Doug Jones Sen
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">wow, lost to this tool</font></div><div>
</div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 1120</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a new interview, Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who just emerged victorious from a race against Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, appeared to be confused about why and who America was fighting in the Second World War.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It's concerning to me that a guy can run for president of the United States and have an opportunity to win when he leans more to a socialist type of government, you know, one-payer system in health care, raise taxes 20 percent, when the other half the country is basically voting for freedom, let us control our own lives, stay out of our life," said Tuberville, a former college football coach. "You know, as I tell people, my dad fought 76 years ago in Europe to free Europe of socialism."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In World War II, the United States was fighting against the Axis powers, which were mostly right-wing fascist governments. In fact, Americans fought alongside the socialist USSR as allies.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read the full quote below:</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">mojo corn</font></div><div>
</div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/nra-slams-former-prosecutor-doug-jones-to-help-alleged-child-molester-roy-moore/">https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/nra-slams-former-prosecutor-doug-jones-to-help-alleged-child-molester-roy-moore/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...</font><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 18px;">Alabama Senate race has become a minefield for Republicans, dividing GOP senators who denounced Republican candidate and alleged child molester Roy Moore from the Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump, who are backing Moore. And the NRA, perhaps the biggest outside</span><span style="font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 18px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 18px;">political player on the right, has quietly entered the race to help Moore.</span></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The NRA’s website does not list the Alabama Senate race as a contest in which it is involved, but two days ago, the Center for Public Integrity <a href="https://twitter.com/abalcerzak/status/938483586147278848" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">reported</a> that the NRA was spending $55,000 to send out postcards to boost Moore in the election this Tuesday. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Mother Jones</em> has obtained a photo of the postcard the NRA is mailing to its Alabama members. The mailer slams Doug Jones, the Democratic candidate, and does not make a single reference to Moore.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jones has <a href="http://www.alreporter.com/2017/09/28/doug-jones-tackles-gun-rights-abortion-health-care-national-interview/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">called</a> himself “a Second Amendment guy,” but he has called for moderate gun regulation. “We’ve got limitations on all constitutional amendments in one form or another,” he said in an interview this week<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">.</span> “I want to enforce the laws that we have right now. The biggest issue, I think, that’s facing the Second Amendment right now is that we need to make sure we shore up the [National Crime Information Center] system for background checks to both keep guns out of the hands of criminals, but at the same time, cut down on error so that law-abiding citizens can get those.” Jones has pointed out that he is a hunter, owns several guns, and wants to make certain regulations are “smart.” He also <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/online/doug-jones-mocks-moore-i-use-guns-for-hunting-not-prancing-around-on-stage-in-a-cowboy-suit/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">mocked</a> Moore for holding up a tiny pistol at a campaign event. “When you see me with a gun,” he said recently. “I’ll be climbing in and out of a duck blind, not prancing around on a stage in a cowboy suit.”</p><div id="InContent_Banner_1" data-adunit="InContent_Banner_1" data-size-mapping="InContent" class="dfw-unit display-none" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 1em; text-align: center; position: relative; z-index: 2000; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The NRA is depicting Jones as an enemy of gun ownership. The postcard doles out the typical rhetoric. Jones “claims he is ‘a Second Amendment guy,’ but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” it says. “He supports more gun regulation and will be another vote for the Bloomberg-Schumer-Pelosi gun control agenda!” Jones, the mailer says, has received a “?” rating from the NRA “because he failed to answer the most basic questions regarding your Second Amendment rights.” It proclaims, “Democrat Doug Jones can’t be trusted to support your Second Amendment rights” and urges recipients to “oppose Democrat Doug Jones.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The mailer does not endorse Moore. It does not mention Moore. It is entirely focused on slamming Jones. Perhaps the NRA just couldn’t bring itself to endorse a candidate accused of committing crimes against children. But that has not stopped the gun group from trying to get that man into the United States Senate. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Here’s the postcard:</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...