Elections q a. This is our first time doing this panel so we are incredibly thrilled to be back we are very grateful to our host at net roots nation and also, thank you very much for Live Streaming the session. We will be taking questions. You can tweet us to our twitter account and we will try to get to your questions as well. In the spirit of the blogosphere, this panel has always been about interactivity. We dont do any speeches and presentations and we will just give quick introductions about who we are and then well get right to your questions because we think arming progressives with information about the election they need to be fighting in is whats going to make us the most effective we possibly can be heading into the 2018 midterms and beyond. My name is david and im the political director and i run part of our website. We put out a newsletter every morning called the morning digest which covers every key race for senate, house, governorship and also for theyre down ballot and the state legislatures races. Sometimes even more obscure than that. We also are responsible for candidate Endorsement Program which im sure we will come up on this panel and the team here is all involved in helping us choose who we decide to support and who we feel we should ask our community to support. On the panel here, starting from my left is david, david works for the asl. He has been writing since 2015. His specialty is actually International Elections and he is one of the main riders on our Monthly International digest which is a great tool if you want to learn about whats going on in other democracies around the world. To my left is jeff singer. Jeff is our senior elections writer. He has been with the team since 2013. Among other things, jeff is the guy responsible for calculating the president ial Election Results for every Congressional District. Every time you see someone that Hillary Clinton 158 in such and such district, the reason why we know that is because of his efforts. Our newest member of the team, yes, i think that deserves a round of applause. The newest member is carolyn, carolyn joins us from the legislative campaign committee. David jerman once described it as the indie rock band of Democratic Committee because there are so many thousands thats what they are focusing o on. Im sure well talk about that today. Thats particularly because of the legislators who create the district that affect the house and those gerrymanders are a big part of why republicans are in charge day. Weve hired carolyn and she writes her own newsletter called this week in the statehouse action which covers exactly that going on in the legislature and government throughout the country. To her right is daniel who is from portland oregon, and dan is focused on maps and charts and graphics of all kinds. He loves to visualize the data that we put together. He has been working on a lot of data visualizations about the special election that weve seen since trump was elected for democrats have been far outperforming all historical trends and im sure he will want to talk about that later today. Finally, a last but not least, the instructional designer from Seattle Washington and david has been working with the daily Election Team since 2016. He loves to take deep dives into demographic big pictures and has been looking at the role that education place in defining the electorate in 2016 what that will mean Going Forward. Thats enough from us. Now we turn it over to the microphone. If you cant get to my phone to speak loudly. I will repeat the questions for the audience. Go ahead. I wanted to ask a question about the topic that i didnt look at very much and dont know a lot about the background, but omaha. What happened to the candidate in omaha. So the question is about the election in omaha, i presume youre talking about the omaha mayoral race that happened earlier this year. This was a difficult situation that daily host found themselves in. We endorse the candidate, keith was a former state legislator who is running for the mayoral race in omaha. I will be forthright. We did not do Due Diligence that we should have. It turned out that he had a record on abortion rights that we felt was not acceptable for progressive communities like daily coast to support him. I want to be very clear. We did not say that we thought democrats shouldnt support keith and that he should run and we should kick him out of the party. For daily coast, we have to pick and choose and be selective about the endorsements we make and we werent as selective as we should have been. When we learned about his record on abortion, we chose to withdraw the recommendation. We didnt attack them publicly and we started the reason for the withdrawal and we moved on. He ended up losing to the republican incumbent. There are some folks with said he lost because of what happene happened. Some other folks were unhappy about his abortion stance and others were unhappy about people making issue but the math seem to be fairly simple. There was a two round election. In the first round, the income of mayor was a republican and they were separated by two or three points. It looks like a potentially close race. The problem was there was a third candidate running who is also a republican in the runoff between mello and strother, the republican mayor. The other republican endorsed incumbent and ultimately that was the margin that she prevailed by. I have two questions so feel free to answer the first if thats not permissible. Alabama special election, anything, any update whats going on so that this mysterious Robert Kennedy and the democrat will have a shot. Candidate recruitment in new york, Staten Island district. We will get to both. We appreciate the short to the point. Whats going on in the Alabama Senate in the special election and whats going on with candidate recruitment in the 11h district on Staten Island. Any takers . For the Alabama