Politics – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Stand Up For Our Democracy

David Posnett — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 21:29:36 +0000

Democracy is never a given. January 6th proved that. A wrathful president unable to accept he lost an election, an angry mob stoked by bogus claims of a stolen election, a subservient caucus of Republicans willing to do the bidding of a corrupt president. On that day they all came together in a violent clash that almost derailed our democracy.

Fortunately, the will of the people prevailed — for now. But Trump has said his political movement “has only just begun.” Already we see what that means: punishing Republicans who dared to speak the truth and acknowledged that Trump lost the election and that he incited the insurrection, and rewarding those, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who traffic in absurd conspiracy theories and seek to demonize those on the other side of the political divide.

In the coming months, each of us will have to decide if we are willing to stand up for our democracy, to support and protect it — by paying attention, by calling out lies, by working to roll back voter suppression laws, by voting for candidates who will uphold their oath to the Constitution, and by remembering that our congressional representative, Lee Zeldin, voted to overturn the results of a free and fair election.

Because if there’s one thing history has shown us, it’s that a failed coup often precedes a successful one.

Sincerely,

CAROL DEISTLER

Published in The East Hampton Star, Letter to the Editor, February 18

Zeldin, your name is Shame

David Posnett — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 15:27:56 +0000

Mr. Zeldin, your name is shame.

You are either with our constitutional system of government, or you are not. And then you are for mob rule. Which is it?

Are you a leader? – def. “a leader is someone who rallies people to move toward a better vision.”

Are you continuing to promote sedition? – def. “conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of the state.”

Are you a Conspiracy Theorist? – def. “promoting a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators.”

Our American Constitution is a better vision. Why are you inciting rebellion against it? Why are you continuing to lie to us about the circumstances of the 2020 election? Why are you confusing people about the election and spreading lies? Did you not take an oath to uphold the Constitution?

We Americans want our American Democracy to work. Impeach Trump Now and get to work for a better vision for us all, or Resign.

Signed,

A daughter of America, daughter of a family who has served to form and preserve our country from the Revolution through the Civil War, WWI, WWII and Viet Nam.

The Days After Election Day

David Posnett — Sat, 31 Oct 2020 15:30:32 +0000

As our democracy hangs by a rapidly fraying thread, it is critical that each of us do everything we can to ensure that Donald Trump is voted out of office, and once voted out of office, that he actually LEAVES office.

“The Day After Election Day,” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/opinion/trump-election-officials.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage an article in The New York Times, is an account of officials and aides who are worried the president will use the power of the government to keep himself in office. Following are highlights (lowlights is probably a more accurate term) from the article for those who can’t access it:

“Even though they can’t predict exactly what will happen, their concerns range from the president welcoming, then leveraging, foreign interference in the election, to encouraging havoc that grows into conflagrations that would merit his calling upon U.S. forces.

“I think the biggest shock he had — ’cause his assumption was the generals, ‘my generals,’ as he used to say and it used to make us cringe — was he …just assumed that generals would be completely loyal to the kaiser….And when we weren’t, that was a huge shock to him….

“This shock, and his first two-plus years of struggle with seasoned, expert advisers, led to an insight for Mr. Trump. It all came back to loyalty. He needed to get rid of any advisers or senior officials who vowed loyalty to the Constitution over personal loyalty to him. Which is pretty much what he proceeded to do.

“….Having loyalists at both the Department of Justice and D.N.I….allows him, potentially, to coordinate two key agencies of the government — secret intelligence and prosecution — toward his own political ends.

“Key officials in several parts of the government told me how they thought the progression from the 3rd to the 4th might go down.

“…Disruption would most likely begin on Election Day morning somewhere on the East Coast, where polls open first….A group could just directly attack a polling place, injuring poll workers of both parties, and creating a powerful visual — an American polling place in flames, like the ballot box in Massachusetts that was burned earlier this week — that would immediately circle the globe.

“Violence and conflict throughout that day at the polls would surely affect turnout, allowing Mr. Trump to claim that the in-person vote had been corrupted….There are many scenarios that might unfold from here, nearly all of them entailing weeks or even months of conflict, and giving an advantage to the person who already runs the U.S. government. There will likely be some reckoning of the in-person vote drawn from vote tallies and exit polls. If Joe Biden is way ahead in these projections…Mr. Trump may find himself having to claim fraud or suppression that amounts to too large a share of votes to seem reasonable. Inside the Biden campaign they are calling this “too big to rig.

