California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D) “defended her aggressive young U.S. Senate campaign, which some of her fellow Democrats have complained is aimed at keeping others, notably a Latino candidate, out of the race,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Said Harris :”I have always entered races early and run hard, and that’s what I’ve done in this race. I make no apologies for it.”
“Mike Murphy, the Republican strategist who has played a critical role in getting out Jeb Bush‘s message and rolling out of the former Florida governor’s all-but-certain presidential run, may not end up with a job on the campaign itself,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Murphy has had discussions about joining Mr. Bush’s “super PAC,” a high-dollar outfit that will work independently of the official campaign to promote his candidacy.”
“Since its creation in 2001, the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation has raised close to $2 billion from a vast global network that includes corporate titans, political donors, foreign governments and other wealthy interests,” according to a Washington Post review of public records and newly released contribution data.
First Read: “If this looked like a conflict of interest when she was secretary of state, why doesn’t it look like a conflict of interest as she prepares for another presidential bid? “
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Jeb Bush “promised to chart his own course on foreign policy — even as he announced a campaign brain trust associated with the most contentious policies of his brother’s and father’s presidencies,” the Washington Post reports.
“That was the contradiction as Bush stepped delicately into territory where the 41st president, George H.W. Bush, and the 43rd, George W. Bush, still loom large.”
Donald Trump announced his television show “Celebrity Apprentice” had been renewed for a 15th season, The Wrap reports.
The show would likely run during the middle of the Republican presidential primaries in early 2016. Four years ago, Trump said he would not run for president because he had committed to the show.
National Journal: “Broadly speaking, these books—which I read in rapid succession over the past few weeks (well, I skimmed a bit at times; I’m not a complete masochist)—come in two forms. First are the narratives—autobiographies… The second group—unmoored by the constraints of narrative or plot—might generally be classified as polemics…”
“But perhaps the biggest commonality is that you really don’t learn much about the candidates that you can’t learn elsewhere. Which raises the question: What’s the point? Why—if they don’t really tell us anything and are out of sync with our fast-moving digital age—do these books remain basically de rigueur for those seeking the White House?”
“New Hampshire Republicans have begun a pre-emptive strike this month against the strongest prospective challenger to Sen. Kelly Ayotte, targeting Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan months before she’s even set to decide whether she’ll enter the race,” National Journal reports.
“The early and aggressive campaign against Hassan demonstrates how seriously they take her as a challenger. Republicans already have filed a legal request to reveal her out-of-state travel and even have gotten prospective presidential candidates to criticize her stewardship of the state. This is unusual because Hassan has yet to determine whether she’ll run for Senate at alland won’t be deciding until the summer.”
“In Albany and statewide, it’s a bleak winter for Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D). And nationally, the picture isn’t much brighter,” the Albany Times Union reports.
“At home, Cuomo has been buffeted by the recent corruption arrest of now ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and continued criticism from his controversial decision to scrap his Moreland Commission panel investigating public corruption. And nationwide, Cuomo has begun his second term with little of the presidential buzz that attended his first year in office.”
“Hong Kong’s unpopular chief executive has infuriated pro-democracy campaigners by using a Chinese New Year message to urge the former colony’s citizens to act more like sheep,” the Telegraph reports.
Said CY Leung: “Last year was no easy ride for Hong Kong. Our society was rife with differences and conflicts. In the coming year, I hope that all people in Hong Kong will take inspiration from the sheep’s character and pull together in an accommodating manner to work for Hong Kong’s future.”
Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) told the Chicago Sun Times that Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), “recovering from a stroke, has to show voters he is physically ‘capable’ to keep doing the job.”
Said Walsh: “I think that myself and any Republican voter in this state has questions about Sen. Kirk’s health, similar to if he were running a business and we’d want to know that he’s in condition to run that business… I think it’s up to him to provide whatever medical information he needs to provide to show that he’s capable of doing this job, that’s all.”
Walsh also said he’s mulling a Republican primary challenge of Kirk.
