On Deck: 2022

[Loren Pechtel]

"Pro-God, Pro-Gun, Pro-Trump" candidate seems to be Pro-Photoshop, too

GOP Senate candidate Josh Mandel is "fighting to protect the Judeo-Christian bedrock of America" one pixel at a time. In his campaign ad, the critical race theory foe wants to show you how much he likes Black people by quoting Martin Luther King and showing photos of himself posing with Black soldiers.

One photo stands out:

View attachment 38062

"Darkening filter"?? Looks more like someone increased the contrast. The photo on the right looks awfully drab and the exposure is a bit hot. The photo on the left looks a lot better, but note that the sky is pretty much blown out--the rest of the photo got darker, the sky got brighter. That's the expected result of increasing contrast.

 

[lpetrich]

Super PAC signals Pennsylvania primary could get rough - POLITICO - 03/21/2022 04:30 AM EDT

A super PAC backing Pennsylvania Senate candidate Conor Lamb is warning prospective donors that he is trailing frontrunner John Fetterman by 30 percentage points in the Democratic primary — and that the public’s perception of his opponent’s ideology must change for Lamb to have a shot.

“[P]rimary voters don’t yet see Fetterman as the liberal he is,” reads a memo circulated by the pro-Lamb group Penn Progress, which was obtained by POLITICO. “For Conor Lamb to have a path in the primary, this dynamic needs to change.”

...
The document highlights the testing of aggressive negative messaging against Fetterman, who is Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, including that he is a “dangerous radical who proudly calls himself a socialist,” “supports far-left policies like a $34 trillion-dollar government takeover of healthcare,” and has “spoken at Defund the Police rallies and wants to release convicted felons back onto our streets.”

...
“Conor hasn’t been able to gain ground with Democrats, so he’s decided to run like a Republican and use Fox News talking points to attack a fellow Democrat,” said Fetterman spokesperson Joe Calvello. “This is a desperate move from a campaign that hasn’t been able to raise the money on its own, and hasn’t broken through with anyone except for some political insiders.”

Abby Nassif-Murphy, Lamb’s campaign manager, shot back: “This material did not come from our campaign. But the fact that John Fetterman thinks only Fox News Republicans oppose socialism, defunding the police, and banning all private health insurance shows how out of touch he is with reality and why the Republicans are dying to run against him in the fall.”

 

[Derec]

If it is true that Fetterman spoke at defund rallies that would indeed be a bad thing. Do you have any details of his plan to release felons? Just bullshit drug etc. stuff that was bumped to a felony or actual dangerous criminals like robbers and carjackers? Big difference there.

 

[Derec]

The Mel Brooks movie, Passion of the Christ, also came from the Bible. Why did he make the same movie but skipped all the jokes?

It would indeed be weird for Mel Brooks of all people to skip all the jokes.

That said, Herschel Walker is an idiot and only in the position he is in because he used to play sportsball to some esteem.

In Georgia our choices suck. For this Senate election, we have a choice between the religious right (Herschel Walker) and the religious left (an actual Baptist pastor, but very left wing). I'll probably vote third party because both choices suck.

 

[Derec]

The left neutralizes the Dem establishment in Pa. Senate primary - POLITICO - "At one time, the Democratic Party would have cleared the Senate field for a candidate like Conor Lamb. Not anymore."

This hyperpolarization of both parties is a bad thing for both parties, and especially for the country.

 

[Trausti]

 

[lpetrich]

Trump warns GOP voters against Barnette in Pennsylvania Senate race | The Hill

Trump, who has endorsed celebrity cardiothoracic surgeon Mehmet Oz in the race, said that “Kathy Barnette will never be able to win the General Election against the Radical Left Democrats” and raised questions over her biography — while indicating he’d still back her in a general if she does indeed clinch the GOP nomination.

“She has many things in her past which have not been properly explained or vetted, but if she is able to do so, she will have a wonderful future in the Republican Party — and I will be behind her all the way,” he said. “Dr. Oz is the only one who will be able to easily defeat the Crazed, Lunatic Democrat in Pennsylvania. A vote for anyone else in the Primary is a vote against Victory in the Fall!”

Trump’s statement comes as Barnette sees a surge in the polls, statistically deadlocked with Oz and former hedge fund manager Dave McCormick at the top of the pack.

KB is supported by the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List and by the anti-tax Club for Growth.

