A View Of Election Mishigas From The Front Lines

It can almost unanimously be agreed that this year’s presidential election is one of the more exciting/interesting/odd election cycles in recent memory. If this never-ending mishigas is your thing – and if you go by Facebook, it’s everybody’s thing – this Sunday night’s JCRC Annual Event is your place to get a crash-course.

NPR reporter and Fox News correspondent Mara Liasson is the featured speaker at “Road to the White House: The JCRC Annual Event” on June 5. The dinner starts at 6 p.m. and the program begins at 7.

“Day-to-day reporting is critical for any election cycle and people want analysis as it is happening,” said JCRC executive director Steve Hunegs. “Mara was a fortuitous choice given the unusual nature of the cycle. It’s a very timely topic and one in which she has great fluency. It’s our confidence that she will deliver a great talk.”

Liasson is the national political correspondent for NPR. Her reports can be heard regularly on NPR’s award-winning newsmagazines “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition.” Liasson provides extensive coverage of politics and policy from Washington, D.C. – focusing on the White House and Congress – and also reports on political trends beyond the Beltway.

Importantly, for the purposes of Sunday night, this is Liasson’s seventh presidential campaign that she has covered for NPR, dating back to 1992. She was the White House correspondent for NPR from 1992-2000 and won the White House Correspondents Association’s Merriman Smith Award for daily news coverage in 1994, 1995, and 1997. Each election year, Liasson provides key coverage of the candidates and issues in both presidential and congressional races.

This election year has been an active one as it concerns the Jewish community, not least of which is having a Jewish candidate in Bernie Sanders. There was AIPAC Policy Conference attendees booing President Barack Obama during a critical speech by Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, and Sanders skipping the event altogether while hiring a controversial choice to be his Jewish Outreach Director, whom he later fired.

Also at the event, the JCRC will honor State Sen. Terri Bonoff (DFL-Minnetonka) with the 2016 Samuel H. Scheiner Leadership Award. The JCRC will also honor the participants of its 2016 State Legislator Trip to Israel led by House of Representatives Majority Leader Joyce Peppin (R-Rogers). Rep. Erik Paulsen (R) from Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District will also be speaking. Bonoff and Paulsen are slated to run against each other for Paulsen’s seat in November’s general election.