A new Tampa Bay Times poll in Florida finds Alex Sink (D) leading David Jolly (R) in the FL-13 special congressional election, 42% to 35%.
Interesting: “The poll also reveals how the Affordable Care Act has become a virtual litmus test for voters. Of those who support Sink, 81 percent also support Obamacare. Of those who support Jolly, 84 percent also oppose Obamacare.”
“Amid a buzz of anticipation, Donald Trump once again flirted with a run for governor on Wednesday night, but stopped short of committing his money, time and oversize personality to stopping the re-election hopes of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo,” the New York Times reports.
“Instead, Mr. Trump said he would run only if the Republican Party unified behind him — ‘The last thing you need is a primary’ — and asked him to take the nomination.”
Said Trump: “If that were the case I would run. And I believe I would win.”
However, a new Quinnipiac poll shows Cuomo crushing Trump in a match up, 63% to 26%.
“After the shutdown, the filibusters and years of stalled bills, it was the actual passage of legislation this week that revealed the true depth of congressional dysfunction,” the New York Times reports.
“The House vote to raise the debt limit and stifle the budget wars was remarkable not only for its lack of brinkmanship, but for the vote count itself. The 28 members of the Republican majority who voted for the bill — a meager 12 percent — was the lowest percentage for a majority on passage since the House began publishing electronic data on votes in 1991. It has to rank among the lowest ever for a body defined by strict majority rule.”
“Not to be outdone, the Senate on Wednesday flirted with a market crisis as Republicans were initially reluctant to provide a handful of votes to overcome a procedural hurdle before clearing the way for the Senate to send President Obama legislation that takes the debt limit off the table until March 2015.”
You're reading the free version of Political Wire
Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius “was in frequent contact with President Obama and senior White House aides before the disastrous launch of the federal ObamaCare exchange last year,” The Hill reports.
“While Sebelius has said the president was not aware of HealthCare.gov’s problems, more than 750 pages of documents obtained by The Hill through a Freedom of Information Act request show she made scores of visits to the White House. The documents reveal that Sebelius met with or attended calls and events with Obama at least 18 times between Oct. 27, 2012, and Oct. 6, 2013, including at least seven instances in which the two were scheduled to discuss the new healthcare law, according to the secretary’s draft schedules.”
The Week: “Federal elections are enormous money pits, with campaigns and outside groups spending millions of dollars to influence the outcome. This year will be no exception. In fact, it could obliterate the record for midterm election spending, with looser finance rules, close contests, and a Tea Party insurrection all driving up the total amount of money spent on winning congressional seats.”
The Week notes that when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) forced a cloture vote on a bill to lift the debt ceiling, he forced two senators facing Tea Party primary challengers — Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) — into a tough vote.
“The snap reaction from many political journalists was that the vote could endanger both lawmakers’ jobs.”
Jonathan Chait: “The decisive case for inaction that Republicans made to Boehner has been that moving an immigration bill would divide the party in advance of the midterm elections. Republicans are anticipating a favorable midterm election, with a shrunken and more demographically favorable electorate, along with a Senate map tilted heavily toward red states. They don’t want to instigate right-wing infighting when they can instead spend every day harping on the multitudinous evils of Obamacare.”
“Yet, once the midterms pass, the presidential primary will quickly command attention. Republicans again will be competing for the loyalty of a heavily white, distinctly anti-immigrant electoral base, and the candidates will again face pressure to lock themselves into positions that will alienate Latino and Asian voters. They could still win anyway if the economy is weak enough, or some other major scandal envelopes the Obama administration. But in an electorate that is both increasingly hardened in its partisan inclinations, and growing steadily more Democratic-leaning in its basic shape, the GOP’s outlook is, if not hopeless, decidedly grim.”
Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (D) was convicted of 20 federal corruption charges for illegal dealings with city vendors, dating back to 2004, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
“Nagin, 57, joins a list of Louisiana elected officials convicted of misdeeds while in office, but he is New Orleans’ first mayor to be convicted of public corruption. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he could face a 20-year prison term, possibly more, lawyers have said.”
A new Harper Polling survey in Virginia finds Sen. Mark Warner (D) leading challenger Ed Gillespie (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 44% to 38%.
Wall Street Journal: “Carl DeMaio is one of three openly gay Republicans running for Congress this year, and he would be at least the third to serve in the House if he wins. But Mr. DeMaio on Thursday will take a step that none of them has, airing a campaign ad that features a shot of him with his same-sex partner.”
New York Times: “For the fifth time since January 2013, Mr. Boehner on Tuesday effectively turned the floor of the House over to Democrats to secure must-pass legislation. But rather than weakening his control of the House, he may have strengthened it. He showed a relish for combat, both with the ranks of his right-wing antagonists in the House and with the increasingly angry Tea Party activists off Capitol Hill.”
“By testing multiple options of policies that he could attach to a debt ceiling increase, he showed his own members that they would never be able to unify around any legislative package that could actually pass the House… And the deep divisions within his conference over tactics and targets will most likely insulate him from any significant repercussions.”
A new Middle Tennessee State University poll finds Sen. Lamar Alexander (R) leading GOP primary challenger Joe Carr (R) by a wide margin, 47% to 7%, with 40% still undecided.
Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) announced he will not seek re-election, Roll Call reports.
“Miller, first elected in 1998, entered this cycle as the most vulnerable Republican up for re-election. He represents a southern California district President Barack Obama carried with 57 percent of the vote in 2012.”
“In perhaps the top pickup opportunity for Democrats this cycle, the candidates already seeking the seat include Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar, attorney Eloise Gomez Reyes and former Rep. Joe Baca.”
Wendy Davis (D) told the Dallas Morning News that “she would have supported a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, if the law adequately deferred to a woman and her doctor.”
Davis came to prominence filibustering an abortion ban “drawing nationwide attention as a special session ended with a raucous crowd disrupting the Senate’s consideration of the bill. Eventually, lawmakers approved the law in another session.”
Wonk Wire debunks the Republican talking point with one chart.
Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) “abrupt decision to capitulate and hand President Obama a straightforward debt-ceiling increase resulted from simmering divisions that have virtually paralyzed his majority,” The Hill reports.
“On an issue that once defined his Speakership, Boehner is now confronting a president who won’t negotiate and a conference that can’t coalesce around an offer… Time and again over the last six months, rank-and-file Republicans have rejected their leadership’s proposals for attaching policy strings to extensions of the nation’s borrowing limit — most recently on Monday evening, when conservatives said “no” to a plan to reverse $6 billion in cuts to military pensions enacted in December.”
“Shortly before Hillary Clinton’s effort to pass health care reform died in the summer of 1994, the first lady asked a close friend and confidant for advice on “how best to preserve her general memories of the administration and of health care in particular,” CNN reports.
“When asked why, according to the friend’s June 20, 1994, diary entry, Clinton said, ‘Revenge.’
“That exchange is among thousands of pages of notes, letters, and diary entries penned by Diane Blair, a political science professor and longtime Clinton friend whose papers were donated to the University of Arkansas after her death in 2000.”
Political Moneyline finds that super PACs — which may accept unlimited size donations — already have $63 million in cash ready to spend in the 2014 midterm elections.
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.