Tag: race

Whitmania: Dems eye Michigan gov’s sister for battleground House race

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Reelected last year as a Board of Education trustee for the Katonah-Lewisboro school district, Gereghty graduated from Duke University’s business school and serves as a small-business consultant. She’s a neophyte to congressional politics, though. And she’s unlikely to have the field to herself.
These are my siblings – brother Richard with whom I’ve traversed thousands of miles and sister Liz who has kept me grounded. We get on the GOTV bus tomorrow. 8 days people! pic.twitter.com/HofzLP0sdB
— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) October 29, 2018
Democrats see the Hudson Valley seat as one of their best pickup opportunities in next year’s election, given that the district remains deeply blue — voters there favored President Joe Biden by 10 points in 2020 — despite the GOP’s gains during last year’s midterms. It’s still early in the cycle, but party strategists say recruitment here and in several other New York battlegrounds will be their top priority for 2024.
The New York-based seats are of particular interest to House Democratic leaders, given their Biden-friendly lean and proximity to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ district.
House Majority PAC has already signaled it’s willing to spend heavily in the state, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has singled out Lawler’s seat among several other New York districts that the party aims to flip next year to try to return to the majority. And Jeffries, along with Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), has called for an after-action report on the 2022 elections in New York and the party’s shortcomings.
Republicans remain confident in Lawler, however, given his high name ID and lifelong roots in the community. They expect the first-term incumbent to attract plenty of party support — fundraising and otherwise — ahead of next November in light of his high-profile win last year.
Asked about the potential challengers, a spokesperson for Lawler’s campaign said the New York Republican is focused on policy issues like reducing congestion pricing, lifting the SALT cap and bringing down energy prices. “His focus is, and will continue to be, serving the people of the Hudson Valley and getting things done that improve their quality of life,” said Chris Russell, Lawler’s chief strategist.
On the Democratic side, some more familiar names could enter the mix against Lawler. Former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) has publicly expressed interest in a run but is still undecided, according to two people familiar with his thinking.

If she runs, Liz Whitmer Gereghty would be targeting GOP Rep. Mike Lawler (pictured), who shockingly upset House Democrats’ campaign chief last cycle.
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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Jones is likely to make a decision in the next month or two, one of those people said. (Jones represented a large part of the district before it was redrawn in 2022, though he ultimately ran and lost for a New York City-based district instead.) He has stayed active in local politics and is set to headline a local party dinner later in April.

“I’ve been encouraging him to run. I think he can win it and we can take that district back,” said Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.), who is a friend of Jones. “I really, quite honestly, think he got the short end of the stick in 2022.”
Former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), the onetime DCCC chief who lost the seat by roughly 1,800 votes last November, also hasn’t ruled out a bid, according to a person close to him. Several Democratic members and strategists, though, were privately skeptical he would jump into the race.
So far, Gereghty is generating perhaps the most buzz among New York political circles. While she has a limited public presence so far, her sister, Gretchen Whitmer, is one of the most popular figures in Democratic politics and won reelection in a swing state last year by 11 points.
Since redistricting reforms gave Democrats control of both chambers of Michigan’s state legislature and the governorship for the time in 40 years, they have been on a legislative tear, enacting protections for LGBTQ residents and anti-gun violence laws as well as codifying abortion rights.
And Gretchen Whitmer isn’t the family’s only political stalwart: Their father served in the administration of former Gov. William Milliken, a Republican, and her mother was a state assistant attorney general. Her family is also close to the Dingells, including Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who has been helping Gereghty with the early stages of her New York run.
The Detroit Free Press reported in 2020, as the governor’s star began to rise, that Gereghty saved Whitmer’s number in her phone as “The Woman from Michigan” — a reference to the derisive nickname that Gretchen Whitmer earned from then-President Donald Trump.
Michigan, the Whitmers’ home state, is known for its political dynasties, such as the Levins, the Conyers, the Dingells and the Kildees. But the Mitten isn’t alone there: Indiana GOP Rep. Greg Pence captured an open congressional seat in 2018 while his brother Mike was serving as vice president. And Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) served in Congress with his brother, Lincoln. On top of that, countless children have replaced their parents in office.
But famous relatives don’t always propel their families to electoral success. One recent example: Levi Sanders, the son of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), was trounced in a 2018 Democratic primary for a New Hampshire House seat.

