Tag: Vote

Plan Ahead–Take Tuesday, November 3, 2020 Off, and Maybe Other Days Too
Community Activism · Elections

Plan Ahead–Take Tuesday, November 3, 2020 Off, and Maybe Other Days Too

otycd

Plan ahead! Make sure to take Tuesday, November 3, 2020 off from work, and maybe Monday November 2 and Friday October 30 as well.

 

Election Day 2020 is going to be A Thing. You thought the 2018 midterms were a thing? Well, they were, but this is going to be A Bigger Thing.

 

You need to prepare for it.

 

Now is the time to think about what you will do on and around Tuesday, November 3, 2020 so you will be as effective as you can be in defending and upholding democracy.

 

It might make more sense for you to vote early or vote absentee so you can cover for co-workers to free them to head to the polls.

 

It might make more sense to take that Tuesday off from work, and maybe the surrounding days, too.

 

If you know you’re going to be out of town on that Tuesday, devote some time to getting your absentee ballot sorted.

 

Plan ahead, all!

 

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Support Democrat Maxine Waters for Re-Election to A House Seat in California’s 43rd Congressional District (GOOD UPDATE July 2019)
Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Stand Up for Civilization · Stand Up for Norms

Support Democrat Maxine Waters for Re-Election to A House Seat in California’s 43rd Congressional District (GOOD UPDATE July 2019)

otycd1 Comment

Update July 2019: Okay, you’ve long since figured this out, given her fierce and unrelenting work against Trump, but we at OTYCD feel it’s important to lace the feed with good updates wherever possible.

 

Democrat Maxine Waters won re-election in 2018.

 

She’s more than worthy of inclusion in your 2020 Core Four. Please keep her in mind.

 

Update, June 9, 2018: Waters came first in her district’s top-two primary on June 5, winning more than 71 percent of the vote. We congratulate Waters and encourage you to support her re-election campaign.

 

Support Democrat Maxine Waters, who’s running for re-election to a House of Representatives seat in California’s 43rd Congressional District.

 

Initially, we at OTYCD were not going to devote a post to Maxine Waters and her re-election campaign. We can only write so many posts about 2018 candidates–we could fill the whole queue with ‘support this person’ stories–and for that reason, we tend to favor challengers, not well-established incumbents.

 

What changed our collective minds? Assholes are gunning for Waters, explicitly, openly, and overtly, and they have been for a long while now.

 

A full roster of professionally awful people have teamed up to support an individual Republican aiming to take her down (we won’t dignify him by typing his name). Think of the worst, most repulsive Trumpistas you can, and yep, they’re almost certainly on the anti-Waters bandwagon and actively raising money to defeat her.

 

Nothing annoys a Trumpista more than a powerful black woman, and Waters annoys them all the more because she calls out lousy Republican behavior effectively and successfully, time and time again.

 

But that Republican twerp who we don’t care to name is not the only Republican who will appear in the June 5, 2018 primary. There are four others as well.

 

True, Waters is not facing Democratic opposition, and the Cook Political Report rates California’s 43rd Congressional District as Solid Democrat, but hey, you know the score. Since November 2016, you’ve helped out any number of special elections and state elections that Democratic candidates were not supposed to win.

 

Is she going to be OK? Is she going to win re-election? Yeah, probably. She beat that Republican twerp three to one in 2016. That said, he hadn’t bat-signaled the troll army then. The minute you think Waters will do fine with what she has is the minute when she might need your help.

 

Auntie Maxine needs us. Let’s help her out.

 

 

Visit Maxine Waters’s campaign website:

https://maxinewatersforcongress.com

 

 

Also see her Congressional website:

https://waters.house.gov

 

 

Add Maxine Waters to your Core Four:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2017/12/22/choose-your-fabulous-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 Waters’s campaign:

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/maxine-waters-2

 

 

Right around here is the point in the tail-end resources where we’d drop a link to merch if we had one. We’re trying to find an online store that sells ‘Reclaiming My Time’ products with the proceeds funding Waters’s campaign. If you know of one, please go to the About & Subscribe page and email us the info.