</p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/election-03918/can-democrats-extend-blue-wave-swept-doug-jones-office-2018">https://www.alternet.org/election-03918/can-democrats-extend-blue-wave-swept-doug-jones-office-2018</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jones’ victory was many things. It was a triumph for grassroots organizing in a state that hadn’t seen a Democratic upset in years. It was an affirmation that a good candidate can inspire people to turn out in droves to defeat a bad candidate who turns off his party’s base and the public. And it was perhaps a sign that voters have had enough of the tribalism that infects modern politics, epitomized by the GOP under Donald Trump.</span></font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But how much of what Jones accomplished in Alabama can be applied or repeated elsewhere? In some ways, his election was a special case. Sex scandal-plagued Roy Moore was a truly terrible candidate. Most establishment Republicans avoided him or kept away until the end—like President Trump and the national party committees. It was also a surprise that might not have happened if Sen. Richard Shelby hadn't told fellow Republicans to write in another name—not Moore's. (There were nearly 23,000 write-in votes; 2,100 more than Jones' margin of victory.)</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While these dynamics are unlikely to recur in 2018, there are takeaways from Alabama that apply to the most critical congressional and gubernatorial races next year. That's when two-thirds of the Senate contests are incumbent Democrats facing re-election and Democrats need 24 seats to retake the House. While there are unknowns, such as how much the GOP tax plan and Trump will weigh down Republican candidates, there is a starting-line landscape found in red-run states like Alabama. That's where the GOP has spent this decade creating supermajorities and voting rules that benefit them and undermine Democrats.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That red-state gaming of the electoral field begins with extreme redistricting, or segregating each party’s reliable voters to give GOP candidates a 6-to-8 percent lead in their districts. It continues by suppressing Democratic turnout via stricter voter ID requirements, which knocks off another 2 to 3 percent in the fall, followed by other voter suppression measures. (These figures are cited in court rulings, congressional studies and academic papers.)</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jones’ victory underscores key lessons about the hurdles facing Democrats next year in states like Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan. The big takeaway, as evidenced by every major election in 2017, including Alabama, is that winning takes a giant turnout wave supporting Democrats, and a corresponding average turnout from Republican voters.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wave Elections and Turnout</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That's the pattern that voter turnout experts saw in Alabama. The wave was most visibly led by the African-American community, whose voting rights heritage gave the nation Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a moral imperative to vote no matter what. But there was also high pro-Jones turnout in college towns and among suburbanites, many of whom voted for Trump in 2016. These trends were noted on Twitter posts by election experts Tuesday and in analyses of media exit poll data on Wednesday. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The first sign that Jones could win was seen in the extraordinary high turnout by African Americans.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Amazing: turnout is at 72%-77% of ‘16 presidential race in heavily black counties, but just 55%-60% in rural white counties. Black voters punching above their weight tonight & giving Jones a chance,” <a href="https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/940778153533992961" style="text-decoration-line: none;">tweeted the Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman</a> on Tuesday as the precinct-by-precinct returns were rolling in.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“To win, Jones needs: 1) Ridiculous Dem margins in Birmingham/Montgomery 2) Strong crossover from college whites in Huntsville/Shelby 3) Not much drop-off from '16 turnout in Black Belt 4) Weak/typical off year turnout among non-college whites,” Wasserman predicted on Tuesday. On Wednesday, <a href="https://twitter.com/Redistrict" style="text-decoration-line: none;">he tweeted</a>. “What happened last night? All four of these things.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Hot takes that <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ALSEN?src=hash" style="text-decoration-line: none;">#ALSEN</a> Republicans stayed home I think are incorrect,” <a href="https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/940978535388160000" style="text-decoration-line: none;">McDonald tweeted</a>. “Turnout is typically low in a special special election. Republican counties turned out at a rate we might typically expect, perhaps even more so given the competitive race. Democrat turnout was through the roof.”Michael McDonald, a University of Florida professor and turnout expert, debunked the claim that Alabama Republicans stayed home. What happened, he said, was that the state's GOP base behaved just as predicted in any off-year special election.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The pro-GOP Weekly Standard also noted that many whites voted for Jones as well.