Cooper's Eye on the Left: Is Pelosi poison for Democrats in 2018?

Freshly minted 2018 United States House candidates aren't ready to proclaim wholehearted support for Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Freshly minted 2018 United States House candidates aren't ready to proclaim wholehearted support for Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Mum's the word

It's a small sample size, granted, but the Washington Free Beacon has bad news for U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Only one in 20 Democratic House candidates would say they were willing to vote for her to remain the head of their party's delegation.

Only Kia Hamadanchy, a former Senate staffer who is running for Congress in California's 45th District, said she'd be willing to vote for her fellow Golden Stater. Another candidate said they would not vote for her, and 18 declined to say. However, one might assume if those 18 supported her, they'd be willing to say it for the record.

Several current Democratic House members already have said the party must have new leadership if it is to remain viable. With Pelosi as its head, the party lost its minority status in 2010 and hasn't come close to a majority since. Many feel the party's only current message is opposing President Donald Trump, and many believe that won't be a winning strategy in 2018.

Background work

The last Republican mayor of Detroit left office in 1962, and the bedraggled city is not about to elect one in Tuesday's election. What they have a 50-50 chance of doing, though, is electing one with a felony on their record. Only 15 percent of the city's 673,000 residents have one, but four of the eight mayoral candidates do.

The crimes for which they were convicted were for drugs, weapons or assaults, according to a Detroit News analysis. Two also had charges for assault with intent to commit murder. The incidents occurred as far back as 1977 and as recently as 2008.

Michigan election law allows convicted felons to vote and run for office as long as they are not incarcerated or found guilty of certain fraud-related offenses or crimes involving a breach of the public trust.

Tuesday's election will be the first since the city emerged from bankruptcy in 2014. Voters will narrow the field to two candidates who will face off in the fall.

"Black marks on your record show you have lived a little and have overcome some challenges," said Greg Bowens, a former press secretary to former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer and an NAACP activist. "They (the candidates) deserve the opportunity to be heard, but they also deserve to have the kind of scrutiny that comes along with trying to get an important elected position."

The two leading candidates, incumbent Mayor Mike Duggan and state Sen. Coleman A. Young II, son of the city's first black mayor, do not have criminal records.

That lynching? Never mind

Black Lives Matter of Minneapolis and Black Lives Matter of St. Paul recently ran with incomplete reports of a man who committed suicide by hanging himself in a public parking area, suggesting the man's hands were tied behind his back and that he'd been lynched.

"They still killing us and we still killing each other," a Facebook poster wrote, including three photos from the scene that included the victim and nearby police officers.

The post was shared 6,000 times. And despite a coroner's announcement that the man had taken his life, Black Lives Matter St. Paul disputed it, sticking with the lynching story.

Finally, police released a statement and photo of the victim's sister, who said her brother "struggled with mental health." Further, the man's hands were not tied behind his back, and he, like his sister, was white.

To the group's credit, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis did apologize.

"We would like to apologize to the family of Micheal Bringle for sharing those photos & also retract our statements regarding what happened ...," the Facebook post began. "As more information came out & Mr.Bringle's family came forward it became clear that this was an unfortunate incident caused by mental illness. We are sorry if our post offended anyone & hope that folks see we were simply echoing the questions and concerns that community members had."

Bless them. They were just concerned citizens - trying to stir up anger and hate.

Think like us, or else

Four members of the Santa Monica Symphony, including two University of California-Los Angeles professors, say they will refuse to play in an upcoming performance because its guest conductor holds what they termed "horribly bigoted positions" as support for traditional marriage and opposition to open borders.

Professors Andrew Apter and Michael Chwe say in a public letter that Dennis Prager's personal beliefs "normalize bigotry in our community," maintain Prager "is not a trained conductor" and claim his appearance has "no musical rationale."

The guest conductor, a radio talk show host, said in a National Review op-ed that he has been studying classical music since he was in high school and that conducting orchestras is his little known pastime. He does so, he said, because he wants to raise funds for local orchestras and expose as many people as possible to classical music. He said he has never been paid to conduct.

"It is not enough to prevent conservatives from speaking," Prager said, calling the move a "new low" for the left, "it is now necessary to prevent conservatives from appearing even when not speaking. Conservatives should not even be allowed to make music."

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