theintercept--2020-07-11--Maine GOP Primary Is Becoming a Proxy Fight Over War, Saudi Arabia

On one end of the race is Paul-endorsed former state Sen. Eric Brakey , who is , like Paul , a libertarian who is highly skeptical of U.S. militarism and has been an outspoken critic of Saudi Arabia .
“ When it comes to foreign policy , I want us to be realistic , ” Brakey told the Washington Examiner in 2017 .
“ I think that it ’ s crazy that we have our troops in 177 different countries , that we ’ re in Afghanistan 16 years later , when the youngest soldiers currently going in there were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there in the first place.
” The Cook Political Report rates the district as one of just 15 Democratic-held toss-up seats in the nation .
As the Republican Party faces a raucous and often acrimonious debate between Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul on one end and former national security adviser John Bolton , Sen. Tom Cotton , and Rep. Liz Cheney on the other , the race in Maine provides an up-close look at the divisions inside the party and the financial backing of each side .
As an anti-war Republican @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the July 14 primary for Maine ’ s 2nd Congressional District , a mysterious dark-money super PAC has spent $ 345,000 in the last three weeks attacking him .
On the other end is former state Rep. Dale Crafts , who said during a debate with Brakey in February that the U.S. economy would “ absolutely collapse tomorrow ” if the U.S. reduced its presence in 800 military bases scattered around the globe , saying , “ China and Russia would overtake the world .
… Al-Qaeda and ISIS would go rampant and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the earth.
” Crafts ’ s campaign is teamed up with Eaton River Strategies , owned by a registered foreign agent of the government of Saudi Arabia .
Also in the mix is Adrienne Bennett , a former spokesperson for Maine Gov .
Paul LePage , who isn ’ t running on any particular set of foreign policies .
A poll released Wednesday shows a tight race , though Maine ’ s instant runoff voting makes prognostication difficult .
Crafts is currently polling in first place at 37 percent , Bennett in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ third at 19 percent .
“ It ’ s troubling that a registered foreign agent being paid by Saudi Arabia is working to defeat a candidate that is critical of Saudi Arabia , ” said Ben Freeman , a researcher at the Center for International Policy .
Crafts , the establishment candidate , has received many more endorsements from his former Republican colleagues in the Maine legislature than Brakey .
Incumbent Rep. Jared Golden won the seat in 2018 from two-term Republican Bruce Poliquin .
The district provided Donald Trump his only electoral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under the semi-unique system that Maine shares with Nebraska that allows the state to split its electoral votes by congressional district .
Though less brash than Crafts , Golden has closely hued to the mainstream foreign policy agenda , voting last week with a majority of Democrats and Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee for the Cheney-Crow amendment aimed at continuing the war in Afghanistan .
Brakey began his career in politics by running Ron Paul ’ s 2012 presidential campaign in Maine .
As a member of the Republican platform committee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ language to the platform that would guarantee the declassification of the famous 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission report , an effort fiercely fought by Saudi Arabia and its lobbyists in Washington .
Brakey also sought to have language included in the platform that would have unequivocally condemned U.S. intervention in Libya .
After serving two terms in the Maine Senate and then being the Republican nominee against Angus King in 2018 , Brakey announced his campaign in September .
Three weeks later , Crafts announced his candidacy with the support of LePage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Crafts spent four terms in the Maine House of Representatives and owns a small chain of self-storage locations .
His donors are mainly Maine business owners but donors from the most recent fundraising quarter have not been disclosed yet .
The super PAC spending against Brakey , the American Policy Fund , incorporated recently , and as a result does not have to disclose its donors until after the election .
So far , it has spent over $ 340,000 against Brakey , hitting him on past opposition to Trump while tying him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ progressive congresswomen .
The super PAC ’ s treasurer , Cabell Hobbs , has close ties to the Republican establishment .
He was the treasurer for Bolton ’ s super PAC , which attracted controversy for allegedly illegal collaboration with Cambridge Analytica in the 2014 North Carolina Senate race , as well as for several other Republican super PACs .
He currently serves as treasurer for the Republican State Leadership Committee .
A spokesperson for Bolton said Trump ’ s former national security adviser is not involved with the PAC .
The American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ request for comment .
Another super PAC , the Club for Growth Action , has endorsed Brakey , and the group and its affiliates have spent over $ 800,000 supporting the candidate .
The largest donors to Club for Growth Action are Richard Uihlein of the Uline shipping company and Jeff Yass of the Susquehanna International Group ; the largest donor to the Protect Freedom PAC , also spending in support of Brakey , is also Yass .
The Club for Growth typically adopts a militant libertarian posture in Republican primaries .
Since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group has grown more comfortable with heterodox foreign policy views , after spending heavily to defeat anti-war moderate Wayne Gilchrest , a Maryland Republican , in his primary in 2008 .
Eaton River Strategies , which is working with the Crafts campaign , is a firm owned by Kathie Summers-Grice , a George W. Bush Department of Labor official .
Summers-Grice is a registered foreign agent for Saudi Arabia , and receives $ 10,000 per month as a subcontractor for the Saudi government .
Summers-Grice ’ s firm has received over $ 33,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ direct mail services .
“ The Federal Election Commission prohibits foreign nationals and governments from making contributions in U.S. elections , so Saudi Arabia can ’ t actually pay for Grice ’ s work to defeat Brakey , ” said Freeman .
“ But , at the very least , $ 10,000 per month gives Grice ample reason to want to defeat someone critical of the folks writing her those checks.
” Summers-Grice told The Intercept that that while her company is working with the Crafts campaign , she has no involvement “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 2nd district.
” The Crafts campaign did not respond to a request for comment .
“ This is a clear alignment between the Saudi lobbying complex and a politician ’ s campaign that is supportive of and defending American militarism abroad , ” said Eli Clifton , the research director of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft .
“ Militarism which has certainly been beneficial to Saudi Arabia , but not beneficial to taxpayers or the economy outside of the military industrial complex .
”

As an anti-war Republican wages an aggressive and well-funded campaign in the July 14 primary for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, a mysterious dark-money super PAC has spent $345,000 in the last three weeks attacking him.
The Cook Political Report rates the district as one of just 15 Democratic-held toss-up seats in the nation. As the Republican Party faces a raucous and often acrimonious debate between Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul on one end and former national security adviser John Bolton, Sen. Tom Cotton, and Rep. Liz Cheney on the other, the race in Maine provides an up-close look at the divisions inside the party and the financial backing of each side.
On one end of the race is Paul-endorsed former state Sen. Eric Brakey, who is, like Paul, a libertarian who is highly skeptical of U.S. militarism and has been an outspoken critic of Saudi Arabia. “When it comes to foreign policy, I want us to be realistic,” Brakey told the Washington Examiner in 2017. “I think that it’s crazy that we have our troops in 177 different countries, that we’re in Afghanistan 16 years later, when the youngest soldiers currently going in there were two years old when we went in there in the first place.”
On the other end is former state Rep. Dale Crafts, who said during a debate with Brakey in February that the U.S. economy would “absolutely collapse tomorrow” if the U.S. reduced its presence in 800 military bases scattered around the globe, saying, “China and Russia would overtake the world. … Al-Qaeda and ISIS would go rampant and Israel would be wiped off the face of the earth.”
Crafts’s campaign is teamed up with Eaton River Strategies, owned by a registered foreign agent of the government of Saudi Arabia.
Also in the mix is Adrienne Bennett, a former spokesperson for Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who isn’t running on any particular set of foreign policies. A poll released Wednesday shows a tight race, though Maine’s instant runoff voting makes prognostication difficult. Crafts is currently polling in first place at 37 percent, Bennett in second at 25 percent, and Brakey third at 19 percent. “It’s troubling that a registered foreign agent being paid by Saudi Arabia is working to defeat a candidate that is critical of Saudi Arabia,” said Ben Freeman, a researcher at the Center for International Policy.
Crafts, the establishment candidate, has received many more endorsements from his former Republican colleagues in the Maine legislature than Brakey.
Incumbent Rep. Jared Golden won the seat in 2018 from two-term Republican Bruce Poliquin. The district provided Donald Trump his only electoral vote in New England in 2016, under the semi-unique system that Maine shares with Nebraska that allows the state to split its electoral votes by congressional district. Though less brash than Crafts, Golden has closely hued to the mainstream foreign policy agenda, voting last week with a majority of Democrats and Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee for the Cheney-Crow amendment aimed at continuing the war in Afghanistan.
Brakey began his career in politics by running Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign in Maine. As a member of the Republican platform committee in 2016, Brakey sought to add language to the platform that would guarantee the declassification of the famous 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission report, an effort fiercely fought by Saudi Arabia and its lobbyists in Washington. Brakey also sought to have language included in the platform that would have unequivocally condemned U.S. intervention in Libya. After serving two terms in the Maine Senate and then being the Republican nominee against Angus King in 2018, Brakey announced his campaign in September.
Three weeks later, Crafts announced his candidacy with the support of LePage, a close ally of Trump. Crafts spent four terms in the Maine House of Representatives and owns a small chain of self-storage locations. His donors are mainly Maine business owners but donors from the most recent fundraising quarter have not been disclosed yet.
The super PAC spending against Brakey, the American Policy Fund, incorporated recently, and as a result does not have to disclose its donors until after the election. So far, it has spent over $340,000 against Brakey, hitting him on past opposition to Trump while tying him to the “Squad” of four progressive congresswomen. The super PAC’s treasurer, Cabell Hobbs, has close ties to the Republican establishment. He was the treasurer for Bolton’s super PAC, which attracted controversy for allegedly illegal collaboration with Cambridge Analytica in the 2014 North Carolina Senate race, as well as for several other Republican super PACs. He currently serves as treasurer for the Republican State Leadership Committee. A spokesperson for Bolton said Trump’s former national security adviser is not involved with the PAC. The American Policy Fund did not respond to a request for comment.
Another super PAC, the Club for Growth Action, has endorsed Brakey, and the group and its affiliates have spent over $800,000 supporting the candidate. The largest donors to Club for Growth Action are Richard Uihlein of the Uline shipping company and Jeff Yass of the Susquehanna International Group; the largest donor to the Protect Freedom PAC, also spending in support of Brakey, is also Yass. The Club for Growth typically adopts a militant libertarian posture in Republican primaries. Since the election of Rand Paul, the group has grown more comfortable with heterodox foreign policy views, after spending heavily to defeat anti-war moderate Wayne Gilchrest, a Maryland Republican, in his primary in 2008.
Eaton River Strategies, which is working with the Crafts campaign, is a firm owned by Kathie Summers-Grice, a George W. Bush Department of Labor official. Summers-Grice is a registered foreign agent for Saudi Arabia, and receives $10,000 per month as a subcontractor for the Saudi government. Summers-Grice’s firm has received over $33,000 from the Crafts campaign for consulting and direct mail services. “The Federal Election Commission prohibits foreign nationals and governments from making contributions in U.S. elections, so Saudi Arabia can’t actually pay for Grice’s work to defeat Brakey,” said Freeman. “But, at the very least, $10,000 per month gives Grice ample reason to want to defeat someone critical of the folks writing her those checks.”
Summers-Grice told The Intercept that that while her company is working with the Crafts campaign, she has no involvement “and doesn’t even live in the 2nd district.” The Crafts campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
“This is a clear alignment between the Saudi lobbying complex and a politician’s campaign that is supportive of and defending American militarism abroad,” said Eli Clifton, the research director of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “Militarism which has certainly been beneficial to Saudi Arabia, but not beneficial to taxpayers or the economy outside of the military industrial complex.”


