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With control of the Senate up for grabs in today’s midterm elections, a major voting registration controversy could impact one of the chamber’s tightest races. More than 40,000 voter registrations have allegedly gone missing in Georgia, most of them representing communities of color, who largely support Democrats. Could this help Republicans win the Senate? We are joined by Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, whose group the New Georgia Project submitted the tens of thousands of voter registration forms that have gone missing. Abrams is the first African American to lead the Georgia House and the first woman to lead a party in either chamber of the Georgia Legislature. We are also joined by Benjamin Jealous, former head of the NAACP and chairman of the Southern Election Fund.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AARON MATÉ: It’s Election Day across the country, and control of the Senate is up for grabs. One of the most tightly contested Senate races is in Georgia, where a controversy about voter registration has raised the stakes. Over the past few months, more than 40,000 voter registrations have allegedly gone missing, most of them from communities of color, who largely support Democrats. The New Georgia Project and the Georgia chapter of the NAACP are suing the office of Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp, saying about half of the 80,000 voter registration forms they submitted do not appear on state rolls. Last week, Fulton County Court Judge Christopher Brasher sided with Kemp and dismissed the lawsuit. Brasher wrote the New Georgia Project, quote, "failed to allege, much less show, the counties’ registrars past or continued failure to process voter registration applications."
AMY GOODMAN: The Senate contest between Republican David Perdue and Democrat Michelle Nunn is very close, within a couple percentage points, so these tens of thousands of voters could tip the balance, determining who ultimately controls the U.S. Senate. They are facing off to determine who will fill the seat of retiring Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss. The governor’s race in Georgia between Nathan Deal and Jason Carter is just as close. Earlier this year, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp accused the New Georgia Project of voter fraud, but an investigation found just 51 potential forgeries out of the more than 80,000 applications the group submitted. In September, audio was released of Kemp warning fellow Republicans Democrats might win because they’re registering minority voters. The audio was released by Better Georgia and features Kemp speaking at a July 12, 2014, event in Gwinnett County.
SECRETARY OF STATE BRIAN KEMP: After we get through this runoff, you know, the Democrats are working hard. And all these stories about them, you know, registering all these minority voters that are out there and others that are sitting on the sidelines, if they can do that, they can win these elections in November.
AMY GOODMAN: To find out more about what’s happening in Georgia, we’re joined by two guests. In Atlanta, Democratic state Representative Stacey Abrams, she’s the House minority leader in Georgia, the founder of the New Georgia Project, which has been leading a voter registration drive across the state. She’s the first African-American to lead a party in the Georgia House and the first woman to lead a party in either chamber. Here in New York, Ben Jealous, chair of the Southern Election Fund, which he started with Julian Bond. They’re working on several reports with the New Georgia Project, former president and CEO of NAACP.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Representative—thanks so much for joining us, Representative Stacey Abrams. Talk about what’s happened. What about these—what is it? Forty thousand missing registration forms?
REP. STACEY ABRAMS: It’s actually more than 40,000. We are using the most conservative estimate. The challenge is not that the counties, we think, did anything untoward, but that the state of Georgia, headed by the secretary of state, requires that every form that is completed go through a series of screens, including the Social Security Administration proof of citizenship. And the problem is that, according to experts, that proof could be a false negative almost 40 percent of the time, which means that you could have a 20-year-old who’s a college student without an ID, without a driver’s license, who submits his Social Security number and is rejected falsely but is never told that they’re rejected and is never told why. And we think that a variety of these problems—clerical errors, screenings—these have all led to more than 40,000 of our applications not being properly processed.
AARON MATÉ: Well, can you respond to the judge? He said you "failed to allege, much less show, the counties’ registrars past or continued failure to process voter registration applications." What evidence did you submit?
REP. STACEY ABRAMS: Well, the problem with our process is that we don’t have information unless the secretary of state gives it to us. The reason we went with a writ of mandamus—it is an extraordinary request—we went with that because we couldn’t get the secretary of state to meet with us and tell us what was happening. And so we used the legal route of the writ of mandamus. However, I do want to point out that Judge Brasher did not allow for discovery. He did not allow for an evidentiary hearing. So we were essentially being asked to prove something we suspected without being able to access the information that would give us the proof.
AMY GOODMAN: So, last week, the county—
REP. STACEY ABRAMS: I mean, it’s like—
AMY GOODMAN: The county judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by your group, the New Georgia Project, and the Georgia chapter of the NAACP over the more than 40,000 voter registration records that have gone missing. Fulton County Court Judge Christopher—Judge Brasher wrote the petitioners, quote, "failed to allege, much less show, the counties’ registrars past or continued failure to process voter registration applications." The judge went on to exonerate Secretary of State Kemp, saying, quote, "the Petitioners have failed to come forward with evidence showing that the Secretary of State has failed to carry out this duty, or even that this duty is ripe, since it can only be carried out after the various counties’ election registrars register an eligible voter." Your response to that?
REP. STACEY ABRAMS: I think it’s a poor reading of what the law says. The law requires, and the state has set, the secretary of state is essentially the CEO of elections. He’s the chief elections officer. That means it’s his job to tell the counties what to do. When the counties do that job, he sets up the screenings, the use of the secretary of state’s website, the—I’m sorry, the use of the Social Security Administration, the use of the Department of Driver Services, the use of the Department of Corrections. He batch processes all of the letters that say that there are deficiencies. He batch processes all of the precinct cards. The secretary of state is actually the head of elections. The counties are essentially franchisees that get information from the secretary of state or have to follow the secretary of state’s orders.
And the problem we have with the judge’s response was that what he said is, "Well, out of six million, 40,000 is not substantial noncompliance, and so we’re not going to hold him accountable." But worse, what he said is that the remedy for not being registered to vote is to cast a provisional ballot, which in the state of Georgia can be akin to not being able to cast a ballot at all. So, essentially, there is no do-over. Our issue is that the secretary of state is in charge of elections, and to put the responsibility on counties that have to follow his directions, use his systems and abide by his rulings, and then to say that he’s not responsible is a very poor reading of state law, but even worse, it’s a poor reading of our system of voting.
