All posts tagged: Campaigning

In L.A. mayor’s race, everyone is campaigning on change — even the incumbent

In L.A. mayor’s race, everyone is campaigning on change — even the incumbent

Published by Sam Flores

Mayor Karen Bass has had a lengthy political career, spending six years in the state Legislature, 12 years in Congress and the last three in the top elected office at Los Angeles City Hall. Now, facing the toughest reelection battle of her career, Bass is marketing herself in a way that might surprise some Angelenos: She’s running as a champion of change. And she’s not alone. City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who has represented a Hollywood Hills district since 2020, says her last-minute decision to enter the race was fueled by “a sense of urgency that things needed to change.” Three other major candidates, all political newcomers, argue that an outsider is needed to shake up the status quo. “We can no longer keep our city together with duct tape and slurry,” said Rae Huang, a leftist community organizer, at a recent candidate forum on housing and transportation. The race to embrace the mantle of change in the June 2 primary election comes at a moment of political peril for Bass, a veteran Democrat who has …

Silicon Valley Tech Workers Are Campaigning to Get ICE Out of US Cities

Silicon Valley Tech Workers Are Campaigning to Get ICE Out of US Cities

Published by skeptic

The first Trump administration, and the tech industry that stood up to it, are both looking quainter by the day. Here’s one example: In 2017, when President Trump issued a series of executive orders instituting a travel ban on foreigners from certain countries (predominantly Muslim-majority ones), people from across the United States vigorously protested the policy. They included some of tech’s most elite: Google cofounder Sergey Brin, who joined a demonstration at the San Francisco airport; Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who wrote a company-wide email outlining “legal options” that Amazon was considering to fight the ban; and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who took to Instagram to describe his own family’s immigrant roots. How times have changed. On Saturday, hours after federal agents shot and killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti in the streets of Minneapolis, several prominent tech executives attended a private White House screening of Melania, a documentary being released by (of course) Amazon MGM Studios. The timing was not lost on the group of Silicon Valley workers who recently launched ICEout.tech, essentially an open …

Reform MP Savaged For Campaigning In The Wrong Constituency

Reform MP Savaged For Campaigning In The Wrong Constituency

Published by Sam Flores

Lee Anderson has been torn apart after it emerged he had been campaigning in the wrong constituency ahead of the Gorton and Denton by-election. The Greater Manchester seat became vacant last week when its MP, former minister Andrew Gwynne, resigned on health grounds. The Greens, Labour and Reform UK are now locked in a three-horse race to win the by-election, which will take place on February 26. But Reform MP Anderson’s attempts to connect with voters in the seat got off to the worst possible start. According to photos he posted on X, the Ashfield MP actually spent the weekend campaigning in the neighbouring constituency. The Reform chief whip was pictured outside Stanley House Function Rooms – a building which is in former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner’s Ashton-under-Lyne constituency – with party supporters. But Anderson’s caption read: “Gorton & Denton. A cold but productive day in what will be a hotly contested seat. Reform UK fear no party. Bring it on.” Rayner spotted the error and told the Mirror: “Farage’s Reform can’t even find …

‘Shakespeare in Love’ Reinvented Oscar Campaigning in 1998: Flashback

‘Shakespeare in Love’ Reinvented Oscar Campaigning in 1998: Flashback

Published by Daniella Wilson

Nearly three decades before Hamnet‘s depiction of William Shakespeare‘s personal life sparked awards buzz, Oscar voters swooned over a film that showed the Bard as having some swagger. Shakespeare in Love was set up at Universal in the early 1990s; the studio hired Edward Zwick to direct Marc Norman’s script about the playwright’s fictionalized love affair that led him to pen Romeo and Juliet. Zwick enlisted Tom Stoppard for a rewrite, and Universal accepted the scribe’s $1 million salary request once Julia Roberts was attached to star as Viola. The film had not yet found its Shakespeare when production began in 1991; Daniel Day-Lewis was Roberts’ top choice but passed. Roberts ultimately exited the project, leading Universal to shut down production despite sunk costs of $6 million. After Zwick’s success with 1994’s Legends of the Fall, Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein aimed to revive Shakespeare in Love. Weinstein acquired the rights but then hired John Madden to direct, with Zwick retaining a producer credit. Kate Winslet was among those considered for Viola before Gwyneth Paltrow got …