Democrats to debate Thursday

UNION COUNTY — The candidates running for the Democratic nomination for three seats on the Union County Council will debate the issues Thursday evening at USC Union.

In a statement released this week, Union County Democratic Chair Ann Stevens announced that the debate will be held in the USC Union Auditorium at 7 p.m. with USC Union Professor Randy Ivey serving as moderator.

Stevens said the candidates taking part in the debate will be those running in the contested races for the Democratic nomination for three county council seats in the party’s June 14 primary. She said the candidates running in the primary and the districts they are running in are:

• District 2 — Incumbent Ralph Tucker and challengers John Glenn and James R. Rice.

• District 3 — Incumbent Tommy Ford and challenger Howard “Wahoo” Gibson.

• District 5 — Incumbent Randall “Chump” Hanvey and challenger Tommie L. Hill. For the full article click here 

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Indiana Democratic Party 4-30-16 Weekly Radio Address Podcast

Chairman John Zody and the Indiana Democratic Party 4-30-16 weekly radio address podcast: “Simply put, Mike Pence and Ted Cruz may campaign on an out-of-touch, divisive message, but Mike Pence has actually put it into practice.”

This is Chairman John Zody, bringing you the weekly podcast for the Indiana Democratic Party.
Well, it’s clear that Mike Pence’s discriminatory policies continue to damage Indiana’s economy by driving economic opportunities away from our state.

On Wednesday the NCAA – which is headquartered in Indianapolis – announced the organization will no longer hold its coveted Final Four basketball tournament in states that do not have anti-discrimination policies – and this of course includes Indiana.

Indianapolis is scheduled to hold its next Final Four in 2021 – and now because Mike Pence refused to act and push for a bill to provide protections for LGBT Hoosiers – Indiana is at risk of losing an estimated $71 million economic impact to its economy. For the full article click here 

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Sorry Bros, But Bernie Doesn’t Have a Chance in California

California is, as Sen. Bernie Sanders might say, huge.

Nearly one-fifth of the total delegates needed for the Democratic presidential nomination are up for grabs here. The number of pledged delegates alone for the blue party here is 475.

While late-in-the-game timing has made the Golden State irrelevant in past presidential elections, this June things could be a little more exciting even as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump take their seats as the self-appointed nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively.

Support for Sanders among young Californians is devotional. But at this point in the game, he really doesn’t have a chance.  For the full article click here 

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Former Alabama Democratic Gov. Siegelman in solitary confinement again, son says

Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman — in prison on corruption charges and who got major support earlier this month for a White House pardon — was put in solitary confinement Monday, his son says.

Siegelman, the state’s last Democratic governor, was transferred to solitary confinement after The Washington Post published a story in which he talked extensively about the Supreme Court this week reviewing former Virginia GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell’s 2014 conviction on public corruption, says son Joseph Siegelman.

Siegelman, also his father’s attorney, suggests the timing of the transferred to solitary confinement is suspicious.

Bureau of Prison officials would not confirm the transfer but said there was no connection.

“The allegation that Mr. Siegelman was punished for talking to a reporter is false,” said a bureau spokesman, who declined to elaborate, citing confidentiality concerns regarding disciplinary matters. For the full article click here 

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Clinton, Sanders camps to speak at state Democratic event

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Democrats will be hearing from the campaigns of presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton at a large party event.

Representatives from both campaigns will speak at Saturday’s McGovern Day 2016 in Sioux Falls.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio will speak for the Clinton campaign. Actress and comedian Charlyne Yi will represent the Sanders camp.

South Dakota’s primary election is set to be held in June. For the full article click here 

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Republican Party’s popularity drops to 24-year low

Republican officials aren’t at all pleased with the prevailing political winds, or the likelihood of Donald Trump becoming the party’s presidential nominee. But they have at least one thing going for them: they have time to put together a plan to mitigate their losses.

