The 2022 midterm elections are over (for the most part). So who won the races?
Well, the Democrats will probably still control the Senate… they might pick up one or two extra seats.
The House is still divided, but Republicans will probably have a very slim majority there.
It was the most expensive midterm election ever, according to the non-partisan group Open Secrets. So forget about a “red wave” or a “blue wave”… it was a green wave, and the real winners were political consultants and TV station ad salespeople.
$16.7 billion dollars... to bring us the same gridlock we’ve experienced the past few years.
In Ohio, U.S. Senate candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Ryan combined to spend more than $100 million (if you include outside spending, most of it “dark money” from anonymous sources… which is where the lion’s share of Vance’s money came from). $100 million… for a job that pays $174,000 a year.
Here’s the most telling stat of all:
Outside groups spent about $1.9 billion to influence federal elections through Oct. 31, blowing past the 2018 midterm outside spending record of $1.6 billion, adjusted for inflation. The biggest outside spenders are super PACs aligned with Republican and Democratic congressional leadership.
When candidates get that much cash pouring into their coffers, you know they’re beholden to these special interest groups. “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” Is your lone-vote voice really being heard over the whir of the money machine?
We need election reform. Get rid of dark money. Truly “drain the swamp” of lobbyists. Put non-partisan citizen panels in charge of redistricting to eliminate the ridiculous gerrymandering that makes most districts “safe” and therefore encourages the most radical elements from both parties to come to the forefront. Institute ranked choice voting to encourage candidates to appeal to a broader swath of their constituents, instead of playing to their base.
Until we do that, it’ll be a green wave every time.
If you don’t think campaign finance reform is long overdue, please read this post from Judd Legum on his Popular Information site. (Which, IMHO, is well worth the subscription, btw.) A few excerpts are below.
One of the most powerful groups in the 2022 midterm elections is the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the Super PAC controlled by Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
But the largest donor, by far, to the SLF is One Nation. Through June 30, 2022, One Nation donated $33.5 million to the SLF. What is One Nation? Like the SLF, One Nation is run by Steven Law, a former Chief of Staff to McConnell. But unlike the SLF, One Nation is organized as a 501(c)4 non-profit organization. That allows One Nation to keep its donors secret. One Nation can collect unlimited donations from corporations and individuals, keep their identities secret, and then pass the money on to the SLF.
If the same corporations and individuals donated directly to the SLF, their identities would have to be disclosed. It seems that many supporters of the SLF’s efforts are interested in maintaining their anonymity. Donations to 501(c)4 groups are not tax deductible. The only benefit, from a donor perspective, is secrecy. [emphasis mine – DD]
Republicans have a similar structure to finance their efforts to retake control of the House of Representatives. The dominant Republican Super PAC running ads in House races is the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF). The top donor to the CLF, by far, is the American Action Network, a 501(c)4 non-profit run by the same people as the CLF. Through September 12, 2022, the American Action Network has donated $38.1 million to the CLF this cycle. The people or organizations that are donating to the American Action Network remain secret.
This tactic is not limited to Republicans. On the Democratic side, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501(c)4 non-profit, donated $57 million to Super PACs supporting Democratic candidates, including Future Forward USA, American Bridge 21st Century, Priorities USA Action, and Unite the Country. The Sixteen Thirty Fund’s direct political involvement appears to have scaled back in 2022, donating about $6 million to date to political committees. The group says it supports legislation that would make political donations more transparent, including bills that would require the Sixteen Thirty Fund to disclose its donors. For now, however, the Sixteen Thirty Fund says it will use “the legal rulebook in place today.”
Let’s run those numbers again. $82 million. $38.1 million. $57 million. All “dark money.” All in secret. It’s a shell game. It’s three-card Monte, and Joe and Jane Citizen lose every time, because the cards are stacked against them.
Undue influence. Burning money on a surfeit of attack ads that fuel the fires of political polarization.
