Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com Look at the recent Political Notes and Len’s Letters on the website.
New England: 6 States, 12 Senators, 21 Members of Congress. All Members of the House and all but one of the Senators are Democrats (or Independents who caucus with the Democrats)
US House of Representatives competitive races
CT 05 Political Note #454 Incumbent Democrat Jahana Hayes v ex State Senator George Logan for this D+3 or toss-up seat.
ME 02 Political Note #406 Incumbent Jared Golden vs Former Representative Bruce Poliquin for this R+10 District won twice by conservative Democrat Jared Golden.
NH 01 Political Note #385 Incumbent Democrat Chris Pappas vs one of seven Republicans competing for this seat where Republicans have not finished redistricting but have plans to change this seat from a toss-up to a Republican leaning seat.
US Senate. Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire have Senate races in 2022. Only New Hampshire appears competitive.
New Hampshire. Political Note #359 Incumbent Democrat Maggie Hassan vs one of three or more Republicans competing for the nomination.
Governor The races in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont are unclear.
Connecticut. Incumbent Democrat Ned Lamont vs Businessman Bob Stefanowski
Maine. Political Note #407 Incumbent Democrat Janet Mills vs Former Governor Paul LePage
Massachusetts. Attorney General Maura Healy vs one of two Republican possibilities for this Open Republican Seat.
Note links: Political Note links are to Lenspoliticalnotes. Links with names are to candidates’ websites.
031722 Political Note #454 Jahana Hayes CT 05
2022 General Election
Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District and Connecticut’s Second Congressional District are bookends. In the east, Joe Courtney’s Connecticut 02 covers about one third of the state – from the Massachusetts border on the north to the Connecticut shore. In the west, Jahana Hayes’ https://jahanahayes.com Connecticut 05 covers a little less area because it doesn’t reach much of the shoreline – enough, though, to include Sandy Hook. Both districts are moderate; both are toss ups with just the slightest +3 Democratic lean.
You can give to Joe Courtney. He needs enough to run a campaign. He prides himself on his ability to work with Republicans. When he was in the state legislature, he won an award for that. In 2022, he doesn’t have much opposition. He started 2022 with a million dollars in the bank. His probable Republican opponent had less than one tenth of that. He has been winning elections handily since 2008. He lost in his first run in 2004 and won by 83 votes in 2006. The recount had cut his margin in half.
Jahana Hayes’ situation is more precarious. She was first elected in 2018 and was reelected in 2020 – both times by low double digits. She is an African American woman; the first African-American woman to represent Connecticut in the House of Representatives. She represents a district with fewer than 10% African Americans. She describes herself in her website as an advocate of immigration reform, gun violence prevention, veteran issues, social justice, transportation, and working in a bipartisan way to bring positive change to the lives of every.
Note Jahana Hayes’ comment on bipartisanship. That is important in a district with a D+3 lean. She got into a real fuss with the local newspapers during her first term when they described her as a possible member of the Squad. Jahana Hayes saw that description as inaccurate, as dangerous to her chances for reelection, and problematic for her ability to work effectively in Congress. Local politicians were shocked when she lit into the local press. The public was not offended. She was reelected by 12 points. She will have a more serious challenge in 2022.
Jahana Hayes came to prominence when she was named national teacher of the year. The route to that prominence was a hard one. Daughter of a single mother; daughter of a single mother with addiction problems, they lived in public housing and nearly lost their apartment. Education was Jahana’s salvation, she recalls. And she nearly lost that. Seventeen years old, she found herself pregnant, a situation which she thought to herself at the time as not being unusual. The school took her out of honors classes; took her out of the school building and sent her elsewhere to their program for teen mothers. She lost the stimulating classes that kept her going. The schooling she loved was replaced with classes intended to help girls graduate from high school.
Jahana Hayes recalls a guidance counselor who kept her on track, who kept her in school, who helped her get a job while remaining focused on the possibility of higher education. She wasn’t going to Yale or Wesleyan or Connecticut College. She went to Naugatuck Community College, then to Southern Connecticut State University. She got a Master’s Degree from the University of Saint Joseph and another degree from the University of Bridgeport. She came full circle and was teaching at John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury. When she was elected to Congress, she was married to a cop, to a Detective and still had $85,000 outstanding in student loans.
Jahana Hayes taught for fifteen years without a thought about becoming a politician. Interviewed by the Hartford Courant, she said the most important thing about her teaching was making the connection with students. “[S]tudents don’t learn from people they don’t like.” Interviewed by Ellen Degeneres, she said she taught her students “kindness” and “service.”
In Congress, Jahana Hayes has been on the Agriculture Committee working on issues related to nutrition and on livestock (they have cows in Connecticut). She has been on the Education and Labor Committee working both on civil rights matters and on K-12 education. Before Marjorie Taylor Greene was removed from all of her committees, Jahana Hayes circulated a letter among her colleagues to persuade them not to seat Greene on the education committee because she had claimed mass school shootings, including the one at Sandy Hook, were false flags.
Jahana Hayes is prepared for the 2022 election. She began 2022 with $1.4 million dollars in the bank. Her opponent, former State Senator George Logan had much less — $170,000. An African-American himself, a lot of Republican money will be spent on his behalf. Some has already been spent. The Republicans think they have an issue. A recent advertisement compared Jahana Hayes with corrupt Connecticut politicians because she paid two of her children for working on her campaign.
Jahana Hayes explains. Her daughter was a scheduler. Her son provided digital support for her social media and virtual meetings. Their work and pay has regularly been disclosed. Each of their pay, at a rate of $15 per hour, has been part of her campaign filings. And it is true, that over the years, pay of $15 per hour can add up to thousands of dollars. He opponent describes Jahana Hayes as bringing up her children in a culture of entitlement.
The Republicans will undoubtedly have more dubious claims to make against Jahana Hayes. She’ll need the resources you can send her. Help her teach the Republicans a little about what “kindness” means and what “service” means. People in her district like her and, with messaging that reflects who she really is, will continue to like her and to vote for the candidate they like. Jahana Hayes https://jahanahayes.com is a teacher after all.
Organizations to support that are not part of the Democratic establishment.
Focus for Democracy https://www.focus4democracy.org. They don’t ask for money for themselves, but recommend and run fund raisers for evidence-based programs that measure results
Fair Fight https://fairfight.com Stacey Abrams organization to support fair elections
The New Georgia Project https://newgeorgiaproject.org A non-profit registering voters.
The New North Carolina Project https://newnorthcarolinaproject.org A non-profit registering voters. I had a great conversation with their Executive Director
The New Pennsylvania Project https://www.newpaproject.org A non-profit registering voters.
The Lincoln Project https://lincolnproject.us. Ex Republicans with tough messaging.
Democratic Party Establishment Organizations to support
The Democratic National Committee (DNC). https://democrats.org
The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC) https://www.dscc.org
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) https://dccc.org
The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) https://democraticgovernors.org
The Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA) https://dems.ag
The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State (DASS) https://demsofstate.org
The Democratic (State) Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) https://dlcc.org
National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NRDC) https://democraticredistricting.com Led by Eric Holder
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