103120 Lens Letters #33 What should the Democrats do about the Federal Courts?
Joe Biden’s Commission should propose an expansion of the District Courts and the Circuit Courts of Appeals.
Political Note #333 State of the House
Looking at Toss-up seats the prospects for the House of Representatives are not promising. They could lose 8 seats. Maybe more.
Women Candidates for Whom Donations Could Make a Difference
A reader asked. Can you put together a list of 30 candidates for the House of Representatives for whom donations would make a difference? Some Senate candidates, too?
Political Note #309 Amy Kennedy NJ CD 02
Amy Kennedy, it turns out, is good at politics.
Political Note #293 Tom Malinowski. NJ CD 07
Tom Malinowski is a different kind of guy.
Political Note #248 Jeff Van Drew NJ CD 02
Jeff Drew is a conservative Democrat, one of the two Democrats to oppose proceeding with impeachment. He is, however, a ferocious organizer on behalf of Democrats in a Republican area. He got himself elected as State Senator and then Congressman. He got Democrats elected to the NJ House as well.
Political Note #117 Tom Malinowski NJ CD 07
Tom Malinowski interned for New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley. He went west for university and earned a Rhodes Scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley. He worked for New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then left to earn an M.Phil. from Oxford. He worked for the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and then the Ford Foundation. He worked in the State Department writing speeches for Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madelaine Albright. Under Clinton he became Senior Director of the National Security Council managing international communications and writing foreign policy speeches for the President. With Democrats out of office, he became the head of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch. For over a decade, he was a leading opponent of the US use of torture, of tyranny in Myanmar, and of groups like the Taliban.
Political Note #147 Andrew Kim NJ CD 03
Andy Kim is the son of poor immigrants from Korea. They expected a lot of him and got a lot. He went to the unusual and rigorous Deep Springs two year College and then to the University of Chicago where he earned a Truman scholarship. He went to Oxford, earned a Rhodes and a PhD. He went from Oxford to Washington and Kabul. He worked with generals in Afghanistan, then as he Iraq Country Director for the State Department and the Director for Iraq at the National Security Council.
Political Note #100 Bob Menendez NJ US Senate
Bob Menendez is back. He originally entered politics fighting corruption in Union, New Jersey. He has returned to his position as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. is vulnerable. Federal prosecutors have just dropped plans for a second corruption trial after the first one ended with a hung jury. Dropping the second corruption trial does not guarantee that Bob Menendezwill have an easy time being reelected. Some people claim there is fire where there is smoke.
Political Note #94 Mikie Sherrill NJ CD 11
Mikie Sherrill A graduate of the Naval Academy, she flew helicopters in the Middle East and in Europe. Married to a fellow Annapolis graduate, they now have four children. A Russian desk officer for the Navy in London, she added a Master's Degree from the London School of Economics. A graduate of Georgetown Law School, she has served as a prosecutor in the US Attorney's Office in New Jersey. She has proved to be a strong candidate and has raised a lot of money.