PRESENTED BY THE POARCH CREEK INDIANS

1. Election update.

• Almost a week after the election and we are closer to knowing who won some of the nation’s closest contests.
• In Arizona, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema appears to have pulled away from Republican Martha McSally to win the Senate seat most called for the GOP election night.
• McSally was a uniquely appealing candidate and Sinema had plenty of gaffes, but some are saying the Republican’s embrace of Trump could have hurt her with independents and women in sprawling suburban Phoenix.
• In Florida, Rick Scott is battling to preserve his election night win over Sen. Bill Nelson. And, like all election struggles in Florida, it’s a knife fight.
• Election officials acknowledge fraudulent votes being batched in, yet they say it would be too hard to figure out how to extract them now. A provisional ballot from a non-citizen was previously ruled ineligible, which both campaigns agreed was the correct call.
• Meanwhile a recount is proceeding in counties not named Broward and Palm Beach. Which ballots are counted in those counties will probably come down to a court ruling, unfortunately.
• Should Scott retain his win, that would put the GOP’s Senate majority at 52 votes. That is likely to increase to 53 votes with a runoff in Mississippi.
• Retaining and growing the Senate majority is a big win for Republicans, but 53 is not 55 or 56. Montana, Arizona, Nevada and West Virginia are all big disappointments for the Senate GOP, and the map only gets harder for them in 2020.

2. Sotomayor christens Mobile-built ship

• Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor was in Mobile over the weekend to help christen the U.S. Navy’s newest ship: The USNS Puerto Rico.
• The ship was christened at the Austal USA shipyard, where it was built. Sotomayor broke a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow, a Navy tradition.
• The Puerto Rico is the 11th of 12 total Expeditionary Fast Transport ships Austal is on contract to build for the Navy. EFT ships are meant to transport 600 short tons of military cargo 1,200 nautical miles at an average speed of 35 knots.
• Justice Sotomayor is from New York and of Puerto Rican descent. She was revealed to be the surprise sponsor of the USNS Puerto Rico back in August when she helped lay the keel for the ship. The vessel is the first active ship in Navy service to honor the American territory of Puerto Rico.
• “This ship honors the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the contributions Puerto Ricans have made to our nation and Navy and Marine Corps team,” Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer said. “USNS Puerto Rico will provide our commanders high-speed sealift mobility and agility and I am thankful for this ship, her crew, and our industrial force teammates whose service makes this great ship possible.”
• Read more HERE.

A Message from The Poarch Creek Indians

• Being productive, staying connected and helping Alabama thrive are embodiments of the Poarch mission to create goodness out of what we have.
• That’s the message of the Poarch Creek Indians’ new advertising campaign that continues this week.
• Poarch’s 2018 campaign includes two much-anticipated commercials, “Land” and “Craft” — real stories about real people in the place they call home.
• Iconic images send hopeful messages about traditions, which fuel life and help lay the groundwork for a better future.
• Everyone that you meet on screen and in voiceover is Poarch Creek. All scenes and locations are authentic to the Tribe.
• Click here to watch the second spot, “Craft.”

3. Tense moments at State School Board.

• There were some tense moments at the end of last week’s State School Board work session.
• During her criticism of the Alabama Accountability Act, Board Member Ella Bell of Montgomery made the entire room uncomfortable by taking it down racial lines.
• “I’m black and I grew up in Montgomery, so I’ve seen all the tricks…”
• “You’re stealing the process and trying to destroy an entire race of people.”
• Rachel Blackmon Bryars of the Alabama Policy Institute takes issue with Bell’s criticism of the Accountability Act.
• Bell’s claims that the law is “stealing from the state” and “took money from the poorest counties in the state to send kids to private school” are way off base, she writes in an op-ed for Alabama Daily News today.
• She has numbers to back up her commentary, including from Bell’s own Montgomery County, where funding has increased even as enrollment has dropped.
• Read her full piece HERE.

4. Matthew Stokes: GOP rules Bama, but will ideas survive?

• Having had some time to process the election, ADN Columnist Matthew Stokes has some thoughts on what it all means.
• Republicans got drubbed in the U.S. House, but did well almost everywhere else.
• In Alabama, the GOP did really well. So well that it’s hard to find a path forward for Democrats after their best slate of candidates in years, he writes.
• Stokes also hopes Republicans’ success doesn’t lead the party to become complacent and abandon important education reforms.
• Here’s an excerpt:

• Read his full column HERE.

5. Headlines.

Front Pages (images link to newspaper websites, which you should visit and patronize)