 

 

Like Maxine Waters on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/MaxineWaters/

 

 

Follow Maxine Waters on Twitter:

@MaxineWaters

 

 

Of course, Maxine Waters is on Luvvie’s list of black women running for elected office in 2018. See our post on this invaluable reference:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2018/01/13/look-over-luvvies-list-of-black-women-who-are-running-for-office-and-support-them/

 

 

Read a November 27, 2017 Los Angeles Times piece that covers how pro-Trump folk are deliberately and explicitly targeting Maxine Waters for defeat in 2018:

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-waters-gop-challenger-20171027-story.html

 

 

Read about how Waters’s late July 2017 remark during a Congressional meeting about “reclaiming my time” went viral on the scale of “nevertheless she persisted”:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/08/01/reclaiming-my-time-is-bigger-than-maxine-waters/?utm_term=.b1c676d118e5

https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/7/31/16070822/reclaiming-my-time-maxine-waters-mnuchin-meme

 

 

Learn how Maxine Waters became Auntie Maxine, hero of the Resistance:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/darrensands/how-auntie-maxine-became-a-meme-and-the-hero-of-the-anti?utm_term=.ngqeW26L3A#.bj0q7o30aB

Believe It, You Matter, Part XIV: Feel Your Feelings and Vote Anyway
Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Community Activism · Elections · Voting Rights, Fighting Voter Suppression

Believe It, You Matter, Part XIV: Feel Your Feelings and Vote Anyway

otycd

Believe It, You Matter, Part XIV: Feel your feelings and vote anyway.

 

Hi, I’m Sarah Jane. I write all the Believe It, You Matter entries. I’ve long since forgotten what Roman numeral I’m up to so I apologize if I’ve used 12 before.

 

Anyway. I’m here to talk about voter suppression, in part because the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) bizarrely (and irresponsibly, IMO) threw up its hands (well, five of the nine did) and essentially said it couldn’t do anything to stop gerrymandering, not even the ludicrously extreme gerrymanders drawn to explicitly corral and nullify the votes of one party.

 

This is the latest bit of news that could dispirit us. And hey, it’s OK to feel dispirited about such a thing. But please, please, do not let it stop you from voting, ever.

 

No matter what, show the fuck up and vote, and help others vote, too.

 

Republicans know, and have known, they can’t win if they can’t stop people from voting. Blatant, flagrant cheating, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis attempting to defang Article 4’s re-enfranchisement of more than a million felons by requiring them to pay assorted fees before they can cast a ballot, is one such move.

 

But the vote-suppressors work in subtler ways as well, ways that get less attention.

 

One of those ways is fostering despair and disgust with the whole voting process.

 

They try to make people feel that voting doesn’t matter, and it’s not worth the trouble.

 

It does, and it is.

 

As we advance into 2020, be alert to attempts to dispirit you and yours about the act of voting. It’s already happening, it’s happening in particular on social media, and not all of it is the work of bots, btw.

 

They’re doing it because it works, even if it’s kind of oblique and hard to quantify. The vote-suppressors don’t have to get everyone to stay home, or specific people to stay home. They need just enough people to stay home to make a difference.

 

You need to carry on talking to you and yours about the importance of voting, and removing obstacles to voting, both literal and figurative.

 

You need to tell people they matter, and their vote matters, and there are people out there who want them to give up and stay home. Fuck those people.

 

Now, when you talk, you should be straight with them. Acknowledge that fuckery is likely in 2020. Trump has explicitly said he would accept information foreign governments offer him about his opponents, which prompted the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission to issue a statement saying that accepting anything of value from a foreign government is a crime. Mitch McConnell has consistently refused to advance bills that would protect the integrity of the 2020 election.

 

Republicans, in particular, are doing whatever they can to suppress the vote.

 

Go out and vote anyway. Go out and vote, faithfully and always, and help others vote, too. Every time. No matter what fuckery abounds.

 

Hell, go vote IN SPITE OF the fuckery. Flip the bird by throwing the lever for a Democrat.

 

Also, keep talking to your friends and family about the importance of voting.

 

Talk about how excited you are to vote for specific candidates, and say their names, out loud, often.

