4 R Senate seats in play…
New PPP polls find Sara Gideon leading Susan Collins 47-43 in the Maine Senate race and Mark Kelly leading Martha McSally 47-42 in the Arizona Senate race. Additionally a PPP poll for a private client last week found Cal Cunningham leading Thom Tillis 46-41 in the North Carolina Senate race, and when PPP last polled the Colorado Senate race John Hickenlooper led Cory Gardner 51-38. This makes four Republican held US Senate seats where PPP has found Democratic challengers with at least a 4 point lead.
NORTH CAROLINA:
Cunningham 46 - 41 Tillis
MAINE:
Gideon 47 - 43 Collins
ARIZONA:
Kelly 47 - 42 McSally
COLORADO:
Hickenlooper 51 - 38 Gardner
And Gov Bullock is trying for Montana seat…
My wife and I are silly people.
Interesting:
https://twitter.com/fawfulfan/status/1236121197944791040
https://twitter.com/fawfulfan/status/1236121684664442881
Erik Prince is out digging up dirt …
Mr. Prince, a contractor close to the Trump administration, contacted veteran spies for operations by Project Veritas, the conservative group known for conducting stings on news organizations and other groups.
Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents.
One of the former spies, an ex-MI6 officer named Richard Seddon, helped run a 2017 operation to copy files and record conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers’ unions in the nation. Mr. Seddon directed an undercover operative to secretly tape the union’s local leaders and try to gather information that could be made public to damage the organization, documents show.
Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her.
Both operations were run by Project Veritas, a conservative group that has gained attentionusing hidden cameras and microphones for sting operations on news organizations, Democratic politicians and liberal advocacy groups. Mr. Seddon’s role in the teachers’ union operation — detailed in internal Project Veritas emails that have emerged from the discovery process of a court battle between the group and the union — has not previously been reported, nor has Mr. Prince’s role in recruiting Mr. Seddon for the group’s
Don’t forget that for three years Donnie and his people have pushed the lie of #Spygate. So of course that’s what they were doing. I cross-posted under the Impeachment thread.
Russia Trying to Stoke U.S. Racial Tensions Before Election, Officials Say
Russian intelligence services are trying to incite violence by white supremacist groups to sow chaos in the United States, American intelligence officials said.
Russian intelligence services trying to stoke racial tensions and incite violence by white supremacist groups to sow chaos in the U.S. before the election is not an isolated incident.
It’s been Putin’s playbook for a long time. This whole thread is about that:
https://twitter.com/windthin/status/1231185666610008065
Bloomberg summarily let all his battle ground staff go effective end of March, with a laptop and Iphone as recompense, even though they were promised they would work through November. And naturally, a non-disclosure agreement was signed.
Warren did press him on those NDA’s…and was certain they hid damaging information. These workers just spoke anonymously.
Shocking but not unexpected. It falls into the category #MyBillionsAreMineSuckIt - WTF 
Former campaign workers for Michael R. Bloomberg’s presidential bid reacted angrily on Monday to news that they would not work through the November election, as expected.
When the multibillionaire Michael R. Bloomberg hired an army of staff members for his presidential campaign, he lavished them with salaries that were nearly double what other candidates were paying. His campaign also promised something rivals could not match: job security through the general election, even if he dropped out of the race.
But now, less than a week after Mr. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, left the Democratic presidential race — endorsing former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and pledging to put his vast resources behind him — hundreds of Mr. Bloomberg’s field organizers and regional organizing directors around the country are suddenly without jobs, having received emails on Monday that encouraged them to keep their campaign-issued electronics as a sort of severance payment.
In a series of conference calls on Monday, campaign staff members outside certain battleground states learned that their work had ended and that they would be paid through the end of March, according to seven people who were on such calls . The people spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing nondisclosure agreements they had signed with the campaign, from which they were seeking to be released.
“We sincerely appreciate your commitment and dedication over the past few months!” read an email that the workers received, which was reviewed by The New York Times. “As a token of our appreciation, we are offering you the opportunity to keep your laptop and iPhone.”
The email specified the value of those devices — ranging from $1,400 to $1,700, depending on the model of the computer — and noted that employees would be required to pay taxes on those amounts.
The former campaign workers — at-will employees who said they had been promised employment through November in job interviews — were asked in a survey to indicate if they wanted to be referred to another presidential campaign, and if they were open to moving to one of six states: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
True. He’s really got to focus and not get ahead of himself. Tonight his speech in Philadelphia reflected that. More measured and confident Joe, please.
No question that Bernie’s prospects for a real path to the Dem nomination have been severely curtained after this round of primaries. Biden is leading in delegate counts, and Bernie’s loss in Michigan and so many others tells us, that there is a clear backing for Biden from several categories - African American, suburban women, white men ( in more areas).
Bernie can continue to pound away, but what will be the net effect. He certainly needs to keep Biden’s feet to the fire, and leverage his position to push his agenda.
While Democratic leaders more or less tolerated Sanders’s continuing his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton until June of that year, the party’s desire to beat Trump will likely make it much less forgiving of another extended crusade, Devine told me. “Biden needs the spring and the summer without Bernie,” he said. “I think Bernie is smart enough and reasonable enough to recognize that [it’s irrational] to keep this thing going for the sake of—what?”
Another option for Sanders could be to remain in the race in order to keep attention on the policy issues he cares about, but to mute his criticism of Biden. Jesse Jackson, who endorsed Sanders last weekend, followed that model in the latter stages of the 1988 Democratic primary, which Michael Dukakis ultimately won. Several Democratic operatives, though, say one major difference between 2020 and 1988 could complicate this approach: Sanders’s aggressive network of supporters is unlikely to muffle its criticism of Biden even if the candidate himself does. That could translate into escalating demands for Sanders to quit.