“No matter how the votes split, there’s an expectation among officials that Mr. Trump will claim some kind of victory on Nov. 4, even if it’s a victory he claims was hijacked by fraud….If the streets then fill with outraged people, he can easily summon, or prompt, or encourage troublemakers among his loyalists to turn a peaceful crowd into a sea of mayhem.

“…But across the government, another official argues that citizens may yet manage to rise to the challenge of this difficult election, in a time of division.

“The last line of defense in elections is the American voter,” he told me. “This is the most vulnerable phase,” now and the days immediately after Election Day, “where we’re so eager to have an outcome, that actors both foreign and domestic are going to exploit that interest, that thirst, that need for resolution to the drama.”

And there you have it. The days and weeks after the election are likely to be a referendum – not on Donald Trump, but on each and every one of us. When everything is on the line, it’s time to do everything you can. Stay tuned.

Flip the Senate

David Posnett — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 18:06:40 +0000

From: Nigel Noble and his DC based lawyer friend

Dear Friends and Family,

This email is a follow up to my correspondence several weeks ago on our efforts to defeat Trump and flip the Senate. You may recall that I am working with a group of politically experienced and knowledgeable people to identify the strongest candidates to support and to encourage registration and voting among young voters. I promised to provide you with ongoing assessments, and this email reflects recent activity and our latest recommendations.

Most Recent Senate Analysis

Based on recent developments, we want to offer some new insights. Every candidate that we identify in this email is worthy of your support. As a group, the Democratic challengers are impressive, honorable, politically savvy, right for their states and are running good campaigns. If you are in a position to contribute to them all – by all means, do so. But for those who are looking for priorities, our group is offering these suggestions.

Our goal in developing these recommendations is to invest in candidates who have the best chance of helping to recapture the Senate. We looked at data on contributions, cash on hand and polls, and we talked to a lot of people involved in the elections.

We are not recommending races where there are Republican incumbents who, emotionally, we would love to ditch, but where the odds just don’t seem to be there. Similarly, we are not recommending “headwind” races where Trump is likely to have too big a lead to be offset by enough voters willing to split their ticket, or races where there is simply not enough information to evaluate.

We now have two categories of races for you to consider, based on our assessment about how much of a difference your contributions could make. Each list includes links to the Democrats’ websites for more information and to make contributions.

Our First Priority Group includes the following races:

Greenfield (vs. Ernst) in Iowa — https://greenfieldforiowa.com/
Bullock (vs. Daines) in Montana — https://stevebullock.com/
Gross (vs. Sullivan) in Alaska — https://dralgrossak.com/
Cunningham (vs. Tillis) in North Carolina —https://www.calfornc.com/
Gideon (vs. Collins) in Maine — https://saragideon.com/
Sen. Peters (vs. James) in Michigan — https://petersformichigan.com/

This group includes our original “Best Buy” races, (Iowa, Montana and Alaska). Elections are less expensive in these states, the candidates are very strong, polls are close and each state has some history of ticket splitting. Republicans have noticed and are in hot pursuit, but all three remain encouraging.

We are adding the very promising races in North Carolinaand Maine which we previously characterized as “Best Bets.” Both races are generally viewed as toss-ups. Although both Democratic candidates appear to have slight leads in the most recent polls, there remains a significant undecided vote in North Carolina and Republicans are likely to go all out to save Collins in Maine.

The sixth race, Democratic incumbent Gary Peters in Michigan, is new to our list. We previously explained that Democrats would need to pick up five seats if Trump wins or four seats if Biden wins to control the Senate. This presumes the loss of only one seat currently held by Democrats (Doug Jones in Alabama is running a strong race, but may be facing insurmountable headwinds.). It now appears that Sen. Peters may be in a tight race. Michigan is a must win for Trump and a top priority for Biden, and the polls have edged closer. The Republican challenger (John E. James) has raised a ton of money and Peters needs more.

Our Second Priority Group includes the following races:

Kelly (vs. McSally) in Arizona — https://markkelly.com/
Hickenlooper (vs. Gardner) in Colorado —https://hickenlooper.com/
Harrison (vs. Graham) in South Carolina —https://jaimeharrison.com/
Ossoff (vs. Perdue) in Georgia — https://electjon.com/

Recall that the criterion for prioritizing a race is how much of a difference your contributions could make. In the case of Colorado and Arizona (from our original Best Bets list) both races have raised a great deal of money and both candidates currently have good polling results. At the moment, these are the states where we have the best chances of flipping seats.