AARON MATÉ: And can you give us some background on this voter drive? Who are the people that you signed up? And what was thinking behind launching it in the first place?
REP. STACEY ABRAMS: So, I founded the New Georgia Project. It’s an offshoot of a nonprofit I started 16 years ago. And in 2013 we did a lot of work in southwest Georgia around the Affordable Care Act. And what we discovered was that a number of people who were being denied access to healthcare because of Medicaid expansion refusal in Georgia didn’t understand why they couldn’t have access to healthcare. They thought it was the fault of the president, and they didn’t realize it was the governor and the Legislature. And most of those folks weren’t registered to vote.
The more we looked into this issue and the larger conversation about civic engagement, I realized that we needed to register the more 800,000 unregistered African-American, Latino and Asian voters in Georgia. And so we began to register these voters. It was a 145-day effort. We went to 151 of 159 counties, we collected registration forms from 146 counties, and we registered more than 86,000 people. In addition, we funded an additional 12 groups, and they registered more than 30,000. So our total registration over the course of that 145 days was in excess of 120,000 registration forms collected.
AMY GOODMAN: So, can you respond, Representative Stacey Abrams, to the Secretary of State Kemp’s allegations of voter fraud?
REP. STACEY ABRAMS: So, first and foremost, it was a misuse of the term. What he was alleging was that there was some voter registration fraud. And voter registration fraud assumes that there is some systematic effort to deceive, which is completely belied by his own acknowledgment of what we did. I personally called the secretary of state in June to tell him about our efforts, to tell him where we were and to ask for his assistance. We’ve gotten one complaint from one county. And based on that complaint, I wanted to make certain that we did everything we could to be in substantial compliance with the law. We worked with his investigators until the Friday before the subpoena was issued. He even admitted a week later, after his allegations were disproven by the fact that there were only 25 forms that he could show had any problematic problems—and those were forms we were actually working with his office to resolve. He walked it back and said, "Well, we don’t believe the New Georgia Project committed fraud. We don’t believe that Representative Abrams committed fraud."
Essentially, what he did was use inflammatory language to call attention to this effort, and I can’t speak to his motive, but I can speak to the effect, which is that it had a chilling effect on organizations that were engaged in third-party registration. When you have 800,000 citizens who are not engaged in the body politic, we have an affirmative obligation to do this work. This is a nonpartisan effort. We cannot register by parties in Georgia. But if your fear is that your party can’t speak to the people once they’re registered, that is something that should be fixed internally and not by trying to suppress voter registration in the state of Georgia.
AARON MATÉ: If you contacted him in June, do you think he’s taken advantage of your cooperation?
REP. STACEY ABRAMS: I was disappointed by his reaction. I’ve worked with Secretary Kemp during my four years as minority leader and his four years as secretary of state. We’ve collaborated on efforts. And I was very disappointed by his reaction. I don’t know what precipitated his response, but I do know that I’ve been as forthright and as upfront about what we are doing. You can’t secretly register 800,000 people. And this is not a one-time event. This is an ongoing process. We will register these voters, and we will turn them out.
And what we’ve discovered from this process is that there are deep flaws embedded in our system. The secretary of state has, I think, unfettered power to make decisions that will affect negatively our voters. There’s a system called the Interstate Crosscheck system that he has begun using without notifying the Legislature—and I would know, serving as the minority leader. We didn’t know that he could possibly be purging up to half a million Georgians, primarily African-American, Latino and Asian voters, based on their last names. Those are decisions that he’s making that I think are deeply problematic, but speak to a larger need for us to better define and control our voting system, because this is a sacred and basic right as a democrat, as people in a democracy.
AMY GOODMAN: Ben Jealous, you have done a lot of work in the South, and particularly you’ve looked at Georgia. There are interesting races here. I mean, on the one hand, you have these tens of thousands of voter registration forms. Where are they? You have these races both for governor, that involve the grandson of Jimmy Carter, Jason Carter; the Senate race, the daughter of Sam Nunn, the former senator, Michelle Nunn—but people being represented.
BEN JEALOUS: Yeah, no, look, I mean, this is a big moment in Georgia. And what’s happened in Georgia, of course, is that you’ve had more and more blacks move back; you had more and more Latinos move in, you know, actually come in from Mexico over the years, establish families; and you have more and more swing voter white women who say, "You know what? I would prefer to vote as a Republican, but they’ve lost their mind when it comes to my rights, and I’m going to go with Nunn." And so, there’s a real concern.
And what is terrifying about Georgia is you see how a man who could be a good man on most days, Mr. Kemp, can get worried, in a very public way, about the impact of these changes in who’s voting in Georgia and how it could impact his party, and then very publicly appear to be dragging his feet. The allegations that he made are so ridiculous, it’s just like hard to comprehend. Georgia’s law says as soon ink goes onto a voter reg form, it has to be turned in. So if I hand you a form at your door and you write down "Mickey Mouse," I’ve got to hand it in. When you have a law like that, up to 10 percent of the forms can be impacted. Out of 86,000, he’s been able to find maybe 50. You know, if it was above, say, 8,600, we would be concerned, because it’s their own law that requires you to turn in these problematic forms. They’ve done such a great job, when there could have been 86,000, there’s 50.
AMY GOODMAN: Is this—is Georgia the next Florida?
BEN JEALOUS: Georgia could be. I mean, you know, you have these real dynamics. Nunn and Carter are big names in Georgia. They are attracting a lot of folks to vote who may not have voted before, and certainly may not have voted for a Democrat in very long time. And on top of that, Stacey has been leading what is the largest voter reg drive we have seen in decades. It’s not just the 86,000 her group has done; it’s like about 50,000 more that they’ve funded other groups to do. It’s about 130,000 new voters coming onto the rolls.