“An Oklahoma bill banning Advanced Placement U.S. History would also require schools to instruct students in a long list of ‘foundational documents,’ including the Ten Commandments, two sermons and three speeches by Ronald Reagan,” Think Progress reports.
First Read: “Jeb Bush is giving his first big foreign-policy speech since signaling his White House ambitions. And according to advanced excerpts of his remarks, he certainly sounds like a hawk — in both describing his world views and criticizing the Obama administration.”
“Now it’s important to note that Bush’s rhetoric isn’t much different than what we’ve heard from other Republicans over the past few years — Mitt Romney, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, etc… What’s noteworthy, of course, is that this rhetoric is coming from someone whose last name is Bush. With the U.S. economy continuing to improve, foreign policy is certainly a ripe place for Republicans to criticize the Obama administration — and Hillary Clinton by association. Indeed, the fact that ISIS is now in Libya (a war of choice by the Obama White House and Clinton’s State Department) is a real weakness. But the question is whether someone whose last name is Bush can exploit this Obama/Clinton weakness.”
“The model for Jeb Bush’s campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is obvious: his brother,” Steve Kornacki writes.
“Sixteen years ago, George W. Bush joined an unusually cluttered and formless Republican field in a race considered more wide open than any the party had ever seen. Within months, though, Bush had imposed order on the process by raking in previously unimaginable sums of cash and racking up an all-star roster of endorsements. By the end of 1999, before a single primary or caucus vote had been cast, Bush had intimidated six separate rivals out of the race, with one poll putting him 48 points ahead of his nearest remaining rival.”
“But there are already signs that what worked so brilliantly for W may be futile for Jeb… And the irony is this: All these obstacles exist not in spite of the fact that George W. Bush succeeded with the same playbook in 2000, but because he did. The 43rd president, in other words, is the biggest single reason why his younger brother may fall flat on his face.”
Rep. Janice Hahn (D-CA) will officially run for an open seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Roll Call: “Hahn, 62, is the second California House Democrat in two cycles to vacate a congressional seat to run for a supervisor position — an arguably more powerful role than being in the minority in Congress. In 2014, former Rep. Gloria Negrete McLeod left Congress to run for a San Bernadino County Board of Supervisors seat, but ultimately lost that race.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) dismissed criticism that he never graduated from college on Fox News as “elitist.”
Said Walker: “That’s the kid of elitist, government-knows-best, top-down approach we’ve had for years. I’d rather have a fighter who’s proven he can take on the big government interests and win… I think people want to judge what have you done lately.”
National Journal: “For five years, Christie has methodically cultivated Branstad’s good graces. He’s come to Iowa whenever Branstad calls—for fundraisers, a birthday party, an inauguration, and even to help Branstad with one of his electoral pet projects. When Branstad fell ill last month and landed in the hospital, Christie was on the line, wishing him well. And when Christie took the helm of the RGA, he made sure to follow through on his financial commitments, even as Branstad waltzed to a blowout victory in 2014.”
“Now, the question is whether all the time and money Christie has invested in Branstad will pay any political dividends in 2016.”
Politico: “So while even close Bush watchers began to doubt whether he was really serious about running, he and a close-knit group of advisers were following a careful plan aimed at maximizing his chances of winning the nomination, if and when he gave the thumbs up.”
“Their strategy was to publicly downplay his interest in the race and avoid media attention, while quietly laying the groundwork for a launch that would catch much of Washington – and many of his potential rivals – flat-footed. While the much of the political world focused on Chris Christie, Rand Paul, and even Bush’s fellow Floridian Marco Rubio, Bush was quietly collecting political chits, developing a cohesive platform, and preparing for a fundraising blitz intended to grab the front-runner’s chair, scare potential competitors like Mitt Romney and Christie, and put Bush on such a firm financial footing that he could devote more time to retail politics when it really counted.”
In an early look at possible 2016 presidential matchups in three swing states — Colorado, Iowa and Virginia — new Quinnipiac polls find Sen. Rand Paul performs best among the Republican candidates against Hillary Clinton while Gov. Christ Christie is the worst performing. Gov. Scott Walker has the lowest name recognition of any of the candidates.
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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