Category: The Real Erik Paulsen

Dem leads GOP incumbent in Minnesota congressional race: poll

The following article by Michael Burke was posted on the Hill website September 10, 2018:

© Greg Nash

Democratic businessman Dean Phillips holds a 9-point advantage over incumbent Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) ahead of November’s midterm election in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District in results from new polling within the survey’s margin of error.

Phillips has the support of 51 percent of respondents, while 42 percent say they’ll support Paulsen, a poll conducted by The New York Times Upshot and Siena College found.

Paulsen has comfortably won elections for the seat since 2008, but the Cook Political Report rates the race as a “toss-up.”

View the complete article here.

Five takeaways from the NYT/Siena polls of Minnesota’s Third and Eighth Congressional Districts Email Facebook Twitter Print

The following article by Sam Brodey was posted on the MinnPost website September 10, 2018:

Credit: MinnPost

A fresh round of polls conducted by the New York Times and Siena College is offering the first clear glimpse into two of Minnesota’s highest-profile U.S. House races: the contests in the suburban 3rd District and in northeast Minnesota’s 8th District.

In CD3, the poll gave a big, nine-point advantage to Democratic candidate Dean Phillips, who is challenging six-term GOP incumbent Erik Paulsen. In CD8, an open-seat race, the poll found Democrat Joe Radinovich with a one-point lead over Republican Pete Stauber.

The NYT/Siena polls were carried out and completed over the weekend, and they featured an innovative twist: The results were posted live, with poll-watchers able to see who preferred Democrats or Republicans in real time. By the time the dust settled, the pollsters had called some 18,675 people in CD8 and actually spoke to 504 of them; in CD3, they contacted 21,046 and reached 500.

View the complete article here.

Trump Tax Law 2.0: Republicans Double Down On Tax Cuts For The Rich

The Trump tax law sent the deficit skyrocketing and gave a majority of the benefits to the richest Americans, while doing nothing for working families. Now, Republicans are doubling down on that unpopular law with more tax cuts for the wealthy.

The nonpartisan CBO says the deficit has skyrocketed by more than $200 billion over the last year, in large part because of Trump’s corporate tax cuts.

Axios: “The U.S. deficit grew by $222 billion from this time last year — reaching a total of $895 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office… This increase was due mostly to the new Republican tax law and Congress’ routine decision to increase spending, which grew by 7% compared to revenue growth of only 1%. The CBO says the deficit will approach $1 trillion by the end of Fiscal Year 2019.”

Washington Post: “Corporate tax receipts fell 30 percent in the past 11 months, the CBO said, precipitated by the large reduction in rates from the massive tax overhaul passed by Congress last year.” Continue reading “Trump Tax Law 2.0: Republicans Double Down On Tax Cuts For The Rich”

North Carolina Super PAC Supporting Erik Paulsen Tells People to Vote November 8th

As millions in out of state money pours in for Paulsen, conservative ClearPath Action Fund muddies the waters, confuses voters

Eden Prairie, MN – ClearPath Action Fund (CPA) is a super PAC based in Washington, D.C. and North Carolina currently running digital ads as part of a six-figure effort to support the reelection Congressman Erik Paulsen in MN03. CPA is financed with untraceable money from the ClearPath Foundation (CPF), a 501(c)(3).

Millions of dollars in outside spending by super PACs and untraceable dark money in support of Erik Paulsen will attempt to mislead, distract, and skew in his favor, but these digital ads on Facebook muddied the waters in a different way – by providing an incorrect date for Election Day.

This ad is just another example what can happen when outside spending by super PACs with no interest in what’s best for Minnesota are allowed to influence our elections. Continue reading “North Carolina Super PAC Supporting Erik Paulsen Tells People to Vote November 8th”

Our taxes are up 23 percent, thanks to Erik Paulsen

To the Editor:

Remember the Republican tax cut bill that Rep. Paulsen worked so hard to pass? It’s the one that massively cut taxes for corporations and the top 1 percent.