Senate race, the primary is this tuesday. If nobody gets 50 or nobody gets majority there will be a runoff between the top two candidates. Its alabama but the very tough race. Nobody can deny that. We do have a democrat, doug jones who has some connections and some profiles. If lightning strikes in then some maybe hes in the right place and can pull off something, but he has a few people running against him inc including someone whose name is Robert F Kennedy junior who is not linked to the real kennedy family, but the issue is, its a pretty low energy race and the worry is that democratic voters will vote for the namely recognize even if he is not the Robert F Kennedy junior or anything like that. In the last few days, we have seen some democrats endorsement endorsements, but nobodys really spending much money here. As far as i know we will just have to see on tuesday how things work. Maybe we will have a runoff, hopefully kennedy wont run out right, but we will just have to see how that goes. Democrats are aware we are putting effort into it. New yorks 11th district on Staten Island has a piece of brooklyn. Its the only piece of new york that trump won. He did very well on Staten Island. The republican incumbent is the former Staten Island district attorney. He did not invite the Police Officer who killed eric gardner and that was a big controversy but he won very easily. Its really tough district. Stan mylan is kind of typical trump territory but its always good. [inaudible] we had a candidate who recently stepped up, former army veteran, his name escapes me at the moment. New york city is the most expensive place to air tv ads in except for parts of new jersey that also airs in new york. Its one of those districts where we should compete there and if he year from now were talking about this district its probably a good sign for democratic hopes. Thank you. Were willing to be do the hard work that needs to be done. My question to you is how early in the process do you endorse progressive candidates do you d wait until after qualified or after the primary or do you do first come first serve. The question to ask is how do we go about the endorsement. I am in the works right now on a lengthier post explaining this but i will try to answer any brief questions. Its not hard and fast rule but we usually do and the reason why is because we dont want to be perceived as the big National Group the big local race. When local folks can do an excellent job of picking their own candidates. Typically we wait until after primaries until after the final deadline. In that sense we probably well mostly have the 28th endorsement. I could go on for far too long on this question. There is something criteria and fractures but the one that i will mention is that generally speaking we try to get involved in races that we think her neck and a get huge amount of attention. The reason might we do that is because if you are running in a multi milliondollar race its gonna come in with dollars for you. The bang for the buck. It will be for a lower tier race were less money is involved. In the event that there is a big wave that we have a chance to capitalize on then we can help expand that plainfield. Say they are played in seats number one through 20 for the first two dozen seats we want to play in the next two doesnt to try to increase our chances of pulling and folks who might not otherwise have a chance. Our community is very open to back in backing the candidates that are longest shots. Thank you. It is all over the school officials. Im trying to have anybody that has the hot new take. Most of them are up this year. It doesnt mean that they dont identify with us. They have 202000 up in november. Anything that is not the big city stuff that we should maybe be aware of. The question is about which municipalraces are. One that was in the past that i think was a positive sign was in san antonio. Where there were a number of democratic victories and i think in the spring that including that. They were really seen by the most republican part of san antonio. It certainly points towards positive results. In terms of the 202000 municipal races i think that its difficult for us to cover those races just as a reality of the number of people who are involved. I think there are some great blogs of a state blog that does really great work. We can really drill down onto the lower level than those of us who are looking federally and state state wide and nationally and what they can do. I will chip in one specific race. It has come across our radar. Gilchrest. Did he get through yesterday. In detroit there had been voting problems for various sorts of problems for a number of years and the clerk there is been challenged by a young rising star and that is that. There are races that tend to get ignored. The municipal level we probably need ten points of this. We really do try to Pay Attention to those nuts and bolts races. The kind of things that do really matter to people. So we dont necessarily think about daytoday. I would like to add a little bit of excitement on the state legislative level. A little further down in most peoples radar i Record Number of candidates are running in virginia. They are setting up to run all over the country. I think we will see that level of excitement manifests itself lower down as well. Im really exciting. Really excited. It sounds like im trying to stop you but i really dont know whats going on in these races. The state legislative special election in mississippi. But the candidates dont run with party labels. In special elections in mississippi. Im not been able to determine with certainty who the democrats are. I have also been really hard and by that virginia races. I did see that one dropped out. If you any insight. There is a virginia bridges legislative race. Just on tuesday there well be a los local caucus. If they are stepping up to run again in that seat. It brings a