All Things Democrat

Campaign Finance 2012, Part 1: David vs. Goliath

Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 by Cindy Rose

In an email shortly after President Obama had been re-elected, my boss here at All Things Democrat wrote:

“Tonight, the “corporations are people” argument lost.”

We had in fact beaten back the billion dollar right wing money beasts. Karl Rove and his PAC pals had misjudged both their candidate, and the electorate, which would prove to be the case in many state campaigns as well. This election cycle would be the most expensive in history according to The New York Times:

The biggest single donor in political history, the casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, contributed more than $60 million…

[...] In the first seven weeks of 2012, about two dozen individuals, couples or corporations gave $1 million or more to Republican super PACs. Collectively, their contributions totaled more than $50 million, making them easily the most influential and powerful political donors in politics today.

…the scale of outside spending was similarly staggering: more than $1 billion, about triple the amount in 2010.

Conservatives are still in shock that Obama prevailed; but what Karl Rove and others like him underestimated, was Barack Obama’s connection with the average citizen. There’s a difference between voters’ enthusiasm for, and faith in Obama, compared to Republicans’ support for “anyone who’s not Obama”.

According to Politico:

Mitt Romney was expected to use a billionaire-fueled fundraising juggernaut to crush President Barack Obama’s once vaunted small-donor army.

But Obama’s constituency fought back against the attempts of the select few to buy the election. When President Obama’s campaign out-raised Mitt Romney’s campaign in August, it was due to grassroots donations. As ABC reported at the time:

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina wrote in a statement that the campaign fought back “substantially” against the “special interests writing limitless checks to support Mitt Romney.”

“Fueled by contributions from more than 1.1 million Americans donating an average of $58 — more than 317,000 who had never contributed to the campaign before — we raised a total of more than $114 million,” wrote Messina. “That is a critical down payment on the organization we are building across the country, the largest grassroots campaign in history.”

In fact, The New York Times reported:

Over all, 55 percent of the Obama campaign’s money through the end of September came in donations of less than $200, including from many people who have repeatedly sent in small checks over the course of the campaign. Just 13 percent of his checks were for $2,500, the maximum that donors are allowed to contribute for either the primary or general election.

Obama outdid Romney in other aspects of the campaign, such as social networking; and his “ground game” was much more effective, as The Grio notes:

“…never, in the history of presidential politics, in either party, has field organizing been done in such a people-centered, data-driven way.”

The last obstacle to be faced by Obama supporters would be voting itself, and the 1% had their hands all over that. The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is an organization backed by large corporations, which drafts legislation on their behalf, then passes it along to legislators to present as their own. They created the model for most, if not all of the anti-voter legislation Republicans introduced in 37 states in 2011 and 2012.

Yet, with billions of dollars at their disposal, and Republican state legislatures more than willing to impede voting, what explains Obama’s victory- David beating the SuperPAC Goliaths?

He was the better man, and his party, the better party. No amount of money could put a positive spin on what Mitt Romney and the Republican Party are: a selfish society unto themselves that feels no shared citizenship with the rest of America.

As Julie Ajinkya wrote for the Center For American Progress:

If this election taught us anything, it’s that the majority of our country agrees with the ideas behind progressive policies. Americans sided with the candidates in this election who promoted tolerance and inclusion and believed in rebuilding a country that works for all, not just a select few…

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Posted in Campaign Finance Laws, Campaigns, Corporate donors, Corporations, Election, Politics, Republican Campaign Donors, superPACs | Tagged campaigns, election, gop, Presidential Candidates

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A Republican Civil War Flareup In Connecticut.

Posted on Monday, November 12, 2012 by Ken

More than a few of us lefty types have been gleefully rubbing our hands in anticipation of the coming Republican civil war. The battle lines have been drawn between the hardliners and the pragmatists. There will certainly be some excitement as the two sides have it out for control of the party.

An early skirmish in this war has developed in Connecticut. Chris Shays, a longtime establishment Republican pragmatist was interviewed by the Hartford Courant and gave his unvarnished opinion of the recent campaign of Linda McMahon for US Senate. Full disclosure: McMahon, a newly minted Republican primary bombthrower, defeated Shays in the Republican primary. McMahon morphed into a general election centrist independent and proceeded to lose to Democrat Chris Murphy despite extravagent spending from her personal fortune, amounting to over $100 million in 2010 and 2012.

