Support The Guardian, the Newspaper That Ben Jacobs Works For

June 26, 2019March 27, 2019 otycd

This OTYCD entry originally posted in May 2017.

Support The Guardian, the British paper that employs reporter Ben Jacobs.

By now you’ve heard about how Greg Gianforte, Republican candidate for the open house seat representing all of Montana, snapped and attacked Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian. Jacobs is evidently OK and Gianforte has since been charged with a misdemeanor. (Gianforte also won the Congressional race.)

While we wish we had a more pleasant prompt, we’re taking it. The Guardian is a good newspaper, and has long been a good newspaper. It deserves your attention and your support.

Read the links below, and if you like it, become a supporter of The Guardian:

https://membership.theguardian.com/us/supporter?INTCMP=DOTCOM_HEADER_BECOMEMEMBER_US

Here’s Jacobs’s video report on his bizarre encounter with Gianforte:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2017/may/25/guardian-ben-jacobs-body-slam-video-greg-gianforte

Here’s the story Jacobs filed with The Guardian shortly before the infamous meeting:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/25/montana-special-election-gianforte-assault-charge-guardian

Here’s the story that Jacobs wrote that probably played a role in pissing off Gianforte:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/28/greg-gianforte-republican-candidate-congress-russia-companies

And here’s another story by others at The Guardian on the consequences that Gianforte suffered shortly after attacking Jacobs:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/25/newspapers-ditch-us-republican-charged-with-assaulting-guardian-reporter-montana

Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Elections

GOOD UPDATE! Support Conor Lamb’s Run for a Pennsylvania House Seat in a March 2018 Special Election (Another Good Update March 2019)

May 24, 2019March 24, 2019 otycd2 Comments

Update, March 24, 2019: Lamb was up for re-election with the newly redrawn state of Pennsylvania electoral map in 2018. He ran in the 17th District, against fellow incumbent Republican Keith Loftus. Lamb defeated him with 56.3 percent of the vote to Loftus’s 43.7 percent.

Lamb is due up again in 2020. Please consider him for your next Core Four.

This OTYCD entry originally posted in January 2018.

Update March 24, 2018: This was a nail-biter. Lamb had a slight but clear lead of 627 votes by the end of the night on March 13, 2018–a margin that was smaller than half a percentage point, and smaller than the number of votes cast for the Libertarian candidate. A recount begun on Friday, March 16 increased Lamb’s lead slightly, nudging it past 800 votes.

Republican opponent Rick Saccone called Lamb to concede the election on March 21. Lamb will lead Pennsylvania’s 18th District until November, when new electoral maps, designed to combat the effects of pro-Republican gerrymandering, go into effect. Lamb will run in the 17th District, and Saccone will run in the 14th District.

Read a Washington Post story about the conclusion of the Pennsylvania special election:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/03/21/republican-rick-saccone-concedes-defeat-to-conor-lamb-in-pennsylvania-special-election/?utm_term=.fab09594cdc3

Original text of the post follows:

Support Democrat Conor Lamb’s run for the open house seat in Pennsylvania’s 18th district. The special election takes place on March 13, 2018.

Lamb, 33, is a former federal prosecutor who did notable work tackling the opioid crisis in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is also a veteran of the Marine corps, where he rose to the rank of captain. He comes from a political family; his grandfather and his uncle prominently served in high-profile state posts.

Lamb is facing Republican state rep Rick Saccone, who likes to say that he “was Trump before Trump was Trump.” Lamb has never held elected office, and PA-18 has a strong Republican reputation. Given the overperformances by Democrats in special elections and state and local elections since Trump was elected, the Democrats believe that Lamb has a decent shot at the House seat.

Republican Tim Murphy vacated the seat in October 2017 after news broke that the pro-life Congressman had evidently urged a pregnant mistress to abort. He had held the Congressional seat since 2003.

See Lamb’s campaign website (scroll down for his bio):

https://conorlamb.com

Consider Lamb for your Core Four for 2018 (if he wins the special election, he’ll be up for re-election in November 2018; if he loses in March, he could choose to run again):

https://onethingyoucando.com/2017/12/24/choose-your-core-four-for-2018/

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the button on the upper right of the page. And tell your friends about the blog!

