Political Wire

A Summer of Widespread Discontent

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A new CNN poll finds the summer of 2022 is a season of deepening and widespread discontent.

“The survey finds the public’s outlook on the state of the country the worst it’s been since 2009, while its view on the economy is the worst since 2011. And nearly 7 in 10 say President Joe Biden hasn’t paid enough attention to the nation’s most pressing problems.”

“Biden’s approval rating in the poll stands at 38%, with 62% disapproving. His approval ratings for handling the economy (30%) and inflation (25%) are notably lower. Rising costs are a primary economic pressure for most Americans: 75% call inflation and the cost of living the most important economic problem facing their family.”

Pulitzer Board Says Russian Collusion Stories Stand Up

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The Pulitzer Prize Board upheld the 2018 prize jointly awarded to The New York Times and The Washington Post for their reporting on the investigation into Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential campaign, finding no contradictory information that came out since the prize was awarded.

From the statement: “The separate reviews converged in their conclusions: that no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.”

Democrats’ Tax-Hike Plans Are Imperiled

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“The US Senate’s arcane budget rules threaten Democrats’ plans to increase taxes on the wealthy and corporations and invest in climate programs before November’s midterm elections, even if they can win Joe Manchin’s support,” Bloomberg reports.

“Manchin, the key holdout vote who last week scuttled talks of a revived economic agenda, said he could support a broader tax and spending bill in September, if inflation cools. But there simply may not be time then for the grueling late-night votes and other procedures required to push the legislation through.”

New York Times: How Joe Manchin left a global tax deal in limbo.

120 GOP Nominees Deny Election Results

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FiveThirtyEight finds that out of 340 Republican nominees for Senate, House, governor, attorney general and secretary of state so far, 120 are full-blown election deniers (35 percent).

An additional 48 nominees (14 percent) have expressed doubts about the election despite the multitude of evidence that it was legitimate.

In total, almost half of the GOP’s nominees for these offices have at least dabbled in false election claims.

Tim Ryan Runs to the Right In Ohio

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“Tim Ryan (D) is using his big fundraising advantage over J.D. Vance (R) in Ohio’s Senate race to define himself as conservative-friendly through TV ads targeting GOP audiences — while Vance’s campaign remains silent,” Axios reports.

“Ryan’s latest ad, airing exclusively on Fox News last week, shows him winning warm reviews from the conservative network’s hosts — including Tucker Carlson.”

9/11 Families Urge Trump to Cancel Golf Tournament

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“Relatives of people killed on Sept. 11 are urging former President Donald J. Trump to cancel a Saudi-backed golf tournament set to be held this month at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey,” the New York Times reports.

From a letter: “We simply cannot understand how you could agree to accept money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s golf league to host their tournament at your golf course, and to do so in the shadows of ground zero in New Jersey, which lost over 700 residents during the attacks.”

They added: “It is incomprehensible to us that a former president of the United States would cast our loved ones aside for personal financial gain.”

A Really Tough Election to Forecast

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Stuart Rothenberg: “I’ve seen more than a few election cycles, but I’m not certain I have seen many that are more confusing than the one we are now in…”

“It has been relatively easy to handicap individual races and entire election cycles when nothing out of the ordinary happens. In those cases, the old rules still apply. But it’s more difficult to sketch out the trajectory of an election when outlandish events occur — and outlandish events seem to have occurred each day since Donald Trump announced he was running for president in 2016…”

“Yes, I know what the old rules of thumb say is going to happen in the 2022 midterms. And I haven’t given up entirely on those old rules. But we live in such a crazy time that I have no idea where the country is headed.”

Democrats Seek to Flip California Seats

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“Democrats are on defense across the country in this year’s midterm elections but appear to believe some of their best chances for flipping GOP congressional districts are in California,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“Five of six candidates added to their ‘Red to Blue’ program on Monday are in this state.”

House to Vote to Codify Same-Sex Marriage

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“The House will vote this week on a bill to codify same-sex marriage, in the wake of Clarence Thomas’ views of the precedent set by the abortion ruling,” CNN reports.

It will be very interesting to see if the House Republican leadership whips against this messaging bill.
Taegan

Staffer In Several House Offices Begin to Unionize

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“Staffers who work for at least eight House Democrats are wasting no time in their plans to unionize, filing petitions Monday to kick off the process,” Roll Call reports

“Now they must wait on the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to vet their petitions before holding a secret ballot election to decide whether they want a union to represent them.”

U.S. Running Out of Time to Avoid Extreme Climate

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Washington Post: “In 101 months, the United States will have achieved President Biden’s most important climate promise — or it will have fallen short. Right now it is seriously falling short, and for each month that passes, it becomes harder to succeed until at some point — perhaps very soon — it will become virtually impossible. That’s true for the United States, and also true for the planet, as nearly 200 nations strive to tackle climate change with a fast-dwindling timeline for doing so.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

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“It’s so hostile. If I pull this off, it’s going to be a miracle.”

— Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R), quoted by NBC News, on winning his GOP primary election after testifying before the January 6 Committee.

About Political Wire

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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