vox--2020-10-12--Mark Zuckerberg is spending millions like never before to overhaul a landmark law

Mark Zuckerberg is politically worn down these days — besieged from both the left and the right and watching what little political capital he had amassed over the last decade deplete itself with each new data scandal and congressional flogging .
And yet Zuckerberg has chosen to embark on a decidedly dicey political crusade : an attempt to touch the so-called third rail of California politics — the state ’ s 40-year-old landmark tax law — in the most expensive electoral play of the billionaire ’ s career .
Zuckerberg has been waging a costly and risky political battle for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Proposition 13 , the law that critics say has hamstrung the state ’ s economy by capping its property taxes , and thus underfunding two priorities of Zuckerberg and his wife , Priscilla Chan : schools and housing .
While other tech leaders have conspicuously avoided weighing in until the very last minute , if at all , Zuckerberg stuck his neck out early and has now spent almost $ 11 million — including $ 4.5 million more just this month — on the cause , raising the stakes for Election Day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the “ split roll ” reform measure through his and his wife ’ s philanthropy , the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative .
For the past year , he has been a key player behind the scenes and the only major Silicon Valley leader who has publicly endorsed it .
And because he has been so alone in this effort , the vote on Prop 13 reform in some ways serves as a test of his and his ambitious philanthropy ’ s political muscle .
Zuckerberg and Chan , who personally signed off on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ priority inside CZI , are just two of many donors behind the new measure .
They are not playing an operational role nor are they involved in day-to-day strategy .
But because Zuckerberg is its highest-profile supporter , his money has also made him a target for the measure ’ s opponents , who are eager to make him a piñata in the election and capitalize on his toxicity , as CZI aides expected .
“ If he thinks more money should go to education , why doesn ’ t he pull in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ put that money into education ?
” poked Rob Lapsley , the head of the California Business Roundtable , the group leading the opposition .
“ There ’ s a lot of bad feelings in the business community toward him and what he ’ s doing on this.
” The Facebook founder has stumbled before in his advocacy work .
The $ 100 million that Zuckerberg donated to Newark , New Jersey , schools in 2010 at the request of Newark mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey governor Chris Christie accomplished little .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that he started three years later , FWD.us , faced its share of early struggles .
And Zuckerberg has managed to enrage all comers with his mistakes in his day job at Facebook , particularly in the run-up to the presidential election .
So if Zuckerberg accomplishes big political wins at CZI — which is structured as a hybrid between a traditional philanthropy and a political advocacy organization — it will offer one of the world ’ s wealthiest people a new avenue to improve his civic record .
“ This is perhaps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tech historian Margaret O ’ Mara , surmising that Zuckerberg has learned a lesson about his own limitations from these previous struggles .
“ We ’ re seeing the political education of all these tech leaders in real time.
” Split roll , or officially this year ’ s Proposition 15 , is just one of many political projects , including a push for education reform and four other CZI-backed ballot initiatives in California this year , undertaken by the five-year-old philanthropy , which now has 400 employees .
But it is by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ high-stakes — electoral battle CZI has picked yet .
That ’ s because what Zuckerberg is attacking isn ’ t just a California tax law .
It ’ s the nucleus of the modern , national anti-tax movement .
When Proposition 13 passed in California four decades ago , it capped both residential and commercial property taxes by assessing most property ’ s value based on how much it was worth as far back as 1976 , with minimal established tax increases .
Homeowners and businesses alike embraced the legislation , but critics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ less money for schools , roads , and other social services for its 40 million residents .
Studies say that California , which has the highest poverty rate in the country and is grappling with a housing crisis , needs as many as 3.5 million new homes by 2025 and $ 22 billion more in school funding .
This year ’ s Proposition 15 would reform Prop 13 so it only applies to residential properties .
Homeowners ’ taxes would stay the same while many businesses ’ property tax rates would go up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s called “ split roll.
” The split-roll fight was expected to be explosive — but then the coronavirus pandemic overwhelmed California politics and took up voters ’ attention .
That might be why you haven ’ t heard as much as you might think you would about the chance to finally amend a landmark law that undergirds so much of life in California .
The most recent polls have shown the split-roll effort with just over 50 percent support .
On the surface , the battle lines appear like a stereotypical business-versus-labor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the force behind split roll , which proponents say would raise $ 12 billion yearly for the state to spend on schools and housing programs favored by unions .
And traditional corporate interests — particularly those from the real estate industry — are spending tens of millions to beat split roll , which makes sense , given that , for some of them , a property tax increase is an existential threat to their corporations .
They also argue that a recession is the wrong time to raise taxes on small businesses .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the picture gets more complicated .
And that ’ s the point .
“ Having visible tech industry support is helpful in funding the measure — but it also sends a clear signal that this is not an attack on the business community , ” said Scott Wiener , a California state senator who is close with many tech leaders and is backing the measure .
But the support of Zuckerberg goes beyond the $ 11 million check .
A CZI-backed nonprofit , TechEquity Collaborative , and its leader , Catherine Bracy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other tech companies and workers to get off the sidelines and support split roll , too .
At a fundraiser for the measure that TechEquity hosted last year at the headquarters of the food-delivery startup Postmates , Weiner recalled about 80 people , largely from the tech industry , crowding into a room and offering strategy suggestions and getting organized for the fight to come .
Zuckerberg also did some initial outreach on his own to other tech billionaires to try and rally them to his side .
And one tech leader pitched @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s support was used by proponents in private meetings to help validate and sell the effort to Zuckerberg ’ s peers in the industry .
But billionaires can be a rivalrous bunch , and sources say there were concerns that some of them would actually be turned off by Zuckerberg ’ s involvement .
Over the last few years , seemingly every Silicon Valley giant has unveiled much-ballyhooed financial commitments to support affordable housing in the Bay Area .
Apple promised to spend $ 2.5 billion last fall .
Facebook announced $ 1 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same time .
But none of them have come out in favor of reforming Proposition 13 .
That ’ s why , to split-roll activists , these announcements are hollow .
If these corporations really wanted to support nearby communities , the thinking goes , they ’ d fight to change the system rather than throw nickels at tinkering with the status quo under the banner of “ philanthropic altruism , ” as Bernie Sanders named it .
Rather than depending on this after-the-fact charity , split-roll proponents argue that its passage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ charge fees to developers that then are passed along in higher rents , a process that leads to less housing construction .
Its opponents argue that it is California ’ s bureaucracy , not its tax system , that is to blame for the housing shortage .
Publicly , very few tech leaders or companies have endorsed split roll .
The only Silicon Valley players that came out in favor of it until recently were Zuckerberg and Postmates .
Tech companies are often ultra-cautious when it comes to advocacy campaigns , only acting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ll come under from activists , the media , and other companies if they fall on one side or the other .
And they ’ re especially cautious if the ballot initiative doesn ’ t directly affect their bottom line .
That ’ s why advocates tried to create pressure and change that .
Behind the scenes , well-funded forces — including CZI — twisted arms and lobbied some of the biggest players in business to try to build a coalition of marquee names .
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation , which advises @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and is backing split roll , has been pitching its clients for more than a year on spending their money on the split-roll fight , including at a town hall held last month .
Billionaire powerbroker Ron Conway , who had intentionally avoided the issue , last month decided to co-host a fundraiser for the measure alongside CZI political adviser and former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe , according to a copy of the invitation obtained by Recode .
