NEWS 10/29/2018

Merkel declines to back any of the candidates seeking CDU party chair

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday declined to back any of the candidates seeking to replace her as party leader of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) at a convention in December.

“It’s true that Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Jens Spahn both announced their candidacy today,” Merkel told reporters after a closed-door meeting. She added she did not want to influence the election of her successor as CDU party leader.

Asked whether her announcement not to run for a fifth term as chancellor also applied for a snap election before 2021, Merkel said that she just made this clear and that she did not want to participate in any further speculation.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-politics-merkel-succession/merkel-declines-to-back-any-of-the-candidates-seeking-cdu-party-chair-idUSKCN1N31N1

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NOTABLE

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Underdog Republican Senate candidate John James appears to be gaining momentum in Michigan, as the latest polls show the political newcomer cutting incumbent Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s once-comfortable lead in half.

James, an Iraq War veteran, is now trailing the incumbent by roughly 7 points, according to the latest Real Clear Politics average of polls.

The split is similar to the race in Texas, where Democrat Beto O’Rourke is trailing incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Like O’Rourke, James remains the underdog.

But unlike in Texas, the polls in Michigan reflect a steady tightening. Stabenow, D-Mich., for months had led by double digits. As of mid-October, Stabenow was 16 points ahead of James, according to an MRG poll.

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MEGA!

NEWS

U.S. Supreme Court turns away Pennsylvania electoral map dispute

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rebuffed a bid by Republican legislators in Pennsylvania to reinstate a congressional district map struck down by that state’s top court as unlawfully biased in favor of Republicans.

The justices rejected the appeal of a January Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling invalidating the Republican-drawn map because it violated the state constitution’s requirement that elections be “free and equal” by marginalizing Democratic voters.

The case involves a practice called partisan gerrymandering in which electoral maps are drafted in a manner that helps one party tighten its grip on power by undermining the clout of voters that tend to favor the other party. The practice has been used for two centuries but has become more extreme with the use of computer programs to maximize the effects of gerrymandering in a way that critics have said warps democracy.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-gerrymandering/u-s-supreme-court-turns-away-pennsylvania-electoral-map-dispute-idUSKCN1N31PC