Tangle - Election Day.

Episode Date: November 2, 2021

In today's Tangle, we're taking a break from our usual format to take a look at some of the elections happening today. We're also answering a reader question and we have your usual quick hits, a story that matters, and have a nice day sections.Our newsletter is written by Isaac Saul, edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.The podcast is edited by Trevor Eichhorn, and music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.You can support our podcast by clicking here.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages 6 months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police

procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. From executive producer Isaac Saul,

this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking without all that hysterical nonsense you find everywhere else. I am your host, Isaac Saul. And on today's episode, we are doing something a little different. Today we have a special edition for you. It is election day in many places across the U.S. And while there aren't any big national races, there are a lot of interesting state and local races and ballot measures that we are keeping an eye on and that we want you to know

about. So today we're going to break that down as our main story. We're going to have some quick hits for you. We're going to do a reader question and a story that matters and all the usual stuff, but none of the left and right and my take stuff that we usually do. This is more about just making sure you know what's going on out there in the political world today. So hope you enjoy it. As always, first up, we'll start with the quick hits.

First up, the Supreme Court seems inclined to allow abortion providers to challenge Texas's new law that essentially banned abortion after six weeks. Number two, more than 100 countries made a pledge to end deforestation at an international climate change summit in Scotland yesterday. Number three, Senator Joe Manchin, the Democrat from West Virginia, once again bucked party leadership yesterday, saying he was not committed to voting for the Build Back Better bill just days after President Biden said he was getting everyone on board. Number four, the ex-wife of Pennsylvania Senate candidate Sean Parnell, a Republican, testified under oath yesterday that Parnell choked her and abused their children when they were married. 5. Eleven Republican senators asked President Biden to halt his administration's talks to settle lawsuits filed on behalf of immigrant families who say they suffered trauma after being separated at the border. All right, that's it for our quick hits today, which brings us to the main story, and that is Election Day here in November 2nd, Tuesday, all across America. So as many of you know, the big election news today is the governor's race in Virginia,

where Republican Glenn Youngkin and Democrat Terry McAuliffe are in a dead heat in the polls. We covered the Virginia election last week and noted how this will give us a better idea of the mood of the country than any other race happening this fall. The economy, COVID-19 protocols, education issues, trans issues, inflation, they're all on the ballot and at the center of this race. But Virginia is not the only big election happening today. In fact, there are dozens of fascinating races, big, small, and some with historic implications happening around the country that are worth keeping an eye on. In New Jersey, there is another high-profile governor's race between current Governor Phil Murphy and Republican challenger Jack Cittarelli. Like Virginia, New Jersey holds its statewide races in the year after presidential elections, so it gets some extra attention. While Murphy

appears to be in a commanding position, in 2009, New Jersey elected Republican Chris Christie just a year after the state swung huge for Barack Obama, and pollsters are very curious to see how it shakes out after Biden's victory this time. No Democrat has won re-election as governor since 1977, so even though Jersey has gone blue in presidential races for the last three decades, there's plenty of reason to believe this race is much tighter than it might look. In today's newsletter, you can read NPR explaining the history behind New Jersey and Virginia's odd year elections, an endorsement of Phil Murphy, the Democrat from the Philadelphia Inquirer, or the New York Post endorsement of Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican candidate. In New York City, America's most populous city, residents will

be electing their next mayor. Eric Adams, who won the Democratic primary, is the heavy favorite in a city that has a 7 to 1 Democrat to Republican ratio. The former police officer and current Brooklyn Borough president looks primed to become the second black mayor in the city's history after running on a campaign that centered on curbing crime and improving quality of life issues. He's up against Republican Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels. You can read the New York Times endorsement of Adams in today's newsletter as well as a a profile of Curtis Lewa. Across the state of New York, voters will cast ballots on five major initiatives. One is a proposal on redistricting

that will ensure non-citizens are counted in the census and that incarcerated people are counted at their last residence, not in the prison where they reside. A second proposal would give New Yorkers a constitutional right to clean air, water, and a, quote, healthful environment, setting off a battle between environmentalists who want more legal power and state legislators who say that the language of the proposal is too broad. There are also important election reforms being proposed. After the 2020 election, New York came under fire for its voting rules that were in many ways as restrictive as states like Georgia and Texas, despite many New Yorkers viewing those states' laws as overly burdensome. Now there are ballot measures to change that. One would allow same-day voting registration and