theintercept--2020-07-11--The Far-Right Revolution Was Waiting for an Opportunity. Now, It's Here.

, it ’ s become a staple of dark humor to observe that 2020 has been the year in which the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse seemingly decided to descend on the United States .
Yet even before our fears of war , pestilence , and economic collapse began taking physical form , one could already observe morbid symptoms spreading within the extremities of our body politic .
The strongest sign of a looming social illness has been the rebirth and spread of extremist ideologies — beliefs not long ago dismissed by liberal triumphalists as relics of historical memory .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of dark humor to observe that 2020 has been the year in which the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse seemingly decided to descend on the United States .
Yet even before our fears of war , pestilence , and economic collapse began taking physical form , one could already observe morbid symptoms spreading within the extremities of our body politic .
The strongest sign of a looming social illness has been the rebirth and spread of extremist ideologies — beliefs not long ago dismissed by liberal triumphalists as relics of historical memory .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ strength from feelings of economic and demographic dislocation , fascist and sectarian ideologies have found a home in the hearts of members of a new generation of Americans .
Whether most people have connected the dots or not , a violent struggle is already playing out .
Over the past few years , a steady drumbeat of massacres have been carried out by extremists associated with the new far-right .
These attacks have targeted synagogues , mosques , and communities where immigrants are concentrated .
In their wake , the shooters left behind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was shrinking in space for people like them .
What these ideologues drifting within the currents of this movement have really been waiting for , however , is a real crisis , one that would give them an opportunity to put their ideas of racial warfare and ethnic purification into full effect .
That crisis is here .
The combination of the coronavirus and the sudden collapse of the American economy has given society an exogenous shock unseen in generations .
The pandemic and the social tensions it has unleashed are likely to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the new far-right extremism , even as they produce countervailing energies that could revive the best promises of liberalism .
Engaging in political predictions is a foolish , high-risk , low-reward activity .
But having followed the iterations of this new extremist ideology at home and abroad — and grappled with the fact that there is a pool of young men who have proven themselves willing to die for it — it strikes me as irresponsible to not advise people to brace for what is on the horizon .
Although some have yet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the midst of an unstoppable cultural and demographic transition into multiculturalism .
The natural challenges entailed in such a shift should not be ignored .
It is incumbent upon everyone to do their part to make it a success , while ensuring that everyone feels they have a place in this country .
This demographic shift , though , has also given rise to serious anxieties among some within the majority community — anxieties that helped enable the rise of a white nationalist named Donald Trump to the presidency .
These majoritarian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ groups grow to embrace their own forms of racial consciousness , often based on redressing past injustices suffered at the hands of the majority .
The current wave of national protests was triggered by a killing with strong sectarian overtones — another Black man killed by a white police officer .
From a historical perspective , countries that have experienced wholesale economic collapse at the same time as exploding ethnic tensions have often had a difficult time dealing with that , to put it mildly .
The United States still has a lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these challenges , but the gravity of the present situation should not be understated .
Americans are experiencing levels of unemployment unprecedented in their modern history .
According to some estimates , nearly half of these jobs may never return .
At the same time , stunning acts of symbolic cultural transformation are playing out in real time .
As statues of polarizing figures tied to America ’ s European founding come crashing down one after another , often with the support of liberal white Americans , the political project of those on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is simultaneously jeopardized and emboldened .
On the surface , it seems that events are driving the U.S. in the opposite direction of white nationalist goals and that they will likely taste defeat .
But , on the other hand , a structural collapse of American society that fractures it along ethnic lines is the prerequisite for their own dark vision of a society purified by the fires of racial violence .
“ One of the things that white nationalists have always been interested in is imposing their own understanding of time : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like and what the future should look like , ” said Alexandra Minna Stern , the author of “ Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate : How the Alt-Right is Warping the American Imagination.
” “ In that sense , the coronavirus and the protests have destabilized time .
History is being rewritten and the marginalized are being recognized.
” “ For white nationalists , this is a crisis as well as an opportunity , ” Stern said .
“ In their opinion , movements like Black Lives Matter are a form of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is succeeding and gaining currency , then in their view white racial consciousness might rise as well.
” This is not to equate the Black Lives Matter movement with white nationalists of course .
But amid the roiling social changes we are now witnessing , many of them progressive , far-right identitarians also see an opportunity at hand .
It should go without saying that it is a choice to view things from an ethno-nationalist perspective .
In the U.S. , that choice is today not an obviously popular one .
A large @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the tens of millions who came out into the streets in the unprecedented protest movement triggered by the killing of George Floyd — were white Americans .
It remains to be seen how long this support will last , but the spontaneous outrage over the murder of an unarmed Black man by a white police officer is noble and encouraging .
However , those white people who are ethno-nationalists — and there are many of them — will likely view these developments much more darkly : as a sign that they are on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ privileged historical role in American society , or , even worse , reduced to a marginalized minority .
In a country with loose social bonds and easy access to weaponry , it doesn ’ t take many people thinking that way to do serious harm .
If you peer into the shadows , you can already see the contours of a threat that will be with us for years to come .
In early May , a group of men , described by prosecutors as having “ U.S .
military experience , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spark violence as part of a broader plot to cause the collapse of the federal government and trigger a civil war .
A number of shootings and car-ramming attacks carried out during the recent protests should signal that there are people ready for their most extreme beliefs to reach praxis .
Even more ominously , for a state hollowed out by years of elite corruption , there are signs that law enforcement agencies and the U.S. military have been infiltrated by individuals adhering to far-right ideologies .
If a serious crisis comes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like this — with access to training and guns — whose defection to the side of the extremists would have the most dire implications .
At the same time , just as it is wrong — dangerous even — to promote essentialized racial categories that lump together huge numbers of diverse people , it would be a mistake to impute onto the far-right movement a unity that it does not possess .
Not all of the various subgroups are willing to engage in violence nor do they all hold the same views on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the far right can be described as having a unified perspective , it is on the issues of race and immigration .
On this count , the spread of the coronavirus and the minority-led protest movement in the U.S. are two sides of the same coin : both products of globalization , which is the one force that they are united in their desire to destroy .
We should expect the far right to continue waging this battle to undo globalization with whatever tools are at its disposal , legal and illegal , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who have to live with the reality of a complex , cosmopolitan world — including the tens of millions of Americans and Europeans of minority backgrounds whose very existence and identity is a product of that reality — must negotiate an appropriate response .
The one thing we can ’ t do is fall into a trap of believing that this conflict doesn ’ t exist , or that it can be ignored .
“ For those whose ultimate goal is a multipolar world where everyone is siloed and in their own place @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rebuke against globalization , ” said Benjamin Teitelbaum , an expert on the far right at the University of Colorado , Boulder and the author of a new book about former Trump guru Steve Bannon called “ War for Eternity : Inside Bannon ’ s Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers.
” “ If one takes the view that the primary expression of decadence in our age is cosmopolitanism , ” said Teitelbaum , “ the only way to survive that age is through a militant anti-cosmopolitanism .
”

