Elections and Campaigns - LA Progressive

Brent Budowsky: Don’t laugh. Ted Cruz is apparently thinking of bringing his ability to outrage a majority of voters and alienate a majority of his Senate Republican colleagues to a campaign to be commander in chief.

Don’t Vent, Organize — And “Primary” a Democrat Near You

By Norman Solomon

Norman Solomon: If there’s a defining issue that now separates the Obama party leadership from social decency, it is the president’s push to cut Social Security benefits.

Prop C: Battling Big Money in Politics

By David Burke

David Burke: By voting yes on Proposition C, we can make it clear that individuals should be at the center of the electoral process and that corporate speech does not deserve the same level of protection as individual speech.

Coach McConnell’s Special Chicken Salad

Berry Craig: Reporters would do well to skip the chicken salad and start asking, Where’s the beef? The main course should be about McConnell’s politics of slime and smear, not how the tape recording whodunit.

How Small Town Elections Keep Imbalance in Place

By Steve Hochstadt

Steve Hochstadt: The raw materials for a first-class educational system in Jacksonville are still here. A School Board which ignores half the city won’t be able to take advantage of them.

Mitch McConnell’s ‘Whack-a-Mole’ Dirty Politics Campaign

By Walter M. Brasch

Walter Brasch: Bound in a political black hole from which truth never escapes, McConnell and his staff launched a “scorch-earth” attack to divert the public from the facts on the leaked tape was the far greater sin than what was said.

Democratic Convergence: Hillary ’16, Obama ’14

Brent Budowsky: If a Democratic House and Senate are elected in 2014, it would re-empower Obama for one of the strongest closing two years of an eight-year presidency in modern history, which could avoid lame-duck status almost entirely with what historians would ultimately describe as “Obama’s third term.”

The Poll Tax Returns with Virginia’s Voter ID Law

Victoria Defrancesco Soto: The right to a free and fair vote is in danger. At the state level, most recently in Virginia, we see the enactment of a poll tax. And perhaps more seriously, at the federal level there may no longer be a mechanism to prevent voting from once again becoming a taxable good.

Ashley Judd: Kentucky’s Joan of Arc?

Berry Craig: If movie star Ashley Judd runs for the senate in Kentucky she’ll likely find friends among Bluegrass State voters who pack union cards.

George P. Bush Preps for 2038

Victoria Defrancesco Soto: At the national level there is much discussion of Bush fatigue. With talk of P./47’s father, Jeb Bush, jumping in the race, the question is whether enough time has passed for Americans to forget about the foreign and domestic failures of George W. Bush.

‘There Is No Alternative to Ashley Judd Right Now’

Berry Craig: It’s hard to tell who is more worried that Ashley Judd will run against Mitch McConnell next year – Kentucky ’s senior senator himself or some Democratic Party bigwigs.

Voting Rights: Americans Died for It, the Free World Admires It, the Supreme Court Should Preserve It

Brent Budowsky: It would be an historic mistake and profound legal wrong for an unelected court to again interfere in American elections, after many highly controversial political decisions by party-line votes from a hyper-political, hyper-activist court in which the foundations of our two elected branches are dominated by our one unelected branch.

New Poll: Immigration Policy Stance Directly Tied to Winning the Latino Vote

By Matt Barreto

Matt Barreto: A substantial percent of partisans are willing to vote across party lines for an opposing party if that party support comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship – 32% of Republicans will crossover as will 43% of Democrats.

LA Mayoral Race Reflects New America

Victoria Defrancesco Soto: Voters and candidates fall into neat categorizations as being Latino, Black, White, Evangelical, Jewish, etc. But as next week’s mayoral race in Los Angeles shows, politics has gone outside the box.

Mustering a Million Against Mitch

Berry Craig: Mitch McConnell is anti-worker and anti-union and we need political leaders in Kentucky who are here for us. Unions work well for Kentucky but Mitch McConnell doesn’t work well for unions.

Seeking True Representation

By Steve Hochstadt

Steve Hochstadt: Ward-based elections for School Board members would insure that each part of the city is represented. Campaigns in single wards are much cheaper to run, and elections would be determined by candidates who know each ward.

Recent War Vet Runs for South Gate City Council

By admin

Mayor Bill De Witt and Vice Mayor Gilbert Hurtado are facing a challenge from Ricardo Reyes, a political coordinator for Service Employees International Union United Long Term Care Workers Union

Desiline Victor and Black History Month

By Joseph Palermo

Joseph Palermo: Desiline Victor’s travails in trying to vote last November bring to mind Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964 when white vigilantes tortured and killed Micky Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney who had volunteered to register black voters.

What’s Behind NOW’s Endorsement of Eric Garcetti?

By Sharon Kyle

Sharon Kyle: I wanted to know why a women’s organization would endorse a male candidate when there were two women in the race so I called Patty Bellasalma, the president of the California Chapter of NOW

Making the Electoral College Even More Undemocratic

By John Peeler

John Peeler: hese proposals are so blatantly discriminatory that even courts that have been tolerant of redistricting manipulation will have to take notice.

Hillary Turns Texas Blue

Brent Budowsky: If Hillary Clinton runs for president, she will have a fighting chance of carrying Texas, which shares revolutionary demographic trends rewriting the rules of politics, and of creating opportunities for Democrats to regain control of the House and achieve a national realignment of Rooseveltian magnitude.

Write the Wrongs: Republicans and Democrats Unite for Former Governor Don Siegelman’s Clemency

By admin

Ilene Proctor: Don Siegelman was once touted as a candidate for the 2004 presidential race then the Bush Administration indicted him

Casino Mogul Doubles Down Against Unions

By Steve Mikulan

Steven Mijulan: Sheldon Adelson, the gnomish, ginger-haired casino magnate who threw more than $150 million after Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and other candidates in 2012, let it be known to the house organ of the One Percent that he plans to double the amount he spent in 2012 in upcoming elections.

The Republican Party and the Holy Grail

By Robert Illes

Robert Illes: Now, the day after their mighty and sweeping fail, these once fearsome and forever disgusting sociopaths elicited no fear. The junk yard dog has lost his teeth.

Gazing Toward 2016: Bobby Jindal Just Won’t Shut Up

By Tom Gasparoli

Tom Gasparoli: Bobby Jindal is, as some people around Boston say, “wicked” ambitious. So ambitious that he’s been willing in recent weeks to slap his own Republican party silly, if it will help him with his wicked ambition for the White House in 2016.

Rubio’s Hat Goes into the Ring

Victoria Defrancesco Soto: Rubio’s Tea Party relations put him in a particularly tough spot since if the GOP moderates over the next couple of years he will have that undeniable linkage.

Hillary: The Next FDR