total of women running she won 17 of the current seats. They are held by republicans and house of delegates virginia. Really excited about what is happening in virginia this year. They would overturn the result is like they did a couple of years ago. Lets call it a unique system. We are keeping an eye on that. Next question. A question on my former childhood memo. They will try to endorse. The question is about dana verb acker. The republican in california. In the 39th district. The question is whether they are concerned about not being able to get to the november general election and pass the top two primaries and also endorse in that race early. See make that would require remarkable circumstances of the second republican candidate whose name is alluding me right now. We have no idea whether he has anything going. Almost secretly as well. I dont think we will endorse until after the primary. Just through the natural asserting process. That they develop a stronger profile whether its just through the other ones where the natural next question. You may recall about two and half years ago when governor christie. As my that is my political calling card in new jersey. Most people know me as that sit down and shut up guy. What they dont know sometimes is that those in the dnc and im running on a very full progressive campaign. Given that i had 11 months until that happens. To engage the community this the sadness to help raise the profile within the community. End of the support that going to need to win the race. What should a candidate you mentioned that they had been writing on the site. That is a number one way to get people excited. The campaigns reach out to us very often. If you havent already create an account i recommend that the names and for congress in that. The thing about that. It is a very big site. And not everything that you write is going to get attention. Thats just not possible. Once in a while one of them hits. It moves on. I try not to get discouraged. Keep posting and also respond in comments to users people have questions or even if they dont and just remarks engage with them. Is how you are going to find supporters. And people in your district or your state they will want to volunteer. Those are definitely the best ways. Possibly even with your supporters directly on your email list. Having your supporters come to daily kos is a good thing also. All of them will be familiar with it. And if we have a general election this year i would be pretty excited obviously a lot can happen in the next year what are the key states for flipping legislatures in 2015. Im so glad you asked. Democrats have a lot of ground to make up instate deflectors across the country. Rich environment and what is shaping up to be a very good year. Mostly special elections we just spoke up. The majority has been further down the ballot and those indicators are very good. We flipped two seats in oklahoma. So top targets for 2018 unless i could have up to 2017. The house of delegates is they are on a pretty severe minority there. There is a real chance to make serious inroads there. And that impacts things Like Committee makeup and stuff like that. In terms of 2018 they are including places like the minnesota house. The main senate this. November we have a chance to pick up a majority special election there. If we dont do as a as a top target for 20 2018. It will still be narrow once the majority we will want to pick up more to solidify that. The Colorado State senate has a one seat republican majority. It should be a really good year to do that. In light of which seats are on the ballot. How about thoughts on to cycle target. Places like the michigan house. The democrats keep winning more votes for the state wide house there. It is a prime multi cycle opportunity. If we can keep that up for 2020. Other multi cycle targets are like the Florida State state senate. Those maps are not great but not terrible. Given that its pretty even pretty statewide. Weve a real chance there. Considering how much is there. Is a multi cycle target. Literally always. It strikes me as another possible cycle opportunity. I dont sleep on iowa either. It tends to be trending more republican. Lets see if we can flip that back in 2018 and 2020. And there was one that i wanted to add for 2018. I would never forget the new york state senate. Funny situation not funny ha ha in North Carolina. There would be new elections on new state legislative maps in North Carolina in the house and senate in 2018. We dont know what those maps are going to look like yet. They honestly cannot be much worse. Weve a chance to break the super majority. It would help the democratic governor quite a lot. Dont sleep in North Carolina either. Nancy jones. And i have to tell you that im a little overwhelmed at the analytics and expertise on this panel. I appreciate it. And most of what i know about elections outside of where i live comes from you guys. Thank you a lot for that. I have a question i have just been wondering about. I wonder if you guys had thought about it at all and following your work. Im aware that some of these races that have been going on have been initialized for instance that. And others. And others are not Getting National attention and from what i see and i dont dig into it that deep. They are winning somewhere theyre not Getting Nationalized. Im just wondering if you all had run any numbers or thought anything about that. Its whether they are faring better. In races that. Just north appear. I dont know that we had run any numbers but i definitely think we have some of those. I think there is a degree in a difference that we will see in these races that have become National News and have become very heated. Among the democrats they created a response among republicans. It will probably turn out higher than they have. There has been no News Coverage of it. Theres only so much i think we can do to control it. Out to