October 28, 2019

Do single candidate Super Pacs need that candidate's permission to form?

Foe example, Elizabeth Warren has two inactive Super Pacs, did those need her permission to be formed?

October 25, 2019

Biden's lead shrinks in South Carolina poll

Former Vice President Joe Biden has an 11-point lead over the next closest contender in South Carolina, but recent gains by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) have cut into his advantage, according to a new poll.

The latest Post and Courier survey finds Biden on top of the crowded Democratic field in the Palmetto State at 30 percent support, followed by Warren at 19 percent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 13 percent, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) at 11 percent and Buttigieg at 9 percent.

Biden is down 6 points over the same poll from August, while Warren has moved up 2 points and Buttigieg has gained 4 points since August. In May, Biden led the next closest contender by 31 points. That advantage dipped to 20 points in June, 19 points in August and now 11 in October.

Biden is running near the top in the three other early voting states as well, but South Carolina is viewed by many as his firewall, as he continues to lead the field among black voters, who make up about two-thirds of the Democratic primary electorate in the state.

But the Post and Courier survey found that Biden’s decline in South Carolina has largely been driven by African American women. Biden has lost 13 points month-over-month among that important voting bloc, and he has lost 10 points among women overall.

The Post and Courier-Change Research survey of 731 likely Democratic primary voters in South Carolina was conducted between Oct. 15 and Oct. 21 and has a 3.6 percentage point margin of error.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/467481-bidens-lead-shrinks-in-south-carolina-poll

October 19, 2019

Supreme Court to weigh constitutionality of financial watchdog agency created by Elizabeth Warren

The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a dispute over the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a case that could dramatically scale back the agency's authority to police financial markets or eliminate it altogether.

The court said Friday it will hear a challenge from a California-based law firm that argues the CFPB, the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, is unconstitutionally structured.

Opponents of the CFPB, created in 2010, argue that its structure violates the separation of powers, as Congress gave it broad authority to regulate mortgages, credit cards, and other consumer products, and is helmed by a single director who can't be removed by the president except for cause.

The Trump administration said in a filing with the Supreme Court it concluded the "statutory restriction on the president's authority to remove the director violates" the Constitution, and "the director of the bureau has since reached the same conclusion."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/courts/supreme-court-to-weigh-constitutionality-of-the-financial-watchdog-agency-created-by-elizabeth-warren

Trump wants the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau struck down... what a shock

October 19, 2019

Warren now has the 2020 bull's eye on her back - Washington Post

he Commentary

The biggest event of the week was obviously the Democratic debate. The front-runners sparred on health care. Beto O’Rourke and Pete Buttigieg clashed on guns. Cory Booker worked “dumpster fire” and Robert Bork into his answers. Tom Steyer was, inexplicably, there. A lot happened.

But the most important moments came near the beginning of the debate, when Elizabeth Warren started to take some heat from rivals like Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar on health care. As her opponents pressed her on the costs of her plans, it became clear that Warren’s competitors see her as the front-runner. The data suggests she’s been a co-front-runner for some time now — she briefly surpassed Joe Biden in the RealClearPolitics average of polls, raised a boatload of money and has a viable path to the nomination — but the bull’s eye is just now landing on her. Reporters and opponents alike are about to dig deep into her past and scrutinize everything they find. Nobody knows what’s going to turn up, though we can probably still rule out hunky Marines.

Warren wasn’t the only progressive who entered a new phase of the race last week. During the debate, some news broke that was great for Bernie Sanders: The Post reported that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would be endorsing Sanders at an upcoming rally. For months, Sanders has been struggling to break out of the mid-to-high teens in the national polls, and the AOC endorsement could be a shot in the arm for him.

Both progressives also posted large sums in the official third-quarter fundraising reports (about $25 million each), but they weren’t the only candidates bringing in the dough. Buttigieg, who is clearly trying to supplant Biden as the moderate alternative to Warren, brought in $19 million. Biden, still stuck in the maelstrom surrounding President Trump’s call to Ukraine, took in $16 million, and Kamala D. Harris’s $12 million barely outpaced Andrew Yang’s $10 million. The rest took in enough to stay in the game.

All of this adds up to progressives as the stars of this week, but none of the major players are out of the game … yet.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/18/bulls-eye-just-landed-someone-new/?arc404=true

October 10, 2019

Fox News Poll: Biden and Warren gain ground in Democratic race

Biden stays on top in the race with 32 percent support among primary voters, up 3 points since September. He’s followed by Elizabeth Warren at 22 percent -- that’s up 6 points and a new high for her. Bernie Sanders is at 17 percent, down 1 point since last month.

While Biden’s support has stayed between 29-35 percent since March, his current 10-point advantage is about half of his 19-point lead in June.



At the same time, the poll finds the three top Democratic candidates with sizable leads over the president in potential head-to-head matchups.

The poll, released Thursday, shows Biden (50-40 percent) and Warren (50-40 percent) both top Trump by 10 points, and Sanders is up by 9 (49-40 percent). This marks the first time all three Democrats have held a lead outside the poll’s margin of error. Last month, Biden was up by 14 points, Warren by 6 and Sanders by 8.


https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-biden-and-warren-gain-ground-in-democratic-race

Elizabeth Warren looking very strong in the head to head matchup versus Trump!

October 9, 2019

Facebook rejects Biden's request to remove false Trump attack ad

Facebook has rejected a request by Joe Biden's presidential campaign to pull down or demote a Donald Trump ad it says contains misinformation. The campaign asked the company to take action against an ad which suggests that "Biden promised Ukraine $1 billion dollars if they fired the prosecutor investigating his son's company." In a letter to Biden's camp obtained by The New York Times, Facebook declined to do so.

The campaign said the claim in the ad "has been demonstrated to be completely false." Politifact and Factcheck.org, organizations that Facebook works with for fact checking, debunked the 30-second ad soon after President Trump's camp distributed it.

In a recent update to its advertising policy on misinformation, Facebook wrote that it "prohibits ads that include claims debunked by third-party fact checkers or, in certain circumstances, claims debunked by organizations with particular expertise."

However, in the letter, Facebook's public policy director for global elections Katie Harbath underscored the company's policy to take a hands-off approach to posts from politicians. "Our approach is grounded in Facebook's fundamental belief in free expression, respect for the democratic process, and the belief that, in mature democracies with a free press, political speech is already arguably the most scrutinized speech there is," Harbath wrote. "Thus, when a politician speaks or makes an ad, we do not send it to third-party fact checkers."

If a politician shares "a viral hoax -- like a link to an article or video that has previously been debunked, we will demote that content, display related information from fact checkers, and reject its inclusion in advertisements," Harbath noted. "That is different from a politician's own claim or statement — even if the substance of that claim has been debunked elsewhere. If the claim is made directly by a politician on their Page, in an ad or on their website, it is considered direct speech and ineligible for our third-party fact-checking program."

The Biden campaign said Facebook's response was "unacceptable." A spokesman said in a statement to CNN that the dissemination of "objectively false information to influence public opinion poisons the public discourse and chips away at our democracy."

https://www.engadget.com/2019/10/09/facebook-biden-trump-ad-misinformation-political-ad/

Facebook just declared open season on all Democrats.