Donate to Conor Lamb:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/lamb-for-congress-1

Like him on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/ConorLambPA/

Follow him on Twitter:

@ConorLambPA

See Ballotpedia’s page on Pennsylvania’s 18th District:

https://ballotpedia.org/Pennsylvania%27s_18th_Congressional_District_special_election,_2018

Read about the Democrats choosing Lamb for the special election (there were no primaries in this case):

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-local/2017/11/19/Conor-Lamb-Democrats-pick-replace-Tim-Murphy-18th-Congressional-district/stories/201711190199

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/11/19/democrats-pick-former-federal-prosecutor-for-special-congressional-election-in-pennsylvania/?utm_term=.a8c9eb22c663

Read a Politico story about how the Lamb-Saccone contest could be a bellwether for the 2018 midterms:

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/23/republicans-brace-for-competitive-pennsylvania-house-race-316206

Read about the circumstances of Murphy’s retirement from Congress:

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/04/tim-murphy-abortion-mistress-243456

Elections · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends · Vote with your Dollars

Help Elect Democrat Archie Parnell to Mick Mulvaney’s Old House Seat (Bad Update May 27, 2018)

May 27, 2018May 27, 2018 otycd

This OTYCD entry originally appeared in May 2017.

Bad update, May 27, 2018: After running a strong, surprisingly close but unsuccessful campaign for a 2017 special election, Parnell announced in October 2017 that he would run again for the House seat.

But in late May 2018, divorce records came to light that showed he had beaten his ex-wife at least twice in the early 1970s.

Read the allegations in this May 21, 2018 Post and Courier story, the newspaper that obtained the divorce records:

https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/top-south-carolina-candidate-refuses-to-quit-congressional-race-after/article_a6548188-5d27-11e8-a155-bf21652315cd.html

Parnell has acknowledged his actions and has apologized for them, but is refusing to leave the race. His campaign manager has since quit, and Democratic leaders in the state have called on him to withdraw, to no effect. In response to the news, the Cook Political Report moved the seat’s rating from Likely Republican to Solid Republican.

Read about Parnell’s refusal to end his campaign:

https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/after-abuse-revelation-s-c-candidate-apologizes-to-sumter-democrats/article_408ea1ca-6110-11e8-a3eb-3b0bb0a8db79.html

https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/ditched-by-allies-embattled-s-c-congressional-candidate-still-won/article_985a67a6-5dcb-11e8-a4ab-830b5af337e0.html

We at OTYCD are deeply distressed and disappointed by this news about Parnell. We believe he can do the hard, necessary work of rehabilitating himself and ultimately re-emerge as a viable candidate for Congressional office. But we don’t believe he–or anyone who finds him or herself in this sort of situation six months away from Election Day–can do that work in time to run and win.

We are angered that Parnell did not come clean about his past voluntarily, before a newspaper discovered the truth, and we’re doubly angered that he campaigned for high office knowing that this bombshell was lurking in his past. The fact that he embarked on his 2017 special election campaign against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement makes us question his judgment.

Again, we believe Parnell is capable of doing the work he needs to do to rehabilitate himself. As he says, he was a young man, not yet out of college, when he physically attacked his then-wife in 1973. But he needs to make amends before he runs for office again. We feel it is best for all if he withdraws from the 2018 House race and sets himself to doing that work.

Original text of the post follows.

Help elect Democrat Archie Parnell to the South Carolina house seat left open by Mick Mulvaney.

The special election to fill the seat takes place June 20. Parnell won the Democratic primary on May 2 with 71.3 percent of the vote. He will learn who his opponent will be on May 16, when the Republican primary runoff takes place.

Parnell is a defender of public education, Medicare, and Social Security. He has worked as a tax attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and will use his experience in that realm to make corporations yield their due.

Ballotpedia rates the South Carolina 5th district as “safely Republican.” As with other Democrats running in special elections in red areas, Parnell faces an uphill battle. But it’s a battle worth fighting.

Support Dr. Hiral Tipirneni In an April 24 Special Election for a House of Representatives Seat In Arizona’s 8th Congressional District (Update May 26, 2018)

May 26, 2018May 26, 2018 otycd

Update, May 26, 2018: The bad news is that Tipirneni lost to Republican Debbie Lesko in the April special election. The good news is that she only lost by five points in a district that’s redder than red, and she has agreed to run against Lesko in November. Go Hiral!