Photo: Michael Dwyer/AP
At this point
, it’s become a staple of dark humor to observe that 2020 has been the year in which the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse seemingly decided to descend on the United States. Yet even before our fears of war, pestilence, and economic collapse began taking physical form, one could already observe morbid symptoms spreading within the extremities of our body politic. The strongest sign of a looming social illness has been the rebirth and spread of extremist ideologies — beliefs not long ago dismissed by liberal triumphalists as relics of historical memory.
Mutated through new information technologies and drawing strength from feelings of economic and demographic dislocation, fascist and sectarian ideologies have found a home in the hearts of members of a new generation of Americans.
Whether most people have connected the dots or not, a violent struggle is already playing out. Over the past few years, a steady drumbeat of massacres have been carried out by extremists associated with the new far-right. These attacks have targeted synagogues, mosques, and communities where immigrants are concentrated. In their wake, the shooters left behind manifestos damning a world that they claimed was shrinking in space for people like them.
What these ideologues drifting within the currents of this movement have really been waiting for, however, is a real crisis, one that would give them an opportunity to put their ideas of racial warfare and ethnic purification into full effect. That crisis is here.
The combination of the coronavirus and the sudden collapse of the American economy has given society an exogenous shock unseen in generations. The pandemic and the social tensions it has unleashed are likely to supercharge the forces that gave rise to the new far-right extremism, even as they produce countervailing energies that could revive the best promises of liberalism.
Engaging in political predictions is a foolish, high-risk, low-reward activity. But having followed the iterations of this new extremist ideology at home and abroad — and grappled with the fact that there is a pool of young men who have proven themselves willing to die for it — it strikes me as irresponsible to not advise people to brace for what is on the horizon.
Although some have yet to accept it, the U.S. is in the midst of an unstoppable cultural and demographic transition into multiculturalism. The natural challenges entailed in such a shift should not be ignored. It is incumbent upon everyone to do their part to make it a success, while ensuring that everyone feels they have a place in this country.
This demographic shift, though, has also given rise to serious anxieties among some within the majority community — anxieties that helped enable the rise of a white nationalist named Donald Trump to the presidency. These majoritarian sentiments are likely to escalate as minority groups grow to embrace their own forms of racial consciousness, often based on redressing past injustices suffered at the hands of the majority.
The current wave of national protests was triggered by a killing with strong sectarian overtones — another Black man killed by a white police officer. From a historical perspective, countries that have experienced wholesale economic collapse at the same time as exploding ethnic tensions have often had a difficult time dealing with that, to put it mildly. The United States still has a lot of resources at its disposal to handle these challenges, but the gravity of the present situation should not be understated.
Americans are experiencing levels of unemployment unprecedented in their modern history. According to some estimates, nearly half of these jobs may never return. At the same time, stunning acts of symbolic cultural transformation are playing out in real time. As statues of polarizing figures tied to America’s European founding come crashing down one after another, often with the support of liberal white Americans, the political project of those on the extremes — particularly white nationalists — is simultaneously jeopardized and emboldened.
On the surface, it seems that events are driving the U.S. in the opposite direction of white nationalist goals and that they will likely taste defeat. But, on the other hand, a structural collapse of American society that fractures it along ethnic lines is the prerequisite for their own dark vision of a society purified by the fires of racial violence.
“For white nationalists, this is a crisis as well as an opportunity.”
“One of the things that white nationalists have always been interested in is imposing their own understanding of time: a narrative of what the past looked like and what the future should look like,” said Alexandra Minna Stern, the author of “Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right is Warping the American Imagination.” “In that sense, the coronavirus and the protests have destabilized time. History is being rewritten and the marginalized are being recognized.”
“For white nationalists, this is a crisis as well as an opportunity,” Stern said. “In their opinion, movements like Black Lives Matter are a form of identity politics par excellence. If it is succeeding and gaining currency, then in their view white racial consciousness might rise as well.”
This is not to equate the Black Lives Matter movement with white nationalists of course. But amid the roiling social changes we are now witnessing, many of them progressive, far-right identitarians also see an opportunity at hand.
It should go without saying that it is a choice to view things from an ethno-nationalist perspective. In the U.S., that choice is today not an obviously popular one. A large proportion — perhaps even the majority of the tens of millions who came out into the streets in the unprecedented protest movement triggered by the killing of George Floyd — were white Americans. It remains to be seen how long this support will last, but the spontaneous outrage over the murder of an unarmed Black man by a white police officer is noble and encouraging.
However, those white people who are ethno-nationalists — and there are many of them — will likely view these developments much more darkly: as a sign that they are on the verge of being displaced from their privileged historical role in American society, or, even worse, reduced to a marginalized minority. In a country with loose social bonds and easy access to weaponry, it doesn’t take many people thinking that way to do serious harm.
If you peer into the shadows, you can already see the contours of a threat that will be with us for years to come. In early May, a group of men, described by prosecutors as having “U.S. military experience,” were arrested and charged with trying to spark violence as part of a broader plot to cause the collapse of the federal government and trigger a civil war. A number of shootings and car-ramming attacks carried out during the recent protests should signal that there are people ready for their most extreme beliefs to reach praxis.
Even more ominously, for a state hollowed out by years of elite corruption, there are signs that law enforcement agencies and the U.S. military have been infiltrated by individuals adhering to far-right ideologies. If a serious crisis comes, history suggests that it will be people like this — with access to training and guns — whose defection to the side of the extremists would have the most dire implications.
At the same time, just as it is wrong — dangerous even — to promote essentialized racial categories that lump together huge numbers of diverse people, it would be a mistake to impute onto the far-right movement a unity that it does not possess. Not all of the various subgroups are willing to engage in violence nor do they all hold the same views on every issue. To the extent that the far right can be described as having a unified perspective, it is on the issues of race and immigration. On this count, the spread of the coronavirus and the minority-led protest movement in the U.S. are two sides of the same coin: both products of globalization, which is the one force that they are united in their desire to destroy.
We should expect the far right to continue waging this battle to undo globalization with whatever tools are at its disposal, legal and illegal, violent and nonviolent. Those of us who have to live with the reality of a complex, cosmopolitan world — including the tens of millions of Americans and Europeans of minority backgrounds whose very existence and identity is a product of that reality — must negotiate an appropriate response. The one thing we can’t do is fall into a trap of believing that this conflict doesn’t exist, or that it can be ignored.
“For those whose ultimate goal is a multipolar world where everyone is siloed and in their own place, recent events are seen as a rebuke against globalization,” said Benjamin Teitelbaum, an expert on the far right at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the author of a new book about former Trump guru Steve Bannon called “War for Eternity: Inside Bannon’s Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers.”
“If one takes the view that the primary expression of decadence in our age is cosmopolitanism,” said Teitelbaum, “the only way to survive that age is through a militant anti-cosmopolitanism.”


theintercept--2020-07-12--A Bail Reform Tool Intended to Curb Mass Incarceration Has Only Replicated Biases in the Criminal Ju

A Bail Reform Tool Intended to Curb Mass Incarceration Has Only Replicated Biases in the Criminal Justice System

