A new SurveyUSA poll in Minnesota finds Sen. Al Franken (D) well ahead of challenger Mike McFadden (R), 51% to 42%.
In the governor’s race, Gov. Mark Dayton (D) leads challenger Jeff Johnson (R), 49% to 40%.
A new SurveyUSA poll in Minnesota finds Sen. Al Franken (D) well ahead of challenger Mike McFadden (R), 51% to 42%.
In the governor’s race, Gov. Mark Dayton (D) leads challenger Jeff Johnson (R), 49% to 40%.
The Sioux Falls Argus Leader has the fascinating story of how Sen. Karl Mundt (R-SD) suffered a massive stroke in 1969 but would not resign.
“Mundt, the state’s longest serving member in Congress, never would resume his duties as a senator, though he would occupy that office for three more years. His refusal to resign and allow outgoing Republican Gov. Frank Farrar to appoint his replacement before leaving office himself had profound consequences for South Dakota politics that ripple through today.”
“Political observers have speculated on why Mundt stayed, despite urgings from longtime friends, prominent local Republicans and even the Nixon White House. The episode is one of South Dakota’s prominent political mysteries.”
Associated Press: “Election Day is just two months off and the national tab for the 2014 campaign already stands at $1 billion. Before it’s all over, the bill for the first midterm election since both Democrats and Republicans embraced a historic change in campaign finance is likely to grow to $4 billion or more.”
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“If you watch the nightly news, it feels like the world is falling apart… And I can see why a lot of folks are troubled…. the truth of the matter is, is that the world has always been messy.”
— President Obama, quoted by BuzzFeed, at a Democratic fundraiser.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) “is singing a new tune on immigration as he eyes a possible 2016 presidential run, but it may not be enough to win over disaffected conservatives just yet,” The Hill reports.
“Rubio was a leading champion of the comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the Senate last year. But in a letter to President Obama and a series of four media interviews this week, he made clear that he now favors additional measures to secure the border before there is even talk of a pathway to legal status for those in the country illegally.”
Washington Post: “Happy Labor Day weekend! In politics, this marks the final period of calm before a whirlwind nine weeks leading up to Election Day. It’s also a good time to reflect on the 2014 election cycle so far — full of dramatic twists, turns, unexpected triumphs and bitter disappointments. Sometimes all in the same day.”
“There have also been a handful of unmitigated disasters. We’re talking about the campaigns that failed miserably, after kicking off full of promise, in most cases.”
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) told the Associated Press that he lost his bid for re-election in a Democratic primary because of his decision to call a special session to legalize gay marriage.
Said Abercrombie: “Republicans crossed over en masse to vote in the Democratic primary, and then the religious factor came in. Doctrinally I was outside the circle and paid for it.”
A new SurveyUSA poll in Kentucky finds Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) strengthening his lead over his challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes (D), 46% to 42%.
“If the president has no strategy, maybe it’s time for a new president.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by the Washington Post, on President Obama stating that the administration has no strategy yet for dealing with ISIS.
“With their Senate majority imperiled, Democrats are trying to mobilize African-Americans outraged by the shooting in Ferguson, Mo., to help them retain control of at least one chamber of Congress for President Obama’s final two years in office,” the New York Times reports.
“In black churches and on black talk radio, African-American civic leaders have begun invoking the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, along with conservative calls to impeach Mr. Obama, as they urge black voters to channel their anger by voting Democratic in the midterm elections, in which minority turnout is typically lower.”
“Jesse Benton resigned as Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) campaign manager following reports that he had emerged as a figure in an endorsement scandal during the 2012 Iowa presidential caucus,” the Louisville Courier Journal reports.
“In an emailed statement Friday evening, Benton denied any involvement in the scandal, in which Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson admitted receiving payments from U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s campaign before switching his endorsement to the congressman. He had previously backed U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.”
President Obama “is considering a delay of his most controversial proposals to revamp immigration laws through executive action until after the midterm elections in November, mindful of the electoral peril for Democratic Senate candidates,” the New York Times reports.
“The president vowed in late June to act unilaterally, declaring a deep frustration with what he termed Republican obstruction in Congress… But now Mr. Obama and his aides appear to be stepping back from a firm commitment to that timing, a move that could draw fire from immigration advocacy groups who are expecting decisive action soon.”
“A federal judge invalidated a major Texas abortion regulation that would have shut down 19 licensed clinics next week, ruling that it created ‘a brutally effective system’ designed to close abortion facilities, not to improve women’s health as state lawyers had argued,” the Austin American Statesman reports.
A new Rasmussen survey in Arkansas finds Sen. Mark Pryor (D) barely ahead of challenger Tom Cotton (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 44% to 43%.
A Mississippi judge has tossed out Chris McDaniel’s (R) challenge to that state’s June 24 GOP primary runoff results, ending another chapter in one of the most bitterly contested U.S. Senate primaries in recent memory, CNN reports.
Jackson Clarion Ledger: “McDaniel is taking the long holiday weekend to mull whether he’ll accept defeat from the June 24 GOP U.S. Senate primary, or continue his appeal to the state’s high court.”
Stuart Stevens: “Every President has to deal with a chaotic world that often seems focused on wrecking havoc on America’s self-interest. Presidents fail at foreign policy objectives more frequently than they succeed. Yet rarely have we seen a President so openly struggle with a declaration of American purpose and goals. Some of this is undoubtedly due to President Obama’s personality and the reluctance he shows in leading on many issues, foreign and domestic. But for the first time since JFK, we have a President who is not a product of the Cold War era–and the ramifications of that are profound.”
A new EPIC-MRA poll in Michigan finds Gary Peters (D) leads Terri Lynn Land (R) in the U.S. Senate race by six points, 45% to 39%.
President Obama “is suggesting that he will defer his self-imposed deadline for announcing an expected change in immigration policy, as the White House wrestles with the political and legal dilemmas involved in making significant alterations without congressional approval,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
This would “bow to the concerns of Democratic lawmakers running in Republican-leaning states who have expressed opposition to Obama’s plans to act unilaterally on the hot-button issue.”
Greg Sargent: “The case goes like this: In the core red states that will decide Senate control, there are very few genuinely persuadable voters left. Base turnout will be decisive. Any action by Obama risks further inflaming the GOP base at a time when the fading of Obamacare as a major issue, and the lack of 2010′s seismic levels of rage, could mean core GOP voters aren’t quite as engaged as during the 2010 shellacking.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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