But as Stacey says, what is absolutely deeply concerning, and should be for the entire civil rights community and really anybody who cares about voting, is all of these encumbrances. You know, the fact that you could have a 40 percent error rate, you know, in this crosscheck—think about—I used to be a reporter in Jackson, Mississippi. I can’t tell you how many men I met named Willie Williams or Johnny Johnson. And they’re going to crosscheck every Willie Williams and every Johnny Johnson in the South? I mean, it’s a mess. And then you go back and say, "Well, who created this interstate check system?" And it’s Kris Kobach, who is like the most inflammatory secretary of state in the country. And now you have people like Kemp, who, again, you know, for a long time seemed like a reasonable guy but has become increasingly partisan, signing up from him, you know, with Kris Kobach’s crazy scheme and not telling folks in the Georgia Senate or Assembly. It’s deeply troubling.
AMY GOODMAN: Ben, we want to talk to you about, overall, the South.
BEN JEALOUS: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: But before we break away from Georgia, Congressmember Stacey Abrams, in your final words, what do you think people should do today, if they go to the polls?
REP. STACEY ABRAMS: They should go to the polls. Whether you have received your precinct card or not, whether you have information or not, show up. The judge said that you should try to use provisional ballots. We’ve got lawyers across the state that are ready to help, because what we want to demonstrate is either that Brian Kemp is correct and everything got done on time—and if that happened, congratulations to him, kudos to the counties—but if they failed to do their duty, then we need to know about that. And that can only be proven by having people show up and having that information. So all we can say is, go vote.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you, Representative Stacey Abrams, Georgia House minority leader, founder of the New Georgia Project, has been leading a voter registration drive across the state. Ben Jealous will be staying with us, chair of the Southern Election Fund, former head of the NAACP. Stay with us.
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Earlier this year, Ben Jealous, the former head of the NAACP and current chair Southern Election Fund, put out a report showing how a targeted wave of voter registration among people of color voters could shift the balance of power in key Southern states. But these efforts have come up against a series of cumbersome voter ID laws that have made it harder for people to vote, buttressed by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling invalidating key parts of the Voting Rights Act. "The Republicans aren’t doubling down on voter suppression in states they’re trying to acquire," Jealous says. "They’re doubling down on voter suppression in states [where] they’re afraid of losing control … This is what it looks like when the clocks are being turned back."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AARON MATÉ: As we continue our coverage of the midterm elections, we turn now to the overall picture. The most expensive midterms in history could see one of the lowest turnouts in years. Voting numbers will likely dip below the 40 percent mark of both 2006 and 2010. This despite a record estimate of $4 billion in spending. One quarter of that money, $1 billion, will come from anonymous, so-called "dark money" groups. That money has gone into creating some two million television ads, most of them negative attack ads, like this one by the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition.
KENTUCKY OPPORTUNITY COALITION AD: The reviews are in on Alison Grimes and her campaign: "desperate," "phony," "blatantly untrue," "doubling down on false attacks." Grimes should be ashamed of herself, her ads funded by the president’s moneymen. Obama needs Grimes. And she’ll say anything to hide it. How could Alison Grimes change Washington? She’s already everything that’s wrong with it. Kentucky Opportunity Coalition is responsible for the content of this advertising.
AARON MATÉ: Each House seat is up for grabs, but only a few dozen races are competitive enough to be in play. It’s control of the Senate that hangs in the balance, coming down to around 10 key races. Republicans need to gain six seats to recapture Senate control, with a slight edge over Democrats in the advance polls. A few races are so close, they could go to a runoff. That potentially means we end Tuesday night with the Senate still undecided. Senate control is crucial, with Republicans vowing an agenda that includes more cuts to public spending, and repealing environmental regulations, such as the EPA’s limits on emissions from coal-fire power plants.
AMY GOODMAN: No matter how the Senate goes, we can expect mixed results at the state level, as incumbent governors from both main parties face a voter backlash. The midterms will also see votes on 147 ballot measures, covering a number of key issues. Four states will vote on raising the minimum wage: Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. Polls show the measures will likely pass despite them all coming in Republican states. Today is also a big day for drug policy reform, from decriminalizing marijuana to reduced sentencing for drug offenses. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, "there are more drug policy reform questions on the ballot this November than ever in American history." Abortion rights are also on the ballot, with votes on so-called "personhood" amendments in Colorado and North Dakota and another anti-choice amendment in Tennessee. Washington state will vote on the midterms’ only major gun-control measure, Initiative 594, which would require background checks on all gun sales.
Well, we’re joined right now by a number of guests. John Nichols, political writer for The Nation, his latest book, with Bob McChesney, is Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex Is Destroying America. He’s joining us from Madison, Wisconsin.
From San Francisco, we’re joined by Lee Fang, who is a reporting fellow with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, blogs about money and politics at the Republic Report.
And still with us here in New York, Ben Jealous, chair of the Southern Election Fund, which he started with Julian Bond. He is former president and CEO of the NAACP.
We welcome you all to Democracy Now! Well, let’s continue in the South—
BEN JEALOUS: Yeah, sure.
AMY GOODMAN: —as we were just talking about Georgia. Ben, give us a lay of the land.
BEN JEALOUS: Look, you know, right now you have four states in the South where there are new voter suppression laws that are going to go into effect with this race. You have Texas, Alabama, Virginia and North Carolina. In the first three, we’re talking about new voter ID laws that will have a huge impact. Texas, the margin of victory is typically about 600,000 votes. Their law will impact about 600,000 voters. In Virginia, the margin is about 60,000 votes. Their law will impact about 200,000 voters.
And what you see across these states is that the Republicans aren’t doubling down on voter suppression in states they’re trying to acquire; they’re doubling down on voter suppression in states that they already control, because they’re afraid of losing control, because they’ve actually looked at what’s happening in those states, and demographically they’re changing so rapidly that unless they engage in massive voter suppression—or, God forbid, they change their politics to actually appeal—you know, they will lose control.