Support Dr. Hiral Tipirneni in an April 24, 2018 special election for an open House of Representatives seat in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District.

Tipirneni is an emergency room physician, a cancer research advocate, and a first-time politician. She will face Republican Debbie Lasko for the seat vacated by Republican Trent Franks after he was involved in a bizarre scandal involving him having asked female employees if they would serve as a surrogate mother for his child (scroll down for links).

Tipirneni supports Medicare for all as well as Social Security and Medicaid. She wants to strengthen public schools and make college more affordable. She supports common-sense gun laws and would treat gun violence as a public health issue. She defends reproductive rights. She favors greater government transparency in general and would target wasteful acts such as spending taxpayer dollars on pricey air transport when commercial flights would meet the need.

Tipirnini ran against Brianna Westbrook in the primary and defeated her. Westbrook has since pledged to help Tipirneni in the special election and will focus her own efforts on winning a state senate seat in the fall (scroll down to find a link to an updated OTYCD post on Westbrook).

Tipirneni faces a daunting challenge, but not an impossible one. The Cook Political Report rates Franks’s old seat as Safe Republican. Lasko has state legislature experience, serving as president pro tempore of the Arizona senate before resigning to run in this House of Representatives contest.

See Tipirneni’s campaign website:

http://hiralforcongress.com/home-3/

See her “Issues” page:

http://hiralforcongress.com/#issues

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the blue button on the upper right or checking the About & Subscribe page. And tell your friends about the blog!

Choose Tipirneni for your Core Four:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2017/12/22/choose-your-fabulous-four-for-2018/

Donate to Tipirneni’s campaign:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_hiral_fr_homepage?refcode=MS_HP_FR_2018.01.04_X_homepage_X__X__X&amount=25&amounts=5,50,100,500,1000,2700,5400

Like her on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/hiralforcongress/

Follow her on Twitter:

@hiral4congress

Read an OTYCD post on Brianna Westbrook, Tipirneni’s opponent in the primary, who is now helping Tiperneni’s campaign:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2018/03/10/support-brianna-westbrook-who-is-running-for-trent-franks-old-house-seat-in-arizona/

Read an AZcentral.com endorsement of Tipirneni from February 5, 2018:

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2018/02/05/tipirneni-endorsement-cd-8-democratic-primary/1088697001/

Read about the scandal that prompted Trent Franks to resign in 2017:

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/08/trent-franks-sex-surrogacy-impregnate-287808

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rep-trent-franks-of-arizona-is-expected-to-resign/2017/12/07/479d156a-db9f-11e7-b859-fb0995360725_story.html?utm_term=.ff4c9fb29e92

Elections · GOOD UPDATE!

Update: Connecticut Special Election Results: Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad

May 1, 2018April 8, 2018 otycd

This OTYCD entry originally posted in March 2017.

Connecticut held a trio of special elections on February 28, 2017. Democrats won two out of three races, and control of the state’s senate remains split between the Democrats and the Republicans.

Democrat Douglas McCrory trounced Republican Michael McDonald to claim the District 2 senate seat, and Democrat Dorinda Borer beat Republican Edward Granfield for a house seat in the 115th district.

Democrat Greg Cava lost to Republican Eric Berthel to win the senate seat in District 32, but there is a silver lining. Cava did a lot better than expected. District 32 has been described as “the most Republican senate district in the state” and he lost by only 10 points.

Turnout for the state senate races was reportedly low, hovering around 18 percent.

Read several stories from local, state, and national papers on the results of the races:

http://www.courant.com/politics/hc-senate-special-election-20170228-story.html

http://ctmirror.org/2017/02/28/borer-keeps-115th-house-seat-in-democratic-hands/

http://www.nhregister.com/government-and-politics/20170228/dorinda-keenan-borer-wins-special-election-for-115th-district-house-seat

http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/connecticut-state-senate-district-32

Original OTYCD post is below.

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the button on the upper right of the page or checking the About & Subscribe page. And tell your friends about the blog!

On February 28, the state of Connecticut holds three special elections–two for state senate seats, and one for the state house of representatives.

The Connecticut state senate races are extra-interesting because as of now, party representation is tied, 18 t0 18. The Democrats have a chance to gain control of the state senate through these special elections.