For us, it will mean a 23-percent increase in our taxable income and a 35-percent increase in our federal tax bill. We are retired and pay estimated taxes throughout the year. Our CPA did the arithmetic with the new tax bill and our 2017 income to figure out what we should be paying in estimated taxes for 2018 and he shared all the numbers with us. The result has been a 23-percent increase in our estimated tax payments; the final results are above.

We know this tax bill cut taxes for corporations and the top 1 percent; they are undoubtedly grateful to Rep. Paulson (sic). Wonder what it did for your 2018 tax bill.

Gwen and Mason Myers, Minnetonka
Minnetonka Sun-Sailor, September 10, 2018

Anti-Trump Fervor Puts Senate in Play

The following article by Shawn Zeller was posted on the Roll Call website September 7, 2018:

Democrats “definitely have a chance to win the Senate,” election analyst Nathan Gonzales tells CQ on Congress. He maps out where Democrats can pick up Senate seats in the midterm elections as well as which races they are most likely to lose.

View the article here.

Booker Orders Release of Kavanaugh-Related Email in ‘Act of Disobedience’

The following article by John T. Bennett was posted on the Roll Call website Septem

Sen. Booker dares Sen. Cornyn to start process to remove him from Senate

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., made a splash Thursday during the third day of Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination hearing. Credit: Bill Clark, CQ Roll Call

The third day of Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing began with fireworks: A senator dared another to try to kick him out of the Senate.

Potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Cory Bookerof New Jersey and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas jousted at the Thursday session’s start over the process by which the Judiciary Committee, National Archives, Justice Department and former President George W. Bush’s legal staff have been reviewing and clearing or withholding documents from Kavanaugh’s time working for the 43rd president.

Booker announced he had ordered his staff to release an email before it has gone through that process, saying he was knowingly violating a Senate rule that could lead to his removal from the chamber.

View the complete article here.

Chuck Todd scopes out Minnesota’s hot races

The following article by John Croman was posted on the Kare11.com website September 4, 2018:

Chuck Todd scopes out Minnesota’s hot races

WASHINGTON — Minnesota will attract intense attention from national Republicans and an outsized amount of campaign cash this fall, according to NBC’s Chuck Todd.

“I think the priority of national Republicans is two-fold in Minnesota. I think priority number one is the House seats. Priority number two is the House seats!” the Meet the Press host quipped in an interview with KARE recently.

“You have four House seats in play, and it’s one of the few states where Republicans can actually pick up House seats. There’s really nowhere else in the country are they actually playing on offense, other than in Minnesota.”

View the complete article here.

NEW POLL: 75% Of Americans Support Pre-Existing Condition Protections That Trump & Kavanaugh Would Dismantle

A new poll found that 75 percent of Americans, and 58 percent of Republicans, want to keep ACA protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Despite that, Trump filed a lawsuit to destroy these protections. Oral arguments in this lawsuit begin today, and it could be contested all the way to the Supreme Court. Which brings us to Trump’s Supreme Court nominee…

We know Kavanaugh would rule to dismantle the ACA, because Trump himself promised that his Supreme Court nominees would do that.

“If I win the presidency, my judicial appointments will do the right thing unlike Bush’s appointee John Roberts on ObamaCare.” – Trump, 2015

Kavanaugh previously wrote that a future president could refuse to enforce the ACA, even if it had been upheld by the courts.

New Yorker: “Late last year, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit voted, two to one, to uphold President Obama’s health-care reform, known as the Affordable Care Act (aca). Kavanaugh dissented, primarily on the ground that the lawsuit was premature. In a sixty-five-page opinion, Kavanaugh appeared to offer some advice to the Republicans who are challenging Obama in the election this year. ‘Under the Constitution,’ Kavanaugh wrote, ‘the President may decline to enforce a statute that regulates private individuals when the President deems the statute unconstitutional, even if a court has held or would hold the statute constitutional.’”

NOTE:  Rep. Paulsen has voted multiple times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which protects people from skyrocketing insurance premiums or no insurance at all due to pre-existing conditions.