 

Do this even if it feels like it’s not enough.

 

Do it even if you feel like no one is listening to you.

 

Do this even if the crisis du jour is turning your mood grim. If you need to take a break to work through your feelings, do it, and come back.

 

Vote even if the Democratic candidates look like they’re running away with it.

 

Vote, because you matter, and your vote matters.

 

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!

 

 

 

 

 

Support Democrat Zach Wahls’s Campaign to Become an Iowa State Senator (Good Update March 24, 2019)
Candidates · Elections · Vote with your Dollars

Support Democrat Zach Wahls’s Campaign to Become an Iowa State Senator (Good Update March 24, 2019)

otycd

Update March 24, 2019: YES YES YES! Zach Wahls won his race for Iowa’s Senate, representing District 37.

He drew 78 percent of the vote, beating his Libertarian opponent by almost four to one. Wahls’s term continues to 2023.

 

Support Zach Wahls, a Democrat who’s running for a seat in Iowa’s state senate.

 

Wahls, the son of lesbian parents, gained national prominence in 2011 when he defended gay marriage in a speech before the Judiciary Committee of the Iowa House of Representatives. Footage of his speech became the most-watched political video on YouTube that year.

 

He co-founded Scouts for Equality, a non-profit that successfully urged the Boy Scouts of America to reconsider its policies on gay scouts and volunteers. (Wahls is an Eagle Scout.)

 

Now 26, he’s running for to represent Iowa’s 37th in its state senate.

 

He won his early June primary and will face a Libertarian incumbent on November 6, 2018. If he wins, he’d be Iowa’s youngest state senator.

 

Wahls hopes to improve mental health services in his state and hopes to restore full funding to Planned Parenthood. He opposes the Trump-GOP attempts to destroy the Affordable Care Act in part because it would devastate rural hospitals. He’s a Moms Demand Action Gun Sense candidate.

 

He supports collective bargaining rights and a higher minimum wage. He decries the actions of Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement (ICE) and opposes its attempts to deputize Iowa police. He favors affordable college tuition and universal pre-K. He would boost efforts to improve Iowa’s water quality and maintain its role as a wind energy producer.

 

See Wahls’s campaign site:

https://www.zachwahlsforiowa.com

 

 

See his Meet Zach page:

https://www.zachwahlsforiowa.com/meet-zach/

 

 

See his Issues page:

https://www.zachwahlsforiowa.com/issues/

 

 

Donate to his campaign:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/zachwahlsforiowa?refcode=website&auto=&amount=50

 

Buy his campaign merch:

https://store.zachwahlsforiowa.com

 

 

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!

 

 

Like Wahls on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/zach.wahls/

 

 

Follow him on Twitter:

@zachwahls

 

 

Read a 2011 article about Wahls’s speech before the Iowa legislature:

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/zach-wahls-son-lesbians-speech-anti-gay-legislators/story?id=12832200

 

Read a June 2018 piece about his primary win:

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/after-primary-win-zach-wahls-is-one-step-closer-to-becoming-iowas-youngest-state-senator/

 

Re-elect Democrat Seth Moulton, House Rep for Massachusetts’s 6th District (Mixed Update May 2019)
Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Elections

Re-elect Democrat Seth Moulton, House Rep for Massachusetts’s 6th District (Mixed Update May 2019)

otycd

Update, May 11, 2019: Moulton successfully defended his seat in November 2018. He’ll be up again in 2020. Maybe consider him for your next Core Four.

 

But! But but but! He was among those who opposed re-electing Nancy Pelosi to the Democratic House leadership after the Dems won the house in the 2018 midterms, and he has since joined the crowded field of Democratic candidates running for president in 2020. Which, ugh. We are oversubscribed. No thank you, sir.

 

Help re-elect Seth Moulton, a Democrat who represents Massachusetts’s 6th District.

 

Moulton was first elected in 2014. He is a graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor’s in physics and an MBA as well as an MPA. Between his undergraduate years and graduate school, he served four tours in Iraq with the U.S Marine Corps.