Here is what Shays says about the losing campaign of McMahon:

“The people advising her were thrilled to take her money, but they knew this was a long shot,’’ Shays said. “Corry Bliss, who ran her campaign, basically left Vermont in shambles, and he’s leaving Connecticut in shambles. But he’s got more money. He made more money. Pat Sullivan [a lobbyist and McMahon adviser] basically has made a pile of money at the expense of his fellow Republicans. And it’s just a shame. He’s a talented guy. He stood in the way of Republicans gaining a Senate seat in 2010 and 2012.’’

Shays added, “In the end, she dissed the Republicans. She ran as an independent. She spent $100 million. She thought she could avoid the press, avoid the editorial boards, and just go on TV and buy an election.”

He also said flatly that he “wouldn’t be surprised’’ if the workers who helped McMahon in the cities had accepted McMahon’s money for distributing literature and then headed to the polls to vote “straight Democrat.’’

“She didn’t win many votes in the cities,’’ Shays said.

The Hartford Courant’s intrepid reporter Rick Green knows a juicy story when it slaps him in the face, so he interviewed McMahon’s campaign manager Corry Bliss for his reaction to Shay’s less than friendly quote. That reaction can best be described as run away nuclear:

“Congressman Shays is a classless, bitter sore loser who should do the people of Connecticut a favor and keep his mouth shut and move back to Maryland,’’ Bliss said in an interview. “However, I would like to offer a portion of my salary to be used to pay for the psychiatric care that Congressman Shays desperately needs. And lastly, I know that Congressman Shays has dreams of running for governor, and I will keep my opposition research book under my pillow with the hopes of being able to use it, pro bono, if he launches another failed campaign.’’

Bliss added, “Congressman Shays is an unemployed, classless man who has nothing better to do than sit around and pontificate about other people’s campaigns. In his last campaign, he received 30 percent of the vote, and the campaign before that [in 2008] he was running ads with Obama when his campaign funds were being embezzled.’’

Gee, I wonder how Bliss really feels about Shays?

This certainly is an entertaining warm up to the grand battle for the heart and soul of a heartless and soulless Republican party. Grab some popcorn and enjoy the rest of the show.

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Posted in Campaigns, Liberals, Politics, Primaries, Republican Campaign Donors, Republicans | Tagged Chris Murphy, Chris Shays, Connecticut, Corry Bliss, Linda McMahon, Republican Civil War

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Palin is Perplexed; Romney is Stunned; Women Won!

Posted on Monday, November 12, 2012 by mlitman

“It’s just arithmetic,” Bill Clinton said in his address to the Democratic National Convention. Clinton was speaking about controlling and reducing the federal deficit. However the arithmetic behind the election is even more simple than balancing the federal budget. It’s just arithmetic! There are more women in America than men, and they vote at a higher percentage than men. Women favored Obama by a significant advantage, both nationally, and in the swing states. The amazing thing is that the GOP should have learned this lesson in arithmetic in 2008, but they either didn’t learn, or they forgot. Even Sarah Palin, who was personally involved in the 2008 election, and lost due to women favoring Obama, didn’t learn. She remained “perplexed” when the Republican candidate lost to Barack Obama. Mitt Romney was also shocked when he lost the election. He was so confident of victory that he didn’t prepare a concession speech. His team was so confident of a victory that they posted a transition web site, before the election results were final. At least by October 18th, the Romney campaign should have recognized the election was over. I did, and I’m just an interested observer. I don’t have a degree in political science, and have never worked as a campaign adviser to any political candidate. Yet it was clear after the second debate that Mitt Romney had lost the women’s vote,and would thus lose the election. Remember his “binders full of women?”

Many women who might have identified the economy as the most important issue to them in this election were repulsed by Romney’s attitude about women in the workforce. In case Romney’s position on the Ledbetter Fair Pay act was not sufficiently offensive, Republicans doubled-down on their attempt to ensure the right of employers to underpay women. In June of this yearRepublicans voted “No” on the Paycheck Fairness Act.” As a reminder to women, Romney reinforced his attitude about women in the work force by his “binders full of women” at the second debate.

