2018 Presidential Election

[ajm8888]

www.foxnews.com

Friday, June 14th, 2019

Edwards former 82nd? Why didn't Seaborn know?!

Photos have emerged showing both White House Deputy Communications Director John Edwards & White House Press Secretary Cassie Tatum attending a commemoration ceremony for the 82nd Airborne's actions during Operation Overlord in 1944. What was perhaps the most surprising revelation are the photos showing Edwards in a United States Army uniform. Sporting Staff Sergeant's chevrons and an 82nd Airborne shoulder patch, questions have begun to arise about John Edwards' service in the United States Military. A man who is notoriously secretive about his private life, it seems that no one in the White House, including President Seaborn, knew that Edwards was a veteran.

Ribbons on Edwards' chest indicate that he has been awarded the Bronze Star w/ a "V" Device & a Purple Heart amongst other decorations and ribbons. While sources inside the Pentagon have confirmed Edwards' service record, it still seems to have completely taken the White House by surprise that one of its senior staff is a combat veteran. Also present at the event was former Vice President John Hoynes and his wife Suzanne. Hoynes, who has served a mentor and father figure to John Edwards, confirmed that he knew about Edwards' service history, stating "of course I knew, I've known Johnny for most of his life."

The revelation that Edwards served in the 82nd Airborne also seems to have shed new light on the President's snub of the 82nd Airborne during his D-Day Address last week. While the White House had confirmed the speech was written solely by Communications Director Mark Sterns, somehow now raised the question of why Edwards was not part of the speechwriting, and if Mark Sterns did, in fact, know if his deputy was a veteran of the "All-Americans".

Both Cassie Tatum and John Edwards have refused to comment.

 

[WestWingNut]

Good to see the anger machine of Fox News is alive and well in the West Wing universe.

 

[Marky Bunny]

BBC.CO.UK/Politics
Saturday June 15th 2019

Kendrick ponders Labour Leadership bid

Labour Shadow Chancellor Oliver Kendrick has said in an pre-recorded interview to be broadcast on the Andrew Marr show tomorrow morning that he is "pondering" to enter the race for Labour leader once the new rules for electing a new leader are confirmed. The NEC meets this coming Monday to discuss a possible new voting system for electing the leader.

The 35 year old said he backed Andrea Benn's decision to stay on as leader until the rules have been changed. "It is clear that we need change in how we elect our leader. I wasn't even born we adopted the electoral college in 1981". On the issue of the leadership he added ""In opposition - every bit as much as in government - politicians need to set out what they believe in, what their goals are, and what their compass will be".

Mr Kendrick has enjoyed a series of rapid promotions since first being elected to the House of Commons at the 2013 General Election. In Andrea Benn's first Shadow Cabinet reshuffle in January 2016 he became Shadow Secretary of State for the now defunct department of "Administrative Affairs" before being promoted in May 2017 to Shadow Education Secretary the following May. After the General Election defeat last September he was promoted to Shadow Chancellor.

Party Chairman Jack Coll remains the bookies favourite, ahead of former Chancellor Daniel Lamont, Kendrick himself, former Foreign Secretary Rachel Lilburn and Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Ruth Butler. One of the early favourites Patrick Brazil, the Shadow Foreign Secretary announced that he would not seek the leadership due to "family reasons".

 

[MountainDew17]

Atlantis Cable News

Democratic Primary goes to recount in Oregon

Portland, Oregon- With the two candidates separated by only a handful of votes, the Oregon State Board of Elections has ordered a hand recounting of the votes in the Democratic Gubernatorial Primary. After a full recount, Mayor DiSarro appeared to be ahead by a few dozen votes, which was far below the threshold needed to avoid a recount. Mayor DiSarro's campaign has protested this decision, but those protests have fallen on deaf ears. The Board of Elections has set a deadline of 5pm PST Friday for the recount to be completed.