But tech billionaires have on the whole proved timid , despite years of private @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asking for million-dollar-plus contributions but came away empty-handed .
For instance , Sam Altman , the former head of Y Combinator , had talks with proponents about making a major contribution to the split-roll effort , but then ultimately declined , according to two people familiar with the matter .
The real big fish , though , were Silicon Valley ’ s iconic companies — and largest landowners .
Six companies were the core targets of lobbying efforts on both sides : Apple , Facebook , Google , Stripe , Square , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of them punted .
In theory , tech had some unique rationale to back Prop 13 reform .
Most tech companies were , of course , not around in 1976 — and so they have far less to lose than traditional California businesses that sit on low-taxed property as a result of Prop 13 .
And at the same time , these tech companies ’ workforces suffer from the consequences of high housing prices and under-funded schools — and are under pressure from employees to act .
Backing split roll could have proven @ @ @ @ @ @ @ too .
Some companies thought it could have given them a chance to strengthen their ties to organized labor , a persistent critic of tech .
Others saw it as a way to take the air out of tax measures that activists push to punish tech companies specifically .
Those political considerations might explain why , in an era when companies are nervous about being shamed as poor corporate citizens , at least none of the tech giants are loudly opposing split roll .
All but one of the six targeted companies declined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thinking on split roll .
Of those six , Salesforce ’ s unwillingness to endorse split roll has been the most surprising to close observers .
Salesforce , the largest private employer in San Francisco and led by Marc Benioff , a voluble CEO who has called for tech companies to pay more in taxes , was seen as the biggest possible “ get ” by the backers of split roll .
And keeping him at least neutral was seen as a major priority for those opposing it .
For a while , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ close to the split-roll effort said last year that they saw Benioff ’ s lack of involvement as a flashing warning sign of the effort ’ s struggles to gain tech support .
But a month before Election Day , Recode has learned that Salesforce is now coming out for the measure .
The company is making a $ 400,000 contribution to the effort .
“ We ’ re supporting California Proposition 15 because it ’ s an important step in addressing the resource deficits that both our schools and local governments face @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ COVID-19 has shown how important it is to support our local and state institutions as they are the backbone of our communities.
” Google and Apple met with both sides to try to make a determination about whether to weigh in , but neither ultimately has .
And then there was Facebook — which , having been founded by the same person who founded the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative , put it in an unusual situation .
Getting Facebook to come out in favor of the proposal was a key priority of those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many other tech companies , it seems to have ultimately decided this didn ’ t rank as a political priority in 2020 .
“ They ’ re fighting other fights , ” said Fred Main , a California lobbyist who works closely with tech companies .
“ Will they see the fight over dollars — which is really what the property tax comes down to — as their fight ?
” CZI officials take pains to point out that it and Facebook are separate entities , although work at the latter sometimes affects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the two institutions can disagree .
But opponents are making it plain that they see “ zero ” distinction .
“ We see CZI as a tool of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook .
It ’ s a tool in his toolbox , ” said Lapsley , who alleges CZI ’ s support is an attempt to stamp out small business rivals to Facebook and for the company to curry favor with public-sector unions .
“ It ’ s a very cynical and transparent ploy.
” CZI , obviously , takes umbrage at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CZI is tackling — some of the most inequitable , unjust systems in our country : Immigration , housing , criminal justice reform , education , ” said Mike Tronsoco , CZI ’ s leader of its Justice and Opportunity initiatives .
“ Our decisions are made based on whether they impact these issues in a meaningful way , not on what ’ s good for another company or for Facebook .
If we were looking for quick positive wins , we certainly wouldn ’ t be setting 100+ year goals and taking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out there.
” But the problem for Zuckerberg is that , in this political climate , everything he touches has become indelibly linked to the man himself .
In recent years , some groups backed by Zuckerberg have begun downplaying their ties to him as he has grown more unpopular .
When CZI backed a ballot initiative in Ohio in 2018 to defelonize drug possession , for instance , opponents zeroed in on Zuckerberg ’ s $ 3 million in donations , with one opposing politician publicly saying that she took “ particular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would not suffer any consequences from the initiative ’ s passage .
“ There will be people who will die , ” she said starkly .
A similar thing is happening in Zuckerberg and Chan ’ s home state in 2020 .
Split-roll opponents online have latched onto Zuckerberg ’ s involvement , authoring one op-ed , for instance , alleging that he would ruin California ’ s economy and turn it into a “ Silicon Valley ghetto.
” Lapsley said he brings up Zuckerberg ’ s donations in every meeting he has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the billionaire to motivate his own supporters to dig deep .
Last month , a group of Black-led and Hispanic-led groups including the California NAACP , which opposes the measure , went on the attack , sending Zuckerberg a letter arguing that for minority-owned businesses , the “ last thing they need is a billionaire pushing higher taxes on them under the false flag of social justice.
” They banged that drum again publicly last week .
That ’ s all a reminder that Zuckerberg is not just any political donor these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , too .
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Mark Zuckerberg is politically worn down these days — besieged from both the left and the right and watching what little political capital he had amassed over the last decade deplete itself with each new data scandal and congressional flogging.
And yet Zuckerberg has chosen to embark on a decidedly dicey political crusade: an attempt to touch the so-called third rail of California politics — the state’s 40-year-old landmark tax law — in the most expensive electoral play of the billionaire’s career.
Zuckerberg has been waging a costly and risky political battle for more than a year against California’s Proposition 13, the law that critics say has hamstrung the state’s economy by capping its property taxes, and thus underfunding two priorities of Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan: schools and housing. While other tech leaders have conspicuously avoided weighing in until the very last minute, if at all, Zuckerberg stuck his neck out early and has now spent almost $11 million — including $4.5 million more just this month — on the cause, raising the stakes for Election Day.
Zuckerberg is backing what is called the “split roll” reform measure through his and his wife’s philanthropy, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. For the past year, he has been a key player behind the scenes and the only major Silicon Valley leader who has publicly endorsed it. And because he has been so alone in this effort, the vote on Prop 13 reform in some ways serves as a test of his and his ambitious philanthropy’s political muscle.
Zuckerberg and Chan, who personally signed off on the effort and have made it a strategic priority inside CZI, are just two of many donors behind the new measure. They are not playing an operational role nor are they involved in day-to-day strategy. But because Zuckerberg is its highest-profile supporter, his money has also made him a target for the measure’s opponents, who are eager to make him a piñata in the election and capitalize on his toxicity, as CZI aides expected.
“If he thinks more money should go to education, why doesn’t he pull in some of his money from overseas and put that money into education?” poked Rob Lapsley, the head of the California Business Roundtable, the group leading the opposition. “There’s a lot of bad feelings in the business community toward him and what he’s doing on this.”
The Facebook founder has stumbled before in his advocacy work. The $100 million that Zuckerberg donated to Newark, New Jersey, schools in 2010 at the request of Newark mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey governor Chris Christie accomplished little. The immigration and criminal justice reform group that he started three years later, FWD.us, faced its share of early struggles. And Zuckerberg has managed to enrage all comers with his mistakes in his day job at Facebook, particularly in the run-up to the presidential election.
So if Zuckerberg accomplishes big political wins at CZI — which is structured as a hybrid between a traditional philanthropy and a political advocacy organization — it will offer one of the world’s wealthiest people a new avenue to improve his civic record.