Two other races, which we previously regarded as third priorities based on the degree of difficulty of winning, have moved into our second priority group — South Carolina and Georgia. Both Jaime Harrison and Jon Ossoff are great candidates and have proven that they are serious contenders. The challenge for both Harrison and Ossoff is overcoming the headwinds for Trump and the power of incumbency. However, both Harrison and Ossoff are polling just about even with the incumbents.

If you have questions about these recommendations, please feel free to contact me.

Something you can do for RBG

David Posnett — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 12:04:47 +0000

From Randall Parsons/Judith Hope:

If you feel the need to do something… or something more than you’ve been doing, here’s a way to honor RBG and help stop McConnell from pushing through another ultra conservative Supreme Court nominee.

Leave voicemails for the six Senators below. Murkowski and Collins have said they’ll oppose the vote, but it’s a good idea to call and support (and thereby reinforce) their decision. To make it easier for you, here’s a script for the other four (and we only need two of them):

“My name is________________. I know you know that Mitch McConnell is hypocritically ignoring the principle he set up in 2016 by trying to confirm a Supreme Court justice less than 7 weeks before the Presidential election. To preserve the legitimacy of the Court in the eyes of all Americans, I’m asking you to refuse to do that until after a new president is sworn in.”

Obviously, change the script in any way you want.

If you call today or tonight, you won’t have to talk to a live person. You can email if you prefer, but you’d have to leave your address, phone number, etc.

Mitt Romney, Utah: ‎(202) 224-5251
Martha McSally, Arizona: (202) 224-2235
Cory Gardner, Colorado: (202) 224-5941
Chuck Grassley, Iowa: (202) 224-3744
Susan Collins, Maine: (207) 784-6969

Lisa Murkowski, Alaska: (202) 224-6665

Those were the names that were sent to me, but I thought it would be worth it to contact the three Republican incumbents, who are retiring and have nothing to lose by opposing McConnell. I appealed to their sense of fairness:

Lamar Alexander, Tennessee: (202) 224-4944
Mike Enzi, Wyoming: (202) 224-3424
Pat Roberts, Kansas: (202) 224-4774

It seems that we the people are the only ones who can prevent this travesty. A lot of noise has worked before.

Zoom Time

David Posnett — Sat, 11 Apr 2020 18:32:04 +0000

I am not sure why, but for the first time, each day this past week found me on multiple Zoom conference calls. Each of these was for a different group that I belong to, from my local Southampton Democratic Club to the national grassroots women’s group, SuperMajority. It is as if we all collectively woke up to the reality that this lockdown is going to be a long haul and this is the new normal not just for a few weeks but for a few months.

Like everyone, I am shaky with anxiety over this pandemic, worried that the people I know and love could become a statistic of this disease. I live in the suburbs outside of New York City where we have our own rising cases, though nothing like the five boroughs of the city. I lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for 25 years and my heart is breaking for what I will always consider “my city.” But my worst, chest-tightening moments of panic come when I think of my family members who are nurses on the front lines of this crisis. How can it be that in the United States, a healthcare provider is now taking his or her life in their hands just going to work? Every single one of these heroes deserves more than thanks from a grateful nation, they deserve wartime hazardous duty-pay. In lieu of that, the least this government can do is have their student debt wiped off the books for the job they are doing, risking their lives to save ours. We need to all start a movement to make this a reality. What would be a great hashtag for this mission, #thanksarenotenough?

Two weeks ago my anxiety reached a maximum level when my husband, son and I all came down with a cold. How surreal that the common cold induced frantic days obsessively taking my temperature and sleepless nights of pure dread, kept awake by coughing that I could not determine if it was wet or dry. It was hard to get through to the primary care physician’s office, the line was always busy, but once I did speak to a nurse my question was, “at what point should we worry?” Since there was no fever, chills or shortness of breath, she told me it was probably exactly what it appeared to be, a simple cold, but if any of those three symptoms appeared, to call right back. Call right back, I thought? It took me hours to get through this time when I didn’t have fever, chills and shortness of breath. But each day the cold lessened and by week’s end had passed as colds are wont to do. But this simple cold left a residue of fear in its wake that made me reluctant to even go outside for a socially-distant walk.

