I listened to an interview with Brian Schatz on the Lovett or Leave IT podcast last night, and so much of what he had to say is important enough that I took the time transcribe the quotes below.
Q: You brought up the Supreme Court battle…
People don’t think choice is really gonna be taken away, and yet that’s exactly what’s gonna happen.
These people are absolutely committed to taking away women’s reproductive choice. they are going to do it as a matter of constitutional law. Now, we have recourse at the state level and maybe even in the federal government at the statutory level. But that’s actually what’s going to happen.
Q: What are the tools that are at our disposal in terms of pushing the nomination until after the election?
We’re gonna do everything we can to actually delay this process… We will leave no stone unturned in terms of delaying the process. Whether or not we will be successful in delaying it beyond the election, I don’t know. That remains to be seen in the sort of scuffle of those moments.
I will add, though, that one of the most likely scenarios in terms of it being delayed is simply that Republicans can’t muster a quorum because of their exposure to coronavirus. So one of the most important things that 47 Democrats plus Democratic-leaning Independents can do in the Unite States Senate is to not get coronavirus.
I know that sounds kind of like a silly thing, but we have to be 47 strong so that we can either withhold a quorum or beat them on the floor vote.
Q: People are listening, they’ve donated… what is the most helpful thing you think people should be directing their energy to right now in the home stretch? We’ve got 24 days left. What Senate races do you want them focused on that they may not be focused on? What do you want them spending their time?
Mike Espy in Mississippi. This thing is close. [The appointed incumbent] is not a very strong or energetic campaigner, I think raised 200,000 last quarter. Mike Espy is surging. That’s a race that is still under-funded on our side.
MJ Hegar in Texas. For the same reason. She is surging. Biden just dropped 7 million dollars into TX and I think it’s a serious play for TX. And Beto and the Castro brothers and sort of Texas Democrats are really taking this quite seriously. And the thing about TX is there’s no point at which we have enough money for Texas, right?
There are other races where they do have enough money. [Mentions Amy McGrath and Mark Kelly.] MJ Hegar really doesn’t have enough money. Those are the two races that I find most intriguing.
I would add Barbara Bollier is very important.
And I’m forgetting the website, but the DSCC has a place to sign up to do Voter Protection…. There is a bottomless need for volunteers who can work the phone and just read from a script and walk people through their voter protection rights.
It might be as simple as [say 3,000 ballots with technical problems with a ballot, and they only have 24 hours to go into the precinct to fix it. So we need an army of volunteers to call those people and to walk them through the process to “cure” their ballot so their vote is counted and valid.
It’s really worth a listen, but I highly recommend starting at the 30-minute mark and listening to the interview.
Mike Espy, Mississippi Senate
MJ Hegar, Texas Senate
Barbara Bollier, Kansas Senate
Anonymous At Work
The problem with how Roberts et alia will take away a woman’s choice is that Roe v. Wade will be on the books forever, but hollowed out. They’ll move the standard for reviewing state level regulations from strict or intermediate scrutiny back to rational basis. They’ll accept theoretical viability instead practical viability for when “late term restrictions” are allowed, regardless of whether a Level IV maternity/neonatal ward is locally available or not. Freedom of religion to let pharmacists deny prescriptions and allow doctors to lie/deceive patients based on religious convictions.
The choice will be gone but proving it to people will be hard.
Mousebumples
I donated to my local us house race earlier today, on a different thermometer. And I’m up to 35 postcards so far this weekend, with another 15 planned for tonight! ??️
thebewilderness
The Catholic priests and bishops are surprisingly quiet this time around when you compare their treatment of the Kerry.
RaflW
Schatz just retweeted this with an exhortation to fundraise $150,000 today for Peters. It is a tight race, and as we saw with that bonkers kidnap/violence threat, MI is on a knife edge.
mali muso
Threw some more in the Hegar fund. Just donated to Espy and Bollier yesterday. More postcards to be written to voters tonight after the kiddo is abed.
WaterGirl
@RaflW: Thanks for that.
We’re at 93 people and 4,176 from previous BJ fundraising. Just putting down a marker so we can see what we accomplish today, if people donate here.