voting. Another would allow no-excuse absentee voting. Finally, there is also a measure to increase the limit on monetary damages for claims filed in New York City civil courts from $25,000 to $50,000. In Pennsylvania, there are mayoral races in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, a district attorney's race in Philadelphia, and a number of school board races with culture war issues like critical race theory and the 2020 stolen election, quote-unquote, at the center of the conversations. Perhaps most importantly, the hugely influential state Supreme Court has an opening that will be filled. In Ohio, there are two congressional seats up for grabs, one in the 11th district and one in the 15th district. Former Vice President Mike Pence campaigned in the 15th district for coal lobbyist Mike Kerry, who was also endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Kerry is the favorite in the GOP-leaning district, but he's running against two-term Democratic State Representative Alison Rousseau, who Joe Biden endorsed on Monday. In the 11th congressional district, Democratic Councilmember Chantel Brown and Republican business owner Laverne Gore are running to replace Marsha Fudge, who stepped down to become Biden's housing secretary after 13 years in Congress. Brown is heavily favored in that race. after 13 years in Congress. Brown is heavily favored in that race. In Florida, 11 Democrats are vying for Representative Alcee Hastings' seat in what might be the biggest toss-up of any race happening today. Prior to his death from pancreatic cancer, Hastings was the longest-serving member of Florida's congressional delegation. South Florida's 20th district is heavily Democratic, so the primary special election is considered the race that will determine his successor. In Atlanta, Georgia, former Mayor Kasim Reed and City Council President Felicia Moore are favorites in a field of 14 candidates for mayor. Current mayor Keisha

Lance Bottom shocked the political world when she announced she would not seek a second term, and now all 14 candidates are competing in what is probably the ugliest race of the week. If no single candidate earns a majority of the vote, there will be a runoff on November 30th. In Boston, Michelle Wu is running as an acolyte of Elizabeth Warren and leading the mayoral race by 30 points. Her top opponent, former city councilwoman Anissa Asabi-George, is a more moderate Democrat. Nisa Asabi George, is a more moderate Democrat. No matter what happens, Boston, now a majority minority city, is about to have its first woman and first person of color elected as mayor. Buffalo, Seattle, and Cleveland all have mayoral races that include showdowns between the more progressive or socialist left candidates and more moderate centrist Democrats, each with lots of

drama and fairly competitive races. While the pandemic slowed down the rate of state ballot measures, there are no shortage of interesting ballot measures to keep an eye on today. Here are a few that caught my eye given their relevance to the larger national In Texas, voters will consider a constitutional amendment that prohibits the state or elected officials from prohibiting or limiting religious services of religious organizations. This is a response to some of the stay-at-home orders issued during the pandemic. The state will also consider Proposition 6, which would codify the right of long-term care residents to designate an essential caregiver for in-person visitation. In Austin, Texas, voters are being asked whether to increase the city's police department in response to a crime wave. Proposition A would require the city to hire at least two police officers for every 1,000 residents.

Question A would require the city to hire at least two police officers for every 1,000 residents. In Minneapolis, voters are taking on some of the major police reform questions that have taken the nation by storm. The question on the ballot there will ask voters if they want to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with the Department of Public Safety that employs a comprehensive public health approach and could also use peace officers. Minneapolis is also considering a ballot measure to allow the city to institute rent control for the first time. In Cleveland, voters are considering Issue 24, which would establish a community police commission whose members would have final authority over the police department's policies, hiring, training, and disciplinary action. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases.

What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages 6 months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes

a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. Supporters argued it would ensure accountability of police while opponents say it gives too much power to unelected people with no police training or expertise. In Detroit, the city council is considering reparations with Proposal R, a ballot measure that would establish a task force to recommend housing and economic programs that address historical discrimination against the black community in Detroit. In Greenbelt, Maryland, voters are considering a 21-member commission to

review, discuss, and make recommendations a 21-member commission to review, discuss, and make recommendations on local reparations for African American and Native American residents. In Tucson, Arizona, Proposition 206 will propose a $13 minimum wage in 2022 that rises to $15 by 2025. In Philadelphia, voters will have a chance to amend the city charter and urge the Pennsylvania state legislator to legalize cannabis for recreational use across the commonwealth. In Bellingham, Washington, voters can vote to prohibit the police department from inquiring or using facial recognition technology. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, Proposal B lets voters decide

if they want ranked choice voting in the mayoral and city council elections when Michigan authorizes the new voting method. In Maine, voters will see an amendment declaring all individuals have a natural, inherent, and unalienable right to grow, raise, harvest, produce, and consume food of their own choosing. In New Jersey, voters will consider question number one, which will allow state residents to bet on college sports. Speaking of gambling, voters in Richmond, Virginia are going to approve or shoot down the construction of a new 250-room luxury hotel and casino along the I-95 corridor. Colorado, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington are also voting on 10 statewide tax-related ballot measures, with everything from increasing the tax on marijuana to reforming antiquated state tax codes up in the air. There are dozens of other hyper-local ballot

measures happening today too, including some in California, Wyoming, Idaho, New Mexico, Georgia, and Florida. You can find links is it for today's main story. That brings us to our reader question for the day. This one comes from Terry in Florida, who asks, what do you make of all this? Let's go Go Brandon stuff? All right. So I think it's rather silly and overblown. And frankly, I'm kind of tired of the oxygen it's taking up, but it is hard to ignore. It's all over social media. There are questions about it in my inbox. So I'm going to respond for the uninitiated. Let's Go Brandon

is code for fuck Joe Biden. We're allowed to curse on this podcast. I apologize for the language, but it's the news story. It was popularized during the NASCAR race in early October when Brandon Brown, who had won the race, was being interviewed by NBC's Kelly Stavas. The crowd broke into F Joe Biden chants, which Stavast apparently thought were let's go Brandon chants for Brandon Brown, the race car driver who had just won. And she said on the broadcast, you can hear the chants from the crowd. Let's go, Brandon. The moment to many on the right was emblematic of all the things wrong with the media. It's detachment from what people were actually saying or feeling, the protection of Joe Biden, and so on.

