Tag: Democrats

Indian-American named chair of Washington state Democrats

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Washington: The Washington State Democratic Party has chosen Shasti Conrad as its new chair, making her the youngest and first Indian-American woman to serve as a state party chair anywhere in the country.
Conrad, 38, a political consultant and former leader of the King County Democrats, takes over from Tina Podlodowski, who had served as party chair since 2017.
“I’m so honored to have the opportunity to serve as Chair of our state party and build on the outstanding success Washington Democrats have earned at the ballot box for the last six years,” she said in a statement.
“I’m excited to work with Democratic leaders from every community to build an unprecedented field operation that will carry the message of how Washington Democrats are delivering for working families to each and every voter.”
Conrad assumes leadership of an organization whose voter contact operation has played a key role in Democrats’ statewide electoral dominance since the 2016 election, the Washington State Democratic Party said in a statement.
She has worked on political campaigns since 2008 when she got her start as a field organizer working for then-Senator Obama’s primary campaign.
Since then, she’s worked on three more presidential races and concluded the 2020 cycle as Senator Bernie Sanders’ National Director of Surrogates.
Locally, Conrad served as Chair of the Martin Luther King, Jr County Democrats from 2018 to 2022, where she raised nearly $300,000 for a county party organization mired in debt when she first took office.

Under her leadership, the King County Democrats’ field operation helped flip six city councils and a County Council seat held by Republicans for 20 years, the party statement read.
“After six years serving as the Chair of the Washington Democrats, I’m thrilled to pass on the torch to my friend Shasti Conrad. Shasti has been a force in Washington Democratic politics for over a decade as a staffer on three presidential campaigns and a successful chair of the largest county party organization in the state,” said Podlodowski, the outgoing party chair.
Conrad was named as one of the “40 Under 40” by the American Association of Political Consultants, and one of the most influential people in Seattle Politics by Seattle Met Magazine.She received her Master’s in Public Affairs from Princeton University and her B.A. with Honors distinction from Seattle University.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 30, 2023
Democrats rev abortion advertising back up for next round of elections

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The ad will run on digital platforms in the swing region of Hampton Roads in southeast Virginia. It is backed by a buy of about $150,000 over six weeks, the organization said.
The ads from the Democratic-aligned group are a sign that strategists for the party believe abortion will remain a major motivating factor for voters.
“This is obviously top of mind for a lot of people right now,” said Kate Stoner, the new executive director of State Democracy Action Fund, which is affiliated with the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. “And this is happening in Virginia right now. We want to make sure that folks in the state know what is going on.”
Democratic campaigns across the country hammered Republicans on abortion policy after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. The decision — and Democrats’ subsequent focus on it in many races — was credited with helping the party notch an unexpectedly successful midterm election, expanding its Senate majority and reelecting a number of governors even while narrowly losing the House.
And on the state legislative level, Democrats notched some of their greatest successes in a generation. They did not lose control of a chamber in 2022, and flipped four away from Republicans: both chambers in Michigan, the Pennsylvania state House and Minnesota state Senate.
It was a notable reversal of fortune from just one year earlier in Virginia. There, Democratic gubernatorial nominee and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe relentlessly attacked then-candidate Youngkin on abortion, warning that Youngkin would try to institute a ban in the state.
“It will be a huge motivator for individuals to come out and vote,” McAuliffe predicted in an interview in September 2021. But despite that focus, Youngkin stormed past McAuliffe for an upset victory, with Republicans also flipping the state House in the process.
A special election earlier this year in Virginia suggested that the potency of abortion as a deciding issue for voters has stuck past the midterms. In early January, Democrat Aaron Rouse flipped a GOP-held state Senate seat in the Hampton Roads region. That came after a significant focus on abortion rights in the race, both from Rouse’s campaign and from national organizations.

Stoner, SDAF’s executive director, said that the group would also focus on issues like voting rights and health care in addition to abortion rights.
She declined to name other specific states that it would be running programs in, but noted that several legislative chambers flipped last year. New Jersey, Mississippi and Louisiana are the other three states with legislative elections in 2023, with Democrats controlling both chambers in the former and Republicans the latter two. Virginia is widely considered to have the most competitive state legislative elections this year.
SDAF’s mission will not be to suggest model legislation, Stoner said, but to “educate” voters about what legislators are proposing. Nonprofit groups like SDAF — which are common in both parties — are technically nonpartisan and in most cases do not have to disclose their donors.
“Washington is going to be a bit in gridlock for the foreseeable future,” she said. “And so what’s happening in your state legislature always impacts your day to day life in such a large way, but even more so now.”
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#Democrats #rev #abortion #advertising #elections
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 30, 2023
Eric Adams’ annual New York City address underpins message for national Democrats

