Overheard: The vote was so lopsided, it’s basically Elder abuse.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) September 15, 2021
Now, let’s get back to work.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 15, 2021
And scene for some rich tech dudes who did not think @GavinNewsom was to their liking and helped fund the recall. California voters did not agree. pic.twitter.com/6YFOSHyglw
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) September 15, 2021
California Gov. Gavin Newsom ably fended off an attempt to remove him from office, changing the stakes of the contest from a referendum on his performance into a partisan fight over Trumpism and the coronavirus. Some takeaways from the recall attempt. https://t.co/zoseUmyvTp
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 15, 2021
… COVID PRECAUTIONS CAN HELP DEMOCRATS
Republicans intended the recall to be a referendum on Democrats’ rule of California, and the homelessness, crime, high housing costs and energy problems that accompanied it. But in a bit of political maneuvering — and with the help of the spreading delta variant — Newsom turned it into a referendum on Republicans’ opposition to precautions against the coronavirus…In his remarks after winning, Newsom kept the emphasis on the virus. “I want to focus on what we said yes to as a state: We said ‘yes’ to science, we said ‘yes’ to vaccines, we said ‘yes’ to ending this pandemic,” the governor told reporters…
NO LIGHT AT END OF THE TUNNEL FOR CALIFORNIA GOP
The recall offered California Republicans their only plausible shot at statewide office in one of the bluest states in the nation. The recall is a way to dodge a head-to-head match that would send voters to their regular partisan corners…But there were two problems for the GOP. First, California is very different now compared to 2003 — it’s more liberal and more diverse. There are more than 3 million more registered Democrats in the state now than during the last recall, but nearly 400,000 fewer Republicans.
Second, Faulconer never caught on. Instead, Elder’s bombastic style, honed during his decades on talk radio and echoing Trump, vaulted him to the top of the Republican pack. Newsom, sensing a favorable contrast, started pounding Elder on the airwaves…
MUDDLED SIGNS FOR THE MIDTERMS
The recall is the first significant election of Joe Biden’s presidency and served as something of a political stress test for both parties ahead of next year’s midterms.Democrats showed they could turn out their voters even as their party held the White House — a traditionally tough feat that is why the party in power usually loses seats in Congress in midterm elections. Republicans are trying to win back the House and Senate. Turnout in the recall was expected to be high — some experts predicted it’ll be in the neighborhood of the more than 12 million who voted in 2018 in California…
It took a petition signed by 12% of California voters in the last election to initiate the recall. The recall cost the state $278 million. The race was effectively decided within 15 minutes of polls closing. https://t.co/PgFWfKnqJX
— Anthony Zurcher (@awzurcher) September 15, 2021
Was the recall necessary? No
But did we learn some valuable lessons about the 2022 and 2024 elections? Also no
— John Hendrickson (@JohnGHendy) September 15, 2021
Popehat (a California voter) was having waaay too much fun last night…
Gavin Newsom saves dozens of lives by preventing Caitlyn Jenner victory road rally
— NoLongerYourFriendHat (@Popehat) September 15, 2021
Wonder if any Republicans are re-thinking the strategy of making it harder for their base to vote by convincing them not to use mail ballots and then suggesting there’s no point in voting anyway by using the final GOTV period to talk about how the election is rigged.
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) September 15, 2021
They did. The former mayor of San Diego.
The problem is that Republicans are the party of Donald Trump and they prefer someone like Larry Elder.
— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) September 15, 2021
Media Village Idiots, of course, are determined to learn nothing:
“Underscore”—a word no longer used in real life—is classic newspaper-speak for “we have nothing informative to say about this.” You see it all the time with “the violence underscored the instability in the region,” etc. https://t.co/e92jhiVoB3
— David Nir (@DavidNir) September 14, 2021
Newsom’s landslide win bad news for Dems
noted https://t.co/LLlAp8OSTf
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) September 15, 2021
Kent
Have Californians learned their lesson and are they finally going to fix this ridiculous and undemocratic recall process? Because if they don’t you know the GOP will be back to try again when conditions might be more favorable
Normally I’m willing to “let California be California” but this shit affects the rest of us too.
RaflW
That “lets get back to work” tweet points to what is so enraging about the GOP. I’m sure his admin was able to function throughout. But it was a freaking distraction. During a pandemic and a completely awful fire season.
Pound the GOP for that.
SiubhanDuinne
Yes they are. With a big ol’ hey nonny nonny.
Popehat, OTOH, makes me smile out loud every time he changes his nym* to reflect a current meme or news item. I ❤️ him.
ETA: *or handle or tweetnom or whatever they call nyms on Twitter
RaflW
In response to that Nagourney tweet from the day before the election: So is it now a ‘tepid’ landslide?
The Times is fundamentally broken.
The Moar You Know
Wow, a bunch of shit hot takes from across the internet that are all wrong, save maybe Popehat’s.
The vast majority of Californians, myself included, are perfectly fine with Governor Newsom’s performance and voted as such. This wasn’t turned into a partisan contest, or a referendum on “Trumpism”. Maybe for the GOP voters but not for anyone else.
Californians like good governance and voted for it. Again
ETA: also Faulconer would have gotten his ass beat just as bad. He pulled a lot of shenanigans here in San Diego that are just waiting for a national expose. He is corrupt to the core.
Immanentize
@RaflW: Tepid? Ha! In 2018, when Newsome became Governor, his vote total (and percentage) was less than his “no” vote yesterday:
surfk9
@The Moar You Know: Tru dat!
westyny
As Halloween season approaches I can’t help but wondering if Nagourney is going to return forever, like Jason.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@The Moar You Know: Yeah, I’m seeing steaming piles of takes stinking up my Twitter feed, especially those talking about Larry Elder’s future in politics. He has a future in grifting, I’m sure. Politics, hmmmm.
JML
Feels like the idiot chattering political media class is looking at the recall results and thinking, “damn, if i can’t think of a reason why this is good for the GOP, I might not get to go hang out in California on the company dime next year.”
Hoodie
I don’t know a lot about CA politics, but I watched his speech last night and thought “gee, he’s not bad at this.” He didn’t run away from his record, I would think a lot of people would respond positively to that. Maybe Biden is rubbing off on some other Dem pols and they won’t be so scared of their own shadows.
dr. bloor
I take it as a matter of faith that political reporters don’t know their asses from their elbows about anything of substance. But I’ll never not be surprised at how little they understand politics.
