August 27, 2019

Rep. Ilhan Omar at center of Washington political consultant's divorce

Source: MSNBC

The wife of a Washington political consultant filed for divorce on Tuesday and alleged that her husband told her he was having an affair with Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, according to court documents obtained by NBC News.

Beth Mynett, who works as the medical director of the D.C. Department of Corrections, alleged in court documents that her husband, Tim Mynett, confessed his "devastating and shocking declaration of love" for Omar this past April, which led to the split. Tim Mynett's company, the political consulting firm E Street Group, has worked with Omar's campaign.

Omar's office, when asked for comment, referred NBC News to the E Street Group, which said in part, "E Street Group does not comment on the personal life of either our staff or clients."

Beth Mynett, 55, said in the divorce filing that she was "devastated by the betrayal and deceit that preceded his abrupt declaration," but she told her husband that she "loved him and was willing to fight for the marriage." However, she said he told her that "was not an option for him," according to court documents.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1047011

August 14, 2019

Warren Campaign Faces Unfair Labor Charge by Sanders Supporter

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign is facing an unfair labor practice charge alleging its confidentiality agreement with staffers unlawfully prevents them from speaking out on workplace issues.

The Aug. 13 challenge to the campaign’s non-disparagement clause was filed by Jason Legg, a tenant’s rights attorney in Denver, Colo., who supports Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for the Democratic nomination. The National Labor Relations Board accepts charges even if the filer isn’t an employee of the organization alleged to be violating federal labor laws.

At least three Democratic campaign offices have unionized—starting with Sanders in March—and are working towards collective bargaining contracts for staff, a new development in presidential campaign politics. Warren’s campaign is the second to be hit with an NLRB charge, after an unidentified former Sanders staffer in July accused campaign officials of unlawful retaliation.

The filing against the Warren campaign by a non-employee who supports one of the candidate’s challengers suggests that both unionized and non-union campaign operations could continue to deal with complaints over issues that are fairly novel in the political campaign space, where unpaid volunteers, confidentiality, and long hours are the norm. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign faced claims of labor violations that were dismissed by the NLRB in early 2018.

More: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/warren-campaign-faces-unfair-labor-charge-by-sanders-supporter

August 8, 2019

Yang surpasses Beto in Iowa poll, qualifies for fall debates

Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur running an outsider presidential campaign centered on the promise of a universal basic income, has qualified for the fall Democratic primary debates.

Yang crossed the second of two required debate thresholds on Thursday, when he polled at 2 percent in a Monmouth University poll in Iowa. He had previously received at least 2 percent in three other polls approved by the Democratic National Committee and has hit the required 130,000 unique donor mark.

At the other end of the spectrum, onetime Democratic phenom Beto O'Rourke was outperformed in the poll by Yang, clocking in at under 1 percent.

Yang is the ninth candidate to qualify for a pair of debates: one in mid-September and one sometime in October. He joins Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on stage.

More: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/08/andrew-yang-qualifies-democratic-debates-1453030

August 6, 2019

Harris, Sanders, Booker campaigned at Vegas church led by pastor who calls being gay a sin

LAS VEGAS — Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Cory Booker attended services this weekend at a Baptist church led by a pastor who’s called being gay a sin — “enough to send you to hell” — and Bernie Sanders held a town hall at the church last month.

It isn’t clear what the three presidential candidates — all staunch supporters of LGBTQ rights — knew about the Rev. Robert E. Fowler Sr.’s position on homosexuality when they campaigned at Las Vegas’ Victory Missionary Baptist Church, but his views are hardly a secret: A 2017 Las Vegas Review-Journal columnabout his perspective on gay rights shows up on the first page of results for a Google search of his name.

Fowler said in a 2013 radio interview that “whether you commit adultery, whether you commit fornication, whether you’re a child molester, you gossip, you lie, you cheat on your taxes, you don’t pay your tithes, things of that nature — all of that is wrapped together as sin, along with homosexuality. And so at our church, we don’t believe that there’s any one sin that’s greater than anything else.”

And he said he still held those views in an interview Sunday night with the Bay Area News Group: “Homosexuality, adultery, fornication, those are all sexual sins addressed in scripture.”

more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mercurynews.com/2019/08/05/presidential-election-las-vegas-church-lgbtq-rights/amp/