A new Howey Politics Indiana poll finds Gov. Mike Pence’s approval rating has fallen to 45% — down from 62% in February.
The survey was less than a month “after Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law hailed as a reaffirmation of the First Amendment by supporters but derided as bigoted against gays and lesbians by critics.”
Huffington Post: Backlash against Pence continues
Washington Post: “Far from running from or downplaying the views once expressed by his brother, George W. Bush, Jeb Bush is embracing them — and emphasizing them.”
“It’s clear when he calls for closer engagement with Arab leaders to combat the growing threat of the Islamic State. Or when he criticizes President Obama for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq. It’s most apparent when he refers to “evil doers” — a formulation used widely by his brother — and argues that the United States needs to engage but doesn’t have to be ‘the world’s policeman,’ a view voiced by his brother that was also embraced by their father, George H.W. Bush.”
“Now that the first 100 days of the first GOP-controlled Congress in nearly a decade are in the rearview mirror, Republicans say the party is knocking the dust off its governing playbook for what could be one of the more productive legislative periods in recent years,” USA Today reports.
“If it happens, it could mark a new era on Capitol Hill, where the previous four years of one party controlling the Senate and the other the House resulted in the least productive legislative era on record.”
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A new Bloomberg poll finds Americans “are becoming more optimistic about the country’s economic prospects by several different measures. President Obama’s handling of the economy is being seen more positively than negatively for the first time in more than five years, 49% to 46% — his best number in this poll since September 2009.”
But the survey “also reveals that about three-fourths of Democrats and independents, along with a majority of Republicans, say the gap is growing between the rich and everyone else — and a majority of women want the government to intervene to shrink it.”
Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) name “has tumbled off the list of top-tier presidential candidates. He is sagging in the polls. And in the kind of indignity that creeps up on him with agonizing regularity, a stranger here wisecracked Wednesday morning that he and his wife had been stuck in the George Washington Bridge traffic jam engineered by the governor’s allies — on their wedding anniversary, no less,” the New York Times reports.
Nate Cohn notes the April 15 filing deadline for campaigns wasn’t news despite so many people currently exploring a bid for president.
“Rather than exploratory committees and campaigns, top Republican candidates like Jeb Bush and Scott Walker have started super PACs and other groups allowing them to solicit unlimited contributions. None will have to file disclosure forms with the Federal Election Commission until July.”
“The uneventful passing of April 15 is only the most subtle indication of the way super PACs are transforming the presidential nominating process. They have given candidates the ability to raise colossal sums from small but wealthy bases of support. Along with Internet fund-raising, super PACs are helping to form an alternative campaign finance model that is eroding party control over the primary process.”
Jimmy Kimmel gets people’s reactions to fake Hillary Clinton campaign logos.
“It’s an easy line to say, ‘Haven’t we had enough Bushes?’ After all, even my mother said, ‘Yes.’ That’s why you won’t see me out there, and he doesn’t need to defend me, and he’s totally different from me.”
— George W. Bush, quoted by Politico, on his brother Jeb Bush running for president.
Chief Justice John Roberts showed up for jury duty “like other civic-minded citizens and was being considered for a civil trial in a case involving a car crash. He answered two questions in open court about relatives — noting that his sister in Indiana is a nurse, and his brother-in-law was with Indiana State Police — but none about his own line of work, which would be listed on a questionnaire. He then talked with attorneys and the judge privately at the bench,” the Washington Post reports.
“Roberts was not selected, and left court without comment.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey in New Hampshire finds Scott Walker leading the GOP presidential field with 24%, followed by Ted Cruz at 14%, Rand Paul at 12%, Jeb Bush at 10%, Chris Christie at 8%, Marco Rubio at 8%, Ben Carson at 7% and Mike Huckabee at 7%.
“A secretive group that serves as the umbrella operation for leaders and activists within the conservative movement will host two meetings in the coming months, National Journal has learned, the first to vet Republican presidential candidates and the second to discuss coalescing behind one of them.”
“The Council for National Policy, a shadowy organization of several hundred dues-paying members, typically meets three times a year in various locations around the country. But with the 2016 cycle accelerating, and many conservative leaders intent on rallying behind a single candidate, CNP’s leadership is taking extraordinary measures — scheduling two top-priority meetings outside of Washington — and inviting a large number of nonmembers to both.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in New Jersey voters finds that most voters want Sen. Robert Menenedez to resign over corruption charges, 52% to 39%.
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R) sent a letter to public school superintendents across the state vowing to defend religious freedom amid “veiled legal threats” over the distribution of Bibles on campus, Tulsa World reports.
Said Pruitt: “It is a challenging time in our country for those who believe in religious liberty. Our religious freedoms are under constant attack from a variety of groups who seek to undermine our constitutional rights and threaten our founding principles.”
Federal prosecutors have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury considering a case against New York State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R) and his son, the New York Times reports.
“Investigators have served a number of subpoenas in recent weeks, including several to state senators on Long Island, and federal prosecutors have interviewed people who have had dealings with Adam Skelos, the Republican senator’s son… Prosecutors and the F.B.I. have focused on at least two areas in their investigation, zeroing in on Adam Skelos’s business dealings, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.”
Wall Street Journal: “Nearly every move Mrs. Clinton has made since launching her second presidential bid Sunday is a corrective to what her advisers view as strategic mistakes that tripped her up in the earlier race.”
Jeb Bush is the latest GOP presidential candidate to book a major speaking engagement at Liberty University, CNN reports.
“The former Florida governor will deliver the school’s May 9 commencement, handing him the same audience of students at the university founded by Southern Baptist pastor Jerry Falwell that Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas had when he launched his presidential campaign in March.”
“The board of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation has decided to continue accepting donations from foreign governments, primarily from six countries, even though Hillary Clinton is running for president,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The rules would permit donations from Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the U.K.—countries that support or have supported Clinton Foundation programs on health, poverty and climate change, according to the summary.”
Politico: “Dogged by six months of scandals, anemic polling numbers and his home state’s fiscal problems, the New Jersey governor is barreling into New Hampshire this week, unfazed that his 2016 obituary has already been written.”
“Just as with Sen. John McCain before him, New Hampshire represents Christie’s best chance at getting back in the game, a stylistic match, the governor’s advisers believe, for another authentic, straight-talking candidate. But no amount of plain talk and authenticity can gloss over the predicament the New Jersey governor finds himself in. Catching fire in New Hampshire won’t be easy — he’s currently polling behind seven other Republican candidates there.”
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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