Demontez Campbell , who goes by Tez , was arrested for third-degree burglary stemming from what he says was a domestic dispute at his house in Hardin County , Kentucky .
As he was being processed , a pretrial officer told him that he had been evaluated by the state ’ s risk assessment algorithm , a criminal justice reform tool intended to release more people before trial without bail .
Campbell , who was 29 at the time , had a record of theft and drug-related charges , though none at that point were violent .
“ On paper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just a real hardened criminal because of my past mistakes , ” he said .
Though he lived in the house in Hardin County where he was arrested , Campbell is from Louisville , about an hour ’ s drive away .
The disparity led authorities to consider him a flight risk .
The combination of factors — his age , history , and lack of an official local address — resulted in a moderate risk rating , according to the algorithm , which in Campbell ’ s case meant that he would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ released .
The judge set bail at $ 15,000 .
“ They ’ re looking at your charge and looking at your past charges and deciding , ‘ That ’ s what he ’ s going to do forever , ’ ” Campbell said .
At the time , Campbell worked at Subway and had to pay child support every week on top of his other bills .
“ You might as well have set it at a million , because I ’ m not going to be able to make that , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the financial strain , Campbell also said he had post-traumatic stress disorder , depression , and anxiety , as well as substance use issues , which he said was part of why he got tangled up with the law in the first place .
He spent six months in jail , but faced with family obligations and the uncertainty of how much longer he ’ d have to spend behind bars awaiting trial , he decided to plead guilty .
He was given five years of probation .
“ There ’ s no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just hands pointing at you , ” he said of the risk assessment that helped put him behind bars instead of sending him home .
“ I felt like I was being convicted before even being convicted.
” In 2011 , as part of a criminal justice reform package meant to reduce incarceration and its related expenditures , Kentucky became among the first states to require judges to use a risk assessment as part of their pretrial decisions .
Similar risk assessments have since proliferated across the country in recent years , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unjust — and potentially unconstitutional — have had to grapple with the circumstances in which to detain people who are too poor to come up with the money .
Risk assessments can give the veneer of a more scientific approach than a judge ’ s discretion , while dampening critics who argue that getting rid of cash bail allows dangerous people to be released .
A large amount of past court data is run through a system that determines what factors appear to correlate with higher rates of rearrest or failure to appear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decides what factors to weigh more heavily , and the algorithm creates a matrix to determine whether someone is low risk , moderate risk , or high risk .
Jurisdictions then decide how the scores get used ; in most places , they are given to a judge to consider when deciding whether and how to release someone .
As community bail funds across the country received an outpouring of donations to release thousands of people arrested during anti-police brutality protests in the wake of George Floyd ’ s killing , the underlying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a closer look .
Criminal justice reform advocates have raised the alarm about risk assessments , arguing that the tools are based on questionable data that can not accurately predict someone ’ s actions after they are released and often reproduce racial disparities already in place in the criminal justice system .
What little success risk assessments have achieved has been undercut by judges who appear to ignore recommendations and legislators attempting to exacerbate their defects .
The very idea that we can accurately predict future crime is doubtful .
In many jurisdictions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ totally political , manipulated , secret process , ” said Pilar Weiss , director of the Community Justice Exchange , a criminal justice reform advocacy group .
“ They ’ re these flawed , racist , classist tools that purport to be based on science that are how the system is making decisions about people ’ s freedoms and their liberties.
” after risk assessments were first made mandatory in Kentucky , there was a 13-percentage point increase in people released without having to post bail , according to a 2018 study .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ were deemed to be low or moderate risk by the tool .
But that effect quickly wore off .
“ Judges were going back to their prior ways , ” said Megan Stevenson , a law professor at George Mason University and author of the study .
By the beginning of 2016 , more than half of the initial positive impact had disappeared .
Ashley Spalding , research director at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy , also noticed the tendency of judges to ignore the results .
“ They ’ re overriding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she said .
“ In practice , we ’ re seeing that it is often disregarded.
” There is no oversight for how judges use the scores and no penalties for ignoring them .
There are also disparities by race .
A 2019 study found that Kentucky judges are more likely to override moderate risk scores in order to set cash bail for Black defendants than for white defendants .
“ Judges see the moderate risk label , and for white defendants , moderate risk was interpreted as low risk , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interpreted as a signal of higher risk , ” Stevenson said .
The scores often reflect inaccurate judgments because the information the tool processes is incomplete .
For example , Kentucky ’ s assessment deems people without a permanent address as high risk , presuming that they will fail to appear for subsequent court dates .
But according to Shameka Parrish-Wright , the Kentucky site manager for the Bail Project , her homeless clients who don ’ t have addresses return to court with the organization ’ s assistance .
“ The algorithm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” she said .
“ Statistical risk is something we combat every day.
” Yet Kentucky has frequently been held up as the exemplar for risk assessments : In 2016 , 67 current and former district and state attorneys described the state ’ s program as “ very effective.
” After originally using an in-house risk assessment , in 2013 Kentucky became the first state to pilot the Public Safety Assessment , developed by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation , a charitable investment firm .
The PSA is now the most widely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risk assessments — despite the fact that there was no effect on how many people in Kentucky were released or on racial disparities compared to when the state was using its own tool .
Parrish-Wright also objects to risk assessments because they reduce human beings to a number .
“ The statistical predictions are dehumanizing , ” she said .
“ They rob people of their individual stories.
” as rudimentary versions of PreCrime , the system used to incarcerate people before they commit murders in the Steven Spielberg sci-fi film “ Minority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looking at a defendant ’ s past , an algorithm will be able to accurately predict whether they will pose any threat to public safety or fail to return to court if released .
Risk assessments “ make it seem like predictions of future violence are much more accurate than they can be , ” said Colin Doyle , a staff attorney at Harvard Law School ’ s criminal justice policy program .
The system in “ Minority Report ” relied on clairvoyants to predict crimes , but judges in the real world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
So the assessments end up amounting to “ pretty wild speculation , ” said Doyle .
Because committing a crime is such a rare occurrence , statistical correlations in the data aren ’ t strong enough to make accurate predictions about a single person .
“ They ’ re really good for aggregate policymaking decisions , ” said University of Georgia law professor Sandra Mayson , such as what kinds of defendants can simply be released without seeing a judge .
“ They are completely incapable of identifying a significant enough risk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ detention.
” Most people who are labeled high risk won ’ t actually be rearrested pretrial .
In Cook County , Illinois , for example , 99 percent of defendants deemed high risk by the Public Safety Assessment but released before trial weren ’ t charged with new violent crimes — virtually the same share of those with moderate or low scores .
Meanwhile , the data that risk assessment tools are built on constitute “ garbage in , garbage out , ” Doyle said .
Creating the purportedly predictive assessments is accomplished @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as possible into an algorithm .
The designers then look at what kinds of characteristics correlate with increased chances of rearrest or failure to show up for court .
The underlying data , though , is already steeped in racial bias : Arrests , charges , bail amounts , and sentencing are all more harshly meted out against Black people , when compared with white people .
Then there is the quality of the data itself : It is often riddled with errors because it is compiled as administrative data by clerks and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collected for the purpose of creating a sophisticated tool .
What ’ s more , the data does not establish causal relationships ; instead , it is simply correlative .
The process therefore leads to reliance on some odd factors .
Colorado ’ s homemade tool takes into consideration whether someone has a cellphone and whether or not they own or rent their homes .
A tool in use in Rockland County , Ohio , included a homegrown personality quiz , with questions about family issues and feelings of anger .
Even prior @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who is arrested is still considered innocent until proven guilty , and not all arrests lead to conviction .
“ Arrest is not something you do , ” Mayson said .
“ Arrest is something the state does to you.
” Missed court dates don ’ t necessarily mean that someone was fleeing and could have a range of explanations : They could have been given the wrong date , may have moved , or were in a hospital or jail at the time of their hearing .
Work , child care , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issues can also present barriers to getting to court .
Age is the factor most strongly associated with committing crime , but putting outsize weight on it in a risk assessment would yield impractical directives .
“ If you are making incarceration decisions solely on the basis of risk alone , what you ’ d want to do is lock up all the teenagers and young adults and let them out when they turn 30 , ” said Stevenson , of George Mason University .
While there are many features of risk assessments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the process that remains opaque .
When Hannah Sassaman , policy director at the social justice organization Media Mobilizing Project , began trying to put together a database of how all the risk assessments across the country operate , the courts would decline her requests for information .
Journalists didn ’ t seem to have any more luck .
In some jurisdictions , it wasn ’ t even clear who to call , or no information was published online .
Many of the people who are subject to these algorithms may not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , on what grounds , and what the recommendation was .
In some places , the scores aren ’ t even given to the defendant ’ s lawyer or read in open court .
“ If we can ’ t find out , how can people who are being judged in a hearing know what the risk assessment said about them ?
” Sassaman said .
Even defendants who are deemed low or moderate risk may face increased surveillance as a condition of their release , such as electronic monitoring , home confinement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officer , said Sassaman .
Those who can ’ t comply with those restrictions risk rearrest and having to go through the risk assessment process all over again .
that risk assessments have failed to make inroads in ending bail , many criminal justice reform advocates want to institute a different system entirely : one in which the vast majority of people are released before trial and those who prosecutors want to detain get a full hearing before being jailed .
In 2018 , over 100 organizations signed onto a letter led by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rights outlining concerns with risk assessments and six recommendations to lessen the harm they can cause , including a call for “ adversarial hearings ” before someone is detained or given conditions of supervision .
In most bail hearings , defendants are represented by attorneys who barely get to know their name and the proceedings are over in a matter of minutes .
An adversarial hearing would allow the defense to have legal representation who could conduct discovery and present evidence and witnesses .
“ The simplest mechanism for getting better pretrial outcomes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ If a prosecutor and a judge are going to incarcerate someone pretrial , you have to have a substantial hearing and make the convincing case of that person ’ s dangerousness.
” “ It makes it taxing to incarcerate someone , ” Doyle added , rather than imprisonment being “ the default decision.
” To facilitate those hearings , more people would need to be released first .
“ Ninety-five percent of the people who are coming into contact with the legal system at the pretrial phase can be safely released , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ program director at the Leadership Conference .
Some may need to be released with conditions , she said , but those should only be to ensure their return to court or to protect public safety — which she defined narrowly as mitigating a likely threat to a known person in the near future .
In response to the advocates ’ letter , the Arnold Foundation released a statement agreeing with many of the letter ’ s principles .
This past February , the Pretrial Justice Institute , which had previously endorsed the use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statement that the tools could no longer be part of its reform efforts .
However , in Kentucky there appears to be little appetite for fixing the risk assessment ; rather , lawmakers are pushing to further entrench its flaws .
Last February , a bill was introduced in the legislature to mandate that people with high risk scores be detained pretrial and make release for those with low scores no longer obligatory .
But it never got voted out of committee , effectively killing the bill for the meantime .
“ There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fruit , ” Stevenson said , “ in terms of being able to lower incarceration rates without increasing crime.
” She added , “ It ’ s not as simple as , just adopt a risk assessment and great things will happen.
” Things have changed for Tez Campbell , though .
After he was released from jail , he started going to Alcoholics Anonymous and later entered a treatment center .
While there , he missed one of his court dates and was issued a bench warrant and a bond of $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kentucky Bail Project , which paid the bond .
“ It saved my life , ” he said .
“ I felt like I had somebody on my side.
” Today he has his own apartment and a steady job as a construction flagger .
He is also leading a life skills workshop at the Bail Project .
Eventually , he wants to go back to school to become a social worker and possibly do drug addiction counseling .
“ I ’ m doing all of these building things , ” he said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my pretrial assessment probably stated I wasn ’ t going to do .
”