If the goals of these donors were noble, wouldn’t they want to be transparent about it?
One of the comments on the post has it exactly right:
Most people would not want to submit to being controlled by the extremely wealthy & corporations who almost always use their money and influence for their own benefit but not the benefit of the larger good… By basically equating money with free speech, Citizens United was a terrible blow to fairness and democracy in this country… It just keeps getting worse as both parties have to crank up the spending.
Campaign finance reform — and in particular getting rid of dark money — is long overdue. If these wealthy individuals and corporations want to keep pouring millions into political campaigns, they should at least have the guts to put their names to it.
Yesterday was National Voter Registration Day. (As usual, your ol’ pal Dubbatrubba is a day late and a dollar short… actually make that a day late and $10 million in “dark money” short, because corporations are people too!)
It’s not too late to get #VoteReady, by finding out who is on the ballot… and learning about the particular hoops you need to jump through in your state.
Make no mistake, there are folks who are trying to make it tougher and tougher for you to vote. Especially if you’re poor, or car-less, or disabled. Some of those folks are elected officials. Voting them right out of office will be extra satisfying.
Yes, the cards are stacked against you — gerrymandering is at an all-time high. (“If you can’t beat ’em, crack, pack and stack ’em” seems to be the official motto.) But don’t let them win by not voting.
Exercise is good for you.
Exercising your right to vote is good for the future of democracy.
But of course the damage is deepest in the poorest places. Somalia, and the surrounding region in the horn of Africa, are in the fifth straight rainy season without rain, and the toll is almost unimaginable. A million people have been internally displaced; the ones who haven’t managed to move to grim camps will soon starve. “They have no chance,” one refugee explained. “It is just a matter of time until they die. Even here we might die because we have nothing”.
From the Substack post linked above
And of course, what goes up (evaporation) must come down… we’re seeing that in Pakistan.
(At least they have a Climate Change Minister… that’s more than you can say for the U.S. of A.)
We’re taking baby steps to address the climate crisis, but we need one giant leap for mankind. And the things that may prevent that, ironically, are the short-term consequences of not acting boldly enough.
In such a world of climate disruption and destabilization, the prospects for positive futures are bleak. At the national and international levels, the capacity to move forward with bold and carefully conceived plans for emissions reductions and climate adaptation will be severely impaired. A world consumed with the consequences of climate chaos will have little time for anything else. The multiple inadequacies and failures of global governance, never strong except in certain economic spheres, will likely be magnified by international tensions and conflicts as well as domestic preoccupations. And at the community level, energies will be monopolized by efforts at simply surviving and coping.
Dani (rhymes with “Sunny”) Isaacsohn won the Democratic primary for Ohio State Representative in District 24 this past Tuesday. That’s my home district, and because it’s roughly 2/3 Democratic, Dani has a very strong chance of winning the November general election.
Only 8.4% of eligible voters cast ballots. Granted, some of that apathy is because it was an unusual second primary, in the dog days of summer… and that happened due to some voting map shenanigans by Dani’s future counterparts across the aisle. But due to the paltry turnout, Dani only needed to get nearly 3600 people to vote for him. Actually, in hindsight, he would’ve only needed 800 votes.
Those results may make it seem like Dani was a lock, but that’s not the case at all. Dale Mallory had name recognition out the wazoo, and sometimes — especially when there’s low turnout — that’s all you need.
Mallory’s father, William Mallory, Sr., served 28 years in the Ohio General Assembly and became the first Black majority floor leader. His brothers are former state legislator and former Cincinnati mayor Mark Mallory, municipal court judges Dwane and William Mallory Jr., and Cincinnati NAACP president Joe Mallory.
I met Dani at a “voteraiser” at a friend’s home. Seems like a nice young man. Smart kid for sure – he graduated from Walnut Hills High school as valedictorian, went to Georgetown and then graduated from Yale Law School. But it seems he learned just as many valuable lessons on the high school hardwood.
