Special Election megathread (4/30: NY-26)

[Meatball Ron]

Now that Fudge has resigned, has the election been scheduled yet?

https://twitter.com/PersistOhio/status/1370040286777380865

Primary scheduled for August 3, General for November 2: www.wkyc.com/amp/article/news/politics/elections/election-ohio-11th-congressional-district-november-2-2021/95-1d0a664f-2a11-41a9-8e7e-e16c8497b41b

What on earth? Keeping a seat open for nearly a year - depriving residents of both representation and key constituent services - presumably just to keep the Dems' majority one seat narrower? Is there any other reasonable explanation here? This is something I'd expect from a DeSantis or a Noem, but not DeWine. There should really be some laws in place here about how soon a special election has to be scheduled following a vacancy.

[Meatball Ron]

Now that Fudge has resigned, has the election been scheduled yet?

https://twitter.com/PersistOhio/status/1370040286777380865

Primary scheduled for August 3, General for November 2: www.wkyc.com/amp/article/news/politics/elections/election-ohio-11th-congressional-district-november-2-2021/95-1d0a664f-2a11-41a9-8e7e-e16c8497b41b

What on earth? Keeping a seat open for nearly a year - depriving residents of both representation and key constituent services - presumably just to keep the Dems' majority one seat narrower? Is there any other reasonable explanation here? This is something I'd expect from a DeSantis or a Noem, but not DeWine. There should really be some laws in place here about how soon a special election has to be scheduled following a vacancy.

Sadly, the only law in Ohio is that a special has to be held eventually. We're lucky he didn't elect to leave the seat empty until Late 2022 like Rick Snyder did with the Conyers seat in the 115th Congress.

Wow - I’m disgusted. All the institutional barriers that black and brown people face in this country, and DeWine - a supposedly “reasonable” Republican because he subscribes to some common sense beliefs like masks help prevent the spread of disease and Biden won the election - sees fit to deprive hundreds of thousands of black voters of congressional representation as part of a cynical partisan game. This party is truly beyond repair and anyone who continues to support it should feel ashamed.

[Meatball Ron]

(She performed terribly in the election for Secretary of State in 2014, but of the five statewide candidates, she was the base's choice, bar none.)

What does that even mean lol - she got the lowest vote share of any Dem running statewide in Ohio in 2014. Are you arguing that among the people who did vote straight ticket Dem, they were most excited about Nina? That feels pretty hard to prove.

Edit: sorry, she slightly outperformed scandal-plagued FitzGerald but underperformed the rest. Think my point / question stands.

[Meatball Ron]

Watch DeWine schedule the special election for this seat earlier than the OH-11 special

[Meatball Ron]

1. No, she compared it to eating half a bowl, with Trump being the entire thing. It should be OK for Democrats to say that the candidate is imperfect but better than the alternative.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Are you seriously implying that

a) there is a material difference between eating "half a bowl of sh**t" and "a bowl of sh**t" - either way, you are eating sh**t

b) comparing a candidate to "eating sh**t" is the same thing as saying they're "imperfect"

I understand the nuance you're going for, but all Turner was saying is that "Biden is terrible but a little less bad than Trump." That's not the same thing as "imperfect but worth supporting" or whatever (which I would, of course, be fine with). Someone who thinks Biden is terrible should not be a Democratic member of Congress, especially considering how narrow the majority is.

[Meatball Ron]

1. No, she compared it to eating half a bowl, with Trump being the entire thing. It should be OK for Democrats to say that the candidate is imperfect but better than the alternative.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Are you seriously implying that

a) there is a material difference between eating "half a bowl of sh**t" and "a bowl of sh**t" - either way, you are eating sh**t

b) comparing a candidate to "eating sh**t" is the same thing as saying they're "imperfect"

I understand the nuance you're going for, but all Turner was saying is that "Biden is terrible but a little less bad than Trump." That's not the same thing as "imperfect but worth supporting" or whatever (which I would, of course, be fine with). Someone who thinks Biden is terrible should not be a Democratic member of Congress, especially considering how narrow the majority is.

I'm not really interested in debating the rather subjective debate of whether the distastefulness of ingesting feces is absolute or varies depending on the volume of said feces. With the context, I think it's pretty clear that she was used (perhaps hyperbolic) language to explain how she can both be critical of Biden and in favor of voting for him. I mean, why even make the distinction to begin with if that's not the point she was making?

With respect to your point about how "someone who thinks Biden is terrible should not be a Democratic member of Congress," I disagree vehemently for a couple reasons. Firstly, people who didn't like Biden were a substantial part of Biden's coalition in 2020; I should know, I was one of them. Voters like me deserve to be represented in government. More importantly, though, you seem to be suggesting that anyone who wants to serve as a Democrat in Congress must approve of any given Democratic president with only relatively minor criticisms, if any. This would lead to one of two things happening. Either A. anyone left of Biden goes unrepresented in the federal government, depriving them of representation and the nation of any good ideas they may come up with, or B. they are represented, just by a third party instead of the Democrats, which would be even worse, as the split would likely result in a spoiler effect kneecapping both parties.