Gary Peters, Michigan Senate (incumbent)
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Anonymous At Work: choice is already effectively gone in some states. I think in South Dakota there is one abortion provider, and that one only because a doctor is willing to fly in from out of state. Something like seven states have tried to ban abortion six weeks after the date of your last menstrual period. The right to an abortion may be technically on the books but the ability to actually obtain one easily, quickly and safely does not exist for many people.
Kathleen
Speaking of security, FBI meeting with LaRose and US Attorney’s office in Ohio to discuss how it will monitor possible Federal crimes (link is to local NPR affiliate WVXU):
https://www.wvxu.org/post/local-fbi-preparing-variety-threats-election
MomSense
I’ve been doing text banking this time around which is new for me. I signed up to do voter protection and will do the trainings starting this week.
The anti choice crusaders have been chipping away at access ever since Roe v Wade. And we have never dealt with financial assistance outside of donations. There is so much work to do for reproductive justice.
But right now the focus has to be on the election. We have to win the presidency, Senate, House of Representatives and as many statehouses and legislatures as possible. That has to be the priority.
RaflW
@WaterGirl: Thank you! Was hoping to add that to my comment, but the edit window had closed. I just put in another $50.
WaterGirl
@mali muso: Beto has been working his ass off in TX for months and months. If he thinks TX is winnable, that’s good enough for me.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: On the podcast last night, they has a regular person who does phone banking on, with some special guest who is a big deal but whose name I didn’t know. They did three “calls” so people could see how one night handle the various kinds of calls.
debbie
@Kathleen:
I wonder if the agents will be filled with disgust at LaRose’s smarminess.
p.a.
1) Pls don’t use any variant of viability as a firewall: medical technological improvement will undermine choice.
2) I’ve heard McGrath is not a strong candidate and has little chance. What say ye jackals?
PIGL
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: How you gonna keep them down on the farm?
debbie
Accomplished my daily walk early today: 47 vs. 2. Actually, 47 vs. 0 because the two yards of Trump supporters were missing their signs (usually peeking out from the bushes). Not torn apart or lying mangled in the yard—just gone. I think they took them inside for safekeeping. So much for the courage of your convictions, you cowards.
mali muso
@WaterGirl: Thanks for linking the Gary Peters thermometer. More $ for him too. If my husband wonders why the credit card has been getting so much action, I’m just gonna say it’s in lieu of the birthday present I never did end up getting for myself this year. A democracy would be the best gift.
Redshift
Sam Wang had recommendations yesterday for the most effective places to donate for control of redistricting:
https://twitter.com/SamWangPhD/status/1314952268089786368?s=19
Pooh
FYI “expand post” button isn’t working because tag is inside first blockquote
WaterGirl
@p.a.: I am no expert. My two cents?
Anything can happen this year.
Hatred for the turtle and his arrogance is growing by leaps and bounds, and will only increase as he pushes the nomination forward.
Even a long-shot is worth it if there’s a chance – and there is – that we could knock off McConnell. My two cents.
Redshift
Someone on our campaign texting team got this response today:
It’s infuriating because that’s exactly what they’re trying to do – make people too afraid or too disgusted with the political process to participate.
WaterGirl
@Pooh: Ha! I’m the one who usually explains that to the front pagers! :-) fixed now.
Eolirin
@p.a.: If McGrath wins, she’ll be the 60th seat in the senate. It’s even less likely than Doug Jones holding Alabama.
WaterGirl
@Eolirin: People who know a lot more than me say there were races we could have won in 2018 if we had gone for them, but we didn’t know there was going to be the wave that we got.
Trump and McConnell have 24 more days to turn off a lot of people.
I am tapped out, but if I wasn’t that is one of the races I would be giving to.
Ksmiami
@mali muso: Just donated to Peters- go Blue MI
Eolirin
@WaterGirl: It’s fine to fight every fight, when we have the resources to do so, and we do right now for sure. But we shouldn’t expect to win that. And if we somehow do, we’re going to have a 60 seat super majority.
Mai Naem mobile
@Redshift: maybe they should do everything on whatsapp like Jared reportedly did with Russia, Saudi Arabia and god knows where else. Or Snapchat.
pamelabrown53
Since I’m a fairly new Texan, just donated to Hegar. Turn-out is the key. Beto’s organization has been working tirelessly. Very impressive.