 

[lord caedus]

Saturday, June 15th 2019

Hollis breaks silence on election, Seaborn campaign

Billionaire Franklin Hollis, the most recent Democratic Party vice presidential candidate, spoke publicly for the first about the 2018 election campaign and the Seaborn campaign in an interview with Harper's magazine. In an interview that was released in their July 2019 article, the former vice presidential nominee expressed his disappointment with his brief dalliance in politics and with unnamed members of the Seaborn campaign that he felt "focused more on their own agendas, [rather than] the campaign's goals."

Hollis, who founded the technology giant Inksoft and whose $90 billion net worth makes him one of the richest men in the world, says that he quickly felt that he had been used by people around then-senator Sam Seaborn for his large personal fortune and that he had been "blitzkrieged" by those within the party who were upset at his selection as Seaborn's running mate. "It became clear very quickly that there were people within the campaign who felt that the [vice-presidential] nomination should have gone to either Thorn or Robinson, and that I was some sort of interloper," Hollis says. "Rather than what I had been lead to believe the campaign's strategy would be after I came on-board, there was a constant fight in the top levels, with people I brought in and who supported me, like C.J. and Jordan [Cregg and McLaurin, who now serve as a senior advisers to the President] trying to get the others to work together while they went off in their own direction," Hollis said. "I had the feeling that Mark [Chorley, the campaign manager] was just trying to keep everyone together. It was a mess."

When pressed, Hollis admitted that he was "out of his element" in the political arena. "A lot of my problems were self-created," he said. "I come from a background where we don't have to consider every single word or phrase carefully for how it could be perceived by this demographic or that one. So I made a lot of mistakes." Another issue he lays at his own feet was that he wasn't willing to accept criticism of his businesses, even when they merited them. "I'm proud of my track record as a businessman. It took me decades of hard work to get to where I am today, and so understandably, when people go after the company I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into, I get a little defensive...Even if politically, the situation warranted me looking at an issue not as one of the creators of Inksoft, but as a candidate for the vice presidency, I couldn't bring myself to do it."

The issue of the mass defection of Democratic electors from his candidacy and the subsequent Senate vote is one that he says "hurt a lot less than the reports of people scratching my name off [the ballot, which some say led to the delay in certifying Minnesota's electoral votes for Seaborn]", but he had heard rumblings of a "dump Hollis" movement before November. "It makes sense for the [Democratic] party establishment to try and show their disapproval of me, but I'm still baffled as to what they thought they were accomplishing by making Jack Hunter vice president."

Hollis says that he has no plans to return to politics or government. "Not even if they came to me tomorrow on bended knee."

He and his wife, Kate, remain high-profile supporters of the Democratic Party, with Kate Hollis being a vocal supporter of the Civil Rights Act of 2019. Hollis says that he has no plans to change his party registration, and that he "will almost certainly" support the president and whomever he chooses as his running mate in 2022. "I have a deep respect and affection for the president," Hollis says. "He took a risk on me and I'll always be grateful for that. We're certainly lucky as a country to have someone like him in charge."

The White House declined to respond to any of the criticisms or comments Hollis made about the Seaborn campaign or certain campaign staff.

 

[Marky Bunny]

BBC.CO.UK/Politics
Tuesday June 18th 2019

Labour confirms new leadership voting system and timetable for contest

The Labour party has confirmed it's new voting system and timetable for the election of a new leader. The decision came after an near hour twelve hour meeting of the NEC in London yesterday.As expected the NEC voted to change the system of electing the leader of the party. At the end of the meeting current leader Andrea Benn formally tendered her resignation. She will remain as leader until September.

Under the former system, a three-way electoral college chose the leader, with one-third weight given to the votes of the Parliamentary Labour Party (i.e., Labour members of the House of Commons and Labour members of the European Parliament), one-third to individual Labour Party members, and one third to the trade union and affiliated societies sections. Following the meeting yesterday, the electoral college has been replaced by a pure "one member, one vote" system. Candidates are elected by members and registered and affiliated supporters, who all receive a maximum of one vote and all votes are weighted equally. This means that, for example, members of Labour-affiliated trade unions will now need to register as a Labour supporter to vote. To stand, candidates will now need to be nominated by at least 15% of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), 39 MP's. The vote, as in previous elections held under the electoral college will be held under the alternative vote (instant-runoff) system.

