“It’s the first major race between the forces and faces of the new
Republican tea party — a tea party whose social recidivism is only
outgunned by its hostility to science and technology and innovation and
scholarship.”
— Vice President Joe Biden, quoted by Politico, campaigning in Virginia for Terry McAuliffe.
Roll Call: “With one day until the special-election runoff in Alabama’s 1st District, conservative groups are making a final push to affect the GOP contest that has become a national bellwether for Republicans.”
“Business groups are trying to boost former state Sen. Bradley Byrne over Dean Young, a tea-party-backed businessman who’s already made some controversial comments. Over the weekend, Ending Spending Inc., a PAC launched in 2010 by TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, spent $102,000 in ads to promote Byrne, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.”
Politico: “Whatever dim hope Cuccinelli has of an upset rests on abysmal turnout among Democrats. For months polls have shown McAuliffe, a longtime Democratic Party fixer and businessman, leading Cuccinelli in the high single digits. So McAuliffe has had a series of high-profile surrogates vouch for him the past few weeks – President Barack Obama on Sunday, Bill and Hillary Clinton before that – to remind party that they need to finish the job.”
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.
Los Angeles Times:
“A year after his reelection triumph, President Obama is facing an
awkward question from friends and foes alike: Why can’t he run the
government as well as he ran his campaign?”
Political Wire fans have been subscribing to our new podcast at a blistering pace. Thank you!
We have two new episodes coming this week. Subscribe via ITunes or RSS and have them delivered automatically to your phone or iPod when it’s ready.
In case you missed them, here are last week’s shows with Charlie Cook and Stu Rothenberg:
Harry Enten looks at the “idea that Americans are independent, and that the anger directed at both parties right now will lead to an anti-incumbent wave for both Democrats and Republicans.”
“I won’t say that an anti-incumbent wave is impossible, but I will say that it’s not likely… [Since 1954,] there are many years in which a large number of incumbents are defeated. What you don’t see is the same number of years where incumbents of both parties are defeated. In fact, such years pretty much don’t exist.”
New York Times:
“A major test of how carefully Republicans can navigate the intraparty
politics of sexuality will come on Monday, when the Senate holds a
crucial vote on a bill to outlaw workplace discrimination against gay
men, lesbians and transgender people.”
First Read: “If the polls are correct in Virginia… then we’re likely going to re-learn an important point: The sign of a healthy political party is that you can appeal to the middle without alienating the base. That is precisely what McAuliffe has done in his campaign, as he’s reached out to the state’s business middle while mobilizing the party’s liberals.”
“By contrast, Republicans appear to have two problems right now. Either they are appealing to the base, which is alienating the middle (see Virginia). Or when they appeal to the middle, they are alienating the base (see Chris Christie in New Jersey)… To win national elections, you have to be able to appeal to the middle without alienating your base, as well as appeal to the base without alienating the middle. That’s not happening inside the GOP right now.”
“Vowing to stay in office and to run in the next election, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford apologized Sunday for past public drunkenness and promised to ‘make changes’ in his life — but declined to offer any explanation for the bombshell drug-related revelations that threaten his career,” the Toronto Star reports.
Said Ford: “There’s no one to blame but myself, and I take full responsibility for it. Friends, I am the first one to admit, I am not perfect. I have made mistakes. I have made mistakes, and all I can do right now is apologize for the mistakes. I sincerely, sincerely apologize.”
“That’s the closest I’ve come to getting into a fist fight with a head of state.”
— Jimmy Carter, quoted by the South Africa Sunday Times, saying he “almost got in a fight with the president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, because he was refusing to let Aids be treated.”
A new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll in Texas finds Greg Abbott (R) leading Wendy Davis (D) in the race for governor, 40% to 34%.
In a three-way race against Davis and Libertarian Kathie Glass, Abbott’s lead shrinks to 5 points, 40% to 35%.
Rep. Mike Michaud (D), running for governor of Maine, writes in the Bangor Daily News: “So I wasn’t surprised to learn about the whisper campaigns, insinuations and push-polls some of the people opposed to my candidacy have been using to raise questions about my personal life. They want people to question whether I am gay.”
“Allow me to save them the trouble with a simple, honest answer: ‘Yes, I am. But why should it matter?'”
“And whether you like the model of Obamacare or not, the fact that the
president sold it on a basis that was not true has undermined the
foundation of his second term. I think it’s rotting it away.”
— Mitt Romney, in an interview on Meet the Press.
“Problems with the government’s health-care website are forcing President Obama to redraw his plans for the rest of the year as he looks for ways to regain political momentum,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Scrapping a planned push to drive people to the balky website, the White House is organizing a flurry of events on the economy and immigration, as well as health care.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Virginia finds Terry McAuliffe (D) comfortably ahead of Ken Cuccinelli (R) in the race for governor, 50% to 43%, with Libertarian Robert Sarvis at 4%.
In the Lt. Governor’s race Ralph Northam is headed for a blowout win over E.W. Jackson, 52% to 39%. The intrigue will be in the Attorney General contest where Mark Herring is only up 47% to 45%.
A new Quinnipiac poll finds McAuliffe leading by six points, 46% to 40%, with Sarvis at 8%.
A new Monmouth poll in New Jersey finds Gov. Chris Christie with a 20 point lead over Barbara Buono (D) in the race for governor, 57% to 37%.
A new Fairleigh Dickinson poll finds Christie with a 19 point lead, 59% to 40%.
A new Rutgers Eagleton
poll gives Christie a 36 point lead, 66% to 30%.
A new Quinnipiac poll shows Christie with a 28 point lead, 61% to 33%.
A California investigation into dark money “offers a rare glimpse into the shadowy world of politically active nonprofits, which have played an increasing role in elections nationwide since the U.S. Supreme Court eased campaign rules in 2010. They provide donors a way to influence elections by piping major money around the country until it resurfaces — without their fingerprints — in a campaign,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Americans who face higher insurance costs under President Obama’s health-care law are angrily complaining about ‘sticker shock,’ threatening to become a new political force opposing the law even as the White House struggles to convince other consumers that they will benefit from it,” the Washington Post reports.
“The growing backlash involves people whose plans are being discontinued because the policies don’t meet the law’s more-stringent standards. They’re finding that many alternative policies come with higher premiums and deductibles.”
Meanwhile, TPM reports that insurers are hiding Obamacare benefits from their own customers.
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.