There is a lot of discussion right now about how Senators from small states hold too much power compared to the percent of population they represent. There's a lot of truth to this. Alex MacGillis of The Washington Post wrote in an analysis column in their Sunday Outlook section, and David Sirota and Nathan Newman have done good pieces on the topic as well. The simple facts are that the key gang of six negotiating health care in the Senate Finance Committee represent less than 3% of the nation's population; that the 10 largest states are home to over half the country's population but represent only 20% of the Senate; the 21 smallest states together have less total population than California does.
It's good that people are raising these issues, and pointing out this unfairness. The plain fact of the matter, though, is that absent a constitutional convention suddenly being held, there is no changing this particular injustice. It would take 2/3 of the Senate, after all, to pass a constitutional amendment to restructure the Senate, and virtually all of the Senators from small states would vote against it. So we are stuck for now.
What we ought to be focused on instead are strategies that might work.
I want to tell you about a Nebraska blogger named Kyle Michaelis who pretends to be "the state's premiere source of progressive online political commentary" but is actually an apologist for Ben Nelson.
But first, the background details, some of which Paul mentioned earlier...
On Friday, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America launched a new TV ad in DC and Nebraska holding Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) accountable for stalling health care reform while taking millions from health and insurance interests.
The ad features a super-compelling Nebraskan small businessman. It's accompanied by an open letter now signed by over 30,000 people calling out Nelson and telling the full Senate to keep working until health care reform is passed.
Ben Nelson immediately responded. The full statement is here, but the two most relevant sentences were:
Nebraskans don't need outside special interest groups telling them what to think...
If this is an indication of the politics going into August, then health care reform may be dead by the end of August.
The first sentence is absurd because the ad features a Nebraskan telling his personal story and demanding his senator represent people like him. (It's also absurd because, as Public Campaign points out, 83% of Nelson's millions from health and insurance interests comes from out of state!)
The second sentence...well, these headlines sum up the outrageousness:
full disclosure - I work for SEIU as a regional new media specialist
One day before we celebrate the birth of our nation, Nebraskans gathered at a scheduled healthcare roundtable to call on Senator Johanns to support an American solution to our healthcare crisis.
Instead of greeting the teachers from NSEA, veterans, and SEIU workers Senator Johanns' staff called the police, ordering the Nebraskans to leave the Medical Center grounds.
I just got back from my longest trip yet on my book tour promoting The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be. Outside of a quick trip to a Netroots Nation regional meeting in Denver, all of my book travel up until now has been to heavily Democratic cities on the east and west coasts, but this trip was right in the heart of the heartland: Missouri (a swing state leaning red), Kansas and Nebraska (2 thoroughly red states), Iowa (a swing state leaning blue), and the most thoroughly blue Midwestern state there is, Illinois.
Adam took some photos from the trip you can check out on our Flickr set here.
After this all-American, politically diverse, trip, I have certain things I can feel confident in reporting on:
• I continue to be heartened by the great response to the book's message - really good crowds, really responsive people, great questions, incredible passion about changing the country. There really is a movement building everywhere - yes, even in the red states - for big progressive change.
• The populist feelings about the banks are very strong. My biggest applause line every place I spoke was "If you are too big to fail, you are too big to exist." Even though I was speaking to strongly pro-Obama audiences, people were very troubled by his banking policies.
• In spite of the economy, people are still fired up enough to be coming to fundraisers. I was a speaker at three different fundraising events - for the Nebraska Democratic Party in Lincoln, the Iowa Citizen Action Network in Des Moines, and Citizen Action Illinois/USAction in Chicago. All of them were successes, with a combined crowd of over 400 people.
• People very much want to be involved in changing America. There was no sense at all that folks are passively waiting for President Obama to take care of things. Every single event I went to - every single one - someone asked a version of the question "What can we do to help change things?"
It was a great trip, and now I'm back in D.C. for a couple of weeks before heading out again. I look forward to continuing to spread the message about the history, and future, of the progressive cause in America.