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#Whitmania #Dems #eye #Michigan #govs #sister #battleground #House #race
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 6, 2023
Nail-biter in Chicago: Mayor’s race too close to call

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Vallas and Johnson are vying to succeed incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who lost her reelection bid during the first round of the election Feb. 28.
In that contest, Vallas, the only white candidate among nine contenders, came in first with 33 percent of the vote, followed by Johnson at 22 percent and Lightfoot at 17 percent, propelling Vallas and Johnson to Tuesday’s runoff.
The outcome of the Chicago mayor’s race has been closely watched as Democrats across the country try to grapple with messaging over crime. Two years ago in New York, Eric Adams won his party’s nomination and, later, the general election running to the right of his fellow Democrats on criminal justice issues.
Vallas, 69, and Johnson, 47, played to their bases during the first round of the election, with Vallas on the right, courting moderates and Republicans in the nonpartisan race, and Johnson on the left securing support from Democratic Socialists.
They both steered their campaigns to the middle for Tuesday’s contest, trying to woo supporters of Lightfoot and Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who came in fourth during the first round.
Vallas and Johnson touted big-name endorsements in hopes of swaying voters. Johnson was backed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Johnson also was endorsed by civil rights leader and Chicago resident Rev. Jesse Jackson.
For his part, Vallas was endorsed by Sen. Dick Durbin, popular former Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White and Tom Tunney, an alderman and chair of Chicago’s powerful Zoning Committee.
Both Vallas and Johnson also were embraced by powerful unions, which helped fuel their bases but also raised concerns among moderate Democrats about how they would lead.

Vallas is endorsed by the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, and Johnson is backed by the Chicago Teachers Union, for which he also worked. The CTU also funded Johnson’s campaign, donating more than $2.5 million to the effort. While Vallas accepted the FOP support, he didn’t take money from the organization.
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#Nailbiter #Chicago #Mayors #race #close #call
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 5, 2023
Wisconsin’s record-shattering Supreme Court race barrels to an end

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The election has drawn outside national press — and a gusher of money.
Spending in the race exploded and surpassed $45 million as of late last week, according to WisPolitics.com, roughly tripling the previous state judicial race record.
There are some signs that the money is translating into more voters. The February primary for this seat drew the highest ever turnout for a spring primary contest — more than 960,000 voters. Over a fifth of voters showing up for an election that typically has turnout percentages in the low-to-mid teens.
The outcome of the race could change the course of everything from a 1840s abortion ban winding its way through the courts to congressional and legislative maps that all but ensure GOP control. It could also have implications for the 2024 presidential election in the crucial swing state.
“People ask me … whether it’s the most important race,” said Brian Schimming, the chair of the state Republican Party. “And I always say this is the most consequential race facing Wisconsin in decades.”
As of Monday morning, nearly 410,000 people had already voted early.
“I do think we’re going to see a record-breaking turnout for the spring,” Sarah Godlewski, a Democrat who was recently appointed to be the Wisconsin secretary of state after running for the Senate last year, said in an interview last month.
Polls close at 8 p.m. Central time.