Tony Jay
So the MSM takeaway narrative is that the GOP would totally have unseated an unpopular Governor if Californians had been smart enough to vote on the actual issues, but those Blue State dummies are so partisan they let Newsom blind them with Covid hysteria?
Know what they call that?
“The Savvistocrats!”
rikyrah
Thank you, California.
But, please, fix the phucking recall process.
Signatures should be at least 50% of registered voters.
Benw
Gavin Newsom Absolutely Obliterated in Recount Election, Wins
–NYTimesPitchBot
Scout211
Ugh. I am fed up with the “FIVE TAKEAWAYS!” type of news stories that are really just opinion pieces from inside the writers’ heads. They are almost as bad as the “news” stories that are about what this could mean, might mean, could happen, might happen, could make this or that mean this or that. Ugh.
Can they just stick to the facts?* Newsom ran a very good campaign and is doing a good job as governor. We voted to keep him in office and to reject the minority power grab using an old and outdated process to sidestep an actual election.
*retorical question, duh.
feebog
@The Moar You Know:
Spot on. I’ll add that a lot of us who were “meh” on Newsom are now pissed off and fired up for the midterms.
Another Scott
California peeps did the right thing. Making voting easy and secure is good for Democrats and Democracy.
In other news, Wonkette:
Joe knows how to do this politics stuff. We won’t get everything we want in the reconciliation package, but we’ll get a very good bill. We need to remember to take the win, celebrate, and build on it.
Cheers,
Scott.
dmsilev
Newsom’s margin is going to end up being in the same ballpark as Joe Biden’s margin (29 points) once all the mail-in ballots are counted (will take a week or two for the final totals, because ballots just have to be put in the mail as of yesterday). So, the only lesson I would take away from this is that it’s entirely possible to get Democrats to turn out at Presidential-election rates for an off-season election. That’s actually pretty significant; it killed us in 2010 and 2014.
waspuppet
@The Moar You Know:
That’s exactly what they wanted. The AP gets it wrong (of course) when they say NEWSOM changed it from a referendum on him to one on Trumpism. That’s all it ever was.
Why they thought it would work in a state Trump lost by 30 points is beyond me.
Oh wait no it isn’t — because in a California recall the GOP can use their hyperdramatic-preteen “everything sucks” attitude to get 50%-plus-one on Question 1, and then you only need 16% support on Question 2. They’re screwed in the real election next year; this was their shot.
Also, Larry Elder moved closer to his real goal — 10 pm on Fox News.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Immanentize: Yes, this. And that bears out from the comments I have heard from other Bay Area liberals about Newsom as mayor of SF that he was bit of lightweight grandstander, voted for him rather than the GOP pants on the ground loony in 2018 and then found themselves pleasantly surprised at how focused Newsom is on managing the state’s various problems as governor.
As for that Hunt woman who thinks Edler somehow one because she can’t tell were the people actually live in California and just sees all that read in the northern rural counties. gah! Yes, Newsom lost the critical pot farmer and meth lab vote.
dmsilev
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: Elder doesn’t have any sort of plausible future in statewide politics. Sure, he can run for governor again next year; he’ll just get equally pasted by Newsom, even assuming that he makes it into second place in the “jungle primary” past “generic Democrat to be named later”. Same story for Senate.
Grifting, yes that definitely.
Almost Retired
Insofar as it is hard for the media to spin a blow-out like this as anything but positive for the Dems and keep a straight face, Chuckles and his merry band have pivoted to “California is unique, so does this really say anything about the Democrats’ chances nationally in 2022?”
Also, universal vote-by-mail overcame the enthusiasm gap, so expect renewed Republican attacks on mail in voting.
Finally, I think the recall results have definitively shown that featuring a bear in your campaign is not as effective as some may have thought.
Elizabelle
Take a bow, California jackals. And perhaps we can help too, as you fix this ridiculous recall system. Agree — 50% (of those who voted in previous election??) plus one voter to even proceed with a recall. Make it harder, so you don’t get these scammers glomming on to the process.
I hope everyone complains furiously about forcing a state to spend $267 million on a frivolous election in the midst of a deadly pandemic and wildfires. Throw that in the GOP’s faces every time they surface to whine.
WRT the idiotic political press: I would think we might be able to do something about that, if we complain about realistic issues with them enough. To them. To their bosses. Not just here and among ourselves. The rightwingers sure get their bogus points across.
I suspect major media is a lagging indicator. They are pretty hidebound, and most seem ridiculously lazy. Their actual education and cognitive ability is often in doubt, too, and I don’t care which fancy Ivy they attended.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@dmsilev: it is absurdly easy to vote in California; mail in ballots show up a month before and then you get a choice of mail, early vote or vote election day. Easy to vote I would argue is an important part of the get out of the vote for the Dems.
VeniceRiley
Exactly right. They just can’t stop phucking that chicken.
Proud of our voters! Vote by mail is a godsend.
Omnes Omnibus
We absolutely must do this. I don’t care if it’s only $1.2 trillion; it is the best thing since the invention of oral sex. Get the win and then use the momentum of being a winner to do more.
brendancalling
When I was at Raw Story I used to watch TV News all day—MSNBC/CNN/FOX/CNBC—as well as shows like “The View.”
I was always surprised at how vapid Kasie Hunt was. I don’t know how she got a job as a reporter, because the questions she asks (and the presumptions she holds) are pretty fucking stupid.
It’s also even more proof that the media by-and-large has completely lost the plot. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: the only pundit who seems to actually get it is Jennifer “Former Romney Shill” Rubin. I can’t STAND that I’m saying that, but there it is.
As for Kasie Hunt, she can go suck some eggs.
Brachiator
The recall election is done. One thing that helped get the vote out was the negative example of states like Texas and Florida. Every Republican candidate railed at Newsom for hurting business. They all talked about keeping schools open. But none of them said anything about public health. None of them.
And you didn’t need much to imagine Elder or another GOP idiot governor pulling some executive action to mess with abortion laws. Yes, the state legislature would slap him down. But no one wanted that aggravation.
The bottom line. For now, there is no path to the major statewide offices for Republicans.
You would think the GOP would learn something from this. The Trumpers are good for noise and anger, but are an anchor pulling the Republican Party into oblivion.
Geminid
The strong Democratic turnout in Cali is a promising sign for next year’s midterms. The Republican president was a powerful GOTV force for Democrats in the 2018 midterms and last year as well. In his Monday night appearance with Newsom, President Biden did emphasize that if Californians recalled Newsome this would be a victory for trump. But I think that the strong Democratic turnout was already baked into the cake. This might be an example of what political scientists call “negative partisanship.” The Democrats’ hostility towards the other side outweighed any ambivalence towards Newsome.
