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The Atlantic Politics Daily: Getting Out the (Latino) Vote – The Atlantic

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It’s Tuesday, January 14. In today’s newsletter: The final Democratic debate before Iowa will be an all-white, six-person affair (one billionaire included). Plus: Are Democrats overlooking what may be the largest minority voting bloc of 2020?

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« TODAY IN POLITICS »

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Jose De Jesus Esparza Morales ​and Ivan Vargas canvass for the Latino activist network Mi​jente in Georgia during the 2018 midterm elections. (AUDRA MELTON / THE NEW YORK TIME​S / REDUX)

The influence of the Latino vote seems to be hyped up every election cycle—leaving pundits and politicians disappointed by the final turnout, as was the case in 2016.

The U.S. is home to 4 million young Latinos who became eligible to vote after 2016. 2020 may see record-breaking turnout among Latino voters, once again making them a key bloc for candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, and also for the eventual nominee’s ability to win states such as Florida and Arizona.

Before I began reporting this story, I wondered whether Latinos were checking out of the presidential race because they didn’t see themselves represented in mainstream Democratic politics.

I had it backwards: Latinos are giving the candidates a chance, but most of the candidates don’t seem to be biting (many did call out one candidate in particular for doing better in this arena). Latino organizers I spoke with shared a plethora of examples where Democratic candidates looking to defeat the president were lacking, such as:

Repeated attempts to schedule candidate meetings with large Latino groups;

unanswered policy questionnaires on issues such as education and affordable housing;

weak grassroots work to register voters.

As you tune in for tonight’s debate, watch for how the six white candidates talk about race and minority voters: Will they merely be paying lip service to the Latino community, or will they offer truly inclusive policy proposals?

—Christian Paz

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« DEBATE REFRESHER »

Tonight’s Democratic debate features six candidates. Here’s where we last left them:

‣ Joe Biden: “The kumbaya candidate.”

‣ Pete Buttigieg: The young left is decidedly not a fan.

‣ Amy Klobuchar: “Can she escape the shadow of her nemesis, who has seized her sensible-midwesterner mantle?”

‣ Bernie Sanders: “Iran gives Sanders something new to talk about.”

‣ Tom Steyer: Strolling through Nixon Library with our campaign reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere, Steyer had some opinions on impeachment.

‣ Elizabeth Warren: “The progressive senator doesn’t talk about her Republican past.” Could talking about it help her?

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« IDEAS AND ARGUMENTS »

(REUTERS)

1.“There is a plan that can get the country closer to having a national popular election for president within the current constitutional framework.”

And it won’t require a constitutional amendment, the law professor Vikram David Amar argues. Twice now in the past two decades, the person who ultimately became president received fewer voters nationwide than his opponent. Here is a careful idea on surmounting the Electoral College.

2. “To channel Leon Trotsky, you may not be interested in escalation, but sometimes escalation is interested in you.”

The story of the downed Ukrainian passenger jet began with confusion, then odd denials, and then admission. It’s a dangerous example of a conflict spiraling out of control, even as both the U.S. and Iran each tried to recoil from war this week. The plane crash itself is the big story, Uri Friedman writes.


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« EVENING READ »

(GETTY)

Women + Promotion = Divorce?

Derek Thompson looks at a couple of recent studies on gender parity that suggest Western society still has less-than-progressive views of women with careers.

In Sweden, women who were elected mayor or parliamentarian were more likely to get divorced than men who won the same elections. The same was true in the corporate world, where women promoted to chief executive were twice as likely to divorce within five years of their promotion as men. (Several U.S. studies have shown that American women downplay their career ambitions on dates and that marriages where the wife’s earnings exceed her husband’s are more likely to end in divorce.)

“The modern world still isn’t ready for successful women,” he writes.


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Today’s newsletter was written by Christian Paz, our Politics desk fellow. It was edited by Shan Wang, who oversees newsletters.

You can reply directly to this newsletter with questions or comments, or send a note to politicsdaily@theatlantic.com.

Your support makes our journalism possible. Subscribe here.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Christian Paz is an editorial fellow at The Atlantic.

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Vaughn Palmer: Brad West dips his toes into B.C. politics, but not ready to dive in – Vancouver Sun

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Opinion: Brad West been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization

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VICTORIA — Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West fired off a letter to Premier David Eby last week about Allan Schoenborn, the child killer who changed his name in a bid for anonymity.

“It is completely beyond the pale that individuals like Schoenborn have the ability to legally change their name in an attempt to disassociate themselves from their horrific crimes and to evade the public,” wrote West.

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The Alberta government has legislated against dangerous, long-term and high risk offenders who seek to change their names to escape public scrutiny.

