New York Democrats win a supermajority in the State Senate

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Republicans quietly plot to sink Biden nominees

Republicans are making plans to torpedo some of President-elect Biden's prospective Cabinet, agency and judicial nominees if the GOP keeps its majority, aides involved in the discussions tell me.

What we're hearing: Top targets include political names and civil servants who spoke out loudest against President Trump, forced out his appointees or became stars in the impeachment hearings — like Sally Yates and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman — as well as longtime targets of conservative media, like Susan Rice.

Targets also include more obscure potential nominees for federal judgeships, solicitor general and the Supreme Court. Republicans worry these nominees could blunt conservative moves on deregulation or social policy.

Driving the news: With Biden planning to announce his first slate of Cabinet picks this week, Senate GOP staffers are closely following reports of floated names, gathering opposition research and even planning potential hearing questions, staffers familiar with the processes in two separate Senate committees tell me.

Some leaked names are labeled "really objectionable," and Republican staffers have begun circulating research to members to try to preempt their nomination altogether.

These preparations are very preliminary, given that Trump hasn't conceded, his GSA administration has blocked the transition from the beginning and Republicans haven't begun meeting with Biden's team.



https://www.axios.com/biden-trump-cabinet-nominees-republicans-70531e77-89b2-4a67-ae9f-213aac6e1d70.html

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When will pundits stop calling Giuliani 'America's Mayor"?

That title belongs to Atlanta's Keisha Lance Bottoms.

Biden expected to visit Georgia in push to boost Ossoff, Warnock

Ron Klain, President-elect Joe Biden’s newly named chief of staff, said Sunday that Biden will likely visit Georgia to campaign for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, the two Democratic candidates in the state’s January Senate runoffs.

“Winning those two Senate seats in Georgia is important, but we're going to do everything we can to help those two … great candidates in Georgia, help them win,” Klain said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We've already moved people who were working on the Biden campaign on the recounts down there over to be supportive in the field work for our two candidates down there, and I expect you'll see the president-elect travel down there before Election Day.”

Victories by both Warnock and Ossoff over Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R) and David Perdue (R), respectively, would result in a 50-50 split in the Senate after the GOP held several seats that were top Democratic targets in the 2020 election.

“The thing -- the reality, of course, George, is that even if we win them both, and I think we will win them both –we're going to have a closely divided Senate kind of under any scenario,” Klain told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.

“And I think one challenge that the president-elect has taken on is trying to work with members of both parties to build consensus for actions on things like economic relief, like climate change, like dealing with our other crises, our racism crisis, the challenge of fixing our immigration laws and, of course, obviously, fighting COVID,” he added.


https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/527083-top-aide-biden-expected-to-visit-georgia-in-push-to-boost-ossoff

Democrats' New Plan To Win Georgia's Crucial Senate Seats In A Pandemic Is To Actually Knock On Door

With the Senate majority up for grabs, supporters of Georgia Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock are embracing a strategy in the January runoffs that Democrats largely avoided during the general election due to the coronavirus pandemic: door-knocking.

The stakes couldn’t be any higher in Georgia. After losing competitive races in Maine, Iowa, and the Carolinas, Democrats need to win both seats in the state to clinch a working majority in a 50-50 Senate with Vice President–elect Kamala Harris serving as a tiebreaker. Then, and only then, will they have even a chance at passing the kind of legislation needed to achieve President-elect Joe Biden’s plans for tackling racial inequality, revving up the pandemic-struck economy, slashing climate pollution, and more.

Democrats are optimistic after Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia since 1992. But they know it’s going to take a lot of work because they did not secure down-ballot victories for Ossoff and Warnock the first time around. Moreover, Republicans have historically fared better in the state’s runoff elections, where there’s a dropoff in the number of voters who participate compared to general elections.

So a growing number of progressive organizers are masking up to register new eligible voters and motivate people to go back to the polls despite surging coronavirus infections and hospitalizations.

More than 250,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19, hospitalizations nationwide are at an all-time high, and the next weeks will likely be brutal. And while new cases are currently not as high in Georgia as they were in July, infections are on the rise.


https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zahrahirji/georgia-senate-race-democrats-on-ground-covid?bftwnews&utm_term=4ldqpgc#4ldqpgc

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Anna Eskamani Wants Florida Democrats to Move to the Left

Anna Eskamani just won reelection to the Florida House but the Orlando Democrat is already thinking ahead to the next election–and what her party can do differently after a series of stinging defeats in the Sunshine State.

Eskamani’s answer is to target leadership in the Florida Democratic Party and replace it.

“Your voice matters. For far too long decisions about the Democratic party have been made behind closed doors, made among only the consulting class and other political elites,” she said.

Eskamani is a firebrand liberal and there is already a movement to draft her for the governor’s race in 2022. While Eskamani is not ready to discuss that just yet, she is ready to move her party to the left as a response to what went wrong. Her first targets include corporations and her own party.

“It’s a fact that, even within the Democratic Party, there are folks that are very comfortable with the influence of corporations. There are folks that are very comfortable with the exploitation of workers. There are folks that take money from private prisons,” she noted.

Eskamani is even ready and willing to call out some of the state’s biggest employers and job creators by name.



https://www.floridadaily.com/anna-eskamani-wants-florida-democrats-to-move-to-the-left/