“This is perhaps something of a do-over,” said tech historian Margaret O’Mara, surmising that Zuckerberg has learned a lesson about his own limitations from these previous struggles. “We’re seeing the political education of all these tech leaders in real time.”
Mark Zuckerberg’s political gamble
Split roll, or officially this year’s Proposition 15, is just one of many political projects, including a push for education reform and four other CZI-backed ballot initiatives in California this year, undertaken by the five-year-old philanthropy, which now has 400 employees. But it is by far the most expensive — and therefore high-stakes — electoral battle CZI has picked yet.
That’s because what Zuckerberg is attacking isn’t just a California tax law. It’s the nucleus of the modern, national anti-tax movement.
When Proposition 13 passed in California four decades ago, it capped both residential and commercial property taxes by assessing most property’s value based on how much it was worth as far back as 1976, with minimal established tax increases. Homeowners and businesses alike embraced the legislation, but critics say it has left California with far less money for schools, roads, and other social services for its 40 million residents. Studies say that California, which has the highest poverty rate in the country and is grappling with a housing crisis, needs as many as 3.5 million new homes by 2025 and $22 billion more in school funding.
This year’s Proposition 15 would reform Prop 13 so it only applies to residential and agricultural properties. Homeowners’ taxes would stay the same while many businesses’ property tax payments would go up. That’s why it’s called “split roll.”
The split-roll fight was expected to be explosive — but then the coronavirus pandemic overwhelmed California politics and took up voters’ attention. That might be why you haven’t heard as much as you might think you would about the chance to finally amend a landmark law that undergirds so much of life in California. The most recent polls have shown the split-roll effort with just over 50 percent support.
On the surface, the battle lines appear like a stereotypical business-versus-labor streetfight. Organized labor has long been the force behind split roll, which proponents say would raise $12 billion yearly for the state to spend on schools and housing programs favored by unions. And traditional corporate interests — particularly those from the real estate industry — are spending tens of millions to beat split roll, which makes sense, given that, for some of them, a property tax increase is an existential threat to their corporations. They also argue that a recession is the wrong time to raise taxes on small businesses.
But then you throw in Zuckerberg and the picture gets more complicated. And that’s the point.
“Having visible tech industry support is helpful in funding the measure — but it also sends a clear signal that this is not an attack on the business community,” said Scott Wiener, a California state senator who is close with many tech leaders and is backing the measure.
But the support of Zuckerberg goes beyond the $11 million check. A CZI-backed nonprofit, TechEquity Collaborative, and its leader, Catherine Bracy, have been leading the effort to convince other tech companies and workers to get off the sidelines and support split roll, too. At a fundraiser for the measure that TechEquity hosted last year at the headquarters of the food-delivery startup Postmates, Weiner recalled about 80 people, largely from the tech industry, crowding into a room and offering strategy suggestions and getting organized for the fight to come.
Zuckerberg also did some initial outreach on his own to other tech billionaires to try and rally them to his side. And one tech leader pitched on funding split roll said CZI’s support was used by proponents in private meetings to help validate and sell the effort to Zuckerberg’s peers in the industry.
But billionaires can be a rivalrous bunch, and sources say there were concerns that some of them would actually be turned off by Zuckerberg’s involvement.
A fierce lobbying battle across Silicon Valley
Over the last few years, seemingly every Silicon Valley giant has unveiled much-ballyhooed financial commitments to support affordable housing in the Bay Area. Apple promised to spend $2.5 billion last fall. Facebook announced $1 billion in new grants and loans around the same time.
But none of them have come out in favor of reforming Proposition 13.
That’s why, to split-roll activists, these announcements are hollow. If these corporations really wanted to support nearby communities, the thinking goes, they’d fight to change the system rather than throw nickels at tinkering with the status quo under the banner of “philanthropic altruism,” as Bernie Sanders named it.
Rather than depending on this after-the-fact charity, split-roll proponents argue that its passage would remove the incentive for cities to charge fees to developers that then are passed along in higher rents, a process that leads to less housing construction. Its opponents argue that it is California’s bureaucracy, not its tax system, that is to blame for the housing shortage.
Publicly, very few tech leaders or companies have endorsed split roll. The only Silicon Valley players that came out in favor of it until recently were Zuckerberg and Postmates. Tech companies are often ultra-cautious when it comes to advocacy campaigns, only acting after assessing how much heat they’ll come under from activists, the media, and other companies if they fall on one side or the other. And they’re especially cautious if the ballot initiative doesn’t directly affect their bottom line.
That’s why advocates tried to create pressure and change that. Behind the scenes, well-funded forces — including CZI — twisted arms and lobbied some of the biggest players in business to try to build a coalition of marquee names.
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which advises the philanthropic work of many tech billionaires and is backing split roll, has been pitching its clients for more than a year on spending their money on the split-roll fight, including at a town hall held last month. Billionaire powerbroker Ron Conway, who had intentionally avoided the issue, last month decided to co-host a fundraiser for the measure alongside CZI political adviser and former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by Recode.
But tech billionaires have on the whole proved timid, despite years of private meetings from split-roll proponents who came around asking for million-dollar-plus contributions but came away empty-handed. For instance, Sam Altman, the former head of Y Combinator, had talks with proponents about making a major contribution to the split-roll effort, but then ultimately declined, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The real big fish, though, were Silicon Valley’s iconic companies — and largest landowners. Six companies were the core targets of lobbying efforts on both sides: Apple, Facebook, Google, Stripe, Square, and Salesforce. And for months, all of them punted.
In theory, tech had some unique rationale to back Prop 13 reform. Most tech companies were, of course, not around in 1976 — and so they have far less to lose than traditional California businesses that sit on low-taxed property as a result of Prop 13. And at the same time, these tech companies’ workforces suffer from the consequences of high housing prices and under-funded schools — and are under pressure from employees to act.
Backing split roll could have proven to be a good political move, too. Some companies thought it could have given them a chance to strengthen their ties to organized labor, a persistent critic of tech. Others saw it as a way to take the air out of tax measures that activists push to punish tech companies specifically.
Those political considerations might explain why, in an era when companies are nervous about being shamed as poor corporate citizens, at least none of the tech giants are loudly opposing split roll. All but one of the six targeted companies declined to comment when asked to share their thinking on split roll.
Of those six, Salesforce’s unwillingness to endorse split roll has been the most surprising to close observers. Salesforce, the largest private employer in San Francisco and led by Marc Benioff, a voluble CEO who has called for tech companies to pay more in taxes, was seen as the biggest possible “get” by the backers of split roll. And keeping him at least neutral was seen as a major priority for those opposing it.
For a while, the opponents succeeded. One tech leader close to the split-roll effort said last year that they saw Benioff’s lack of involvement as a flashing warning sign of the effort’s struggles to gain tech support.
But a month before Election Day, Recode has learned that Salesforce is now coming out for the measure. The company is making a $400,000 contribution to the effort.
“We’re supporting California Proposition 15 because it’s an important step in addressing the resource deficits that both our schools and local governments face,” a company spokesperson said. “COVID-19 has shown how important it is to support our local and state institutions as they are the backbone of our communities.”
Google and Apple met with both sides to try to make a determination about whether to weigh in, but neither ultimately has.
