A new Wilder School/VCU poll in Virginia finds Sen. Tim Kaine (D) crushing challenger Corey Stewart (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 49% to 26%, with Libertarian Matt Waters at 5% and another 20% still undecided.
Key finding: “While Virginians do not register by party, the survey found that a third of self-described Republicans or Republican-leaning voters were not yet backing Stewart — with 20% undecided, 10% supporting Waters and 3% backing Kaine.”
“Puerto Rico has conceded that Hurricane Maria killed more than 1,400 people on the island last year and not just the 64 in the official death toll,” the AP reports.
“The government acknowledged the higher death toll with no fanfare in a report submitted to Congress this week in which it detailed a $139 billion reconstruction plan for the island.”
Republicans and affiliated outside groups have now spent about $41.7 million on special elections this cycle as compared to just $12.3 million for the Democrats.
First Read: “That’s more than a 3-1 ratio. And it shows just how much Republican outside groups were propping up their candidates in these specials, and how untenable that model will be for November.”
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“Despite the national headlines stemming from Paul Manafort’s tax fraud trial, New Britain has no plans to change the name of Paul Manafort Drive. After all, city leaders say, it’s not named after him. The street along the southern end of Central Connecticut State University was named in 1994 to honor Paul Manafort Sr., a former mayor and business executive,” the Hartford Courant reports.
Said Mayor Erin Stewart: “The street is named after the father. Mr. Manafort served the city for a long time, he was a war veteran. You can’t control what your kids do and what they don’t — that doesn’t take away from the service that the father gave to the city.”
Rep. Scott Taylor (R-VA) said that “he had severed ties with his campaign consultant after learning about allegations of forged signatures in petitions gathered by his campaign staff,” the Richmond Times Dispatch reports.
“A special prosecutor was assigned to investigate petitions gathered by Taylor’s staff to help get an independent candidate on the November ballot.”
Said Taylor: “My campaign has a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate activities. Recently we became aware of the inconsistencies in a voter petition process along with everyone else. Previously, our team terminated the relationship with our campaign manager for separate issues, however, current knowledge underscores that decision and prompted me to sever ties with my campaign consultant.”
“So therein lies what’s like your classic Catch-22 situation where we’re at a — it puts us in such a tough spot. If Sessions won’t un-recuse and Mueller won’t clear the president, we’re the only ones, which is really the danger. That’s why… we have to keep all these seats. We have to keep the majority. If we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away.”
— Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), quoted by the Washington Post from secret recordings at a Republican fundraiser.
Rudy Giuliani told Sean Hannity last night that the Mueller investigation should be “over by September” and that Mueller’s case “isn’t going to fizzle. It’s going to blow up on them.”
Jonathan Swan: “The theater of going back and forth with Mueller is designed to create a public impression — or at least an impression in the eyes of Republican voters — that Mueller has personal animus towards Trump, and is trying to use legal trickery to steal the election from Trump voters. This is pure P.R.”
“Giuliani is publicly setting up Mueller with expectations he must know Mueller can’t meet.”
“There’s no way Mueller is wrapping this thing up by Sept. 1. And there’s no way Mueller will agree to an interview with Trump on the condition that he won’t ask him two of the critical questions about obstruction of justice. By claiming them as totally reasonable asks, when Mueller ultimately doesn’t deliver by Labor Day, Rudy helps fuel the base’s rage all the way through to midterms.”
During an evening news conference to explain his arrest on insider trading charges, a defiant Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) said he “acted properly and within the law at all times” and would remain on the ballot in November, the Buffalo News reports.
“Bernie Sanders is sputtering. Two years after his defeat in the 2016 presidential primary, the Vermont senator has amassed a growing string of losses in races in which he has intervened,” Politico reports.
“Beginning last year, Sanders-backed candidates faltered in an Omaha mayoral race and a nationally watched House race in Montana. Then came Rep. Tom Perriello’s loss in Virginia’s gubernatorial primary, and in June, the drubbing in Iowa of Pete D’Alessandro, a top adviser to Sanders during his 2016 Iowa caucus campaign.”
