The New York Times - USA (2020-10-15)

THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020 Y A

Election

The coronavirus pandemic up-
ended Pamela Walsh’s life. It shut
down her office, leaving her work-
ing at home from a folding table. It
forced her to turn her dining room
into a Zoom classroom for her 7-
year-old son. And the virus pro-
pelled a still more unlikely
change: It led Ms. Walsh to run for
public office.
“It wasn’t even on my radar
screen,” said Ms. Walsh, 47, a polit-
ical adviser in Concord, N.H., who
has long worked for Democrats
but never before considered seek-
ing elective office herself. Months
of supervising elementary school
lessons from home, with little idea
of when her son would return to
school, convinced Ms. Walsh that
she should vie for a seat on her lo-
cal school board.
“I decided I needed a voice like
mine on the board,” Ms. Walsh
said in a phone interview, which
she muted periodically as her son
called out for her and at one point
thumped a bat on a chair. “Every-
one is struggling right now a bit
and needs to be represented by
how these policies impact real
families.”
By some measure, all politics is
virus politics in 2020, and the fed-
eral government’s handling of
Covid-19 has become an explosive
issue in the presidential race,
which has been further compli-
cated by President Trump’s own
hospitalization for the virus.
Yet around the nation, there are
local and state races in which the
pandemic has also taken an out-
size role. In some cases, the virus
has been the reason for running;
in others, handling of the pan-
demic has become the defining is-
sue, eclipsing ordinary matters of
taxes and services.
The virus — and the govern-
ment’s response to it — has in-
spired parents, hair salon owners
and others to run for the first time,
turned sleepy races into competi-
tive matches and injected a level
of unpredictability and rancor into
normally tranquil down-ballot
contests.
“This is an issue that no one ex-
pected to be one of the pillars of
this election, but it has clearly be-
come one,” said Robert Griffin, re-
search director for the Democra-
cy Fund Voter Study Group, which
is partnering with academics at
the University of California, Los
Angeles, to poll about 6,000 Amer-
icans each week leading up to the
election.
Mr. Trump’s own bout with
Covid-19 only intensified some of
the debates over the issue in lower
races. “If you, Mr. President, have
the best health system in the
world and bodyguards and the
whole thing, and you still get it,
what does that say for us at the lo-
cal level who are trying to figure
out what to do with our children?”
asked José Luis Bedolla, 50, who
said he was motivated to run for
the school board in Berkeley,
Calif., because of the pandemic.
Candidates’ own cases of the vi-
rus have created all sorts of uncer-
tainty for political races, yanking
campaigns off the trail and into
quarantine during crucial weeks
and confounding political strat-
egists, who have little precedent
to lean on as they try to figure out
how voters will respond.

In North Carolina, a race that

could help decide control of the

United States Senate was thrust

further into limbo this month

when Senator Thom Tillis, a Re-

publican, tested positive for the

coronavirus after attending a

White House ceremony. At the

same time, his opponent, Cal Cun-

ningham, is contending with a tex-

ting scandal.

In Missouri, where average

new daily cases have risen sixfold

since mid-June, the governor’s

race is being defined in no small

part by the pandemic. Gov. Mike

Parson, the incumbent Republi-

can who is leading in the polls, had

resisted requiring people to wear

masks and at times campaigned

without one. Then last month, he

came down with the virus himself.

As Mr. Parson was sidelined, his

Democratic opponent, Nicole Gal-

loway, wished him well while also

soliciting donations in an effort to

remind voters of their dueling po-

sitions on the virus. An online ad

showed her wearing a blue mask,

side-by-side with a barefaced Mr.

Parson.

“Governor Parson has failed

this test, and it’s apparent,” Ms.

Galloway said in an interview. An

accountant by training and the

current state auditor, she has

made public health a key issue in

Zoom appearances, uses elbow-

bumps on the campaign trail, and

has said she will issue a mask re-

quirement if elected.

Elsewhere, conservatives have

made their opposition to man-

dates on masks and business clos-

ings the center of blossoming

campaigns.

In Washington State, a small-

town police chief has made Gov.

Jay Inslee’s handling of the pan-

demic a top issue in a long-shot bid

to become the state’s first Republi-

can governor since the 1980s. The

chief, Loren Culp, has criticized

Mr. Inslee, a Democrat, as a “job

killer” and is drawing a contrast

by holding rallies where masks

are not required.

In Texas, a salon owner who

was jailed this spring for defying

shutdown orders quickly became

an anti-lockdown hero for the po-

litical right. The owner, Shelley

Luther, spoke at rallies, gave Sen-

ator Ted Cruz a haircut and

donned a T-shirt emblazoned with

the popular Texas rallying cry

“Come and Take It” — except in

place of a cannon, there was a

blow dryer.

Now, Ms. Luther, a former high

school teacher who has never held

public office, is running as a Re-

publican for a seat in the Texas

State Senate.