The state Supreme Court is expected to rule on access to abortion in the state in the coming months. Wisconsin has a 19th century law on the books that bans the abortion in almost all circumstances that will eventually land in front of the state Supreme Court. In the interim, providers in the state have stopped performing the procedure.
Pro-abortion rights and anti-abortion groups have poured millions into the contest, and those involved say it has drawn out an intense groundswell of grassroots supporters on both sides.
Protasiewicz and her allies have made it central to the campaign. “Reproductive freedom and access to safe and legal abortion is the central, defining issue in this race,” Ben Wikler, the chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, said in an interview.
Abortion was mentioned in roughly a third of television ads coming from Protasiewicz’s campaign and other allied groups, according to data from the ad tracking service AdImpact. It was virtually non-existent in ads from the other side, appearing in just 1 percent of ads.
The race could also have a significant impact on the state’s congressional and legislative lines. Despite the state being close to 50-50 in most statewide elections, Republicans are on the cusp of supermajorities in both chambers, and the state’s congressional districts have a firm tilt toward the GOP.
Democrats in the state are eager to challenge the lines, should the court flip, and Protasiewicz regularly calls the maps unfair. Republicans have charged that Protasiewicz is crossing the line and projecting how she would rule on cases she hasn’t even heard yet.
“We can’t set a precedent of allowing judicial candidates to start just basically hinting at how they’re going to rule on political and legislative issues, before there’s even a case filed,” state Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August said in a recent interview.
Protasiewicz has repeatedly pushed back against this idea: “I have been extremely careful to indicate that all of my decisions will be rooted in the law and I will always follow the law. That being said, I have been very open about what my values are,” she told POLITICO in a late-February interview.
Her campaign pointed out that Kelly worked for the state Republican Party, and has recently charged that Kelly is also saying how he would rule on future cases in interviews.
Should the election be as close as most expect it to be, it will continue an exhausting trend of supercharged elections for Wisconsin voters and politicians.
The state has elected governors, senators and presidents on razor-thin margins for years, with a competitive Senate race — and presidential contest — on tap for next year.
“It seems like ever since the beginning of my legislative career, Wisconsin has been political ground zero,” said August, who won his seat in 2010. “So here we are again.”
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#Wisconsins #recordshattering #Supreme #Court #race #barrels
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 4, 2023
Asa Hutchinson announces presidential bid, says Trump should withdraw from race

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Hutchinson is entering the GOP primary at a tumultuous time in the race, as its current frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, faces an indictment stemming from a case related to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
On Sunday, Hutchinson, a former federal prosecutor, reiterated the call he first made Friday for Trump to withdraw from the race.
“Well he should,” Hutchinson said, when asked whether Trump should pull out of the race. “But at the same time, we know he’s not [going to]. And there’s not any constitutional requirement.”
The indictment will become too big of a “sideshow,” Hutchinson said, adding that the former president should focus on his defense instead of another bid for the White House.
“I mean, first of all, the office is more important than any individual person. And so for the sake of the office of the presidency, I do think that’s too much of a sideshow and distraction, and he needs to be able to concentrate on his due process,” Hutchinson said, acknowledging that the former president should be presumed innocent of the charges, which the Manhattan District Attorney’s office have yet to publicly unveil.
Hutchinson joins what’s expected to be a competitive Republican primary. In addition to Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have launched campaigns, and several others have said they’re considering joining the fray.
So far, Hutchinson is the only candidate or speculative candidate to call on Trump to remove himself from the race. Others have condemned the investigation as a partisan attack by Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney who brought the case to the grand jury. Haley described the case as more about “revenge” than justice; Former Vice President Mike Pence called the indictment “an outrage”; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the move was “un-American.”
Hutchinson has also been critical of the case. “I don’t like the idea of the charges from what I’ve seen coming out of New York,” he said Sunday. “But the process has got to work, and we’ve got to have respect for our criminal justice system, but also for the office of presidency.”

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#Asa #Hutchinson #announces #presidential #bid #Trump #withdraw #race
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 2, 2023
These are the most powerful people on race and politics

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Introducing the lawmakers and luminaries who wielded extraordinary influence over politics, culture and race in 2022.

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#powerful #people #race #politics
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 31, 2023
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race could be the beginning of the end for GOP dominance

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“Wisconsinites are very familiar with hearing ‘this is the most important election of our lifetime,’” said Sarah Godlewski, a Democrat who was recently appointed to be the Wisconsin secretary of state after running for the Senate last year. But, she emphasized, this race is actually incredibly “consequential” for the longer-term political control of the state.
A liberal takeover of the supreme court could even be a factor in the race for control of the U.S. House in 2024.
A win by Democrat-backed Janet Protasiewicz — which could shift control of the court from a one-seat advantage for conservatives to a 4-3 liberal majority — could have a domino effect in the state. She is facing former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, the conservative candidate backed by the state GOP in the technically non-partisan race.