Some women may have been focused on reproductive rights. The GOP lost the support of women due to their position that less regulation is better, and yet they feel it is appropriate to control the rights of women regarding birth control, sonograms, and abortion.

In 2008 women carried the election for Obama, by a sizeable margin. 35,900,000 women voted for Obama. While the election of 2012 resulted in a slightly smaller gender gap, the results were still clear. Obama won 55% of women’s votes, but only 45% of male voters cast their ballots for Obama.

Obama carried 8 of the 9 swing states and won the women’s vote in all 9 states. In the all-important state of Ohio, Obama carried the women’s vote by 10%.

Women have not kept their influence a secret. The CAWP, of Center for American Women in Politics has been very clear in their documentation of the influence of women in elections. They report that women make up 56% of voters.

Texas Republican Senator, Kay Bailiey Hutchison told CNN that the GOP must stop treating women as “a throw-away” . McCain displayed his lack of understanding and respect for women when he nominated Sarah Palin. Romney did it by suggesting that he got his insight into the economic issues that women care about by consulting with his wife, who has never worked outside the home, and never been responsible for the economic support of her family.

Then the remarks of Todd Akin about women who were “legitimately raped, shutting that whole thing down”

and Richard Mourdock’s explanation that a pregnancy resulting from a rape was a “gift from God,” reinforced the position of women that the GOP was more interested in regulating women’s reproductive freedom than wallstreet’s freedom to steal from the American people. Remember that Romney directly, or indirectly, supported Akin and Mourdock. He chose Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential running mate, who had co-sponsored the “forcible” rape bill with Akin, and Romney made a commercial for Mourdock, endorsing him.

Women have won the 2012 war on women. Yesterday US NEWS reported that a whopping 97.41% of people taking their poll observed that the GOP has lost the War on Women.

What seemed obvious after the 2008 election, is even more apparent now. Women will not go away. Women demand to be treated equally at work and nobody messes with our bedrooms. Women demand that people stay out of their bedrooms and their choices about reproductive health. Women will fight because we have been treated as second class citizens, economically, and reproductively. Until the GOP treats women with respect and embraces equal rights for women they will continue to be losers. It’s just arithmetic. If the GOP doesn’t understand after eight years, maybe they’ll consult some binders to figure this out?

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Allen West Recount Update, Monday, November 12

Posted on Monday, November 12, 2012 by Cindy Rose

Reported by the AP Sunday evening, via the Tampa Bay Times:

A partial recount gave Rep. Allen West a slight bump Sunday in his fight to remain in Congress, but not enough to mandate a full review of ballots or to end threats of lawsuits from his campaign.

St. Lucie County’s limited recount revised downward the totals for West and the unofficial winner in the race, Democrat Patrick Murphy. Because Murphy lost more votes in the recount than West, it was a net gain for the Republican incumbent, though his margin of loss remained just above the threshold to order a full recount.

[...] St. Lucie’s revised numbers, combined with previously reported numbers for the district’s two other counties, had Murphy with a 50.3 percent share of the ballots, an overall lead of 1,907 votes. That margin of six-tenths of a percentage point is just above the half-percentage point threshold to order a full recount.

Though not required, St. Lucie County agreed to the partial recount to settle concerns over the processing of some early votes, which election officials said was done “out of an abundance of caution.” Heather Young, an assistant county attorney, said all dates affected by an Election Night failure in loading memory cards were included in Sunday’s count.

And from WPTV this morning:

Even before results were announced early in the afternoon, West partisans were crying foul. They were angry that St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker had recounted only three of eight days worth of early voting ballots.

Not surprisingly:

Republican officials also want a full recount of all early votes, plus a comparison of total voter signatures from all polling places with the total ballots counted, to see whether the two numbers match.

“What’s going on today is a sham,” said Tim Edson, West’s campaign manager. “It does nothing to resolve our concerns.”

Of course, nothing will resolve Allen West’s concerns as long as he’s on the losing end. Sean Domnick, attorney for the Murphy campaign, said:

“There is some irony in the fact that (West), who is anti-lawyer and anti-lawsuits, is racing down to the courts and filing lawsuits that have been declared — I think the language of Judge Crow was ‘grossly lacking, both procedurally and substantively.’

