Archives for August 2014

A new Rasmussen survey in Alaska finds Dan Sullivan (R) edging Sen. Mark Begich (D) in the race for Senate, 47% to 45%.

New York Times: “In an election cycle where no single issue is animating voters, the relatively obscure lender, which provides loans and loan guarantees to foreign buyers of American products, has become an unlikely source of prominent campaign friction.”

“The fight over whether to reauthorize the bank, which Congress must do by the end of September to sustain its operations, has roiled Capitol Hill in unexpected ways, creating a divide between the Tea Party movement and establishment Republicans. It also is providing an avenue for Democrats to showcase their support for American companies and to try to drive a wedge between business interests and Republican candidates.”

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) has officially won his primary race, barely squeaking past Jim Tracy (R), who conceded after more than two tense weeks following the Republican primary in Tennessee’s 4th district, Roll Call reports.

“DesJarlais was among the most vulnerable House incumbents this cycle, thanks to personal scandal that dried up his fundraising ability and made him a pariah among some of his peers in the Tennessee delegation. Proceedings from a 2001 divorce arose in October of 2012 that revealed DesJarlais had encouraged an ex-wife and former mistress to have multiple abortions.”

Michelle Nunn (D) “served notice to her fellow Democrats that she wasn’t a sure vote for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to keep his job — should her party keep control of that chamber in November,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

Said Nunn: “I look forward to changing the composition in the leadership of the Senate. The way that we’re going to change Washington is to bring more people to recognize – to have the humility to recognize – that there are good ideas on both sides of the aisle… I will vote for the Democratic leader that I think best represents our capacity to get things done and move things forward.”

“If you go back to how brutal my campaigns were, it was difficult to turn off the campaign switch and to remember to turn to governing.”

— South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R), in an interview with The State, on how anger from her 2010 race shaped her governing style.

A tough few weeks during President Obama’s vacation “left the impression of a disconnected president, frustrated with both the expectations and the limitations inherent in being the nation’s leader at this moment in history,” the Washington Post reports.

“It also led to worries — expressed privately — among Democratic party strategists that Obama’s seemingly long-view approach to international and domestic conflicts could spell doom for the party’s chances in the midterm elections, which are only about 10 weeks away.”

In the wake of a new poll showing his Democratic primary opponent Clay Pell (D) gaining ground in the race for Rhode Island governor, Angel Taveras (D) made public an email in which Pell claimed an unpaid summer internship between his sophomore and junior years at college as “critical experience” at the State Department, the Providence Journal reports.

“Chris McDaniel’s first hurdle in his lawsuit to overturn his loss to Thad Cochran is a doozy: He may have waited too late to file it,” the Jackson Clarion Ledger reports.

“As he worked for weeks building a case and campaigning that the election was stolen from him, McDaniel’s team said a 20-day deadline applies only to challenges of county and local elections, not a statewide U.S. Senate primary. Others, including the secretary of state, agreed with him.”

“The Democratic National Committee, or DNC, approved rules for its 2016 convention along with a primary schedule that will begin with the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, 2016, followed by voting later that month in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina,” the AP reports.

“The 2016 framework is in line with plans pushed by Republicans and gives states incentives to hold their primary contests between March and June, aiming to avoid a front-loaded calendar that encroaches on the Christmas holidays.”

“America seems resigned to a Seinfeld election in 2014–a campaign about nothing,” John Avlon notes.

“To an exhausted electorate, the final midterms of the Obama presidency are failing to drive much mainstream excitement, and no clear national themes have emerged despite the high-stakes fight for the Senate. DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz essentially admitted as much when she dismissed the idea of Democrats running on any national message, seeking instead to focus on local themes.”