Immediately, the whole thing became a meme, and then t-shirts and hats and slogans were born. It was just an easy way for people to say F Joe Biden without being censored, so they could just say, let's go Brandon, and everybody knew what they meant. The entire thing went from inside joke to national headline after a Southwest pilot said let's go Brandon when he signed off of a flight last week. By sheer miraculous coincidence, an Associated Press reporter who is flying from Houston to Albuquerque to report on the let's go Brandon phenomenon was actually on the flight when the pilot did this. Then she dutifully reported out the scene, including alleged gas from fellow passengers. Naturally, the Twitter left then had a total conniption,

doing everything from comparing it to a pilot saying long live ISIS to referring to the pilot as an extremist to suggesting passengers on the plane were somehow unsafe because this pilot was flying them around. So yes, we are all getting dumber by the day. What do I think? I think it says a lot about the maturity of certain right-leaning Americans that they think it's clever to curse out the president in coded language. And I think the left has an incredibly short memory given how gleefully they all rejoice in the F Donald Trump mantra literally just 12 months ago. The pilot deserves a slap on the wrist for announcing a political view to his passengers. But the idea he put anyone in danger or must be an extremist or did the equivalent of saying long live ISIS is just absurd. He made a stupid joke.

He's paying for it. It was a big mistake. Anyway, the most interesting thing about this whole story, again, I just want to emphasize, is that an Associated Press reporter was covering the Let's Go Brandon meme, literally overheard this on her own flight. I just can't get over that. The odds of that seem incalculably low. Anyway, that's it for today's reader question. If you want to ask a question, you can email me, Isaac, I-S-A-A-C, at readtangle.com. All right, that brings us to our story that matters for today. This one is about a morning

consult poll I saw in Politico this morning, and it basically shows that the most popular items in President Biden's proposed Build Back Better plan, those items, it turns out, were actually the ones that got cut from the framework Biden laid out last week. Adding dental and vision to Medicare, allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, and providing free community college were all atop the poll in terms of what people chose as their top five policy thing they wanted, along with paid family leave and medical leave, which was also very popular. But none of them have made it into the final framework, which I just think is really important. I mean, it basically means that Democrats have let this opportunity to pass some very, very popular

things sort of slip through their fingers, at least according to this poll. All right, on to our numbers for the day. We don't have a main story that is just, you know, one specific topic. So I got to pull some interesting numbers that I just found that were sort of unrelated to the main topic from all over the internet. The first one is $8.8 million, which is the total operating expenses filed by Cyber Ninjas, the company that conducted the election audit in Maricopa County, Arizona. Remember them? Yeah, they said it cost $8.8 million to conduct that election audit.

Yeah, they said it costs $8.8 million to conduct that election audit. $543,000 of that was the amount they spent on travel, which I have to say is just a little bit nuts considering that the audit happened in a single county in Maricopa. 90 is the number of countries who are expected to sign a pledge to reduce methane emissions today. 74,504 is the total number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States yesterday. 1,309 is the total number of new COVID-19 deaths in the United States yesterday. 1% is Glenn Youngkin's lead over Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor's race, according to a 538 polling average that came out this morning. 3538 polling average that came out this morning. All right. And finally, our have a nice day story. This one is about workers' wages. While inflation remains a serious issue, one saving grace right now is that wages are rising quickly too. In the three months ending in September, wages jumped by

the most they have in 20 years, a sign both of workers' growing ability to demand higher pay and of inflation's broader impacts on the labor market. Pay increased 1.5% in the third quarter, according to the Labor Department. Wages are still lower than inflation-adjusted pre-pandemic wages, but economists are optimistic that as inflation slows, wages will keep rising, giving workers a long-desired and overdue pay bump. The Associated Press has a great story about this that came out a couple days ago. All right, everybody, that is it for today's podcast. As always, if you are interested in supporting our work, you can find a link in the episode description to become a monthly pledge

donor person and spread the word. Tell your friends about us. Click that five-star rating. Do whatever you can to help us out because we need it. We're a small but efficient army. Thank you all very much, and we'll see you tomorrow. Our newsletter is written by Isaac Saul, edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle's social media manager, Magdalena Bokova, who also helped create our logo.

The podcast is edited by Trevor Eichhorn, and music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. For more from Tangle, subscribe to our newsletter or check out our content archives at www.readtangle.com. Thank you. Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages 6 months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at FluCellVax.ca. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown.

When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.