Every week I curate a set of “Top Notes” of media coverage on the 2020 presidential elections. Read it to keep up to date on latest developments.
– Sarah Lyons, Director of Communications, Independent Voting
February 15 – February 27, 2019
Eyes on 2020 – (Letter to Editor/ Randy Fricke, CO) The national office of Independent Voters (Independentvoting.org) and a national committee of independent voters has just launched a national campaign called “Eyes On 2020” — a national campaign to open all of the closed Democratic and Republican Party primary elections across America to nonpartisan open primary elections. As part of this national campaign, Western Colorado Independent Voters is holding a public town hall meeting at 7 p.m. Feb. 21, at the Glenwood Springs Library in downtown Glenwood Springs to discuss nonpartisan options such as “top two” and “top four” primary elections, as well as ranked-choice voting to be established for the state of Colorado….Our local Democrats and Republicans are good people, but they need to know that their parties can’t own the entire election system. All voters should own our election process and not the Democratic and Republican parties. Also, taxpayers need to stop paying for their primary elections. Why should citizens continue to subsidize these political parties? This should be unconstitutional. (Post Independent / Citizen Telegram, 2/18/19)
Schultz
“The stakes are too high to cross our fingers and hope the Democratic Party nominates a moderate who can win over enough independents and disaffected Republicans, and even fellow Democrats, to defeat Trump next year,” Schultz wrote. “That any opponent can oust Trump, no matter how far to the radical left they are, is a fallacy.” He added: “Those so concerned about a centrist independent being a spoiler should perhaps ask another question: Will the eventual Democratic nominee be the party’s own version of a spoiler?” (Fox News, 1/20/19)
Schultz’s wealth and third-party posturing has led to frequent comparisons to an earlier plutocrat who ran two independent candidacies for president, and won more than 18 percent of the vote in 1992: H. Ross Perot….Perot was without any question a phenomenon who made an indelible impression at the time. The same cannot be said for Schultz. Though he’s been making the media rounds and has a new book on the New York Times best-seller list, it’s still unclear what he stands for other than dislike for Trump and disdain for what he considers a socialist trend among Democrats. (New York Magazine, 2/21/19)
“If you imagine a period in time in 2020 where Howard Schultz is ahead in a three-way race, with multiple paths to 270 electoral votes, and all the commentariat saying, ‘How did you know that would happen?,’ well, the indication was probably at the beginning with the hysterical, overwrought, panicked reaction by vested interests within the political duopoly and in the media class,” Schmidt says. “There’s an enormous constituency in this country that’s just completely unrepresented. There has never been a larger population of moderate voters who generally agree on some of the country’s biggest problems.” (Vanity Fair,1/31/19) )
Naysayers
Sanders –And while rising stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley have siphoned some of his authority over the party’s progressive wing, Mr. Sanders still claims to have spawned a “political revolution” that, true revolution or not, has ignited a generation of young, socialist-leaning voters and reshaped the Democratic Party.He is also partly responsible for the party’s decision last year to overhaul its presidential nomination process, including sharply reducing the influence of superdelegates and increasing the transparency around debates — factors he felt greatly favored Hillary Clinton in 2016…Mr. Sanders is the longest-serving independent in congressional history, a point of pride for him but one of consternation and annoyance for some Democrats who are quick to suggest he does not have the party’s interests at heart. Some Democrats blame him for Mrs. Clinton’s loss in 2016, saying his anti-establishment rhetoric during his campaign inflamed divisions in the party that proved insurmountable. (NYT, 2/19/19)
Weld – Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld said his bid to win the Republican presidential nomination over President Donald Trump will get a boost from independent voters who can cast GOP primary ballots in 20 states. “That is an opening,” he said of the independent voters in a Bloomberg Television interview. “Beyond that, you have to make a case for yourself, and I am in this to win.” Asked if he’s received encouragement from other Republicans, Weld said, “I am not asking people to endorse or get behind me until I have shown I have some traction.” He said he’s getting “a lot” of support by email and that when people speak in favor of his candidacy, they use words like “historic.” (Bloomberg, 2/19/19)
Harris – Kamala Harris touted Medicare for all, an assault weapons ban, and the Green New Deal on her first visit to New Hampshire as a presidential candidate Monday. But the message she emphasized the most to Granite State voters was a simpler one: I’ll be back. “I just want to get this out of the way,” the freshman senator from California said to open up her packed town hall Monday evening in Portsmouth’s South Church. “I intend to compete in New Hampshire. I intend to spend time here. I intend to shake every hand that I possibly can.” (Boston Globe, 2/18/19)