Protasiewicz is facing former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, the conservative candidate backed by the state GOP in the technically non-partisan race.
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Morry Gash/AP
Most immediately, the court will likely decide the fate of abortion rights in Wisconsin; that and crime have been the focus of much of the debate surrounding the race. But there’s another hugely consequential matter the court could take up: a challenge to the state’s congressional district and legislative lines. And an adverse ruling for Republicans would pose a direct threat to the delegation’s GOP-heavy makeup.
Currently, Republicans have a near-ironclad hold on the state legislature, a fact that has hamstrung Democratic Gov. Tony Evers throughout his two terms. The GOP is a few seats shy of a supermajority in the state Assembly, and a special election for a red-leaning state Senate seat on Tuesday will determine if the GOP hits the two-thirds mark in the state Senate again.
The state’s congressional delegation, meanwhile, is 6-2 Republican — four safe Republican seats, two deep blue Democratic districts and a pair of red-leaning but potentially competitive districts that the GOP carried in the midterms.
But that GOP dominance is built upon conservative-friendly state and congressional district maps — lines that Democrats are itching to challenge in court.
Wisconsin’s congressional and legislative lines went through lengthy court fights following the 2020 census, after the GOP-controlled legislature and Evers could not reach an agreement on the maps. After a series of rulings from both the state and U.S. Supreme Courts, the state landed on its current legislative and congressional lines.

The U.S. House map ultimately selected by the state Supreme Court was one proposed by Evers — but it was still one that heavily favored Republicans because the court previously ruled the maps must be based on the last decade’s lines.
A win for Protasiewicz could reopen those decisions. Broadly, operatives on both sides believe a redrawn map could endanger the seats of Reps. Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden, the two Republicans who represent the red-leaning seats. And the district of Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) could be redrawn to become more competitive.
More than $37 million has already been spent on the race as of late last week, according to WisPolitics.com — easily the record for spending on a state Supreme Court race anywhere in the country. But even with the stakes riding on the election, those involved say the contest is still running into the same attention gap that off-year elections face.
“For people that aren’t paying attention, it seems hard to believe that there’s a spring election that has cataclysmic importance,” said Ben Wikler, the chair of the state Democratic Party. “And breaking through that natural skepticism to convey that fact is maybe the central challenge in this organizing push.”
Operatives on both sides believe the race between the two candidates is close, though there have been no nonpartisan public polls.
In the only debate between Protasiewicz and Kelly that took place last week, Protasiewicz criticized the maps, saying they were unfair. “I don’t think anybody thinks those maps are fair. Anybody,” she said during the debate. “The question is am I able to fairly make a decision on a case. Of course I would.”
Some Republicans have attacked these comments, saying she is projecting how she would rule in cases. “I think that it really goes beyond the partisan makeup of the legislature or what the congressional delegation is going to be,” state Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, a Republican, said in an interview. “It really goes to ‘are we going to start to allow Supreme Court justices to just make unilateral decisions?’”
But even setting aside the outcome of Tuesday’s election, there is significant uncertainty over what role the Wisconsin Supreme Court will play in redistricting in the future. There is a case pending in the U.S. Supreme Court that risks cutting state supreme courts out of that role in most federal election questions.
Perhaps even more consequential than any would-be redistricting case is the potential for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to rule on the outcome of a future election — including the 2024 presidential race. In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, the state Supreme Court tossed then-President Donald Trump’s challenge to the outcome in the state. At the time, Justice Brian Hagedorn — a conservative who still serves on the court and has been a swing vote in other big cases — joined the liberal minority on the case.
The most glaring near-term issue the court will grapple with, however, is abortion rights. The state currently has an 1840s law on the books banning abortion in almost all circumstances. A challenge to that law is expected to eventually land in front of the state Supreme Court, but abortion providers in the state have, in the interim, stopped performing the procedure.
Earlier this month, Republican Assembly leaders put forward a proposal to allow for the procedure in cases of rape or incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, along with clarifying a “health of the mother” exception. But Republican Senate leaders promised to not take it up, and Evers said he would veto it. Soon after, the governor introduced his own proposal to repeal the 1849 law, but it will not pass the legislature.
Protasiewicz and her allies are hoping the issue will propel her to victory, as it did for many Democrats last fall who outperformed expectations in the midterms. But the race has attracted significant attention from both pro-abortion rights and anti-abortion groups, who say their supporters have been fired up by the contest.
Gracie Skogman, the legislative and PAC director of Wisconsin Right to Life, said there has been an “unprecedented” response from anti-abortion advocates. “I have been truly shocked to see the amount of people who are willing to be involved in this election. That was very unexpected for us,” she added.
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#Wisconsins #Supreme #Court #race #beginning #GOP #dominance
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 29, 2023
Khanna’s pass clarifies California Senate race — and his political future

