October 4, 2019

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders blow past Joe Biden in fundraising race

Presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders greatly eclipsed former Vice President Joe Biden in fundraising over the past three months, placing progressive Democrats on strong footing in the crucial final stretch before primary voting begins.
Warren’s campaign reported to donors Friday morning that the Massachusetts senator raised $24.6 million from more than half a million donors in the fundraising quarter that ended Monday. The amount is just shy of the haul by her Senate colleague and fellow progressive Sanders, of Vermont, who earlier in the week reported raising $25.3 million.

“Our grassroots movement is in an incredible position,” Warren campaign manager Roger Lau said in an e-mail to supporters. He invited them to “close your eyes and picture Wall Street bankers scowling into their catered breakfast” upon hearing of Warren’s haul. Some 300,000 donors to Warren in the last quarter were giving to her for the first time.

The fundraising report answered an important question for Warren’s campaign — whether she would be able to match her rise in polls with the resources needed to sustain her campaign in key primary states.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-04/warren-sanders-biden-fundraising

October 4, 2019

Zuckerberg insists Facebook will be impartial toward Warren

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that the company will be impartial toward Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign despite his pledge to fight her plan to break up the company if she takes the White House.
Zuckerberg came under fire this week after audio surfaced of an open meeting during which he predicted Facebook would challenge and beat back efforts by a would-be Warren administration to split up the company.
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A staffer pressed the executive during a Thursday open meeting, which was streamed live after the earlier meeting leak made headlines, on whether Facebook could be expected to treat Warren's campaign fairly given Zuckerberg's remarks.
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Zuckerberg quipped that the company would “try not to antagonize her further.” But he said he understood the concern and pledged to maintain neutrality toward the Democratic candidate.

Zuckerberg stood by his leaked remarks, which he shared on Facebook after The Verge published audio and a transcript, calling them an “unfiltered” view into his thoughts. He said his comments on Warren were in response to a specific question and “not like an opinion on the election overall.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/04/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-elizabeth-warren-027312

Hmmm. "I still want to give them a voice..." That's mighty nice of Zuckerberg.



Talk about a concentration of power and influence in a single media company, eh?

October 4, 2019

Elizabeth Warren Outraises Joe Biden in Third Quarter With $24.6-Million Haul

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) campaign announced Friday that she raised $24.6 million in the third quarter, a massive haul placing her among the top fundraisers in the 2020 Democratic primary field.

According to the campaign, Warren’s fundraising tally came from 509,000 donors and 943,000 contributions, with an average donation of $26. More than 300,000 of the donors gave for the first time in the third quarter and Warren’s campaign now touts $25.7 million in cash on-hand. The campaign has accrued around 750,000 donors throughout the cycle, according to an aide.
The haul places Warren just behind Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who raised $25.3 million, which is the single-best reported quarterly haul of any candidate thus far in the 2020 cycle. Perhaps more crucially, Warren’s tally cements the fact that the two candidates who have eschewed the fundraising circuit and relied on small-dollar contributions easily outraised former Vice President Joe Biden, who is also among the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination.

For Warren, the trend line has moved in the opposite direction. Despite some concerns about early anemic fundraising, the Massachusetts Democrat raised more than $6 million in the first quarter, then more than $19 in the second, and finally almost $25 in the third. Late last month, the campaign had already hinted at a large fundraising haul when they announced an eight-figure ad buy in the early voting states as well as expanded resources in states with down-ballot and Senate races.


https://www.thedailybeast.com/elizabeth-warren-outraises-joe-biden-in-third-quarter-with-dollar246-million-haul

October 4, 2019

Warren relies on small donors to raise $24.6 million

Elizabeth Warren raised $24.6 million over the past three months, relying largely on a massive small donor operation to solidify her status as a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Massachusetts senator’s haul, announced on Friday, is just less than the $25.3 million her chief liberal rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, posted during the third quarter. But together, the fundraising numbers illustrate the financial strength of the party’s most progressive wing and a rejection of more traditional approaches to pressing donors for money.
The White House hopefuls who have relied on frequent high-dollar fundraisers reported numbers that lag behind Sanders and Warren. Former Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday he raised $15.2 million during the third quarter. California Sen. Kamala Harris reported $11.6 million during the same period. Pete Buttigieg, who has combined small donors with traditional fundraisers, raised $19.1 million.

“This means our grassroots movement is in an incredible position — to double down on our investments in grassroots organizing, to keep getting Elizabeth’s plans for big, structural change in front of more caucus-goers and voters, and to bring more people into this fight,” Warren’s campaign said in a statement.

Both Warren and Sanders have consistently attracted armies of small donors, many of whom contribute online. Warren’s campaign said its quarterly totals came from 509,000 donors offering 943,000 donations. Her campaign has $25.7 million cash on hand.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/warren-relies-on-small-donors-to-raise-246-million/2019/10/04/5ed4d38c-e6b8-11e9-b0a6-3d03721b85ef_story.html

October 3, 2019

Warren proposes the largest expansion of worker rights 'since the New Deal'

For years, Democratic politicians have been accused of showing indifference toward the interests of the working class, slighting a sector that had been part of their base since the 1930s.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Thursday put forth a labor platform that would go far to restore the relationship, in part by reversing the hostility to workers shown by the Trump administration.
Warren describes her labor package as “the most progressive and comprehensive agenda for workers since the New Deal.” That’s a fair assessment, though incomplete.

