House Democrats begin plotting how to run with Bernie

Congressional Democrats are starting to figure out how to share the ticket with Bernie Sanders in November — if they have to.

With party leaders preaching unity and Sanders a frontrunner for the presidential nomination, Democrats are working to craft a version of his platform that has a bit less socialism but is still something they could present to their own voters, even in swing districts.

But even as some Democrats privately test-drive rhetoric for sharing a Sanders ticket — like how to talk up expanded health care, rural broadband or new workforce programs — there are others who say they could have to strongly distance themselves from the Vermont independent if he wins the party’s nod.

“I’ve been consistent from day one that the answers to the problems that we all agree that we face today, the answers are not socialist economic policies,” said Rep. Max Rose of New York, a Mike Bloomberg backer, whose district went for President Donald Trump by 10 points in 2016. “That’s just not the case. And I stand by that.”



https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/02/democrats-house-bernie-sanders-118209

CA-12: Sanders praises Nancy Pelosi, refuses to endorse primary opponent.

Norfolk, VA shows up for Joe.

Texas kicks off critical battle for House control

But down the ballot, Texas has rapidly supplanted California as the epicenter of the battle for the House of Representatives. Newly competitive seats and a handful of Republican retirements have made the Dallas and Houston suburbs and exurbs this year’s version of Orange County in 2018.

“There are going to be seats coming open to the Dems in most election cycles going forward. So it’s wise to begin to look closely and choose wisely where you’re going to invest in this cycle and the ones to come later,” said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University.

The Democratic Congressional Committee has opened an office in Austin, replicating their efforts south of Los Angeles two years ago.

After years of sky-high growth and demographic change, and at the end of a redistricting cycle in which urban and suburban areas have blossomed while more conservative rural regions shrank, Democrats made significant inroads in several Texas districts in the 2018 midterm elections.




https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/485196-texas-kicks-off-critical-battle-for-house-control

CA: "Voters who said that they decided on their vote just today decided on Biden."

Nate Cohn getting ANECDOTAL reports of California voters switching to Joe

Sanders says he will not choose a running mate who doesn't support Medicare for All

Sen. Bernie Sanders isn’t going to soften his views just because some moderates are lining up behind former Vice President Joe Biden after his landslide win in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary and Pete Buttigieg’s supporters are suddenly up for grabs.

Sanders told The Chronicle on Sunday that he won’t choose a running mate who doesn’t support his signature issue, Medicare for All, a government-run single-payer health system that would require Americans to give up their private health insurance.

Polls indicate that many Democrats prefer to build on the Affordable Care Act rather than replace their private insurance with a single-payer plan. That doesn’t faze Sanders.

“We will pick somebody who knows the experience of working families in this country, who has a history of fighting for those families, and somebody whose politics are similar to mine,” Sanders told The Chronicle in an interview before taking the stage at a rally in a San Jose convention center, during which the news broke that Buttigieg was ending his campaign.

Sanders came to California a day after his first clear-cut loss of the 2020 election season, as Biden easily won South Carolina’s Democratic primary. Polls still show Sanders far ahead in California’s primary, the biggest single prize among 14 states voting on Super Tuesday.



https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Thousands-line-up-in-San-Jose-for-Bernie-Sanders-15097033.php

Emerson California poll: Biden leads among voters contacted by phone.

Lab for coronavirus test kits may have been contaminated

A top federal scientist sounded the alarm about what he feared was contamination in an Atlanta lab where the government made test kits for the coronavirus, sources familiar with the situation in Atlanta tell me and Axios' Caitlin Owens.

The Trump administration has ordered an independent investigation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab, and the manufacture of the virus test kids has been moved, the sources said.

Why it matters: At a time when the administration is under scrutiny for its early preparations for the virus, the potential problems at the lab became a top internal priority for some officials. But the Trump administration did not talk publicly about the Food and Drug Administration’s specific concerns about the Atlanta lab.

Senior officials are still not saying exactly what the FDA regulator found at the Atlanta lab.
The CDC lab in Atlanta developed the testing formula for the coronavirus test — which the government says works — and was manufacturing smaller quantities of the testing kits for laboratories around the country. This is where the lab ran into problems, per sources familiar with the situation.

FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn said, in a statement to Axios, that government agencies have already worked together to resolve the problems with the coronavirus tests.

"Upon learning about the test issue from CDC, FDA worked with CDC to determine that problems with certain test components were due to a manufacturing issue," he said.

"We worked hand in hand with CDC to resolve the issues with manufacturing. FDA has confidence in the design and current manufacturing of the test that already have and are continuing to be distributed. These tests have passed extensive quality control procedures and will provide the high level of diagnostic accuracy we need during this coronavirus outbreak."



https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-sneak-peek-eaca63dc-7b45-48c3-b3ec-d8d0cdb92551.html?chunk=0&utm_term=twsocialshare#story0

Want to change your vote? Some states say no problem

(CNN)In some states, you really can vote twice ... or even three times ... and it's legal.

But it will only count once.

While the process is little known and rarely used, some states do allow voters to change their early or absentee ballots with no questions asked.

The issue has received new attention because of the expected record number of early votes that will be cast in the 2016 presidential election. Some estimates are that up to 40% of voters will have cast their ballots before the polls open Tuesday, November 8.

In most of the states, voters who have already cast ballots need to show up to the polls on Election Day, have their prior vote nullified, and revote in-person to have their new vote -- and only the new vote -- counted.
If you live in Wisconsin, you can change your mind up to three times before your official ballot is cast and counted.


https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/31/politics/changing-early-vote-cast/index.html