There's Something Happening Here

What it is ain't exactly clear, but it could signal that the main focus of the Republican/ Seditionist Party in the midterms has shifted from taking both the Senate and House to focusing on the more winnable House:

As midterm election campaigns heat up in the Senate’s top battlegrounds, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is canceling millions of dollars of ad spending, sending GOP campaigns and operatives into a panic and upending the committee’s initial spending plan.

The cuts — totaling roughly $13.5 million since Aug. 1 — come as the Republicans’ Senate campaign committee is being forced to “stretch every dollar we can,” said a person familiar with the NRSC’s deliberations. Republican nominees in critical states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina — places the GOP must defend this fall — have failed to raise enough money to get on air themselves, requiring the NRSC to make cuts elsewhere to accommodate.

Since Aug. 1, the NRSC has cut ad buys in the battleground states of Pennsylvania ($7.5 million), Arizona ($3.5 million), Wisconsin ($2.5 million) and Nevada ($1.5 million), according to the ad tracking service AdImpact. Separately, a Democratic source tracking advertising buys estimated roughly $10.5 million in cuts by the NRSC since the first of the month.

“People are asking, ‘What the hell is going on?’” said one Republican strategist working on Senate races. “Why are we cutting in August? I’ve never seen it like this before.”  (our emphasis)

While the Sen. Rick "Bat Boy" Scott (Medicare Fraud-FL) -led NRSC could be floundering, it's important to note that other Republican PACs are flush with cash for the fall (including Sen. "Moscow Mitch" McConnell's war chest).  Nonetheless, the party's über radicalization (draconian abortion laws, opposition to PACT, reaction to Mar-a-Largo raid, etc.), its predilection for running deeply flawed MAGA nuts for Senate (eg., Oz, Vance, Walker, Masters), and the "Trump is on the ballot" phenomenon has shifted the odds of the Senate staying in Democratic hands, with the very real potential of adding a few seats. The House remains a challenge, with a swing of only 4 seats determining control. 

Republican election deniers are running for key positions in battleground states, poised to nullify election results in 2024 should they win.  Today's primaries in Alaska and Wyoming should offer further proof to reality- based voters of the Republican/ Seditionist Party's full embrace of the Malignant Loser's cult of personality. 

In "normal" times, the party in control of the White House loses seats in Congress.  But, as we get closer to November the chances we could be seeing an "asterisk" election seem to be increasing.  

Please volunteer, donate, or do whatever you can to help save our democracy.

(Image:  "Moscow Mitch"McConnell and "Bat Boy" Scott, Republican rainmakers/ CNN)

QOTD -- 99 Days

 

"Trump has not gone away. The Jan. 6 committee has brought his transgressions back to the center of discussion. One of his most important legacies is a very right-wing Supreme Court that has begun a radical demolition of long-standing conceptions of the law on abortion, guns, environmental regulation and voting rights — with more to come.

"Tuesday’s primaries in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington are a reminder of another factor working in the Democrats’ favor, particularly in key Senate races: GOP voters have picked a lot of very right-wing and thus highly vulnerable nominees.

"The result: If the public isn’t wild about Democrats, they like Republicans even less. That Pew survey found that 57 percent of Americans had an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, but 61 percent had an unfavorable view of Republicans." -- E.J. Dionne, Jr., in the Washington Post on why 2022 shouldn't be seen as a "normal" mid-term election.  The outlook for the Senate has already improved for Democrats, and continuing to focus on the radical Christofascist Republican Party and it's ultra- reactionary "agenda" may keep the bloodletting in the House to a minimum at least.  

There are 99 days to go until November 8.  It's not much, but it's still a lifetime in politics.

Trump "In Spirit" Vs. Trump "In The Flesh"

 

Frank Bruni in today's New York Times outlines the core of the Republican strategy for the 2022 midterms.

"What candidates don’t do can have as much impact on an election as what they do, and Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia was a triumph of omission. It’s no accident that he never beckoned Donald Trump to campaign with him. It’s no fluke that he never appeared in public with Trump, the most popular figure in the Republican Party by far. [snip]

In no sane world and by no sound reading did Youngkin run without or away from Trump, though that’s one of the spins being applied to his election in a state that President Biden won by roughly 10 percentage points just a year ago. Youngkin simply chose Trump in spirit over Trump in the flesh, a Trump Lite tack sure to be mimicked by Republican candidates in the 2022 midterms and beyond, at least until Trump’s favor fades and his shadow shrinks."  (our emphasis)

Add to that a focus on ginned-up, tried and true dog whistle racism, now embodied by the "critical race theory" canard, which is not being taught in public schools. That and other culture war issues riles up the Trumpist base of their party almost as much as an unhinged stump speech by Dear Leader himself. 

Dems now have to figure out how to put their message across, but that has to follow accomplishments that the voters feel in their own lives that the message is based on. They also have to get out of the fetal position when subjected to false Republican attacks, and go on the offensive. Better still, be proactive with countering what will certainly be their strategy for 2022 and beyond. "Trump in spirit" is still Trumpism, even without the malignant, lying demagogue "in the flesh."

 

Val Demings To Take On "Little Marco" Rubio For Senate in '22

 

A strong candidate that could give Democrats a decent chance to defeat Trump- enabling, Bible- quoting Florida Sen. Marco "Little Marco" Rubio in 2022 is entering the race:

Democratic Rep. Val Demings of Florida plans to run for the U.S. Senate in a bid to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is up for reelection in 2022, Politico and NBC News first reported Tuesday.

An adviser to Demings confirmed to HuffPost that she is planning a Senate bid and would make a formal announcement shortly.

Demings, 64, had been weighing whether to enter the state’s gubernatorial race, but ultimately decided she could be most effective in the Senate, Politico reported, citing Democrats who are familiar with her thinking.  [snip]

Demings was first elected to the House in 2016 to represent Florida’s 10th Congressional District, which includes a large portion of Orlando. She was previously the city’s chief of police ― the first Black woman to hold that position. She gained national attention last year for her role in then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, in which she served on the House panel that charged him with misconduct.

If you saw the second impeachment trial of the former guy, you'd likely agree that Demings stood out as one of the strongest and most persuasive advocates for conviction.  She's the real deal.  Retiring the little gusano that a credulous TIME magazine once dubbed the "the Republican savior" would be a satisfying end to an empty suit who fancies himself presidential timber, but is really just your run- of- the- mill Republican careerist weasel.