Two years ago, Demontez Campbell, who goes by Tez, was arrested for third-degree burglary stemming from what he says was a domestic dispute at his house in Hardin County, Kentucky. As he was being processed, a pretrial officer told him that he had been evaluated by the state’s risk assessment algorithm, a criminal justice reform tool intended to release more people before trial without bail.
Campbell, who was 29 at the time, had a record of theft and drug-related charges, though none at that point were violent. “On paper, it looked as if I was just a real hardened criminal because of my past mistakes,” he said. Though he lived in the house in Hardin County where he was arrested, Campbell is from Louisville, about an hour’s drive away. The disparity led authorities to consider him a flight risk. The combination of factors — his age, history, and lack of an official local address — resulted in a moderate risk rating, according to the algorithm, which in Campbell’s case meant that he would have to pay cash bail to be released.
“There’s no hands to help, there’s just hands pointing at you. I felt like I was being convicted before even being convicted.”
The judge set bail at $15,000. “They’re looking at your charge and looking at your past charges and deciding, ‘That’s what he’s going to do forever,’” Campbell said. At the time, Campbell worked at Subway and had to pay child support every week on top of his other bills. “You might as well have set it at a million, because I’m not going to be able to make that,” he said. On top of the financial strain, Campbell also said he had post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety, as well as substance use issues, which he said was part of why he got tangled up with the law in the first place.
He spent six months in jail, but faced with family obligations and the uncertainty of how much longer he’d have to spend behind bars awaiting trial, he decided to plead guilty. He was given five years of probation.
“There’s no hands to help, there’s just hands pointing at you,” he said of the risk assessment that helped put him behind bars instead of sending him home. “I felt like I was being convicted before even being convicted.”
In 2011, as part of a criminal justice reform package meant to reduce incarceration and its related expenditures, Kentucky became among the first states to require judges to use a risk assessment as part of their pretrial decisions. Similar risk assessments have since proliferated across the country in recent years, as jurisdictions that have decided cash bail is unjust — and potentially unconstitutional — have had to grapple with the circumstances in which to detain people who are too poor to come up with the money.
Risk assessments can give the veneer of a more scientific approach than a judge’s discretion, while dampening critics who argue that getting rid of cash bail allows dangerous people to be released. A large amount of past court data is run through a system that determines what factors appear to correlate with higher rates of rearrest or failure to appear for later court dates. Each jurisdiction decides what factors to weigh more heavily, and the algorithm creates a matrix to determine whether someone is low risk, moderate risk, or high risk. Jurisdictions then decide how the scores get used; in most places, they are given to a judge to consider when deciding whether and how to release someone.
As community bail funds across the country received an outpouring of donations to release thousands of people arrested during anti-police brutality protests in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, the underlying inequities of bail reform measures are getting a closer look.
Criminal justice reform advocates have raised the alarm about risk assessments, arguing that the tools are based on questionable data that cannot accurately predict someone’s actions after they are released and often reproduce racial disparities already in place in the criminal justice system. What little success risk assessments have achieved has been undercut by judges who appear to ignore recommendations and legislators attempting to exacerbate their defects. The very idea that we can accurately predict future crime is doubtful.
In many jurisdictions, risk assessment has become “a totally political, manipulated, secret process,” said Pilar Weiss, director of the Community Justice Exchange, a criminal justice reform advocacy group. “They’re these flawed, racist, classist tools that purport to be based on science that are how the system is making decisions about people’s freedoms and their liberties.”
In the months after risk assessments were first made mandatory in Kentucky, there was a 13-percentage point increase in people released without having to post bail, according to a 2018 study. The effect was greater for those who were deemed to be low or moderate risk by the tool.
But that effect quickly wore off. “Judges were going back to their prior ways,” said Megan Stevenson, a law professor at George Mason University and author of the study. By the beginning of 2016, more than half of the initial positive impact had disappeared. Ashley Spalding, research director at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, also noticed the tendency of judges to ignore the results. “They’re overriding the findings of the risk assessment tool,” she said. “In practice, we’re seeing that it is often disregarded.” There is no oversight for how judges use the scores and no penalties for ignoring them.
There are also disparities by race. A 2019 study found that Kentucky judges are more likely to override moderate risk scores in order to set cash bail for Black defendants than for white defendants. “Judges see the moderate risk label, and for white defendants, moderate risk was interpreted as low risk, and for Black defendants, it was interpreted as a signal of higher risk,” Stevenson said.
The scores often reflect inaccurate judgments because the information the tool processes is incomplete. For example, Kentucky’s assessment deems people without a permanent address as high risk, presuming that they will fail to appear for subsequent court dates. But according to Shameka Parrish-Wright, the Kentucky site manager for the Bail Project, her homeless clients who don’t have addresses return to court with the organization’s assistance. “The algorithm wouldn’t tell you that,” she said. “Statistical risk is something we combat every day.”
“The statistical predictions are dehumanizing. They rob people of their individual stories.”
Yet Kentucky has frequently been held up as the exemplar for risk assessments: In 2016, 67 current and former district and state attorneys described the state’s program as “very effective.” After originally using an in-house risk assessment, in 2013 Kentucky became the first state to pilot the Public Safety Assessment, developed by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, a charitable investment firm. The PSA is now the most widely used among states and counties that conduct risk assessments — despite the fact that there was no effect on how many people in Kentucky were released or on racial disparities compared to when the state was using its own tool.
Parrish-Wright also objects to risk assessments because they reduce human beings to a number. “The statistical predictions are dehumanizing,” she said. “They rob people of their individual stories.”
Imagine risk assessments as rudimentary versions of PreCrime, the system used to incarcerate people before they commit murders in the Steven Spielberg sci-fi film “Minority Report.” The idea is that by looking at a defendant’s past, an algorithm will be able to accurately predict whether they will pose any threat to public safety or fail to return to court if released.
Risk assessments “make it seem like predictions of future violence are much more accurate than they can be,” said Colin Doyle, a staff attorney at Harvard Law School’s criminal justice policy program. The system in “Minority Report” relied on clairvoyants to predict crimes, but judges in the real world can’t see into the future. So the assessments end up amounting to “pretty wild speculation,” said Doyle.
Because committing a crime is such a rare occurrence, statistical correlations in the data aren’t strong enough to make accurate predictions about a single person. “They’re really good for aggregate policymaking decisions,” said University of Georgia law professor Sandra Mayson, such as what kinds of defendants can simply be released without seeing a judge. “They are completely incapable of identifying a significant enough risk in an individual case to warrant preventative detention.”
Most people who are labeled high risk won’t actually be rearrested pretrial. In Cook County, Illinois, for example, 99 percent of defendants deemed high risk by the Public Safety Assessment but released before trial weren’t charged with new violent crimes — virtually the same share of those with moderate or low scores.
Meanwhile, the data that risk assessment tools are built on constitute “garbage in, garbage out,” Doyle said. Creating the purportedly predictive assessments is accomplished by feeding in as much court data as possible into an algorithm. The designers then look at what kinds of characteristics correlate with increased chances of rearrest or failure to show up for court.
The underlying data, though, is already steeped in racial bias: Arrests, charges, bail amounts, and sentencing are all more harshly meted out against Black people, when compared with white people. Then there is the quality of the data itself: It is often riddled with errors because it is compiled as administrative data by clerks and other nonscientists, as opposed to being collected for the purpose of creating a sophisticated tool.
What’s more, the data does not establish causal relationships; instead, it is simply correlative. The process therefore leads to reliance on some odd factors. Colorado’s homemade tool takes into consideration whether someone has a cellphone and whether or not they own or rent their homes. A tool in use in Rockland County, Ohio, included a homegrown personality quiz, with questions about family issues and feelings of anger.
Even prior arrests are a weak indicator. Someone who is arrested is still considered innocent until proven guilty, and not all arrests lead to conviction. “Arrest is not something you do,” Mayson said. “Arrest is something the state does to you.”
Missed court dates don’t necessarily mean that someone was fleeing and could have a range of explanations: They could have been given the wrong date, may have moved, or were in a hospital or jail at the time of their hearing. Work, child care, or unaddressed mental health or substance use issues can also present barriers to getting to court.
“If you are making incarceration decisions solely on the basis of risk alone, what you’d want to do is lock up all the teenagers and young adults and let them out when they turn 30.”
Age is the factor most strongly associated with committing crime, but putting outsize weight on it in a risk assessment would yield impractical directives. “If you are making incarceration decisions solely on the basis of risk alone, what you’d want to do is lock up all the teenagers and young adults and let them out when they turn 30,” said Stevenson, of George Mason University.
While there are many features of risk assessments that are public, there is much in the process that remains opaque. When Hannah Sassaman, policy director at the social justice organization Media Mobilizing Project, began trying to put together a database of how all the risk assessments across the country operate, the courts would decline her requests for information. Journalists didn’t seem to have any more luck. In some jurisdictions, it wasn’t even clear who to call, or no information was published online.
Many of the people who are subject to these algorithms may not have any idea how they were evaluated, on what grounds, and what the recommendation was. In some places, the scores aren’t even given to the defendant’s lawyer or read in open court. “If we can’t find out, how can people who are being judged in a hearing know what the risk assessment said about them?” Sassaman said.
Even defendants who are deemed low or moderate risk may face increased surveillance as a condition of their release, such as electronic monitoring, home confinement, or regular check-ins with a parole officer, said Sassaman. Those who can’t comply with those restrictions risk rearrest and having to go through the risk assessment process all over again.
Given the evidence that risk assessments have failed to make inroads in ending bail, many criminal justice reform advocates want to institute a different system entirely: one in which the vast majority of people are released before trial and those who prosecutors want to detain get a full hearing before being jailed.
In 2018, over 100 organizations signed onto a letter led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights outlining concerns with risk assessments and six recommendations to lessen the harm they can cause, including a call for “adversarial hearings” before someone is detained or given conditions of supervision.
In most bail hearings, defendants are represented by attorneys who barely get to know their name and the proceedings are over in a matter of minutes. An adversarial hearing would allow the defense to have legal representation who could conduct discovery and present evidence and witnesses.
“The simplest mechanism for getting better pretrial outcomes is procedure,” Doyle said. “If a prosecutor and a judge are going to incarcerate someone pretrial, you have to have a substantial hearing and make the convincing case of that person’s dangerousness.”
“It makes it taxing to incarcerate someone,” Doyle added, rather than imprisonment being “the default decision.”
To facilitate those hearings, more people would need to be released first. “Ninety-five percent of the people who are coming into contact with the legal system at the pretrial phase can be safely released,” said Sakira Cook, justice reform program director at the Leadership Conference. Some may need to be released with conditions, she said, but those should only be to ensure their return to court or to protect public safety — which she defined narrowly as mitigating a likely threat to a known person in the near future.
In response to the advocates’ letter, the Arnold Foundation released a statement agreeing with many of the letter’s principles. This past February, the Pretrial Justice Institute, which had previously endorsed the use of risk assessments, said in a statement that the tools could no longer be part of its reform efforts.
“I’m doing all of these building things, positive things that on paper my pretrial assessment probably stated I wasn’t going to do.”
However, in Kentucky there appears to be little appetite for fixing the risk assessment; rather, lawmakers are pushing to further entrench its flaws. Last February, a bill was introduced in the legislature to mandate that people with high risk scores be detained pretrial and make release for those with low scores no longer obligatory. But it never got voted out of committee, effectively killing the bill for the meantime.
“There is probably not a lot of low-hanging fruit,” Stevenson said, “in terms of being able to lower incarceration rates without increasing crime.” She added, “It’s not as simple as, just adopt a risk assessment and great things will happen.”
Things have changed for Tez Campbell, though. After he was released from jail, he started going to Alcoholics Anonymous and later entered a treatment center. While there, he missed one of his court dates and was issued a bench warrant and a bond of $1,500. He reached out to the Kentucky Bail Project, which paid the bond. “It saved my life,” he said. “I felt like I had somebody on my side.”
Today he has his own apartment and a steady job as a construction flagger. He is also leading a life skills workshop at the Bail Project. Eventually, he wants to go back to school to become a social worker and possibly do drug addiction counseling. “I’m doing all of these building things,” he said, “positive things that on paper my pretrial assessment probably stated I wasn’t going to do.”