I’m hoping that last night’s result presages a strong Democratic performance in November’s Virginia state elections. A traditional dropoff in Democratic turnout from Presidential elections used to help Republicans in Virginia’s off-year state contests. That changed in 2017, when Ralph Northam easily won, and Democrats flipped 14 seats in the House of Delegates, losing a 15th seat on the flip of a coin. This was on a Republican-drawn map. After the 2019 elections, the House of Delegates had gone from a 65-35 Republican majority to a 55-45 Democratic one.
And high Democratic turnout in the 2018 midterms added Congressional seats in the Northern Virginia 11th, the Central Virginia 7th, and the Tidewater 2nd Districts. With the 4th district seat that the excellent Dan McEachin won in 2016 after court ordered redistricting, Virginia’s Congressional delegation went from 8 Republicans, 3 Democrats to 7 Democrats, 4 Republicans in two election cycles.
Democrats and candid Republicans acknowledged that the Republican’s dangerous, churlish president was a powerful motivator for Virginia Democrats. Some wonder if they will stay motivated. My impression is that Democrats have maintained their energy and alertness. And how can they miss trump when he won’t go away?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Tony Jay: My take is the MSM is desperately trying to ignore is California is what a electoral of a post majority of the none looks like. Without the “economic anxiety” to tie whites to the GOP the GOP has nothing.
dmsilev
@Almost Retired:
Definitely the shocker result of the campaign.
Scout211
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I live in one of those “shithole” counties that always votes Republican. Ugh.
It’s just amazing to me how it’s all about the tribe that they belong to and no amount of actual facts can make them see things differently.
My neighbor (and most around here) took to calling Newsom “let it burn” Newsom. Apparently, the Tamarack fire started in the national forest and the forest service decided to let the fire burn out due to the remote locations and difficulty reaching it. The fire exploded in size when the wind increased. So it’s Newsom’s fault (just like everything single bad thing that ever happens in this state, according to them).
National Forest. I guess Newsom is now the Interior Secretary? National Forest Service Fire Chief? A Forest Service ranger? Smokey the Bear?
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev: It probably got Andrew Sullivan’s attention.
Ken
Fortunate for him that he’s in a party that no longer distinguishes the two.
Chetan Murthy
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Can confirm. Can confirm. Precisely how I feel about him.
West of the Rockies
@Scout211:
I am in Butte County, home to the ’18 Camp Fire and origin-point of the Dixie. I’m not sure how Butte came out on the recall, but I was pleased and surprised that it went with Joe.
Jeffro
Yup.
Very similar to what Kay often points out about their craziness w/ CRT, mask-mandate fights, and the public schools.
They don’t care, it doesn’t cost the instigators anything. But it sure costs everybody else.
Another Scott
@Scout211:
Smokey
theBear.;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Scout211
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Right now, 100% mail-in voting is only due to the pandemic special rules. Each county has been able to opt-in to 100% mail-in ballots (plus voting centers and early voting) but some counties have done that yet.
There is a new bill on Newsom’s desk ready to sign that makes all of California counties 100% mail-in (like these recent pandemic elections). Hopefully, he will sign that. I would imagine since all counties have done this for the past 3 elections during the pandemic, there won’t be any push back (except for the usual right-wing “fraud!” accusations).
Almost Retired
@West of the Rockies: 52.5 to 47.5 “yes” for Butte County according to the NYT map.
Jeffro
We’re about to find out if that holds up here in VA, too.
I strongly suspect it will. Dems are smart and know that the GQP is an existential threat (whether to a state or the country as a whole)
sdhays
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
This reminds me, yet again, of Montana Senator Steve Daines pining for the days when there was crappy Montana-produced meth instead of the high-quality shit that “Mexico” is currently flooding the market with, putting respectable up-by-their-bootstraps real-Montanans out of business.
He literally said that.
Scout211
@Another Scott:
What?!
Oh my. When did that poor bear lose his middle name? We had songs in my childhood that sang praises to “Smokey the Bear.” ;-)
West of the Rockies
@Almost Retired:
I just saw that. Disappointing. We have more than our fair share of morons here.
Another Scott
@Jeffro: +1
I know Terry McAuliffe has lots of critics, but he did well as governor before and has been taking a flamethrower to Youngkin on Twitter. It’s a joy to watch and it shows that he’s not taking anything for granted and that he knows the importance of motivating people to turn out.
Cheers,
Scott.
West of the Rockies
@Scout211:
Happened about 20 years ago; I’m not sure why. Please reinstall the the.
Scout211
@Scout211:
Correction: Some counties have NOT done that yet.
trollhattan
I’m collecting signatures for a petition to change the stater constitution to make it harder to collect signatures to change the state constitution. Who’s with me?
Eljai
I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Chicago this week, but I was only too happy to vote No and increase Newsom’s margin before I left.
Another Scott
@West of the Rockies: Eh? He’s always been Smokey Bear officially.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/features/story-smokey-bear
Fight the the!!
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
@trollhattan: Illogical — illogical — Norman coordinate — bzzzt dum-dum-dum-duh…
Mike in NC
I read that Elderly Larry was complaining about ‘shenanigans’ and ‘irregularities’ last week before a single vote was counted. Naturally this is the Republican template for every election from now until the sun goes dark.
Ken
@Another Scott: I think people are confusing him with that other ursine, Winnie the Pooh.
trollhattan
@Scout211:
Let’s not let facts interfere with strong beliefs. They’re so useful.
I have no social life but the spouse, armed with my facts re. how much of California is federal land, forests especially, has had easily a dozen interventions with acquaintances who say the fires are all Newsom’s fault.
Shalimar
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: A future in politics is not the same as a future as an elected official. This will be his best electoral performance regardless of how many times he runs, but Elder still wins the nomination next year if he does run.
Cacti
I like that some in the media are now calling Elder the face of the California GOP.
I’m happy with their face being a guy with a ceiling of about 33% support.
Scout211
@Another Scott:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNdFs0wRxDg
But, but, but . . . Gene Autry!
Brachiator
I mused about this in another thread, but I wonder how the Democrats can best get information out to voters when the midterms roll around.
Some California voters admitted in interviews that they thought there could be a runoff election for the recall election. This was majorly incorrect. Some people claimed not to know where to go vote. More on this later.
Official voter material sent to me in the mail seemed pretty easy to understand. But something isn’t getting through to many voters and I don’t know what to do about this.