She has put Gov. Greg Abbott’s

handling of the pandemic and his

virus-related restrictions at the

forefront of her campaign. The

outrage over her jailing was so in-

tense that Mr. Abbott, a fellow Re-

publican, softened his own shut-

down orders and removed con-

finement as a punishment.

Running in a largely rural Re-

publican district northwest of Dal-

las, Ms. Luther has called Mr. Ab-

bott “our tyrant governor” at cam-

paign events. One of her ads

showed the black-and-white secu-

rity footage of the moment she

was handcuffed as she looks into

the camera and says, “I fought

back, and they backed down.”

And then there was this wrin-

kle: Her main opponent, a Repub-

lican lawmaker, State Representa-

tive Drew Springer, was sidelined

for days during the race; he had to

quarantine after his wife tested

positive for the virus. Ms. Luther

won 164 more votes than Mr.

Springer during a recent special

election, and the two are now in a

runoff set for December, to repre-

sent Prosper, Texas, a Dallas sub-

urb that is one of the fastest grow-

ing areas in the state.

Restrictions to control the

spread of the virus — or the lack of

such restrictions — have become

motivating factors in races of all

sizes.

Adrian Perkins, the mayor of

Shreveport, La., had no plans —

and no money — to run for United

States Senate at the start of this

year. But he grew increasingly

frustrated as the coronavirus

swept through his city, sickening

thousands and leaving many oth-

ers unemployed. He tried order-

ing everyone to wear masks but

got sued for that.

So Mr. Perkins, a 34-year-old

Army veteran and Harvard Law

School graduate, began a last-

minute, long-shot bid to go to

Washington, where he felt he

could have more sway. He an-

nounced his candidacy in July, two

days before the registration dead-

line.

“No sane person launches a

Senate campaign on purpose with

just 110 days,” said Mr. Perkins, a

Democrat who is running to un-

seat Bill Cassidy, the senior Re-

publican senator from Louisiana.

(Mr. Cassidy, a medical doctor,

tested positive and recovered

from the coronavirus this sum-

mer.)

Mr. Perkins’s campaign says he

has raised $1 million in just a few

months, but his odds are long. His

opponent, who had more than $

million on hand by the time Mr.

Perkins entered the race, has a

solid lead in a mostly red state.

But the long shot is worth it to

Mr. Perkins, who grew up in

Shreveport and described the fed-

eral government’s missteps in re-

sponse to the pandemic as the rea-

son for his campaign.

“Without the coronavirus, I

wouldn’t be running,” he said,

adding, “It’s people’s lives that

were on the line.”

Pandemic in Politics:

It Rouses Candidates,

And Defines Debate

Nicole Galloway, top right, the state auditor in Missouri, made the virus a centerpiece of her campaign against Mike Parson, top left,

the Republican governor. She said he “has failed this test, and it’s apparent.” Above left, Adrian Perkins, the Democratic mayor of

Shreveport, said he was motivated to challenge Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican, by the fast spread of the virus in his community.

MELINDA DESLATTE/ASSOCIATED PRESS ANNA MONEYMAKER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

ELIZABETH FRANTZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

‘Everyone is struggling right now a bit and needs to be represented by how these

policies impact real families.’

PAMELA WALSH, who is running for a seat on her local school board

JEFF ROBERSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS CHARLIE RIEDEL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

By SARAH MERVOSH

and MANNY FERNANDEZ

The Biden campaign on
Wednesday rejected a New York
Post report that Joseph R. Biden
Jr. had met with an adviser to the
Ukrainian energy company asso-
ciated with his son Hunter Biden,
a claim based on material pro-
vided by Republican allies of Pres-
ident Trump who have tried for
months to tarnish Mr. Biden over
his son.
In a statement, a spokesman for
the Biden campaign, Andrew
Bates, said that Mr. Biden’s official
schedules showed no meeting be-
tween Mr. Biden and an adviser to
the board of the Ukrainian energy
company Burisma, on which
Hunter Biden served. The Post
story cited an email allegedly sent
from that adviser, Vadym
Pozharskyi, to Hunter Biden,
thanking him for “giving an op-
portunity to meet your father”
and to spend “some time togeth-
er.”
“We have reviewed Joe Biden’s
official schedules from the time
and no meeting, as alleged by the
New York Post, ever took place,”
Mr. Bates said.
The authenticity of the email
correspondence cited by The Post

could not be independently veri-

fied.

Hunter Biden’s overseas busi-

ness dealings have been a subject

of intense Republican focus over

the last year, including his ties to a

Ukrainian company while Mr. Bi-

den, as vice president, worked on

Ukraine policy. Both Bidens have

said that the two did not discuss

Ukraine with each other. An inves-

tigation by Senate Republicans —

and significant scrutiny of the is-

sue over the last year — found no

evidence that Mr. Biden, the for-

mer vice president, engaged in

wrongdoing over his son’s busi-

ness dealings.

Facebook said on Wednesday

that it had decided to limit the dis-

tribution of the story on its plat-

form, saying it invited additional

fact-checking. A Twitter spokes-

man, citing its “hacked materials

policy,’’ said the service would

block links to the story and images

of it from being posted on its plat-

form.