And so, what we’re saying to people across the South and across the country is, the only way that you can actually turn the tide of massive voter suppression, the only way to respond when they’re trying to suppress your vote, is to vote, is massive voter registration and, today of all days, massive voter turnout. So, if you weren’t planning on voting today, if you weren’t planning on calling 10 of your friends, this is the day to do it, because if we can’t turn out, if we can’t begin to take back the House and the Senate in these states and take back the governor’s office, which you’re seeing all in play in Georgia right now, then this voter suppression will be with us for a very long time.
AARON MATÉ: Well, the Justice Department says it will conduct in-person monitoring today at polling places in 18 states and 28 targeted locations, including four counties in Florida, two in Georgia, two in Texas and one in North Carolina. The plans were announced Monday in a video message by Attorney General Eric Holder.
ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER: These officials will gather information on numerous aspects of local election procedures, including whether voters are treated differently depending on their race or color, whether jurisdictions are adequately serving individuals with disabilities, whether jurisdictions are complying with the provisional ballot requirements of the Help America Vote Act, and whether jurisdictions are complying with the Voting Rights Act’s requirement to provide bilingual election materials and assistance in areas of need.
AARON MATÉ: That’s Attorney General Eric Holder. Ben Jealous, I just want to read to you from a report in The Huffington Post in Texas. "A disabled woman in Travis County was turned away from voting because she couldn’t afford to pay her parking tickets. ... [A] dishwasher from Mercedes can’t afford the cost of getting a new birth certificate, which he would need to obtain the special photo ID card required for voting." Can a federal monitoring here help any of these local struggles?
BEN JEALOUS: Look, it’s important to have the federal monitors in place. But what you’re actually describing in Texas, what has been put in place since the Shelby decision, is an actual poll tax. And the reality is that the only way to overcome that is to pay it, and a lot of folks can’t. I mean, we’ve heard from people in some of these—
AMY GOODMAN: They don’t accept student IDs, but they do accept gun licenses.
BEN JEALOUS: Well, that’s right. And oftentimes what people actually need to get signed up is their birth certificate. And the birth—you know, many times, they’re born in a different state, and it could cost, you know, $38, $42, for that birth certificate. And we heard from voter after voter in many of these court cases, including one coming out of Texas, "Look, I had to choose between feeding my family and getting a birth certificate. And my family can’t eat my birth certificate, so I couldn’t afford $38." That’s what we’re dealing with here. And that’s why it’s so critical that folks decide, "We will take back our state." I mean, I think in the state of Texas there’s something like three million voters of color who are currently registered who tend not to vote. Folks just need to turn out and take back their state.
This is—I can’t stress just how important it is for us to understand that it’s been more than a century since we’ve seen states pass new laws to suppress the vote. This is a very big deal. Yes, we’ve dealt with voter suppression for a long time, and 50 years ago Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were killed trying to fight voter suppression laws, but they were fighting laws that were put in place a half-century before that. We weren’t putting these laws in place in the '40s and the ’50s. This is an old playbook we've dragged off the shelf, the far-right wing has dragged off the shelf, because they understand that this is the century when they lose control of the country demographically. And we, quite frankly, all of us who really care about voting and democracy and inclusion, have to speed up that process. And the way to do that is to turn out and vote.
AMY GOODMAN: I was just in Oslo, Norway, this weekend. It’s where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his Nobel address 50 years ago.
BEN JEALOUS: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And in that Nobel address, re-reading it, you know, he is talking about people having their heads bashed in because they’re simply trying to register to vote. Do you think we have made progress in these 50 years?
BEN JEALOUS: We have made progress, certainly. But we have also seen the clocks turn back rapidly just in the past few years. When you’ve seen what’s happened in the Supreme Court as far as Shelby and the eviscerating of the Voting Rights Act in its actual enforcement powers; when you look and you see what’s now happening across these states; when you see states putting in de facto poll taxes, such as this strict voter ID law in Texas; when you look at states actually—their secretaries of states becoming highly partisan, whether it’s Kobach in Kansas or it’s Kemp now in Georgia—this is what it looks like when the clocks are being turned back.
And we have to understand that the clocks are being turned back, not simply—you know, we’re not saying, "Well, these folks are racist. They don’t want black folks to vote." No, these people are invested in dirty coal. These folks are invested in low-road employment. And they want to hold onto their ability to continue to destroy our environment or exploit workers. And they know that what threatens that is those very communities that they’re exploiting and endangering increasingly making up the majority of the voters in their state, and so they’re trying to suppress them, so the Koch brothers can keep on, you know, rolling out and building dirty coal plants, and so people like Art Pope in North Carolina can continue to exploit workers.
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The most expensive midterms in history could see one of the lowest turnouts in years. Voting numbers will likely dip below the 40 percent mark of both 2006 and 2010. This despite a record estimate of $4 billion in spending. One quarter of that money, some $1 billion, will come from anonymous, so-called dark money groups. That money has gone into creating some two million television ads — most of them attack ads. We are joined by Lee Fang, one reporter attempting to follow the dark money trail. A reporting fellow with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, Fang blogs about money and politics at the Republic Report.
Image Credit: deviantart.com/art/Money-Cash-113445826
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re talking about now money in politics, which brings us to Lee Fang, who writes for The Nation, is a reporting fellow at The Investigative Fund, blogs about money in politics at the Republic Report. Lee, can you talk about what you’ve found when it comes to dark money, what we know about who’s funding the elections all over this country?
LEE FANG: Well, Amy, we unfortunately don’t know a lot about the donors in this election. A lot of analysts who have taken a look at the midterms are calling this "the dark money election." We’re seeing hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into campaigns through 501(c)(4) nonprofits or 501(c)(6) business leagues. These are groups that do not have to report their donors. And we still don’t know actually the proportion of the funds that are spent through these vehicles until after Election Day, because some of this data is just coming in. A lot of these groups just went on air in the last few weeks.
