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Trump campaign boosted by unsuspecting state GOPs

Federal regulators are probing financial reporting discrepancies stemming from an effort to funnel $75 million through state Republican parties to the national GOP effort to reelect Donald Trump, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: In comments to Axios and filings with the Federal Election Commission, some state party officials seemed unaware of their roles.

What they’re saying: "I am not sure what report your (sic) looking at please point me toward it or forward the link to it to me," Vermont GOP chair Deb Billado told Axios when asked about nearly $400,000 sent to the state party by the Trump Victory joint fundraising committee last year and immediately routed to the RNC.





https://www.axios.com/republicans-state-gop-trump-campaign-cd16bae3-ebf9-4ed5-94de-98a85d23e06c.html

VOTING Local: Lisa Smith for Arvada (CO) City Council

Lisa has been working for and with the community since she was a child. She understands that people face significant barriers throughout their lives. She believes that everyone has a role in the betterment of the collective community, for her that role is at the community level through policy..

Her passion for helping others lead her to the military, where she served four years serving as Military Police in the United States Air Force.

She graduated from Colorado State University while simultaneously working as a Veterans Transition Counselor, then later and Intensive Case Manager focused on elder care and housing.

When the floods hit Colorado in 2013, Lisa responded, helping communities and families recover. Then again when the fires tore through our great state, she was there helping communities rebuild. This was where her near decade work around disaster recovery began. Since COVID, Lisa has worked to distribute emergency supplies, food, and vaccines as well as supported medical testing sites in Arvada and Jeffco.

Currently sits on the Arvada Resiliency Taskforce and Arvada Chamber Government Affairs Committee working towards solutions for local businesses and residents.

Lisa also serves on the Jeffco Community Advisory Board and Colorado Senior Lobby to support housing and older adults in Arvada and throughout Colorado.

Lisa is the forever public servant and volunteer. She will use her honest and open leadership style to listen and engage Arvada towards a positive and successful future!

Lisa was raised in a large Irish and Italian Catholic family where everyone knew everything. She was taught to give back when you could, work hard, and never give up!

Life wasn't easy as many family members struggled with addiction, suicide, abuse, and mental health problems, but her family did their best with open and forgiving hearts.

Family is the backbone of what shaped Lisa's passion and drive. She learned the value of committing to what you set your mind to and to be understanding and inclusive of all.







https://www.lisaforarvada.com/home

VOTING LOCAL: Dr. Jace Dawson for Compton (CA) City Council

As a former representative under the Obama administration (fellowship program), Jace knows first hand how Government is run, and how the community (You) are left out of the decision making. The residents have been dismayed, and saddened, at the amount of political division between our “politicians” and their inability to progress our undeserved communities forward.

DawsonAs a Youth Pastor, Jace has a deep understanding of the day to day struggles of family and youth in the city of Compton. This is a deciding factor that now is the time to run for the position. And now more than ever, it’s time to bring in new blood, new faces, progressive thinking, and most importantly, progressive action.

The last 15 years Jace has been a community Organizer. He worked with our Homless neighbors, Churches, Schools, Non Profits and much more.

In our Politicians we are looking for growth in community, we must adopt a conservation-minded, progressive agenda if we are to avoid urban sprawl, more traffic congestion and the monetary expenditures associated with both.








https://www.jaceforcompton.com

VOTING LOCAL: Amy Jimenez for Compton (CA) Mayor

Amy is the proud daughter of immigrant parents. As a child of Mexican immigrants, her adolescence was shaped with the responsibility of helping her parents navigate life in America. She was raised in an immigrant household characterized by patriarchy and paternalism; rooted in the diversity and rich cultural heritages of Compton; educated in the public schools, an educational system that reflects the disparities and divisions of Los Angeles; and surrounded by poverty and violence. Inspired by the community’s optimism and perseverance, she took a risk and attended Kalamazoo College in Michigan and then earned her master’s in International Social & Public Policy at London School of Economics in London, only to return as a change agent, equipped with social grounding in lived experiences.

As a first-generation college student, overcoming the barriers of funding and inclusion, Amy challenged herself and pursued opportunities to live in different communities domestically and internationally—like Haiti, India, and Spain—which expanded her worldview. Yet, while living in these communities, she witnessed the same social issues that she witnessed in Compton—poverty, health and educational disparities, insecurity, and socioeconomic injustice. Amy strove to engage the communities she lived in and worked on issues of educational disparities. In doing so, it became clear that while individual programs are impactful, systems-level collaboration is needed to push beyond short-term solutions that leave a cycle of recurring problems with scarce resources and no resolution.

