Progressives (Liberals)

HELENA — A Billings Republican legislator said Saturday he believes the U.S. Constitution calls for the shooting or jailing of those who identify as socialists.

State Rep. Rodney Garcia, from House District 52 on the South Side, first made a statement in the form of an unprompted question at a state party gathering in Helena Friday meant to kick off election season and offer training for party members and candidates.

In his question after a speech by former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who was Montana’s representative in the U.S. House for two years, Garcia said he was concerned about socialists “entering our government” and socialists “everywhere” in Billings, before saying the Constitution says to either shoot socialists or put them in jail.
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On Saturday, a reporter asked Garcia to clarify his remarks.

“So actually in the Constitution of the United States (if) they are found guilty of being a socialist member you either go to prison or are shot,” Garcia said.

Garcia could not to point to where in the Constitution it says socialists could be shot or jailed.

Asked to clarify if he thought it was fair to shoot or jail a socialist, including those who live in Montana, Garcia said yes.

“They’re enemies of the free state,” Garcia said. “What do we do with our enemies in war? In Vietnam, (Afghanistan), all those. What did we do?”

Asked if that was an appropriate response to his opponent from the last election cycle, Garcia said “according to the Constitution, I’m telling you.”
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The campaigns on the ground will tell you that the Iowa caucuses are about organizing in a way that’s different from any other state.

“Success in the Iowa caucuses demands precinct-level organization in every corner of the state — east to west, urban to suburban to rural, and among every constituency,” Jason Noble, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Iowa spokesperson, told Vox in November.

You have to think about ensuring a caucus-goer can get off work, has a ride to the precinct, and can access the child care needed to be able to spend three-plus hours shuffling around a high school gym to vote. And it also means campaigns need that infrastructure in place across the whole state.

“It’s not whether you can run up a score in one precinct but if you can be viable in a lot of different kinds of precincts,” Jesse Harris, a veteran of Obama’s Iowa operation who is now advising Biden’s campaign, told Vox this fall.

Campaigns including Warren, Sanders, Buttigieg, and Biden — among those that are most likely to meet the 15 percent threshold in any given precinct — said they are hoping to staff every single precinct with volunteers. Sanders’s campaign has trained over 1,000 caucus volunteers to date, which involves a four-part course around delegate math, persuading voters on the ground, and organizing. These volunteers, and the tens of thousands of others who have donated or organized on the ground will be crucial to the campaign’s final push.

“This is not about big crowds,” Misty Rebik, Sanders’s Iowa state director, told Vox in November. “We are very proud of our crowd sizes at our events but we know it has to go deeper than that.”

Voters’ second choice might matter more this election

Several national polls have given a snapshot of voters’ second choices — but much of the focus has been around the top-tier candidates like Warren, Sanders, Biden, and Buttigieg.

Those are the four candidates that have been leading Iowa polls for months now, but Sen. Amy Klobuchar is also very much in the mix. Sanders is now ahead by a slight margin, with Biden trailing him, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average. But all in all, the polls show a race that’s still very fluid.

To win the state, the second choice for voters that back the other seven candidates, from entrepreneur Andrew Yang to Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), is far more powerful. The lower-tier candidates, those who are still only registering single digits in the polls, will likely be cut from the running in the first round of caucusing, unable to gain 15 percent of support, and their supporters will have to decide whether they want to vote for their second choice or go home.

“The second choices are going to matter more than they usually do because there’s going to be a lot of not viable candidates,” Deeth said. This math has some campaigns that have consistently been polling in the double digits — but not quite in the lead — feeling more optimistic.

“The 15 percent threshold is going to be important in this election,” Rebik said. “It’s fine if people think they are going to gain momentum magically, but at the end of they day they have to be viable.”

This process, called realignment, has been a crucial part of organizing for campaigns from the beginning. Sanders staffers told Vox last fall they’re focused on training volunteers to make the case in the room. Rebik noted the campaign is also working on technology to help the campaign’s precinct captain do the delegate math in the room — and send results more quickly to headquarters.

As did Biden’s campaign.

“From the very beginning, if someone is supporting another candidate, we will ask if the vice president will be their second choice — we have been coding that from the beginning,” Harris said. “If you can walk in the door with 25 percent of the [caucus-goers], you could walk out with 35 percent.”

It is really anybody’s race to win, as long as they can prove their organizing chops can effectively span the entire state. It means covering a lot of ground, but not necessarily bringing in a lot of people.

“A candidate can shake the hand of everybody who will caucus for them in Iowa,” Redlawsk added.

It’s 2020. Time for Democrats to Ignore These Two States.

Everybody talks about Iowa and New Hampshire, but nobody does anything about it. Here’s an idea.

...shouldn't vote.

Well, somehow, Bloomberg has climbed to be even with Warren and he is not even campaigning in the two early caucus states. I think it is his commercial ads. I've watched quite a few in my neck of the woods, they're impressive.

Bloomberg rises into third-place tie with Warren in national poll