CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
February 06, 2019 06:50 AM UTC
47 Comments
Morning.
Hah! I knew it would not be possible for everyone in the House chambers to stifle a guffaw or two:
If anyone here works for any of our people in Congress, there's an excellent counterpoint to Trump's claim that you can't both wage war and have investigations – the Truman Committee.
I've lost track of what Individual 1's lie-per-day average is, but he racked up at least 30 stretchy facts or dubious statements yesterday and that was only during his speech.
At two years (730 days), Trump was at 8,158, according to WaPo. " Put another way: The president averaged nearly 5.9 false or misleading claims a day in his first year in office. But he hit nearly 16.5 a day in his second year, almost triple the pace."
UPDATE, Feb. 3: As of 745 days, the tally is 8,459 claims
And pie charts are always useful:
New VA tourism board campaign: Virginia is for…racists?
Virginia attorney general admits to wearing blackface at 1980 college party
Maybe they need to stop selling dark shoe polish and face paint in the state for a while.
Not one of their opponents found any hint of any of these skeletons in their closets back in 2017? Is there a cause of action for professional negligence against opp research firms?
Or they didn't get why this would be a bad thing because they're racists as well.
Valid point.
IIRC Northam's opponent, Ed Gillespie had to fend off a challenge in the GOP primary for governor from Corey Stewart whose racial views were, hmmm — how to put this politely — traditional southern and ante bellum. Didn't Stewart make a big issue over preserving confederate war statues in his race against Gillespie?
Even if Gillespie was not a racist himself, he still needed to pander to them since they make up much, if not most, of the GOP base today.
Gillespie himself went hard-right this time.
I'm probably going to get called racist for this post (incorrectly). But I think it's important to post it anyway. The quote at the top is appropriate for this topic. Is the Virgina AG racist? I don't know. But if the punishment for every 40-year-old transgression is "Resign!" then there won't be enough pure people left to fill all the elected seats.
Blackface today – absolutely offensive and unforgivable. Especially given the dramatically increased visibility and attention paid to it. And blackface was certainly offensive to a lot of people in the past – but if you were insulated by a bunch of racially / culturally homogeneous friends, you might not have known it was considered offensive by so many. The real questions should be – has he sincerely apologized and repented? Has the Virginia AG grown? Has he provably repudiated his past racial insensitivity? Has he taken action to try to heal our destructive racial history? With examples, please.
And, remember the context of 1980. We all think that "Everybody knew blackface was bad!" – but the 1980 incident was only 3 or 4 years after this extremely popular film, where it was played for laughs. Young people might be forgiven for being confused.
I don't get to decide when it matters, because I'm white, and part of white privilege is being able to distinguish between racism we mean and racism out of ignorance. Forgiveness, acceptance, whatever you call it can only come from the communities of persecuted people who don't get to wipe off the makeup at night.
What are black folks in Virginia demanding? That's what I'm for.
Oh, speaking of…
Washington Post: Warren listed race as 'American Indian' on Texas bar registration
Elizabeth Warren apologizes for calling herself Native American
Warren is toast. This is what ya get when you try to play Trump's games on Trump's terms in 2019 America.
Would Warren make an infinitely superior POTUS? Absolutely. Does she have a snowball's chance of beating Trump in 2020 (assuming, of course, Trump lasts that long)? Not just no, but fuck no.
If she had put mixed – then maybe. But this was trying to turn a family history rumor into something much much more.
if toast = insurmountable baggage
yep, fork please.
Fair point. But most of the people I see calling for heads to roll are neither Virginian nor black. It will be interesting to see what they choose.
Also, the AG, himself, called for Northam to resign.
I was talking about the AG. I suspect Northam is toast. My gut is that his story has evolved too many times to be trustworthy. But I also suspect the issues with the Vice Governor and the AG are part of Northam's calculus.
Those who live in glass houses…..yadda, yadda, yadda.
OTOH, putting aside the hypocrisy, at least Mark Herring did not handle his incident by: (a) saying he didn’t know if it was him, (b) apologizing if it was him, (c) then say that it couldn’t be him but (d) he did do black face on different occasion in a dance contest, and (e) turn to his wife to ask if it was inappropriate to demonstrate the Moonwalk dance at a press conference.
You're saying that there wouldn't be enough people to fill all the elected seats who haven't done something like wear blackface? Idk. I think there'd be plenty of black people who could fill those seats.
That's not what I said. Not every transgression is blackface, nor is every transgression racial. But I bet there are not very many people who have *never* done anything offensive.
But this transgression is blackface and getting politicians who've dressed in blackface to resign doesn't necessitate more minor things forcing people to resign. Have most people made some mistake? Sure. Have most people made a mistake on the level of dressing up in blackface? Lol, no.
Frankly, kid, I don't think you're old enough to judge 40-year-old offenses against political correctness.
Frankly, I don't care. He doesn't want to be governor 40 years ago. He wants to remain governor now in 2019. If he wants his actions to be judged by the standards of 40 years ago, he should've run for governor 40 years ago.
You've missed or are ignoring his point: you're too young to matter.
Come back after you've had your progressive asskciked for 20 or 30 years – meanwhile study up on Humphrey, Carter, McGovern, Dukakis, and every solid D who ever ran and lost in Colorado.
the flux capcitor argument is good.
IN the end – "it's just the way it was, and hell, I didn't mean nothin by it" is bs.
I'm just happy to have lived long enough to meet a person wholly without sin who is perfect in every way.
As I understand it, the next step is that we crucify them.