It was also confirmed at the meeting that Deputy Leader Bryan Atkinson will be staying on in that post and so there will be no election for Deputy leader.

Nominations for Leader will open tomorrow (June 19th) and will close at midday this coming Monday, June 24th. The formal "hustings" period of the cabinet will open on Wednesday June 26th. Wednesday August 14th will be the last day to join as member, affiliated support or registered supporter and be able to vote. Ballot papers will be sent-out two days later on Friday August 16th. In a surprise move the result will not be announced at the Party Conference at the end of September, it will in stead be announced at a special conference to be held on Saturday September 14th. The ballot is to close two days prior to the special conference at midday on Thursday September 12th.

 

[Marky Bunny]

BBC.CO.UK/Politics
Wednesday June 19th 2019

Lilburn first to declare in Labour leadership race

The former Foreign Secretary Rachel Lilburn is the first to declare in the Labour leadership election after nominations formally opened at 9.am today. Lilburn who was Foreign Secretary in the Green Government between 2007 to 2009 before she was forced to resign due to injuries sustained during a failed terrorist attack in 2009.

Lilburn returned to the Labour front bench in 2014 as Shadow Work & Pensions Secretary under Andrea Benn's leadership but was sacked in the January 2016 reshuffle. Lilburn told a hasty arranged press conference held amongst a scrum of journalist and TV cameras that she " was ready to lead the party back into Government. I can build on Andrea's work, and lead us back into office". She said she was "confident" that she can get the required 39 nominations from MP's.

The bookies favourite Party Chairman Jack Coll is expected to confirm his candidacy on Friday. Former Chancellor Daniel Lamont held meetings with backers in the Trade Unions of the course of the last two days. Informed sources have told the BBC that he will get into the race, despite running and finishing fourth out of five candidates back in 2014. The other two expected candidates Shadow Chancellor Oliver Kendrick and Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Ruth Butler have also been meeting with supporting MP's. A decision from both is likely by the end of the week. Nominations close on Monday at noon.

 

[Marky Bunny]

Former Foreign Secretary and MP for Newcastle Upon Tyne Central Rachel Lilburn

(photo by Amanda Burton-Previous casting from 2009)

 

[lord caedus]

San Andreo is historical drama done right

The series lambastes the laziness and negligence that led to a near-meltdown and the cost borne by those who lived through it

June 19, 2019


Before the release of HBO's San Andreo, most observers would have said that releasing a limited series on a streaming service in the middle of June was foolish. Even more foolish, those observers would have likely said, would have been to make such a series with no clear main character and with an ensemble cast of largely-unknown actors. Then, in one of the most unwise moves of all, these critics would have said, have its subject be the worst nuclear disaster in US history.

The success of the three-episode limited series stands to the excellence of both its actors and its writing. With executive producer and head writer David Harper opening the series with the failure of the water pump in Reactor #3 of the San Andreo Nuclear Generating Station on October 11, 2006 that begun the crisis, we are drawn immediately into the crisis much like those involved were. Things start slow and build to a crescendo in the first episode: from a serious, but manageable problem that those in the control room view the situation as in the opening minutes, until at the end of the episode fifty minutes later when (spoilers) a scientist at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission discovers that the radiation level near the damaged valves has reached lethal levels, meaning they underestimated how close to a meltdown the reactor is.

From the heroic sacrifices of James Cooke (Matt Gourley) and Mark LaRoche (Matt Besser) to the physicians noting a spike in thyroid cancer in infants and children in the years immediately after the incident, the series never strays far from the cost of the accident in the latter two episodes. But, starting with the third episode, it pulls no punches when laying out exactly who was responsible for it: politicians who rushed the plant's construction and who let the Department of Energy atrophy in the quarter-century between Three Mile Island and San Andreo and the corporate executives of CalVista who stonewalled regulators, cut costs whenever possible, and who omitted details on self-administered inspections to avoid paying fines or being forced by regulators to invest in new equipment.