Barnette, meanwhile, has been able to keep her campaign alive by running as an ideological purist despite not getting Trump’s backing and being outspent by several magnitudes by Oz and McCormick.

“Our values never, never shifted to President Trump’s values,” she said at an April debate. “It was President Trump who shifted and aligned with our values.”

So Trump is siding with some Oprah-ish doctor rather than someone from his base of supporters.

 

[lpetrich]

Kathy Barnette Marched to Capitol on Jan. 6: Photos - Rolling Stone

... Barnette’s Trumpism has been well-documented, but on Monday NBC News reported that the right-wing lawmaker was even part of the mob that marched to the Capitol last Jan. 6. CNN also reported that the candidate encouraged rally attendees, calling it “our 1776 moment” and she said in an interview that she would lead three buses to the Capitol that day.

NBC News authenticated photos of Barnette in the crowd of Trump supporters, walking alongside Proud Boys, ahead of the attack on the Capitol. The images were initially flagged on Sunday by extremism reporter Chad Loder. There is as yet no evidence that Barnette breached the Capitol.

Dasha Burns on Twitter: "NEW: ..." / Twitter

NEW: @NBCNews has verified these images of Barnette marching toward the Capitol on Jan 6 alongside member of the Proud Boys who were later arrested and indicted for breaking into the building and attacking officers. 1/4

Her campaign's response:
“Kathy was in DC to support President Trump and demand election accountability.
Any assertion that she participated in or supported the destruction of property is intentionally false.
She has no connection whatsoever to the proud boys." 2/4

We asked Barnette about Jan 6 in our exclusive interview:
"I feel about January 6, the way the left feels about the summer of 2020 when you have Black Lives Matter and Antifa and other groups out there looting and robbing and everyone was calling it mostly peaceful protests." 3/4

To be clear -- we have not yet found evidence that Barnette herself was involved in the breach of the Capitol.

More on this all day across @NBCNews @MSNBC @NBCNewsNow 4/4

Noting
Chad Loder on Twitter: "NEW: I believe I've found photos and video of GOP Senate candidate Kathy Barnette (@Kathy4Truth) marching alongside Proud Boys on their way to storm the Capitol on January 6th.
Barnette is wearing a gray knit hat with a gray jacket. I don't have her inside Capitol grounds yet. (pic link)" / Twitter
Including several other pictures of her at the insurrection.

Also mentions links with Federal-land homesteader Ammon Bundy, and a 2013 article by her comparing homosexuality with other "culturally degenerate lifestyles".

I like this response:
Shauna on Twitter: "@chadloder @Kathy4Truth Not hard to spot a Black face in that crowd." / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

More Rolling Stone.

Barnette also suggested the deadly insurrection wasn’t really so bad. “I feel about January 6, the way the left feels about the summer of 2020 when you have Black Lives Matter and Antifa and other groups out there looting and robbing and everyone was calling it mostly peaceful protests,” she said, according to NBC News.

“You’re gonna see a bunch of pissed off patriots that are like, ‘We’re not having this anymore,'” Barnette told radio host and conservative activist Ed Martin on January 5, 2021 as CNN reports. “You’re gonna have to hear our voices. And so I’m so very grateful that Americans are not rolling over. Democrats are used to, you know, being loud, whining, calling us names and then our side of the aisle, simply roll over and play dead. I am so proud that there are an innumerable number of Americans who are just like, no, we are not rolling over. We’re not going back to sleep. You’re gonna have to hear us.”

“I believe most people realize that this is our 1776 moment,” she added. “And I’m so grateful to God that back then we had a number of people who were not wimps, weenies and punks, and they stood up against some insurmountable odds. And right now I think a lot of people are looking back to that and recognizing that we are not wimps, weenies or punks, we’re gonna stand up to some – what seems like insurmountable odds. And they’re gonna have to listen to our voices.”

In an interview with Fox News, she again acknowledged she was in Washington, D.C., during the Capitol breach, but stopped short of saying she entered the building and denied she was with the Proud Boys, contradicting the photos obtained by NBC News.

“I was not with the Proud Boys,” she said. “I was out there because I wanted to hear what the president had to say. I was also out there because I’m sure your listeners will understand the first five rights in the First Amendment: Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to petition your government with grievances, and freedom to assemble, as well as freedom of the press. And so as a law abiding American citizen I had every right to go to a rally in support of my president. That is what I was doing there. We had a wonderful time, we prayed, we listened to what the president had to say. We hung out, we walked and sang songs and then we got on our bus and left and came back home. And so that is the beginning and the end of that.