I also noted that I do not watch standard broadcast or cable TV, but do listen to the radio. I also do not do Facebook or other social media. So I did not see or hear a single political ad for the recall. I vaguely heard about one obnoxious Larry Elder ad.
I don’t know how the party can best rally voters for the midterms. I see stories about speeches made during fund raisers. But this is talking to a niche audience in a niche circumstance.
I get some political messaging on my land line. But those calls are screened by my answering machine and quickly deleted.
I do not get political calls on my smartphone.
More people using streaming services are paying a premium price to skip ads. I presume that this includes political ads.
So, how do you get out the message?
Everyone got a mail-in ballot. Turnout should be pretty good. However, there were fewer vote centers where you could walk in and vote.
So I don’t know whether these results say much about the midterms.
Old School
@Scout211:
From Another Scott’s link:
Scout211
@Old School:
Yes, I did read that. Sadly, the poor bear never had a middle name. It was only faked for an extra beat in a song.
I guess I shouldn’t base my historical facts on childhood camp songs. Huh. Who knew?
louc
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I guess they forgot the old adage about how trends always sweep east from California. I hope the old adage is right.
Baud
@Almost Retired:
Shit. I’ve already ordered 20,000 bears.
Almost Retired
@Baud: Train them to maul anti-Baud campaign volunteers.
geg6
LOL! Everyone is dunking on Kasie Hunt and rightfully so. I have been saying for years now that she is Chuck Todd in a dress and celebrated mightily when she left MSNBC for CNN. She has totally proven me correct. What a dimwit.
Tony Jay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
As a corollary to that I remember back when California had a competitive GOP able to screw up the state’s economics and wreck its finances, wingnuts were only to happy to point to it as ‘proof’ of Liberal incompetence and economic malpractice.
Since the Democrats took total control …. Crickets.
Funny that.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Scout211: National Forests are under Agriculture not Interior.
Soprano2
OT, but it is a open thread – today is the 9th anniversary of my sister’s death. It’s easier now, but still hard. I miss her a lot. We were supposed to be crazy old cat ladies together someday. I used to tease her about the “running tote” of cats, since I was never sure exactly how many she had. When she died she had 9 cats we had to find homes for.
Scout211
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
First I get Smokey Bear wrong, and now this! I’m going back to bed.
Seriously though, thanks for the correction. :)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Scout211: yes, and they were harping on Newsom about the housing costs. So do they want full blown socialism with state mandated Commie block apartment complexes and price controls?
Kent
I’m sure there are a thousand different proposals for reforming the recall process. But as an outsider, it seems to me that what would make sense is to treat it more like impeachment. So….
Simple, easy, and much more democratic. And why do we even have Lt. Governors anyway if not to step in and govern if the actual governor cannot do so?
rikyrah
@Soprano2:
Sorry for your loss. :(
Barbara
@Scout211: I read an article about anger felt by some of the farmers whose operations are, to put it mildly, being disrupted by water issues. It seems like there is still something of a delusion that “solving” water scarcity means individual usage will not have to change and that enough water will be conjured magically from one source or another. Meanwhile, I am guessing, that those most upset about the impact of water scarcity are those most likely to try to stand in the way of measures that would reduce the crisis overall. I suppose it has been ever thus.
randy khan
@dmsilev:
If Dems did this consistently, the national political landscape would look a lot different. I know that the Trump bump to Dem turnout in Virginia was sufficient overcome a pretty extreme Republican gerrymander and turn both houses of the General Assembly to the Dems.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent:
In California, when the Governor leaves the state the Lt. Governor becomes Acting Governor. This caused problems when Jerry Brown left the state and Mike Curb(a Republican) was his Lt. Governor.
ETA: This was back in the 70’s during Chairman Jerry’s first two terms.
Baud
@Almost Retired:
But then what would I do with the panthers?
Martin
Looking from the inside, there are no takeaways here other than CA is the same place it’s been for the last 6 years.
Residents are worried mostly about the right things – covid, housing, climate change, jobs, etc. And Dems are delivering or trying to deliver on those. There are some risks – the leg looks likely to largely ban R1 housing zoning in the state, and there are some real dangers to that. There are no ways to address the housing problem that doesn’t change ‘quality of life’ of existing residents like me, or reduce our property values. And even liberals get upset by that. Voters need to care enough about the problem to be willing to sacrifice something, and that’s a high bar.
I don’t think this tells us anything new about 2022. It may enable Newsom to be more aggressive on some issues, but that’s about it. I think at best, we now have a window where most voters see the recall process as broken (which they didn’t with the last recall, because voters agreed with that one).
Ken
I’m sure a google search would reveal some inanity or insanity from the sovereign citizens, probably involving the role of sheriffs, the gold fringe on flags, and the ratification history of the sixteenth amendment.
randy khan
@Another Scott:
Speaking of Youngkin, I don’t know about what else he’s doing with his money, but he’s been running Facebook ads that are showing up in my feed, so obviously not targeted at all. I’ve been having some fun in the comments on those ads.
trnc
@rikyrah:
Whatever the number, it should also require some percentage of those who voted for that candidate. That would make it an actual recall instead of a do over for the losing party
Martin
That’s the real upside to mailing everyone a ballot – you get more consistent turnout across elections.
Steeplejack (phone)
@SiubhanDuinne:
Some fans were lobbying for SwollenBallsHat this week.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Tony Jay: It took a Democratic governor and Democratic supermajority in the Assembly just to get a balanced state budget passed. The Republicans supposedly claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility. Oddly it turned out its the horrible liberals who can live with in their means.
West of the Rockies
@Another Scott:
I had a Golden Book as a kid called Smokey The Bear (just looked it up online). So blame literature and popular music for their successful misinformation campaign.
Qabear says it’s a conspiracy to steal the the!
Kent
@Barbara: I come from farming roots and have lots of family still engaged in agriculture. I’d say it is a combination of the following:
geg6
@Omnes Omnibus:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Kent
@trnc: It would be impossible to measure whether whether voters previously voted for that candidate because of ballot secrecy and the fact that once your ballot is certified, it is separated from the person’s registration information. So no one can actually determine who you or I voted for in any previous election. That is how it should be.
sdhays
@Kent: I agree with this, but I really don’t understand the point of having a special election. The entire reason states have Lt. Governors is so there’s already someone there to take over if the Governor is no longer able to do the job. Legislative seats don’t have this built-in succession plan.
Just do 1 and 2 and be done. America has too many elections too often already. That also makes it much less attractive to be abused as a tool for winning in lower-turnout out-of-cycle elections – all the opposition gets is the Lt. Governor being on the top of the ticket (probably) in the next election.
