RandySF
RandySF's JournalLondon mayoral election on a knife edge, warn Labour insiders
Labour insiders have warned that the London mayoral election is on a knife edge after the party was hit by a local elections backlash from Muslim voters over its stance on Gaza.
One ally of Sadiq Khan, the incumbent mayor, said the fight with Conservative Susan Hall was “definitely going to be close” and suggested there could be just a few points in it.
The warnings suggested Ms Hall could defy expectations, despite having largely been written off ahead of the election.
On Friday night, the Conservatives were buoyed by low turnout data suggesting that many of Mr Khan’s previous supporters may have stayed home.
The number of ballots cast was down in some areas where he performed well last time, while it was up in Tory strongholds such as Bexley and Bromley.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/03/london-mayoral-election-on-knife-edge-warn-labour-insiders/
Rishi Sunak calls local election losses disappointing as Labour make gains
The Conservatives have lost over 400 council seats, while Labour won the Blackpool South by-election.
Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer said voters showed Mr Sunak they wanted a change in the last big test of public opinion before a general election.
Nearly 90% of the 107 councils up for election have declared so far.
Sir Keir said the Blackpool result - a massive 26% swing to Labour - was a message to the Tory leader that it was time to move on and call a general election
.https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-68947838
Voters Swing to Labour in English Local Elections: Key Takeaways
The election made clear that the opposition Labour Party was succeeding in winning back its longtime supporters in the working-class areas of northern England — often called the “red wall” for their entrenched support for Labour, whose party color is red — who had defected over Brexit and immigration.
After Labour won control of the council in Hartlepool, a party representative said, “Making gains here shows that the party is on track to win a general election and is firmly back in the service of working people.”
In Blackpool South, a deprived seaside district, the Labour Party easily took a parliamentary by-election held Thursday after a Conservative lawmaker stepped down. The seat had long been held by Labour, but it was won by the Conservatives in 2019.
Keir Starmer, the Labour Party leader, said the win was a message sent directly by the public to Mr. Sunak “to say we’re fed up with your decline, your chaos, your division, and we want change.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/world/europe/voters-england-elections-takeaways.html
Anger over Gaza clouds Labour's local election wins
Anger over Labour’s position on the war in Gaza led to some council losses and raised fears over its performance in the West Midlands mayoralty contest, clouding an otherwise strong set of local election results for the party.
Britain’s main opposition party stacked up gains across England in areas ranging from the north-east coastal “red wall” town of Hartlepool to Rushmoor in the southern county of Hampshire.
The spread of victories was a positive omen for Sir Keir Starmer ahead of the general election expected this year, particularly given Labour’s thumping by-election win against the Tories in Blackpool South.
But support appeared to drain away in some areas with larger proportions of Muslim voters, a sign of the damage done by the party’s evolving position on the Israel-Hamas war since October.
The issue threatened to derail Labour’s attempt to unseat Andy Street as Tory mayor of the West Midlands; that result is not expected until Saturday.
https://www.ft.com/content/32fc13d1-2ae4-45a7-b950-ad2325bcbe14
Green party celebrates 'really encouraging results' in England's local elections
The Green party was heading for a record number of councillors in local elections across England, celebrating significant gains in places where it already had a firm foothold but also winning for the first time in inner city and rural areas.
Party officials said they believed the Greens were on track to finish with more than 800 members on more than 170 councils.
The Greens were delighted to win first seats on councils including Newcastle upon Tyne, Sefton in Merseyside, Redditch in Worcestershire, and South Norfolk. It became the largest party on Hastings borough council, moving up from fourth place to first.
Co-leader Adrian Ramsay, said: “We’ve had a really encouraging set of results, building on what we’ve seen over the last four sets of local elections where we have gained record numbers of Green councillors each time.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/03/green-party-adrian-ramsay-celebrates-results-england-local-elections
CAGOP Welcomes Dog Killer as Convention Keynote Speaker
Whther its the local county party or the state party, what the hell happened to Republicans and actual common sense?
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is the keynote speaker for the California GOP at the State Party’s Convention in May in Burlingame. Sure hope SPCA or PETA shows up to picket.
Noem wrote in her not yet released memoir that she took a 14 month old puppy to a gravel pit and shot the dog in cold blood. Noem claimed the dog, named Cricket, was “untrainable” and “dangerous.”