But the Trump campaign and

its Republican allies have been ea-

ger to promote it. Mr. Trump, who

trails Mr. Biden in many key bat-

tleground states with just three

weeks to go until Election Day, has

struggled for months to nega-

tively define Mr. Biden.

The president’s criticisms of

Hunter Biden have been a con-

stant throughout the election cy-

cle, and Mr. Trump’s debate-stage

attack last month on the younger

Mr. Biden’s struggles with addic-

tion was one of the most viciously

personal of the campaign.

The Post report described a cir-

cuitous and unusual path by

which the newspaper had ob-

tained the email correspondence

that involved two of Mr. Trump’s

staunchest allies: Rudolph W.

Giuliani, the president’s personal

lawyer and a former New York

City mayor, and Stephen K. Ban-

non, a former White House advis-

er.

The article said the emails were

part of a trove of material on a lap-

top computer that was dropped off

for repairs at a shop in Delaware,

Mr. Biden’s home state, and never

retrieved. It said the store owner

had made a copy of the correspon-

dence and provided it to the law-

yer for Mr. Giuliani.

Mr. Bannon, who was arrested

in August and charged with fraud,

informed The Post about the hard

drive, and on Sunday Mr. Giuliani

provided a copy to The Post, the

article said.

Mr. Bates, the Biden spokes-

man, said The Post had not asked

the Biden campaign about “criti-

cal elements of this story.”

“They certainly never raised

that Rudy Giuliani — whose dis-

credited conspiracy theories and

alliance with figures connected to

Russian intelligence have been

widely reported — claimed to

have such materials,” he said in

his statement.

The report raises a host of unan-

swered questions, beginning with

whether the email alluding to a

meeting is real, and if it is, what

Mr. Pozharskyi was specifically

referring to when he allegedly

thanked Hunter Biden for the “op-

portunity” to meet and spend time

with his father.

It is also unclear who dropped

off the laptop at the repair shop,

who the shop owner is or why that

person — according to The Post —

alerted the federal authorities to

the existence of the computer. The

report says the Federal Bureau of

Investigation seized the computer

and the hard drive but does not

specify what the authorities might

be investigating. The article also

does not explain any connection

between the store owner and Mr.

Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello,

or why the owner would give a

copy of the hard drive to him.

Mr. Trump was impeached in

December on charges of abuse of

power and obstruction of Con-

gress, accusations centered on his

efforts to pressure Ukraine to in-

vestigate Mr. Biden and other

Democrats. He was acquitted by

the Senate in early February.

Senate Republicans have been

conducting an investigation into

Hunter Biden’s overseas business

dealings and whether the elder

Mr. Biden had improperly used

his influence to help his son. They

issued a report last month that

concluded that while Hunter Bi-

den had “cashed in’’ on his father’s

name to close lucrative deals,

there was no evidence of improp-

er influence or wrongdoing by the

former vice president.

Mr. Trump and his allies have

been attacking Mr. Biden over his

son’s business dealings for many

months, yet those attacks do not

appear to have dramatically

changed how voters view Mr. Bi-

den’s integrity.

In a Fox News poll conducted in

October 2019, 48 percent of voters

nationally said they thought Mr.

Biden was honest and trustwor-

thy. When voters were asked the

same question in a Fox News poll

in August, the share who held that

view was the same: 48 percent.

And in a national CNN/SRSS

poll conducted this month, when

voters were asked whether “hon-

est and trustworthy” applied

more to Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump,

57 percent chose the Democratic

nominee, compared with 33 per-

cent who chose the president.

Hours after the story was

posted online Wednesday, Face-

book noticed the controversy

around the veracity of its claims

and over how The Post had ob-

tained the evidence. As the story

circulated, the company said it

had moved to tamp down its po-

tential for virality.

“I want be clear that this story

is eligible to be fact checked by

Facebook’s third-party fact-

checking partners,” Andy Stone, a

spokesman for the social media

company, said in a tweet. “In the

meantime, we are reducing its dis-

tribution on our platform.”

In essence, it meant that Face-

book would show fewer instances

of shared posts featuring the story

in users’ News Feeds, the main

way people view and share links

and other stories across Face-

book. But the company almost im-

mediately faced a backlash online.

Senator Josh Hawley, a Repub-

lican from Missouri who ag-

gressively monitors technology

companies, demanded an expla-

nation from Facebook on why it

had chosen to reduce the article’s

distribution in the News Feed. “I

want to know on what grounds

you are actively censoring a news

report about potentially illegal

corruption by the Democrat can-

didate for president,” Mr. Hawley

said in a tweet.

Biden Campaign Rejects Report That He Met With Son’s Ukrainian Associate

Giuliani and Bannon

helped supply emails

of odd provenance.

By KATIE GLUECK

Reporting was contributed by
Mike Isaac, Kate Conger, Thomas
Kaplan, Giovanni Russonello and
Nicholas Fandos.