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Beyond the timing, simple math would have posed a challenge. Porter, Lee and Schiff are all vying for the same finite pool of Democratic and independent votes as they jostle to make it out of the primary. Two Democrats could advance under California’s primary system, which allows the top two vote-getters to move on to the general.
Progressives are already wary of Lee and Porter dividing the left-leaning vote in a way that locks both Congressional Progressive Caucus members out of the top two, allowing the more-centrist Schiff to advance and face a likely-doomed Republican in the general (the GOP has not yet fielded a candidate).
Khanna could have further fractured the progressive vote given his standing among California’s substantial bloc of Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters. Khanna co-chaired Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign and said on Sunday that he had heard “enthusiasm from Bernie folks.”
“If Khanna had gotten in the race, progressives risked splitting the vote three ways and giving Schiff a boost,” said Rose Kapolczynski, a Democratic consultant who worked for former Sen. Barbara Boxer. “While Schiff is a progressive by most measures, progressive activists have been backing Porter or Lee.”
Now, some of that Sanders support could flow toward Lee, whom Khanna endorsed as he bowed out. Lee’s camp is counting on an energized progressive base vaulting the East Bay fixture into the top two.
“We need a strong anti-war senator, and she will play that role,” Khanna said Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Khanna’s deep Silicon Valley ties could make him a conduit to powerful donors and help Lee make up a steep cash-on-hand deficit compared to Schiff and Porter, both of whom are prolific fundraisers.
“Congressman Khanna’s endorsement is a much-needed boost in these early days of the race, but Rep. Lee still has a steep climb ahead,” consultant Anna Bahr, who worked for Sanders’ 2020 California campaign, said in a text message. “It won’t be easy to get on level footing with the front-runners in the race.”

Few doubt Khanna’s ambition. He primaried another Democrat to win his spot in Congress. He has become a television fixture who touts a progressive agenda while seeking to export Silicon Valley’s economic might to other parts of the country, making a case for forging inroads beyond coastal blue bastions. He is a stalwart Sanders supporter who is comfortable hobnobbing with deep-pocketed tech libertarians.
This marks the second time Khanna flirted with a Senate run but decided against it; he also chose not to challenge Sen. Alex Padilla when the recently appointed senator was running for a full term. Khanna said on Sunday he was bowing out of contention in part because “the most exciting place to advance bold and progressive policy right now is in the House.”
He will remain there rather than forfeiting a spot in Congress for a long-shot Senate bid. But that doesn’t mean Khanna intends to stay in the House forever. Some Sanders backers sought to draft Khanna to run in 2024 should President Joe Biden not seek a second term.
While Khanna has steadfastly supported Biden, he is widely seen as a future presidential contender. That prospect would diminish if he were to give up his House seat for a Senate run and fall short, depriving himself of a platform for policymaking, public visibility, and fundraising.
“If Ro Khanna goes all-out for Barbara Lee and she makes it into the runoff, that could be a big proof point for him as he pursues other things,” Kapolczynski said. “That he helped elected the only Black woman in the Senate is a pretty good talking point if you have national ambitions.”
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#Khannas #pass #clarifies #California #Senate #race #political #future
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 27, 2023
Opinion | I Know What Nikki Haley Has Gone Through. That’s Why Her Rhetoric on Race Infuriates Me.

