they try to explain away all the downballot issues as anti-Trump, when they are more likely due to fraud

‘We’ve had enough’ - Moderate Republicans ditched Donald Trump for Joe Biden in the party’s key Bexar County strongholds. But the defections didn’t help down-ballot Democrats

President-elect Joe Biden and down-ballot Republicans in Bexar County have at least one thing in common: They’re more popular than President Donald Trump in the county’s GOP strongholds.

Republican candidates in four competitive county, legislative and congressional races analyzed by the San Antonio Express-News all racked up more votes in the Nov. 3 election than the sitting president did.

Biden outperformed Trump in those same districts, flipping neighborhoods that went for Trump in 2016.

The former vice president had strong crossover appeal and was able to peel off moderate Republicans and conservative-leaning independents alienated by Trump, political strategists from both parties said. But Biden’s crossover appeal didn’t extend to Democrats lower on the ballot.

“I think a lot of what happened was the Republicans self-regulating,” veteran Democratic strategist Colin Strother said. “What we saw was Republicans saying, ‘We’ve had enough.”

But once they voted for Biden, those voters turned around and cast ballots for a slate of GOP candidates.

The likely reason: Voters believed the down-ballot Republicans were focused on business-friendly policies rather than on the culture-war issues of the Trump era.

Statewide, no down-ballot Republican underperformed Trump, analysts said.

Voters “may have swung away from the Republican party for the presidential race, but they came right back underneath for the down-ballot races,” said Thomas Marks, a local GOP strategist.

That meant Biden’s gains in conservative pockets of Bexar County didn’t translate into wins for Democrats eager to pick up congressional and state House seats.

Figuring out what drove so many voters to split their ballots could be key in Texas Democrats’ deliberations over why they made no electoral gains despite a hefty war chest, record voter turnout and Trump’s presence on the ballot.

Among the possible culprits: the abolition of straight-ticket voting, which allowed Texas voters to cast their ballots for a party’s entire slate at one stroke. Instead, voters had to make individual selections for each of the races on the ballot.

Democrat candidates also struggled to neutralize Republican messaging that the Democratic Party had made a drastic turn to the left and stood to “defund the police” if given a majority in the State House or in Congress, analysts said.

“Defund the police” was a rallying cry adopted by some progressives in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May. It was shorthand for proposals to redirect some police funding to mental health, housing and other community services.

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/politics/article/We-ve-had-enough-Joe-Biden-outpaced-15822288.php

Willie Brown: Loyalty has its perks. Just ask Alex Padilla

Gov. Gavin Newsom used the oldest rule in politics when picking Secretary of State Alex Padilla to replace Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the U.S. Senate:

Reward loyalty.

Padilla has known Newsom since the mid-2000s, when Newsom was San Francisco mayor and Padilla was on his way to the state Senate.

And he has stayed with him. He was with Newsom for his short-lived run for governor in 2009, when no one was with Newsom.

He backed Newsom over former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in the 2018 governor’s race. He may have been the lone Latino elected official who did so. He even co-chaired Newsom’s campaign.

But don’t mistake Padilla for a Newsom sycophant. He has always been his own man. He’s very serious — I have never heard him crack a joke — very ambitious and very good at what he does.

As senator, Padilla instantly becomes the de facto leader of Latino elected officials across the state. And with Latinos representing 40% of the population, they deserve a place at the head of the table.

They could also be crucial to Newsom’s future, either in a 2022 re-election campaign or a recall before then. Having Padilla as an ally won’t hurt.

Newsom could have and maybe should have selected a Black woman for the Senate to replace Harris, but it would not have had the same potential political payoff.

In fact, appointing anyone but Padilla would have hurt Newsom. He would have been seen as passing over a longtime ally for the sake of enhancing his stature among women nationally, especially women of color.

Like it or not, the bottom line is that in politics, loyalty is the coin of the realm and needs to be rewarded. Otherwise, you will never get it from anyone else.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/williesworld/article/Willie-Brown-Loyalty-has-its-perks-Just-ask-15827174.php

this bitch needs to go…

Willie Brown: Gavin Newsom is in trouble. Here’s how he can survive

Gov. Gavin Newsom has good reason to be concerned about the recall campaign that’s barreling toward him.

Organizers say they have collected more than half the nearly 1.5 million signatures of registered voters needed to qualify the recall for the ballot. If they get a healthy influx of money in the next couple of months, they could make their goal by the March 17 deadline.

Many Democrats discount the possibility that a Republican like Darrell Issa will write a check to pay for the signature drive — Issa’s money is how the recall campaign against Gov. Gray Davis qualified for the ballot in 2003. But organizers are counting on small donations coming in from around the country to do the job.

Because every time Newsom makes national news, more money comes in.

Put it together, and there’s a genuine chance a recall could make the ballot. And if that happens, don’t bet against someone well known jumping in to try to replace Newsom — even a Democrat. After all, Davis’ own lieutenant governor ran in the 2003 recall, but he was overshadowed by another candidate who was pretty well known: Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Newsom knows he’s got a target on him and that a recall may indeed make the ballot. The talk now is centered on how to turn a recall to his advantage.

And he could.

In her first term as San Francisco mayor, Dianne Feinstein ended up on a recall ballot as the result of a campaign by an only-in-San Francisco group called the White Panthers, leftists who opposed her support for gun control. Really.

Not only did she beat the recall, she beat it so badly that she basically discredited any legitimate opposition and scared off anyone serious who might run against her. She won re-election to a second term in a walk.

Newsom could do the same.

But he has to paint the recall effort as an attack by disgruntled supporters of President Trump. That might be helped by news that national Republicans like Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee are trying to help the recall qualify for the ballot.

If Newsom can make it about Trump, Newsom wins.

Right now, Newsom’s chances of survival are tied to the pandemic. If California can get the coronavirus under some semblance of control and counties can lift economic restrictions — and here’s the big if, if Newsom can lean on teachers unions and school districts to reopen classrooms — he’ll survive any recall and all but guarantee his re-election.

If not, Newsom will be in a fight for his political life.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/williesworld/article/Willie-Brown-Gavin-Newsom-is-in-trouble-15815052.php