Citizen Scientist
Found myself wondering last night where BO is right now. I think he’d be really good for surrogate campaign events in the states that are close and could use a push over the line. I guess the B-H campaign maybe doesn’t want the focus on him? Any thoughts?
CaseyL
It’s great that Beto’s organization is working really hard on this. A lot of people (including me) wrote him off as a too-ambitious lightweight. Happy to see we were wrong; he’s serious about turning Texas blue, and is putting in the work.
Maybe he opted not to run for Cornyn’s seat because he decided devoting his energy to organizing was a better idea.
Kathleen
@debbie: Ha! Who wouldn’t be?
WaterGirl
@Eolirin: I’m not counting on it, but it is within the realm of possibility.
Splitting Image
@p.a.:
In Kentucky, unfortunately, a Democrat can be both a strong candidate and have little chance of winning.
Unless I see some movement in the state polls, I think she’s likely to lose even if the Democrats pick off Alaska, South Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, and both Georgia seats.
If there is a big enough national wave, on the other hand, she and Hegar in Texas may just manage it. It’s worth trying to keep it close in both states.
WaterGirl
@CaseyL: Also, Beto is a do-er. I suspect being in the Senate would make him crazy. But I can definitely see him in an executive position, like governor. Or eventually president.
Same with Stacey Abrams. The Senate just isn’t a place for a do-er like her. I think she might spontaneously combust.
Betty
@p.a.: She put up ads supporting Trump. Enough said.
Bertintx
I read in today’s Austin newspaper that state senator Royce West, who narrowly lost to Hegar in the primary, says he will not vote for her. He is quoted saying “She’s had a problem all along with Black folks.” In case you didn’t know, West is a long serving African American state politician from Dallas. This seems like a big problem for her.
E.
I’ve decided to let Bloomberg’s huge contributions handle this one. I mean he’s spending billions to flip the Senate and restore democracy, right? Right. . .?
Ksmiami
@Bertintx: He’s just sour grapes
Tokyokie
@Bertintx: I voted for West in the primary, and I’m disappointed he said that.
pamelabrown53
@WaterGirl:
Agree WaterGirl! He is indefatigable! I think it important for us and strategic for him to devote his madskillz to registering and turning out Democratic votes. Once this happens, I see him as a perfect candidate for TX. governor.
Zinsky
Even though I live in Minnesota, not giving heavily to locals as I think most of the races here are solidly blue. I will be giving another $100 to Theresa Greenfield in Iowa and $100 to Jaime (Buddha!) Harrison in South Carolina. They are races the Dems have to win and I am going to help fund a blue tsunami!!!
pamelabrown53
@Bertintx:
Sounds like MJ could use an event or 2 with Kamala?
pamelabrown53
@Tokyokie:
Thank you! Sounds like an egotistical, irresponsible comment to me.
Kathleen
@debbie: Biden will be in Cincinnati tomorrow for a mobilize the vote effort. I don’t know where or what time. David Pepper is asking us to contribute on Twitter.
MazeDancer
Jaime Harrison is a gifted politician and a total mensch.
He has also raised $86 million, in total. And yay for that!
JMHO, but if SC can be bought – please may it be so – he has the cash to do it. He does not need more moola, Everyone else with a thermometer on this page can use all you got to spare.
LuciaMia
Looks like Cheetolini is trying to screw with the debates again- now wants to reschedule the second one, cause he’s ‘no longer contagious.’ According,of course, to his Dr. Feelgood.
RedDirtGirl
@WaterGirl: I gave $25 directly to his campaign before i saw that there was a BJ fund. So count me in.
Marcopolo
@Splitting Image: Considering how odious McConnell is in so so many different ways the fact that I am not seeing McGrath hollering about any of them every day demonstrates to me she is a weak candidate. So much missed opportunity. Just holding a press conference every day to denounce McConnell for not taking up House passed bills in the Senate (the CARES Act for example that was sent over in mid May) would have been great and easy. Charles Booker, who ran in the primary against her (and I think who would have won said primary if he’d had a week or two longer to campaign), was doing a much better job of that.
