MORNING MESSAGE
Fight for $15 Movement Confronts The Presidential Candidates
Thursday
night is a big night for both political parties in New York City, with the
Democratic presidential candidates staging a presidential debate in Brooklyn and
the Republican candidates appearing at a black-tie fundraiser at the New York
Hilton. But before they get to their big nights, the candidates will have to get
through the big day planned by the Fight for $15 movement, which is staging
major demonstrations and strikes in New York, Washington and hundreds of other
cities around the country.
DEBATE NIGHT TONIGHT
Sanders
looks for a game-changing moment. Politico: “…Sanders operatives said they
plan to approach the debate, as usual, with minimal prep — but ready to fight.
‘It could be very civil, or there could be a lot of conflict,’ warned Sanders’
senior strategist, Tad Devine. ‘It’ll be up to her to set the tone. We’re ready
to do whatever the circumstances dictate.’ … Clinton hinted last week that she
plans to zero in on Sanders’ perceived deficiencies … Devine previewed a defense
of Sanders responses in the bruising Daily News interview. ‘If you read the
transcript, I don’t find it to be troubling at all,’ he said. ‘His answers are
completely cogent.'”
Sanders
heads to Vatican after debate. W. Post: “Sanders’s decision to leave New
York just days before a crucial primary here against Democratic front-runner
Hillary Clinton — for a 15-minute speech and no guarantee of a direct audience
with the pontiff — has prompted much speculation … ‘I would be kicking myself
forever if I did not seize the opportunity,’ Sanders said in a telephone
interview …”
Sanders
has “accelerated a major generational shift within the Democratic party” says
The Atlantic’s Ron Brownstein: “…his campaign is crystallizing the political
emergence of the massive Millennial Generation, which is poised to pass the Baby
Boom by 2020 as the electorate’s largest voting block. ‘This thing is not going
to go away,’ insisted Robert Borosage, the co-director of the progressive
Campaign for America’s Future…”
Jane
Sanders suggests Bernie will contest nomination at the convention. Politico:
“‘Going into the convention I think she’ll be just short [of a majority] and
we’ll hopefully be just short, and I think then we’ll have a discussion about
what the best way to go,’ Sanders said, remarking of the superdelegates, ‘Well,
they haven’t voted yet.'”
Huge
Sanders rally in NYC. NYT: “Sanders campaign aides said that about 27,000
people attended the rally, a striking number … Before Mr. Sanders took the
stage, several celebrity supporters addressed one of his biggest challenges in
New York: He has been a far more popular vote-getter than Mrs. Clinton with
independents, yet only registered Democrats are allowed to cast ballots in the
primary. They urged the crowd to do everything they could to persuade more
Democrats…”
VERIZON VS. BERNIE
Sanders
slams Verizon strike continues. The Hill: “‘Verizon is just a poster child
for what so many corporations are doing today,’ he said during a rally in
Washington Square Park, N.Y. ‘This campaign is sending a message to corporate
America – you cannot have it all.'”
Verizon
CEO attacks Bernie. Fortune: “[Lowell] McAdam took to LinkedIn to jab at the
Vermont senator for ‘uninformed views (that) are, in a word, contemptible.’ …
Sanders is ‘ignoring the transformational forces reshaping the communications
industry,’ McAdam wrote…”
Striking
Verizon workers launch online petition: “Add your name to let Verizon CEO
Lowell McAdam know that you stand with us.”
DEMS EYE HOUSE
Dems
seek to expand 2016 House map. The Hill: “…Democrats would need to pick up
30 seats [to win the House]. Only 19 GOP seats are deemed by Cook [Political
Report] to be vulnerable. But those analyses have shifted in Democrats’ favor in
recent months … Toward that end, DCCC staffers are compiling lists of quotes
from sitting Republicans and juxtaposing them with Trump’s most tendentious
positions.”
Simpson-Bowles
hurting two Democratic Senate candidates. Roll Call: “Chris Van Hollen is a
career legislator running with the support of party leaders in Maryland. Joe
Sestak is a onetime admiral in the U.S. Navy running an outsider’s campaign in
Pennsylvania. But the two Democratic candidates for Senate share an important
similarity: Both once praised the Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction plan — and
are now paying the price.”
BREAKFAST SIDES
Senate
poised to pass energy bill. NYT: “A similar measure has passed in the House,
and President Obama has signaled his support for it. The bill is designed to
address major changes in the ways that power is produced in the United States by
updating the nation’s power grid and oil and gas transportation systems … The
use of wind and solar power is rapidly accelerating … the nation’s energy
infrastructure has not kept pace with those changes, and the Senate bill is
designed to take the first major steps in reshaping that infrastructure.”
House
GOP expects no budget this year. The Hill: “Faced with resistance from the
right, GOP leaders are now barreling forward on individual appropriations bills
… Ryan’s budget hopes have been quashed by several dozen members of the House
Freedom Caucus, who rejected the House Budget Committee’s resolution because it
sticks to a spending deal negotiated last year with President Obama.”
Progressive
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