The show is hard to watch not just for the fact that the end (spoilers again) has no one going to jail—the closest thing to justice is that the executives of CalVista lose their jobs and have to fork over millions of dollars in settlement money with the state of California years later. It also shows, in horrifying detail, the effects of acute radiation sickness suffered by Cooke and LaRoche, and the nightmarish vent system (the "Steam Cooker") they and the second team of Jim Collins (Ryan Ahern) and Micky Perez (Jeremy Sisto) worked in.

While San Andreo might be too intense and disheartening to be considered "essential viewing", it is important for what it says about the disaster that many of us remember vividly. It says that San Andreo should not be remembered for how it damaged Arnold Vinick's presidential campaign, or, as a warning against nuclear energy. It says that San Andreo should be remembered for what it was: a story of human and institutional failings and the suffering that results from them.

------------------------------​

OOC: This was inspired by Chernobyl (which I recommend, but be warned, it can get intense). The director is fictional while all the actors are real people. Cooke and LaRoche are named (but do not appear) in the show and Cooke is mentioned to have died at the end of the episode. Since LaRoche was mentioned as having acute radiation sickness and is likely to have absorbed a similar amount of radiation, I figured he survived longer, but died within a few weeks of going in to fix the valves.

Doing even some light reading after watching Chernobyl, it's clear that whoever wrote "Duck and Cover" (the episode where San Andreo has its near-meltdown) either didn't know or didn't care about accurately giving measurements of radiation (the characters use "milligrams" and "reps", neither of which are actual measures of radiation) or how much radiation it would actually take to kill someone in less than a day like Cooke was in the show; the quickest death from acute radiation sickness I've found is a little more than one week and that was with someone exposed to way, way more radiation than could possibly be present in San Andreo.

 

[Marky Bunny]

BBC.CO.UK/Politics
Thursday June 20th 2019

Oliver Kendrick launches Labour Leadership Campaign

The Shadow Chancellor Oliver Kendrick launched his Labour leadership campaign this morning. It was a rather more organised and professional launch than Rachel Lilburn's announcement yesterday, speaking to journalists on College Green.

The venue was the headquarters of the Fabian Society in London and commentators believe it was a polished start for the youngest and most inexperienced of the probable contenders for the leadership. Kendrick received a major boost when he was introduced by the Shadow Foreign Secretary Patrick Brazil, and who himself was considered as a likely contender, before announcing due to family reasons he would not be seeking the leadership. "I give Oliver my warmest endorsement, he is the man we need, to continue the renewal of our great party".

At the start of the speech, the addressed issues of his age and inexperience head on "Now there are some who say I’m a bit too young. Some who say I’ve just been in Parliament for just over five years, maybe I don’t have the experience to do the job. Some say that I should until next time wait my turn. And in some ways they’re right. I am only thirty five years old, I have only been in the Shadow Cabinet for just over three years. But I believe that if you’ve got the right ideas and the right passion and belief , and if you know what this Party needs to do change, you have to put your name forward, so today I can confirm that I will be seeking the leadership of the Labour Party".

 

[Marky Bunny]

Shadow Chancellor and MP for Hemsworth, Oliver Kendrick

(photo by Bradley James)

 

[lord caedus]

OOC: TFW you realize that the Tenth Doctor endorsed someone other than the Ninth Doctor for a position previously held by the Twelfth Doctor, so that they can get put into yet another position held at one point by the Fifth Doctor

 

[lord caedus]

OOC: I'm skimming through the old threads to compile complete the cabinet secretary lists for every president since Carter. I've noticed that while the "big" cabinet departments (State, Treasury, Defense, Justice) have had their leaders listed, it gets sparser once you go down the list. So I figured that it was time some of the less well-known agencies get their rosters filled out. There's about ten different Cabinet agencies whose full leaders lists haven't been done, so I'll do a few at a time.

Secretary of the Interior
1981-1983: James G. Watt (Reagan)
1983-1985: William P. Clark Jr. (Reagan)
1985-1987: Calvin P. Gjerde (Reagan)
1987-1991: James Mejia (Newman)
1991-1999: Robert Rosiello (Lassiter)
1999-2007: Bill Horton (Bartlet)
2007-2011: Tracy Clendon (Santos)
2011-2019: Chris Carrick (Walken)
2019-0000: Sean Boone (Seaborn)

Rosiello was the earliest-established Interior Secretary, and was pointed out by Toby as someone who "tried to sell Alaska back to Russia" during the flight to Owen Lassiter's funeral. Horton appeared on the show, while Clendon, Carrick and Boone all appeared as secretaries in the thread.