Brian Beutler on Twitter: "Since she can’t bring herself to say she didn’t storm the Capitol, we gotta assume she was in there, right? Like a 93 percent chance? (vid link)" / Twitter

RS again.

Regarding the 2020 presidential election, Barnette claimed in a Facebook video from December of that year that Trump had been screwed. “Fight, fight, fight,” she urged viewers. “This is our country. This is not their country. This is our country.”

Barnette would later charter three buses to Washington, D.C., for attendees of the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the riot at the Capitol. We now know that she was headed to the Capitol herself.

KB has also called Barack Obama a Muslim and she has shown sympathy for QAnon.

So if she gets elected, she, MTG, and Lauren Boebert can form a caucus: Congressional Women of QAnon.

 

[lpetrich]

Alongside KB and Mehmet Oz is David McCormick. Pa. Senate Candidate McCormick Earned $22M as Hedge Fund CEO | Pennsylvania News | US News - "Dave McCormick earned more than $22 million last year as CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund — the job he quit to run for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania."

So competing for the Republican nomination are a carpetbagging celebrity doctor, a hard-core MAGAt, and an aspiring oligarch.

BTW, Mehmet Oz did a campaign ad where he showed off his great love of guns.

 

[lpetrich]

About the Ohio US-Senate primaries, here is what Josh Mandel is like: Ohio Senate race 2022: Who is Republican Josh Mandel?

He calls himself “Pro-God,” “Pro-Gun,” and “Pro-Trump," though Trump endorsed J.D. Vance instead.
But Mandel, more than other candidates, has made religion a central tenet of his campaign.

He said he does not believe in the separation of church and state and promised to protect the “Judeo-Christian bedrock of America.” Mandel has said on the campaign trail that no issue is more important than stopping abortion.

Part of his campaign promise echoes Trump’s 2016 calls to “drain the swamp.” Mandel has decried “establishment” Republicans who he said he would take on as much as the “radical left.”

He recently said, for example, that Utah Sen. Mitt Romney should be “eradicated from the Republican Party” after he supported Biden’s Supreme Court justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The Senate hopeful has been a loud proponent of cryptocurrencies (as Ohio treasurer, he allowed taxpayers to pay their taxes in Bitcoin) and backed efforts to eliminate “critical race theory” from school curriculums.
[/quote]
He lost to J.D. Vance.

From Ballotpedia, the vote fractions:

J.D. Vance 31.3%, Josh Mandel 24.3%, others 21.9%, 12.0%, 6.6%, 2.6%, 1.4%

On the Democratic side, the vote fractions:

Tim Ryan 73.2%, Morgan Harper 15.7%, Traci Johnson 11.1%

Tim Ryan is a Rep for OH-13, starting in 2013. He ran for President in 2019, from April 4 to October 24, not making it into the election year.

Morgan Harper ran against OH-03 incumbent Joyce Beatty in 2020, losing by 68.1% - 31.9%.

 

[lpetrich]

For the Pennsylvania US Senate seat up for election, on the Democratic side, John Fetterman 59.0%, Conor Lamb 26.4%, Malcolm Kenyatta 10.3%, Alex Khalil 4.3% with 91% counted.

Conor Lamb is one of the more conservative of Congressional Democrats, with a 2020 govtrack.us ideology score of 0.42 (0 = liberal, 1 = conservative).

On the Republican side, the two carpetbaggers, Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick, are neck and neck, with Kathy Barnette over 6 points behind those two.

Dave McCormick is the CEO of a Connecticut hedge fund.

 

[lpetrich]

I've seen some droll headlines about John Fetterman's win: "Fetterman Shears Lamb".

Also, JF looks relatively normal, like Bernie Sanders, and not as carefully manicured as CL does, at least to some people. Also, a lot of the Democratic base does not want another Joe Manchin in the Senate's Democratic delegation, and that's what CL seems like to them.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

PA battle of the carpetbaggers, Oz leads by 2,500 or so votes. There are mail-ins left, but at 12,000 I think, that'll be a tough turnaround. I wouldn't think there would be much ideological difference in a GOP primary between in person and mail-in voters.

Of course, didn't stop Trump from whining about it.

