Bagels & Ballots: Bring on the Opera
Musical … politics: As the California senatorial race heats up, EMILY’s List is stepping in, with a new Women Vote! independent expenditure effort to rally ladies around incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer. Women Vote! is kicking off their spot in the fight with a television ad: a male tenor warbles, “Fiorina, Fiorina, Fiorina; we all know who you really are.” (YouTube via Politico)
What Southern Democrats? According to the Times, this group is at risk of becoming an even rarer political breed: “From Virginia to Florida and South Carolina to Texas, nearly two dozen Democratic seats are susceptible to a potential Republican surge in Congressional races on Election Day, leaving the party facing a situation where its only safe presence in the South is in urban and predominantly black districts.” (The New York Times)
Florida’s Outlaws? Yesterday we told you that the race to represent Florida’s 22nd district in Congress has hit rock bottom, with the allegation that far-right candidate and former Lt. Col. Allen West was associated with a motorcycle gang. Now, new footage shows West’s pals — wearing gang patches, no less — ousting a 23-year-old Ron Klein videographer, not so gently. But West campaign maintains, according to an email, that it’s just a bunch of “democrats spreading lies through the media.” (NBC Miami on YouTube)
A Not-So-Positive Campaign Season: And it’s not only in Florida. With two weeks left to the midterm elections, races are heating up, and in some, what civility there was is fading fast. In Illinois’ 9th District, indefatigable Republican Joel Pollak kept on going after incumbent Democrat Jan Schakowsky, claiming she was not supportive of Israel. It’s a theme that has been taken up against several Jewish Democrats by Republican challengers, or by the Republican Jewish Coalition on their behalf. (MitzVote)
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