Gjerde was Reagan's third Interior Secretary after his first (Watt) resigned after making crude and racist remarks in a speech and his second (Clark) decided to leave after Reagan's re-election win. Gjerde was promoted from within the Department of the Interior and served ably under Reagan and Acting President Bush before retiring upon Reagan's abbreviated second term ending.

Mejia was the governor of New Mexico who lost re-election the same day D. Wire Newman was elected president. As a consolation, Newman offered Mejia the Interior position, making him the first Latino to serve in the Cabinet.

Secretary of Transportation
1981-1983: Drew Lewis (Reagan)
1983-1987: Liz Bodine (Reagan)
1987-1991: Denise Byers (Newman)
1991-1995: Drew Benton (Lassiter)
1995-1999: Sally Levin (Lassiter)
1999-2011: Jill Keaton (Bartlet & Santos)
2011-2017: Lila Martinez (Walken)
2017-2019: Michael Jack (Walken)
2019-0000: Matt Skinner (Seaborn)

There's only one new addition to this list, with Byers having had her infobox done (which is where Bodine and Benton were mentioned) and the last four secretaries having appeared in office in the thread.

Sally Levin was promoted from head of the Federal Highway Administration after Lassiter's first Transportation Secretary left after the 1994 election. She was part of the long period (from 1983 until 2017) where the Department of Transportation was led by a woman for all but four of 24 years.

Secretary of Energy
1981-1982: James Edwards (Reagan)
1982-1987: Paul G. Berman (Reagan)
1987-1991: Everett Peterson (Newman)
1991-1995: Kenneth Steinbach (Lassiter)
1995-1999: Shirley Nash (Lassiter)
1999-2000: Ben Zaharian (Bartlet)
2000-2004: Bill Trotter (Bartlet)
2004-2007: Gerald Deloit (Bartlet)
2007-2011: Felix North (Santos)
2011-2012: Xavier Bertrand (Walken)
2012-2019: Alexis Howard (Walken)
2019-0000: Joan Tanner (Santos)

Every Energy Secretary since Zaharian was shown or mentioned in either the show or thread.

Paul G. Berman's selection to replace James B. Edwards (who resigned less than two years into his term to serve as president of the Medical University of South Carolina) was a bit head-scratching. Berman was a former Department of Transportation official whose only connection to the energy industry was that he was from the oil-producing state of Oklahoma. Critics then and now say Berman was a figurehead who was meant to rubber-stamp the rollback of whatever renewable energy investments the Carter administration had made, and allow the national energy plan to be written by industry lobbyists.

Everett Peterson was a former state legislator and high-powered attorney from North Carolina who President-elect D. Wire Newman selected to reevaluate the nation's energy policies. With opposition from Congress and the oil lobby, Peterson only succeeded towards the end of his time in office, when the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait reminded Americans of their reliance on foreign oil.

Kenneth Steinbach was an energy executive who was one of Lassiter's first Cabinet selections. Steinbach put in four years, then returned to the private sector. He would eventually be charged with several counts of fraud and perjury after an FBI investigation into the energy lobby during the Bartlet administration, but died of a sudden heart attack before he could be brought to trial.

Nash was Steinbach's deputy at Energy and was promoted when her boss opted to leave public service after Lassiter's first term. She is known mainly for being the first female Energy secretary.

 

[Marky Bunny]

BBC.CO.UK/Politics
Friday June 21st 2019

Lamont to hold a "Peoples Rally" on Saturday to announce Labour Leadership bid

Former Chancellor Daniel Lamont has confirmed it he will be seeking the Labour leadership at a "Peoples Rally" to held in his constituency on Saturday.
Lamont ran for the leadership five years ago, but finished in fourth place. Since that defeat Lamont has gained support with Labour supporting younger voters following the success of his published book " "Ending Greed, a new socialist Society".