Oh, don't be so melodramatic. People are asking him to resign as governor. No one wants him to go to jail or face any fines, both of which I'd oppose. The standards we hold for whether or not someone should hold or stay in elected office should be much higher than the standards for if we like someone or if someone is a good person or if someone should face punishment.
Nah. I'll keep going now. Youth doesn't make you irrelevant any more than age makes you relevant.
so…. you got anyone to move CD1?
You flunk theology 101, deadbird. It is not Northam the sinner who is crucified. It is you, the perfect one, born of a virgin, politically correct in all things, who is nailed to the cross to pay for our sins. It may not seem fair to you, but that is our tradition. Perfection has its cost.
Nobody is too young to matter. And deathpigeon, here's hoping you live long enough to be embarrassed by shit you're doing right now. Karma is a sneaky bitch with a loooooong memory.
We all have "stuff" we're embarrassed by, or we should be embarrassed by. That, if not relevance, comes with age.
And…. Vger's comment below:
is hilarious.
Yeah, but some folks are too young to matter as much as they think they do . . .
. . . it’s not their fault, and time will usually correct that.
I plan on never running for elected office. If I were on the ballot, I'd tell people to vote against me. I am not suited for government. And nor is someone with a history like Northam's. He should step down and he should've never run in the first place.
"It is not the crime, it is the cover up." – What many, many, many people said of Watergate and many other political scandals involving crime since then.
A similar phrase could be formulated for instances of past bad behavior that is not criminal coming to light in times that are less forgiving. "It is not the past conduct, it is the spin."
Much as with Bill Clinton the suspicion when something negative about the past is revealed is that the person may still be doing it, but being more careful about revealing what they have done. Especially when their story keeps changing or what they have done cuts against the core of their message.
People can reform, they can change for the better, they can grow. But part of that has to be admitting what they have done wrong instead of being hopeful it says buried or acting like a child lying about what happened to the cake while they still have frosting on their hands.
You don't have to go that far back to find blackface in pop culture. Are we supposed to now go after each of these actors and demand that they resign their present gigs, or should we just ask them to publicly say why what they did was wrong, cultural (mis) appropriation, and vow not to do it again?
I vote for the latter.
It's a shame about Herring. I watched him through the marriage fight in Virginia and he seemed like a good guy. I bet he would have been a good governor.
Regardless of one’s opinion on Virginia politics, here’s something that isn’t receiving nearly enough attention . . .
With Northam Picture, Obscure Publication Plays Big Role in Virginia Politics
https://nyti.ms/2UJGqcf?smid=nytcore-ios-share
. . . forest meet trees.
“But as mainstream news outlets scrambled to confirm the photograph on Mr. Northam’s medical school yearbook page on Friday, it became clear that Big League Politics — and its mission of promoting the Trump agenda and nationalist causes — had assumed outsized influence in an increasingly Democratic state.”
Kompromat?
Good catch.
Part of me wants to blame the guy even more – he knew shit was out there (this cannot be everything) but he ran anyway.
But you're right – this kind of shit is devious
Why wait until after the election
I dunno’, why do dogs chase squirrels?
Who benefits from chaos and turmoil, now?
What else would journalists near Washington have to report upon?
BTW, do you think you have ever met anyone who didn’t know that there’s “shit out there”? Life, political life, is a gamble . . .
Exactly. It's why I want Democrats to have some guidelines or norms for dealing with past bad behavior other than the knee jerk reaction: OH NO HE/SHE IS NOT PURE THEY MUST RESIGN ASAP.
guidelines should include:
Did the behavior harm people directly? Indirectly? How severe was the harm? Would it be a crime under a legal definition? Did the offender try to cover it up? Did the offender blame others/ lie/ justify the bad behavior?
Is there evidence that the behavior is continuing – for example, Northam did not sign off on a bill celebrating Robert E Lee's birthday the Friday before MLK day – that bill was codified in 1983. But there is no evidence that Northam was part of the effort to not celebrate Lee-Jackson day anymore. It looks to me as though Northam's failure was a failure to speak out and stand up.
Kavanaugh continued to get drunk and abuse women, even as a grown man.
John Conyers continued to come on to his aides, and to try to coerce sexual favors.
John Edwards continued to lie about his love child.
Clinton said publicly that he didn't have sex with "that" woman (wagging his finger at nobody in particular).
"guidelines?!"
How about- don't be a racist jerk.
Or don't be a rapist.
Or a pedophile.
Or a fraud.
Or a felon.
Go ahead- ask me about the time I was any of those things.
There are millions and millions of us
It isn't about perfection or purity or wtfe.
It's about being qualified.
Yes, guidelines. Not all-or-nothing purity tests that make us so easily manipulated by any oppo researcher with an agenda.
Of the list you have above, criminal habits would be obviously disqualifying. So no Denny Hasterts, no Mark Foleys or Roy Moores. No Trumps, no Kavanaughs.
The catch is that voters have to know about the criminal behavior prior to the election.
Even with felons, I don’t know that it would totally disqualify a candidate. A person can be convicted of a felony that involves using, possessing, or selling drugs. They can do their time, make restitution, and then be ready to be a productive citizen, including running for office. The key is to let voters know the whole story, and let them decide.
Now, on the “being a racist jerk” front – define that behavior. Was it habitual? Continuing? Intentional or ignorant? I don’t know you, but assume that you are an American human white male, as I am a female in those categories. That means that sometime, we did or said something racist, or that someone said was racist. Best thing to do is understand, acknowledge, resolve to do better, including being proactively anti-racist, move on.
Well said.
She's pretty good sometimes, V., isn't she?
😊