With that in mind, the New York Times reports today that GOP incumbents and candidates are shifting their focus to “ticket-splitting voters” who have no qualms about dividing up their election ballot, supporting Democratic and Republican candidates at the same time. The thinking, obviously, is predicated on the notion that at least some of the electorate might reject Trump at the top of the ballot, while also supporting GOP hopefuls down-ballot.  And while Republicans may not have any other choice but to pursue such a strategy, their challenge is exacerbated by the GOP plunging support. As Rachel noted on the show last night, the Pew Research Center published astriking new report yesterday For the full article click here 

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A Sanders Comeback Would Be Unprecedented

Dear democratic socialists, political revolutionaries, Bern-feelers at large: We need to have a talk.

Let me begin by saying that I bear no ill will towards Mr. Sanders. Nothing that follows should be misconstrued as an attack on his policies, his track record, his electability in November or his character. I’m not a corporate media crony, or a plant from a pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC. I’m just a guy who believes in the predictive power of cold, hard data.

And the unsexy truth is that, barring some catastrophic news event, Sanders will not win the Democratic nomination for president in 2016. In fact, most past candidates in Sanders’s position dropped out long before this point in the race, and those who stayed in made little pretense of winning. (The Sanders campaign, which announced Wednesday it was laying off a ton of staff, may be recognizing this.)

Historically speaking, Democratic primary races do not have many twists and turns. Rather, the eventual winner tends to take an early lead — on or before Super Tuesday — and stay there. Runner-ups can kick for a while, but they tend to concede the race by February or early March. For the full article click here 

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Texas Democratic Party chairman visits Amarillo

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa made a stop in Amarillo on Wednesday to visit Potter and Randall County Democrats.

Hinojosa talked about the minimum wage issue, noting that the Republican party refuses to increase hourly pay in Texas.

“They think it’s alright for one-quarter or more of the workers in the state of Texas to earn what is less than a living wage, and refuse to take action on it,” he said.

Hinojosa praised Obamacare for the ability to provide health care for those who did not have access to it in the past. “It has given them (Americans) the freedom to be healthy,” he said. “I think that’s a basic, human right.”

Discussing what it means to be a member of the Democratic Party, Hinojosa said, “We understand what’s important for Texas. We fight for what is good for all of our citizens, we are not selfish, and we understand what ‘liberty and justice for all’ means.” For the full article click here 

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Sanders Outlines His List of Democratic Party Reforms

WASHINGTON: Democratic Party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders shared a specific list of changes he would like the party to make.

Sanders on Thursday declared that he wants to see the Democratic Party pursue a 50-state strategy, open primaries in every state, and automatic voter registration for everyone starting at age 18, Politico reported.

“I want to see this country have one of the highest turnout rates in the world, not one of the lowest, and that is why, in my view, the Democratic Party has got to make very clear we need automatic voter registration. All over this country we have Republican governors trying to make it harder for people to vote. Our job is make it easier. Bring more people into the system and that means if you are 18 years of age you are registered to vote, end of discussion,” Sanders said.

The Vermont senator went on to also call for the Democratic Party to push for same-day registration and open primaries.

Sanders said the party needs to focus on a 50-state strategy, instead of trying to win on friendly terrain. For the full article click here 

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If Democrats Used Winner-Take-All Rules, We’d Be Looking At A Drastically Different Race

Barring any unprecedented developments from left field, Hillary Clinton will become the Democratic nominee. She leads Bernie Sanders by almost 300 pledged delegates, and for him to come back from a deficit this big would be an historical first. But how much of this is because of Democrats’ delegate allocation rules, which are proportional across the board? What would the race look like if Democrats used winner-take-all rules, like some Republican states do?

Answering this question is a herculean task. Every state has different delegate rules, and many of them depend on the results in individual congressional district. Some states, like Florida and Ohio, are winner-take-all. Some are winner-take-most, others are proportional, and a few states don’t even bind their delegates at all.

Thankfully, Daniel Nichanian at FiveThirtyEight has done this yeoman’s work, re-allocating the delegates that have been awarded in the Democratic primary in accordance with the Republican Party’s delegate rules. Nichanian found that, if Democrats adopted the Republican system of delegate allocation, Clinton’s lead over Sanders would triple. For the full article click here 

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