incest and the life of the mother. He otherwise sidestepped the issue.

Going forward, I will continue to do what Ive done for years defend commonsense regulations supported by a majority of Kansans such as the existing restrictions on late-term abortion and on taxpayer funding for abortion, said the statement, issued six days after the vote.

In a statement following the vote Adkins proclaimed the Kansas vote as evidence of the U.S. Supreme Courts wisdom returning the issue to the states. Kansans had spoken, she said, and the federal government no longer had a role.

But the effort nonetheless may distract from the issues they want to be talking about - like the economy.

Im positive it has an impact. Now the question is, how much? Is it de minimis, is it small? Its a distraction, its a sour grapes, now how much, who knows? said Kansas Senate Vice President Rick Wilborn, a McPherson Republican.

But state Rep. William Sutton, a Gardner Republican, said he expected Republicans to stay on message despite the continuation of the abortion debate.

Weve got a job to do and were set about doing that. If theres a recount going on, thats not for me to deal with. Im just doing my job ahead, he said.

The recount will require an incredible amount of labor to complete on the tight timeline.

At the Johnson County Election Office on Tuesday afternoon, a couple dozen election workers were working on the recount process. Their numbers are expected to swell to roughly 150 over the next few days. Johnson County plans to temporarily reassign some county employees from other departments to assist in the effort.

The recount will be conducted by numerous bipartisan teams, each having one Republican and one Democrat. County employees will be assigned to teams based on their party affiliation.

We will have a combination of county employees who will be reassigned to this location that will help us conclude or conduct this process, as well as election workers were working contacting to come in and help us finish the process, Sherman said.

In Sedgwick County, a lack of Democratic Party ballot counters and logistics issues are likely to delay a recount of the abortion rights vote in Wichita until Wednesday at the earliest, a Sedgwick County official said.

For the recount, the Sedgwick County Election Office is seeking 100 Republicans and 100 Democrats to count ballots and ensure bipartisan representation. At least 100 Republicans have agreed to help with the recount but the election office has not found enough Democrats, Libertarians and unaffiliated counters yet, Sedgwick County spokesperson Nicole Gibbs said.

The states leading anti-abortion groups and lawmakers have distanced themselves from the recount, which is expected to reaffirm the landslide defeat for the amendment.

In a statement about the recount the Value Them Both Coalition the primary vote yes campaign said they were focused on looking forward not back.

In a newsletter to supporters, Kansans for Life outlined possible steps forward for combating abortion in Kansas after the amendments failure, including additional resources for crisis pregnancy centers, laws protecting abortion survivors and support for candidates who would support anti-abortion judges.

The pro-life movement has faithfully fought battles on many fronts for 50 years and nothing not even a bad election night will weaken our resolve, the newsletter said.

State Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican and chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, said anti-abortion lawmakers had discussed increasing funding to Kansas existing pregnancy maintenance initiative fund and making adoptions easier in the state.

However, Landwehr said she couldnt see what could be gained from the recount.

Some people may want to make it a distraction but it shouldnt be. That race, that election happened, its over with, she said.

Ripe for the picking

But the recount will reinforce a Democratic talking point that the August vote was just one piece of a broader contest over abortion rights.

Potentially, this shows to the broader public that these are people who are bringing forward accusations and complaints that are not grounded in reality, without substantive evidence, said state Sen. Cindy Holscher, an Overland Park Democrat.

Holscher said she wasnt surprised to see a recount effort materialize Kansas lawmakers gave a platform for election deniers to spread unfounded claims of fraud during the 2022 session.

The recount, she said, would likely affirm the results. But it underscored Democrats task heading into November.

We have this whole extremist faction thats the supermajority thats pretty much detached from their constituents and what the people want. So we have to ensure that we keep sending the message that this is not the direction Kansans want to move into, Holscher said.

Sharp agreed. Candidates on the right needed to keep the abortion issue alive to energize their base, but it would push away the middle and the left.

Continuing this conversation just alienates the rest of the people that didnt vote that way, Sharp said.

However, she said, it would be incumbent on Democrats to make that point. While Davids has leaned into the abortion issue before and after the vote, Kelly has shied away from it.

Its right there. Its ripe for the picking, Sharp said.

More:
MDJOnline.com | Cobb's Local News Source Since 1866