So, I have asked myself if in the midst of this once-in-a-century public health and economic crisis, should I take a break from politics, if only to help maintain my sanity? On our Democratic Club call the focus was on how can we reach out and help those in our township who are really suffering because they can no longer afford to buy food. It felt good to be helping out with something that was not political. I also gave up watching my MSNBC line-up at night. I listen to music while riding my exercise bike rather than watching Rachel Maddow. Some nights we watch movies, particularly movies that make us laugh. I still read the newspaper each morning but I skim through a lot and I have tried not reading headlines on my phone all day. It has helped quiet some of the panic.

But even digesting a much lighter diet of news, I cannot escape one undeniable fact, that this crisis, all of it, from the number of infected and dead, to the dire shortage of personal protective equipment for our healthcare providers, to the shuttering of businesses and skyrocketing unemployment, to the food shortages for low-income families, every bit of this trauma the country is now enduring, has been made much worse by the incompetence, selfishness and corruption of the Trump administration. And this inescapable fact sits in the pit of my stomach and emits a rage so white-hot that I can’t ignore it. And because of that, I can’t stop worrying about politics and in particular, the election this fall.

The Washington Post put together a complete accounting of just how much of a mess the Trump administration has made of our preparedness for this crisis. The April 4^th article is entitled “The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged: From the Oval Office to the CDC, political and institutional failures cascaded through the system and opportunities to mitigate the pandemic were lost.” It is a big, investigative deep-dive into the dysfunction. It is gut-wrenching and infuriating but maybe the most important article every single American needs to read.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?arc404=true

On March 30^th the Editorial Board of The Boston Globe, put the blame for this failure of leadership squarely where it belongs. The title of the editorial says it all: “A President Unfit for a Pandemic. Much of the Suffering and Death Coming was Preventable. The President Has Blood on His Hands.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/30/opinion/president-unfit-pandemic/

To quote the editorial: “As the American public braces itself for the worst of this crisis, it’s worth remembering that the reach of the virus here is not attributable to an act of God or a foreign invasion, but a colossal failure of leadership.”

Much like The Washington Post article, the editorial goes through the entire timeline of failure on the part of the Trump administration and ends with the statement, “But come November, there must be a reckoning for the lives lost, and for the vast, avoidable suffering about to ensue under the president’s watch.”

It is this need for a reckoning that mandates we stay focused on politics and keep our eyes on the November election, despite the pandemic that rages around us. When Trump was elected, our outrage sparked the Women’s March and created the anti-Trump Resistance. That movement powered the blue wave in 2018. Despite the fears that now haunt our days and plague our nights, we must not lose sight of what has always been our prime directive, to make sure Trump is a one-term president. Our work in the Resistance was how we channeled our rage then and it must be how we channel our rage now.

But unlike the last three years, we cannot organize and attend rallies, we cannot knock on doors and speak directly to voters, we cannot even be together in a planning meeting or a Happy Hour social event. All last week, on every Zoom call with every organization, we struggled to answer the same question, “How are we going to get the public engaged when we are stuck in our homes?”

In an article on, April 5^th, The New York Times addressed this dilemma from a campaign’s point of view. “With Campaigns in Remote Mode, Pandemic Upends Battle for Congress: As retail campaigning has become all but impossible amid the public health crisis, candidates tread carefully in an uncertain political environment.”

This article did not address the dilemma from the non-candidate point of view, meaning how are we in the grassroots going to function this year if we cannot go outside? The next day, April 6^th, The New York Times corrected that oversight with an article looking at the impact on progressive campaigns and on the grassroots movement from the pandemic. “Progressives Built an Organizing Juggernaut for 2020. Then the Virus Hit: After a disappointing turn in the presidential race, grass-roots progressive groups focused on congressional races and down-ballot campaigns. In weeks, the coronavirus has destroyed their plans.”

To quote from that article: “The grim picture may have a profound political impact for the general election and beyond. Democrats were poised to have an organizing juggernaut ready for the 2020 election, with the goal of both reaching new voters and helping reverse the state and local losses they experienced during President Barack Obama’s years in power. Even more, liberal groups hoped this election cycle would formalize their political infrastructure, so the activism that erupted in response to Mr. Trump’s election could be harnessed going forward. That may still happen, but it will require creative financial and digital solutions, according to interviews with several leaders of progressive political organizations and left-wing candidates running for office in states like New York and Ohio. Optimists have called it a time for political innovation, while others worry the structural barriers could stymie the progressive movement at a critical crossroads.”