More to come, I’m sure; my happy dance over West’s departure will have to wait.

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Posted in Allen West, Campaigns, Election, Politics, Republicans, Tea Party | Tagged allen west, campaigns, election, republicans, tea party

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What Happens When You Run A Campaign Like A Business?

Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2012 by Ken

To answer the query presented by the title, one thing you do is give huge bonuses to staff who are proven failures. Oh, and you lose.

Let us recall the state of the campaign prior to the 1st debate. Romney was well behind in the polls and everyone thought the campaign was Obama’s to lose (which he apparently tried to do in the first debate).

The Republican convention ended on Thursday, August 30 and was a complete failure. One convention highlight was the speech by Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan on August 29 which was widely panned by fact checkers for being singularly dishonest. Various pundits headlined the speech as ”The GOP Fact Vacuum” “stunning for its dishonesty” “The Most Dishonest Convention Speech … Ever?” and so forth. Ryan’s speech was delivered the day after a Romney staffer told ABC that the Romney campaign would not be dictated by fact checkers, so one must presume that Ryan was doing his level best to prove that staffer’s point.

Another convention highlight was the farcical introduction of Mitt Romney. Romney thought it would be a great idea to have Clint Eastwood warm up the crowd and the millions tuned in on television. Eastwood made a last minute decision to take an empty chair as a prop and the result was a train-wreck of epic proportions.

The reason for this trip down memory lane RE the Republican convention and running a campaign like a business is because of what Romney did the day following the convention debacle. Just like so many corporations give bonuses for abject failure, the Romney campaign decided to give their staff a bonus following one of the worst conventions in modern history.

In fact Romney is very familiar with rewarding failure in the world of business. As Rolling Stone reported on August 29, (does that date sound familiar?) Romney’s initial involvement with Bain was a failure. Using a loophole which allowed Bain to dole out executive bonuses before paying debt Romney threatened to loot Bain rather than pay back debtors. They forced creditors to allow Bain to pay back debt at .30 cents on the dollar rather than see the rest of Bains liquidity be looted for executive bonuses.

The .30 cent per dollar deal only happened after the initial offering to pay back .35 cents on the dollar was not approved and Bain payed out massive bonuses to make sure the creditors knew they meant business. At one point analysts found Bain to have ”no value as a going concern”. Creditors saw Bain going into default and accepted the .30 cent on the dollar offering. This effectively led to a $16 million bailout by the FDIC of Bain.

I apologize for such a Byzantine explanation of the Bain bonus story. A far better description is provided by Gawker:

He raided its coffers for executive bonuses even as it owed millions to the federal government, and used the resulting lack of cash as leverage to screw over the company’s creditors.

Romney learned his Bain lesson well in relation to running a campaign as a business. For example Richard Beeson received a bonus of $37,500.00 the day following the convention. Beeson is the political genius who tried to convince us that issues like a womans right to choose and equal pay for equal work were not important issues in this campaign. That sort of attitude from Romney headquarters explains why President Obama enjoyed an 18 point gender gap, which not only allowed him to win, but to pull off an electoral landslide.

One excuse used by the captains of finance to pay bonuses for failure is in the interest of keeping the talent happy and not searching for other work that offers better compensation. In the world of politics, rewarding the help for taking your campaign over the cliff seems counter intuitive, even if it does somehow make sense to the captains of Wall Street. After all, wouldn’t Romney have been better served by Beeson leaving the campaign in a huff to bring his oddball take on modern politics to the Obama side? I mean Romney would have been well served to pay Beeson’s salary and a large bonus if only the Obama team would take him, in an effort to sabotage the Obama campaign from within.

Another justification to allow bonuses for failure is that the employees who blew it are the only ones who can unwind the mess. This excuse appears valid because efficient unwinding appears not to have been an issue for the Romney team. Just consider the fact that on election night staffers who tried to pay for cab fare home with a campaign credit card were blocked. I, perhaps mistakenly, take solace in thinking that the innocent cabbies were probably able to collect their fare from cash reserves in fat wallets left over from bonus payments earlier in the campaign.