"I am going to run and tomorrow I will be putting my vision forward for the Labour Party and the next Labour Government" Lamont put on his Twitter feed early this morning.

 

[Arrowfan237]

What are Seaborn’s approval ratings looking like now?

 

[MountainDew17]

Atlantis Cable News

BREAKING NEWS

MCCOLL DECLARED WINNER IN DEM PRIMARY

Portland, Oregon- Oregon Deputy Secretary of State Parker Phillips announced just minutes ago that following a 2nd recount, Secretary of State Candice McColl has defeated Portland Mayor Mitch DiSarro by a margin of 58 votes. "As Deputy Secretary of State, i hereby certify this result of this election. Ms. McColl is the winner."

The fact that Candice McColl is the incumbent Secretary of State, the very office that oversees the election process, has not been lost on anyone, and it is expected that the DiSarro Campaign will be filling suit within the next few days.

On the Republican side, incumbent Governor Walter Collins was unopposed in his primary. Governor Collins is still heavily-favored in the upcoming general election.


ACN Oregon Gubernatorial Poll

Governor Walter Collins- 58%
Secretary of State Candice McColl- 36%
Other/Undecided- 6%

 

[lord caedus]

What are Seaborn’s approval ratings looking like now?

He's consistently in the high 50s, sometimes hitting 60% approval.

 

[lord caedus]

OOC: Second of third in a series of complete Cabinet secretary lists

Secretary of Agriculture
1981-1986: John R. Block (Reagan)
1986-1987: Bernard L. Knowles (Reagan)
1987-1991: Reggie Thornton (Newman)
1991-1995: Gail Conner (Lassiter)
1995-1999: Lenny Parker (Lassiter)
1999-2005: Roger Tribbey (Bartlet)
2005-2007: Griffin Murphy (Bartlet)
2007-2011: Jonathan Bartlet (Santos)
2011-2015: Larry Shanks (Walken)
2015-2019: Peggy Wade (Walken)
2019-0000: Karen Kroft (Seaborn)

Tribbey (who appeared in the show) and the four most recent Ag secretaries were all previously established.

John Block's departure to become a lobbyist led to one of the few changes to the Cabinet made by Acting President Bush. Bush opted to promote Block's deputy, Bernard L. Knowles, to serve out the remainder of Reagan's term.

President D. Wire Newman's selection of Reggie Thornton to head the Department of Agriculture was full of historical significance. Thornton was the first African-American Agriculture secretary, the son of an Arkansas sharecropper who lost a very close race for Congress during the same election Newman had defeated Joseph Furman. Thornton's tenure saw the end of the farming crisis that had rocked the Great Plains throughout the 1980s.

Gail Conner, in contrast to her predecessor's background in law and politics, was a career lobbyist for agribusiness concerns who had befriended former governor Lassiter. While she personally was not accused of malfeasance, ethics investigations were launched into several members of her office towards the end of her tenure, resulting in Lassiter opting to accept her pro forma resignation upon the expiration of his first term.

Lassiter selected former South Dakota senator Lenny Parker, who had turned down a Cabinet offer from Lassiter in 1990, to replace Conner for his second term. Parker had a major heart attack in 1998 and spent two months in recovery while deputy secretary Jerry Schue ran the department as acting director.

Following Roger Tribbey's resignation in 2005 to return to his native Nebraska and organize the party's statewide campaign in 2006, President Josiah Bartlet selected Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture Griffin Murphy to replace him. Murphy was the last Cabinet secretary to be appointed by Bartlet.

Secretary of Health and Human Services
1981-1983: Richard Schweiker (Reagan)
1983-1987: Orrin Kimball (Reagan)
1987-1991: Madeleine Singer (Newman)
1991-1999: David Konrad (Lassiter)
1999-2007: Marcus Heath (Bartlet)
2007-2011: Kate Espenson (Santos)
2011-2019: Sarah Newbury (Walken)
2019-0000: Stan Hale (Seaborn)

Every secretary from Espenson to Hale was either established in the show or in the thread. Konrad was mentioned as being a former HHS secretary who was involved in Walken's 2010 campaign. So three new additions.