The article zeroed in on the bind we are all in. We spent 2017 learning how to get out of our houses and speak in person to voters. Then in 2018 we utilized that knowledge and those skills to propel the largest voter turnout for a midterm election in 40 years. Now we have to learn how we are going to be effective without person-to-person contact.

Below are a few initiatives that are trying to address that need. The first is an app called Outvote that is mentioned in this article. Here is the description on their website: “Outvote is an app that makes it easy to support the causes and campaigns you care about. The goal of the app is to promote voter participation within progressive campaigns. Our larger mission is to build a community of organizers that remain active between election cycles. By partnering with the biggest campaigns, advocacy organizations, and nonprofits, the Outvote community will be able to mobilize around current events, elections, and critical moments in policy formation for social equality and justice.” https://www.outvote.io/

But Outvote seems to be primarily for organizers, a valuable resource but not really a direct conduit to voters. Indivisible has an ongoing project with a direct line to voters that activists can participate in from their homes. It is called VoteFWD and involves writing letters to voters in swing states. Here is the description from the Indivisible website: ‘Want to get out the vote in key states from the comfort of your own home?Indivisible is excited to be partnering this election cycle with VoteFWD. VoteFWD provides activists with names, addresses and a data-driven proven template to write letters to voters in important states. Letter writers will save their letters and send them right before the election so that voters receive them at the perfect, most-strategic moment.”https://indivisible.org/resource/write-letters-voters-votefwd

On my Zoom call with SuperMajority, which joined with Pantsuit Nation, I heard about two projects. The first is called Turnout Tuesday where they are asking their members to call their state Secretaries of State and press them on how they are going to use the federal funds to make sure the vote in November is secure, particularly if they are going to invest in mail-in ballots. The second is text messaging to voters and they have been conducting training seminars to teach members how to do “rapid response textbanking” to alert voters about important issues. https://supermajority.com/

At my local Indivisible group, East End Action Network (EEAN), we were already planning postcard-writing parties, creating and mailing personal postcards to voters in our district, as we did in 2018. This will be a joint project with Indivisible North Fork. These events will begin in July, after the New York primary on June 23^rd when we have a Democratic congressional nominee. While it is certainly more fun to party together (you can read the descriptions of these events in my book, The Resistance and Me, available on Amazon), we can convert this initiative to home-based postcard writing rather than in groups if we are still not able to gather together by the summer. The end goal of getting the postcards out there can still be achieved.

These are all good ideas. But they don’t go far enough. The voter suppression outrage by the GOP in Wisconsin underscores the extreme lengths the Republicans will go to keep people from voting. We are going to need bigger and bolder ideas to take the place of speaking to voters in person if we are going to be able to counter those GOP schemes. Possibly because they are aware of this challenge, Indivisible will be hosting a series of training webinars in April for Indivisible leadership on how to better use the virtual space during this lockdown period. If you are a member of an Indivisible group, someone in your leadership has probably already received an email about signing up. If not, reach out to your Indivisible contact. I tried to find a link for these webinars on their general website and could not find one. I look forward to whatever ideas come out of these webinars and will include them in later blog posts.

I am particularly worried what happens to voter registration. Normally the spring and early summer are key periods to focus on voter registration but how can that be done digitally and from our homes? I have been wondering if it is at all possible to conduct a virtual voter-registration drive and I would love to hear back if anyone has any ideas about this. How can we reach residents in the district who are not registered to vote? Is that even possible? They wouldn’t be in MiniVAN but would there be a way to cross reference residents with voter registration rolls to determine constituents who aren’t registered? We could mail them personal letters including the voter registration form if they cannot register online through the state motor vehicle department. Is there any way at all we could create such a list?

Along with my fear that we are not going to be able to register new voters, is a concern that our digital efforts are not going to reach the Independents and Unaffiliated voters we need to win in November. Maybe we should think about sending postcards right now to these voters with the facts about how the Trump administration has mishandled the pandemic, facts that would break through the fog of misinformation that Trump and his propaganda machine at Fox News are spewing out. These postcards could also have contact information for services that many constituents need during this crisis, such as food banks and how to file for unemployment benefits. And these voters are in MiniVAN. We would have to figure out how to pay for printing the postcards and the postage since these would not be funded by the campaigns.