And then there was Facebook — which, having been founded by the same person who founded the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, put it in an unusual situation. Getting Facebook to come out in favor of the proposal was a key priority of those backing split roll — although, like many other tech companies, it seems to have ultimately decided this didn’t rank as a political priority in 2020.
“They’re fighting other fights,” said Fred Main, a California lobbyist who works closely with tech companies. “Will they see the fight over dollars — which is really what the property tax comes down to — as their fight?”
CZI officials take pains to point out that it and Facebook are separate entities, although work at the latter sometimes affects work at the former. In theory, the two institutions can disagree. But opponents are making it plain that they see “zero” distinction.
“We see CZI as a tool of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. It’s a tool in his toolbox,” said Lapsley, who alleges CZI’s support is an attempt to stamp out small business rivals to Facebook and for the company to curry favor with public-sector unions. “It’s a very cynical and transparent ploy.”
CZI, obviously, takes umbrage at that accusation.
“Look at what CZI is tackling — some of the most inequitable, unjust systems in our country: Immigration, housing, criminal justice reform, education,” said Mike Tronsoco, CZI’s leader of its Justice and Opportunity initiatives. “Our decisions are made based on whether they impact these issues in a meaningful way, not on what’s good for another company or for Facebook. If we were looking for quick positive wins, we certainly wouldn’t be setting 100+ year goals and taking on some of the toughest policy fights out there.”
But the problem for Zuckerberg is that, in this political climate, everything he touches has become indelibly linked to the man himself. In recent years, some groups backed by Zuckerberg have begun downplaying their ties to him as he has grown more unpopular.
When CZI backed a ballot initiative in Ohio in 2018 to defelonize drug possession, for instance, opponents zeroed in on Zuckerberg’s $3 million in donations, with one opposing politician publicly saying that she took “particular exception to Mark Zuckerberg” because he would not suffer any consequences from the initiative’s passage. “There will be people who will die,” she said starkly.
A similar thing is happening in Zuckerberg and Chan’s home state in 2020. Split-roll opponents online have latched onto Zuckerberg’s involvement, authoring one op-ed, for instance, alleging that he would ruin California’s economy and turn it into a “Silicon Valley ghetto.” Lapsley said he brings up Zuckerberg’s donations in every meeting he has with prospective donors, using the specter of the billionaire to motivate his own supporters to dig deep.
Last month, a group of Black-led and Hispanic-led groups including the California NAACP, which is working against the measure, went on the attack, sending Zuckerberg a letter arguing that for minority-owned businesses, the “last thing they need is a billionaire pushing higher taxes on them under the false flag of social justice.” They banged that drum again publicly last week.
That’s all a reminder that Zuckerberg is not just any political donor these days. He is a juicy target, too.


vox--2020-10-12--Money Talks: The small-business owners who just started another one

Welcome to Money Talks , a series in which we interview people about their relationship with money , their relationship with each other , and how those relationships inform one another .
Lin Jerome and Alexandra Lourdes have been in the hospitality business for the past five years .
The Las Vegas-based entrepreneurs met while they were both working at the University of Nevada Las Vegas — Alexandra was working in the provost ’ s office and running all of the major on-campus events , and Lin was the associate director of admissions for UNLV ’ s William S. Boyd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on a charity event to raise money for Make-A-Wish , realized that they worked very well together .
In 2015 , Lin and Alexandra launched the Refined Agency , an interactive marketing company that worked closely with hospitality brands in Las Vegas , Houston , Dallas , and Los Angeles .
Then they decided to employ their hospitality strategies themselves , for their own concepts and brands .
The Refined Agency morphed into Refined Hospitality , a 42-employee business that brought in $ 1,244,756 in revenue in 2019 .
Refined Hospitality is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ restaurants : Café Lola , Saint Honoré , and the newly launched Pizza Anonymous , which was developed as a way to provide a unique speakeasy-style takeout pizza experience during the Covid-19 pandemic .
In addition to being successful BIPOC small-business owners who are learning how to pivot during an unprecedented year , Lin and Alexandra are both moms — Lin , 39 years old , has a 16-month-old daughter ; Alex , 36 , has a 2-year-old daughter .
Lin : In 2017 we had the idea for our first concept , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Refined Agency , we were always working out of coffee shops , and every coffee shop we would go to , we would find things that weren ’ t always up to — I wouldn ’ t say our standards , but they just didn ’ t have the things that we were looking for when we were working at these spaces .
They were just drab , and they were uninspiring , and they didn ’ t have the items that we wanted to eat .
Alex is gluten-free , and they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So we had the idea for Café Lola , which we opened in 2018 .
Alexandra : The main thing we want to do is give people an experience when they walk through the door .
We learned that very quickly — that people don ’ t want to come in somewhere and not feel something special when they walk through the door .
For Café Lola , we wanted to create a space where women would feel inspired when they came in .
We ’ ve heard so many times that people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they like sitting there and enjoying the aesthetic of the whole place , with flowers all over the wall and chandeliers .
Lin : Every single concept that we ’ ve started thus far , we ’ ve kind of made it a business within a business .
With the Refined Agency , we were working out of coffee shops initially , and then our company grew to eight employees and we needed to have an office .
So we rented office space , and we said to ourselves , “ You know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in rent right now , it would be great to have a space where we could use a space as an office but still make revenue as well.
” When we had the idea for Café Lola , we said , “ This would be great to have the café downstairs and have The Refined Agency offices upstairs.
” We knew we could pay the rent with the Refined Agency , and any revenue that the coffee shop would bring in would be additional .
For Saint Honoré , the idea was that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pastries for Café Lola .
We were thinking of getting a commissary kitchen , but we came across this doughnut shop that the previous tenants had left .
So we said , “ Okay , why can ’ t we make the pastries in the back and then create a doughnut shop to get additional revenue from the front ?
” When we started thinking about Pizza Anonymous , [ we thought ] , we had this doughnut shop , we close it every day at 3 pm , why not use the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with another concept ?
From a business standpoint , we ’ re always trying to utilize our spaces and our products twofold .
At first , the coronavirus was a shock for us .
On the East Coast , everything was happening so rapidly but it hadn ’ t really made its way out West yet .
We were kind of hearing the news , and when things were starting to get shut down we didn ’ t really understand the impact it would have on Las Vegas .
We didn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Then , overnight , we woke up , and it was , “ as of 5 pm today you are curbside only , ” and that ’ s it .
For me , it was a huge shock at first .
One , because we have this global pandemic , which , you know , worrying about health and safety and us being new moms and having these young children , and me having my 70-year-old mom who lives with us , and having all of that go through your head on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and having all of these employees and what do we do ?
I just shut down for a minute because I was scared .
But we ’ ve always just figured things out , so we pivoted rather quickly .
The weekend before [ the shutdown ] , we did have some insight into what was happening , so Alex and I came up with these to-go boxes and started uploading them into our point-of-sale system and asking ourselves how we were going to market them .
Alexandra : We switched Café Lola @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just shut down completely .
The amount of staff required to open our business is a lot , for doughnuts , especially because we ’ re doing everything from scratch .
To have someone come in at 3 am to make donuts when we ’ re not sure if anyone is going to come in [ to buy them ] was a little risky .
We said , “ We ’ re going to have to close Saint Honoré because we don ’ t know if anyone ’ s even going to come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up with these fun birthday boxes for people who were celebrating at home .
