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Investigation Into Schock Fundraising Widens

May 26, 2015 at 9:42 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 8 Comments

Former Rep. Aaron Schock’s (R-IL) use of a couple’s “condo and travel services may run afoul of campaign laws and House ethics rules,” the Chicago Tribune reports.

“And that couple’s financial activity in 2010 raise questions of a possible donor-swapping scheme between Schock’s and now-former Rep. Michael Grimm’s (R-NY) supporters, totaling about $16,000 on each side.”

Meanwhile, the Chicago Sun Times reports Schock also did not report any in-kind donations for a major fundraiser headlined by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) last summer.

Kirkpatrick Will Challenge McCain in Arizona

May 26, 2015 at 9:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 40 Comments

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) will challenge Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for U.S. Senate, Roll Call reports, giving Democrats a top recruit in a potential pick-up opportunity in 2016.

How to Deal with So Many Presidential Candidates

May 26, 2015 at 8:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 31 Comments

My column in The Week: Republicans should run their debates like American Idol.

The Case for Bernie Sanders

May 26, 2015 at 8:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 39 Comments

Steve Kornacki: “The scale of the challenge Bernie Sanders faces is well-established. In Hillary Clinton, he will square off against the most overwhelming non-incumbent front-runner either party has seen since the dawn of the modern nominating process. And while the odds that he’ll actually defeat her are vanishingly slim, he may nonetheless be better-positioned than any other Clinton challenger to at least make her break a sweat.”

First Read: “For political historians out there, think of Sanders as a potential Eugene McCarthy. McCarthy’s ability to gain traction against LBJ drove LBJ out in 1968 and sparked more Dems to run. If Sanders gets enough traction to actually knock off Clinton in an early state, then Katie bar the door.”

GOP Clings to Bush Economics

May 26, 2015 at 7:59 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 24 Comments

Jonathan Chait: “Indeed, the striking fact about the Republican Party is how little it has questioned Bush’s economic program. The central tenets of Bush-era economic doctrine remain as firmly entrenched as ever. All the Republican economic proposals combine deep tax cuts, higher defense spending, and a general refusal to accept that revenues must bear some long-term relationship to likely outlays.”

“The party’s disposition toward Bush’s Iraq War has attracted deep (and warranted) scrutiny. Its disposition toward Bush’s economic policies has not. Despite their bellicose rhetoric, none of the Republican candidates are actually proposing to recapitulate his regime-change policy, in Iraq or elsewhere. It is in domestic policy where Bush-era dogma remains completely unreconstructed.”

Why Announce Now?

May 26, 2015 at 7:58 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 2 Comments

First Read: “If you are a minor candidate who’s not expected to raise a lot of money, there is a strategic reason why you might want to announce in late May or early June: You’re able to downplay your 2nd quarter fundraising report.”

Distrust of Obama Reaches New High in Texas

May 26, 2015 at 7:55 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 78 Comments

Boston Globe: “Suspicion has built across many parts of America during the administration of President Obama, giving rise to the Tea Party movement and fueling an intense wave of anti-Washington resentment. But the spread of conspiracy theories appeared to reach a fantastical peak in Texas in recent weeks with assertions that the sweeping military operation called Jade Helm 15 is a takeover plot hatched in the nation’s capital by the White House and the Pentagon.”

“The conflict about the Jade Helm exercise illustrates some of the most confounding political divisions in the country. It reveals how an increased willingness to believe in sinister plots, fomented by people once dismissed as occupying the political fringe, has seeped into the political mainstream of the nation’s second-largest state.”

Cochran Marries Longtime Staffer

May 26, 2015 at 7:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 1 Comment

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) married his longtime aide Kay Webber in a private family ceremony on Saturday, the Jackson Clarion Ledger reports.

“Cochran’s relationship with Webber became the topic of much speculation and intrigue during last year’s Republican U.S. Senate primary. Supporters of challenger Chris McDaniel accused Cochran of carrying on an affair with Webber. Cochran’s office denied any kind of affair.”

Quote of the Day

May 26, 2015 at 7:14 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 12 Comments

“These people are so greedy, they’re so out of touch with reality. They think they own the world…I’m sorry to have to tell them, they live in the United States, they benefit from the United States, we have kids who are hungry in this country. We have people who are working two, three, four jobs, who can’t send their kids to college. Sorry, you’re all going to have to pay your fair share of taxes.”

— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), in an interview with CNBC, on Wall Street executives.

Pope Makes Trouble for Republicans

May 26, 2015 at 6:55 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 25 Comments

Politico: “Catholic Republicans are developing a pope problem. Earlier this month, Francis recognized Palestinian statehood. This summer, he’s going to issue an encyclical condemning environmental degradation. And in September, just as the GOP primary race heats up, Francis will travel to Washington to address Congress on climate change.”