We took a look at this dynamic in a recent piece for The Nation. When the Citizens United decision was handed down, Justice Anthony Kennedy made a distinction. He said that these outside money groups—these independent expenditure committees, super PACs and the dark money groups—they cannot coordinate with candidates, the reason being that if big money donors, billionaires or millionaires, can lean on candidates, that would have a corrupting influence. Unfortunately, over the last four years, we’ve seen candidates brazenly appear to break the law. Many candidates appear to be coordinating with many of these dark money organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Americans for Prosperity, the nonprofit affiliated with the Koch brothers; many of these other organizations—some of them spawned just this year to influence specific races.
We’re seeing very little enforcement from the Federal Election Commission. That agency, which is charged with enforcing election law, is deadlocked, three to three, with the three Republican commissioners voting basically in lockstep since 2010 to block any investigation of potential wrongdoing. So we’re seeing this election is turning out to be kind of the Wild West. Not only are campaign entities raising and spending unlimited amounts, much of it in secret, but we have no cop on the beat, we have no enforcement of election law, because of this gridlocked FEC.
AARON MATÉ: Well, Lee, in this Wild West, who are the main interest groups, and what are their objectives in terms of all this spending that they’re putting into this election? What policy goals do they have?
LEE FANG: The largest dark money group in the country is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. That’s a 501(6) business league that’s funded primarily by corporations, foreign and domestic, though they maintain that their foreign dollars are segregated from their domestic dollars. This organization is the largest lobbying group in D.C. It primarily receives its funds from about 56 different corporations—Dow Chemical, Prudential—and they’ve said that their priorities are restricting the powers of the EPA, fighting back on many different regulatory issues proposed by the Obama administration, everything from the new rules on financial advisers, the fiduciary rule, to for-profit colleges. There’s a range of regulatory issues that they will be leaning on Congress to block in the next two years, should Republicans expand their majority in the House and take the Senate.
In addition to them, there’s Patriot Majority, which is a dark money group backed by Democrats, that’s affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brother group. There’s also another about dozen different 501(c)(4) dark money groups that are affiliated with the Koch brothers that are designed to influence specific demographic groups. So there’s the Independent Women’s Forum, backed by the Koch brothers to influence the women vote. There’s Generation Opportunity to influence younger folks. There’s the LIBRE Initiative to influence Latinos. And so on and so forth.
In addition to that, as I mentioned, many different Senate candidates are now creating their own dark money groups to influence their specific races. For example, in Kentucky, there’s the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, a dark money group affiliated with Mitch McConnell that has raised undisclosed money and is dumping money into that race. A similar dynamic is going on in North Carolina, Alaska and other places.
AMY GOODMAN: Is it true that the dark money will soon—the amount of money that’s spent will be more when it comes to dark money than the money that campaigns actually spend? And we won’t even know where it’s coming from?
LEE FANG: Well, we’re on that trajectory. Campaigns are still limited by contribution limits, and same with political parties. Dark money groups face no restrictions. And in the early days of Citizens United, there was a hesitancy to use dark money groups, because the IRS rules are promulgated in such a way that say the primary purpose of some of these nonprofits cannot be on political activity; however, the IRS has been very slow to actually define what "primary purpose" means. And because of increasing congressional pressure on the IRS, we haven’t seen the IRS take action to define "primary purpose" or to revoke the nonprofit status of groups that are clearly just created to influence elections. So, as it’s become more commonplace to use these types of tax entities to move hundreds of millions of dollars into elections, with no fear of enforcement from the IRS, we’ll see this trend continue.
AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, before we go to break, you mentioned Senator McConnell, his race against Alison Lundergan Grimes. Can you talk about where he’s getting his money from?
LEE FANG: We recently had a story in The Nation taking the very first look at where Senator Mitch McConnell receives his own personal fortune. He’s one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, worth over $22 million. Most of this money comes from his in-laws’ family. He married Elaine Chao, the former secretary of labor in the Bush administration. Her father founded the Foremost Maritime Corporation, a large shipping company. There were many revelations in this piece, one of them being most of these ships owned by this company are registered in the Marshall Islands, largely for tax purposes, and also they use the "flag of convenience" from Liberia, meaning they sail their ships under Liberian maritime law, which is much more relaxed than U.S. maritime law.
In addition, Mitch McConnell has made coal the top issue of his campaign, saying that environmentalists and Democrats are the reason for the decline in production for Kentucky coal. One interesting part of the story is that, in fact, the decline of coal is much more complicated. The rise of natural gas plays a big part. But the other big part is that America is relying more and more on cheap, imported coal. Well, the Foremost Maritime Corporation, Mitch McConnell’s in-laws’ family, exports cheap Colombian coal, potentially undercutting Kentucky coal. And in a recent inspection by Colombian officials, they found as much as 90 pounds of cocaine on one of these coal shipments.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break and then come back to this discussion. Lee Fang will stay with us. We’ll be joined by John Nichols. And I want to thank Ben Jealous for being with us.
BEN JEALOUS: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Ben Jealous, who has been doing a lot on elections, particularly in the South. He’s the former head of the NAACP, and he’s the chair of the Southern Election Fund, which he started with Julian Bond. They’re working on several reports with the New Georgia Project. Ben Jealous is also a partner at Kapor Capital, senior fellow at Center for American Progress. Thanks so much for being with us.
BEN JEALOUS: Thanks, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: When we come back, we’ll continue to look at the elections. Tonight at 7:00 Eastern time, Democracy Now! willl be on the air for five hours covering this midterm election night. Stay with us.
