Very obviously, NC Senate overlord Phil Berger -- or someone closely allied with him -- has hired the opposition research specialists at America Rising to dig up any dirt they can find on his Democratic challenger Jen Mangrum.
Mangrum just got reaffirmed as Berger's legitimate challenger by the state Board of Elections last Thursday, so Berger's team is upping its game.
Jen Mangrum got notice from the provost at UNC-Greensboro that the university has received a Freedom of Information Act request for a long list of documents relating to Mangrum's employment at the university. Can a demand for all her email be far behind?
You can rest assured that this is only the beginning of the fishing. Probably isn't even the beginning but somewhere in the middle.
Arizona ... Kyrsten Sinema, for Jeff Flake's seat Mississippi ... David Barria, for Roger Wicker's seat Mississippi ... Mike Espy, for Thad Cochran's seat (special election) Tennessee ... Phil Bredesen, for Bob Corker's seat Texas ... Beto O'Rourke, for Ted Cruz's seat
US HOUSE
Alabama
Mallory Hagan ... 3rd CD James Lee Auman ... 4th CD
California
Gil Cisneros ... 39th CD Mike Levin ... 49th CD
Florida
Donna Shalala ... 27th CD
Iowa
Abby Finkenauer ... 1st CD J. D. Scholten ... 4th CD
Kansas
Paul Davis ... 2nd CD
Kentucky
Amy McGrath ... 6th CD
Montana
Kathleen Williams ... at large
New Jersey
Mikie Sherrill ... 11th CD
North Carolina
D. D. Adams ... 5th CD Ryan Watts ... 6th CD Kyle Horton ... 7th CD Dan McCready ... 9th CD Kathy Manning ... 13th CD
Ohio
Danny O'Connor ... 12th CD
Pennsylvania
Scott Wallace ... 1st CD Susan Wild ... 7th CD Denny Wolff ... 9th CD Conor Lamb ... 17th CD
South Carolina
Joe Cunningham ... 1st CD Brandon Brown ... 4th CD Archie Parnell ... 5th CD
Texas
Lizzie Pannill Fletcher ... 7th CD Veronica Escobar ... 16th CD M. J. Hegar ... 31st CD
Utah
Ben McAdams ... 4th CD
Virginia
Elaine Luria ... 2nd CD Leslie Cockburn ... 5th CD Jennifer Lewis ... 6th CD Abigail Spanberger ... 7th CD Anthony Flaccavento ... 9th CD Jennifer Wexton ... 10th CD
In no particular order... These are the Democratic candidates in NC House and Senate races that I've got my eye on in 2018. I call them the Democratic A Team. (Wanna make sumthin of it? Get your own list!) WataugaWatch has covered all of them -- you know how to search, top left corner above.
NC HOUSE
Gail Young in NC House District 83
Christy Clark in Dist. 98
Joe Fowler in Dist. 76
Steven Buccini in Dist. 59
Dan Besse in Dist. 75
Marcia Morgan in Dist. 19
Terence Everitt in Dist. 35
Brandon Lofton in Dist. 104
Rhonda Schandevel in Dist. 118
Joe Sam Queen in Dist. 119
Lowell Simon in Dist. 52
Ashton Clemmons in Dist. 57
Natasha Marcus in Dist. 41
Leslie Cohen in Dist. 20
Kandie Smith in Dist. 8
Sam Edney in Dist. 113
Rick Foulke in Dist. 68
Dan Whitten in Dist. 15
Darryl Moss in Dist. 2
Linda Bennett in Dist. 26
Erica McAdoo in Dist. 63
Wendy B. Sellers in Dist. 80
Wesley Harris in Dist. 105
Susan Maxon in Dist. 109
Albeiro Florez in Dist. 45
Ron Wesson in Dist. 1
Kim Bost in Dist. 96
Zack Hawkins in Dist. 31
James D. Gailliard in Dist. 25
Tess Judge in Dist. 6
Charles Dudley in Dist. 3
Sydney Batch in Dist. 37
Rachel Hunt in Dist. 103
Julie von Haefen in Dist. 36
Cathy von Hassel-Davies in Dist. 64
Ray Russell in Dist. 93
Barbara Yates-Lockamy in Dist. 46
David Brinkley in Dist. 111 (Tim Moore's seat)
Aimy Steele in Dist. 82
Terri LeGrand in Dist. 74
Martha Shafer in Dist. 62
NCSENATE
Mack Paul in NC Senate District 18
Harper Peterson in Dist. 9
Eleanor Erickson in Dist. 8
Ginger Garner in Dist. 2
Helen Probst Mills in Dist. 25
Ric Vandett in Dist 42
Caroline Walker in Dist. 35
Sam Searcy in Dist. 17
Cheraton Love in Dist. 29
Bobby Kuppers in Dist. 50
Jen Mangrum in Dist. 30 (Phil Berger's seat)
Wiley Nickel in Dist. 16
J. D. Wooten in Dist. 24
Michael K. Garrett in Dist. 27
Kirk DeViere in Dist. 19
Mujtaba Mohammed in Dist. 38
Ann Harlan in Dist. 39
The talent, commitment, and drive manifested above keeps me from despair, mandates my working harder and more efficiently, because our future is hanging by a thread.