We know from the midterm election how much time, effort and boots on the ground it took to power the blue wave. It is a process that starts months before with voter registration, educating the public, supporting primary candidates and then getting-out-the-vote. We do not have the luxury of waiting for the crisis to pass, waiting until we are able to knock on voters’ doors, not while Trump and the right-wing media saturate the airwaves with lies about this pandemic while at the same time erecting barriers to voting. If we are going to hold Trump and the GOP accountable in November, we need to act now and to do that we need bigger and bolder ideas of how we are going to reach voters, counter the lies and protect the ability for every American to vote.

By Barbara Weber-Floyd

Author, The Resistance and Me: An Insider’s Account of the Two-Year Mission to Stop the Trump Agenda and Take Back the House

(Available on Amazon and at Canio’s Books, Sag Harbor)

Blog post also on:

https://sites.google.com/view/theresistanceandme

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/10/1936191/-Zoom-Time

Zeldin Ignores Constituents While Endlessly Defending Corrupt President

David Posnett — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 22:15:50 +0000

Letter to the Editor, The East Hampton Star, December 5, 2019

Clue Mr. Zeldin In

To the Editor:

Lee Zeldin has been tweeting up a storm and appearing on cable news with alarming regularity, barely able to conceal his fury about the impeachment inquiry. In fact, he has tweeted several times about “an enraged liberal activist base desperate to take down a sitting president.”

Can someone please clue Mr. Zeldin in that many of these allegedly enraged liberal activists are, in fact, his constituents, and in reality are law-abiding, patriotic citizens who are appalled by the actions of a lawless president? He would know this if he ever held a town hall (which he hasn’t in over two years).

Where was this passion and energy when SALT was being debated? During that time there was barely a peep out of him, and certainly no attempt to rally colleagues to fight it, even though he openly acknowledged it would have dire consequences for Long Island. And it has. Housing prices on the East End have declined because of it, and many households have lost thousands of dollars because of the cap it imposed on state and local tax deductions.

Zeldin richly deserves to be voted out of office. Use your vote to let him know that when we sent him to D.C., it was to represent Congressional District 1, not a corrupt president.

Sincerely,

CAROL DEISTLER

Virginia’s Gerrymandered State House

David Posnett — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 02:55:42 +0000

On November 5th, Virginians go to the polls to vote for their state representatives. After an historic flip of 15 House of Delegate seats in 2017, Democrats are within 2 seats of taking back control of both the state house and the state senate for the first time since Republicans gerrymandered the state in 2011. Because the census and redistricting will occur in 2020 and 2021, and because in May 2019 the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that partisan gerrymandering is legal, the survival of our Democracy depends on Democrats flipping as many state houses as possible between now and November 2020. The People PAC, run by local Long Island activist and Resist and Replace member, Mara Gerstein, is running data-driven, targeted digital advertising in 3 of the closest races in the state: Phil Hernandez in HD 100, Lindsey Dougherty in HD 62, and Karen Mallard in HD 84. Because this is an “off off” year election (with no races at the top of the ticket) more than ever, these races will come down to turn out. The People PAC is laser focused on reaching Democratic leaning voters who are at-risk of not voting. Please give what you can to support their efforts and do your part to help FLIP VIRGINIA BLUE!

Donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/virginia19

More about the candidates and ad examples:

Phil Hernandez (HD100): https://vimeo.com/364831652 — Phil was born on the Eastern Shore, raised by a mom who used every trick in the book to get by and get the best for her kids. Aside from running a childcare business out of her living room to make ends meet, she also took them to all the restaurants where kids ate free. Because of her dedication and support, Phil was able to excel in school, and that was his ticket. He eventually became an environmental policy expert in the Obama administration, where he worked with people all over the country and from both parties to encourage clean energy jobs. Eventually, he realized that he could best be of service to the district where he was raised, and would be proud to serve the 100th.

Karen Mallard (HD84): https://vimeo.com/364831013 — In a district that cares deeply about education, Karen has been a dedicated teacher for more than 21 years. In fact, when she graduated from a teaching school, her retired coalminer dad said “Hey, maybe I can be your first student.” So, from the start, she saw what the impact of education could be not just on individuals, but entire families. She grew up poor, a daughter of hardworking parents, and understood how resources are allocated differently for folks who are already underresourced. She also experienced how education can pull you out of any circumstance, and became an educator herself out of that knowledge and passion to give back. But she kept running into all kinds of policy issues that were inhibiting the education of her students and realized that she needed to run for office to overcome those obstacles.