They were cute pink boxes with specialty items from Café Lola , but I would make them inside Saint Honoré .
Cupcakes , our baked doughnuts , cake pops , and some chocolate truffles .
We have this really awesome machine that can print customized logos and names and everything , so I printed “ Happy Birthday ” on the cupcakes and took a picture of them and posted it and it went crazy .
I never would have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I think it was a lot of the community helping us , but people we didn ’ t even know were asking for these boxes .
I couldn ’ t do it all myself , so I asked one of our staff members back .
Sometimes we would have , like , 20 boxes to do in the morning .
We were actually making more money than we did as a doughnut shop .
I never thought it would happen like that .
Then I needed two staff members to help make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ birthday boxes into Mommy and Me , Princess Tea — Café Lola has these princess teas , and I know people were missing them — I did a unicorn box , a lot of different fun things so people could still feel a bit of Café Lola at home .
Lin : We wanted to make everyone comfortable with their new world and their new surroundings and the new way of doing things , but still have the things that they enjoy .
Just a way to bring joy to everyone in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was stressful times 10 because our city is centered around tourism and hospitality .
If you could have seen the Las Vegas Strip during that time , when nothing was open , to go down there and be able to hear a pin drop on Las Vegas Boulevard was unbelievably frightening .
We just wanted to bring a little joy to everyone .
Alex : After a while , it started getting to the point where people didn ’ t want to be at home anymore — so we learned how to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Everyone wore masks , everyone wore gloves , everyone sanitized their hands when they walked in ; we ’ re not accepting cash anymore , we were taking every single precaution possible .
We were like , “ How can we still give back to the community by being open ?
” We had 10 calls a day asking for the doughnuts .
People wanted us to be open .
So Lin and I had a meeting and decided to open again , with all of our precautions and limited menu items .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to support us , especially because we were being so open and honest about what we were doing .
Lin : The other thing we decided to do during the pandemic was to market like nothing happened .
We ’ re still going to post three times a day , we ’ re going to still do stories , we ’ re going to still do photos , we ’ re going to still do videos , we ’ re going to market like we never even closed .
A lot of other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eight weeks , which , just doing some research and going back to pandemics in the past or the Great Depression , the businesses that made it through those times were the ones that went on like nothing happened .
That ’ s where Pizza Anonymous came from .
Before the pandemic even happened , my husband Steve — he ’ s Italian , his mom is from Southern Italy , so he grew up making pizzas with his family every Sunday .
He likes to make family meals for the staff , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pre-pandemic ] , and everyone loved them .
When the pandemic happened , I was wracking my brain to think of other ideas that we could utilize our spaces and make additional revenue .
I literally sat up for two nights straight , so stressed out , and then I woke Steve up and said , “ What if we did pizzas out of Café Lola ?
” He said , “ No , let ’ s do them out of Saint Honoré.
” Alex : We were , like , what if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What if we didn ’ t even tell people it was us ?
We were going back and forth on the idea of , like , hiding the owners and all of that .
That ’ s how the Pizza Anonymous name came up .
We were going to launch it delivery-only , so people didn ’ t even know where it was , but we thought , “ No , our following is so loyal , we need to share who we are.
” We ’ re a dough shop — we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — so we had all of the items we needed to make pizza .
We got what we needed for the toppings from Café Lola , because at Café Lola we serve meat and cheese boards .
All of the high-quality ingredients we were putting on the meat and cheese boards went on our pizzas .
The only thing we had to bring in was cauliflower , because I wanted to make a gluten-free option .
We make our cauliflower crust from scratch , and people say it ’ s the best they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ On July 31 , we launched Pizza Anonymous out of Saint Honoré .
We were sold out before we even opened .
We shared clues on Instagram to “ where could this location possibly be , look for the pizza slice on the door.
” It was really , really cool .
The first day , we were sitting up in the office , and I opened my email and we had 20 orders .
I didn ’ t even know if we could fulfill them all , because the whole premise was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pies , and when we sell out , we sell out.
” We had sold out before 5 pm and we had people lined up in front waiting to come in .
The concept took off so well that we decided we wanted to launch it in Henderson , too .
So on September 5 , which is National Cheese Pizza Day , we launched Pizza Anonymous 2 out of Café Lola Henderson .
Alexandra : The startup costs were very low .
One of the main reasons we did this was to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we were closed .
We were able to bring back the other half of our staff , and they ’ re working the nights at Saint Honoré , and they ’ re super grateful .
Lin : Some of our Café Lola staff are also able to pick up additional hours .
It really has become a way for all of the staff members in the Refined Hospitality group to have additional hours and work on this new concept .
Pizza Anonymous has also brought in additional revenue for us , which has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everyone , kind of depleted — the percentages we were down , it ’ s frightening .
We were lucky enough to get Paycheck Protection Program funding in the second round .
For businesses , that was so crucial .
Alex : We wouldn ’ t have been open without that .
Lin : I tell people , “ Revenue went down 80 percent , but all the bills remained the same.
” Landlords still need to be paid .
There are still sales taxes that needed to be paid from previous quarters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but the revenue stopped .
Without PPP funding , there is no way we would be opening today .
With all the marketing and sales you could have possibly done , the bills are still exorbitant .
Alex : We ’ re forced to be at 50 percent capacity , but the bills are still 100 percent .
Lin : We ’ re still busy .
With Café Lola , we have people waiting to get in on the weekends , and if we could be at 100 percent capacity we wouldn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still want to sit and eat at Café Lola , we just can ’ t accommodate them .
With Covid , we ’ ve got a lot of catching up to do , but we ’ re confident that we ’ ll eventually one day get back to where we were .
But we ’ re behind .
Everyone is behind right now .
If you have a compelling story about how money comes into play in one of your relationships — whether with a partner , a friend , a sibling , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about it !
Email alanna.okun @ vox.com and karen.turner @ vox.com with a little about yourself .
Help keep Vox free for all Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what ’ s happening in the news , from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ advertising market recovers , your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work .
If you have already contributed , thank you .
If you haven ’ t , please consider helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world : Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

Welcome to Money Talks, a series in which we interview people about their relationship with money, their relationship with each other, and how those relationships inform one another.
Lin Jerome and Alexandra Lourdes have been in the hospitality business for the past five years. The Las Vegas-based entrepreneurs met while they were both working at the University of Nevada Las Vegas — Alexandra was working in the provost’s office and running all of the major on-campus events, and Lin was the associate director of admissions for UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law — and after collaborating on a charity event to raise money for Make-A-Wish, realized that they worked very well together.
In 2015, Lin and Alexandra launched the Refined Agency, an interactive marketing company that worked closely with hospitality brands in Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Then they decided to employ their hospitality strategies themselves, for their own concepts and brands. The Refined Agency morphed into Refined Hospitality, a 42-employee business that brought in $1,244,756 in revenue in 2019.
Refined Hospitality is the driving force behind three Las Vegas concept restaurants: Café Lola, Saint Honoré, and the newly launched Pizza Anonymous, which was developed as a way to provide a unique speakeasy-style takeout pizza experience during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition to being successful BIPOC small-business owners who are learning how to pivot during an unprecedented year, Lin and Alexandra are both moms — Lin, 39 years old, has a 16-month-old daughter; Alex, 36, has a 2-year-old daughter.