 

While serving, he earned a Bronze Star as well as Navy and Marine Corps Commendations for his valor. He told no one about these awards, not even his parents. News of his decade-old heroism broke in October 2014, not long before he was first elected.

 

Moulton is a progressive who believes in legalizing marijuana. He supports same-sex marriage, reproductive rights, and better gun laws.

 

 

He also administered a nooice Twitter burn to President Trump over his mid-May 2017 complaints of being the subject of what he called “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!”

Moulton won the Internet for the day when he countered:

As the Representative of Salem, MA, I can confirm that this is false.

 

 

Moulton won’t face any party competition in the September 4, 2018 primary, but there will be a Republican and a Libertarian running against him. The Cook Political Report rates the Massachusetts 6th District race as Solid Democrat.

 

 

See House Rep Seth Moulton’s homepage:

https://moulton.house.gov

 

 

Choose Seth Moulton for your Core Four:

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 Moulton’s campaign:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/moultonleadership-web

 

 

Like Moulton on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/RepMoulton/

 

 

Follow him on Twitter:

@sethmoulton

 

 

Moulton is endorsed by 314 Action, an organization devoted to electing more people with STEM backgrounds to office. See his page there:

http://www.314action.org/seth-moulton

 

 

See his Ballotpedia page:

https://ballotpedia.org/Seth_Moulton

 

 

Read about how Moulton downplayed his combat medals rather than making political hay from them:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/10/17/moulton-underplays-military-service/lY9FfmOrviwL2LAFHr61dO/story.html

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2014/10/18/mass-congressional-hopeful-seth-moulton-kept-his-military-awards-a-secret

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/reporter-exposes-candidates-secret-valor-345543235726

 

 

GOOD UPDATE! Katie Porter BEAT Republican Mimi Waters for the House Seat in California’s 45th District
Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Fighting Bigotry, Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Transphobia... · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends

GOOD UPDATE! Katie Porter BEAT Republican Mimi Waters for the House Seat in California’s 45th District

otycd1 Comment

Update, March 24, 2019: YES YES YES! Democrat Katie Porter defeated Republican incumbent Mimi Waters with 52.1 percent of the vote to Waters’s 47.9 percent.

 

Porter, a protege of Elizabeth Warren, quickly proved herself a worthy new member of Congress when she expertly exposed the ridiculous position of Equifax with a devastating quiz of its CEO, which you can see here:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90312551/watch-a-congresswoman-destroy-equifax-ceo-mark-begor-in-an-epic-privacy-burn

 

If you have money to give, please consider adding Porter to your 2020 Core Four. As a House of Representatives member, she runs for re-election every two years.

 

Original text of the 2018 post follows.

 

Support Democrat Katie Porter’s run to unseat California House Republican Mimi Walters.

 

To flip the House of Representatives to Democratic control, the party needs to pick up at least 24 seats. Those who know say that the Democrats need to gain at least a third of those 24 in California.

 

Katie Porter has a harder road to walk than, say, Harley Rouda or Gil Cisneros. Unlike those two, whose California Congressional districts the Cook Political Report rates as Toss-ups, the 45th district carries a Lean Republican tag.

 

Republican Mimi Walters, first elected in 2014, has fallen in behind Trump and has consistently voted for bills he likes. That should rankle those in her district, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

 

Porter is a professor at University of California, Irvine and a protege of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. She specializes in fighting home mortgage lenders who mistreat their clients. When Kamala Harris was still the state’s attorney general, she chose Porter to monitor a $25 billion mortgage settlement on behalf of California.

 

Porter has an opening, but she’ll need support to make this happen. Have a look at the links below and see if she’s the right candidate for you.

 

 

See Porter’s campaign website:

https://katieporter.com

 

 

See her Issues page:

https://katieporter.com/issues

 

 

See her Endorsements page:

https://katieporter.com/endorsements

 

 

Choose Porter for your Core Four:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2018/04/08/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 Porter’s campaign:

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/kp18?refcode=header_donate

 

 

Like Porter on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/katieporteroc

 

 

Follow her on Twitter:

@katieporteroc

 

 

Read additional articles about Porter that predate the June 5, 2018 primary:

https://www.ocregister.com/2017/04/03/all-the-facts-on-katie-porter-challenger-to-rep-mimi-walterss-re-election-bid/

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article142177884.html

Say You’re a Health Care Voter
Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Elections · Health Care · Public Education · Read, Educate Yourself, Prepare · Stand Up for Civilization · Stand Up for Norms · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends

Say You’re a Health Care Voter

otycd

Sick of the attacks on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicare, and Medicaid? Step up and declare you are a Health Care Voter.