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While each House seat is up for grabs in today’s midterms, only a few dozen races are competitive enough to be in play. It is control of the Senate that hangs in the balance, coming down to around 10 key races. Republicans need to gain six seats to recapture Senate control, with a slight edge over Democrats in the advance polls. A few races are so close that they could go to a runoff. That potentially means we end Tuesday night with the Senate still undecided. Senate control is crucial, with Republicans vowing an agenda that includes more cuts to public spending, and repealing environmental regulations, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s limits on emissions from coal-fired power plants and control of committees addressing global warming. But no matter how the Senate goes, we can expect mixed results at the state level as incumbent governors from both main parties face a voter backlash. The midterms will also see votes on 147 ballot measures, covering a number of key issues. Four states will vote on raising the minimum wage — Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. Polls show the measures will likely pass despite them all coming in Republican states. We get a roundup of the key issues from John Nichols and Lee Fang, contributors to The Nation magazine.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Our guests are Lee Fang of The Nation and Republic Report and John Nichols, whose latest book is Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex Is Destroying America. Why don’t you weigh in from Madison, Wisconsin, John? Talk about the significance of the race there, which is very tight, the gubernatorial race, which has great significance not only talking about these midterm elections, but what is going to happen in 2016, as well, with the presidential elections.
JOHN NICHOLS: Without a doubt. The important thing to remember about the 2010 elections, four years ago, is that they swept in a wave of Republican governors, who were very different than previous Republican governors. These governors were committed to an austerity agenda, as regards public education and public services. They were also committed to a very aggressive anti-labor agenda.
And Wisconsin highlighted that. Governor Scott Walker, just weeks after becoming the governor of Wisconsin, implemented a series of assaults on labor unions that led to one of the largest mobilizations of workers and their supporters that we’ve seen in modern American history, back in 2011. There was an attempt to recall Walker. It did not succeed. Now he’s on the ballot again, and it’s an intense race. He’s being challenged by a woman named Mary Burke.
And what you’re seeing in Wisconsin is very similar to what you’re seeing in Michigan, where Governor Snyder came in and, over time, implemented a right-to-work law. It’s similar to what you’re seeing in Pennsylvania, where Tom Corbett came in and implemented a number of assaults on public education and teachers, very, very visceral in his attacks on teacher unions. And so, across the country we have these tests of whether this new Republican approach, very anti-union, very rough on public schools, very rough on public services, can survive politically. The polls show that it’s actually quite unpopular.
And Walker’s re-election race is really one of the key tests, because if he wins, there is simply no question that he will not stop and just say, "Hey, thanks for re-electing me." His victory tonight will be a transition into a 2016 presidential race. And everybody in Wisconsin is very conscious of that. So, this has been an incredibly intense race.
AMY GOODMAN: And talk—talk about his opponent, John—
JOHN NICHOLS: But I do want to step back for one second and just—
AMY GOODMAN: —for a minute, if you could talk about Mary Burke—
JOHN NICHOLS: OK.
AMY GOODMAN: —his opponent.
JOHN NICHOLS: Absolutely. Mary Burke is an interesting figure. She’s a Madison School Board member, a wealthy woman. She is a member of the family that started the Trek bicycle company. She has not actually been closely identified with a lot of politics in the past, a philanthropist more, but she got into this race, and she has run a very fascinating campaign against Walker. She’s essentially argued he’s just no good at economics. His austerity agenda has stalled out the economy in Wisconsin. Wisconsin trails neighboring states. And she’s made a very practical argument for getting rid of him.
But underpinning her run is all of the passion that has existed in this state in the past. And so, it’s been a very intense, actually quite ugly race. At the close of it, there was a pretty brutal attempt to smear Mary Burke, suggesting that she had troubles in her business past. It was so ham-handed and so over-the-top that the largest newspaper in the state, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, said it said more about the people trying to smear Burke than it did about her. And yet, it gives you a sense of how this race has played out. Scott Walker is absolutely desperate to get re-elected. He wants to hold onto this office, not to govern Wisconsin, but to launch a presidential campaign. Mary Burke, in contrast, has said she really wants to be the governor of Wisconsin. She’s made a very plain-spoken, very straightforward argument.
And polling has suggested that really since the summer this has been a close race. Right now, the RealClearPolitics poll of polls, where they analyze them all, suggested it’s a toss-up, one of 14 toss-up races for governor this year. And that’s an important thing to remember, because we’re focused so much on the Senate races, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that the biggest signal that comes out of tonight’s voting may well be the results of these governor races, especially in the states where Republican governors, who have implemented forms of austerity, are being challenged by folks who say this just doesn’t work.
AARON MATÉ: Well, John, talk about the Senate. The Republicans need just six seats to take control. What are the key races that you’re watching?
JOHN NICHOLS: I’m watching a lot of races. There are eight races that are generally rated as toss-ups. And they are all—that means they’re all very, very close. I think we have to keep an eye on the Kentucky race that you’ve talked about. Certainly the Georgia race that’s been discussed, that may well go to a runoff. It’s also possible the Louisiana race will go to a runoff. That could keep all of this competition in play into December, perhaps even into January.
But there are a bunch of other races that are very, very important. And what is notable is that two states, I think, should be watched especially closely. That’s Iowa, where Bruce Braley is running against Joni Ernst—Braley is the Democrat, relatively populist guy; Joni Ernst very, very right-wing candidate—and Colorado, where Mark Udall is seeking re-election against Cory Gardner. Both of these are close, intense races. If the Democrats lose these seats, which the party currently holds, it’s hard to imagine how they maintain their control of the Senate.
But there’s more than just the partisan balances there. I think people should be very conscious. Mark Udall in Colorado has been among the one or two, maybe three, senators who has really stood up to the NSA. He is one of the boldest senators as regards privacy rights and a host of concerns that cross party boundaries. And so, in these Senate elections, while we talk a lot about the fight for control of the Senate, we should also be conscious that some of these senators are unique figures. And if Udall gets beat in Colorado, you will lose one of your loudest voices on NSA issues.
AMY GOODMAN: And what about the significance of the surge of Cory Gardner? How is that happening, John?
JOHN NICHOLS: I am not connected.