Lin: In 2017 we had the idea for our first concept, Café Lola. When we started the Refined Agency, we were always working out of coffee shops, and every coffee shop we would go to, we would find things that weren’t always up to — I wouldn’t say our standards, but they just didn’t have the things that we were looking for when we were working at these spaces. They were just drab, and they were uninspiring, and they didn’t have the items that we wanted to eat. Alex is gluten-free, and they didn’t have gluten-free pastries. So we had the idea for Café Lola, which we opened in 2018.
Alexandra: The main thing we want to do is give people an experience when they walk through the door. We learned that very quickly — that people don’t want to come in somewhere and not feel something special when they walk through the door. For Café Lola, we wanted to create a space where women would feel inspired when they came in. We’ve heard so many times that people don’t want to leave because they like sitting there and enjoying the aesthetic of the whole place, with flowers all over the wall and chandeliers.
Lin: Every single concept that we’ve started thus far, we’ve kind of made it a business within a business. With the Refined Agency, we were working out of coffee shops initially, and then our company grew to eight employees and we needed to have an office. So we rented office space, and we said to ourselves, “You know, we’re paying so much in rent right now, it would be great to have a space where we could use a space as an office but still make revenue as well.” When we had the idea for Café Lola, we said, “This would be great to have the café downstairs and have The Refined Agency offices upstairs.” We knew we could pay the rent with the Refined Agency, and any revenue that the coffee shop would bring in would be additional.
For Saint Honoré, the idea was that we wanted to start making our own pastries for Café Lola. We were thinking of getting a commissary kitchen, but we came across this doughnut shop that the previous tenants had left. So we said, “Okay, why can’t we make the pastries in the back and then create a doughnut shop to get additional revenue from the front?”
When we started thinking about Pizza Anonymous, [we thought], we had this doughnut shop, we close it every day at 3 pm, why not use the space in the evening and come up with another concept? From a business standpoint, we’re always trying to utilize our spaces and our products twofold.
At first, the coronavirus was a shock for us. On the East Coast, everything was happening so rapidly but it hadn’t really made its way out West yet. We were kind of hearing the news, and when things were starting to get shut down we didn’t really understand the impact it would have on Las Vegas. We didn’t know how it would affect our community. Then, overnight, we woke up, and it was, “as of 5 pm today you are curbside only,” and that’s it.
For me, it was a huge shock at first. One, because we have this global pandemic, which, you know, worrying about health and safety and us being new moms and having these young children, and me having my 70-year-old mom who lives with us, and having all of that go through your head on top of owning all of these businesses and having all of these employees and what do we do? I just shut down for a minute because I was scared.
But we’ve always just figured things out, so we pivoted rather quickly. The weekend before [the shutdown], we did have some insight into what was happening, so Alex and I came up with these to-go boxes and started uploading them into our point-of-sale system and asking ourselves how we were going to market them.
Alexandra: We switched Café Lola to curbside, but Saint Honoré we just shut down completely. The amount of staff required to open our business is a lot, for doughnuts, especially because we’re doing everything from scratch. To have someone come in at 3 am to make donuts when we’re not sure if anyone is going to come in [to buy them] was a little risky. We said, “We’re going to have to close Saint Honoré because we don’t know if anyone’s even going to come out of their house.”
I came up with these fun birthday boxes for people who were celebrating at home. They were cute pink boxes with specialty items from Café Lola, but I would make them inside Saint Honoré. Cupcakes, our baked doughnuts, cake pops, and some chocolate truffles. We have this really awesome machine that can print customized logos and names and everything, so I printed “Happy Birthday” on the cupcakes and took a picture of them and posted it and it went crazy. I never would have imagined that kind of support. Honestly, I think it was a lot of the community helping us, but people we didn’t even know were asking for these boxes.
I couldn’t do it all myself, so I asked one of our staff members back. Sometimes we would have, like, 20 boxes to do in the morning. We were actually making more money than we did as a doughnut shop. I never thought it would happen like that.
Then I needed two staff members to help make the boxes, and we expanded from birthday boxes into Mommy and Me, Princess Tea — Café Lola has these princess teas, and I know people were missing them — I did a unicorn box, a lot of different fun things so people could still feel a bit of Café Lola at home.
Lin: We wanted to make everyone comfortable with their new world and their new surroundings and the new way of doing things, but still have the things that they enjoy. Just a way to bring joy to everyone in this unbelievably stressful time. For Las Vegas it was stressful times 10 because our city is centered around tourism and hospitality. If you could have seen the Las Vegas Strip during that time, when nothing was open, to go down there and be able to hear a pin drop on Las Vegas Boulevard was unbelievably frightening. We just wanted to bring a little joy to everyone.
Alex: After a while, it started getting to the point where people didn’t want to be at home anymore — so we learned how to keep everyone safe in our environments. Everyone wore masks, everyone wore gloves, everyone sanitized their hands when they walked in; we’re not accepting cash anymore, we were taking every single precaution possible. We were like, “How can we still give back to the community by being open?” We had 10 calls a day asking for the doughnuts. People wanted us to be open. So Lin and I had a meeting and decided to open again, with all of our precautions and limited menu items. We could see that people really wanted to support us, especially because we were being so open and honest about what we were doing.
Lin: The other thing we decided to do during the pandemic was to market like nothing happened. We’re still going to post three times a day, we’re going to still do stories, we’re going to still do photos, we’re going to still do videos, we’re going to market like we never even closed. A lot of other businesses just kind of went silent for eight weeks, which, just doing some research and going back to pandemics in the past or the Great Depression, the businesses that made it through those times were the ones that went on like nothing happened.
That’s where Pizza Anonymous came from. Before the pandemic even happened, my husband Steve — he’s Italian, his mom is from Southern Italy, so he grew up making pizzas with his family every Sunday. He likes to make family meals for the staff, so he made pizzas one day [pre-pandemic], and everyone loved them. When the pandemic happened, I was wracking my brain to think of other ideas that we could utilize our spaces and make additional revenue. I literally sat up for two nights straight, so stressed out, and then I woke Steve up and said, “What if we did pizzas out of Café Lola?” He said, “No, let’s do them out of Saint Honoré.”
Alex: We were, like, what if we did it like a secret? What if we didn’t even tell people it was us? We were going back and forth on the idea of, like, hiding the owners and all of that. That’s how the Pizza Anonymous name came up. We were going to launch it delivery-only, so people didn’t even know where it was, but we thought, “No, our following is so loyal, we need to share who we are.”
We’re a dough shop — we make beignets, we make our doughnuts — so we had all of the items we needed to make pizza. We got what we needed for the toppings from Café Lola, because at Café Lola we serve meat and cheese boards. All of the high-quality ingredients we were putting on the meat and cheese boards went on our pizzas. The only thing we had to bring in was cauliflower, because I wanted to make a gluten-free option. We make our cauliflower crust from scratch, and people say it’s the best they’ve ever had.
Lin: On July 31, we launched Pizza Anonymous out of Saint Honoré. We were sold out before we even opened. We shared clues on Instagram to “where could this location possibly be, look for the pizza slice on the door.” It was really, really cool. The first day, we were sitting up in the office, and I opened my email and we had 20 orders. I didn’t even know if we could fulfill them all, because the whole premise was “we make a limited number of pies, and when we sell out, we sell out.” We had sold out before 5 pm and we had people lined up in front waiting to come in.