Adding in an aside about the Hegar/West incivility which is also being discussed on this thread, when McGrath was declared the winner in KY, Booker in his concession speech immediately made clear he was throwing all of this support to McGrath (and looked forward to helping her win) because they needed to beat McConnell–i.e. McGrath never had to ask him. But then I think Booker & West are pretty different personality types with Booker being a perpetual optimism energy machine. I will definitely be supporting him again in his future runs.
Marcopolo
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: There is one abortion provider left in the state of MO that the Republican run state government tried to shut down last year by creating a bogus reporting requirement for them then charging them with not following it (because the clinic’s doctors said it was unnecessary and invasive). It went to court and the gov’t order to them to shut down was first stayed then thrown out. That will keep happening so long as we have an R governor.
r€nato
pollworker here. This crowd probably doesn’t need to hear it, but your Team Blue friends may need to hear this:
if for ANY REASON you are given a *CONDITIONAL* provisional ballot (typically because you did not have adequate ID), ABSOLUTELY take the time to “cure” your ballot by bringing the necessary documents to the designated locations within five business days of the election. In my county, it’s almost always a city clerk’s office and always the county elections department where one can do this. The pollworkers will have a list of such locations, perhaps even a paper you can take with you.
People often don’t bother because by the following morning if not sooner, they’ve heard who won the big races: POTUS. US Senate and House. Governor.
But it’s not at all uncommon for races that seem to have gone one way the night of the election or the day after, to change once early ballots and provisional ballots are fully counted.
Do it not just for the big races but also for all the other offices and issues on the ballot. Those local races sometimes make a bigger impact on your day-to-day life than does the presidential race or a Senate race.
And if you find yourself in a position of not having adequate ID, do NOT allow yourself to be sent away without a ballot. Federal law requires that every single voter – even someone who is not actually registered to vote – be offered a provisional ballot if they are not shown to be eligible for a standard ballot. Sometimes pollworkers are overworked and screw up and forget to offer this, so don’t take it out on them or suspect a conspiracy if they slip up. It happens. I’ve done it before (but not in a long, long time now, it’s an ingrained habit).
WaterGirl
@RedDirtGirl: Will do! Thank you.
bertintx
@Tokyokie: I also voted for him and was disappointed to see this news. Hegar apparently never reached out to West after the primary, and during their debate they got crossways about West’s law practice, accusing him of corruption. Of course, in their debate John Cornyn brought up West’s lack of support for Hegar to show how out of touch she was. Hegar missed an important opportunity.
randal m sexton
another chunk of $$. This is getting to be a habit.
cain
One possible thing though if pharmacists deny perscriptions based on religious convictions that isn’t a great business model because it is too chaotic. If your population is trending liberal and it is generally accepted, then these pharmacists would be outliers and would be less attractive of a hire because they are too out of sync with the regular population.
The court could mandate as part of freedom of speech that businesses would have to hire religious zealots. That would be an interesting pretzel logic, but since we’re playing the calvinball of politics – I think we know they have no problem accepting such things.
Yutsano
@Marcopolo:
Rand Paul is up in 2022. Just sayin’.
topclimber
@bertintx: I don’t know any of the details, but just how much has Cornyn done for brown folk? And way to kill your rep with Texas dems, man. Or is the plan to become a Republican?
Marcopolo
@bertintx: Hegar tried to respond to the West question but it was hamfisted & awkward. She said she doesn’t ask anyone for their endorsement because it puts you in the position of owing that person something. Fine, fine, but that is what politics is kind of about, right (or at least a large part of it which is why I, for example, would be so bad at it)? She also mentioned that sometimes there are hard feelings after tough close races which I think was a more honest reply. But as there now is a widely publicly known West/Hegar rift (and West exacerbated this with his comments–he could have just said nothing, right, but he went out of his way to fire a torpedo into her campaign w/ regards to AA support) it just strikes me as odd that there is no one in Texas D politics (Beto?? Head of the state party) that stepped in to try to smooth things over. Sure Hegar & West bear most of the responsibility but it just seems like a own goal by the entire Texas D establishment.
Another Scott
@Marcopolo: I get infuriated by the continued chipping away at abortion rights, and the clear and deliberate misreading of Roe v Wade.