Dani credits his time at Walnut Hills for solidifying his love of Cincinnati. Those years – especially his years as captain of the basketball team – shaped his belief that friendships, trust, and love across the barriers of geography, race, and class are critical to unlocking our full potential as a city. He remains firm in his conviction that our diversity should be a source of strength, not weaponized to create barriers and drive us apart.
“our diversity should be a source of strength, not weaponized to create barriers and drive us apart“… sounds like your typical political platitudes. And maybe it is. But here’s a sign that Dani walks the walk:
Dale Mallory didn’t have the support of some Democrats in leadership. An endorsement committee moved to endorse Isaacsohn. After a heated debate, Isaacsohn said he urged the Hamilton County Democrats to not endorse for the sake of party unity.
From the same Cincinnati.com article cited above
In the backstabbing win-at-all-costs world of politics, Dani put a common cause before his own ambitions. Would that more politicians were like that.
I work from home most days, and usually try to get out for a walk to break the monotony of my bland basement (and the creativity-sapping barrage of Zoom meetings). A few weeks ago, I was out for a walk and ran into Dani. He was out knocking on doors, trying to convince folks to vote for him. It was hotter than blazes that day. You’ve gotta really want it to go door-to-door in 2022 trying to get people to vote for you. But that hard work paid off.
Now comes the really hard work. Trying to win a general election. And if you win that, the work gets even harder: trying to find common ground across the aisle, when that aisle can seem as wide as the Grand Canyon.
Too much of our politics at the State House is about tearing each other down, scoring points, and honing in on what separates us. We have real divisions and challenges, but if we allow them to consume us, everyone loses. Dani believes that when we lift as we climb, we are able to celebrate each others’ success and come together to solve shared challenges.
From Dani’s website
I hope Dani wins in November. More importantly, I hope he’s able to find some common ground, and work out sensible solutions to the challenges we face in our city and state.
Big storm rolled into the nasty ‘nati on Wednesday afternoon. Knocked out power in thousands of homes, including ours.
The sudden, unexpected power outage caused a whole host of first world problems. “Oh no, I can’t make a triple berry smoothie and then drink it while watching Real Housewives and mindlessly scrolling through Facebook (if you’re over 50)/Twitter (if you own an electric car company)/Instagram (if you’re a graphic designer)/TikTok (everyone else).”
On a hot day that was muggier than New York City in the 70s, the biggest challenge was the lack of air conditioning. It brought back memories of growing up in rural Arkansas in a house without central air. It’s tough to sleep when you feel that heat pressing down on you. No amount of tossing and turning can shake it off, no shedding of clothing can bring relief.
In my fever non-dreams, I remembered that a tornado touched down about 20 miles away from our house, in Goshen, Ohio, leaving hundreds without electricity. Or running water. Or the only home they’ve ever known.
The earth is nearly 25,000 miles around. 20 miles is a rounding error. It’s also the difference between throwing out some fridge food and starting from scratch.
The power came back on at our house yesterday morning. What was a minor inconvenience to me is a game-changer in Goshen, Ohio.
We’re not in Kansas anymore. We don’t have to be. Severe storms are becoming more widespread, and more commonplace. How long until one takes place at my place?
Damian on Lost in a Cave: “Spend some time with his answers to fans’ questions on his Red Hand Files. You’ll enjoy it.” May 10, 19:25
impossibly4332b32374 on Lost in a Cave: “BTW, this is Chuck Wiggins…I guess I’m now known as impossibly4332b32374. That moniker has gone with me to a few…” May 10, 15:19
impossibly4332b32374 on Lost in a Cave: “I can resonate with that definition of prayer. I need to dig into him more. I’d love to hear how…” May 10, 15:18
LK on And they’re off!: “I feel this! I did the half with my son (mostly walking/cheating). It will rain as one of the happiest…” May 8, 06:47
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