“It was not a pleasant job,” she wrote. “But it had to be done.”
https://theliberaloc.com/2024/05/03/cagop-welcomes-dog-killer-as-convention-keynote-speaker/
San Francisco Democrats are having a #MeToo moment as women share stories of rape, abuse
San Francisco Democrats appear to be on the verge of a #MeToo moment based on comments shared Thursday evening at a special hearing on sexual assault and harassment by local party leaders.
More than 50 people attended the hearing inside the Milton Marks Auditorium, where rape survivors and victims of sexual assault and harassment shared personal stories while calling out local leaders who have turned a blind eye to allegations for years—if not decades.
“I've gotten sick and tired of having to make phone calls to leaders around the city to let them know that this person and that person is problematic,” said Denise Heitzenroder, a board member for the San Francisco Women’s Political Committee. “It really just boggles my mind that 20 years later we still are having these conversations about whether or not this is a problem.”
Nancy Tung, chair of San Francisco’s Democratic County Central Committee, called the hearing in response to multiple allegations against prominent figures in the local Democratic Party, including former housing nonprofit director Jon Jacobo and Kevin Ortiz, a co-president of the Latinx Democratic Club.
House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi endorsed the committee’s work in a letter last weekend—Ortiz worked in her office as recently as 2022—and social media posts have since been identifying other individuals in local politics who have been accused of sexual misconduct.
https://sfstandard.com/2024/05/02/san-francisco-democrats-metoo-sexual-assault-rape/
The 1864 abortion law is officially repealed, but when it takes effect remains uncertain
With a stroke of a pen on Thursday, Gov. Katie Hobbs struck down a 160-year-old near-total abortion ban.
Just a day earlier, Democrats in the state Senate succeeded in peeling away enough Republican votes to repeal an abortion ban first passed in 1864, while Arizona was still a territory. The push to repeal it came after the state Supreme Court ruled it was once again enforceable, and Hobbs’ signature ended weeks of turmoil as the Republican-majority legislature grappled with the political fallout.
“Today, we are doing what 23 governors and 55 legislatures refused to do and I am so proud to be the ones that got this job done,” she said shortly before signing the bill, referring to the number of governors before her and previous legislatures.
The Democrat, who made a campaign promise to repeal the 1864 law and was a vocal supporter of the movement to do so this month, said the threat of the law’s reimplementation had sparked concern across the state.
https://azmirror.com/2024/05/02/the-1864-abortion-law-is-officially-repealed-but-when-it-takes-effect-remains-uncertain/
Appeals court hears Kari Lake election case, has to remind her lawyer how appeals work
Appellate judges listening to arguments Thursday in Kari Lake’s challenge to her 2022 election loss had to keep reminding her lawyer how appeals courts work.
“I’m sure you’re aware we’re not a fact finding court — we’re a court that decides questions of law, primarily,” Judge Peter Eckerstrom told Kurt Olsen, Lake’s attorney, shortly after he began his arguments.
Lake, a Republican who is now running for a U.S. Senate seat, filed her initial election challenge in December 2022 after she lost the governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes.
An ally of fellow election denier Donald Trump, Lake never conceded to Hobbs and has continually claimed the election was stolen, despite her claims failing to convince judges in December 2022 and May 2023 trials, as well as multiple appeals in between the two.
https://azmirror.com/2024/05/02/appeals-court-hears-kari-lake-election-case-has-to-remind-her-lawyer-how-appeals-work/
Abortion rights group warns pregnant women to avoid Florida, offers workarounds to 6-week ban
If you’re pregnant and care about your physical and mental well-being, it’s best to avoid Florida altogether for the foreseeable future, a state reproductive rights group said.
They also provided a few recommendations for those unable to flee the Sunshine State.
The Florida National Organization for Women (Florida NOW) has issued an advisory warning “pregnant individuals to avoid travel and relocation to Florida due to the enactment of a near-total ban on abortion.”
The admonition came Wednesday after a year-delayed ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy went into effect, renewing concerns among some doctors that women in the state won’t have access to needed health care.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/672336-abortion-rights-group-warns-pregnant-women-to-avoid-florida-offers-workarounds-to-6-week-ban/
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