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Adams is the latest in a long line of politicians to focus his rhetoric on the working class. His predecessor, Bill de Blasio, at one point promoted the slogan Working People First. However, Adams has repeatedly stressed that his upbringing by a single mother who worked cleaning houses and his first career as a cop give him insight into the plight of millions of New Yorkers that other politicians can lack.
“Don’t let it fool you — I may wear nice suits,” said Adams, who was dressed for the occasion in a dark suit offset by a white pocket square and magenta tie. “But I’m a blue-collar cat.”
On the subject of crime, which largely impacts low-income communities, Adams has urged fellow Democrats to talk more frankly about the successes of policing and the immediate boost that solving crimes can provide to the public’s confidence in government.
“The party, I believe, articulates long-term solutions to a problem. And that’s fine to do so and we should have a long-term plan. … But people are saying, what about right now?” he said during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “How are we going to intercede with that 16-year-old child that was stabbed, or that mother who was shot by a random bullet?”
During Thursday’s speech, Adams touted a recent drop in crime in New York City, which he has attributed to his support for the NYPD, the relaunch of a controversial plainclothes unit and his focus on seizing illegal guns.
“I want to thank everyone who has supported this effort, especially Governor [Kathy] Hochul and President [Joe] Biden,” the mayor said. “They understand that fighting the scourge of illegal guns is a top priority for our city.”
Adams has appeared happy to clash with left-leaning members of the party who are skeptical of the NYPD. And he pledged Thursday to focus during the upcoming year on shoplifting, robberies and burglaries while also pushing — again — for changes to the state’s criminal justice laws in Albany with an eye toward keeping a small number of repeat offenders in custody.
“We know who they are, and we need to get them off our streets,” he said.

Other planks of his working people’s agenda include apprenticeships and career training to steer more students into higher paying jobs. The mayor noted that the unemployment rate for Black New Yorkers was three times higher than white residents.
He also pledged to provide free internet for more low-income New Yorkers while streamlining the process of receiving food assistance and other social service programs from the city. Health officials will begin providing free health care to those who have spent more than seven days in a homeless shelter and will begin to roll out centers specifically geared to residents experiencing mental health challenges. The city will also seek legislation that would allow New Yorkers to retain public benefits for six months after starting a new job, and will expand access to fresh food by beefing up city investment in a program to help connect people with groceries.
“You can’t have Whole Foods in Park Slope and junk food in Brownsville,” the mayor said in one of many off-script remarks that drew applause from the crowd of politicians who gathered for the speech.
Adams’ effort to define his brand of Democratic politics comes as he seeks other wins on the national level.
On Thursday, the mayor reiterated his call for the federal government to provide aid for the more than 40,000 asylum-seekers who have arrived in New York City, and plugged the city’s bid to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
And on Thursday he made other major policy announcements, including a citywide composting program and rezonings in Manhattan and Staten Island.
“City government must work to improve the public good, support an economy that works for all, and care for the working people who make it possible,” Adams said as he rounded out his address. “Jobs, safety, housing, and care — without these pillars of support, cities crumble, institutions fall, society weakens. We will not allow that to happen in New York.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 27, 2023
House Democrats named their rosters for the most desired committees, including the Rules Committee.

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Democrats on Rules will be a counterweight to the more conservative members of the panel.

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#House #Democrats #named #rosters #desired #committees #including #Rules #Committee
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 25, 2023
Biden hosts Democrats at White House as standoff over debt ceiling looms

