Tag: joe manchin

Commanders hire Senate aide to help in search for new stadium

Josh Harris makes a big hire to help in search for new stadium.

While the NFL world is focused on next week’s NFL draft, the Washington Commanders continue to make significant hires.

On Monday, Washington hired Dave Gardi away from the league office to serve as the senior vice president of football initiatives. Gardi will handle in-game management duties for the Commanders, supporting the coaching staff and front office on compliance with NFL protocols, officiating trends and health and safety protocols.

On Tuesday, owner Josh Harris made another big hire, bringing in top Senate aide Kirtan Mehta, per Hans Nichols of Axios.

Mehta’s new role will focus on Washington’s search for a new home. The team’s lease for FedEx Field in Landover expires in 2027, the 30th anniversary of the stadium’s opening. It has long been criticized as one of the worst venues in the league. While the team would likely prefer to build its new stadium at the RFK Stadium site in D.C., some hurdles remain.

Here’s why Mehta’s hiring is important, via Nichols:

“But he’s the kind of hire a new NFL owner would make to navigate the politics of moving a team from the Maryland suburbs to a parcel of land that’s currently owned by the federal government.”

D.C., Maryland and Virginia all want the Commanders, and Mehta will be instrumental in Harris finding the best possible deal for the franchise.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has been outspoken about the Commanders returning to D.C. since Harris bought the team from Dan Snyder last year.

Nichols on Mehta:

“Mehta’s first task: Getting House-passed legislation through the Senate that would allow Bowser to negotiate with Harris on a potential package for a stadium on the banks of the Anacostia River.”

Mehta comes to the Commanders after serving as the chief of staff for Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO). He previously worked with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) for five years. Manchin chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Nick Saban, Paul Tagliabue among those pressing Sen. Joe Manchin to support voting rights

Nick Saban, Paul Tagliabue, Oliver Luck, and Darryl Talley have signed a letter encouraging Senator Joe Manchin to stand up for voting rights.

Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Alabama head coach Nick Saban have a friendship that goes back to the 1950s. Saban’s father and Manchin’s uncle were best friends back in the day, and the younger Saban and the future Senator were football players in West Virginia.

“Well, I just know how Joe is,” Saban once said of Manchin. “I know the foundation that he came from, the principles that his dad and my dad, we all grew up with. Not really a whole lot of compromise for not doing the right thing. Or try to do the right thing.”

Now, Saban and other prominent West Virginia sports figures are asking Manchin to do the right thing regarding the right to vote without obstruction. In a January 13 letter signed by Saban, basketball legend Jerry West, former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, former Bills, Falcons, and Vikings linebacker Darryl Talley, and former NFL quarterback and XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck (yes, that’s Andrew Luck’s father), Manchin was strongly encouraged to use his influence to help pass the Freedom to Vote Act.

“We come from some of our Nation’s most popular sports leagues, and teams,” the letter said in part. “Some of us have roots and lives shaped in West Virginia, others followed very different paths, and some of us have been rivals in sports or business. But we are all certain that democracy is best when voting is open to everyone on a level playing field, the referees are neutral, and at the end of the game, the final score is respected and accepted.

“So we are united now in urging Congress to exercise its constitutional responsibility to exact laws that set national standards for the conduct of Federal elections and for decisions that determine election outcomes. We commend you for ensuring that such legislation rests on critical features of our Constitution. These guarantee that all Americans have an equal voice in our democracy and that Federal elections are conducted with integrity so that the votes of all eligible voters determine the election outcomes.”

As the letter points out, “In the last year, some 20 states have enacted laws that restrict voting access and allow local officials and state legislatures to interfere inappropriately with election outcomes.”

The Freedom to Vote Act would require all 50 states to have uniform standards for early voting, voting by mail, Election Day as a legal public holiday, protections for individuals with disabilities, and voter validation. It would also clamp down on deceptive and intimidating practices, restoration of voting rights, and the elimination of long voting lines and related discriminatory practices, which disproportionately affect minorities who have fewer places to vote as the result of gerrymandering and the closing of voting centers in certain areas.

It would also prevent election sabotage by increasing protections for election administrators who could otherwise be removed for partisan or political reasons, provide increased protections of ballots and records from tampering, and provide legal remedies for the failure to certify voting results.