Danny O'Connor in red shirt, canvassing. Photo Maddie McGarvey, for the NYTimes
The 12th Congressional District of Ohio hasn't elected a Democrat since 1980.
A special election there for the US Congress is now rated a tossup by the Cook Political Report. The Democrat, Danny O'Connor, could be the next indication that the 2018 blue wave ain't no mirage.
Apparently, Democratic turn-out in early voting in heavily Republican areas bodes well. Early voting numbers always signal political energy -- who has the edge, which team can't wait to get in the game?
The Republican candidate for the open seat tries to paint O'Connor as a puppet of Nancy Pelosi, which hardly works at all any more, especially since O'Connor has already announced that he won't be voting for Pelosi as Speaker, should the Dems take control of the House.
Seeing in black and white that the Russians could impersonate official email from Google, ordering a user to log on and fix this or that "on your account" -- I recognize that I've received those "spearphishing" messages myself. I bet most people reading this have too. That's only one way into your secrets. If they can gain access to one of your best friends, they can gain access to you too. It's chilling.
On or about April 6, 2016, the Conspirators created an email account in the name of a known member of the Clinton Campaign (with a one-letter deviation from the actual spelling). The Conspirators then used that account to send spearphishing emails to the work accounts of more than thirty different Clinton Campaign employees. In the spearphishing emails, LUKASHEV and his co-conspirators embedded a link purporting to direct the recipient to a document titled “hillary- clinton-favorable-rating.xlsx.” In fact, this link directed the recipients’ computers to a GRU [Russian Military Intelligence]-created website.
Once they're inside, look what they can do:
The keylog function allowed the Conspirators to capture keystrokes entered by DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] employees. The screenshot function allowed the Conspirators to take pictures of the DCCC employees’ computer screens.
One Obvious Reason Twitterman Is So Cowed by Putin
The indictments released yesterday drop this tidbit: They stole "opposition research" off Democratic Party and Clinton campaign computers. Opposition research. Get it? The Russians know everything bad about DJT that the Democrats were able to dig up -- not to mention, obviously what the Russians themselves already have on him.
Russians Subvert Actblue
"On or about June 14, 2016, the Conspirators registered the domain actblues.com, which mimicked the domain of a political fundraising platform that included a DCCC donations page. Shortly thereafter, the Conspirators used stolen DCCC credentials to modify the DCCC website and redirect visitors to the actblues.com domain."
What the Russians Did with the Stolen Documents
Oh, you know about Wikileaks ("Organization 1" in the indictment) and their publication of stolen material. But did you know about this "candidate for the U.S. Congress"?
On or about August 15, 2016, the Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, received a request for stolen documents from a candidate for the U.S. Congress. The Conspirators responded using the Guccifer 2.0 persona and sent the candidate stolen documents related to the candidate’s opponent.
Asked for and received stolen documents. That's a new detail, and doesn't that suggest that other indictments are sure to come? Receiving stolen property. Asking for stolen property.
Aaron Nevins.
Butter won't melt in his mouth
Not only a sitting member of Congress but also an enterprising lobbyist:
On or about August 22, 2016, the Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, transferred approximately 2.5 gigabytes of data stolen from the DCCC to a then-registered state lobbyist and online source of political news. The stolen data included donor records and personal identifying information for more than 2,000 Democratic donors.
"State lobbyist." Puzzling over what that means, Google sends me to a Florida newspaper. That "state lobbyist" appears to be one Aaron Nevins (according to the Sun-Sentinel), "a state and local lobbyist and operator of the political news website 'Mark Miewurd's HelloFLA!' (The name is a play on 'mark my words.') "
We also learn that the Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, contacted a U.S. reporter with an offer to provide stolen emails from Hillary Clinton’s staff. "The Conspirators then sent the reporter the password to access a nonpublic, password-protected portion of dcleaks.com containing emails stolen from Victim 1."
We've known since at least February of this year that the Russians attempted to penetrate the computers of 21 state boards of election, but "an exceptionally small number of them were actually successfully penetrated" (NBC News). The indictment specifies just one, "SBOE 1." Was that Illinois, which admitted in 2016 that its system had been breached? Or some other state, like North Carolina?
"With Others Known and Unknown"
Other shoes are yet to drop. Obviously.