And with the scam baiting Dr. Oz likely in the general election, this seems to show celebrity is important with the uninformed conservative voter. Seems like a great shot at picking up that Senate seat, which puts Ohio and Pennsylvania as viable Dem pickups. The Dems are weakest in Arizona and Georgia, but astronaut still can win. And New Hampshire is a possible loss.

 

[lpetrich]

Also winning is Charles Booker, who won the Democratic nomination for this year's US Senate election in Kentucky. He is supported by the likes of Brand New Congress, the Sunrise Movement, and the (Elizabeth) Warren Democrats.

Incumbent Rand Paul won the Republican nomination, and given the Republican tilt of that state, it will be hard for CB to win. But CB expects to use his campaign as the base of an activist organization, much as Stacey Abrams had done.

He ran in 2020, and he lost in the primary to Amy McGrath by 42.5% - 45.4%. She went on to lose to Mitch McConnell.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

David Purdue's crushing Primary defeat has led to Purdue to announce his retirement from politics. He noted that he looked forward to spending more time with his two families.

 

[lpetrich]

In Georgia, the Republican Secretary of State nomination went to incumbent Brad Raffensperger, beating Jody Hice, a challenger who thinks that the 2020 Georgia election should have been more pro-Trump.

Marjorie Taylor Greene won the Republican nomination for GA-16, beating the next in line by 69.5% - 16.9%. That district extends from W Atlanta to the NW corner of GA.

In Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano won the Republican nomination for State Governor. On the Democratic side, Josh Shapiro was uncontested.
Doug Mastriano: Trump-backed 2020 election denier wins GOP primary for Pennsylvania governor | CNN Politics

The GOP’s selection of Mastriano means that if he wins in November, an election denier who attempted to overturn voters’ will in the 2020 election would have power over the election machinery in one of the nation’s most important battleground states during the 2024 presidential race. In Pennsylvania, the governor appoints the secretary of state – the person in charge of running Pennsylvania’s elections and signing off on its electors.

Mastriano used his victory speech Tuesday night to mock Rachel Levine, the US assistant secretary of health and an admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, who is transgender.

...
Mastriano, whose campaign barred reporters from events in the final days before the primary, was an early supporter of Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election results. He was pictured outside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, the day of the insurrection, and attempted to launch an Arizona-style partisan review of Pennsylvania’s ballots.

In an endorsement earlier this month, Trump said Mastriano “is a fighter like few others, and has been with me right from the beginning, and now I have an obligation to be with him.”

He also opposes abortion rights ... Mastriano introduced legislation in the state Senate that would make abortion illegal after six weeks.

“Doug Mastriano wants to ban abortion without exceptions, restrict the right to vote and spread conspiracy theories, and destroy the union way of life for hard working Pennsylvanians,” Shapiro said in a statement Tuesday. “Mastriano wants to dictate how Pennsylvanians live their lives – that’s not freedom.”

 

[lpetrich]

How Doug Mastriano built a grassroots movement in Pa. on election denial, Christianity, and Facebook · Spotlight PA

Two years ago, one Republican operative responded to the thought of a Doug Mastriano gubernatorial run with: “Seriously?”

Now, despite last-minute efforts by Republican insiders, he is Pennsylvania’s GOP nominee for governor.

They are concerned that he will alienate a lot of affluent suburbanites with his right-wing kookiness.

The 58-year-old, arch-conservative state senator and retired Army colonel won 44% of the vote Tuesday, according to unofficial results, defying the last-minute efforts of top consultants and party bigwigs to cast him as unelectable against Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro.

On the issues, Mastriano gave full-throated endorsements of the conservative agenda, including the repeal of Pennsylvania’s no-excuse mail-in ballot law, an abortion ban, and former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud.

These positions were echoed by many in the nine-person primary field. But what made him stand out was his unapologetic embrace of those positions’ extremes — such as allowing no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the parent on the former, or sharing patently false information on the number of mail-in ballots requested in 2020.

How did he do it?

He also was a middling fundraiser, raising just $1.5 million, fifth-most in the GOP field, but almost all from individual, small-dollar donors. And he garnered just a handful of endorsements from state GOP officials, instead racking up endorsements from former Trump administration officials, such as former National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn.

It was progressive Democrats who pioneered small-dollar fundraising, like Bernie Sanders and AOC, and now Republicans are getting into it.

The first sign of this power, sources said, was when Mastriano submitted 28,000 signatures to qualify for the statewide ballot in Pennsylvania. He needed only 2,000.