And then I see ads for NURX on TV every day. They offer conventional contraceptives as well as Plan B. Are people really going to accept online access to contraceptives be outlawed? Are people going to accept their mail and packages being rifled through to look for contraceptives?
I don’t think so.
Polling shows that most Americans support Roe v Wade, and as of 2018, 49% support a woman’s right to abortion for any reason.
Supposedly, Amy Covid Barrett doesn’t plan to overturn RvW, but will OK any restriction short of that. If she is confirmed, perhaps rage on the left will finally lead to a sensible rebalancing of the courts so that privileged white people will no longer be able to dump their professed religion on us…
Grr…
We have to vote the monsters out!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Immanentize
@Ksmiami: @Tokyokie:
I know Royce. We worked on some very important issues together about 20 years back. The guy is understandably upset — he lost. But him running down a Democrat these days is just insanity. And if I see him again, I will tell him to grab himself and move on.
ETA. I am not on the blog 24/7 — but I have no memory of a “BertinTX.”. Wev.
bertintx
@Marcopolo: Yes, an own goal. And if they manage to resolve their discord, it will look exactly like the quid pro quo that Hegar mentioned as reason not seeking a personal endorsement. Which Cornyn will take total advantage of.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: FYI, bertintx is a mostly lurker, legitimate commenter.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: Well then he should just vote for Heger or go to work for Cornyn. This “made a mistake” standard has no place at this moment.
But then again I’m sure there are very fine people on both sides.
J R in WV
@cain:
I think the regulators of pharmacies should mandate that any peculiarities of pharmacists be clearly, boldly, identified in large type signage on all the doors into the establishment. I also expect most of those pharmacies would see a huge drop in business.
No one want’s a shopkeeper’s religious fanaticism to interfere with their life, and pharmacists, while having educational requirements, are basically just highly regulated shopkeepers.
Ksmiami
@Immanentize: He just lit his future and his reputation on fire…
bertintx
@Immanentize: I am definitely a lurker. Been reading Balloon Juice for a very long time, found it through Andrew Sullivan’s blog. I don’t comment much, mostly because there are much much better writers posting here who express many of my thoughts better than I could, and definitely with more humor. If I have some local or Texas related news or info, I will comment. FYI, I’m a middle school science teacher, so I feel an obligation to stay informed on everything and be able to present to my students as needed. It keeps my quite busy. The BJ frontpagers and most of the commenters are awesome sources of information and insight.
J R in WV
@bertintx:
I was a lurker for years, and then I realized that I was as smart and able to type as anyone else on the blog. Been making an ass of U and me (ass|u|me = assume) ever since. Don’t hjold back, let us know what you really think, bert!!
Citizen Alan
Honestly, I don’t think anyone has a chance against McConnell simply because he’s Majority Leader and most Kentuckians assume that translates into benefits to the state that outweigh the damage he does to the rest of the nation. In much the same way that friends of mine here in Mississippi who otherwise would vote Democrat still voted for Thad Cochran even though he was (a) a Republican and (b) transparently in mental decline just because of the money he brings into the state.
WaterGirl
@Citizen Alan: Seems to me that a few elections ago we lost our leader in the house in an election we did not expect to lose.
It can happen. Will it happen? Not all that likely, but possible.
Since this election is for all the marbles, and there is plenty of money flowing, I say we go for everything that could possibly help us.
brantl
I do earnestly wish we could flatten Mcturtle.
oldster
Okay, just split a grand between the three of them. Yeah, it’s a lot of money, but if we lose this election, our money’s not going to help us in the upcoming purges.
Also, I had been budgeting for some travel this last summer, and we all know what happened to that, due to the Trump plague.
WaterGirl
@oldster: wow wow wow. good on you for doing that!
I agree with you. That’s why I choose the tag “This fight is for Everything” on my Action posts. This is definitely for all the marbles.
SWMBO
@WaterGirl: Tom Daschle. You were thinking of Tom Daschle. But there is more recent losses on their leadership side. Eric Cantor and Tom DeLay come to mind. Also Crying John Boehner.
WaterGirl
@SWMBO: Yes, Tom Daschle. That was a shock and a real loss for us.
I guess the ones THEY lost didn’t stick with me as long. :-)