GOP election chief who rejects fraud claims up for fed job

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican secretary of state who challenged former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020 is the front-runner for a job heading the Biden administration’s effort to protect future elections, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Kim Wyman, 59, has led elections in Washington state for years, and she was reelected to a third term in November — the lone statewide-elected Republican on the West Coast. She is in talks to serve as the election security leader for the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the agency responsible for safeguarding U.S. elections, the people told The Associated Press. The people had knowledge of the discussions but weren’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

Wyman would serve as the government’s liaison to the states, a job that was high profile before 2020, and will only be more so following Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden, and the embracing of those false claims by other members of the GOP.

Trump and his allies made — and still make — false assertions that there was rampant election fraud in 2020, despite evidence to the contrary. Former Attorney General William Barr told AP there was no sign of widespread fraud. As Trump railed over the election, leaders of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency stated publicly that it was the safest election in history. One was fired by Trump shortly after.



https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-elections-washington-424bf737362adca8ae997a5e3db8f3a6

Bonus Tweet of the Day

Tweet of the Day

Boston mayoral candidates debate ahead of November election

Annissa Essaibi George and Michelle Wu, the two candidates for mayor of Boston, faced off Monday in their final debate ahead of the November election.

The debate was presented by WBUR, The Boston Globe, UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies and WCVB.

The city's election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 2.




https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/10/25/watch-boston-mayor-essaibi-george-wu-final-debate

NJ-GOV: New Jersey Governor's Race Is Getting Interesting and Maybe Even Competitive

Throughout this calendar year, there has been intensive national interest in two gubernatorial contests: the California recall election, which Democrat Gavin Newsom handily won; and Virginia’s regular gubernatorial election, which is coming down to a very close finish between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin on November 2.

But there is another gubernatorial election on November 2 that may be becoming sneakily competitive: in New Jersey, where Democratic Governor Phil Murphy is running for a second term against former Republican state legislator Jack Ciattarelli. The race drew little attention initially because of Murphy’s big lead in early polls and the state’s increasingly Democratic advantage (Joe Biden won there by nearly 16 points in 2020, the fourth straight double-digit Democratic win in what was once a battleground state).

But Murphy’s lead has been steadily shrinking in fairly sparse public polling: down to nine points (50-41) among likely voters in a late September survey from Stockton University, and then further down to six points (50-44) among likely voters in an Emerson poll. This last survey showed undecided voters also leaning towards Ciattarelli. It’s prudent to say that while Murphy remains the favorite, an upset isn’t completely out of the question.

Aside from the partisan lean of the state, Murphy’s big advantage is a modestly positive job approval rating based in no small part on his management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ciattarelli is campaigning principally on the perennial Republican issue of New Jersey’s high property taxes, and on the alleged effect of high state and local taxes generally on business development.



https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/10/new-jersey-governors-race-is-getting-interesting.html

Adams holds wide lead in race for NYC mayor; NYers divided on key issues

NEW YORK — Democrat Eric Adams has a commanding lead over Republican Curtis Sliwa in the race to be New York City’s next mayor, an exclusive PIX11, NewsNation, Emerson College Poll shows.

The poll, released Monday, also found New Yorkers are divided on several key recent issues, including crime, homelessness and jobs.

Adams, the current Brooklyn Borough president who emerged victorious from a crowded Democratic primary field, received support from 61% of likely voters in the poll. Sliwa, the leader of the patrol group the Guardian Angels, received 25% of likely votes. Additionally, 14% of voters remained undecided and the margin of error in the poll was +/- 3.9%.

The picture does not get much better for Sliwa when undecided voters were asked to make a choice. Adams led 70%-30% when allocating undecided New Yorkers.

Camille Mumford, with the Emerson College Polling team, said the poll shows Adams will likely be the next mayor.

“As this point, this late in the election, there’s a very slim chance Curtis could pull this off,” said Mumford. “We can say with about 95% confidence, with the poll outside the margin of error, Eric Adams will be the next mayor of New York.”



https://pix11.com/news/politics/new-york-elections/pix11-poll-adams-holds-wide-lead-in-race-for-nyc-mayor-nyers-divided-on-key-issues/

Tweet of the Week

VA-LTGV: Latino Victory Fund Invests in GOTV to Elect Hala Ayala Lt. Governor

With just over a week until Election Day – and the polls indicating a very close contest, meaning we need EVERYONE to vote! – the Latino Victory Fund is working closely with Virginia candidates, including Delegate Hala Ayala (the Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor) and Del. Elizabeth Guzman. To help win these elections, the Latino Victory Fund is making a five-figure GOTV investment in support of their races. See below for an ad, called “Until Now,” that will air in the DC media market starting this week. The ad highlights the historical nature of Hala Ayala’s candidacy, including the fact that she is the first Afro-Latina elected to the General Assembly. The ad also highlights paid family leave and affordable health care.



https://bluevirginia.us/2021/10/latino-victory-fund-invests-in-gotv-to-elect-hala-ayala-lt-governor-reelect-del-elizabeth-guzman

Democrats Close In On Deal

New York Times: “Negotiators were closing in on an agreement that could spend around $1.75 trillion over 10 years, half the size of the blueprint Democrats approved earlier this year, as they haggled with centrist holdouts in their party who are pressing to curtail the size of the bill…”

“But a final deal remained elusive amid disputes over the details of potential Medicare and Medicaid expansions, a new paid family and medical leave program, programs to combat climate change and a proposal to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Top Democrats were also toiling to nudge the price tag up to $2 trillion, still far below the $3.5 trillion level they laid out in their budget plan.”

Punchbowl News: “Pelosi and her team are still telling House Democrats there could be a vote on both the reconciliation package and bipartisan infrastructure bill this week. Yes, you read that right. We don’t quite understand how the leadership can pull this off — nor do we expect them to — but it’s fascinating that their private posture matches their public statements.”




https://politicalwire.com/2021/10/25/democrats-close-in-on-deal/

San Francisco's progressive DA likely headed for recall

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A campaign to oust one of the nation’s most progressive prosecutors will likely go to San Francisco voters next year after recall supporters submitted far more signatures than needed to qualify for the ballot on Friday.

Three days before the Oct. 25 deadline, organizers of a campaign to recall San Francisco’s criminal justice reform-minded district attorney Chesa Boudin submitted 83,000 signatures — 32,000 more than are required — to the San Francisco Department of Elections.

If at least 51,000 signatures are verified by city officials within the next 30 days, a special recall election could be held as soon as June of next year.

A former public defender and son of left-wing militants who went to prison when he was 14 months old for a deadly robbery gone wrong, Boudin, 41, ran for DA in 2019 on a platform of promising to end mass incarceration and boost non-prosecution diversion programs.

Within his first few months in office, Boudin made good on his campaign pledges. He eliminated cash bail for defendants with the goal of making pre-trial release determinations based on risk instead of wealth. He ordered the DA’s office to stop applying sentencing enhancements based on gang affiliations, arguing that they contribute to racial disparities in the criminal justice system.



https://www.courthousenews.com/san-franciscos-progressive-da-likely-headed-for-recall/