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The stalemate over the nation’s debt ceiling was a prime example of how the shift in congressional power could shape the rest of Biden’s term, as Republican lawmakers push for spending cuts before agreeing to Democrats’ requests to increase the debt limit.
At the start of the meeting, Biden said: “I have no intention of letting the Republicans wreck our economy, nor does anybody around this table.” He is expected to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to discuss the standoff, though White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday said she had no updates about timing for when.
Later, Schumer said the White House and Democratic leaders were on the “same page” regarding the debt ceiling. White House officials have continued to stress that Congress must pass a clean limit increase, noting that lawmakers raised the debt ceiling three times under former President Donald Trump without demanding spending cuts.
“One of the things we want to do on the debt ceiling is say to Republicans, show us your plan,” Schumer said. “Do they want to cut Social Security? Do they want to cut Medicare? Do they want to cut veterans benefits? Do they want to cut police? Do they want to cut food for needy kids? What’s your plan? We don’t know if they can even put one together.”
Jeffries described the meeting as “wonderful,” adding that the group discussed jobs, infrastructure and the administration’s accomplishments. Schumer also said the group agreed to lean into implementation of the bills they’ve passed.
“One of the things we’re going to work together on, the president, the House, the Senate, is making sure that implementation of all the good things that we did in the last two years gets to the people quickly, in a real way, and gets to the right people — the working families of America,” Schumer said.
Schumer and Jeffries were joined by House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.)
The Democratic leaders retreated back into the White House without taking questions on the president’s handling of classified documents, a storyline that has dominated the new year for Biden.

The White House on Tuesday evening also hosted new members of Congress for a reception in the East Room.
Olivia Olander contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 25, 2023
Democrats ding Biden on documents even as they push back against GOP

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Another Democrat, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, said he is concerned about the number of documents officials keep finding at Biden’s home.
“Well, I’m concerned; there’s a standard we follow when it comes to members of Congress and classified information,” the Illinois Democrat said. “To think that any of them ended up in boxes in storage one place or the other is just unacceptable.”
But Durbin’s statement was also in line with what other Democrats have said — arguing that no matter how careless or problematic Biden’s handling of classified documents has been, it’s still better than the way former President Donald Trump handled the same type of material after leaving office.
“Joe Biden has shown total cooperation in this effort. That’s a sharp contrast to President Trump,” Durbin said.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) downplayed concerns about Biden’s handling of classified documents, adding: “I don’t think this is an issue that is keeping Americans up at night.”
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Coons said that concern over the discovery of additional classified documents at Biden’s residence in Delaware is, more than anything else, distracting the nation from more important issues. Coons noted the search was “consensual,” contrasting it with how Trump pushed back on those seeking to recover classified materials and how Trump has continued to argue that he had the right to possess those documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Fla.
Biden’s attorneys discovered a series of classified documents on multiple occasions from November 2022 to January 2023. On Saturday, it was announced that six additional documents marked as classified were found at Biden’s Delaware home after the Justice Department searched for nearly 13 hours.
In a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” 34 percent of Americans said they think Biden handled classified documents appropriately after he left office as vice president, compared with 64 percent of Americans who think he acted inappropriately.

Those numbers were still better than those for Trump; 77 percent of those polled said they thought the former president acted inappropriately. But the polling was conducted before the announcement of more documents being discovered in Biden’s possession.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), speaking on Fox’s “Fox News Sunday,” echoed Coons’ sentiments, saying that there’s a “stark comparison to the other investigation of classified documents with former President Trump.”
“The White House needs to cooperate with the Justice Department,” Gottheimer said. “That’s what they’ve been doing for months. I think as long as the White House does what it should do, which is cooperate fully so we can get to the bottom of this, there’s the appropriate process.”
In November, lawyers to the president discovered Obama administration documents in a Biden-associated Washington think tank. Days later, Biden’s legal team found additional documents in Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Del., one of Biden’s lawyers announced.
Biden aides found five additional documents in this president’s Delaware home, the White House announced Jan. 14. They were then turned over to the Justice Department, which had appointed a special counsel to investigate the matter.
On Sunday, Republicans were less forgiving than Democrats on the matter.
Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) called Biden a “serial classified-document hoarder” while insisting that the investigation looks more like a cover-up.
“That is why the special counsel’s work is going to be really important, because I can think of no reason why the President should have taken home, as a senator or as vice president, any classified documents that clearly have no protection. They’re available and open to anybody,” Turner said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Speaking after Coons, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) wondered why any public official was taking any classified material home and said the fallout could still end up being much larger than anticipated now.
“Watergate started as a very small burglary, and it led to the president of the United States resigning,” said the new chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “So, I don’t know what’s there until we see the documents — if there are national security documents relating to foreign nations adversaries, particularly China.”
On Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Rep. James Comer, the new chair of House Oversight Committee, also expressed concern that the situation was worse than originally portrayed.
“I took the president at his word,” the Kentucky Republican told host Maria Bartiromo, “when the first set of documents were found at the Biden Center for Diplomacy that he had just inadvertently misplaced those documents. But now this has gone from simply being irresponsible to downright scary.”
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#Democrats #ding #Biden #documents #push #GOP
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 22, 2023