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Posted in Banks and Finance, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Campaigns, Corporate Greed, Election, Financial Bailouts, Mitt Romney, Politics, Women's Health | Tagged clint eastwood, Obama Landslide, Republican Convention, Richard Beeson

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Florida/Allen West Election Update

Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2012 by Cindy Rose

Sunday morning, Fox News reports:

The St. Lucie County Canvassing Board [Florida] announced late Saturday it had set an “emergency meeting” to start at 7 a.m. Sunday at its headquarters, to “recount all ballots cast during early voting.” The number of early ballots is estimated by officials to be roughly 37,000.

1:06 p.m. EST, November 11, 2012, the Associated Press reports:

A partial recount has given Rep. Allen West a slight lift, though Patrick Murphy remains the unofficial winner…

St. Lucie County recounted three days of early-voting ballots Sunday. Both candidates’ vote totals were revised downward as a result of the count, but because West lost fewer votes, it narrowed his margin of loss.

Murphy held a 50.3 percent share of the ballots, an overall lead of 1,907 votes. That margin of six-tenths of a percentage point is just above the half-percentage point threshold to order a full recount across all three counties in the 18th congressional district.

West’s campaign called the recount “a sham” and said all early votes should have been included. They’re vowing further legal action.

We’ll keep you posted.

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Posted in Allen West, Campaigns, Election, Politics | Tagged allen west, campaigns, election, Florida Recount, republicans

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Arizona Embarrasses Itself Again and Florida Can’t Get Rid Of Allen West

Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2012 by Cindy Rose

Arizona has officially made itself the poster child for voter suppression, and the laughing stock of the nation as more than half a million votes remained uncounted as of Saturday. That’s almost a third of the state’s votes, and includes more than a quarter of a million from Maricopa County, which is Sheriff Arpaio territory; Arpaio by the way, has already declared victory in the election, but as Addicting Info reports:

Activist Randy Parraz, president of Citizens for a Better Arizona, told the Huffington Post, “We’re not conceding anything until every vote is counted. They’re just going to act like, ‘Oh, the election’s over, Arpaio wins.’ Hell no.”…

While Secretary of State Bennett tried to attribute the record-setting proportion of uncounted ballots to redistricting, the civil rights groups smell voter suppression. After all, Maricopa County gave out incorrect voting information to Latinos before the election, Jeff Flake’s senatorial campaign spread misinformation about polling places in robocalls and, in 2008, the ACLU called Pima County (Tucson metropolitan area) tops in the country for voter suppression because officials threw out 18% of the provisional ballots cast.

According to Alternet:

Arpaio had 469,407 votes or 53 percent of the vote as of 1 A.M. Wednesday morning when the Election Day ballot counting stopped, compared to his closest challenger, Democrat Paul Penzone, who had 381,284 votes or 43 percent. According to AzCentral.com, Penzone conceded defeat at about 10 P.M. on Tuesday night before a crowd of supporters.

However, that concession is not being accepted as the last word on who legally won by Latino organizers, who say that until all the votes are counted there is still a chance to beat Arpaio.

One can only hope. Meanwhile, Allen West remains in denial, even after Florida issued “complete but unofficial results” showing West’s challenger, Patrick Murphy, has beaten him by more than 2400 votes; that’s beyond the half-percent margin that would have triggered a recount. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports:

West’s campaign insists there are many unanswered questions in the race…

“We’re simply not going to just walk away from the race until we see that the numbers add up,” West campaign manager Tim Edson said.

Obviously he means “add up” in his candidate’s favor; for his part, West claims:

“If I come out on the short end of the stick, guess what?…I salute the flag, I wish you good luck and I continue on, and hopefully my replacement will be able to go up and contend with these monumental issues.”

He will, and without the monumental ego as well.

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Posted in Allen West, Arizona Shenanigans, Campaigns, Election, Politics, Republicans, Tea Party, Voter Registration | Tagged allen west, arizona, Arizona vote count, campaigns, election, Florida vote count, Joe Arpaio, republicans, tea party

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Bowing Out Not So Gracefully

Posted on Friday, November 9, 2012 by Cindy Rose

A campaign, whether winning or losing, doesn’t end abruptly with the final vote tally; there are legal papers to be filed, campaign records to be taken care of, offices to be closed up, etc.