AMY GOODMAN: John, we hear you. John, can you hear us? John, if you could talk about the surge of Cory Gardner in Colorado? Let me ask that question to Lee Fang.
LEE FANG: Well, Colorado, Amy, has been a swing state for many years. In fact, President Obama and national Democrats can trace their current fortunes back to 2006 when, in the wake of the 2004 presidential election, a group of Democratic donors poured resources into Colorado to flip that state to the Democratic column. And since then, we’ve seen that state trending blue for the last eight years. Now, Republicans have become obsessed with reversing that trend, and they have, in turn, poured their own resources, not only into grooming candidates, but into think tanks, into local media outlets and into data survey efforts, to increase Republican turnout. And in this political arms race, you see candidates like Cory Gardner, who are very close to the Republican donor network that created this Republican resurgence, where Republicans might not only take the Colorado Senate seat, they could also take the governor’s office, as well. So, Cory Gardner is very close to energy interests. He attended the secret Koch gathering last June, over the summer. And he’s benefited from a lot of that dark money and outside coordination that we were discussing earlier.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to have to leave it there, but I thank you both for being with us. And of course we’re going to continue to follow this tonight. We’ll be doing a live broadcast on the midterm elections beginning at 7:00 Eastern Standard Time. From the studios of Democracy Now! in New York, we’ll be covering the country. Lee Fang’s recent investigation for The Nation is "Mitch McConnell’s Freighted Ties to a Shadowy Shipping Company." We’ll link to it. He’s also blogged about how if the GOP takes the Senate, climate-change deniers will control key committees—reporting fellow at The Investigative Fund, blogs about money in politics at the Republic Report. And thanks so much to John Nichols, political writer for The Nation, latest book, Dollarocracy.
That does it for our show. I’ll be speaking in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. Check our website.
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Voters Head to Polls in Most Expensive Midterms in U.S. History
It is Election Day in the United States, where an estimated $4 billion has been spent on the most expensive midterms in U.S. history. Despite the record spending, voter turnout is expected to hit one of its lowest levels in years. Control of the U.S. Senate has boiled down to about 10 key races, some of which could result in runoffs. Current projections give Republicans about a 70 percent chance of netting the six seats they would need to retake the Senate from Democrats. Thirty-six states are choosing governors today. And voters across the country are deciding on 147 ballot measures, which include measures to decriminalize marijuana, restrict abortion, raise the minimum wage and require labeling of GMO foods. We will spend the rest of the hour on the midterm elections after headlines. Tune in tonight for the Democracy Now! election special broadcast 7 p.m. to midnight EST with coverage and analysis of the results.
Yemen: U.S. Drone Strikes Kill Up to 20 People
U.S. drone strikes have killed at least 10 people in central Yemen. Agence France-Presse said at least 20 people were killed in the overnight strikes targeting militants near Rada. Reuters put the toll at 10, but said 10 more people were killed in clashes between the targeted militant group Ansar al-Sharia and Shiite Houthi rebels. The rebels have taken over the Yemeni capital Sana’a and advanced south into majority Sunni areas. While recent attention has focused on the U.S. wars in Iraq and Syria, the United States has continued its covert bombardment of supposed militants in Yemen and Pakistan.
Liberian Forces Faulted for Firing on Ebola Quarantine Protesters
An independent human rights probe in Liberia has faulted security forces for opening fire on protesters opposing an Ebola quarantine, killing a 15-year-old boy. The report obtained by The New York Times found Liberian forces acted with "complete disregard for human life."
Fifth Doctor Dies of Ebola in Sierra Leone
In Sierra Leone, another doctor has died of Ebola. Dr. Godfrey George is the fifth doctor to die of the virus in Sierra Leone since the outbreak began. More than 500 health workers have contracted Ebola in all of the countries impacted, including the United States; just over half of them have died.
Louisiana Blocks Ebola Scientists from Medical Conference
In the United States, state officials continue to impose restrictions on health workers who have treated patients in West Africa. In Louisiana, officials told health workers who have recently been in the hardest-hit countries not to attend a tropical medicine conference this week, saying, "We see no utility in you traveling to New Orleans to simply be confined to your room." Researchers say the move will hinder progress at the conference on fighting Ebola.
24 Migrants Drown Off Turkish Coast
At least 24 migrants have drowned after a boat carrying them from Turkey toward Romania sank in the Black Sea. A number of people remain missing.
U.S., Europe Condemn Separatist Polls in Eastern Ukraine
The Obama administration has condemned regional polls in eastern Ukraine which elected pro-Russian separatist leaders. Russia has recognized Sunday’s elections while Ukraine’s president has threatened to scrap an autonomy deal for the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said European countries have joined the United States in rejecting the poll.
Jen Psaki: "The United States deplores and does not recognize yesterday’s so-called separatist elections in eastern Ukraine, nor do we recognize any of the leaders chosen in this illegal vote. We also welcome statements from the European Union, United Nations, France, Germany and others, rejecting these illegal and illegitimate actions."
2 More U.S. Nuclear Commanders Fired, 1 Disciplined in Latest Scandal
The U.S. Air Force has fired two more commanders in charge of its nuclear arsenal. Col. Carl Jones was second in command of the 90th Missile Wing at FE Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, which operates a third of the force’s Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles. According to the Associated Press, Jones was fired for four separate transgressions, including one described as "shocking." In the most recent case, he was accused of banging on the counter and shouting profanity at a volunteer-run thrift shop. Meanwhile at the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, which oversees another third of the Force’s Minuteman missiles, Lt. Col. Jimmy "Keith" Brown was fired for discrimination after he "made statements to subordinates that created a perception within his squadron that pregnancy would negatively affect a woman’s career." Another commander at Minot has been disciplined. The news follows a cheating scandal at a base in Montana earlier this year and last year’s firing of the commander in charge of the entire intercontinental ballistic missile force for drunken misbehavior in Russia.
