DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz “is in a behind-the-scenes struggle with the White House, congressional Democrats and Washington insiders who have lost confidence in her as both a unifying leader and reliable party spokesperson at a time when they need her most,” Politico reports.
“Long-simmering doubts about her have reached a peak after two recent public flubs: criticizing the White House’s handling of the border crisis and comparing the tea party to wife beaters.”
“The U.S. military campaign against Islamic militants in Syria is being designed to allow President Obama to exert a high degree of personal control over the campaign, going so far as to require that the military obtain presidential sign-off for any strike in Syrian territory,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The requirement for the Syrian strikes will be far more stringent than those in Iraq, at least at first, to assure the Syrian air campaign remains strictly limited, in an attempt to mitigate the threat that the U.S. could be dragged more deeply into the conflict, according to the U.S. officials.”
Nate Silver, founder and editor of FiveThirtyEight, joined us on the Political Wire podcast for a discussion of his very latest 2014 midterm election forecast.
Listen here:
Subscribe via iTunes or RSS to get episodes automatically downloaded.
Special thanks to the Cook Political Report for sponsoring this episode. If you don’t subscribe, you’re missing a lot.
You're reading the free version of Political Wire
Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.
A new Denno Research poll in Michigan finds that Gary Peters (D) had a solid lead over Terri Lynn Land (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 45% to 38%.
In the race for governor, Mark Shauer (D) edges Gov. Rick Snyder (R), 43% to 40%.
Large portions of an economic plan released by Oregon Senate candidate Monica Wehby (R) “appear to be heavily plagiarized from multiple sources, including one section that copies word-for-word from a plan put out” by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), BuzzFeed reports.
“Likewise, portions of Wehby’s plan also copy sections nearly-verbatim from the economic growth plan of a 2012 congressional candidate named Gary DeLong and a survey from Karl Rove’s group, Crossroads.”
Earlier, it was reported that Wehby’s health care plan was also lifted from Crossroads.
Fox News released several polls in key U.S. Senate races:
Kansas: Sen. Pat Roberts (R) 40%, Greg Orman (I) 38%, Chad Taylor (D) 11%
Iowa: Bruce Braley (D) 41%, Joni Ernst (R) 41%
Louisiana: Bill Cassidy (R) 51%, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) 38%
North Carolina: Sen. Kay Hagan (D) 41%, Thom Tillis (R) 36%
With so many new election forecasts this year, Vox just averages them and finds they predict an evenly divided U.S. Senate.
A new USA Today/Suffolk University Poll in Colorado finds Cory Gardner (R) just ahead of Sen. Mark Udall (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 43% to 42%.
In the race for governor, Gov. John Hickenlooper is slightly ahead of challenger Bob Beauprez (R), 43% to 41%.
A new Marquette University Law School poll in Wisconsin finds that Gov. Scott Walker (R) is slightly ahead of challenger Mary Burke (D among likely voters, 49% to 46%.
Despite rumors that he would retire, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) told National Journal that he plans to run for re-election in 2016.
“Democrats are angling for a top-tier recruit in 2016, hopeful that former Charlotte Mayor and current Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx might decide to run. With access to the president’s political network, North Carolina Democrats think they could give Burr a robust challenge. But Burr says Foxx told him he’s ruled out running.”
A new Hays Research poll in Alaska finds Sen. Mark Begich (D) leading Dan Sullivan by five points, 39% to 34%, with 22% still undecided.
Hays warns that the “race has been quite volatile with each candidate taking the lead at various times throughout the past few weeks.”
In the race for governor, Bill Walker (I) leads Gov. Sean Parnell (R) by eight points, 33% to 25%, with 31% undecided.
Dan Sullivan (R) accused Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) of “pretending to ride” a snowmobile in a new ad.
Wall Street Journal: “It’s not the first time Republicans have launched accusations that Mr. Begich needed a stunt double for his TV ads. A super PAC backing Mr. Sullivan called Alaska’s Energy, America’s Values suggested it wasn’t Begich in the snowmobile ad in an April radio message.”
Jon Huntsman “has engaged in discussions with supporters in recent months about pursuing another White House bid — this time as an independent, according to three sources close to Huntsman,” BuzzFeed reports.
Huntsman told the Deseret News earlier this month that he was a “strong no” on a 2016 presidential bid.
Nate Silver: “I don’t like to call out other forecasters by name unless I have something positive to say about them — and we think most of the other models out there are pretty great. But one is in so much perceived disagreement with FiveThirtyEight’s that it requires some attention. That’s the model put together by Sam Wang, an associate professor of molecular biology at Princeton.”
“That model is wrong — not necessarily because it shows Democrats ahead (ours barely shows any Republican advantage), but because it substantially underestimates the uncertainty associated with polling averages and thereby overestimates the win probabilities for candidates with small leads in the polls.”
Kevin Drum: “If Wang’s prediction of this year’s Senate race turns out to be more accurate than Silver’s, I almost hate to think what might happen. Silver’s head is going to explode or something. In any case, this is far more fun than you normally get from a couple of geeky poll aggregators.”
The Wesleyan Media Project finds that Democrats have run more ads than Republicans in Kentucky, North Carolina, Michigan, Iowa, Louisiana, Colorado, Arkansas, Georgia and Virginia over the last two weeks.
Republicans have only been on the air more than Democrats in Alaska.
“On any given day, 16 of my members decide they’re going to go this way, and all the sudden I have nothing. You might notice I have a few knuckleheads in my conference.”
— Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), quoted by The Hill.
Oregon Senate candidate Monica Wehby’s (R) health care plan appears to have been plagiarized from a survey done for Crossroads GPS, BuzzFeed reports.
Said a campaign spokesman: “The suggestion that a pediatric neurosurgeon needs to copy a health care plan from American Crossroads is absurd. Dr. Wehby is too busy performing brain surgery on sick children to respond, sorry.”
A new WBUR-FM/MassINC Polling Group poll in Massachusetts finds Martha Coakley (D) leads Charlie Baker (R) in the race for governor by seven points, 41% to 34%.
Potential warning sign for Coakley: The Boston Globe reports Baker “enjoys a huge, nearly 11-to-1 cash advantage over the Democratic nominee.”
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.