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Jones won a substantial number of white voters,” <a href="https://www.weeklystandard.com/alabama-slamma-four-takeaways-from-roy-moores-devastating-loss-to-doug-jones/article/2010820" style="text-decoration-line: none;">David Byler noted</a>. “According to exit polls, Jones won <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/politics/alabama-exit-polls/?utm_term=.603ebcde4151" style="text-decoration-line: none;">31 percent of white voters and 96 percent of black voters</a>. Typically, Democrats win large majorities of black voters in southern states while losing many white voters. In 2012, the exit polls showed President Obama earning <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2012/results/state/AL/president/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">15 percent of the white vote</a>. And while exit polls do have their disadvantages, it’s worth noting that the <em>New York Times’</em> Upshot also estimated that Obama won <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/10/upshot/how-we-built-our-model.html?action=click&contentCollection=The%20Upshot&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article" style="text-decoration-line: none;">16 percent of the white vote in 2012</a>. Jones did significantly better with white voters while still holding onto lopsided margins with black voters.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/us/politics/doug-jones-democrats-alabama.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" style="text-decoration-line: none;">noted</a> Jones won big among women in upscale suburbs, generally a Republican haven. That figure is not surprising, given that several Alabama women said Moore had sexually preyed on them in their teen years, while Jones was a prosecutor who convicted KKK members whose bombs killed several black teenage girls.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Momentum Going Into 2018</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Looking to 2018, it’s clear the electorate’s energy and enthusiasm have shifted from Republicans and independents electing Trump to growing factions backing Democratic candidates. In every major election this year, Democrats have done far better than expected. But that doesn’t mean they won on Election Day.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jon Ossoff, in Georgia’s sixth U.S. House district, who lost amid dubious vote counts—and post-Election Day disclosures that the <a href="https://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/10/georgia_destroyed_election_data_right_after_a_lawsuit_alleged_the_system.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">state had destroyed his race's vote count records</a>—still did better than any Democrat in his district in years.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last month in Virginia, Democrat Ralph Northam won the governor’s race and a surge of voters backing Democrats brought the party to the brink of retaking the House of Delegates, despite a 2011 gerrymander that gave the GOP a supermajority. The GOP is up by two seats, while <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2017/12/13/virginia-is-holding-recounts-in-four-crucial-legislative-races-heres-how-they-work/?utm_term=.6f72f93c19c2" style="text-decoration-line: none;">four races are being recounted, starting this week</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jones’ victory is also remarkable because Alabamians experienced voter suppression tactics, according to accounts posted on Twitter by political reporters and election protection attorneys. These obstructions that can make the difference in close elections.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Tuesday, many polling places were unprepared and experienced long lines. There were voting machine <a href="https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2017/12/12/new-voting-machines-cause-senate-election-problem-montgomery-polling-place/944247001/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">breakdowns and shortages</a>. There was <a href="https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/940668812491395074" style="text-decoration-line: none;">police intimidation of voters</a>, checking IDs for people with outstanding fines. There were voters that had been <a href="https://twitter.com/kira_lerner/status/940666094494408705" style="text-decoration-line: none;">incorrectly purged</a>. There were others complaints of voters <a href="https://twitter.com/866OURVOTE" style="text-decoration-line: none;">not receiving absentee ballots</a>. There was confusion over <a href="https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2017/12/12/new-voting-machines-cause-senate-election-problem-montgomery-polling-place/944247001/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">poorly designed ballots</a>. All of these are unnecessary hurdles to what should be a straightforward process. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Election observers squarely blamed Alabama’s hyper-partisan GOP Secretary of State, John Merrill, for much of that dysfunction. Merrill’s low voter turnout estimates left polls unprepared for Tuesday’s turnout, which one turnout expert said was “<a href="https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/940651983282851840" style="text-decoration-line: none;">bordering on malpractice</a>.” As late as Tuesday on national TV, <a href="https://www.lifezette.com/polizette/anecdotal-evidence-points-to-heavy-alabama-turnout/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Merrill predicted</a> only 25 percent of the state’s 3.3 million registered voters would turn out, when 40 percent did—a figure every academic turnout expert had predicted based on recent special elections.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fair-minded Americans should be cheered by Alabama’s results. For once, a deserving candidate, supported by a diverse and energized grassroots coalition, inspired a flood of citizens to turn out and not be deterred from voting. But it took a giant wave just to barely beat an unusually bad candidate, including an unexpected last-minute assist from the state's senior Republican senator.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democrats will have to repeat this giant wave in 2018 to breach the red-state barriers that stand between them and winning back control of Congress and key governorships. In red-run swing states that should be politically purple, the GOP has a 10 percent starting line advantage. Even with a large turnout wave, there's no telling what surprises await—for better or worse....</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div>