Supreme Court to Decide if U.S. Passports Can List Jerusalem as "Israel"
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on a 2002 law that would let Americans born in Jerusalem list the birthplace on their U.S. passports as "Israel." The Obama administration opposes the law, saying it would threaten its decision not to take a stance on Jerusalem’s status. Passports of U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem currently list only the city, not a country, but the parents of a 12-year-old boy born in Jerusalem want the Supreme Court to change that. While Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since 1967, Palestinians claim it as the capital of any future Palestinian state. The court hearing came as Israel advanced plans to build 500 new illegal settlement homes in East Jerusalem.
U.N. to Probe U.K. Spying on Climate Summit After Snowden Revelations
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he will launch a probe into reports that Britain spied on fellow governments at global climate summits in 2009 and 2010. A document released by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed a spy from the British intelligence agency GCHQ embedded with the British climate delegation. The news comes as negotiators meet in Venezuela ahead of the climate summit in Lima, Peru, next month. Last year documents from Snowden showed the NSA spied on foreign governments before and during the 2009 U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen.
Supreme Court Lets Abortion Protections Stand in Colorado, NYC
The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed protections on reproductive rights to stand in two states by rejecting anti-choice appeals. In one case, the Supreme Court left in place a lower court ruling upholding a Colorado law that bars people from blocking entry to abortion clinics. In the second case, the court let stand a ruling which reinstated part of a New York City law requiring so-called crisis pregnancy centers to say whether they have a licensed medical provider on site. Crisis pregnancy centers often appear like medical facilities, but their goal is to deter people from abortion. A congressional study in 2006 found 87 percent provided false or misleading medical information.
Oklahoma: Anti-Choice Laws Take Effect, Leaving 1 Abortion Clinic
In Oklahoma, laws restricting abortion have gone into effect reportedly leaving just one clinic providing abortions in the entire state. The laws mirror restrictions passed in Texas. One requires providers to obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, which has proven impossible for some. The other restricts the pill form of abortion, imposing an outdated protocol and banning it after 49 days of pregnancy. The Center for Reproductive Rights is seeking an emergency injunction from the Supreme Court.
Utah: Police Shooting of Black Man with Costume Sword Deemed Justified
Prosecutors in Utah have ruled two Saratoga Springs police officers were justified when they shot dead an African-American man carrying a sword as part of a Japanese anime costume. County Attorney Jeff Buhman said 22-year-old Darrien Hunt swung his sword at officers, who opened fire. Hunt then ran away, and the officers chased him, ultimately shooting him six times. Buhman said police feared for their lives and for public safety. But Hunt’s family has vowed to file a civil rights lawsuit. They say the sword was a replica with a dulled edge which was purchased at a novelty shop.
Texas: Austin Police Officers Caught on Dashboard Cam Joking About Rape
Two police officers in Austin, Texas, have been caught on their own dashboard camera joking about rape. In footage posted to YouTube last week, one of the officers says, "Look at that girl over there." The second officer then blows a whistle and says, "Go ahead and call the cops. They can’t unrape you." Listen carefully.
Officer 1: "I want to report a robbery! You probably deserved it. Look at that girl over there."
Officer 2: (blows whistle) "Go ahead and call the cops. They can’t unrape you." (laughter)
Officer 1: "You didn’t turn your camera off, did you?"
Officer 2: "They can’t unrape you."
The officers have been identified as Mark Lyttle and Michael Castillo. The Austin Police Department says it has launched an internal investigation and issued a "heartfelt apology to all victims of sexual assault."
NYC to Pay $2 Million to Family of Vet Who Died in Sweltering Rikers Cell
New York City has agreed to pay about $2 million to the family of a homeless veteran who died after being left unattended for hours in a sweltering jail cell at Rikers Island. Jerome Murdough died in February after temperatures in his cell topped 100 degrees. He had been arrested a week earlier for trying to sleep in a stairwell at a public housing project, where he had sought shelter from the cold. He had been unable to pay $2,500 bail for his release.
Former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern Details Painful Arrest at Petraeus Event
Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern is recovering from what he described as a brutal arrest by New York City police after he tried to attend a speech by former CIA director and retired Army General David Petraeus. McGovern says he had a ticket to the event late last week, but was told by security at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan that he was "not welcome." He told RT he was already suffering from an injured shoulder and police caused him to scream in pain as they tried to force his wrist behind his back. McGovern was held overnight in a jail cell and did not get to ask Petraeus the question he had planned.
Ray McGovern: "When you advertise a Q&A, as the 92nd Street Y did, then you risk having somebody ask real questions, and that’s what I intended to do, not to get into a debate with him, but just to ask, 'Now, David Petraeus, have you no shame? Have you no shame in advertising your successes, when Iraq is a disaster area and Afghanistan is soon to be the same?'"
New York: 15 Arrested in Protest Against Gas Storage at Seneca Lake
In upstate New York, 15 people were arrested as they blocked the gates of a gas facility to protest plans to create a gas storage hub in the Finger Lakes region. Under the banner of "We Are Seneca Lake," area residents are seeking to block plans by the Texas-based company Crestwood Midstream to expand storage of natural gas in underground salt caverns. They say the plan threatens both the climate and Seneca Lake, which provides drinking water to 100,000 people.
Tom Magliozzi, Co-Host of NPR’s "Car Talk," Dies at 77
Tom Magliozzi, co-host of the NPR show "Car Talk" and one of public radio’s most familiar and beloved voices, has died after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 77. Tom and his brother Ray were known as "Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers" on the weekly show they co-hosted for 35 years. They stopped making new episodes in 2012. While "Car Talk" was ostensibly about car advice, Tom Magliozzi was perhaps better known for his laugh.
Tom Magliozzi: "Do two people who don’t know what they’re talking about know more or less than one person who doesn’t know what he’s talking about?" (laughter)
Tom Magliozzi died on Monday in his home state of Massachusetts.
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