How naive can a Republican be–the tax overhaul was good for Utah? It was good for the very rich. But was it good for the working people and the middle class? Wake up Republicans!
Add another Dem to the House column, yeah!
Being a new member, you might want to support Pelosi. It may help you in the long run.
Another in the win column for Trump’s historical mid-term victory.
Didn’t show the love. That’ll teach her.
in his district after promising not to support her. I think that will make him a 1 term rep. The new dem’s from red districts need to be given space to vote against her by the conservative dem’s from blue districts who should vote present in their opposition.
Ironically, with Love losing, there will actually be more love in Congress.
Even better news out of Utah:
Utah proposition to battle gerrymandering passes as final votes tallied
No Democrat should vote “present” in this election. A vote of “present” by a Democrat increases the chances of the Republicans electing their candidate speaker.
There seem to be a number of misconceptions about how the Speaker of the House is chosen. I’ve seen it stated that it requires 218 votes to take the speakership, but this is only true if every member votes for a named candidate. According to the rules, the winner must have an absolute majority of the votes cast for named candidates. You can’t win the speakership with a plurality.
When a Congress convenes for the first time, each major party conference or caucus nominates a candidate for Speaker. Members customarily elect the Speaker by roll call vote. A Member usually votes for the candidate from his or her own party conference or caucus but can vote for anyone, whether that person has been nominated or not.
To be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes cast—which may be less than a majority of the full House because of vacancies, absentee Members, or Members who vote “present.” If no candidate receives the majority of votes, the roll call is repeated until a majority is reached and the Speaker is elected.
As long as all Democrats attend the vote and none of them votes “present”, the Republicans cannot win the election. Democrats who don’t want to vote for Pelosi can vote for anyone – themselves, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, or Susan Sarandon – but every Democrat who skips the election or votes “present” gives the Republicans a better chance of electing their candidate.
As the Republicans has been saying since Nov, 2016, we won, you lost, get over it.
So back at you GOP!
Or, hasta la vista, baby!
If about 16-17 Democrats vote for Susan Sarandon, Pelosi can’t win either. Given an absence of other strong Democratic contenders this risks a prolonged fight for speakership on the floor which will be damaging for Democrats. On the other hand, 16-17 present votes plus even a few “Sarandon” votes still gives Democrats the majority of those who vote. And Pelosi can count, they will know beforehand how many present and how many no votes they can afford.
Racism and sexism win again. 
If only she had shown Trump some love, he would have been declared winner on election night.
Thank you for clarifying.
If 18 Democrats vote “present,” and all the other members vote, the number required to be elected Speaker would be 209. More than the whole number of Republicans in the chamber. So it’s not very likely that Democratic dissidents could actually lead to electing a Republican as Speaker.
That is pretty obvious: a solid Republican state, a young, attractive Republican incumbent, with only two obvious “weaknesses” - dark skin and female. People get executed with less evidence.
It’s strictly a numbers game. As of today there is one House race still uncalled. In GA-07 the Republican incumbent leads by about 400 votes out of over 280,000 votes cast. Assuming that the Republican holds on there, the final House count would be 234 D - 201 R. That means that 35 Democrats would have to vote “present” or skip the election for the Republicans to prevail with 201 votes (((435-35)/2)+1=201). Assuming, of course, that all Republicans are on the same page and the Freedumb Caucus doesn’t stage its own revolt.
So, yes, it would take twice as many Democratic hold-outs to put the election in jeopardy, but it’s like a jury trial. You don’t want to bet on what the jury is going to do.
If 18 Democrats vote “present” or skip the election, that means that Pelosi still has 7 votes she can give away and still get an absolute majority (234-18-7=209). If All Democrats vote, then Pelosi can give up 16 votes and still have an absolute majority of 218 (assuming all the Republicans vote as well). So playing this game takes careful orchestration. You need to be careful of lowering the criterion for an absolute majority enough to give more leeway without lowering it enough for the Republicans to dash in and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
He sharply criticized Love’s support for the GOP-backed tax overhaul and said she had not been available enough to her constituents at town halls. Love pushed back hard, saying the tax overhaul has been good for people in Utah and defending her approach of meeting with voters in smaller groups, on the phone or online.
Hey Mia this is self selecting who you will meet with. In the real world one would have a very hard time avoiding those people you don’t want to encounter. And as a politician you should be able to defend/explain your positions to your constituents. You are a public servant, you must meet the public in the public square.
Mr. McAdams is a moderate democrat. Do you think that the media will highlight his every more like they have Ms. Ocasio?
You are absolutely wrong on this score. It’s not about racism or sexism at all. Mia Love is a republican Mormon, and that’s been the ticket to winning in Utah for a long time now. But demographics are changing due to our strong job market and huge influx of people moving here for work. She answers to the Koch brothers, her campaign was financed mostly by out of state contributions and she never once held a town hall meeting here, not once. She won Utah County by an overwhelming margin which is overwhelmingly white. We in Salt Lake County wanted a Democrat to represent us in congress, it’s as simple as that. Turnout in SL county was 81.93%!!! We here in SL are tired of being marginalized by the GOP. So put that in your “racism and sexism” pipe and smoke it.
This election, for example, would not even have been close without massive gerrymandering. Only by splitting up the dem-leaning parts of Utah (like SLC) into little bits did the republicans make it close.