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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Pam Bondi was Florida's attorney general during Trump's first campaign & some of his first first term—and that generated plenty of stories on her legal decisions.
Here's just a slice of what you should know, featuring great reporting from the mid-2010s:
1—As Florida AG, Bondi nixed suing Trump over Trump U after she solicited a contribution from him & he gave $25,000: floridapolitics.com/archives/21237…
2—Bondi's office justified nixing Trump U suit by saying she'd only receiving only one customer complaint, but the AP found this: jacksonville.com/story/news/201…
Abortion is big in the presidential race, of course, & there are many referendums on it.
But there's more: there are many races that are too overlooked where abortion rights is a key issue, for downballot offices that really matter to abortion policy.
My thread of the top 5: ⬇️
1️⃣ I have to start with Arizona's judicial elections.
Two things simultaneously: 1. Two of the 4 justices who voted to revive a near-total abortion ban this spring are up for retention. 2. GOP has advanced a measure to nullify these judicial elections. boltsmag.org/proposition-13…
2️⃣ DeSantis removed Tampa's elected prosecutor from office, citing in part the prosecutor's decision to sign a letter saying he wouldn't prosecute abortion. cases. (DeSantis has signed strict restrictions.)
Harris is up 47% to 44%.
(Not a typo. Last DMR poll had Trump up 47/43 in September.)
In 2016 & 2020, Selzer’s final poll looked like an outlier in opposite direction; days after, we learned it was actually not off, & had foreshadowed polling error in Rust Belt.
This, again, is just one poll; we’ll see soon enough whether it captured something no one else did.
Other details in poll:
—Poll was this Monday through Thursday.
—Margin is within MoE of 3.4%, of course (though this is a looooot more off from expectations).
—Harris up 28% among independent women, though Trump up among men.
—RFK at 3%
Here's what I'd say about why people care about the Selzer poll, besides the mythologizing. In final days of both 2016 & 2020, as polling had Dems in strong shape (well, esp. in 2020), it was the rare sign that something could be amiss in other polling. (1/3)
Extent to which Rust Belt white voters swung to Trump was just not understood before we saw results in 2016, tho Selzer gave a preview. (She also was first to capture IA changed in 2014.) There was this idea in 2020 that had swung back; her poll was clearest cold shower.
But of course: IT'S JUST ONE POLL! It's subject to the same margin of error, can be off in any direction, and in the moment it wasn't clear what they meant.
Same today: IT'S JUST ONE POLL.
But that gets to other thing about Selzer poll: it's clearly uninterested in herding.
I think Arizona's elections may be the single most important rn — even putting aside the presidential election.
The amount of items on the ballot that could transform state politics, upend the election systems, as well as criminal justice and courts, is remarkable. Here's why.
Let's start with: Democrats have a chance to take control of the state government by flipping two seats each in the Senate & the House. That'd be the first time they do that since *1966*.
If you've followed MI and MN politics recently, you know a new trifecta can get very busy.
Despite GOP control of the legislature, progressives have managed to pass reforms like minimum wage through ballot measures.
But Republicans have put a ballot measure on the ballot... that would squash future ballot measures. boltsmag.org/arizona-ballot…