theintercept--2020-07-12--Trump Manages to Wear a Mask and Undercut Mask-Wearing at the Same Time

of Donald Trump finally acting like a normal human being by wearing a mask — a public health measure to combat the spread of the pandemic coronavirus he resisted from the moment he announced it three months ago , and then mocked others for following — came to an end on Saturday as the president took part in a carefully staged photo-op during a visit to Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Maryland .
But before Trump posed for the cameras , lumbering slowly down a hospital corridor flanked by masked military officers — an image his senior campaign advisors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since the “ Reservoir Dogs ” title sequence — the president made a point of undercutting the public health advice once more .
On his way to the hospital , Trump stopped to tell reporters that he was not endorsing the sort of routine mask-wearing mayors and governors have been begging Americans to embrace to curb the spread of Covid-19 , as the death toll neared 135,000 .
Masks , the president said as he left the White House , “ have a time and a place.
” Specifically , Trump explained , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hospital , ” as he would be , “ talking to a lot of soldiers and people that in some cases just got off the operating tables.
” In other words , the president made no effort to cast the wearing of masks as an inconvenient but necessary precaution to take in non-medical settings , like grocery stores or restaurants , where his supporters have been filmed day after day refusing to cover their faces , while loudly insisting that health orders intended to combat the pandemic are some sort of Democratic hoax @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to being in a hospital in a conversation on Thursday with Sean Hannity .
“ I think it ’ s fine to wear a mask if it makes you feel comfortable , and I think under certain conditions , like when you ’ re going into a hospital , ” Trump told Hannity .
“ I expect to be wearing a mask when I go into Walter Reed .
You ’ re in a hospital so I think it ’ s a very appropriate thing.
” Just moments later , however , Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , former Vice President Joe Biden , for wearing a “ massive mask ” earlier that day when he arrived to address metal workers at McGregor Industries in Dunmore , Pennsylvania .
Video of Biden ’ s address shows that the cloth mask he wore as he took the stage at the plant on Thursday was nearly identical in size to the one Trump wore on Saturday .
In another campaign against a very different opponent , Biden might have come in for some criticism because the specific type of N95 mask he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Particulate Respirator 8210V — has a “ cool flow valve , ” which makes it ineffective at protecting others because it filters only air inhaled and not exhaled .
But of course Trump , having spent months refusing to wear a mask at all , and deriding those who did , was in no position to attack Biden for wearing the wrong kind of mask during one part of his visit .
As Matt Gertz of Media Matters for America reported recently , Trump ’ s successful effort to make mask aversion part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aided by Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham .
“ Carlson , Ingraham , and several of their colleagues have denounced masks and those who promote them , even as evidence has accumulated that masks are one of the most effective countermeasures against the coronavirus , ” Gertz observed earlier this month .
“ The network ’ s viewers have been told that mask usage is not only ineffective , but part of a conspiracy by Democrats and the media to keep Americans living in fear and under their control.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ President Mike Pence for not wearing a mask at the Mayo Clinic by claiming there was some doubt over the effectiveness of blocking transmission of respiratory droplets , which there is not .
“ They ’ ll say this whole mask thing is settled science , just like they do with climate change , ” she told viewers .
“ Of course it ’ s not.
” In May , Carlson began one of his shows by claiming that “ citizens who remain stuck in Los Angeles are effectively hostages ” of Mayor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fumed “ has demanded that anyone who goes outside for any reason , as the heat rises in L.A. , must wear a mask.
” “ It goes without saying that there is no science backing up this order or any of Garcetti ’ s so-called health decisions , ” Carlson claimed , absurdly .
“ In fact , it ’ s possible that requiring masks outside will not prevent a single person from being infected in Los Angeles.
” In recent weeks , as Covid-19 cases have spiked in states like Texas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s advice to relax restrictions before the virus was suppressed , some state and local Republican officials have broken with Trump and openly advocated mask-wearing .
The corporate hierarchy at Fox News is now trying to follow that same path .
While it might be too late to undo all of the damage the network has helped the president inflict , Fox has even produced a series of public service announcements featuring Hannity , as well as the hosts Bret Baier , Martha MacCallum , Maria Bartiromo and Steve Doocy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s largely elderly audience to heed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and wear masks .

The absurd drama of Donald Trump finally acting like a normal human being by wearing a mask — a public health measure to combat the spread of the pandemic coronavirus he resisted from the moment he announced it three months ago, and then mocked others for following — came to an end on Saturday as the president took part in a carefully staged photo-op during a visit to Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Maryland.
WATCH: President Donald Trump wears a mask during a scheduled visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a rare instance of doing so publicly as #coronavirus cases continue to pile up in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/Ksz3vQOryn — Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) July 11, 2020
But before Trump posed for the cameras, lumbering slowly down a hospital corridor flanked by masked military officers — an image his senior campaign advisors seemed to think was the coolest thing since the “Reservoir Dogs” title sequence — the president made a point of undercutting the public health advice once more.
On his way to the hospital, Trump stopped to tell reporters that he was not endorsing the sort of routine mask-wearing mayors and governors have been begging Americans to embrace to curb the spread of Covid-19, as the death toll neared 135,000.
Masks, the president said as he left the White House, “have a time and a place.” Specifically, Trump explained, “when you’re in a hospital,” as he would be, “talking to a lot of soldiers and people that in some cases just got off the operating tables.”
Trump: I’ve never been against masks pic.twitter.com/FVp4HRWZdy — Acyn (@Acyn) July 11, 2020
In other words, the president made no effort to cast the wearing of masks as an inconvenient but necessary precaution to take in non-medical settings, like grocery stores or restaurants, where his supporters have been filmed day after day refusing to cover their faces, while loudly insisting that health orders intended to combat the pandemic are some sort of Democratic hoax.
North Carolina woman refuses to wear a mask & causes a huge scene saying "Trump 2020" pic.twitter.com/OiXok1jRoB — Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) July 10, 2020
Trump had also explicitly connected mask-wearing to being in a hospital in a conversation on Thursday with Sean Hannity. “I think it’s fine to wear a mask if it makes you feel comfortable, and I think under certain conditions, like when you’re going into a hospital,” Trump told Hannity. “I expect to be wearing a mask when I go into Walter Reed. You’re in a hospital so I think it’s a very appropriate thing.”
Just moments later, however, Trump pivoted back to mocking his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, for wearing a “massive mask” earlier that day when he arrived to address metal workers at McGregor Industries in Dunmore, Pennsylvania. Video of Biden’s address shows that the cloth mask he wore as he took the stage at the plant on Thursday was nearly identical in size to the one Trump wore on Saturday.
Screenshot: Joe Biden via YouTube
In contrast to Trump, Biden has taken his responsibility to model good behavior by wearing a mask in public seriously, and has urged all Americans to do so in frequent social media posts.
This Fourth of July, one of the most patriotic things you can do is wear a mask. — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 4, 2020
During the former vice president’s Pennsylvania factory visit on Thursday, his campaign even used an image of Biden in an N95 mask on the shop floor to take a jab at Trump.
Donald Trump couldn't even try to look this cool in a mask. pic.twitter.com/Ac1jABJKXZ — Biden War Room (Text JOIN to 30330) (@BidenWarRoom) July 9, 2020
In another campaign against a very different opponent, Biden might have come in for some criticism because the specific type of N95 mask he wore that day — 3M’s Particulate Respirator 8210V — has a “cool flow valve,” which makes it ineffective at protecting others because it filters only air inhaled and not exhaled. But of course Trump, having spent months refusing to wear a mask at all, and deriding those who did, was in no position to attack Biden for wearing the wrong kind of mask during one part of his visit.
As Matt Gertz of Media Matters for America reported recently, Trump’s successful effort to make mask aversion part of a broader culture war has been aided by Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham. “Carlson, Ingraham, and several of their colleagues have denounced masks and those who promote them, even as evidence has accumulated that masks are one of the most effective countermeasures against the coronavirus,” Gertz observed earlier this month. “The network’s viewers have been told that mask usage is not only ineffective, but part of a conspiracy by Democrats and the media to keep Americans living in fear and under their control.”
In April, Ingraham defended Vice President Mike Pence for not wearing a mask at the Mayo Clinic by claiming there was some doubt over the effectiveness of blocking transmission of respiratory droplets, which there is not. “They’ll say this whole mask thing is settled science, just like they do with climate change,” she told viewers. “Of course it’s not.”
Laura Ingraham criticizes 'the media': "They'll say this whole mask thing is settled science, just like they do with climate change. Of course it's not" pic.twitter.com/DucraJXzlU — Jason S. Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) April 30, 2020
In May, Carlson began one of his shows by claiming that “citizens who remain stuck in Los Angeles are effectively hostages” of Mayor Eric Garcetti. The mayor, Carlson fumed “has demanded that anyone who goes outside for any reason, as the heat rises in L.A., must wear a mask.”
Tucker kicks off the show by claiming that citizens are LA are "hostages" because of the mandate to wear masks when they go outside as the lockdown is rolled back. pic.twitter.com/G8glMJPcYz — nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) May 16, 2020
“It goes without saying that there is no science backing up this order or any of Garcetti’s so-called health decisions,” Carlson claimed, absurdly. “In fact, it’s possible that requiring masks outside will not prevent a single person from being infected in Los Angeles.”
In recent weeks, as Covid-19 cases have spiked in states like Texas, Arizona and Florida, which followed Trump’s advice to relax restrictions before the virus was suppressed, some state and local Republican officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas have broken with Trump by requiring the public to wear masks. Others, like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, have resisted issuing state-wide mask order. DeSantis refused to act even as his state confirmed 15,299 new Covid-19 infections on Sunday, the highest total recorded by any state in a single day during the pandemic.
Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, who had previously barred cities and towns from issuing local mask orders, lifted that ban last month. Although Ducey was one of the few people wearing a mask at Trump’s rally in a Phoenix megachurch last month, he has still not issued a state-wide order requiring face coverings.
In many states run by Democratic governors, Trump supporters, including anti-vaccine activists, have staged angry protests against mask orders.
Nearly 100 people gathered in Henderson to protest against the mask mandate announced by @GovSisolak last month https://t.co/bbvsxoVdKi — Las Vegas Review-Journal (@reviewjournal) July 9, 2020
The corporate hierarchy at Fox News is now trying to follow the same path as the more proactive Republican leaders. While it might be too late to undo all of the damage the network has helped the president inflict on the public messaging campaign, Fox has even produced a series of public service announcements featuring Hannity, as well as the hosts Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Maria Bartiromo and Steve Doocy, in which they all advise Fox’s largely elderly audience to heed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and wear masks.
Fox News, no doubt concerned about the impact of Covid-19 on its largely elderly audience, is making an effort to convince them to wear masks. Here's a PSA running before clips on their website in which Sean Hannity says, "I don’t have a problem wearing a mask." pic.twitter.com/IShSsP6Vn0 — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) July 12, 2020
Fox News, trying to keep its audience alive, is now urging them to listen to the CDC instead of Trump. Here's a PSA running before clips on their site featuring Maria Bartiromo and Steve Doocy, two people Trump frequently talks at. "Wear a mask… whenever you leave the house." pic.twitter.com/U152Thdbyq — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) July 12, 2020


