Ross: Political lines blur over massive push for election reform
Mar 30, 2021, 7:11 AM | Updated: 10:29 am

(Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
(Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Democrats are hoping to gather a groundswell of support for their huge election reform bill, HR 1, which, among other things, requires organizations involved in elections to disclose the names of all their top donors.
Conservative organizations want to stop this, so they hired a consultant to find a message that might turn voters against the idea.
Well, of the consultant鈥檚 presentation, so here is Kyle McKenzie, the research director for a conservative group called Stand Together, sharing the bad news that election reform is really popular, and so conservatives should avoid debating it on the merits:
鈥淒on鈥檛 get into a fight on HR 1,” McKenzie cautioned. “Where they have the talking point 鈥楬R 1 stops billionaires from buying elections,鈥 unfortunately, we found that鈥檚 a winning message for both the general public and also conservatives.鈥
However, he had some good news, too.
鈥淭he one message that seemed to work: Congress has much bigger fish to fry,” he said.
And he named the big fish of “getting people back to work.”
Who knew that conservatives were ready to focus on two traditional Democratic issues. But that鈥檚 what their consultant recommends, at least as long as election reform remains a threat!
But that鈥檚 not the end of the story, because 鈥 and this is something the Democrats don鈥檛 want to say out loud 鈥 two of聽their favorite groups, Planned Parenthood and , also don鈥檛 like HR 1 as written because, like conservatives, they don鈥檛 want to disclose their big donors either.
And so we find ourselves in this mixed-up world where conservatives may end up supporting liberals on health care reform, and liberals could join conservatives opposing election reform 鈥 and easy slogans might have to give way to real negotiation.
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