So imagine you're a state that has given its electoral college votes to Republican candidates in every election except for the very biggest Democratic landslides, and has done so for 11 straight elections. But you have this very cute provision, whereby some of your state's electoral college votes can be peeled off, if the other party manages to win in any of the state's federal congressional districts. Now of course, this has never happened since the rule was put in place, so it was just a bit of cute trivia for election geeks to blather about, but no one expected it to actually happen.
Then one election, it actually does. Now you're the State's dominant party, the Republican party. What do you do?
Why, end the system and go back to a winner-take-all, of course.
I was born and raised in Nebraska, and my wife grew up on a farm her brother and father still live on. It's four miles away from Westboro, MO, a town whose population has sunk below 200 many years ago. Before being pulled to the Washington, D.C. area because of my work a few years back, my wife and I had never lived in a town over the size of 200,000, and we're still most at home when hanging out with the family and friends back home at small-town cafes and restaurants that were favorite haunts as we were growing up. My brother is a Methodist minister serving a church in Lincoln now, but I miss the days when we could drive out to visit him in churches in places like Mullen, North Platte and Broken Bow, Nebraska.
I go through all this biographical background as a way of getting to this point: while I appreciated Sarah Palin's tribute to small-town values at one point in her speech, the values she exhibited in the rest of the speech were not the ones I recognized from the small towns I know. Her sarcasm, even downright nastiness at times, is not representative of the people I grew up with and still love.
Lincoln, NE, is AWESOME. The best moment was at the state fair watching a beauty contest where one of the speakers talked about her platform as 'eating right and being healthy' right next to booths like the one above.
This is what labor day looks like for lots of people here.
I've been asking around about why Nebraska is Republican. The most common response is 'tradition', and while there is a strong religious element, this is not a state where Huckabee was strong or Ron Paul had resonance. Nebraska has remarkable wind resources, and unlike Oklahoma, very little oil, so it's a net energy consumer. With high energy costs, this is killing the bedroom communities of 800 sprinkled throughout the state, and causing people to move into more urban areas. My guess is that 'tradition' has a lot to do with a heavily subsidized rural and military economy undergirded by historically cheap energy.
Obama is going to run much stronger here than Kerry did, and since Nebraska splits its electoral votes, he may come out and take one or two votes here. If the campaign chooses to organize here, Scott Kleeb could really benefit.
I'm heading over to Scott Kleeb's tailgate before the opening game of the season for the University of Nebraska Cornhusker's football team. I spent a bunch of time at the state fair, and there are more pictures coming, including the state's largest pig and some conversations and interviews about renewable energy. I'm driving through Lincoln on the way to Minneapolis for the RNC Convention.
Here's what you're missing.
And here's a description.
Finally, here's beefman.
I'm staying with Marvin Ammori, the lawyer behind the Comcast decision at the FCC and a law professor as of a week ago in Lincoln, NE. If you're in town, let him know.
Today, we here at Living Liberally are both extremely proud and slightly saddened. We're saddened because we are losing our two Lincoln, NE chapter leaders for the next month.
However, our sadness is quickly overcome by how proud we are of what Paul McFarland and Troy Johnson are doing for the next couple weeks.
Early this morning, Troy and Paul left for California, to serve as Helicopter Flight Engineers fighting the California wild fires. As Paul related to us in an email last night, they're going as part of a group of trained Nebraskan aircrews eager to assist the Californian firefighters who are unfortunately running out of resources, dealing with all the fires out there.
As liberals, we know it is a proud day when we see our friends, who've talked about politics and the issues that face our country at their local Drinking Liberally chapter, turn their words into action. They put their daily lives aside and went all the way to California to help out their fellow Americans in need.
Sacrificing to help those who are suffering is key part of being a liberal, whether it means fighting wild fires like Troy and Paul, helping out good people like Darcy Burner when tragedy strikes, or voting for progressive candidates who will work for better healthcare for poor families, getting our troops out of Iraq and fighting global warming, (or else Troy an Paul will have to go out and do natural disaster rescue work every month).
Troy and Paul, you guys are true patriots and are most definitely Living Liberally.
Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters
Weekly Voting Rights News Update
By Erin Ferns
In light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold Indiana's voter ID law, the state-by-state battle to pass similar legislation has escalated with politicians seeking partisan gain furiously pushing laws that hinder access to the ballot. However, lawmakers seeking to dismantle barriers to electoral participation are just as committed to election integrity and protecting the voting rights of potentially millions of voters by calling out voter ID laws as "sheer political posturing." Meanwhile, positive measures to increase participation through Election Day Registration (EDR) are gaining ground in several states even as Iowa prepares to test-drive its new EDR law in the June 3 primary.
I am unavailable to blog this evening, but voting has begun in the Washington caucuses. I imagine that results will be coming in almost any minute now. Any major news website should suffice.
Washington caucuses, 78 pledged delegates. Starts at 4 p.m. eastern.
Nebraska caucuses. 24 pledged delegates. Starts at 11:00 a.m. eastern, ends at 9:30 p.m eastern. Results will trickle in throughout the day.
Louisiana primary, 56 pledged delegates. Polls close at 9 p.m. eastern.
Virgin Islands party convention, 3 pledged delegates. Not sure when we will have results
I'll be on the road for a bit, but I will also be around to post occasional updates on results later tonight. Personally, I am hoping for decisive results in all of today's events. More information on these contests can be found here.
Are we getting ready to vote again already? Really? Man, this never ends. Super Tuesday counting is expected to end today, so I guess we will be receiving new delegate totals every day from now through Wednesday, inclusive.
There has been very little polling for the numerous contests to take place over the next five days, but here is what little post-Iowa information we have:
Washington caucuses, February 9th. Starts at 4 p.m. eastern: Obama 53%--40% Clinton. Survey USA, 2.2-2/3. 78 pledged delegates are up for grabs, and both candidates are on the air and campaigning on the ground in Washington. With a caucus and a double-digit lead in the polls, Obama is heavily favored here.
Louisiana primary, February 9th. Polls close at 9 p.m. eastern: No polls to report, ever. What polls there are wouldn't be of any use anyway, as we saw in the primary challenge against William Jefferson in late 2006. I can report that there are 56 pledged delegates at stake, and that Jesse Jackson won here in 1988. Both candidates are campaigning on the ground and over the airwaves. Obama is once again favored. Polls close at 9 p.m. eastern.
Nebraska caucuses, February 9th, ends at 9:30 p.m.: Once again, no polls to report, ever. We will probably see results trickling in from Nebraska all day tomorrow, since the caucuses start as early as 11:00 a.m. eastern in some places, and end as late as 9:30 p.m. in others. Obama has dominated caucuses in Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota and North Dakota. He also won a little caucus that was held in Iowa five weeks ago. This is big time Obama territory, and Clinton is not even visiting the state. I expect another 2-1 Obama victory in pledged caucus delegates from here.
Virgin Islands, convention, February 9th: Beats me how the three pledged delegates will break. Expect either 2-1 Obama or 2-1 Clinton. Then again, as telephasic points out in the comments, it will probably go 2-1 Obama, given that the island is 76% African-American.
Maine caucuses, February 10th, starts as early as 1 p.m. eastern: There hasn't poll a from here since April, when Clinton led 39%-22%. Of course, Clinton led everywhere back then, so who knows. No clear favorite, with 24 pledged delegates at stake. This is probably Clinton's best chance for a win this week.
Democrats Abroad, February 12th, already underway: The balloting for Democrats Abroad ends on February 12th, and we should know the results before any other polls close on Tuesday. Again, I wouldn't presume to guess how the seven pledged delegates at stake will divide up.
Maryland primary, February 12th: The only recent poll from Maryland, taken January 6th through January 9th, showed Obama well ahead, 39%-26%. 70 pledged delegates are at stake here, and Obama is favored.
D.C. primary, February 12th: No polls from D.C., but Obama did win the caucuses 519 to 271. I'll take that as a sign that Obama is heavily favored in this contest where 15 pledged delegates are at stake.