Kent
@sdhays: I’m fine with that too. But whatever process they come up with should put the Lt. Governor in charge until the process has worked its way through. But you are right. If the President is impeached, the Vice President assumes office until the next election. We don’t do special elections for president. And that is a far more important job than any governor.
The special election would still have to happen, except for the new Lt. Governor I guess, and there would have to be some sort of order of succession where the Sec. of State or someone else takes the Lt. Governor spot on a provisional basis until a new one can be elected.
sherparick
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: And their pot farms & meth labs are all burning up as well even as the government they hates spends hundreds of millions of dollars and long manhours fighting the fires such as the Dixie fire (which now I believe is burning well into into its 3rd month). Lassen County pot farmer – “I hate wearing masks, freedom from vaccines, & all my the tax money is going to “those people” in Bay Area & LA.” Next Breadth – Please spend more on fighting the fires that are threatening my crop (far more than I pay in taxes). Dixie Fire: Blaze burns more than 959K acres (kcra.com)sher
Another Scott
@Baud: Careful, you don’t want to get Teh Deep State mad at you…
HTH!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Betty
@Another Scott: All I know is that when we were kids, we sang about “Smokey the Bear, a’howlin and a’growlin and a’sniffin the air.”
Geminid
@trollhattan: Well, I’d be with you if I did not live 2500 miles away. But I’ll suggest a good sales pitch: recall elections are just a boondoggle for political consultants and grifters, who fatten their wallets on the scores of millions of dollars spent on all those ads people suffered through. The political-industrial complex may be a neccesary evil, but except for those who profit from it, nobody likes it.
yellowdog
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
And the difference is. . .?
geg6
@Brachiator:
You do realize you a huge outlier, don’t you? Most people don’t listen to radio or have landlines, but almost everyone uses broadcast/cable/on demand tv or social media. The message gets out in all those ways but if you don’t use most of them, you won’t see the marketing. If you live in a bubble where you don’t do what most people do, you’re not going to be targeted.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@louc: The last Census says the US now majority of none. I think the press is utterly terrified of that because it will mean the future is more and more boring Californian style elections for the rest of the country.
JaneE
I guess Republicans really do believe that a majority of Californians agree with them, even after losing elections by double digit margins.
Some of the earliest ads I saw from the major GOP candidates was how they would eliminate the Covid-19 restrictions and open the state for business again and get the kids back in school. While the news is talking about people being shipped for hundreds of miles just to find a hospital bed, or worse yet, dying because they couldn’t get to a bed in time, the GOP is promising to eliminate anything at all that might slow the spread of the virus down.
If their media consultants were actually working for Newsom they couldn’t have given him a better line of attack.
I also hope Californians have started to realize just what a FUBAR mess our recall process is. I second Kent’s proposals for an improved recall procedure. Let the Lt. Gov take over for the rest of the term or hold a special election if the remaining term is more than 2 years. Unfortunately parts are imbedded in the state constitution, so it will take a constitutional amendment and statewide vote to make it happen. I would like to think that the legislature could bring themselves to do that, but chances are – if it happens – it will be another initiative.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, the Real America crap out those stoner hippies up north really just peeves me.
For the non Californians this pot farmer thing isn’t snark, most Northern California counties’ economies have been based on pot farming since the 80s and a big reason for the push to legalize.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
I was one of them before he was elected. In 2013, I was saying things like “vote for the Third Way, centrist, triangulating Clintonista – it’s important” because even that sort of Dem would have been far better than what the GOP had on offer.
But he was an excellent governor, and I fully expect Virginians will be ready to dance with him again.
Just Chuck
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
No, they want to increase the supply by letting land developers have untrammeled freedom to build as much sprawl as they wish, everywhere, with zero regulations of any sort. Of course it was their precious Prop 13 that led to the shortage in the first place by making new construction pay the lions share of property taxes.
germy
James E Powell
@louc:
Very large swathes of the nation believe that California is a gang-ruled, crime-infested socialist hellhole. Telling them “this is how it’s done in California” provokes terror & hysteria.
The press/media trade on this, most especially the FTFNYT. Reading some of their reporters’ tweets last night made clear they never leave their enclaves, real & metaphorical.
trollhattan
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Legalization has had an odd impact–while there are now many, many legal grows the number of illegal grows hugely outnumber them and the battles over irrigation water and the misuse of pesticides and fertilizer are epic.
WaterGirl
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
What does that even mean?
geg6
@James E Powell:
That has always been true. But the old adage is still mostly true nevertheless.
Anoniminous
comment’s timeliness expired
it is an ex-comment
it comments no more
Betty Cracker
Here was my rejoinder to Ms. Hunt’s tweet:
But if I’m hearing the Californians who’ve weighed in correctly here, maybe there are no national lessons to be drawn from the failed recall for either party. That’s not the Beltway view, but their track record of accurate prognostication sucks worse than mine even.
I read a much less obnoxious take somewhere (I think NYT or WP, don’t know which Beltway reporter and am too lazy to look it up) that said the outcome was a warning for Republicans. I don’t know how true this account was, but they claimed Newsom had successfully “nationalized” the election and made it a referendum on Trump kookery.
Anoniminous
@WaterGirl:
US is now officially a multi-ethnic country. Whites are now the largest minority not the majority.
moops
It is satisfying that Jenner utterly disappeared once no longer the shiny object of the MSM and only managed 1% of the votes cast for a replacement.
dmsilev
@Betty Cracker: That was the FTNYT:
Newsom’s Anti-Trump Recall Strategy Offers Republicans a Warning for 2022
But don’t worry, the GOP has a plan:
Have they …seen the GOP primary electorate?
Fair Economist
@Betty Cracker: There are national lessons to be learned from Newsom plastering the Republican recall. But not too much; it’s just one state. I like the 2 point summary of Newsom’s campaign above.
Uncle Cosmo
@Another Scott:
(Allan Sherman) :^D
WaterGirl
@Anoniminous: Ah. So whites are no longer 50% + 1 of the population in the US.
Are whites 49.99% of the population?
Or some much lower number?
Ocotillo
I’m interested in how big of a stink post-election GQPers will make about fraud and rigged voting. They were doing that pre-election.
In a lot of ways, that is a good tactic for a party that does not care about representative democracy.
Like with the Big Lie, you keep the rubes engaged and even sending money in. Second, it lays the foundation for them to cheat in GQP controlled states and if they are caught, the MSM both sides the issue saying both GQPers and Dems say each other’s victories are rigged. Finally, it undermines our electoral process by causing non-engaged people to lose faith in the integrity of elections.
