Good morning!

Here’s your Daily News for Monday, August 23.

 

1. New polling shows Ivey remains popular, leads in early reelection race

• Good news: we have some new polling to share.
• Every politico loves fresh polling, right? It’s like catnip to us.
• Alabama Daily News commissioned a survey last week with Cygnal testing several issues and races, and we’ll be rolling out the results over the next few days.
• Today’s first installment: Gov. Kay Ivey’s approval rating, the general view of the state’s direction and ballot tests for the races for governor and the Alabama Supreme Court.
• It’s important to note that this is a survey of Alabama Republicans, not the general electorate like our last poll.
• Why only poll Republicans? Well, that’s how you test a primary race, and there are a few important ones happening this year. Also, when it comes to issues, how Republican voters feel is going to drive the majority of legislators since that’s who elects them.
• So what is the takeaway from this first installment? Generally speaking, Ivey maintains a high approval rating and a big lead over potential opponents in her bid for reelection in 2022. Also, the race for Supreme Court is wide open.
• ADN Insiders can read the full polling results HERE.
• Not an ADN Insider? It pays to subscribe! See the various rates HERE.
• Stay tuned for subsequent poll questions and cross tabs to be released as the week goes on.

 

2. Latest from Afghanistan

• President Joe Biden says the “hard and painful” airlift of Americans and tens of thousands of others from Afghanistan’s capital is accelerating, but he would not rule out extending it beyond the Aug. 31 deadline he set before the Taliban’s swift takeover.
• In remarks at the White House on Sunday, one week after the Taliban completed their victory by capturing Kabul, Biden defended his decision to end the war and insisted that getting all Americans out of the country would have been difficult in the best of circumstances. Critics have blasted Biden for a grave error in judgment by waiting too long to begin organizing an evacuation, which became captive to the fear and panic set off by the government’s sudden collapse.
• In a statement later Sunday, a White House official said eight U.S. military flights — seven C-17s and one C-130 — evacuated about 1,700 passengers from Hamid Karzai International Airport in a 12-hour period ending at 3 p.m. EDT. In addition, 39 coalition aircraft took off with approximately 3,400 passengers, the official said.
• Since Aug. 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of about 30,300 people on military and coalition flights, the official said. Tens of thousands of people remain to join the airlift, which has been slowed by security issues and U.S. bureaucracy hurdles.
• Ryan Crocker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Biden’s management of the withdrawal was “catastrophic” and had unleashed a “global crisis.”
• Read more HERE.

 

3. Alabama beaches see 3 drownings in past week

• Officials say three people have drowned in waters off Alabama beaches in the past week.
• Two brothers perished in Gulf Shores last Tuesday after being pulled by strong currents, WKRG-TV reported. The third drowning happened Friday, when a wave knocked down a 19-year-old man in Fort Morgan. Searchers found his body a few hours later.
• Tourists to Alabama’s Gulf coast beaches say they’ve noticed the rough waters and are taking precautions. Tyler James of Kentucky said waves Saturday were throwing him “like a ragdoll.”
• Full story HERE.

 

4. Budget clash pits moderate Democrats against Biden, Pelosi

• Outnumbered and with their party’s most powerful leaders arrayed against them, nine moderate Democrats trying to upend plans for enacting President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar domestic program face a House showdown.
• All the rebellious group must do to prevail is outmaneuver the White House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and numerous progressive colleagues who’ve stood firmly against them. That’s no small task.
• The House reconvenes today in what Democratic leaders hope will be just a two-day interruption of lawmakers’ August recess. They want quick approval of a budget resolution setting up future passage — maybe this fall — of legislation directing $3.5 trillion at social, environmental and other programs over the next decade.
• That huge measure, largely financed with tax increases on the rich and big business, comprises the heart of Biden’s agenda and is progressives’ top priority.
• The moderates have threatened to oppose the budget resolution unless the House first approves a $1 trillion, 10-year package of road, power grid, broadband and other infrastructure projects that’s already passed the Senate. With unanimous Republican opposition expected to the fiscal blueprint, moderates’ nine votes would be more than enough to sink it in the narrowly divided House.
• Read more from Alan Fram HERE.

 

5. Southern Democrats aim to export Georgia’s success to Alabama, other states

• Stacey Abrams spent years telling donors that Democrats could win in Georgia if they would provide the money to build a statewide political operation. In 2020, Georgia finally delivered its 16 presidential electoral votes to a Democrat, Joe Biden, and sent two Democrats to the U.S. Senate.
• Other Southern states are now trying to follow, and Georgia is eager to help.
• The Georgia Democratic Party is combining forces with other state parties in the region for joint fundraising appeals, aiming to help those states make earlier-than-usual investments in voter registration and field organizing going into the 2022 midterms. Abrams’ Fair Fight organization, which has raised more than $100 million since its inception after her 2018 loss in the Georgia governor’s race, is readying for another round of spending as well.
• But party officials in the South agree that any future victories require a deliberate, long-term approach, and there’s plenty of realism in a region where national Democrats once-ballyhooed “50-state strategy” in the mid-2000s yielded few lasting shifts.
• “If Georgia had a 10-year rebuild,” said the Alabama Democrats’ executive director, Wade Perry, “then we’re in about year three.”
• Read more from Bill Barrow HERE.

 

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