A new Public Policy Polling survey in Kansas finds Gov. Sam Brownback (R) trailing challenger Paul Davis (D) in his re-election race by two points, 42% to 40%.
Key finding: “Only 33% of voters in the state approve of the job Brownback is doing, compared to 51% who disapprove.”
South Carolina lawmakers voted to cut $70,000 in funding from two public colleges that assigned books about same-sex relationships, The State reports.
Said state Rep. Gary Smith (R): “One of the things I learned over the years is that if you want to make a point, you have to make it hurt. I understand academic freedom, but this is not academic freedom… This was about promoting one side with no academic debate involved.”
California gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari (R) dropped a four-letter word on radio and was scolded by the producer, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Kashkari described himself as “the guy you send in when, pardon me, the shit is hitting the fan.”
Said producer Julie Kingsley: “We don’t cuss on the air… I wouldn’t expect it from a gubernatorial candidate. You should know better than that.”
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A copy of Green Eggs and Ham signed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was auctioned for $1000, the San Antonio Express-News reports.
Cruz read from the book in September while on the U.S. Senate floor during a 21-hour speech.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “predicted if voters headed to the polls for the 2016 elections tomorrow, Hillary Clinton would be most likely be elected president,” CNN reports.
Said McCain: “I would bet, my friend, as much as I hate to admit it, that right now – this is why we have campaigns – but right now, if the election were tomorrow, Hillary Clinton would most likely be the president of the United States.”
A new Gallup Poll finds Clinton with a 59% favorable rating.
President Obama warned that Democrats often don;t do well in the midterm elections because state-level races aren’t as “sexy” as national presidential elections, The Hill reports.
Said Obama: “We know how to win national elections. But all too often it’s during these midterms where we end up getting ourselves into trouble because, I guess we don’t think it’s sexy enough.”
National Journal: “Republicans who run campaigns gripe they lose races because of candidates and ideology… But those same Republicans who have shepherded countless Senate, House, and presidential candidates should add one more culprit to their list: themselves. Because there’s mounting evidence that the party’s political class simply isn’t good at running campaigns anymore.”
“They’re certainly not as good as the Democrats. The turnout experts, TV whizzes, and all-around gurus of the Grand Old Party have been outnumbered and outsmarted by their adversaries, who have spent a decade retrofitting their entire political infrastructure. The result is a dizzying talent gap between the two parties’ political classes, one that shows few signs of closing as the 2014 midterms begin. In some ways, the GOP is years behind on solving a problem that has no quick fixes.”
GOP digital strategist Patrick Ruffini was our guest on the podcast to talk about how Republicans were closing the digital divide.
Speaker John Boehner “is so against raising the minimum wage that he once said he would rather commit suicide than vote for a ‘clean’ increase,” The Hill reports.
Boehner made the comment in a 1996 interview: “I’ll commit suicide before I vote on a clean minimum-wage bill.”
Just published: Sex and the Founding Fathers: The American Quest for a Relatable Past by Thomas A. Foster.
House Speaker John Boehner and his wife have bought a luxury condominium in the exclusive enclave of Marco Island, FL, USA Today reports.
The Fix notes the purchase “has increased chatter that the House Speaker is planning his exit strategy from Washington when the 113th Congress draws to a close later this year.”
Presiden Obama’s 2015 budget “will abandon overtures to Republicans and call for a large expansion in spending on education and job training, in a push certain to ratchet up tensions in the already-fractured capital ahead of November’s elections,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The proposal–which will serve more as a political treatise than a fiscal blueprint–won’t include a call to slow the growth of Social Security spending by changing how the program accounts for inflation, White House officials said Thursday. Such a change is favored by the GOP and had been included in Mr. Obama’s budget plan last year.”
The Week: Obama is done even pretending to work with Republicans.
Will Hillary Clinton run for president in 2016? Has she ever stopped running?
Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, co-authors of HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton, join us on the Political Wire podcast to discuss their fascinating look at the most powerful woman in the history of American politics.
Listen here:
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Special thanks to Audible for sponsoring this episode and offering our listeners a free audiobook from their library of over 150,000 titles.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called President Obama naïve because Russian President Vladimir Putin “played us so incredibly,” The Hill reports.
Said McCain: “This is the most naïve president in history.”
“I think we got off that track when we allowed our government to become a secular government, when we stopped realizing that God created this nation, that He wrote the constitution, that’s based on biblical principles.”
— Former Rep.Tom DeLay (R-TX), in an interview on Global Evangelical Television.
Just days after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced an aggressive plan to prevent traffic deaths, CBS New York caught the driver of a car carrying the mayor violating a number of traffic laws — including “speeding, blowing through stop signs, and violating other traffic laws.”
When the mayor announced his 62-point safe streets initiative, he said, “We want the public to know that we are holding ourselves to this standard.”
Politicker: “Reached for comment, both the mayor’s office and the NYPD defended the conduct without addressing the particulars of the CBS allegations, which included running stop signs and going up to 15 miles per hours over the speed limit.”
A Hicks Evaluation Group/Apache Political Communications poll in Georgia finds a very close Republican Senate primary race.
David Perdue (R) leads with 13%, followed by Rep. Jack Kingston (R) and Paul Broun (R) at 11%, while Rep. Phil Gingrey (R) and Karen Handel (R) are at 10%.
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) “not only isn’t sorry about his controversial comments about illegal immigrants, he’s taking credit for correcting other lawmakers’ statements,” Roll Call reports.
Said King: “I’m not going to apologize. What I’ve said is objectively true, and any time that Republicans have criticized me, it’s not because of what I said, it’s because they disagree with my agenda.”
Wonk Wire notes the White House will finally dropped “chained CPI” from its upcoming budget proposal after its inclusion in past years failed to bring Republicans to the negotiating table.
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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