theintercept--2020-07-13--Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Campaign Workers Just Ratified A Union Contract

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ’ s campaign staff have just reached a deal to unionize with the Campaign Workers Guild , ratifying a two-year contract that includes overtime pay above 40 hours per week ( which is virtually unheard of on campaigns ) , unlimited sick leave , and language protecting immigrant and transgender workers .
As part of the contract , Ocasio-Cortez campaign staff secured a salary floor of at least $ 4,000 per month , an $ 18 minimum wage for hourly employees , and a number of paid leave policies .
Notably , the contract caps salaries for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ highest paid employee of her campaign is paid at a rate no more than three times the rate of the lowest paid full-time employee .
Putting a salary limit on managers is still uncommon , but staffers for Bernie Sanders ’ s 2020 presidential campaign locked down a similar provision in their contact earlier this year .
“ Workers ’ rights are the cornerstone of an economy that puts humanity first , ” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement announcing the contract .
“ I ’ ve lived without health insurance or dignity in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work our team has done to raise the bar for all workers.
” The deal also includes paid time off to vote in any election , at least 12 weeks of paid parental leave , an upcoming bonus , a fund to help underwrite classes to help with professional development , and stipends to cover remote work-related expenses and even child care .
Though the union didn ’ t provide the full contract , excerpts shared with The Intercept show entire sections dedicated to robust anti-discrimination policies and to fighting the exploitative working @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which can be grueling .
And as one of the more progressive Democrats in Congress , the unionization of Ocasio-Cortez ’ s campaign staff is also about the political messaging in the contract , and the lawmaker practicing the same policies she promotes .
Members of the bargaining committee told The Intercept that they hope their contract inspires other campaigns to fight for these protections , though they ultimately want these rights to be universal and extended to every worker .
“ There are thousands of elected officials across the country from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there are exponentially more people who helped each one of those people get elected — who more often than not are subjected to work environments that do not prioritize the health , safety , and comfort of their staff but instead prioritize winning , ” said Ariella Schwartz , events manager for Ocasio-Cortez ’ s campaign and a bargaining team member .
“ These people work essentially in a gig economy and jump from race to race , trying to make the world a better place .
We felt empowered and hope to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working conditions better on all campaigns.
” In a section on “ gender neutrality , ” the contract says that the campaign will issue a rule to notify employees that transgender and non-binary employees may use the bathrooms they are most comfortable using , in addition to requiring everyone at the workplace use an employee ’ s preferred name and pronouns and standardizing gender neutral language in boarding materials and policy manuals .
Garrick Trapp , Deputy Policy Director and a bargaining committee member , noted that there are non-monetary aspects of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ adopt .
There ’ s also a section that outlines protocol for investigating workplace sexual harassment and assault complaints , including a provision saying that no employee will be retaliated against for simply reporting misconduct and perceived retaliation could be grounds for discipline .
Other policies in the contract are meant to encourage a healthy work environment .
Unit members , for example , are not required to work with any manager who has more than three documented instances of hostile behavior , and will not be expected to work more than 6 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ highlight , according to Meg Reilly , president of the Campaign Workers Guild , is the overtime pay .
“ CWG has negotiated dozens of contracts and we ’ ve gotten close , we ’ ve fought for overtime in every contract , we have won it quite rarely and it ’ s a big cultural shift , ” Reilly said .
“ So for these campaign workers across industries to get overtime after 40 is monumental.
” The Campaign Workers Guild , which was formed in late 2017 by a group of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on dozens of campaigns , including Andrew Yang and Julián Castro ’ s for president , and the 2018 campaigns of Jess King in Pennsylvania and Cynthia Nixon in New York .
In 2018 , the campaign staff of Randy Bryce , a union ironworker who ran for the Wisconsin seat held by House Speaker Paul Ryan , made history as the first in the country to form a union .

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign staff have just reached a deal to unionize with the Campaign Workers Guild, ratifying a two-year contract that includes overtime pay above 40 hours per week (which is virtually unheard of on campaigns), unlimited sick leave, and language protecting immigrant and transgender workers.
As part of the contract, Ocasio-Cortez campaign staff secured a salary floor of at least $4,000 per month, an $18 minimum wage for hourly employees, and a number of paid leave policies. Notably, the contract caps salaries for managers, making it so that the highest paid employee of her campaign is paid at a rate no more than three times the rate of the lowest paid full-time employee. Putting a salary limit on managers is still uncommon, but staffers for Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign locked down a similar provision in their contract earlier this year.
“Workers’ rights are the cornerstone of an economy that puts humanity first,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement announcing the contract. “I’ve lived without health insurance or dignity in the workplace, and I applaud the work our team has done to raise the bar for all workers.”
The deal also includes paid time off to vote in any election, at least 12 weeks of paid parental leave, an upcoming bonus, a fund to help underwrite classes to help with professional development, and stipends to cover remote work-related expenses and even child care.
Though the union didn’t provide the full contract, excerpts shared with The Intercept show entire sections dedicated to robust anti-discrimination policies and to fighting the exploitative working conditions that often develop in political campaigns, which can be grueling. And as one of the more progressive Democrats in Congress, the unionization of Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign staff is also about the political messaging in the contract, and the lawmaker practicing the same policies she promotes. Members of the bargaining committee told The Intercept that they hope their contract inspires other campaigns to fight for these protections, though they ultimately want these rights to be universal and extended to every worker.
Campaign workers “more often than not are subjected to work environments that do not prioritize the health, safety, and comfort of their staff but instead prioritize winning,” said Ariella Schwartz.
“There are thousands of elected officials across the country from community boards to the president, and there are exponentially more people who helped each one of those people get elected — who more often than not are subjected to work environments that do not prioritize the health, safety, and comfort of their staff but instead prioritize winning,” said Ariella Schwartz, events manager for Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign and a bargaining team member. “These people work essentially in a gig economy and jump from race to race, trying to make the world a better place. We felt empowered and hope to empower other campaigns to unionize to make working conditions better on all campaigns.”
In a section on “gender neutrality,” the contract says that the campaign will issue a rule to notify employees that transgender and nonbinary employees may use the bathrooms they are most comfortable using, in addition to requiring everyone at the workplace use an employee’s preferred name and pronouns, as well as standardizing gender neutral language in on-boarding materials and policy manuals. Garrick Trapp, deputy policy director and a bargaining committee member, noted that there are non-monetary aspects of their labor contract that other campaigns could immediately adopt.
There’s also a section that outlines protocol for investigating workplace sexual harassment and assault complaints, including a provision saying that no employee will be retaliated against for simply reporting misconduct and perceived retaliation could be grounds for discipline.
Other policies in the contract are meant to encourage a healthy work environment. Unit members, for example, are not required to work with any manager who has more than three documented instances of hostile behavior, and will not be expected to work more than six consecutive work days. But the biggest highlight, according to Meg Reilly, president of the Campaign Workers Guild, is the overtime pay.
“CWG has negotiated dozens of contracts and we’ve gotten close, we’ve fought for overtime in every contract, we have won it quite rarely and it’s a big cultural shift,” Reilly said. “So for these campaign workers across industries to get overtime after 40 [hours] is monumental.”
The Campaign Workers Guild, which was formed in late 2017 by a group of former campaign workers, has represented workers on dozens of campaigns, including Andrew Yang’s and Julián Castro’s for president, and the 2018 campaigns of Jess King in Pennsylvania and Cynthia Nixon in New York. In 2018, the campaign staff of Randy Bryce, a union ironworker who ran for the Wisconsin seat held by then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, made history as the first in the country to form a union.