Signatures are the first test for most candidates — and a grind at that. Usually, paid campaign staff can struggle to collect the bare minimum number required by law.

Reminds me of AOC's first run. She wanted 10,000 ballot signatures, well in excess of the legal minimum of 1,250, so she could have a good chance of them surviving challenges. She ended up with about 5,000, but that was still more than enough.

DM's signatures convinced another Republican candidate, lawyer Jason Richey, to drop out, despite him having spent $1 million of his own money in campaigning. He encouraged others to drop out and endorse another candidate still in the race, but he apparently got some strong language in their responses.

Over the past two years, Mastriano has done hundreds of Facebook Live videos to explain his thoughts and feelings about the state of the world, often repeating conspiracy theories or railing against mainstream Republicans in the process.

“They know his voice. They know if he is angry. They know when he is calling them to action,” Coleman said, “and it’s a relationship.”

Seems like AOC with her Instagram videos.

Mastriano built a broad coalition of supporters based on his work combating COVID-19 lockdowns early in the pandemic, combatting mask and vaccine mandates, and his work to overturn the results of the 2020 election. His religious appeals have also helped him get support from evangelicals.

Mastriano was central in Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Then going into detail about his activism there.

At a March campaign event in Harrisburg hosted by the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Pennsylvania, Mastriano emphasized his faith, condemned the “genocide” of abortion, and criticized COVID-19 lockdowns.

“Under Gov. Mastriano, you’ll choose how to live your life,” Mastriano said. “You will walk as free men and women the way God intended it to be.”

Mastriano gained support from evangelicals by harnessing Christian nationalism, a movement of people who believe the United States is a Christian nation and needs to be kept that way. And on the campaign trail, he’s spoken of how he believes God told him to run for governor, and used calls to action invoking biblical and historical references.

Eek.

 

[lpetrich]

DM was up against 8 other Republicans. How were they recruited to run in the race?

Much of the field was recruited by big-name GOP consulting firms, not because they had an overarching vision for the state, but because they fit a checklist of electable traits, whether its name ID, personal wealth, or “a moldable public policy persona,” Coleman said.

These candidates, he said, had a hard time gaining traction compared to Mastriano, while their attacks sounded hollow.

“Campaigns that are reduced to 30-second ads or mailpieces don’t give you enough information when you are up against a voice that feels and sounds totally authentic,” Coleman said.

Instead of people who care about doing something or doing a good job of public service, it's loyal party apparatchiks.

Republican campaigners tried to get the other candidates to line up behind one of their number, but they didn't want to throw away all their months of effort at campaigning.

“Some of the candidates really hit me hard with negative ads, but all the major candidates called me up yesterday and said, basically, we’re going to get behind you. And that’s exactly how we take our state back,” Mastriano said. “It’s time to come together and push back on these radical far-left Democrats that are trying to take over our state and our nation.”

Laughlin, a vocal moderate who has supported paid family leave, recreational marijuana, and a minimum wage increase, cited internal polling he conducted during his run to argue that Mastriano can win if he softens his stances on specific issues, such as abortion.

Following the leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, Mastriano committed again to signing a bill that would ban abortion around six weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape, incest, or parental health, something he’s introduced as a state senator.

This is how far DM went in his 2020 Presidential election denial.

Along with promoting false claims of voter fraud, U.S. Senate Democrats have alleged Mastriano tried to pressure U.S. Department of Justice officials to overturn the 2020 election.

Using his campaign account, he chartered buses to a rally that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection. He marched to the U.S. Capitol but claimed he left when the mob became violent. Video later emerged showing Mastriano crossed breached barricades.

In February, the U.S. House of Representatives Jan. 6 select committee subpoenaed Mastriano, telling him to turn over documents by March 1 and appear for a deposition on March 10.

 

[blastula]

Looks like conservative Dem Cuellar will win, but his race is still too close to call. His challenger is a progressive, Jessica Cisneros.

Two critical Democratic runoffs in South Texas remain too close to call. Here’s what comes next.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, is leading his challenger, Jessica Cisneros, by 177 votes, while the margin is even smaller in the 15th Congressional District, where Michelle Vallejo is ahead of Ruben Ramirez for the open seat.

www.texastribune.org

Looking at the map, Cuellar wins big in the border counties, and Cisneros wins big in the counties closer to San Antonio.

Texas 28th Congressional District Runoff Election Results

See full results and maps from the Texas runoff elections.

www.nytimes.com