Joe Biden will be declared the president, if not today then early next week. Everything now depends on the two senatorial runoff elections in Georgia. It is a long shot, but the consequences will be enormous. Yesterday, I donated $1000 each to the campaigns of Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. As my son, Tobias, suggested, we should put the whole thing in the capable hands of Stacey Abrams.
Hope springs eternal.
Yes, fingers crossed for the senate run-offs in Georgia.
ReplyDeleteBut there are other things Biden can do as well. If he's so inclined, Biden could give a cabinet appointment to one (or more) of the current Republican Senators from states with Democratic governors. (I think there are three.) Assuming the senators took those cabinet appointments, those governors would almost certainly appoint Democrats to fill the senate seats until the mid-term elections. That would help give Biden a Democratic Senate majority he needs or help cushion that majority.
Or, if the Senate run-offs in Georgia do not turn out well, Biden can do nothing and simply try negotiating and cooperating with a Republican Senate. We all know how well that went during the last 6 years of his Vice Presidency.
But if Democrats win both Georgia run-off election (bringing the Senate to 50:50) McConnell will offer Joe Manchin chairmanship of the Senate Energy Committee if he'd just change his (D) to an (R).
ReplyDeleteManchin has made no secret that he wants that assignment. As Chair of Energy, West Virginians will go on re-electing him 'til he's dead (and maybe once more after)
levinebar,
ReplyDeleteIf the Democrats win both GA Senate seats and thus gain control of the Senate (vice president Harris breaking the tie), then they will certainly have the good sense to offer Manchin his coveted chairmanship, assuming that's the price of keeping him in their caucus. Of course, as you suggest, Manchin may have other motives to change party affiliation, such as better securing his Senate seat in a dark red state. On the other hand, if his party affiliation is that loose a bond to begin with, why hasn't he switched parties long before now? Maybe he has other good reasons to want to be a Democrat? --Steve Webb
3rd scenario: Dems gain one Georgia seat for 49-51. Biden makes Puerto Rico and D.C. states, and gains 4 Dem senate seats, for a 53-51 majority. Or make just either a state for a 51-51 tie with Harris the tie breaker.
ReplyDeleteProf Wolff, four years on and you sound the same.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVk8h9xAnMQ&t=52m10s
If you are hitting campaign contribution limits, why aren't you going through super PACs? The competition surely are. Even Stacey Abrams' hybrid PAC has a $5,000 limit. No such limit for super PACs.
If your aim is to do good for humanity, your money would be better spent on charities, medical research, or building a third party to take on the Democrats and the Republicans imo, but if you're going to burn money on overpaid campaign consultants, attorneys, and media corporation executives, why not go big?
According to the Constitution, the President does not admit new states to the Union. Congress does.
ReplyDeleteIf only one of the Georgia Democratic candidates wins in January, then the Democrats would need a stroke of very good luck to gain control of the Senate. For example, Dr. Al Gross would have to overtake Dan Sullivan in the yet-to-be-called Alaska Senate race. Impossible? No. Likely? No.
Or there would have to be a vacancy of a Republican senator who hails from a state with a Democratic governor who, by law, can appoint a replacement from a different party: for example, Kentucky or Pennsylvania. Or, there would have to be a vacancy in a state where the replacement is chosen in a special election, and the Democratic candidate would have to win that election: for example, in Wisconsin or Alaska. Or a Republican would have to switch parties or become an independent caucusing with the Democrats: very unlikely.
Failing these remote scenarios, Democrats would have to look to 2022 to gain control of the Senate. By then, Democrats will likely have their hands full just trying to maintain the House.
Meanwhile, one damn election at a time.
Why do so many people assume Puerto Rico would be a reliably Democratic vote?
ReplyDeleteProfessor Wolff,
ReplyDeleteKnowing your dismay at the nonappearance of the cleansing tsunami we were all expecting, I was a bit concerned by your silence over the last few days. I'm pleased to see you're still in the fight. I too will be sending money to GA. Everyone expects quite a brawl, and perhaps it'll result in yet two more close-call disappointments (Jaime Harrison's loss really hurt; one had thought money in politics worked better than that). Nevertheless, emotionally the losses will be far harder to bear if we do nothing. For those of us who live far from GA, money is about all we can "do." Anyway, damn it, we just might win!
—Steve Webb
Yes, Congress admits territories to Statehood, but Pelosi wouldn't move legislatively without Biden's sanction, following a referendum. It would indeed be easier to have multiple Republican vacancies in Dem Gov states. The more likely path, sans Georgia, is simply to win a majority in 2022.
ReplyDelete