We are just TWO WEEKS away from the August 23rd NY-19 Special Election to HOLD Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado’s vacant congressional seat. Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan is running as the Democrat against Republican Marc Molinaro in the old district lines. Every vote will count in this tight race, and we need eyes and ears on the ground on election day to ensure voters can cast their ballots fairly and without intimidation.

NYDLC - the official voter protection arm of the New York State Democratic Party - is coordinating with the Pat Ryan NY-19 Congressional Campaign to recruit Election Day poll observers at targeted poll sites in the district.

Poll observers do not have to be attorneys but must be registered voters in the county to observe inside the poll site. All that’s required is good communication and observation skills and completion of a one-hour on-demand virtual training to get certified. Once certified, volunteers will receive an assignment in their County as close to home as possible.

NY-19 poll observers will be supported by the Hudson Valley Regional Boiler Room, staffed by experienced attorneys. We encourage volunteers to commit to full-day (6 AM - 9 PM) or half-day shifts from 6 AM - 1 PM // 1 PM - 9 PM. Coffee and lunch breaks as needed are absolutely acceptable! We can accommodate shorter shifts if volunteers cannot commit to the long hours on election day (we will accept all of the help we can get!)

To get started, complete the NY-19 Poll Observation Sign-up form. Completing this form will be considered a confirmation of availability on election day (August 23rd). We will follow up with a link to the on-demand virtual training and additional assignment details and resources.

If you are not a registered voter in the current 19th Congressional District or cannot volunteer on election day, you can help us recruit poll observers on our virtual phone bank, please sign up here. Phone bankers call fellow VoPros and plug them into voter protection opportunities in August and November.

Onward!!

New York Democratic Lawyers Council
http://www.nydlc.org/

NEW YORK — Two Congressional heavyweights expressed enthusiastic support for President Joe Biden’s reelection during a debate Tuesday night, marking a dramatic departure from their position during a previous match-up.

Manhattan Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney — Democrats thrust into a primary contest by redistricting, after decades of serving as colleagues — both heaped praise on the prospect of a second Biden term when prompted by moderators.

“I am supporting Joe Biden. He has announced that he is running,” Maloney said, invoking legislation either signed by the president or bound for his desk — including a proposal designed to reduce inflation, an infrastructure investment program and a pandemic relief package.

It was unclear what announcement Maloney was referring to, but her kind words stood in stark contrast to last week, when she said she did not believe Biden would seek reelection. She later apologized to the president while simultaneously reiterating her opinion.

An El Paso County grand jury has indicted Sen. Pete Lee for allegedly giving false information about where he lives when voting and a summons for him to appear in court was issued Monday.

The indictment against Lee, an El Paso County Democrat whose first name is Sanford, was filed Aug. 3. He is accused of knowingly providing false information about his residence — a class 5 felony — on or about March 3, 2020, documents show. The exact details of what occurred were not disclosed in the grand jury indictment.

The March 3, 2020 election in El Paso County asked voters to select primary nominees for president. Bernie Sanders won the most votes on the Democratic ballot, with 28,259 votes, while Donald Trump won nearly 94% of Republican votes with a total of 101,825 votes, according to El Paso County election results.

Another count was redacted from Lee’s indictment after Chief Judge William Bain ordered that it be sealed because it was not charged against him, according to Colorado Judicial Department spokesperson Jon Sarché.

After Tuesday’s ballot dump of ballot returns, 3rd District Congressional Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, conceded.

Republican Joe Kent’s upward trend past Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler was reinforced Tuesday evening, advancing him to the November general election to in the race to represent Washington’s 3rd Congressional District. He will face Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Skamania County.

Herrera Beutler is the first incumbent to lose in the district since Democratic Rep. Jolene Unsoeld lost the general election in 1994.

“Thank you, Southwest Washington, for entrusting me six times with the privilege of representing you in Congress. Ever since I was first elected to this seat I have done my very best to serve my home region and our country. Though my campaign came up short this time, I’m proud of all we’ve accomplished together for the place where I was raised and still call home,” Herrera Beutler said in an emailed statement.

CLAIM: Photo shows a rally for former President Donald Trump in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 5, 2022.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The photo shows a Trump campaign rally from Nov. 2, 2020, which took place at the Kenosha Regional Airport in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

THE FACTS: Trump on Friday hosted a rally in Waukesha, the heart of Milwaukee’s conservative suburbs, to support Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels ahead of this Tuesday’s primary election.

Social media users misrepresented an image from a 2020 Trump rally in the state, falsely claiming it shows the event from last week. The image shows a crowd of people wearing red caps, and two screens can be seen displaying a message from Trump’s 2020 campaign: “The best is yet to come.”

Behind closed doors this summer, Donald Trump and his advisers have been narrowing the shortlist of criminal defense attorneys he’d need to take on the Justice Department. The former president has had preliminary conversations with Tim Parlatore, a lawyer best known for successfully representing an accused war criminal, about possible legal strategies should the department escalate its probe or hit Trump with charges, two people with knowledge of the matter and a third source briefed on it tell Rolling Stone.

Trump’s conversations with Parlatore and other newly retained lawyers are part of his broader push to assemble yet another new legal team, both for his current legal woes and for any future ones coming from the FBI and Biden-era DOJ. Throughout the summer, Trump has been quizzing confidants on what they think of specific criminal defense lawyers, throwing out a number of names both big and obscure. In other words, as one Trump advisor describes it, the ex-president is conducting the “Apprentice: Avoid-Federal-Prison Edition.”

Monday’s FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago will likely intensify that search, as the Justice Department broadens and accelerates its investigations into Trump, his team and close associates, and their efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election. The federal search of the twice-impeached leader of the GOP’s Florida estate, however, appears connected to an investigation into Trump’s retention of classified materials and sensitive presidential documents. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida didn’t respond to a request for comment on the raid, as the former president and his team described it.

In recent years, Parlatore has represented retired Navy SEAL and accused war criminal Eddie Gallagher, when Navy prosecutors accused him of committing war crimes in the killing of a 17-year-old ISIS fighter. A military jury rejected murder charges against Gallagher but instead convicted him on one count of illegally posing for a photo with the corpse. Trump intervened in Gallagher’s favor when the Navy tried to take away his Trident pin — a symbol of his membership in the SEALs — as a result of the conviction, and the then-president ultimately granted clemency to Gallagher along with pardoning two other service members accused or convicted of war crimes.