if you're in Colorado, you'll want to know if you're voting in a contested DA race this fall. & also where the candidates differ: this is where reform & mass incarceration are at play.
The short story: there are 4 open DA races in populous jurisdictions (360K to 1.1 million).
Right now, Dems detain one of them, & they're in a position to flip other 3: It's the sort of Clinton-friendly ares that've trended blue (you know that story). But that's only part of it.
1/ 1st district: Jefferson and Gilpin counties. (GOP-held, but Clinton won handily here.) Big contrast here.
The reform-minded Dem says she wants to not criminally charge any drug possession vs & the GOP nominee laments existing departures from punitive 'war on drugs' practices.
2/ 8th District: Jackson & Larimer. (GOP-held, Clinton-carried.)
Larimer is spending $75 million on growing its jail capacity. The Dem, unlike the GOPer, says he opposes this project because we should look for alternatives to jail over "expanding our ability to warehouse folks."
This is district where Elijah McClain was killed, but candidates don't want to talk about case, & there's a lack of stronger commitments to upend system (do not call lists, independent subpoana power...).
4/ 18th District (Arapahoe, Douglas, more): This is the most populous of these districts by far.
The outgoing GOP DA is one of leading foes of reform in recent years. Dem is Sanders-endorsed, supports recent reforms & wants to go further against life sentences.
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France's hyper-fragmented Assembly has been voting all day for its new leadership, & finished choosing its 'secretaries' at 4-5am. I'm not quite sure how but Left coalition won 10 of the 12 final spots, giving it an out-of-nowhere majority in chamber's overall leadership council.
Since France entered its latest constitutional structure in 1958, nothing like what's unfolding now has ever happened—there's never been a situation where a bloc hasn't effectively controlled proceedings (even in rare hung parliaments). So IMO no one really knows what's going on.
(Correction: 1st tweet should have said 9, not 10.)
If you missed today's earlier updates, thread below lays out how the Macronists & conservatives got lion's share of the top positions earlier.
(This all mostly adds to my prior tweet's sentiment: 🤷♂️)
JUST IN: Polls closed in France. Exit polls show surprise:
—Left coalition (New Popular Front) projected first. (!)
—Far-right (RN) has lost its bid to take power. Anti-RN front appears to have worked very well.
—No bloc close to majority.
Follow this 🧵 for results and more:
2nd leading pollster projects a similar result—if anything a higher range for the Left coalition.
This wld be a much stronger result than expected for the Macron bloc as well. Still, a big drop for them from outgoing Assembly (250, enough for governing with plurality).
Stepback: If you're getting to this thread & want background, here's a thread from this morning walking you through the big picture.
One key reminder: Left bloc & the Macron bloc are quite separate; as are conservatives (LR); as is far-right (RN).
France is holding its parliamentary elections today.
Clear stakes: Will far-right end up governing France?
And if it fails, what possible coalition will end up governing given fragmentation?
You can follow me for results starting at 2pm ET; but a quick context 🧵:
Let’s start with: In France, president runs the show… as long as their party controls the Assembly. If presidential party loses that control, the president has few domestic powers—no veto, for instance. This isn’t a US-style split government. That’s why stakes today so high.
Macron called these just 4 weeks ago. Decision shocked his own allies.
He already lost his gamble: His bloc is sure to lose seats & its tentative control on Assembly. (He reportedly expected Left would fail to unite, & be knocked out of R1 most places; that didn’t happen.)
Details reported in piece for those who can’t read it
—Macron’s team mostly shrugged off results on Sunday. They started celebrating a birthday as returned still coming in
—He didn’t bother watching as Prime Minister, Attal, gave forceful speech calling to block far-right.
(1/?)
—Macron Interior Ministry, Darmanin right of party, reportedly said organizing election on 7/7 is good bc “bledards [word for immigrants from North Africa] won’t be around & won’t vote Left.”
Note: Darmanin & RN nearly tied in round 1. Left dropped out, helping him, to block RN.
JUST IN: Polls closed in first round of France elections. Two main French TV estimates (combines early results & exit poll) show strong far-right.
Far-right bloc: ≈34%
Left bloc: ≈28-29%
Macron bloc: ≈20-22%
What does this mean? What'll happen? Follow this thread ⬇️
Both estimates project that far-right will dominate the upcoming National Assembly — falling short so far of absolute majority, but not unattainable next week.
Left bloc projected 2nd. Macron's bloc, to collapse < 100 seats.
NOTE: This is projections of what'd happen NEXT WEEK.
First: If you are new to my timeline & need background, here's my thread from three weeks, with a lot of background.
The basic: This is largely a 3-way battle between far-right bloc, left bloc, & Macron bloc, with conservatives as a smaller fourth bloc.
‼️ Shock news : French President Emmanuel Macron just announced he was dissolving the country's National Assembly.
He's calling national elections, which'll decide who'll run the country.
The elections were supposed to be in 2027. Instead, they'll be in early July (!!!).
The runoff of these parliamentary elections will be on July 7th... so 3 days after the UK elections! An extremely short campaign.
More context:
#1: This comes an hour after disastrous election results for Macron in the EU elections. (The far-right got 31% and Macron at 15%.)
#2: France currently has a hung Parliament due to weak results by Macron's party in 2022, tho his party has been able to govern because the conservative LR (despite not being in government) typically bail them out. Upside for Macron is if lighting campaigning gets him a majority.