The recall is also in the same vein as the Electoral College. Republicans are no longer able to achieve a majority of votes so the system has to be rigged in their favor to prevail. Elder could have been elected with something like less than 30% of the vote had Newsom been recalled.
germy
Roger Moore
There are a few problems with this approach from the GQP:
Basically, to the extent those things are real problems, the Republicans “solutions” won’t fix them, and this is just obvious to anyone who listens to news from outside the right wing noise machine. California Republicans are completely incapable of reaching anyone who isn’t already in their camp.
*Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone
germy
Flanders Other Neighbor
The French Laundry was bad optics. Anyone pushing for it to be more is on the other team.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
I’m shocked, shocked that an anonymous report taken from a new Woodward book might not be accurate.
Cheers,
Scott.
Anoniminous
@WaterGirl:
I was wrong — whites are 61.6% of the US population according to the 2020 census.
Almost Retired
My official position is that I always knew this was going to be a blowout, but, of course, that’s not true. I freaked out over the Summer when that bad poll was released.
And that poll appeared at about the same time as a series of articles and commentary in the Los Angeles Times about Newsom’s shortfalls (sending me into “FTFLAT” mode).
Add this to the fact that we are all growing weary of the tent cities that make downtown Los Angeles and Venice look like a giant boy scout jamboree. So it seemed feasible that Newsom could be recalled in a temper tantrum.
But the moment passed, mail-in ballots appeared, phone-banking began and then we got Larry Elder as something of a deux ex machina. Not sure what the lesson is, other than Trumpism remains a useful foil, and mail-in balloting does wonders to overcome tepid enthusiasm.
Uncle Cosmo
It arguably should – but how would anyone know who “those” are???
In the immortal words of “The Ballad of John and Yoko,”
>
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
Which distinguishes him in no way from the rest of the Republican party.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
So much for the old “what do Alexander the Great and Smokey the Bear have in common?” joke.
Ken
@lowtechcyclist: Oh, I know that one. “The notes they are noted for are not musical notes.”
WaterGirl
@Anoniminous: I appreciate the followup!
Roger Moore
@Almost Retired:
That’s not the real story. The real story is that the threat of a Republican governor overcame whatever enthusiasm gap might have existed. Lots of people were happy to contemplate dumping Newsom when it was an abstract concept, but not when they could see what the actual alternative was.
Felanius Kootea
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
Oh I hope to god Elder runs again in 2022. He’d do wonders for Democratic turnout.
Jeffro
@Another Scott: I think Dems now know to “run through the finish line” after 2016.
It’s good! We can crush them if we turn out like this every time (and if they keep depressing their own base with the “rigged election” nonsense)
Brachiator
@geg6:
Am I in a bubble? I have YouTube TV, so I get all the regular TV channels and more.
More younger people are using YouTube and various streaming services. Or spend more time playing video games. But they hate advertising and choose premium options without ads.
More younger people do not watch conventional news programs. And I do not know anyone under age 35 who subscribes to a physical or online newspaper.
I know more people who use Twitter than who regularly use Facebook. I don’t know if Twitter runs a lot of political ads. If they do, they are easy to avoid.
Younger voters are always harder to reach and harder to motivate to go to the polls. There Internet habits make it harder for conventional political ads to reach them. Do political ads run on Apple TV, Netflix or Disney Plus?
Sister Golden Bear
California reaming.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I’m being evicted from my place, I’ve got some tarps.
trollhattan
@Brachiator: Political ads on Netflix? Yes, also on Hulu and Paramount+ and Youtube. Heck, they pop up in Microsoft Solitare. My kid could say more on the topic, I’m sure, but isn’t handy ATM.
“They know where you live.”
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Wha? What happened?
moops
Also, everyone can stop quoting reporters who spend all their time quoting only GOP strategists. Nobody has to pay GOP political consultants any attention. They are less-than-useless and at some point our MSM establishment has to start ignoring them and their spin on everything.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: I’ve not been able to pay rent the past two months, they’ve terminated my lease. I was month to month, so I’m not sure if it falls under the state/local eviction moratorium. They’re coming to kick me out on Friday
Fuck COVID!
Roger Moore
@Martin:
I will say it again: changing zoning to allow multiple dwellings may change you quality of life, but it won’t necessarily reduce your property value. After all, it increases the number of things you can do with your property, and it would probably be more valuable with two homes on it than one. To the extent this changes property values, it will tend to drive them up closer to city centers, since people will now be able to build more housing in those desirable places, while maybe driving it down a bit in outlying areas now that people who would like to live closer to the city center may be able to do so.
That all said, those shifts are likely to happen way slower than people imagine. My previous home was in a neighborhood that had been rezoned to allow about 4 units where there had previously been a single family home. That rezoning happened well before I got there, but the neighborhood still had plenty of single family homes. It’s now almost 20 years since when I moved in and more than 10 since I left, but it’s still recognizably the same place. There are more multi-family dwellings, but it is still another decade or two from being completely converted. Doing the same thing statewide is going to change things, but that change will take decades to realize.
The Dark Avenger
@Kent: We’re working on it.
moops
Wonder how Newsom is going to spend his newfound political capital and leverage his fresh mandate.
Also noticed that several news agencies are not even front-paging Newsom’s win now. Not even a day old.
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Get help.
https://housing.ca.gov/covid_rr/
Good luck! Hang in there!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
Went to the beach, thinking maybe a last ocean swim for the season. But the wind picked up like crazy, the surf is rough and there’s a very strong sideways current, so discretion rules the day. Shame, because the water temp is really nice.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: The problem is my 401k ran out and my rent would be about 75% of my Home Depot pay. The idea, as I noted in my Artist post was to get employment for last year’s holiday season, but that’s when the COVID spike hit here in LA, I was too scared of getting COVID to do it. I don’t think that would qualify from what I was reading on their site. It’s for folk that have lost employment, I’ve actually gained employment, though it’s about maybe 65% of what my income was before.
mrmoshpotato
@RaflW:
Repeatedly slap the GOP with this too.
Roger Moore
@WaterGirl:
Non-Hispanic Whites are now less than 50% of the population.
PJ
@?BillinGlendaleCA: If you don’t want to leave, the landlord has to file a suit to throw you out, which you can fight in court. You can’t be forcibly evicted without a judgment against you.