Thus, she went to Sacramento in search of long-term, sustainable solutions. Since then, she has engaged in policy work and multilevel collaborations between governments and community organizations that work directly towards long-term resolutions. Focused on youth development and educational disparities, Amy has worked as an educator, mentor, director, and advocate to promote the visibility, engagement, and accessibility of underrepresented students in higher education and in the workplace across California and the United States.

Her experience as a Mexican-American female in the United States, and the educational and professional opportunities she was able to access despite the systemic barriers she came up against have driven her efforts to address the longstanding issues and work towards creating a Compton that is responsive to the diverse needs of its community. Like her parents, she is committed to working hard to build a better future for the next generation of Comptonians. She aims to lead progressively and inclusively, and asks how we can create the most impactful and long-lasting change for our community?






https://amyjimenez.org/en/home-3/

Bonus Tweet of the Day

VOTING LOCAL: Dr. John Biggan for Hurst (TX) City Council

John and his wife, Lauren, started dating while performing at Artisan Center Theater in Hurst, TX in 2006. Lauren grew up in HEB and John has lived in HEB since 2007. John and Lauren moved to Hurst in 2013, just down the road from where Lauren teaches in HEB ISD.

John has spent his career helping people. He is a Neuroscientist by training and spent more than a decade conducting research to help older adults age in a healthy way and children succeed academically. John has also spent more than a decade teaching college and university courses, including at TCC Northeast in Hurst. Currently, he works as a Data Scientist for a non-profit in North Texas that provides foster care and adoption services across nine counties, including Tarrant County.







https://johnbiggan.com

UK: Labour sends its top guns to defend crucial byelection town

Dozens of Labour MPs and shadow ministers have poured into Hartlepool before the town’s crucial byelection, as Keir Starmer’s party tries desperately to defend its traditional northern stronghold from the Tories.

With numbers of activists restricted by Covid-19 measures, a string of high-profile Labour names, led by Starmer himself, have visited – a sign of the party’s determination to prevent what would be seen as a damaging reversal if the Conservatives were to seize it on 6 May.

Campaigning was suspended over the weekend following the death of Prince Philip, but MPs returning from the north-east said it had been like a convention of the parliamentary party in the town. “Activists can only come on day visits,” said one MP. “Normally we have a big presence of activists here. Instead it is the MPs who are able to come and stay overnight in hotels or B&Bs, which are open for essential workers.

Labour has held the town since 1964 but its share of the vote has dropped in recent years to leave a majority of just over 3,500. The Brexit party won 26% of the vote at the last election, which many Labour insiders believe allowed their party to retain the seat from the Tories. However, with Brexit down the agenda, a senior Labour source said Labour would do “very well” to hold on this time.

While many have regarded the contest as a test for Labour in the so-called “red wall” post-industrial seats it lost to the Tories, the town’s economy has evolved. Though jobs in industry and manufacturing still exist in Hartlepool, more than half of its people now work in white-collar jobs, as managers, directors, in professional services, admin and skilled trades.




https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/11/labour-sends-its-top-guns-to-defend-crucial-byelection-town

VOTING LOCAL: Nick Beaven for Wyandotte (MI) City Council

Growing up I was surrounded by outstanding examples of public servants. My father served as Chief of the Taylor Auxiliary Police Department. His father, my grandfather, was a lifelong Minster to the Methodist Church, a police chaplain for the Southfield Police Department, and a volunteer firefighter. My maternal grandfather immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands at the age of 6 and then would grow up to serve in World War II. It was these strong figures in my life that taught me that serving others and helping to better our community was essential. So at the age of 12, I began to write my own story as a community volunteer when I began volunteering at the Friends for Animal of Metro Detroit. I would often find myself spending my weekends, school breaks, and afternoons volunteering on average over 500 hours a year. I would go on to be awarded the Youth in Philanthropy Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals Detroit Chapter for my work. I went on to work on the staff of this organization as well as many other nonprofits in the area including the Detroit Zoo and The Henry Ford. I have also worked for The Walt Disney Company in various roles.

Currently, I serve the local community as a Commissioner on the Wyandotte Beautification Commission. I am a teacher and work in our local public schools at Monroe Elementary. A proud member of Dearborn First United Methodist Church and the Wyandotte Democratic Club. I graduated from Wayne State University with my B.A. in Communication Studies in 2018 and am currently working on my M.A. in Communication Studies. I earned my Elementary Education Teacher Certificate through the Michigan Teachers of Tomorrow program.

Throughout out my years of professional and personal experiences I have come to realize that what matters most to me is making a difference in the lives of others. This means having tough conversations, making decisions, listening, and standing up in times when all you want to do is to stay seated. My motivation for running for City Council is not to add a line item to my resume but to help carry our community in the future and to continue to improve our quality of life.








https://www.nickforwyandotte.com/

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