Do you live in Connecticut? Do you have friends and family who do? Support Douglas McCrory and Greg Cava for the state senate and Dorinda Keenan Borer for the state house of representatives in three special elections on February 28.

Democrat Douglas McCrory, now a seven-term member of Connecticut’s house of representatives, will run against Republican Michael McDonald in the special election for the 2nd State Senate District. (Eric Coleman, also a Democrat, vacated the seat to pursue a judgeship.) While the 2nd leans blue, McCrory is bracing for a fight. His Republican opponent has reportedly qualified for public financing.

Democrat Greg Cava hopes to claim the senate seat for district 32, which has been vacated by Robert Kane, who defeated Cava in the last state senate election. (Kane is leaving to join the state’s office of the Auditors of Public Accounts.) Cava will have two competitors: Republican Eric C. Berthel and Dan Lynch, who has no party affiliation.

Democrat Dorinda Keenan Borer hopes to keep the district 115 house of representatives seat blue. It, too, is open because its occupant, Democrat Stephen Dargan, left for a job with the state board of pardons and paroles. She will battle Republican Edward Granfield for the seat. (She does not yet have a campaign web site; we’ll update this post to include it when it appears online.)

Learn more about the McCrory-McDonald race:

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-second-senate-districts-endorsements-0121-20170120-story.html

See McCrory’s Connecticut House of Representatives web page:

http://www.housedems.ct.gov/McCrory

Donate to McCrory’s campaign fund:

https://causes.anedot.com/mccroryforsenate

Visit Greg Cava’s web site (which reflects his 2016 race):

http://www.gregcava2016.com

Action Alerts · Elections · Good News · Postcard Campaigns

GOOD UPDATE! Annette Taddeo WINS the Florida State Senate Seat, Flipping It From Red to Blue!

April 29, 2018March 18, 2018 otycd

This OTYCD entry originally posted in September 2017.

GOOD UPDATE! Annette Taddeo won the September 26 special election for the Florida State Senate race!

Taddeo won despite being up against a Republican who had name recognition from being on The Apprentice, and despite Governor Rick Scott’s refusal to reschedule the election after Hurricane Irma hit Florida.

Special thanks to Flippable and to those who wrote postcards to get out the vote for her!

Read about Taddeo’s win:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/article175572391.html

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-state-senate-election-results-20170926-story.html

Original text of the post follows:

Help elect Democrat Annette Taddeo to the state senate of Florida on September 26, 2017, by sending postcards to GOTV, donating, or other actions.

Taddeo won the special primary election handily on July 25, claiming 70 percent of the vote. She is up against Republican Jose Felix Dias and Independent Christian “He-Man” Schlareth.

The seat, located in Miami-Dade county, opened in late April after the incumbent, Republican Frank Artiles, used a six-letter racial slur beginning with ‘n’ in a charged conversation that included two black Democratic state senate colleagues.

Our good friend Tony the Democrat has a postcard campaign to get out the vote for Taddeo. Participants receive addresses of individuals who have voted Democratic in the past. Please follow the rules and stick to the basic language that Tony will give you.

As always, you can text HELLO to Abby the Address Bot anytime. The number is:

484.ASK.ABBY aka 484.275.2229

You can request addresses via email as well:

Postcards@TonyTheDemocrat.org

Taddeo has earned the recommendations or endorsements of the Miami Herald and our friends at Flippable. She is a Colombian-born woman who runs her own translation business and has held high-ranking posts in the Democratic Party in Florida.

Taddeo opposes high-states testing and wants to protect public schools from having their budgets weakened and drained by initiatives from private, for-profit corporations. She wants to improve traffic in and around Miami-Dade by securing funding to improve the local infrastructure. She is committed to protecting the county’s drinking water from threats posed by fracking.

See Taddeo’s campaign site:

https://www.annettetaddeo.com

Read Flippable’s endorsement of Taddeo, and note its intel on the district, which they believe is trending blue:

https://blog.flippable.org/how-to-flip-the-sunshine-state-blue-1f3668b32f2b

Read the Miami Herald‘s recommendation of Taddeo (the piece covers several candidates, not just her):

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article160867439.html

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the blue button on the upper right or checking the About & Subscribe page. And tell your friends about the blog!