In the section of the indictment that specifies which American laws have been broken, there are a couple of references to "others known and unknown" as having participated in theft and conspiracy with the Russians. Some -- most? -- of those persons -- especially the known ones -- are likely American citizens, aren't they? And aren't we likely to see yet a cascade of additional indictments of persons who don't enjoy the protection of Vladimir Putin?
I was in that hearing room yesterday in Raleigh, but because of the state Board of Elections weird policy blocking WiFi access for the public, I was unable to post live updates. Here's the bottomline news, courtesy of the NewsandObserver:
RALEIGH -- Jen Mangrum, a former teacher and first-time candidate, turned back a challenge to her district residency on Thursday, opening the way for her to continue her campaign against state Senate leader Phil Berger of Rockingham County — one of the most influential politicians in North Carolina.
The state elections board, in a 5-4 vote, overturned a decision by a local panel which decided against Mangrum, a Democrat, in a party-line vote in May.
Billy Cushman, a Republican travel agent from Rockingham County, challenged Mangrum’s residency, claiming she had not moved permanently from Greensboro to Reidsville, a town in Berger’s district. The state election board’s four Democrats and its unaffiliated member voted in Mangrum’s favor, while the board’s four Republicans voted against her.
Mangrum said she was happy with the result, but disappointed that the vote wasn’t unanimous.
“The facts are, I moved,” she said. Mangrum said Berger had been challenged only three times in nine elections, and she felt it was important for voters to have a choice. “I decided that someone needed to stand up to Sen. Berger, and I was going to be that person,” she said....
The local panel used a standard to judge Mangrum that it would not apply to a man, said Stella Anderson, a state board member. One of the local panel members, according to the record, was not convinced that Mangrum and her husband wouldn’t reconcile.
“That is irrelevant as it relates to the law,” Anderson said. “This panel chose to impose on her a requirement that is not a requirement of the law.”
Jen Mangrum's a fighter, and the attempt to get her disqualified because she moved in order to run, has given her greater name recognition and a growing army of willing volunteers. Phil Berger has every reason to be nervous.
Question remains: Will the man who challenged Mangrum's eligibility (Billy Cushman of Eden) now appeal to the NC Court of Appeals. My understanding is that he has just two days to do that, once the action yesterday is finalized in a formal order. Considering Berger's nervousness and the ample money that seems to be available to pay Cushman's team of high-priced lawyers, I'm betting he will appeal.
If so, they will not have learned that every hurdle thrown in Jen Mangrum's path just makes her stronger.
Full disclosure: I am now a repeat contributor to her campaign.
When the top Republican bosses in the General Assembly were asked by the News and Observer if they planned to take any more powers away from Governor Cooper, Senate leader Phil Berger laughed cynically and said, "Does he still have any?"
House Speaker Tim Moore chimed in, “If you have any suggestions, let us know.”
We intend to wipe those sarcastic grins off those repulsive faces in 118 days. The voters of this state will have the last laugh.
Jen Mangrum, the former Republican who has become overlord Phil Berger's nemesis this year, will see her eligibility to run against Berger litigated by the full state Board of Elections tomorrow. I intend to be there as a witness.
You may recall that Mangrum, a professor at UNC-Greensboro, announced her intention to run against Berger back in 2017. She was a Republican-turned-Democrat who decided she was fed up by the ruthless power-grabbing of Berger and his boys in the General Assembly. She attracted a lot of positive attention from supporters and a lot of negative energy from Republicans.
So what did the Republicans in the General Assembly do? They redrew Berger's district and cut out Mangrum's residence. What did Mangrum do? She leased property and moved so that she could be in Berger's district again. You don't put Jen Mangrum in a corner.
But Berger's allies weren't done. They challenged Mangrum's residency, and a 3-2 panel of Republican and Democratic elections officials ruled against her on party lines. Their need to protect the empire of Phil Berger was palpable.
Her appeal to the state Board of Elections comes tomorrow in Raleigh. She will win on the facts, and the concerted effort to keep her off the ballot and out of Phil Berger's face has only served to make her stronger.
J.W. Williamson was the founding editor in 1972 of the Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review, which he edited until July of 2000. He has taught college classes in Appalachian history, cultural politics, and literature, and he has lectured widely on the pop-culture history of "Appalachia" in the American consciousness. His books include Interviewing Appalachia, Southern Mountaineers in Silent Films, and Hillbillyland: What the Mountains Did to the Movies and What the Movies Did to the Mountains. He has won the Thomas Wolfe Award given by the Western North Carolina Historical Society, the Laurel Leaves Award given by the Appalachian Consortium, a special Weatherford Award given by Berea College, and the Cratis Williams-James Brown Award given by the Appalachian Studies Association.
The views expressed on WataugaWatch are solely those of J.W. Williamson or individual contributors and are not necessarily shared nor endorsed by the Watauga County Democratic Party nor by any other adults of sound mind in this or any other universe.