The concept took off so well that we decided we wanted to launch it in Henderson, too. So on September 5, which is National Cheese Pizza Day, we launched Pizza Anonymous 2 out of Café Lola Henderson.
Alexandra: The startup costs were very low. One of the main reasons we did this was to give our staff more hours, because we were closed. We were able to bring back the other half of our staff, and they’re working the nights at Saint Honoré, and they’re super grateful.
Lin: Some of our Café Lola staff are also able to pick up additional hours. It really has become a way for all of the staff members in the Refined Hospitality group to have additional hours and work on this new concept. Pizza Anonymous has also brought in additional revenue for us, which has been extremely helpful because Covid, for everyone, kind of depleted — the percentages we were down, it’s frightening.
We were lucky enough to get Paycheck Protection Program funding in the second round. For businesses, that was so crucial.
Alex: We wouldn’t have been open without that.
Lin: I tell people, “Revenue went down 80 percent, but all the bills remained the same.” Landlords still need to be paid. There are still sales taxes that needed to be paid from previous quarters. None of the bills stopped, but the revenue stopped. Without PPP funding, there is no way we would be opening today. With all the marketing and sales you could have possibly done, the bills are still exorbitant.
Alex: We’re forced to be at 50 percent capacity, but the bills are still 100 percent.
Lin: We’re still busy. With Café Lola, we have people waiting to get in on the weekends, and if we could be at 100 percent capacity we wouldn’t have to do that. People still want to sit and eat at Café Lola, we just can’t accommodate them.
With Covid, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do, but we’re confident that we’ll eventually one day get back to where we were. But we’re behind. Everyone is behind right now.
If you have a compelling story about how money comes into play in one of your relationships — whether with a partner, a friend, a sibling, a coworker — we want to hear about it! Email alanna.okun@vox.com and karen.turner@vox.com with a little about yourself.


vox--2020-10-12--What to expect at Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings this week

Despite the recent concerns about coronavirus exposure at the Capitol — and the fast-approaching general election — the Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is still happening .
The hearing will air Monday , October 12 , through Thursday , October 15 , beginning at 9 am each day .
It will be accessible via a livestream on the Senate Judiciary Committee website , as well as via C-SPAN .
Day one of the hearings will start with opening statements from Barrett as well as from every member of the committee , which is helmed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ranking member Dianne Feinstein ( D-CA ) .
Meanwhile , questions for Barrett are slated to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday , and a panel of outside witnesses will testify about her nomination on Thursday .
The hearings mark one of the key steps in Republicans ’ efforts to rush through Barrett ’ s nomination just weeks ahead of the general election , and its set-up will be somewhat different from confirmations in the past .
Some members , including Sen. Thom Tillis ( R-NC ) , will be joining virtually given @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may opt to do so as well .
Democrats have argued that , given the seriousness of the nomination , the hearings should be delayed until they can take place with the entire committee in person , but Graham has been intent on proceeding anyway .
Barrett — if confirmed — could solidify a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court for decades , and would play a pivotal role in key decisions , including an upcoming one regarding whether the Affordable Care Act should be overturned .
Senate Democrats intend to use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her nomination in the hope of swaying some Republicans to their side .
Republican members , meanwhile , are likely to emphasize Barrett ’ s qualifications for the role and attempt to undercut opposition toward her nomination as attacks on her Catholic faith , a misleading characterization that stems from some Democrats ’ botched handling of the subject in a previous confirmation hearing .
The hearings are also a moment for lawmakers in both parties to gin up enthusiasm ahead of this November ’ s election : The focus on the Supreme Court @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of both parties , and the hearings could provide important fodder for the campaigns of lawmakers on the committee including Graham ’ s fight for reelection and vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris ’ s ticket for the White House .
Senate Republicans , ultimately , are intent on pushing Barrett ’ s nominee through .
Currently , Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber , meaning four lawmakers would have to defect from the party line in order for Barrett ’ s nomination to fail — since Vice President Mike @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s an unlikely scenario , but trying to convince a handful of their GOP colleagues to vote against the nomination will be a key aim of Democrats ’ arguments in the hearing next week .
“ I ’ m going to fight like hell , but I think ultimately we need to present our case to the American people so they can stand up and speak out to our Republican colleagues , ” Sen. Richard Blumenthal ( D-CT ) told reporters on a media call last week .
Barrett , currently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , was nominated by President Donald Trump on September 26 to a vacancy left by the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg .
If confirmed , Barrett , 48 , would be the youngest Justice and the first mother of school-aged children — she has seven kids aged eight to 19 — to serve on the Supreme Court .
She will also be among six justices on the court to subscribe to the Catholic faith .
Senate Republicans ’ decision to move forward with a Supreme Court nominee in 2020 has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this same question in 2016 .
In February of that year , Republicans said they wouldn ’ t consider a nominee until after the election , and this year — less than two months out from Election Day — they decided they would do all that they could to advance Barrett .
Since then , Republicans have planned for an expedited confirmation process , with a Judiciary Committee vote on the hearings expected to take place on October 22 , and a vote by the full Senate to follow shortly thereafter .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republicans had said they ’ d support a vote on her nomination before the election , and a similar number are likely to support her confirmation .
In addition to concerns about the process behind this nomination and its legitimacy , Democrats have raised the alarm about Barrett ’ s record on a wide range of issues including health care , reproductive rights , and gun control .
As Vox ’ s Ian Millhiser has written , Barrett is a conservative justice and a favorite of the religious right who has the potential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , undo Roe v. Wade , and expand the interpretation of the Second Amendment if she were to ascend to the court .
While she ’ s only been a judge for a few years , she ’ s critiqued the Court ’ s decisions to uphold the ACA in the past and contributed to opinions that signal openness to limiting abortion access .
Before becoming a federal judge , Barrett was a law professor at the University of Notre Dame and a clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia .
She ’ s a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the past about how faith relates to judicial decisions about the death penalty .
What to expect from Democrats and Republicans at the hearings Senate Democrats are poised to focus on several issue areas including health care as part of their questioning of Barrett , with an eye toward emphasizing the impact of Supreme Court decisions — like the one involving the ACA case — on the millions of people it could affect .
What ’ s still uncertain , however , is whether there will be a broader show of protest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same way there was at the Kavanaugh hearings in 2018 .
At the time , Senate Republicans released a trove of documents the evening prior to the hearings , and several Democrats argued as the panel was getting underway that it should be adjourned until they had adequate time to review them .
There have been calls from activists to take action at the hearings , including a boycott , though there wasn ’ t much appetite from lawmakers to go that far .
“ I don ’ t think the Democrats @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nominee as if it were normal , ” Chris Kang , the chief counsel of Demand Justice , previously told Vox .
An area that Democrats are expected to avoid is a focus on Barrett ’ s faith , which was a centerpiece of her 7th Circuit hearings , because she ’ s previously written about it in the context of possible judicial decisions , CNN reports .
As Millhiser notes , however , some of the questions during those hearings — including a memorable one from Feinstein — came off as attacks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its relationship to her work .
“ It is fair game to criticize a nominee for their political beliefs , including their opposition to abortion .
And it is fair game to criticize someone for political beliefs that are inspired by their religious faith , ” writes Millhiser .