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Or as Haley put it during the 2020 Republican National Convention: “America is not a racist country. This is personal for me. I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. They came to America and settled in a small Southern town. My father wore a turban. My mother wore a sari. I was a brown girl in a Black and white world. We faced discrimination and hardship. But my parents never gave in to grievance and hate.”
My Black parents never gave into grievance or hate either. Most Black people haven’t, despite what our families have endured for generations. I would have had no chance at success had they given in, or had I. And yet, it feels to me as though Haley expertly tells her story in a way to diminish and dismiss people like me, those who refuse to pretend the anger we sometimes feel at the obvious racism around us isn’t justified.
I know the power of Haley’s story, know of the pain she speaks when recounting what happened to her father when she was a young girl. Her father committed a cardinal sin in the Bible Belt Deep South: buying produce at a fruit stand while brown and wearing a turban. He was Sikh, the turban a part of his faith. Someone called the cops, who stood watch as he purchased his items. Haley has told the story in many ways over the years, including in her memoir. And it’s the incident Haley used when she pushed legislators in 2015 to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina State House, even though she had done nothing until then to get it removed.
“I remember how bad that felt,” Haley has said about the fruit stand incident. “And my dad went to the register, shook their hands, said ‘Thank you,’ paid for his things and not a word was said going home. I knew what had just happened. That produce stand is still there and every time I drive by it, I still feel that pain. I realized that that Confederate flag was the same pain that so many people were feeling.”
Haley’s father had to swallow their bigotry, and even thank them for it, while handing them his hard-earned dollars. That’s what was expected when white men demanded stoic subservience. In that same era, my father had to quietly endure insults even from white children who would slur him knowing their skin color would protect them.
I know such incidents leave an indelible mark on your psyche, on your soul. You never grow out of it, especially if, like Haley, you and your family faced racial and religious discrimination in numerous ways. Her parents, immigrants from India, initially had trouble finding housing in Bamberg because of Jim Crow laws and social norms. Haley was removed from the Little Miss Bamberg beauty pageant as a 5-year-old because the insidious race-based system did not make space for someone like her, not white but not Black either. She wanted to be a pilgrim in a school play but had to portray Pocahontas instead. (“Did they realize that I wasn’t that kind of Indian?” she would later say.) 
She endured racism as an adult when in 2010 she was vying to become the first woman and person of color to become South Carolina’s governor. State Sen. Jake Knotts, a Republican like Haley but an ally of one of her opponents, slurred her as a “raghead.” (He applied the term to then-President Barack Obama as well.) The Lexington County Republican Party censured him and told him to resign. Instead, he gave a half-hearted apology “for an unintended slur” but proclaimed that Haley was “pretending to be someone she is not, much as Obama did.”
Growing up in the circumstances Haley and I did, you realize quite early you will be pressured to make a certain number of compromises and sacrifices to become successful in white people’s eyes. You may cry in private but present a stiff upper lip in public. That might mean swallowing hard, like Haley’s parents did and my parents did, to accommodate the white people in your orbit. And sometimes that meant unintentionally buying into their delusions, or having the good sense and good “God bless your heart” Southern manners to not shatter their myths. We were taught by history teachers in our public schools from books written by Confederate apologists and descendants. We learned that enslaved people were happy and that enslavers treated them like family members, and that the Confederate flag was “a symbol of respect, integrity and duty” and “a way to honor ancestors who came to the service of their state.” Those were Haley’s words. But she has also said the opposite, reminding audiences the flag was also seen by some as “a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past.”

In an interview with “The Palmetto Patriots” during her first run for governor in 2010, Haley defended states’ right to secede and said the Confederate flag was not racist and its location was a “compromise of all people, that everybody should accept.” She was referring to the general assembly’s decision in 2000, under pressure from a boycott by the NAACP, to remove the flag from atop the statehouse and place it in front of the building. As part of the “compromise,” the legislature also initiated plans for the construction of an African American monument to be installed at the state Capitol and established an official Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. state holiday to go along with a Confederate Memorial Day. That “compromise” was what counted for racial progress in South Carolina. In exchange for the privilege of having the flag of traitors relocated — but continuing to fly on Capitol grounds — Black citizens had to accept a state holiday dedicated to the traitors who wanted us to be enslaved forever.
At the same time, Haley made history by appointing Tim Scott to the U.S. Senate, making him the first Black man from the Deep South to serve in that chamber since Reconstruction. And she signed into law a bill that began to correct for decades-deep inequalities suffered by school districts like the ones she and I attended.
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#Opinion #Nikki #Haley #Rhetoric #Race #Infuriates
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 26, 2023
Arizona court declines most of Kari Lake’s appeal over governor’s race