Beyond Democrats’ concerns about Trump, McElwee believes that Sanders will likely face more pressure to cede the field because of the coronavirus outbreak and the new constraints on campaigning. Such concerns prompted both Biden and Sanders to cancel events yesterday.
Bernie is staying in…
CNN reporting
@MissJava - Would you please move this over to Primary 2020 when you can please?? THanks!!
I am already seeing MAGA trolls gloating over this idea:
A new weird thing: Jerry Falwell Jr. is advocating “Vexit”; for western Virginia counties to secede and join West Virginia to escape Virginia’s transformation into a blue state.
https://twitter.com/josh_wingrove/status/1238443548845969409
Watch tonight’s debate with VP Joe BIden and Sen Sanders LIVE
New Biden ad relating to the lack of leadership on Coronavirus and the mounting fears
Video
https://twitter.com/chrislongview/status/1239340948972351490?s=20
I think this ad replaces a previous Biden ad that got 4 pinocchios
The campaign ad says Trump referred to the coronavirus as “a hoax” at a campaign rally in South Carolina last month, but Washington Post fact-checker Meg Kelly called the editing of the president’s remarks a “blatant” misrepresentation.
“At the 10-second mark [of the ad], the camera shows a tight shot of the president saying ‘coronavirus’ and then cuts to a wide shot where [Trump] says, ‘this is their new hoax.’ Both clips are from Trump’s Feb. 28 campaign rally in North Charleston, S.C., but he never said ‘coronavirus, this is their new hoax.’ Rather, Biden’s ad clipped a large part of Trump’s speech to make it seem as though he had,” the article explained.
“Ultimately, the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak, the fact that Trump had clarified his comments on the matter before the ad was released, and the blatant way the Biden camp isolated his remarks about the American Dream pushed us to Four Pinocchios,” Kelly added. “Campaigns must be willing to make their case without resorting to video manipulation.”
Joe Biden committed to having a woman VP on his ticket!
Get past the title. There are some very interesting takes in here from a variety of sources on how Sunday’s debate went down, and what the future holds.
Are you ready for some good news? …
And here’s how some of that money is being applied in a crucial state: Texas. Swing Left is focused on more than just the national elections; they’re also energized to turn Red state legislatures like Texas to Blue. Then we can put a stop to Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression so we can make even more progress at the national level.
Former Democratic Presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg failed in his bid for the White House, but he is still looking to make an impact on Texas politics.
Bloomberg announced Tuesday he is sending $2 million to a Democratic-leaning group called Swing Left, which has targeted Texas as one of 12 states where it will focus its energy in 2020.
In the case of Texas, the group is trying to help flip the Texas House from Republican control to Democratic control. Republicans have watched their majority in the Texas House shrink to just 9 seats and Democrats are convinced they have a shot of winning enough seats in 2020. In 2018, Democrats flipped 12 seats held by Republicans.
Very encouraging! Go Bloomberg! – keep the bucks flowing. 
Yes, this is a good sign that Bernie is possibly going to get out of the race. But that he has kept open his campaign until end of April is still an open question. Considering what’s been happening nationally, Biden’s wins, Coronavirus etc. it would seem very likely.
Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign currently has no active Facebook ads, the morning after another disappointing finish in a series of primary contests.
Why it matters: A pause in digital advertising spend on Facebook has been a good indicator that candidates are dropping out of the 2020 race before. Pete Buttigieg and Michael Bloomberg made their Facebook ads inactive hours before they suspended their campaigns.
The state of play: Sanders and his wife Jane are traveling back to Vermont today to “assess the path forward for our campaign," per a note from his campaign manager Faiz Shakir.
- Shakir wrote that “last night did not go the way we wanted,” after they lost all three states that voted: Arizona, Illinois and Florida.
- Joe Biden has now accumulated what clearly looks like an insurmountable delegate lead over Sanders, leaving him little room and time to make up for that deficit.
- Coronavirus has profoundly changed the primary race, as candidates on both sides of the aisle are forced to cancel campaign rallies — a natural setting for Sanders that he’s now being denied.
What to watch: How Sanders, his team, and supporters move to rally behind Biden and whether Biden moves left on progressive policy in an effort to win over their voters.
Bernie Sanders suspended all of his Facebook campaign ads Wednesday on the heels of another stinging primary setback, sparking rumors that he’s about to drop out of the race.
The Facebook ad freeze came after Joe Biden won Tuesday’s primaries in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, virtually leaving Sanders without a viable path to the Democratic nomination.
The Facebook development prompted a social media frenzy, and several reporters tweeted Sanders had decided to suspend his campaign.
But Sanders campaign communications director Mike Casca shot down the rumors as “absolutely false" in a tweet.
After getting crushed in another round of presidential primary voting Tuesday, Bernie Sanders keeps pushing on — but it is unclear to where and for how long.
In a statement Wednesday morning, Sanders’ campaign manager Faiz Shakir said the senator was assessing what to do next but suggested Sanders might take some time before announcing a decision.
“The next primary contest is at least three weeks away,” Shakir said. “Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign. In the immediate term, however, he is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people and the most vulnerable.”
In a more specific email sent to supporters, Shakir offered a blunter version of the message.
“No sugarcoating it, last night did not go the way we wanted,” he said. After Sanders votes in the Senate on Wednesday on pending coronavirus-response legislation, he and his wife, Jane, would fly home to Vermont to “begin holding conversations” about the future, Shakir added.
In the end, however, the senator doesn’t have many options. Paths to the nomination have closed off. Sanders’ movement seems weaker each time voters go to the polls. The coronavirus pandemic has muzzled his megaphone, making it impossible to hold the big rallies that are the lifeblood of his movement.
Now he faces a choice that is not just about his campaign, but also about the movement he has been building his entire political career.