“I urge your government to pass similar legislation as a high priority to ensure the safety of British Columbians,” West wrote the premier.

The B.C. Review Board has granted Schoenborn overnight, unescorted leave for up to 28 days, and he spent some of that time in Port Coquitlam, according to West.

This despite the board being notified that “in the last two years there have been 15 reported incidents where Schoenborn demonstrated aggressive behaviour.”

“It is absolutely unacceptable that an individual who has committed such heinous crimes, and continues to demonstrate this type of behaviour, is able to roam the community unescorted.”

Understandably, those details alarmed PoCo residents.

But the letter is also an example of the outspoken mayor’s penchant for to-the-point pronouncements on provincewide concerns.

He’s been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization.

His most recent blast followed the news that the New Democrats were appointing a task force to advise on ways to curb the use of illicit drugs and the spread of weapons in provincial hospitals.

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“Where the hell is the common sense here?” West told Mike Smyth on CKNW recently. “This has just gone way too far. And to have a task force to figure out what to do — it’s obvious what we need to do.

“In a hospital, there’s no weapons and you can’t smoke crack or fentanyl or any other drugs. There you go. Just saved God knows how much money and probably at least six months of dithering.”

He had a pithy comment on the government’s excessive reliance on outside consultants like MNP to process grants for clean energy and other programs.

“If ever there was a place to find savings that could be redirected to actually delivering core public services, it is government contracts to consultants like MNP,” wrote West.

He’s also broken with the Eby government on the carbon tax.

“The NDP once opposed the carbon tax because, by its very design, it is punishing to working people,” wrote West in a social media posting.

“The whole point of the tax is to make gas MORE expensive so people don’t use it. But instead of being honest about that, advocates rely on flimsy rebate BS. It is hard to find someone who thinks they are getting more dollars back in rebates than they are paying in carbon tax on gas, home heat, etc.”

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West has a history with the NDP. He was a political staffer and campaign worker with Mike Farnworth, the longtime NDP MLA for Port Coquitlam and now minister of public safety.

When West showed up at the legislature recently, Farnworth introduced him to the house as “the best mayor in Canada” and endorsed him as his successor: “I hope at some time he follows in my footsteps and takes over when I decide to retire — which is not just yet,” added Farnworth who is running this year for what would be his eighth term.

Other political players have their eye on West as a future prospect as well.

Several parties have invited him to run in the next federal election. He turned them all down.

Lately there has also been an effort to recruit him to lead a unified Opposition party against Premier David Eby in this year’s provincial election.

I gather the advocates have some opinion polling to back them up and a scenario that would see B.C. United and the Conservatives make way (!) for a party to be named later.

Such flights of fancy are commonplace in B.C. when the NDP is poised to win against a divided Opposition.

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By going after West, the advocates pay a compliment to his record as mayor (low property taxes and a fix-every-pothole work ethic) and his populist stands on public safety, carbon taxation and other provincial issues.

The outreach to a small city mayor who has never run provincially also says something about the perceived weaknesses of the alternatives to Eby.

“It is humbling,” West said Monday when I asked his reaction to the overtures.

But he is a young father with two boys, aged three and seven. The mayor was 10 when he lost his own dad and he believes that if he sought provincial political leadership now, “I would not be the type of dad I want to be.”

When West ran for re-election — unopposed — in 2022, he promised to serve out the full four years as mayor.

He is poised to keep his word, confident that if the overtures to run provincially are serious, they will still be there when his term is up.

vpalmer@postmedia.com

Recommended from Editorial

  1. B.C. Premier David Eby.

    Vaughn Palmer: Premier losing control of daily political agenda

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    Vaughn Palmer: Businesses that toe the line have nothing to worry about

  3. B.C. Premier David Eby.

    Vaughn Palmer: Don’t be surprised if B.C. retreats from drug decriminalization before the election


LIVE Q&A WITH B.C. PREMIER DAVID EBY: Join us April 23 at 3:30 p.m. when we will sit down with B.C. Premier David Eby for a special edition of Conversations Live. The premier will answer our questions — and yours — about a range of topics, including housing, drug decriminalization, transportation, the economy, crime and carbon taxes. Click HERE to get a link to the livestream emailed to your inbox.

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Fareed’s take: There’s been an unprecedented wave of migration to the West – CNN

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Fareed’s take: There’s been an unprecedented wave of migration to the West

On GPS with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, he shares his take on how the 2024 election will be defined by abortion and immigration.


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Haberman on why David Pecker testifying is ‘fundamentally different’ – CNN

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New York Times reporter and CNN senior political analyst Maggie Haberman explains the significance of David Pecker, the ex-publisher of the National Enquirer, taking the stand in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump.

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