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In her challenge, the former TV anchor focused on problems with ballot printers at some polling places in Maricopa County, home to more than 60% of the state’s voters.
The defective printers produced ballots that were too light to be read by the on-site tabulators at polling places. Lines backed up in some areas amid the confusion. Lake alleged ballot printer problems were the result of intentional misconduct.
County officials say everyone had a chance to vote, and all ballots were counted because those affected by the printers were taken to more sophisticated counters at election headquarters.
In mid-February, the Arizona Court of Appeal rejected Lake’s assertions, concluding she presented no evidence that voters whose ballots were unreadable by tabulators at polling places were not able to vote.
The appeals court noted that even a witness called to testify on Lake’s behalf confirmed ballots that couldn’t initially be read at polling places may ultimately have been counted. And while a pollster testified that the polling place problems disenfranchised enough voters to change the election’s outcome, the appeals court said his conclusion was baseless.
Lake’s attorneys also said the chain of custody for ballots was broken at an off-site facility where a contractor scans mail-in ballots to prepare them for processing. The lawyers asserted that workers put their own mail-in ballots into the pile rather than returning them through normal channels, and that paperwork documenting ballot transfers was missing. The county disputes the claims.
Hobbs’ attorneys have said Lake was trying to sow distrust in Arizona’s election results and offered no proof to back up her allegations.
Lake faced extremely long odds in her challenge, which required proving misconduct specifically intended to deny her victory and that it resulted in the wrong woman being declared the winner.

Hobbs took office as governor on Jan. 2.
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#Arizona #court #declines #Kari #Lakes #appeal #governors #race
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 23, 2023
Lives at risk as delivery agents race against time to avoid penalties

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Noida: Two delivery agents were killed in separate accidents while they were on duty on Holi. Both the deceased were hit by cars as they raced against the clock to avoid penalties and deliver the orders in time.
According to the police, one of the deceased, identified as Bunty worked as a delivery boy in Noida. He was on his way to deliver an order when an unidentified car driver hit his scooty in Sector-112 of Noida on March 8.
He was admitted to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries during treatment.
In the second incident, Deepak, who worked as a delivery agent in Big Basket, met with an accident while he was on his way to deliver an order near Lotus Boulevard society here, at around 3 p.m. on the same day.
Deepak was hit by a car and was admitted to a government hospital in Nithari where he passed away during treatment.
Sector-39 police station in-charge Ajay Chehar, said that the police sent his body for postmortem and arrested the car driver.
The increase in such accidents points towards the tough competition in the field and the increasing pressure faced by the agents to deliver the orders on time.
Many Apps have fixed time durations for the delivery agents, who, in the course of adhering to it, risk their lives on the roads.

Police officials said that such accidents have increased due to the pressure faced by the agents to deliver the order within the stipulated time limit. Pressurised by the companies, the agents resort to violating traffic rules and over-speeding to achieve the target.
Police officials said that the extra weight that the agents carry also becomes a factor leading to accidents as their vehicles lose balance.
Bal Govind Mishra, who works as a delivery partner in a food App based company, said that he picked up an order from a restaurant on March 15, after which he was informed of a health emergency at his home.
Mishra said that he frantically reached his home and dialled the customer care service of the company, asking them to assign the delivery to another agent, which was denied.
He alleged that he was warned of being fined if he failed to deliver the order. Upon refusal, the company imposed a fine of double the amount of money involved.
He stated that he has appealed in the Labour Court regarding the matter.
Talking to IANS, Mishra said that the company earns around Rs 500 if a delivery agent logs in for 10 hours, out of which the latter is paid Rs 200.
He added that when the log-in time is of 15-16 hours, the company earns around Rs 750 and pays Rs 350 to the agent.
He said that many a times restaurant workers trick the agents by falsely sending a notification of the order being ready on the food delivery App, but when an agent reaches there, they end up waiting for long intervals.
He said that only a notice is issued by the App to the concerned restaurant in this regard.
Mishra added that in the current scenario, delivery agents’ work carries great pressure and gets really difficult and tiring.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 18, 2023