Following Richard Schweiker's resignation, Ronald Reagan selected Utah Congressman Orrin Kimball as his replacement. After his tenure in government, Kimball would later rise to a prominent position in the Church of Latter-Day Saints, which his distant cousin Spencer Kimball was president of during the first two years of Secretary Kimball's term at DHS.

Madeleine Singer was an academic who had been serving as provost of Stanford University when she was chosen to be the Health and Human Services secretary. She was known for her disdain of electoral politics and frequent exasperation with members of Congress who she deemed to be posturing or trying to score political points rather than provide serious oversight (which was most of them).

Marcus Heath was the president of the University of Wisconsin-Madison when he was chosen to be Josiah Bartlet's Secretary of Health and Human Services. His most noted act, paradoxically, was his absence during the Zoey Bartlet abduction crisis, being in Europe at a conference with other health ministers and secretaries. He gave Secretary of Education Jim Kane his proxy vote during the Cabinet meeting where President Bartlet invoked the 25th Amendment.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
1981-1987: Samuel Pierce (Reagan)
1987-1991: David Eastman (Newman)
1991-1996: Alan Broderick (Lassiter)
1997-1999: Preston Gonzalez (Lassiter)
1999-2001: Deborah O'Leary (Bartlet)
2001-2007: Bill Fisher (Bartlet)
2007-2011: Ross Kassenbach (Santos)
2011-2015: Peggy Wade (Walken)
2015-2019: Samuel Ellis (Walken)
2019-0000: Mark Richardson (Seaborn)

No HUD secretary before O'Leary was ever established, compared to all six including her and afterwards.

David Eastman, head of the New York City Housing Authority, was recommended to President-elect Newman by New York Governor Mario Cuomo and was the last member of Newman's initial cabinet to be selected.

Alan Broderick, an up and coming Florida Republican, impressed candidate Lassiter during the 1990 presidential campaign and was rewarded with control over HUD. After being persuaded to stay on after Lassiter's re-election, Broderick resigned in late 1996 to (successfully) campaign for the position of Republican National Committee chair. After a brief term as RNC chair, he was appointed to the Senate before resigning in disgrace in 2004.

To replace Broderick, Lassiter chose Preston Gonzalez, longtime political adviser and understudy of Texas Governor Ronald Gennings in an effort to groom the younger man for future high office. Gonzalez's brief tenure at HUD would derail that plan, as he promptly began an affair with a HUD staffer that would lead to his very public divorce less than a year after leaving office.

 

[Marky Bunny]

BBC.CO.UK/Politics
Saturday June 22nd 2019

Coll launches leadership bid via You tube video

Each of the contenders for the Labour Party leadership have launched their bids in differing ways this week. Rachel Lilburn outdoors to a scrum of press, Oliver Kendrick with a slick launch at the headquarters of the Fabian Society. Ruth Butler announced via a tweet late yesterday evening, with Daniel Lamont holding a out door rally this afternoon, whilst the front-runner with pollsters and the bookmakers Party Chairman Jack Coll posted a You tube video.

The video's shows Coll hard at work in his constituency in Chorley, talking to local residents, "I have to travel to London to be an MP, and do my job for the party, but I love returning to the north, we should always remember that the country will always have a north". The video which was uploaded at 6.am this morning has not gone down well on social media "This is the best the so-called front-runner can do?" asked one user on You Tube, whilst another said "Bizarre campaign lunch from Coll, always have a north,what does that mean, very weird".

Coll, Lamont, Kendrick and Butler are all expected to get the required thirty nine nominations from MP's to stand, but it is understood that Rachel Lilburn is struggling to do so. At the moment it is understood she only has twelve nominations so far. Nominations close at Midday on Monday.

 

[Marky Bunny]

Two more of the declared Labour Leadership contenders

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, MP for Leigh, Ruth Butler

(photo by Kate Winslet)
Labour Party Chairman, MP for Chorley, Jack Coll

(photo by Christopher Eccleston)