Geminid
@dmsilev: Republicans are trying the candidate without a record gambit in Virginia. Candidate for Governor Glenn Youngkin has never held office. He is very reticent about his policies when it comes to women’s reproductive rights, and declined to return the NRA’s survey on firearms policy. Youngkin is trying to run a stealth campaign, made possible by his purchase of the nomination through the party’s slipshod, opaque convention process.
piratedan
while working, I’ve been catching snippets from the Senate hearings on how badly our FBI served our female gymnasts…. cripes, at the point where I just want to burn that institution down and rebuild it with different people, principals, perspectives…
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Still, check with them. They may know of other resources or be able to offer some assistance. Maybe your landlord isn’t following the rules. You need to hear from experts.
I’m very sorry that you are going through that. Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Ghost of Joe Liebling*s Dog
@West of the Rockies:
Psalm 137, verse 5 (If I forget ‘the’, O Jerusalem …)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@PJ: The problem is that it’s a month to month lease, they’ve terminated it. I’m not sure that would make a big difference.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: It’s a lot of added stress, I’ve looked at the City’s site as well. The landlord is treating this as normal times, they also seem to think that if you have any job, you should have no problem paying their rent.
252man
@Anoniminous: When the RWNJs become a smaller minority group they will be howling and screaming for protections that they were unwilling to grant to anyone else.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@WaterGirl: No racial group is in the majority of California.
Chetan Murthy
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Here in SF, there’s a tenant’s union, and the rates for becoming a member are pretty reasonable. Is there one in LA? I suspect that the fees are flexible for those in distress. In any case, I’m pretty sure that a month-to-month lease is still a lease, and you still can’t get evicted without a judgment. At least here in SF.
It’s worth looking around to see if there’s a tenant’s union in LA, and they might even have put some sort of “book of stuff tenants should know” online.
Definitely, if you haven’t received an eviction notice from the court, there’s grounds for fighting this.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Is there nothing That Man wouldn’t do to suppress White People! ?
“you’re still talking about rock and roll as if Barack Obama never happened”
ETA: apparently his name is Dave Rubin, I think I have heard of him, and as near as I can tell, this is real, this isn’t like Blair Erskine who confuses people, that “Parody” is the handle of somebody who monitors his shit. This is him on the future of CA politics
Chetan Murthy
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: It’s a glorious thing: everybody actually has to care what other people feel, how they live their lives.
I was reminded of this when the whole “rename SF schools, take Lincoln’s name down” happened. I learned that the vast majority of children (and hence parents) in SF schools were BIPOC. And so, the school board reflected that. Turns out, maybe what they want for their kids, doesn’t line up with what even white liberals want. And because they’re the majority, they have their say. Amazing, that.
Just to be clear, I thought some of the renamings went a bit far. But what I loved, was that “it wasn’t about *me*, was it?”
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Apparently Jason has never seen a trolling post before.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Avalie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Lots of tenant resources here–including rent assistance–for the LA area. You may find that you can at least delay the process while you see if you qualify for any of these programs.
https://lafla.org/covid-resources/
Also https://oag.ca.gov/consumers/COVID-19#tenants
Barbara
@Geminid: Do you have any sense whether people are still mad about the process? I assume that most who said that would come home to him eventually, but it really was a travesty.
I don’t have a good sense of the election. I am hoping to kick into gear in the next few weeks to help the statewide candidates. Biggest issue is turnout, IMHO.
Geminid
@Brachiator: A lot of people still catch their news on broadcast tv and radio. In some ways, they are better informed. I have some friends in Charlottesville who tell me about what they learn listening to podcasts and watching documentaries. They are deeply informed, but not broadly informed. I don’t live there, but I catch a few minutes of local radio news several times a week, and I know more about what goes on in their town than they do. A couple of other friends keep up by reading the local paper and tv news.
Chetan Murthy
@Geminid:
Heh. I read that Youngkin was CEO of The Carlyle Group [dunh-DUNH-DUNH] and was so bad they kicked his ass to the curb.
UncleEbeneezer
This was absolutely a referendum on Trumpism (and we should call it such). The whole attitude that we should do nothing to stop the spread of Covid, and even go so far as help it by eliminating/banning common-sense vaccine/mask mandates, is Trumpism. Sure that’s not ALL that makes up Trumpism, but it’s a huge part of it, and in 2020-21 I’d argue it’s the most relevant part of it. Just look at any Recall event (if you dare) and you’d see tons of Trump/MAGA shit, and all their talking points were ones coming direct from the mouth of the orange, shithead savior.
And while it is in no way predictive of 2022, the idea that we didn’t learn anything for 2022/2024, seems ridiculous. I learned that Dem organizing in CA is still strong, even in off-year/non-POTUS elections. The Democratic organizing/activism machine that was birthed in 2017 and brought us to victory in 2018 is still here and people are still willing to do work to stop the GOP. That is a great sign for 2022 and 2024, which no matter what anyone says, will absolutely be about stopping Trump/Trumpism and protecting our Democracy. I already see people talking about trying to pick up House seats in CA that we won in 2018 but lost in 2020.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Avalie: Thanks, I’ll check them as well. I’m filling out the California COVID forms now.
WaterGirl
@Roger Moore: @Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Now I’m really confused. The first person came back with 62% for the US, thenRoger Moore said non-hispanic whites are less than 50%, now you are talking about just CA.
Old School
@WaterGirl:
Here are the census results of race and ethnicity.
The United States is 61.6% White. California is 41.2% White.
The Pale Scot
@West of the Rockies:
Smokey Bear is lingo for state troopers,
Convoy
Geminid
@Barbara: I don’t talk state politics with the few Republicans I know. I do read the self-described conservative journal Bearing Drift, and those people seemed embarrassed by the process. It was like a Mack Sennet comedy with a bit of Inspector Clouseau thrown in.
There was an opportunity cost in terms of voter engagement. Less than 35,000 people participated, in a state of 8 1/2 million. By contrast, Abigail Spanberger won her 7th District Democratic primary in 2018 with 35,000 votes. The next of four other candidates received 20,000. And that was in just one of Virginia’s eleven districts.
Virginia Republican leaders just did not trust their voters. The possibility of Amanda Chase winning a primary with a plurality terrified them. There was a good cartoon there: so many scared elephants up on chairs, cowering from a mouse on the floor labeled Chase.
On the other hand, the prospect of a semi-billionaire flooding the party with money to win the convention was an attractive one. And at this point, Virginia Republican leaders may not be concerned with winning so much as keeping their party from blowing up.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@The Pale Scot: I’d completely forgotten about that. “Smokey” meaning cop, not the iconic Convoy, of course. Was it the hat?
and of course, there was Jackie Gleason… and Paul Williams, of course
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Oh jeez, I’m SO sorry to hear that! Here’s hoping it somehow gets sorted out–might be of use to call an area tenant’s rights organization for any applicable advice. The laws are…complicated.