 

We at OTYCD spent a good chunk of 2017 rallying you to call your MoCs and urge them to fight Trumpcare, Trumpcare 2.0, Trumpcare 3.whatever, and the GOP tax bill, which contained provisions that weaken the ACA.

 

We also encouraged you to urge your MoCs to renew the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which the GOP-controlled Congress allowed to lapse for months.

 

And we have asked you to remain alert to attacks on Medicare and Medicaid, which might come this year at the behest of GOP ghouls who will demand cuts to social programs now that they voted to add $1.5 million to the deficit by giving the most wealthy people and corporations a huge, entirely unnecessary tax cut.

 

The Health Care Voter campaign is a project co-chaired by Alyssa Milano, Topher Spiro, and others. It is an effort to encourage more than 1 million people to take the Health Care Voter pledge and promote the idea to friends and family in person and on social media.

 

In general, Health Care Voters fight against attacks on the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and other government-funded programs and services that help the sick and help keep us all healthy.

 

Health Care Voters believe that health care is a right, not a privilege, and they pledge to vote their values by supporting candidates who defend these programs and voting out those who don’t.

 

 

See the Health Care Voter website and take the Health Care Voter pledge:

https://healthcarevoter.org

 

 

Read stories from committed Health Care Voters that explain why they took the pledge:

https://healthcarevoter.org/#health-care-voters-in-action

 

 

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!

 

 

Follow the Health Care Voter project on Twitter:

@HealthCareVoter

 

 

Like it on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/healthcarevoter

 

 

Buy Health Care Voter merch:

Health Care Voter Shop

 

 

Follow expert Topher Spiro, Health Care Voter co-chair, on Twitter:

@TopherSpiro

 

 

Follow actress Alyssa Milano, Health Care Voter co-chair, on Twitter:

@Alyssa_Milano

 

GOOD UPDATE! Gil Cisneros WON His Race for the House Seat in California’s 39th District
Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Elections · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends · Vote with your Dollars

GOOD UPDATE! Gil Cisneros WON His Race for the House Seat in California’s 39th District

otycd1 Comment

Update March 24, 2019: YES YES YES! Democrat Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim for the House seat vacated by Republican Ed Royce. Cisneros pulled in 51.6 percent of the vote to Kim’s 48.4 percent.

 

Cisneros faces re-election in 2020. Please consider him for your next Core Four.

 

Original text of the post follows.

 

Support Democrat Gil Cisneros, who’s running for the House of Representatives seat in California’s 39th District that Republican Ed Royce is leaving.

 

To flip the House of Representatives to Democratic control, the party needs to win at least 24 seats in the fall elections that are currently Republican.

 

California offers many opportunities for Democratic pickups–at least eight. The 39th District is one of them. Ed Royce, a particularly noxious Republican who held the Orange County seat for the last 26 years has announced he would retire.

 

Cisneros came second in a very crowded June 5 primary. California uses a top-two system where the two candidates who get the most votes advance to the general, no matter what party they’re from. He beat 15 other candidates to earn the right to compete.

 

The only person who got more votes than him, the Royce-endorsed Young Kim, drew almost 22 percent of the vote to Cisneros’s 19.3 percent.

 

The California 39th seat is gettable. The Cook Political Report rates it as a Toss-up.

 

Please learn about Cisneros and see if he is someone you can support.