Lindsey Dougherty (HD62): https://vimeo.com/364831337 — Lindsey was driven in large part to run for office by struggling with insurance companies over the treatment of her child, who was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. Instead of focusing on all the things a family should be focusing on when a child is ill, she instead spent countless hours arguing with insurance companies over whether her child’s treatments were covered. She realized that there were lots of families like hers and that it was the larger system that needed changing. Now she’s a tireless campaigner and has knocked on more doors than almost anyone in the state.

Mara Gerstein
Executive Director
The People

www.thepeoplePAC.org

The Truth About Lee Zeldin’s Record

David Posnett — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 14:37:35 +0000

October 1, 2018 by Jacquelyn Gavron and Amy Turner

You deserve the facts about your representative, but you won’t get them from Lee Zeldin. Here’s the truth about his record.

OPPOSES GUN SAFETY

After Parkland, Zeldin said, “This tragedy could have and should’ve been prevented.” But he voted against bills to prevent them—background checks and assault rifle ban.
Zeldin’s received $61,181 from the NRA, more than any NY rep. No wonder he co-sponsored its pet “concealed carry” act overriding our laws and letting out-of-state guns flow into NY.
Zeldin voted against a bill banning firearms in airports and prohibiting terrorists on the FBI’s no-fly list to buy guns in the U.S.

ANTI-LGBTQ

Zeldin voted against preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity
Said he believes marriage is between a man and a woman and voted against the Marriage Equality Act of New York
Supported Trump’s rescinding Obama’s rule on transgender bathroom use and all but said he supported Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military.

DISHONORS VETERANS

Zeldin’s vote to repeal the ACA would leave 340,000 veterans covered by the Medicaid expansion without any health care coverage.
Did little to address equipment and infrastructure issues at Northport VA Medical Center, which serves approximately 30,000 of the 130,000 veterans on L.I.
Zeldin received $20,000 from Koch Industries, which has been funding VA privatization PACS including Concerned Veterans for America.

ETHICAL LAPSES

Zeldin was sworn in to the House on Jan. 6, 2015. That same day, he voted to limit the power of the House and Senate ethics committees to investigate members.
Zeldin repeatedly voted against investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election–
Although use of private jets for routine travel violates federal rules, Zeldin voted against protecting whistleblowers who disclose on improper use of aircrafts by government officials.

ANTI-IMMIGRATION

Supported Trump’s repeal of the DACA, or Dream Act, which protected from deportation those brought to the U.S. as children
Defended Trump’s comment about immigrants from “shithole countries” and voted to require state/local governments to comply with ICE requests to detain undocumented immigrants
Voted to block federal funding for states and localities with “sanctuary” laws on immigration.

10 REASONS WOMEN MUST #FlipThe1st!

David Posnett — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 14:25:08 +0000

Issue #2: August, 2018 by Jacquelyn Gavron and Amy Turner

Lee Zeldin repeatedly votes for laws that jeopardize the health and financial wellbeing of 55% of his constituents: the 310,000 females in New York’s 1st Congressional District. Women in NY01 deserve a representative who understands that when women succeed, families and communities do too. Here’s Zeldin’s voting record, which speaks for itself.

#1 “FEMALE” IS NOT A PRE-EXISTING CONDITION

Zeldin and the GOP-controlled house voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and replace it with the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Had it passed, 61,951 people in NY01 would have lost their health care (ACASignups.net). And insurance companies would be allowed to charge women more than men and refuse to cover:

Essential services—pregnancy, maternity and newborn care
Pre-existing conditions —pregnancy, C-sections, celiac disease, hysterectomies, eating disorders, and treatment for domestic violence and sexual assault
Preventive services—mammograms, screenings for cervical cancer, osteoporosis, anemia, gestational diabetes and preeclampsia; and breastfeeding support and supplies.

Did you know. . . Zeldin has received a whopping $267,975 in contributions from insurance companies since 2014. (OpenSecrets.org).