Mitt Romney’s final campaign days seem to validate some of the conceptions of him that prevented his election to the highest office in the country: He’s above it all, he doesn’t connect with people, and he just doesn’t get it. Romney used staff and money to design his transition website, found online by Political Wire before America voted (inadvertently or not):

A brief fireworks display was in place to be set off over Boston Harbor should Romney win as well. The most telling, albeit arrogant move on Romney’s part, was the lack of a concession speech as of 6:00 pm on election day, as reported by the Washington Post ‘s Rachel Weiner:

Speaking with reporters on his campaign plane for the last time, Mitt Romney revealed that he’s only written one speech so far.

“I just finished writing a victory speech,” he told the travelling press. “It’s about 1,118 words. And, uh, I’m sure it will change before I’m finished, because I haven’t passed it around to my family and friends and advisers to get their reaction, but I’ve only written one speech at this point.”

The Republican nominee said that seeing voters in Pennsylvania greet him at the airport gave him an emotional confidence in his victory. “Intellectually I’ve felt we’re going to win this and have felt that for some time,” he said, “but emotionally just getting off the plane and seeing those people standing there — we didn’t tell them we were coming, we didn’t notify them when we’d arrive, just seeing people there cheering as they were connected emotionally with me, and I not only think were going to win intellectually, I feel it as well.”

“[T]he prospect of losing, I don’t give that a lot of thought,” he said. “I know it’s possible and — because there’s nothing certain in politics…”

Nothing certain indeed. When he did eventually lose, he told those who had assembled for his hastily written(?) five minute concession speech:

I want to thank Matt Rhoades and the dedicated campaign team he led. They have made an extraordinary effort not just for me, but also for the country that we love.

And to you here tonight, and to the team across the country _ the volunteers, the fundraisers, the donors, the surrogates _ I don’t believe that there’s ever been an effort in our party that can compare with what you have done over these past years. Thank you so very much.

Thanks for all the hours of work, for the calls, for the speeches and appearances, for the resources and for the prayers. You gave deeply from yourselves and performed magnificently. And you inspired us and you humbled us. You’ve been the very best we could have imagined.

And then he promptly cancelled the campaign staff’s credit cards… without warning. Some folks found out as they attempted to pay the cab fare after their ride home. As Forbes Magazine pointed out:

“In case you are wondering, this did not have to happen. The Mitt Romney for President entity does not end with Romney’s Tuesday night loss. There are papers to be filed with various federal commissions and bills to be paid.”

Yeah Mitt, you really connected emotionally.

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Posted in Campaigns, Election, Mitt Romney, Politics | Tagged campaigns, election, mitt romney

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The GOP Needs to Move Further Right and Suppress the Vote Better: A Modest Proposal

Posted on Thursday, November 8, 2012 by Marc Belisle

It would appear that many of these “voters” gathered the wrong message from our pitch. As he poured my wine, Reginald observed that Romney, old boy, convinced the commoners he’d had such an illustrious career in the private sector that they ought to let him continue to pursue it! As their betters, we must learn to instruct them in ways they can understand.

After the debacle on Tuesday, I had a new computing device flown in from the Orient, hot off the production line. This morning I instructed the more exotically complexioned maid, whose kin I presume assembled the device, to use it to “scrunch the numbers.” What she showed me is appalling. Only 88% of Romney voters were white. Now, I’ve underwritten as many leveraged buyouts as the next chap, and I know, if we’re going to close strong on this White House deal, we need to be as close to 100% as legal loopholes will allow.

I’ll be the first to admit what we are all thinking. On Tuesday there were too many voters. The chart shows you, especially, that there were far too many voters who aren’t rich, old, white, heterosexual, christian men. That is the only demographic that we could safely rely on to vote for our best business interests. There’s a little too much of this ‘Democracy’ hullabaloo for my taste or that of any reasonable captain of industry. If we’re going to suppress the vote, we can’t do it by half measures. Now I’ve spoken with Sheldon as well as David and Chuck and we agreed upon a model going forward. For the next time around, we need to combine last-minute arbitrary polling location changes, ID-verifying checkpoints manned by those paramilitary union-breakers Coca-Cola uses to great effect in Colombia, and large scale internment of, say, 47% of the population. We also agreed that we should encourage Vermont to secede from the Union. So far, though, Ben and Jerry are not returning my calls.