October 1, 2018

FL-GOV: Andrew Gillum packs house in, um, Palatka?

Andrew Gillum says he continues to find love in the strangest of places.

On Sunday, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate packed an auditorium in Palataka, a town of 10,000 in a county where Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won by 36 percentage points.

“This enthusiasm and energy for Mayor Gillum and his message of fighting for all Floridians is historic,” said Gillum communications director Johanna Cervone.

“Today’s event in Palatka is another example of this campaign’s momentum and a reminder that Floridians are ready to elect a leader who will put Florida first. We’ll continue to bring this message to every corner of the state for the next 38 days because the only poll that matters is on Election Day.”

Of course, Gillum in his kickoff speech in Orlando earlier this month shared a story of going to The Villages and finding a larger-than-expected crowd of 500 supporters showed up. That event, he said, turned from a small meet-and-greet to a small-donation fundraiser raking in more than $6,000 in an afternoon—all in one of the strongest GOP strongholds in Florida.

The Democrat also found polling accolades from odd parties as well. The Florida Chamber of Commerce, which this week endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, just made public a poll showing Gillum with a 6-point lead in the contest.


http://floridapolitics.com/archives/276190-andrew-gillum-packs-house-in-um-palatka

October 1, 2018

5 local ballot measures face San Francisco voters in November

Proposition A: Also known as the Embarcadero Seawall Earthquake Safety Bond, Prop. A asks voters if they want the city to issue $425 million in bond debt to pay for major repairs and upgrades to the crumbling Embarcadero seawall. The seawall underpins and protects an estimated $100 billion in property and infrastructure that would be at risk in a major earthquake.

Proposition B: The Privacy First Policy, sponsored by Supervisor Aaron Peskin, lays out a number of personal-data-protection protocols that businesses would have to abide by to get a permit from the city or do business with it. Under the policy, businesses would have to agree to, among other things, allowing individuals to access the personal information about them that companies collect.

Proposition C: Known as the Our City, Our Home initiative, the measure would levy an average of about 0.5 percent in gross receipts tax on corporate revenues above $50 million. The estimated $300 million raised would be used to fund homelessness services, primarily programs that help people access permanent, supportive housing.

Proposition D: Sponsored by Supervisor Malia Cohen, the measure would place a gross receipts tax on cannabis businesses. The money collected from the tax would go into the general fund. The tax would kick in beginning in 2021. For retail cannabis shops, the tax would be 2.5 percent on the first $1 million in revenue and 5 percent on revenues above $1 million. Non-retail cannabis businesses would be taxed 1 percent on revenues up to $1 million and 1.5 percent on gross receipts above $1 million.

Proposition E: Sponsored by Supervisor Katy Tang, the measure would reallocate about $32 million generated by the existing hotel tax to arts and cultural organizations and projects in the city. The city already levies a 14 percent tax on hotel rentals, the proceeds from which are deposited into the general fund. Tang’s proposal would direct a portion of those proceeds to the arts and to cultural initiatives.



https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SF-s-ballot-measures-get-their-letters-so-13153177.php

October 1, 2018

California Republicans abandon gas tax repeal as a wedge issue

Top Republicans in California appear to be shifting resources away from an issue they hoped would lure voters to the polls in November: repealing the gas tax.

After contributing $1.7 million to put a repeal initiative on the November ballot, Republican congressional leaders and GOP gubernatorial candidate John Cox are now conspicuously absent from the list of donors spending money to help convince Californians to pass the measure.

Construction firms, organized labor and Democrats have raised more than $30 million to defeat Proposition 6, while the main campaign committee in favor of the measure had just $83,291 in the bank as of Sept. 22, according to campaign finance statements made public Thursday.

The opposition campaign includes the California Chamber of Commerce, the League of California Cities and dozens of deep-pocketed construction firms and labor unions that would benefit from the tax’s billions targeted to road and bridge repair projects.



http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-gas-tax-repeal-campaign-cash-20180930-story.html

October 1, 2018

Dad is filling out his Michigan absentee ballot as I type.

One more vote for Gretechen Whitmer, the Democratic ticket and political reforms.