theintercept--2020-07-13--In New Ad, Anti-Monopoly Group Hits Rep. Richie Neal Over Blackstone Ties, Corporate Tax Cuts

“ After Donald Trump cut corporate taxes , one of the wealthiest Wall Street firms , Blackstone , now pays nothing in federal taxes , ” the new ad says .
“ Richie Neal introduced a bill that maintains Trump ’ s corporate tax cuts .
Now , Blackstone is Richie Neal ’ s top funder .
And one of Donald Trump ’ s too .
Corporate power is corrupting Democracy .
And Richie Neal is part of the problem.
” A progressive dark-money group hitting politicians over ties to corporate interests on Monday released an ad against Democratic Rep. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of working to maintain President Donald Trump ’ s corporate tax cuts and highlighting his ties to the private equity firm , Blackstone .
Individuals from Blackstone have given $ 48,600 to Neal ’ s campaign this cycle , making the company his top contributor so far , out of a total haul of more than $ 3 million .
Individuals from the group started giving to Neal in large amounts in 2019 , HuffPost reported .
Trump ’ s 2017 tax bill reduced the top corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the cuts , but when Neal , who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee , introduced legislation last summer expanding tax cuts for low-income families , it didn ’ t touch the corporate tax rate .
Released by Fight Corporate Monopolies , a political nonprofit founded by the anti-monopoly American Economic Liberties Project , the ad is the second this month going after Neal for his ties to Blackstone .
In the first ad , the group criticized him for “ protecting Blackstone ’ s profits ” by helping to kill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last year .
Neal ’ s campaign told HuffPost that he introduced his own bill on the issue and that the original bill would have hurt hospitals in his district .
The group announced that it would spend a total of $ 300,000 on TV ads targeting Neal in his district .
They spent $ 150,000 on the first ad buy , which will run for another week , and are putting another $ 150,000 into the second ad buy , starting Monday .
Former Bernie Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir is consulting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ far only spent money on ads about Neal .
Shakir said the group intends to focus on other races , such as those for attorney general , state legislative office , and other down-ballot seats , in primaries and in November general elections .
( Shakir is married to Sarah Miller , the executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project . )
As a 501 ( c ) ( 4 ) nonprofit group , Fight Corporate Monopolies is not required to disclose its donors .
Shakir declined to share who its donors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to remain anonymous but that a number of progressive foundations have contributed funds .
Morgan Harper , a Justice Democrats-backed candidate who unsuccessfully challenged Ohio Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty in April , is a senior adviser to the group .
“ President Trump ’ s tax cuts did little for Richie Neal ’ s constituents , but they mean everything to the corporations backing his campaign , ” Harper said in a statement .
“ Neal ’ s habit of putting corporate profits above people ’ s needs will only continue if he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a statement , Neal ’ s campaign defended his work on the tax bill and went after Fight Corporate Monopolies , as well as Alex Morse , Neal ’ s primary challenger .
“ Fight Corporate Monopolies is a dark money shill for Alex Morse ’ s campaign , which we know because they have only targeted Richie and never let the truth get in the way of an attack ad , ” spokesperson Kate Norton said in a statement .
“ The Economic Mobility Act is the most significant pro-work , poverty-reducing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , period .
This is the latest attempt to distract from Alex Morse ’ s failed record managing Holyoke.
” Alex Morse , mayor of Holyoke , Massachusetts , who is also backed by Justice Democrats , as well as Indivisible and the Sunrise Movement , is running to unseat Neal in the September 1 primary .
His campaign has raised $ 518,880 so far and is highlighting Neal ’ s refusal to support Medicare for All or a Green New Deal .
Morse has also gone after Neal for dragging his feet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his tax returns , an issue that has drawn criticism from constituents as well .
( The Supreme Court sent the issue back down to lower courts earlier this month . )
Morse , who is rejecting corporate political action committee money , is also highlighting Neal ’ s corporate donors .
Neal is one of a number of powerful Democrats with strong ties to corporate interests and accepted the most corporate campaign money last year , Sludge reported .
He has also been one of the Democratic caucus ’ s most stalwart @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a historic Rules Committee hearing last April on single-payer legislation , Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Pramila Jayapal secured a second hearing on the measure last June in front of the more powerful Ways and Means Committee .
Ahead of that hearing , Neal urged his colleagues to avoid using the phrase “ Medicare for All , ” The Intercept reported .
Update : July 13 , 2020 , 11:59 a.m .
ET This article has been updated to include a statement from Neal ’ s campaign .

A progressive dark-money group hitting politicians over ties to corporate interests on Monday released an ad against Democratic Rep. Richie Neal of Massachusetts, accusing him of working to maintain President Donald Trump’s corporate tax cuts and highlighting his ties to the private equity firm, Blackstone.
“After Donald Trump cut corporate taxes, one of the wealthiest Wall Street firms, Blackstone, now pays nothing in federal taxes,” the new ad says. “Richie Neal introduced a bill that maintains Trump’s corporate tax cuts. Now, Blackstone is Richie Neal’s top funder. And one of Donald Trump’s too. Corporate power is corrupting Democracy. And Richie Neal is part of the problem.”
Trump’s 2017 tax bill reduced the top corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent. Democrats campaigned on rolling back the cuts, but when Neal, who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, introduced legislation last summer expanding tax cuts for low-income families, it didn’t touch the corporate tax rate.
Individuals from Blackstone have given $48,600 to Neal’s campaign this cycle, making the company his top contributor so far, out of a total haul of more than $3 million. Individuals from the group started giving to Neal in large amounts in 2019, HuffPost reported.
Released by Fight Corporate Monopolies, a political nonprofit founded by the anti-monopoly American Economic Liberties Project, the ad is the second this month going after Neal for his ties to Blackstone. In the first ad, the group criticized him for “protecting Blackstone’s profits” by helping to kill a bill to stop surprise medical billing last year. Neal’s campaign told HuffPost that he introduced his own bill on the issue and that the original bill would have hurt hospitals in his district. The group announced that it would spend a total of $300,000 on TV ads targeting Neal in his district. They spent $150,000 on the first ad buy, which will run for another week, and are putting another $150,000 into the second ad buy, starting Monday.
Former Bernie Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir is consulting for the group, which has so far only spent money on ads about Neal. Shakir said the group intends to focus on other races, such as those for attorney general, state legislative office, and other down-ballot seats, in primaries and in November general elections. (Shakir is married to Sarah Miller, the executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project.)
As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group, Fight Corporate Monopolies is not required to disclose its donors. Shakir declined to share who its donors are, stating that they have asked to remain anonymous but that a number of progressive foundations have contributed funds.
Morgan Harper, a Justice Democrats-backed candidate who unsuccessfully challenged Ohio Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty in April, is a senior adviser to the group.
“President Trump’s tax cuts did little for Richie Neal’s constituents, but they mean everything to the corporations backing his campaign,” Harper said in a statement. “Neal’s habit of putting corporate profits above people’s needs will only continue if he isn’t held accountable.”
In a statement, Neal’s campaign defended his work on the tax bill and went after Fight Corporate Monopolies, as well as Alex Morse, Neal’s primary challenger. “Fight Corporate Monopolies is a dark money shill for Alex Morse’s campaign, which we know because they have only targeted Richie and never let the truth get in the way of an attack ad,” spokesperson Kate Norton said in a statement. “The Economic Mobility Act is the most significant pro-work, poverty-reducing tax bill in at least a decade, period. This is the latest attempt to distract from Alex Morse’s failed record managing Holyoke.”
Alex Morse, mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, who is also backed by Justice Democrats, as well as Indivisible and the Sunrise Movement, is running to unseat Neal in the September 1 primary. His campaign has raised $518,880 so far and is highlighting Neal’s refusal to support Medicare for All or a Green New Deal. Morse has also gone after Neal for dragging his feet on trying to force Trump to release his tax returns, an issue that has drawn criticism from constituents as well. (The Supreme Court sent the issue back down to lower courts earlier this month.) Morse, who is rejecting corporate political action committee money, is also highlighting Neal’s corporate donors.
Neal is one of a number of powerful Democrats with strong ties to corporate interests and accepted the most corporate campaign money last year, Sludge reported. He has also been one of the Democratic caucus’s most stalwart opponents of Medicare for All. After a historic Rules Committee hearing last April on single-payer legislation, Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Pramila Jayapal secured a second hearing on the measure last June in front of the more powerful Ways and Means Committee. Ahead of that hearing, Neal urged his colleagues to avoid using the phrase “Medicare for All,” The Intercept reported.
Update: July 13, 2020, 11:59 a.m. ET
This article has been updated to include a statement from Neal’s campaign.