“In President Trump’s mind, he has become the indispensable man, the political force singularly responsible for the narrow lead that Troy Balderson, the Republican candidate, clings to in a heavily conservative Ohio House district and that Kris W. Kobach maintains in the Kansas governor’s primary,” the New York Times reports.
“But the presidential braggadocio that followed Tuesday’s election night squeakers ignores another reality that the White House is loath to acknowledge: Mr. Trump — and his chaotic, controversy-laden tenure in the Oval Office — is largely responsible for the toxic political climate that is undermining the Republican candidates he is trying to save.”
Washington Post: “A new round of lackluster showings by Republican candidates reignited a debate Wednesday within the GOP over whether President Trump will be a drag on the party’s chances in November and should stay out of some of the country’s most hotly contested races.”
New York Times: “Republicans say they can keep a thin grip on the House by propping up incumbent lawmakers in red-tinged districts and branding the Democrats as wildly left-wing. But senior party strategists have concluded that over a dozen districts held by Republicans may already be unwinnable, most in metropolitan areas where President Trump has alienated moderates and stirred volcanic resistance on the left.”
”Veteran party lawmakers have an increasingly bleak view of their prospects in the House, and some fear that Democrats could seize the chamber by a solid margin.”
“President Trump, who for three years has vowed to build a massive security wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, is running into his own wall on illegal immigration, which has continued to surge in recent months despite family separations and other hard-edge policies aimed at curbing the flow,” the Washington Post reports.
“Nearly 19 months into his presidency — and three months ahead of pivotal midterm elections — the envisioned $25 billion border wall remains unfunded by lawmakers. Deportations are lagging behind peak rates under President Barack Obama, while illegal border crossings, which plummeted early in Trump’s tenure, have spiked.”
Politico: “Notebooks, mics, cameras, hairspray — those are all things TV reporters are used to having with them at political rallies. Now, in the age of President Donald Trump, they’ve added another: security guards.”
“The networks are employing them, according to reporters, at Trump’s high-octane political rallies, where the media often serves as the No. 1 rhetorical punching bag.”
“Hope Hicks had no intention of traveling on Air Force One when she arrived at President Donald Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club to hang out with White House friends including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump,” Politico reports.
“But as is often the way in Trump’s world, plans shifted. Once Hicks was back on the president’s turf, she got sucked in, with a handful of staffers successfully prodding her to join them on Saturday’s trip to Ohio for a campaign-style rally.”
“Hicks’ surprise appearance at the airport prompted one former campaign official to joke that she was returning for ‘Season Two’ of the Trump reality show. But White House officials and Republicans close to Trump are serious about reeling Hicks in to play a role in Trump’s nascent 2020 campaign.”
In a secret recording obtained by NBC News, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) says the impeachment effort of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was halted because Republicans want to wait until Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed.
Said Nunes: “The Senate would have to drop everything they’re doing… and start with impeachment on Rosenstein. And then take the risk of not getting Kavanaugh confirmed. So it’s not a matter that any of us like Rosenstein. It’s a matter of, it’s a matter of timing.”
Associated Press: “Republican candidates in the nation’s premiere midterm battlegrounds have embraced a central message in their fight to maintain the House majority this fall — and it has little to do with the surging economy or the sweeping tax cuts that the GOP celebrated as a once-in-a-generation achievement just eight months ago.”
”Instead, as Republicans enter the final month of the primary season, they’re looking ahead to a general-election strategy of embracing anxiety as a tool to motivate voters.”
“There’s a real likelihood that they not only win the House, but they win it by 10 or 12 more seats than they need.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by the New York Times, on midterm election prospects for Democrats.
Rudy Giuliani said that he wants negotiations over a presidential interview with special counsel Robert Mueller to be completed by Sept. 1 but also said that Republicans could benefit from dragging the process into the November midterm elections, CNN reports.
Said Giuliani: “When I first got involved, I would have told you not testifying would be the right legal strategy but then hurt politically. Now I’m thinking the continuance of the investigation would actually help because people are getting tired of it, and (the President) needs something to energize his voters because the Democrats look like they’re energized.”
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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