October 1, 2018

DEVIN NUNES'S FAMILY FARM IS HIDING A POLITICALLY EXPLOSIVE SECRET

Nunes grew up in a family of dairy farmers in Tulare, California, and as long as he has been in politics, his family dairy has been central to his identity and a feature of every major political profile written about him. A March story in National Review is emblematic. It describes how Nunes’s family emigrated from the Azores in Portugal to California’s Central Valley, “a fertile, sunny Eden,” and how the family “worked and saved enough money to buy a 640-acre farm outside Tulare.” The soil of the Central Valley is depicted as almost sacred in these articles. National Review quotes a 1912 Portuguese immigrant farmer who wrote that when he grabs a clump of dirt, “I feel as if I had just shaken hands with all my ancestors.” As recently as July 27, the lead of a Wall Street Journal editorial-page piece about Nunes, which featured a Tulare dateline, emphasized the dairy: “It’s 105 degrees as I stand with Rep. Devin Nunes on his family’s dairy farm.” Last year, Nunes noted in an interview with the Daily Beast—headline: “The Dairy Farmer Overseeing U.?S. Spies and the Russia Hack Investigation”—“I’m pretty simple. I like agriculture.” The Daily Beast noted, “The cows are not far from his mind. He keeps in regular contact with his brother and father about their dairy farm.”

So here’s the secret: The Nunes family dairy of political lore—the one where his brother and parents work—isn’t in California. It’s in Iowa. Devin; his brother, Anthony III; and his parents, Anthony Jr. and Toni Dian, sold their California farmland in 2006. Anthony Jr. and Toni Dian, who has also been the treasurer of every one of Devin’s campaigns since 2001, used their cash from the sale to buy a dairy eighteen hundred miles away in Sibley, a small town in northwest Iowa where they—as well as Anthony III, Devin’s only sibling, and his wife, Lori—have lived since 2007. Devin’s uncle Gerald still owns a dairy back in Tulare, which is presumably where The Wall Street Journal’s reporter talked to Devin, and Devin is an investor in a Napa Valley winery, Alpha Omega, but his immediate family’s farm—as well as his family—is long gone.

There’s nothing particularly strange about a congressman’s family moving. But what is strange is that the family has apparently tried to conceal the move from the public—for more than a decade. As far as I could tell, as of late August, neither Nunes nor the local California press that covers him had ever publicly mentioned that his family dairy is no longer in Tulare.


https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a23471864/devin-nunes-family-farm-iowa-california/

September 30, 2018

TX-AG: Justin Nelson speaks in front of 55,000 at Texas rally

https://twitter.com/NelsonForTexas/status/1046544280834248704





JUSTIN NELSON





https://www.nelsonfortexas.com

September 30, 2018

TX-SEN: Beto O'Rourke and Willie Nelson Draw Over 50,000 at Turn Out For Texas rally

At a massive outdoor concert attended by an estimated 50,000 Texans Saturday night, country music icon and unabashed progressive champion Willie Nelson teamed up with Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas)—who is challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz—to deliver a simple message just over a month before election day: "Vote 'em out."

"If you don't like who's in there, vote 'em out/That’s what election day is all about, and the biggest gun we’ve got is called the ballot box," was just one of the rousing lines from a new song Nelson wrote for the much-anticipated gathering in Austin, which provided a brief glimpse of the unique enthusiasm O'Rourke has sparked in his campaign against Cruz, whose lead in the polls has dwindled rapidly in recent weeks.

Donning a "Beto for Senate" t-shirt, Nelson—who has faced backlash from some of his right-wing fans over his support for O'Rourke—also performed the classic "On the Road Again" with some help from the Texas representative, a former musician in his own right.

Nelson's headline performance came just on the heels of a stump speech by O'Rourke that touched on a wide variety of topics, from the human-caused climate crisis to the Trump administration's cruel immigration policies.

"This is a campaign for the future, because the people of the future, our kids and our grandkids, are depending on what we do at this moment," O'Rourke declared at the fundraising event, which also featured hundreds of volunteers helping Texans register to vote ahead of the November 6 election.


https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/09/30/concert-attended-50000-texans-beto-orourke-and-willie-nelson-team-deliver-simple


BETO O'ROURKE





https://betofortexas.com

September 30, 2018

KS-03: Sharice meets Shep

https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/1046425010473193472

September 30, 2018

FBI has not responded to requests from Christine Blasey Ford to do an interview.

https://twitter.com/SherylNYT/status/1046461621223215105

September 30, 2018

GA-GOV: Some interesting turnout news from the Peach State

https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1046260657585295360