Like her on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/annette.taddeo/

Follow Taddeo on Twitter:

@Annette_Taddeo

Donate to Annette Taddeo:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/annettetaddeows

Read Ballotpedia’s entries on Taddeo and on Florida’s State Senate District 40:

https://ballotpedia.org/Annette_Taddeo

https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_State_Senate_District_40

Read about the meltdown that ended Frank Artiles’s state senate incumbency:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-florida-state-senator-n-word-20170419-story.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article146227009.html

Community Activism · Elections · Postcard Campaigns

GOOD UPDATE on a Postcard GOTV Campaign! Kevin Cavanaugh WON That New Hampshire State Senate Seat!

April 27, 2018March 18, 2018 otycd

This OTYCD entry originally posted in July 2017.

Good news, everyone! Kevin Cavanaugh, the Democrat who ran for the open New Hampshire state senate seat in the special election held on July 25, 2017.

Congratulations to Cavanaugh and to everyone who wrote postcards to get out the vote for him!

Read coverage of Cavanaugh’s win, which is regarded as an upset:

http://www.businessinsider.com/new-hampshire-special-election-kevin-cavanaugh-2017-7

This story cites the success of the GOTV effort in the first sentence:

http://www.wmur.com/article/democrat-cavanaugh-pulls-upset-in-state-senate-special-election/10360495

Original text of our post on this campaign is below:

Ready to send more postcards? Democrat Kevin Cavanaugh needs you to get out the vote (GOTV) for him in a July 25 special election for the New Hampshire state senate.

Democrat Scott McGilvray became the first Democrat to win state senate district 16 in quite a while last November. He defeated his Republican challenger 51 percent to 48 percent. Sadly, McGilvray fell ill and died in March 2017. New Hampshire has scheduled the special election to fill his seat for July 25, 2017.

Ballotpedia identifies state senate district 16 as a pivot county–it went for Barack Obama twice before going to Donald Trump last year.

Sending postcard to New Hampshire democrats and asking them to come out and vote could help keep the newly flipped seat blue.

Our friend Tony the Democrat is leading the charge.

To get as many as 15 addresses at a time, text Abby the Address Bot at:

603.707.4160

If you want even more than that, email:

Postcards @ TonyTheDemocrat.org

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the blue button on the upper right or checking the About & Subscribe page. And tell your friends about the blog!

A few things to remember:

Be careful how you address your cards. Say “Dear Voter,” “To the Fine Voters at,” “Best Voters Ever,” etc., taking care not to assume a party affiliation as your postcard might go to a mixed household

Here are some points to get across on all your Cavanaugh postcards:

Democrat Kevin Cavanaugh is running in district 16 for New Hampshire state senate.

The special election is July 25.

Kevin was born and raised in New Hampshire where he has been a blue collar IBEW union member for 32 years.

Please mail your postcards within three days of writing them.

The deadline for getting postcards in the mail is Tuesday July 17.

See Tony the Democrat’s mailing on the Cavanaugh campaign:

http://mailchi.mp/ind-d6/new-postcard-campaign-in-new-hampshire

See Cavanaugh’s campaign web site:

https://www.cavanaughfornh.com/

Read the Ballotpedia page on New Hampshire’s special election in state senate district 16:

https://ballotpedia.org/New_Hampshire_State_Senate_District_16

Read the Ballotpedia page on New Hampshire state legislative special elections, which talks about pivot counties:

https://ballotpedia.org/New_Hampshire_state_legislative_special_elections,_2017

Like the Postcards to Voters page on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/TonyTheDemocrat.org/

One Thing You Can Do

How you can push back against Trump, day by day.

Tag: Special Election

Support The Guardian, the Newspaper That Ben Jacobs Works For

GOOD UPDATE! Support Conor Lamb’s Run for a Pennsylvania House Seat in a March 2018 Special Election (Another Good Update March 2019)

Help Elect Democrat Archie Parnell to Mick Mulvaney’s Old House Seat (Bad Update May 27, 2018)

Support Dr. Hiral Tipirneni In an April 24 Special Election for a House of Representatives Seat In Arizona’s 8th Congressional District (Update May 26, 2018)

Update: Connecticut Special Election Results: Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad

GOOD UPDATE! Annette Taddeo WINS the Florida State Senate Seat, Flipping It From Red to Blue!

GOOD UPDATE on a Postcard GOTV Campaign! Kevin Cavanaugh WON That New Hampshire State Senate Seat!