“Francis may be popular with the general public, but key Republican primary constituencies — hawks, climate-change skeptics and religious conservatives, including some Catholics, are wary of the pope’s progressivism.”

Pataki Will Run for President

May 26, 2015 at 6:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 14 Comments

“Ignoring the polls and pundits, former New York Gov. George Pataki plans to announce Thursday that he’s joining the crowded Republican field for president,” the New York Post reports.

“The three-term governor will unveil his candidacy in Exeter, N.H., – which claims the birthplace of the Republican Party – and join a group of contenders who are inching toward the 20 mark.”

Democrats Want Hagan to Run Again

May 26, 2015 at 6:29 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 10 Comments

Democratic powerbrokers, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, are coaxing former Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) to run for Senate again in 2016, National Journal reports. “And not just because they like her. Hagan might be the greatest chance the party has to reclaim that Senate seat, riding a wave that some strategists think will be in Democrats’ favor thanks to Hillary Clinton sitting atop the national ticket and luring voters to the polls.”

“The best any of those recruiters can say, though, is that Hagan is seriously considering it. According to people close to her, the senator who suffered through more than $100 million in mostly negative TV spending against her just months ago, hasn’t made a decision. She hasn’t even decided when that decision might come.”

Lawmakers Hold Recess Talks on NSA Bill

May 26, 2015 at 6:05 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 3 Comments

“Senior lawmakers are scrambling this week in rare recess negotiations to agree on a face-saving change to legislation that would rein in the National Security Agency’s dragnet of phone records, with time running out on some of the government’s domestic surveillance authority,” the New York Times reports.

Koch Brothers May Support Multiple Candidates

May 25, 2015 at 8:47 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 36 Comments

“David Koch let it slip that the roughly $900 million that he and his brother, Charles, plan to lavish on the 2016 presidential race could find its way into the hands of more than one GOP contender,” the Washington Post reports.

Said Koch: “We are thinking of supporting several Republicans. If we’re happy with the policies that these individuals are supporting, we’ll finance their campaigns.”

“And the Kochs aren’t the only ones trying to do this winnowing. Fox News, which always keeps the long-term interests of the Republican Party in mind, recently announced that in the first debate of the season, it will be refusing admittance to all but 10 candidates. The excluded ones will in all likelihood find themselves caught in a vicious cycle where they can’t get coverage because they aren’t being taken seriously, and the can’t get taken seriously because they aren’t getting coverage.”

The Carly Fiorina Boomlet

May 25, 2015 at 10:59 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 80 Comments

Two new articles suggest Carly Fiorina (R) is impressing GOP voters in the early states.

New York Times: “Iowa voters are known to fall in love with firebrand candidates and underfunded outsiders, from Pat Buchanan in 1996 to Howard Dean in 2004. And this cycle, Republicans here are starting to swoon over Ms. Fiorina, who is so unknown in national polls that she may not even be included in the first presidential debate in August… Whether Ms. Fiorina, the only woman in the Republican race, can build from her status as a crowd-pleasing speaker and curiosity into a serious competitor is not clear. But something is happening on the ground here.”

Sacramento Bee: “Fiorina has gained an uncommon degree of attention in the early nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire. She has endeared herself to conservatives who – while not considering Fiorina their first choice – relish her status as the Republican field’s only woman and most strident critic of the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Tweet of the Day

May 25, 2015 at 10:02 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 39 Comments

I would like to wish everyone, including all haters and losers (of which, sadly, there are many) a truly happy and enjoyable Memorial Day!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2015

NSA Skirmish Tests Political Ties of McConnell and Paul

May 25, 2015 at 9:02 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 9 Comments

Sen. Mithc McConnell (R-KY) “has studied Senate procedure firsthand over five decades, and there is not much that can leave him flummoxed, even momentarily. But here he stood — thanks to, of all people, his fellow Republican, fellow Kentuckian, close political ally and the man he has endorsed for president — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY),” the Washington Post reports.

“With a dramatic series of procedural maneuvers, Paul had just dashed McConnell’s public pledge to extend a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program beyond a June 1 deadline before the Senate left for a week-long holiday break. The program allows the government agency to collect vast troves of call data from telephone companies as part of the fight against international terrorism. Paul sees it as a violation of individual privacy.”

Shapiro Declines Senate Bid in Pennsylvania

May 24, 2015 at 12:20 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 54 Comments

Josh Shapiro (D) has told national Democratic Party leaders that he will not run for the nomination to challenge Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) next year, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

“Senior Democrats had been encouraging Shapiro to jump into the primary against Joe Sestak, a retired Navy rear admiral and former Delaware County congressman who lost a close race to Toomey in 2010 but who also has a strained relationship with members of the party establishment.”