Ehhhh, you're missing the point. I think Biden skeptics / Biden critics like AOC clearly have a place in Congress and are a good representation of the people in Biden's "coalition" who don't like Biden. That is not the same thing as saying the thought of Biden as President is as appetizing as the thought of eating human feces. Nina clearly feels differently than AOC and the vast majority of Biden skeptics in his "coalition" (many of whom, like the Sunrise children, probably didn't actually turn out to vote). I don't know you or your politics so I can't really say whether you're more in the AOC camp or the Nina camp.

[Meatball Ron]

Progressives held up Biden's agenda?

It was those fabled moderates like Sinema who killed a $15 minimum wage which *checks notes* Biden campaigned on.

Literally nobody is disagreeing with this

[Meatball Ron]

(Fudge's mother says, "we're voting for Shoten Brown), which might generate some bad headlines not just for Brown, but also Fudge.

Would be pretty hard to prove that "we're" = her and Marcia, as opposed to her and her friends, her and her neighbors, her and whoever. Pretty smart.

[Meatball Ron]

Ehhhh, you're missing the point. I think Biden skeptics / Biden critics like AOC clearly have a place in Congress and are a good representation of the people in Biden's "coalition" who don't like Biden. That is not the same thing as saying the thought of Biden as President is as appetizing as the thought of eating human feces. Nina clearly feels differently than AOC and the vast majority of Biden skeptics in his "coalition" (many of whom, like the Sunrise children, probably didn't actually turn out to vote). I don't know you or your politics so I can't really say whether you're more in the AOC camp or the Nina camp.

This obviously isn't provable, but I'm almost certain that Nina Turner and AOC are very close to one another in terms of their feelings towards Biden, even if the language they use differs significantly. I'm probably more in the AOC camp in terms of language and the Turner camp in terms of feelings, but I have less to lose from a Biden administration, so that's probably to be expected.

You're right - there probably isn't a significant difference in terms of their feelings. But you're also right that it isn't provable, so all we have to go off is their words. I am a big believer in the phrase, "when someone shows you who they are, believe them." I don't trust Nina and I think the "bowl of sh**t" comment is a big problem, even if it was hyperbolic.

[Meatball Ron]

To all the folks who argued that supporting the Democratic nominee for President against the worst President of our lifetime shouldn't be a litmus test to run for office under the Democratic Party banner,

And the folks who thought it was appropriate to back a candidate that continually trafficked in anti-Semitic dogwhistles,

All I will say is...

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE

[Meatball Ron]

Solid, but non-extremist, liberal won. Good...

This. Which is also why the coverage of this race is ridiculous. Brown is moderate next to Turner i guess, but she's still very liberal. So it's not like this was a liberal vs. conserva-dem situation. But that's what it's being painted as, just because Turner is so extreme.

That's been the left's schtick for years now, they use the fact that America's more right-wing than most western countries to imply that they're somehow the moderates.

I've seen people call Elizabeth Warren "centre-right by European and Canadian standards". Centre-right.

Ah, of course. As we all know, Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel, and Stephen Harper are great proponents of wealth taxes and workers' representation in corporate boardrooms. Brilliant analysis.

Haha, I used to think this way (see below). It's embarrassing. It's so deeply inaccurate but the online left has done a pretty good job of spreading this message farther and wider than you'd hope or expect.

She's basically a moderate if you put her in European politics. America's Political discourse has moved so far to the right however.

Can either you or PC explain how she is a perfect for the Liberal Democrats, or say the Dutch D66 or En Marche? Are those parties Trotskyist?

Perhaps the original post wasn't specific enough; I guess it would be fairer to say that she's a moderate by Scandinavian or Central European standards. I think we're nitpicking though; the broader point is that the spectrum of political ideology and the placement of "extremes" in the U.S. is very far to the right relative to the rest of the world.

[Meatball Ron]

I'm guessing your views had something to do with single-payer healthcare, which is often used as a litmus test by the left. Maybe that makes sense in the American context, but transposing the healthcare issue to other countries is the height of bad American analysis. It makes as much sense as using birthright citizenship as a global litmus test, then implying that America is more liberal than Sweden which uses "the rule of blood", or implying Canada is more conservative than the States because of voter ID laws and point-based immigration.

Healthcare and probably the broader social safety net, which I obviously now understand isn't a great proxy either (of course people will pay higher taxes / the government will fund more social services in a country that's 95%+ white and there's no risk of those funds going to "the other")

In any case it's just funny to reflect on this because I now react very viscerally to those ridiculous memes that show the "perceived" spectrum versus the "actual" spectrum where every US politician is just on the right

[Meatball Ron]

Why are people acting like Brown is moderate? She supports Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

Because she didn't bow down to King Bernie