Virginia primary, February 12th: This is starting to sound like a broken record, but Obama is also heavily favored in Virginia. A newly released poll from Insider Advantage shows Obama ahead 52%-37%, and a Survey USA poll from January showed Obama ahead 59%--37%. Clinton is campaigning here, but this certainly looks like all Obama. 83 pledged delegates are at stake
Obviously, Obama looks really good over the next five days, where 360 pledged delegates are at stake, total. The goal for Clinton, I think, is to limit the damage by winning a state or two (possibly Maine or Virginia?), and keeping Obama's pledged delegate lead under 100, thus giving her the perception of an "overall" delegate lead. Currently, my latest pledged delegate count is Obama 896, Clinton 878, with 18 delegates still outstanding form Super Tuesday. In order to take a pledged delegate lead of 100 or more, Obama needs 230 of the 378 pledged delegates floating around between now and Tuesday. Unless he scores a 2-1 blowout in Washington, I doubt he will win quite that many. Still, when Obama's delegate total, even with super delegates included, becomes higher than Clinton's after February 19th, I wonder if news outlets will start to pay attention to the super delegate issue.
That was Bob Kerrey, on Democrats that wanted to defend Social Security from privatization. Jonathan Singer has a comment, echoed somewhat heatedly by Lowell Feld at Raising Kaine on Mark Warner.
"To me, it's a very clear view of the Republican agenda, said former [Department of Justice Civil Rights Division] Voting Section Chief, Joe Rich. "The GOP agenda is to make it harder to vote. You purge voters. You don't register voters. This is ripe for partisan decision making. You pick the states where you go after Democrats."
Although Chuck Hagel is obviously a really quirky guy and could change his mind at the drop of a hat, everyone I talked to in the know about Nebraska politics is pretty convinced that Hagel is going to announce his retirement, and that Bob Kerrey is going to get in the race to replace him. I know that many in the blogosphere are not fans of Kerrey's, some even comparing him to Lieberman, and I have never been close to him. But I think his running again is actually a good thing.
The most obvious reason is that he will likely give Democrats another seat in the Senate. Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey and Scott Kleeb are the two other potential Senate candidates, and while both have a lot going for them, I think their paths to winning a statewide Senate race are much more uphill compared to Kerrey's, who is still very popular and who would likely beat any of the Republican candidates.
I also don't think Kerrey is as bad as a lot of the blogosphere assumes. He is for sure an independent cuss, one who has driven me crazy many times over the years, and he would be very unpredictable on issues the progressive community cares about. But overall he was the most progressive Senator that Nebraska has had since the legendary George Norris (a Republican in the 1930s who championed rural electrification and labor law reform). And unlike most politicians, he will be open and passionate about what he believes. He will drive us all crazy from time to time, but on balance he's a whole lot better than either Lieberman or any of the Republicans running.
I also had a good conversation with Scott Kleeb, his wife and new Nebraskan Jane Fleming Kleeb, and most importantly their one month-old baby Maya (they got me to lunch by promising I could hold her). Scott got 45% last year in one of the five most Republican districts in the country, and is trying to decide whether to run again. It's a tough call given the nature of the district, and it would be really difficult to defend the seat even if he did win in 2008. I think he's leaning toward going for it in spite of the odds, and I hope he does- he's a good guy. The nature of the district wouldn't allow him to vote with progressives on every issue, but I think he would always be open to listening to us, and would do what he could, given the district, to be a solid team player for Democratic leadership on tough votes.
The right-wing is prowar, which is why people like Chuck Hagel keep getting primary challengers. That, or Hagel's going to retire. His first challenger is Jon Brunning, a hyper-ambitious and unbelievably hardworking former liberal Democrat running to the right of Hagel. This new one is a guy named Pat Flynn, and he's a weird one.
A Schuyler investment adviser announced Tuesday that he is a candidate for U.S. Senate.
Pat Flynn, 48, said he is fed up with the lack of a conservative posture by the Senate and wants to take Nebraska values to the nation. The Republican said those values include religious faith and an anti-abortion stance.
The volunteer youth minister said he was arrested for both drunken driving and marijuana possession in his 20s but has reformed his life and believes that he sets a good example by being upfront and making amends for past mistakes.
Ok then.
And in a semi-related Nebraska politicians are freaks thread, former Senator Bob Kerrey, who may run on the Democratic ticket, presided over actor Steve Martin's wedding. Martin invited his friends over for a party without telling them it was a wedding, and then delivered his vows sporting an 'Inspector Clouseau mustache'. Boomers are crazy.