Booker – Senator Cory Booker continued his swing through New Hampshire Sunday, with three different campaign stops as he focused on a message of unity for the American people, regardless of party. “I’m running for president not just to win an office, but there is a larger campaign for our country. Our nation is a moral moment. We are at a crossroad that’s going to define who we are. We all have to accept the responsibilities that we are framers again. That we have to re-establish the ideals for this country in this generation,” he said. Booker also said the 2020 presidential primary race should not be about President Donald Trump or the democrats, but about the cause of the country, saying you can’t fight a fire with more fire. “People tell me if you’re gonna beat Trump, you gotta bring it,” Booker said. “Well, I believe in bringing it, but not bringing more of what Trump is bringing.”… he was not the only candidate in the Granite State, which will hold the first primary next year. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wrapped up her three-day visit, California Senator Kamala Harris is campaigning there until Monday, and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is heading to Manchester on Monday. (NECN, 2/17/19)
Buttigieg – He’s got a resume that appears to have been forged in Democratic headquarters’ central casting department: Harvard grad. Rhodes scholar. Millennial. Afghanistan war veteran. Married his boyfriend three years ago. Elected twice in a deep-red state. For the most part, he’s been spending his time in Iowa and New Hampshire. But he came to San Francisco to court donors and make a lunchtime appearance at Postmates, a South of Market on-demand delivery company, where he impressed many of his fellow Millennials by answering questions about artificial intelligence and riffing on the privacy policy in Estonia. (SF Chronicle, 2/25/19 )
Warren – The two senators—Sanders from Vermont, Warren from neighboring Massachusetts—are among the left’s most prominent figures, having built impressive national profiles with sharp criticism of America’s economic system. These and other unabashedly liberal positions have turned them into progressive heroes. But their similarities also mean they’re likely to rely on the same base of voters to lift them to the Democratic nomination—and could find themselves slugging it out sooner rather than later. (Vanity Fair, 2/22/19)
Hickenlooper – Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has hired an Iowa organizer as he considers a 2020 Democratic presidential bid. Hickenlooper’s Leadership PAC hired Ferguson Yacyshyn as an adviser. The onetime Denver mayor, who’s considered a centrist politician, said in mid-February that he will not decide for several more weeks whether to join the crowded 2020 contest. CBS (2/21/19)
O’Rourke – O’Rourke is now on the precipice of running for president with “losing Senate candidate” as the most impressive line on his résumé. It was how he chose to run that campaign last year that sets him apart from his potential Democratic rivals…In political terms, it amounted to a massive bet on a strategy of mobilizing infrequent voters instead of trying to win over dependable ones. …If he stuck to that plan, O’Rourke would never even have to hire a pollster, because he did not really care about moving opinions. There would be no triangulating against his party’s base, no judicious courtship of a relatively small slice of potential party-switchers with views to the right of his. (Politico, 2/22/19)
Klobuch – (Oped, Klobuch as centrist alternative to Schultz) Former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz appears to believe he could perform well in a presidential race with voters turned off by President Donald Trump and those fearful that the Democratic Party has moved too far left. But the independent candidate recently told The Washington Post he would reconsider his quest if a more moderate Democrat, like former vice president Joe Biden or former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, got the party’s nomination. “I would reassess the situation if the numbers change as a result of a centrist Democrat winning the nomination,” he said regarding internal polling suggesting he would be competitive in a three-way race against President Trump and a liberal Democratic candidate. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., might be able to change those numbers. Klobuchar is running for president in 2020, joining a crowded and diverse field of Democratic candidates vying for the nomination. The billionaire is right that there are voters who are looking for a third way; he just might not be the person to lead that path. But the pragmatic Klobuchar could. Her stances appear to be rooted in acknowledging a Democratic electorate interested in big ideas but recognizing some proposals might be too radical to win over independents who backed Trump in 2016. (Mesabi Daily News, 2/19/19)
McAuliffe – Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Sunday he’s inching closer to making a decision on whether or not to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. McAuliffe had previously set a self-imposed deadline of March 31 for announcing his intentions. “I have made hundreds and hundreds of calls across the country, talked to potential staff and, listen, we’re close to making a decision,” McAuliffe said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” Asked whether he was waiting for former Vice President Joe Biden to make his own decision on 2020, McAuliffe said he isn’t, but said he “wants to see where the field is.” McAuliffe is a longtime ally of the Clinton family and served as Virginia’s governor from 2014 to 2018.
Memoirs – Virtually every candidate entering the massive 2020 presidential field has published a memoir, arguing why he or she is the best person for the job (or, at least, the best person to defeat Donald Trump). But let’s be honest: Some of these books can be a real slog, filled with empty promises, progressive platitudes, and plain bad writing. So we read 10 of them for you — separating the great from the terrible, the middling from the slightly less middling. Here are our takes on the books, ranked from best to worst. (Entertainment, 2/22/19)
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