 

 

See Cisneros’s campaign site:

https://cisnerosforcongress.com

 

 

See his Meet Gil page:

https://cisnerosforcongress.com/meet-gil/

 

 

See his Issues page, which includes sections on health care for all, getting corporate money out of politics, and holding President Trump accountable:

https://cisnerosforcongress.com/gilsplan/

 

 

Donate to Cisneros’s campaign:

https://secure.ngpvan.com/cS9iYUBauE2-Znc9wKbzkA2

 

 

Choose Cisneros for your Core Four:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2018/04/08/choose-your-core-four-for-2018/

 

 

Like him on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/GilCisnerosCA/

 

 

Follow him on Twitter:

@GilCisnerosCA

 

 

Read a July 2017 Los Angeles Times piece about Cisneros’s entry into the race, in which he mentions that he left the Republican Party in 2008 because he didn’t like the direction in which the party was going:

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-ed-royce-challenger-gil-1500080377-htmlstory.html

 

 

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!

 

 

Read stories about Ed Royce’s retirement from Congress:

http://www.anaheimblog.net/2018/01/10/veteran-rep-ed-royce-wont-run-for-re-election/

https://www.ocregister.com/2018/01/08/ed-royce-longtime-o-c-congressman-plans-to-retire/

 

GOOD UPDATE! Harley Rouda Beat 15-Term (!) Republican Incumbent Dana Rohrbacher for a House Seat in California’s 48th District
Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Elections · Russian Scandal, Emoluments Clause · Stand Up for Civilization · Stand Up for Norms · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends · Vote with your Dollars

GOOD UPDATE! Harley Rouda Beat 15-Term (!) Republican Incumbent Dana Rohrbacher for a House Seat in California’s 48th District

otycd

Update, March 24, 2018: YES YES YES! Democrat Harley Rouda beat 15-term Republican incumbent and creepy Vladimir Putin fan Dana Rohrabacher for the House of Representatives seat in California’s 48th District.

 

As a member of the House, Rouda will be up for re-election in 2020. Please consider including him in your 2020 Core Four.

 

Original text of the 2018 post on Rouda’s campaign follows.

 

Support Democrat Harley Rouda’s campaign to win the House of Representatives seat in California’s 48th Congressional District and unseat Republican Dana Rohrabacher.

 

It was inevitable that the 2018 race in California’s 48th would command attention. Republican incumbent Dana Rohrabacher has held the seat since 1988 (that’s not a typo, you read that right, he’s been there almost 30 years) and he is widely seen as being in the pocket of Vladimir Putin and Russia.

 

This goes beyond an affinity for blinis and borscht.

 

In 2012, the FBI warned Rohrabacher that the Kremlin regards him as being so Russia-friendly that they gave him a code name:

 

 

In October 2017, news broke that House Republican leaders restricted his ability to use Congressional funds on travel because of his closeness to Russia:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-leaders-refusing-to-pay-for-dana-rohrabachers-travel-over-russia-fears

 

 

A June 2016 recording, which was subsequently heard and confirmed by Washington Post reporters, captured House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy stating, “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” House Speaker Paul Ryan reportedly stopped the conversation and swore everyone listening to secrecy.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-mccarthy-ryan-trump-putin-20170517-story.html

 

 

Politico wrote a November 23, 2016 story on Rohrabacher that bluntly calls him “Putin’s Favorite Congressman”:

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/putin-congress-rohrabacher-trump-231775

 

 

There’s enough there there that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was reportedly scrutinizing Rohrabacher as of November 2017:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/robert-mueller-dana-rohrabacher-russia-investigation

 

 

The good news is Rohrabacher’s entanglements with Russia have put his House seat in danger. Here are two stories on that theme, both from April 2018:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/everyone-is-painting-gop-congressman-dana-rohrabacher-as-putins-puppet

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-rohrabacher-gop-20180405-story.html

 

 

The Cook Political Report shows the trouble the Republican incumbent is in. It rates his seat as a Toss-up.

 

Democrats need to gain at least 24 seats in the House of Representatives to take control of the chamber. Those who know say that eight of those 24 could flip in California. The 48th is one of those eight.

 

After a ferociously fought June 5, 2018 top-two primary that included eight Democrats among 15 challengers for Rohrabacher’s seat, Harley Rouda took second place by 126 votes. (Thanks again for your efforts, Hans Keirstead.)

