Tag Archives: Wisconsin

4/14 Jill Karofsky’s Win In WISCt Was Powered by Progressives & Moderates; More about the Path of the Biden Endorsement; Morning OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Looks like Ms. Karofsky got a lot of Dem and some indie support to bolster her to victory over incumbent Justice Daniel Kelley. Great story is emerging from this set of tweets by Ben Wikler, the WI Dem Party Chairman

Yet these same voters couldn’t vote for Bernie. I digress.

Alright, more about election day results for Karofsky:

Good for Wisconsin. Hopefully the SCOW will better serve the needs of all people, not just the corporate interests.

The communications between Sanders and Biden camps indicate engagement as teams are forming to discuss issues and strategies. The NYT has some more superficial but still interesting reporting on the relationship-building transition process of the two entities.

That news of the endorsement did not leak beforehand was another signal of the growing unity between the campaigns. Only a small group of people on each campaign knew it was happening, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Ms. Warren and Mr. Biden have also spoken multiple times since her exit about policy issues, including the plan that Mr. Biden has developed to respond to the pandemic. At the staff level, Ms. Warren’s chief campaign strategist, Joe Rospars, and Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to Mr. Biden, have been engaged in talks bridging the two camps.

Ms. Dunn, along with Ron Klain, another longtime Biden adviser, played a central role in negotiations with the Sanders camp in recent weeks, while a top Sanders political adviser, Jeff Weaver, and campaign manager Faiz Shakir, represented the Vermont senator.

The scene on Monday was a striking example of the ways the coronavirus has upended traditional campaigning. In normal times, both men most likely would have appeared onstage together at a rally — or at least done so at an event with more pomp. Instead, they appeared at their homes, as they have been doing for weeks.
When Mr. Sanders officially declared his endorsement, Mr. Biden seemed visibly moved. “Oh!” Mr. Biden said, before dropping his head as if he hardly saw it coming.

The two men said they would form “task forces” on issues including the economy, education, immigration, health care, criminal justice and climate change. Mr. Biden’s campaign said that the groups would include “policy experts and leaders that represent the diverse viewpoints of the Democratic Party,” and promised updates on the groups’ progress.

Two senior Biden advisers, Cristóbal Alex and Symone D. Sanders, who both have relationships in the progressive sphere, have been reaching out to leading liberal organizations, including groups that focus on immigrants’ rights and on climate. And Representative Cedric Richmond, Mr. Biden’s campaign co-chairman, has spoken with his counterpart on the Sanders campaign, Representative Ro Khanna, about the need to unite the party.

Still, Mr. Sanders’s endorsement surprised many of the progressive grass-roots groups that had endorsed his candidacy and that are struggling with the prospect of the more moderate Mr. Biden becoming the nominee. Some worried that it undercut the leverage Mr. Sanders might have to persuade Mr. Biden to make policy concessions.

“We want those task forces to be given real power in the campaign and in the party apparatus,” Mr. Weber, of the Sunrise Movement, said. “Not just gestures but real commitments.”

It is unclear how much sway Mr. Sanders would have over Mr. Biden’s campaign decisions, including his potential cabinet or vice-presidential selections. In a Friday interview with PBS NewsHour, Mr. Sanders acknowledged a preference for Mr. Biden to pick a more progressive running mate but said he had not weighed in on the choice.

“Joe is going to have to make that decision himself,” Mr. Sanders said.

Throughout the campaign, Mr. Sanders had often referred to Mr. Biden as his “friend” and the two men have a personal relationship that has remained intact. Even as the field dwindled, Mr. Sanders was reluctant to attack Mr. Biden directly and largely did so only for a brief spell near the end of his campaign that included the last debate — and only on policy.

That comity was on display Monday in an appearance that at times resembled a slapdash buddy skit, with levity that offered a brief respite from the seriousness of a national health crisis. The two men seemed to delight in talking to each other — bantering away on subjects that generally sounded as if they had been cleared with campaign aides.

“Do you have any questions for me, Bernie?” Mr. Biden said.

“I did, Joe,” he said. Both gushed their effusive praise.

Near the end, when Mr. Biden asked Mr. Sanders if there was anything else he wanted to do, Mr. Sanders quipped that they should “play some chess.”

“I’d like to play chess!” Mr. Biden said.

But Mr. Sanders was out of moves.

As Mr. Biden’s live stream drew to a close, a message popped up on his one-time rival’s video screen: “You are muted by host.”

The same article says that Warren is supposed to endorse sometime soon.

More news in the comments.

Wisconsin Primary Results, BlueMAGA, and Evening OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

It’s early so far, but it appears to be looking as bleak as we thought it would.

(credit: Politico)

Good news: looks like a Dem won the State SCOW race:

I feel like I got some kind of head cold but actually I’m fine. This whole election is far crazier than 2016 or 2008.

More tweets, news, videos in the comments.

3/23 Judge Orders WI governance keys to be Returned to Tony Evers & More: OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

That’s the one silver lining I have seen in some choppy jetstreams caused by COVID-19.

There’s a petition to Crooked Ron to declare a shutdown. Thousands of NYers are flying to the orange groves and coasts.

Actually, tHere’s another silver lining:
Bernie Sanders Has Already Won the Heart & Soul of America

No one took him seriously as a contender. Not the media, not the pundits, not the other party insiders.

When the race began, he was polling in the single-digits.

According to popular opinion at the time, he was a political Mr. Nobody that no one believed could change his polling numbers, much less the entire U.S. political discourse.

What everyone didn’t know was that Bernie Sanders was a sleeping giant, and that giant was about to resonate deeply with America’s youth and disillusioned mass of apathetic voters who were waiting for someone to take a stand against America’s entrenched, wealthy elite.

By the end of that race, he had awoken a movement that rocketed him to a second-place position in the Democratic primaries and that would continue to remain with him regardless of whether or not he won the nomination.

Fast-forward to 2020, and it’s clear that, after all this time, the progressive movement has proven that it will soldier on, with or without a Sanders presidency.

Bernie’s policies — most notably Medicare for All — enjoy widespread, popular support among the public. This is largely due to an army of grassroots volunteers that have done a great job raising awareness about the need for such policies among America’s rank-and-file voters.

With coronavirus prevention measures in full effect across the nation, more people are beginning to pay attention to the deficiencies in our healthcare system — and the people who want to do something about it.

A battle of political fisticuffs is sure to erupt in Washington over how to handle the public health crisis now facing the nation, and how best to prepare for it’s short and long-term economic impacts.

Sanders has made it demonstrably clear that he intends to remain true to his decades-long commitment to fight for the average, ordinary, working American during this crisis.

And his movement is right there with him.

Even amidst a pandemic, his campaign continues to raise money to help those most disadvantaged by COVID-19 and volunteers are offering their time to make Solidarity Calls, which urge people to get behind Bernie’s proposed relief legislation — a $2 trillion public bailout that would put $2,000/month into the bank accounts of America’s working-class citizens.

More analysis summaries, tweets, videos, and jibber jabber in the comments.

2/23 News Roundup & OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

How Sweet It is!

Bernie Sanders surges to the lead among Wisconsin Democratic voters in new statewide poll

ermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has opened a commanding lead over his rivals in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary race after strong performances in early-voting states, according to a new statewide poll.

The Wisconsin poll, coordinated by the UW-Madison Elections Research Center in collaboration with the Wisconsin State Journal, also shows a precipitous decline in support for former Vice President Joe Biden and an upswing for the newcomer to the race, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Sanders, who won the state’s 2016 presidential primary, was the top choice for 30% of registered voters intending to vote in the Democratic primary on April 7. The five other top Democratic contenders besides Sanders find themselves scrabbling for second place with between 9% and 13% support.

“Bernie Sanders is clearly the leader among Democrats,” said UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden, who has developed a new battleground state polling project in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania through his Elections Research Center. “He has a pretty commanding position.”

Despite Sanders’ position in the primary, he doesn’t fare much better in the general election than the other Democratic contenders, who each have slight leads over President Donald Trump in a hypothetical match-up, but all within the poll’s margin of error.

“In the general, who the nominee is didn’t do much to change what voters’ likely intentions were,” Burden said.

Sanders also leads among Democratic primary voters in Michigan and Pennsylvania, but by smaller margins, the poll found.

The poll was conducted Feb. 11-20 by YouGov, which has also done polls for CBS News, The Economist and other news outlets.

The opt-in online poll includes 1,000 registered voters in Wisconsin, 1,300 in Michigan and 1,300 in Pennsylvania. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.1, 3.4 and 3.2 percentage points, respectively. For the Democratic primary voter sample in Wisconsin the margin of error is plus or minus 6 percentage points. The sample was selected and weighted to reflect the adult population in each state based on gender, age, race and education.

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