The Pale Scot
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Was it the hat?
Yep
I’m partial to “Rollers”
Brachiator
@UncleEbeneezer:
Totally agree. It was also interesting to see that the mainstream Republican candidates could talk negatively about Elder in interviews. But I don’t recall any of them being asked about Trump. They got to dodge the issue of Trumpism.
I have read that Elder got $12 million in donations. The plutocrats are eager to go down to bitter defeat in support of Trump candidates.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Thanks.
H.E.Wolf
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
There’s lots of detail from the US Census here, including a nice graph of percentages by state as of 2020.
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/2020-united-states-population-more-racially-ethnically-diverse-than-2010.html
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I just went and looked at the program and I think that if you don’t earn enough you can get assistance. Could be wrong but it doesn’t look like it would hurt to apply.
Roger Moore
@Geminid:
Which is a pretty thin distinction. I guess a party that can’t win but doesn’t self destruct is still around to pick up the pieces if the other guy self destructs, but it’s pretty useless otherwise. And the experience here in California is that once the party slides into electoral irrelevance, it will wind up falling to the crazies anyway.
Geminid
@Geminid: The funniest part of Virginia’s Republican “Disassembled Convention” happened the morning of the vote count. Ballots from 27 locations had been driven to Richmond hotel the night before, and placed in a banquet room under the watchful eyes of campaign representatives operating on the principle, “No honor among thieves.” The doors were then sealed with security tape.
When campaign representatives returned next morning at the appointed time, the security tape was broken! Inside they found a hotel housekeeper setting up coffee urns and laying out breakfast pastries. So campaign and party officials huddled, interrogated the housekeeper, pored over security camera footage and huddled some more. They finally agreed that nothing nefarious had occurred. The poor housekeeper was then excused, after she signed an affidavit affirming that all she did was set up coffee urns and lay out breakfast pastries, and had not seen anybody sneaking ballots in or out.
Then the counting began, three hours behind schedule.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
This is very unfortunate. I hope you can find some relief.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: That’s my impression, there’s a category for fear of getting sick, at my age that was a big concern.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator: Thanks.
PJ
@?BillinGlendaleCA: they have to have an eviction order regardless of whether it is month to month. Do not let them in. They may ultimately have a right to evict you, but they cannot do it without a judge’s say-so. Also, please contact all the tenant resources people have been linking to, just because you think you probably don’t qualify doesn’t mean you don’t qualify.
The Pale Scot
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
IIRC the pot farmers were against legalization because of profit loss, regulation and competing against well capitalized co. run by people with no felonies on their records
RedDirtGirl
I’m so sorry. @Soprano2:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@PJ: Thanks, I’ll have the COVID relief app filled out by tomorrow morning(I have to find some electricity bills).
cain
This is the part that gets me. Climate change will change the culture and dynamics of the area. There is no way to turn back and correct it. You’re stuck. For some reason, they don’t think of these things as threats.
Like you can work your way past them through some komba-ya bullshit.
No name
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I can’t help you with California specific rules but fill out every federal program application you can find. Many states need to spend that money and you are who it is meant for. See if your locality has a free civil legal aid group…they can be a tremendous resource. I wish I could help you financially but I am very concerned about my situation as well. My thoughts and prayers for you are sincere and heartfelt.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
That sucks man.
Geminid
@Roger Moore: The Virginia Republicans may be going the way of the California party. Demographic change is a factor. Virginia is attracting a lot of immigrants, and the portion of college educated voters is increasing. These groups are now trending Democratic.
I think another factor is an alliance of tea party cranks and bible thumpers that has dragged the Republican party to the right. These people tend to repel moderately conservative Republicans and Independents, leaving Republican leaders in a numbers bind: they can’t seem to win elections with the radicals, but they can’t win without them either.
The establishment, Chamber of Commerce/Country Club Republicans who used to call the shots in the party now seem to be keeping their heads down, trying to keep clear of the train wreck. I think they hope that the radicals will lose interest and drift away from politics. A lot of those folks were not very civic-minded to begin with. And some may come around to a more pragmatic viewpoint, and help the establishment types pick up the pieces.
They will have a hard time dislodging the Democrats. That party has always been pro-business, and the tax revenues from 49 other states that are spent in Northern Virginia and defense-heavy Tidewater underpin a prosperous economy. Polling shows that most Virginians are not especially liberal, but liberally moderate or moderately liberal candidates like Kaine, Warner, Northam and McAuliffe seem to have found the sweet spot in the state’s electorate.
Republicans seem to be focused on unseating two-term Representative Elaine Luria. Former Senator George Allen and local heavyweight Ken Stolle, a former state legislator and current Virginia Beach Sheriff, helped launch the campaign of a local state Delegate. Like Luria, she is a Navy veteran, a plus in a district filled with active and retired military. Unlike Luria’s last opponent, the Delegate is not under investigation for campaign fraud. But now she faces a primary contest with a rightwing challenger.
Luria will get a lot of national exposure as one of seven Democrats on the the Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. I don’t know how much this will help her among 2nd District voters, but I expect her serious approach will benefit her fundraising.
Luria is 45 years old, and if she gets past this election she’ll probably retire twenty years from now after chairing the House Armed Services Commitee, and be around for the launch of a submarine named after her.
tybee
California reaming.
perfect!
misterpuff
@Scout211: Smokey The Farmer…
You’re all wrong!
Richard
@JML:
That’s exactly how they are.
dww44
Perhaps this has been mentioned already, but If you don’t happen to watch CBS Sunday Morning that runs from 9 to 10:30 a.m. in the east, there is a segment from today’s show you should go check out via their website or more easily on YouTube. A segment with Ted Koppel interviewing tourists who trek to Mayberry NC to get an infusion of small town American life as it was, or so they believe, in the 50’s and early 60’s.
The whole thing is worth a watch but the last couple of minutes when he interviews tourists on a bust about whether the last election was legit (No, it’s not), and whether Biden was freely and fairly elected (Nope, again) do they still support of Trump (most still do), and at the end how the local tourist guide diverts the whole discussion back to the peaceful non-controversial world of Andy Griffith’s Mayberry where all political views and races are welcomed is just the clearest view of where we are in this country politically and otherwise. Brought home to me how truly divided we are and I don’t know how we’re gonna fix this.