Her proposals would exceed the New Deal standard, in part because workers and organized labor have lost so much ground over the last eight decades, and because the modern labor landscape requires initiatives that weren’t contemplated in the ‘30s.
Among the more important structural features of the package are a pledge to remake the Supreme Court to declaw its emergent anti-labor majority. Warren pledges that as president she would nominate “a demonstrated advocate for workers” to fill any vacancy. Her proposals also take aim at major provisions of the egregiously anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act, which was passed in 1947 over President Truman’s veto.

Warren’s labor plan is sure to garner lots of discussion at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) presidential forum opening Friday in Los Angeles. In addition to Warren, Democratic candidates Joe Biden, Julian Castro, Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders have previously committed to attend, though Sanders has been sidelined by heart surgery.
By strengthening the enforcement of labor protection, Warren’s proposals would reverse what I called the transformation of the Department of Labor into the Department of Employer Rights under Trump. She would also invest the National Labor Relations Board with a pro-labor outlook, which is desperately needed.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-03/hiltzik-warren-labor-platform

October 3, 2019

Warren is polling better than Biden and starting to look like a 2020 Democratic frontrunner

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is closing the gap and maybe even surging past former Vice President Joe Biden in important early voting states and at the national level, according to multiple recent polls, all signs that she poses a significant challenge to the former vice president's frontrunner status.

Biden has held onto a solid lead atop a wide, diverse field of Democratic candidates for months, but Warren has been gaining on the former vice president in recent weeks and has now pulled past him in multiple polls.

A Monmouth University poll conducted last week in New Hampshire and released Tuesday put Warren 2 points above Biden with 27% support among those considered likely to vote in the Democratic primary. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who won a stunning victory in the 2016 presidential primary in New Hampshire, was in third with just 12% support.

And a poll taken in Iowa last week and released Sunday, sponsored by CNN and the Des Moines Register, also put Warren ahead of Biden by 2 points, 22% to 20% among those considered likely to attend the state's Democratic caucus. Sanders, who lost in Iowa in 2016, was also in third in this poll, with 11% support.

Both states' poll results were within the margin of error, showing the races remain tight.

https://www.businessinsider.com/warren-surges-ahead-of-biden-looking-like-2020-democratic-frontrunner-2019-9

October 3, 2019

Democrat Warren vows to boost worker protections, strengthen unions

Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren would make it easier for employees to join unions and make rideshare drivers and other gig economy workers eligible for overtime, the latest effort by a Democrat to court the country’s deep-pocketed labor unions.

Warren’s plan, released Thursday in advance of an appearance before a labor group in Los Angeles, comes as she is catching up to frontrunner Joe Biden in the crowded field of 19 Democrats seeking their party’s nomination to take on Republican Donald Trump for the U.S. presidency in November 2020.

Organized labor, though greatly diminished in membership and power after decades of manufacturing decline and Republican-backed changes to state and federal employment laws, remains a potent force in U.S. politics, providing millions in donations and an army of grassroots volunteers to knock on doors and get out the vote for candidates that unions have endorsed.
With many union members defecting to vote for Trump in 2016, it is particularly important to Democrats to field a candidate who will win the support of labor organizations.

In her plan, Warren pledged to increase protections for home healthcare workers, a growing segment of the workforce, as well as immigrant employees who are undocumented. She would roll back Trump-era restrictions on the power of unions representing federal workers and work to restore public employee bargaining rights that have been reduced in several states.

Warren would end exemptions limiting the rights of domestic and farm workers and make it harder for companies to classify people as independent contractors instead of employees.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-warren-labor-idUSKBN1WI18Z

October 3, 2019

Warren turns corporate criticism into bona fides in '20 race

Facebook’s CEO said his company is ready to “go to the mat” to stop Elizabeth Warren from breaking up tech giants. Amazon accused her of getting facts wrong. And some Democratic donors with ties to Wall Street have quietly said they’ll sit out the election or vote for President Donald Trump if Warren wins her party’s presidential nomination.

On the surface, none of this would seem encouraging for Warren. But the Massachusetts senator and her allies are relishing her growing number of high-profile corporate enemies, betting their disdain will reinforce her image as an anti-corruption crusader.

“Many of the people who will be voting for a president who will break up Amazon and Facebook are users of Amazon and Facebook (and) don’t like having their privacy abused or their prices jacked up,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and a top Warren backer. “Elizabeth Warren is able to really make that case.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/warren-turns-corporate-criticism-into-bona-fides-in-20-race/2019/10/03/e462fe1a-e597-11e9-b0a6-3d03721b85ef_story.html