#2 WOMEN DESERVE EQUAL PAY

In Suffolk County, women earn $51,014 for a job that pays men $65,326—$14,312 less. (labor.ny.gov). Don’t expect Zeldin to help. He’s repeatedly undermined equal pay protection by:

Voting to block Congress from considering the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill to end the pay gap and protect workers from retaliation for sharing info on their wages. (H.R. 1619, 2015)
Voting to make it extremely difficult for women seeking equal pay to bring a class action lawsuit against their employers. (HR 1927, 2016).

#3 LET WOMEN CONTROL THEIR OWN BODIES

Zeldin voted for a bill to ban abortion at 20 weeks (directly challenging Roe v. Wade), which was opposed by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as a serious threat to women’s health and not based on sound science. Zeldin has supported:

Amending the constitution to ban abortion except to save life of mother
A nationwide ban on private insurance coverage of abortion
Federal legislation allowing parents to prevent their daughters from receiving abortions
Requiring rape victims to wait 48 hours before obtaining an abortion
Barring the government from distributing emergency contraceptives

#4 GUN VIOLENCE IS A WOMAN’S ISSUE

Zeldin co-sponsored the federally mandated concealed carry bill, which would override New York’s strict gun laws and let gun owners with a history of violence against women roam our neighborhoods with a hidden, loaded gun. Most people don’t know the hidden toll guns take on women:

50 women a month are shot to death by a current or former partner
4.5 million American women have been threatened with guns, often by intimate partners, so they live in fear for themselves and their children for days, months and even years.
U.S. women are 16x more likely to be killed with a gun than in other high-income countries.

#5 WE NEED PAID FAMILY LEAVE

Most workers are covered by the Family Medical Leave Act, which lets you take up to 12 weeks of leave a year to care for family members. But for most people, that leave is unpaid. The GOP solution? Take a “loan” from Social Security and delay receipt of your retirement income.

#6 SOCIAL SECURITY: ON THE CUTTING BLOCK

The GOP tax scam gives huge tax cuts to the wealthy and large corporations that add $2 trillion to the national debt. They’re using this as an excuse to slash Social Security—it’s especially important to women as they earn less, take more time out of the workforce, live longer, save less and get smaller pensions.

In NY01, 150,262 people receive Social Security. Zeldin said he’d “continue to support legislation that protects and supports Social Security and Medicare” (letter, 6/2017) but he:

Voted YES to a constitutional amendment that would allow Social Security to pay beneficiaries only if a federal budget surplus could offset them. (HJ Res.2, 4/12/18)
Voted to block the transfer of tax revenue to keep the Disability Insurance afloat—unless it was part of a larger plan to cut benefits or tax increases. (HRes 5, 1/6/15; Politico).

#7 GOP GUNNING FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID

In New York, nearly 2 million women rely on Medicare for their health insurance. Zeldin voted for a budget resolution (H.Con.Res 71, 10-15-17) that would pay for Trump’s huge tax cuts by:

Slashing Medicare by $487 billion
Increasing the age at which you can apply for Medicare from 65 to 67 nscpssm.org

More women than men are covered by Medicaid as they often work in lower paying jobs, and many work for small businesses that don’t offer health insurance. But Zeldin voted to take way the Medicaid option. And Trump recently gave the go-ahead for states to take away Medicaid from people who aren’t working a minimum number of hours a month. This disproportionally hurts women because they:

Often work in low-wage jobs with inconsistent hours that may not meet the requirements.
Typically care for children or other family members and aren’t in the paid workforce

#8 UN-AFFORDABLE CHILD CARE

Trump’s tax scam doubled the maximum child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000—“but the parents of about 29 million kids won’t get the credit because their families earn too little.” (TPC.org).

#9 PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Zeldin has repeatedly voted to defund Planned Parenthood. Perhaps he doesn’t understand that Planned Parenthood provides a wide range of health care services to 2.4 million clients, including, prenatal care, breast exams, PAP smears, vasectomies, HIV and STD testing and treatment, and sex education.

#10 WOMEN DESERVE A REP WHO VALUES WOMEN

In January 2017, thousands of Zeldin’s constituents showed up at women’s marches in D.C., NYC, Port Jeff, Sag Harbor and other places to advocate for women’s rights. But rather than acknowledge their concerns, Zeldin questioned their sanity, suggesting that some of his constituents might hold views that are “off the reservation” and using his 37th birthday two weeks later as an occasion to express his “love” for “even those Hillary supporters who have lost [their] beautiful minds since the election.”