 

This seat is eminently gettable, and Rouda is raring to get it. Please look at the links below and see if you can support him. Rouda promises to be tougher on Russia than Rohrabacher is, but to be fair, it’s mathematically impossible not to be tougher on Russia than Rohrabacher is.

 

 

See Rouda’s campaign website:

https://harleyforcongress.com

 

 

See his About page:

https://harleyforcongress.com/about-harley/

 

 

See his Issues page:

https://harleyforcongress.com/issues/

 

 

 

Choose Rouda for your Core Four:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2018/04/08/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 Rouda’s campaign:

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/rouda?refcode=www

 

 

Volunteer for Rouda:

https://harleyforcongress.com/volunteer/

 

 

Like him on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/HarleyforCongress/posts/

 

 

Follow him on Twitter:

@HarleyRouda

Learn Which Three States Prevent Felons Who Have Fulfilled Their Sentences from Voting, And Learn How Other States Handle Felons and Voting Rights
Community Activism · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends · Voting Rights, Fighting Voter Suppression

Learn Which Three States Prevent Felons Who Have Fulfilled Their Sentences from Voting, And Learn How Other States Handle Felons and Voting Rights

otycd

Learn which three states prevent felons who have fulfilled their sentences from voting, and learn how other states handle felons and voting rights.

 

Florida made headlines in November 2018 when about 65 percent of voters who turned out supported Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences.

 

Amendment 4 could re-enfranchise more than one million Florida voters, many of them black. Naturally, the GOP-controlled state legislature is trying to get around the implications of the new law by attempting what amounts to an unconstitutional poll tax. (Fortunately, Andrew Gillum is on the case.)

 

Three other states are as restrictive as Florida once was with its felons. They are:

 

Iowa

 

Kentucky

 

Virginia

 

We at OTYCD are not aware of any Amendment 4-style efforts in those states to change their laws, but if we learn of any, we will post them here and probably give them separate posts as well.

 

 

In 19 states, prisoners, parolees, and people on probation cannot vote, but everyone else can.

Those 19 states are:

 

Alaska

 

New Jersey

 

West Virginia

 

North Carolina

 

South Carolina

 

Georgia

 

Wisconsin

 

Minnesota

 

South Dakota

 

Nebraska

 

Missouri

 

Kansas

 

Arkansas

 

Oklahoma

 

Louisiana

 

Texas

 

New Mexico

 

Idaho

 

Washington

 

Felons who live in these states could benefit from a public awareness campaign that lets them know that if they have completed their sentences, they are eligible to vote.

 

 

Four states bar prisoners and parolees from voting, but allow those on probation to vote. They are:

 

California

 

New York

 

Colorado

 

Connecticut

 

Again, a public awareness-raising campaign would be useful here.

 

 

Fourteen other states, plus the District of Columbia, only stop people in prison from voting. But, again, ex-prisoners, parolees, and folks on probation may not be aware that they’re eligible to vote. This group includes:

 

Rhode Island

 

New Hampshire

 

Massachusetts

 

Pennsylvania

 

Maryland

 

Ohio

 

Michigan

 

Indiana

 

Illinois

 

North Dakota

 

Montana

 

Utah

 

Oregon

 

The District of Columbia

 

Just two states never take away their residents’ right to vote, even if they’re in prison: Vermont and Maine.

 

Getting as many people out to vote–both in 2019 election and the 2020 election–is crucial. Please know your rights and help others know their rights.

 

See the ACLU’s Felony Disenfranchisement Laws map:

https://www.aclu.org/issues/voting-rights/voter-restoration/felony-disenfranchisement-laws-map

 

See our past post about the ACLU, which includes links to its main page and a donation page:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2018/12/08/support-the-american-civil-liberties-union-aclu/

 

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!

 

See the OTYCD 2019 To-Do List, which stresses helping register people to vote:

https://onethingyoucando.com/your-2019-to-do-list/

 

Support Andrew Gillum’s org, Bring It Home Florida, which helps Floridians register to vote:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2019/03/31/help-andrew-gillum-register-floridians-to-vote-in-time-for-the-2020-presidential-race/

 

See an April 2018 piece from the New York Times on states’ laws regarding felons and voting rights: