Sixty Days to the Midterms…

Labor Day weekend marks the campaign kickoff. Budgets are set, and ad time is purchased. Operations wind down chasing the mythical “persuadable” middle to focus on identifying their actual supporters for GOTV (Get-Out-The-Vote) drives.

This year, Democrats face a special, exhausting challenge: educating millions of voters who are currently under siege by Republican suppression efforts. It is no longer just about getting out the vote; it is about giving voters a survival guide to actually cast a ballot under fire.

What are the most blatant suppression tactics you are seeing in your state, and how are local groups fighting back? Drop your frontline reports in comments throughout the campaign.

No hedging. No pundit fog. Just your best prediction. (Add independents to the party where you expect them to caucus).

Prediction Resources:

• Sabato’s Crystal Ball
• The Cook Political Report
• Inside Elections

DARK MONEY DISPLACING DEMOCRACY

Attribution: Paul Duginski, CagleCartoons.com

Paul Duginski has spent a half-century in journalism, including 27-1/2 years at the Los Angeles Times, and 13 years at the Sacramento Bee. His cartoons have appeared in the L.A. Times, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Examiner and the McClatchy Bee newspapers in California, among other places. He was an award-winning graphics journalist at the L.A. Times.

Attribution: AMERICA IN THE EYE OF THE TRUMP STORM by Milt Priggee

[Milt Priggee is a freelance editorial cartoonist from northwest Washington State. His work has been reprinted in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World report, The New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today.]

WIN these 10 Senate races, and Democrats need just 12 Republicans to convict on impeachment.

Labor Day is the kickoff. Here’s the goal: 55 senators in the Democratic caucus.

That would leave Democrats just 12 votes short of the 67 needed to convict a president on impeachment.

Skeptics will say that sounds like a hell of a lot of Republicans. Maybe. But we already know more than that privately hate his guts, and a humiliating midterm defeat would turn him from a feared president into a defenseless lame duck.

With Labor Day kickoff approaching, I am focusing on winning these 10 Senate races and building a 55-45 Democratic caucus majority. Let’s go!

• Alaska: Mary Peltola (D) vs. Dan Sullivan (R)
• Georgia: Jon Ossoff (D) vs. Mike Collins (R)
• Iowa: Josh Turek (D) vs. Ashley Hinson (R)
• Maine: Troy Jackson (D) vs. Susan Collins (R)
• Michigan: Abdul El-Sayed (D) vs. Mike Rogers (R)
• Nebraska: Dan Osborn (I) vs. Pete Ricketts (R)
• North Carolina: Roy Cooper (D) vs. Michael Whatley (R)
• Ohio: Sherrod Brown (D) vs. Jon Husted (R)
• South Carolina: Dr. Annie Andrews (D) vs. Darline Graham (R)
• Texas: James Talarico (D) vs. Ken Paxton (R)

Yesterday August 29th was Charlie Parker’s birthday. He would have been 106. He was also known as Bird or Yardbird. In honor of his birthday I have put together a short play list of some of his music.

Enjoy, Jack