“ But , in a disastrous exchange with the future Judge Barrett during her 2017 confirmation hearing , Sen. Dianne Feinstein ( D-CA ) appeared to go a step further — seeming to attack Barrett ’ s Catholicism itself.
” Harvard Law Professor Mark @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s possible for lawmakers to ask Barrett about her previous writings about faith and capital punishment without “ lapsing into anti-Catholicism.
” Republicans , for their part , have spent much of their time talking up Barrett ’ s qualifications for this job including her time clerking for Scalia and her tenure as a law professor .
Much as they did with Kavanaugh , they ’ ve also focused on her personal attributes , including her relationships with her family .
“ I anticipate she will get a unanimous well-qualified rating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president could not have picked a more outstanding nominee , ” McConnell said in a recent interview .
Expect lawmakers in both parties to use the hearings as a platform to rally voters — and speak to that pivotal group of swing senators — prior to a final vote on Barrett ’ s nomination .
Help keep Vox free for all Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what ’ s happening in the news , from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is , quite possibly , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work .
If you have already contributed , thank you .
If you haven ’ t , please consider helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world : Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

Despite the recent concerns about coronavirus exposure at the Capitol — and the fast-approaching general election — the Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is still happening.
The hearing will air Monday, October 12, through Thursday, October 15, beginning at 9 am each day. It will be accessible via a livestream on the Senate Judiciary Committee website, as well as via C-SPAN.
Day one of the hearings will start with opening statements from Barrett as well as from every member of the committee, which is helmed by Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Meanwhile, questions for Barrett are slated to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a panel of outside witnesses will testify about her nomination on Thursday.
The hearings mark one of the key steps in Republicans’ efforts to rush through Barrett’s nomination just weeks ahead of the general election, and its set-up will be somewhat different from confirmations in the past. Some members, including Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), will be joining virtually given his recent coronavirus diagnosis, and others may opt to do so as well. Democrats have argued that, given the seriousness of the nomination, the hearings should be delayed until they can take place with the entire committee in person, but Graham has been intent on proceeding anyway.
Barrett — if confirmed — could solidify a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court for decades, and would play a pivotal role in key decisions, including an upcoming one regarding whether the Affordable Care Act should be overturned. Senate Democrats intend to use their time to build a case against her nomination in the hope of swaying some Republicans to their side. Republican members, meanwhile, are likely to emphasize Barrett’s qualifications for the role and attempt to undercut opposition toward her nomination as attacks on her Catholic faith, a misleading characterization that stems from some Democrats’ botched handling of the subject in a previous confirmation hearing.
The hearings are also a moment for lawmakers in both parties to gin up enthusiasm ahead of this November’s election: The focus on the Supreme Court is set to fire up the bases of both parties, and the hearings could provide important fodder for the campaigns of lawmakers on the committee including Graham’s fight for reelection and vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris’s ticket for the White House.
Senate Republicans, ultimately, are intent on pushing Barrett’s nominee through. Currently, Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber, meaning four lawmakers would have to defect from the party line in order for Barrett’s nomination to fail — since Vice President Mike Pence can break a 50-50 tie. It’s an unlikely scenario, but trying to convince a handful of their GOP colleagues to vote against the nomination will be a key aim of Democrats’ arguments in the hearing this week.
“I’m going to fight like hell, but I think ultimately we need to present our case to the American people so they can stand up and speak out to our Republican colleagues,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters on a media call last week.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination, briefly explained
Barrett, currently a judge on the 7th Circuit Court, was nominated by President Donald Trump on September 26 to a vacancy left by the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If confirmed, Barrett, 48, would be the youngest Justice and the first mother of school-aged children — she has seven kids aged eight to 19 — to serve on the Supreme Court. She will also be among six justices on the court to subscribe to the Catholic faith.
Senate Republicans’ decision to move forward with a Supreme Court nominee in 2020 has been a stark turnaround from how they approached this same question in 2016. In February of that year, Republicans said they wouldn’t consider a nominee until after the election, and this year — less than two months out from Election Day — they decided they would do all that they could to advance Barrett.
Since then, Republicans have planned for an expedited confirmation process, with a Judiciary Committee vote on the hearings expected to take place on October 22, and a vote by the full Senate to follow shortly thereafter. As of last count, a majority of Republicans had said they’d support a vote on her nomination before the election, and a similar number are likely to support her confirmation.
In addition to concerns about the process behind this nomination and its legitimacy, Democrats have raised the alarm about Barrett’s record on a wide range of issues including health care, reproductive rights, and gun control.
As Vox’s Ian Millhiser has written, Barrett is a conservative justice and a favorite of the religious right who has the potential to roll back the Affordable Care Act, undo Roe v. Wade, and expand the interpretation of the Second Amendment if she were to ascend to the court. While she’s only been a judge for a few years, she’s critiqued the Court’s decisions to uphold the ACA in the past and contributed to opinions that signal openness to limiting abortion access.
Before becoming a federal judge, Barrett was a law professor at the University of Notre Dame and a clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia. She’s a devout Catholic, and she has written in the past about how faith relates to judicial decisions about the death penalty.
What to expect from Democrats and Republicans at the hearings
Senate Democrats are poised to focus on several issue areas including health care as part of their questioning of Barrett, with an eye toward emphasizing the impact of Supreme Court decisions — like the one involving the ACA case — on the millions of people it could affect.
What’s still uncertain, however, is whether there will be a broader show of protest from Democratic lawmakers at the hearings in the same way there was at the Kavanaugh hearings in 2018. At the time, Senate Republicans released a trove of documents the evening prior to the hearings, and several Democrats argued as the panel was getting underway that it should be adjourned until they had adequate time to review them.
There have been calls from activists to take action at the hearings, including a boycott, though there wasn’t much appetite from lawmakers to go that far. “I don’t think the Democrats can just show up and question a nominee as if it were normal,” Chris Kang, the chief counsel of Demand Justice, previously told Vox.
An area that Democrats are expected to avoid is a focus on Barrett’s faith, which was a centerpiece of her 7th Circuit hearings, because she’s previously written about it in the context of possible judicial decisions, CNN reports. As Millhiser notes, however, some of the questions during those hearings — including a memorable one from Feinstein — came off as attacks on Barrett’s Catholicism rather than its relationship to her work.
“It is fair game to criticize a nominee for their political beliefs, including their opposition to abortion. And it is fair game to criticize someone for political beliefs that are inspired by their religious faith,” writes Millhiser. “But, in a disastrous exchange with the future Judge Barrett during her 2017 confirmation hearing, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) appeared to go a step further — seeming to attack Barrett’s Catholicism itself.” Harvard Law Professor Mark Tushnet has noted, though, that it’s possible for lawmakers to ask Barrett about her previous writings about faith and capital punishment without “lapsing into anti-Catholicism.”
Republicans, for their part, have spent much of their time talking up Barrett’s qualifications for this job including her time clerking for Scalia and her tenure as a law professor. Much as they did with Kavanaugh, they’ve also focused on her personal attributes, including her relationships with her family.
“I anticipate she will get a unanimous well-qualified rating from the American Bar Association. The president could not have picked a more outstanding nominee,” McConnell said in a recent interview.
Expect lawmakers in both parties to use the hearings as a platform to rally voters — and speak to that pivotal group of swing senators — prior to a final vote on Barrett’s nomination.