Charlie Crist (D) is running for Florida governor as a Democrat, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“The worst-kept secret in politics was confirmed Friday afternoon when the Republican Party of Florida spotted Crist’s official filing with the state Division of Elections.”
“In a warning shot to outside conservative groups, the National Republican Senatorial Committee this week informed a prominent Republican advertising firm that it would not receive any contracts with the campaign committee because of its work with a group that targets incumbent Senate Republicans,” the New York Times reports.
“Even more striking, a senior official at the committee called individual Republican Senate campaigns and other party organizations this week and urged them not to hire the firm, Jamestown Associates, in an effort to punish them for working for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group founded by Jim DeMint, then a South Carolina senator, that is trying to unseat Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and some other incumbents up for re-election next year whom it finds insufficiently conservative.”
“No. Next question.”
— Bill de Blasio (D), when by the New York Times whether he would consider rival Joe Lhota (R) for a job in his administration.
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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford “was defiant in the face of revelations that Toronto police have obtained video evidence that appears to show him smoking crack cocaine, brushing off a torrent of questions from the crush of reporters outside his city hall office,” the Toronto Star reports.
Said Ford: “I have no reason to resign. I’m going to go back to return my phone calls. I’m going to go out and do what I was elected to do, and that’s save taxpayers money and run a great government.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey of Republicans finds that 21% picked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as the leader of their party, followed by 17% for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and 15% for Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).
Cruz finished well ahead of the other Republican senators: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) at 9%, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) at 7% and Sen. Mitch McConnell at 4%.
Washington Wire: “October was clearly a cruel month for both President Barack Obama and the Republicans, both of whom saw their images slump to new lows in Wall Street Journal/NBC News polling.”
“But hidden within the data is a more disturbing reality for the Republican Party. Put simply, Democrats are largely content with their own party, while distaste among Republicans for the GOP has grown exponentially this year.”
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Charlie Cook on the latest national polling data and his outlook for 2014:
Stuart Rothenberg on whether Democrats can take back the House in 2014:
A new Christopher Newport University Poll in Virginia finds Terry McAuliffe (D) leading Ken Cuccinelli in the race for governor by seven points, 45% to 38%, with Libertarian Robert Sarvis at 10%.
A new Emerson College survey finds McAuliffe ahead by just two points, 42% to 40%, with Sarvis at 13%.
Todd Purdum: “To the undisputed reasons for Obamacare’s rocky rollout — a balky website, muddied White House messaging and sudden sticker shock for individuals forced to buy more expensive health insurance — add a less acknowledged cause: calculated sabotage by Republicans at every step.”
“That may sound like a left-wing conspiracy theory — and the Obama administration itself is so busy defending the indefensible early failings of its signature program that it has barely tried to make this case. But there is a strong factual basis for such a charge.”
Associated Press:
“Think you’re confused by ‘Obamacare.’ It’s roiling Capitol Hill behind
the scenes, too. Members of Congress are governing themselves under
President Barack Obama’s signature law, which means they have great
leeway in how to apply it to their own staffs. For House members and
senators, it’s about a section of the law that may — or may not —
require lawmakers to toss some staffers off of their federal health
insurance and into the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges. The verdict from
congressional officers is ultimately that lawmakers, as employers, have
discretion over who among their staffs gets ejected, and who stays. And
they don’t have to say who, how many or why.”
Former Rep. Parker Griffith, “whose 2009 party switch rankled both Democratic and Republican voters, may be attempting a political comeback as an independent candidate,” the Birmingham News reports.
Tennessean: “Two Tennessee lawmakers were scheduled to speak at a Southern secessionist group’s meeting this weekend, and while a representative for one claims he’s spent a month trying to get his name off the event’s announcement, the other is ready to go and supports preparing Tennessee to part ways with the United States.”
First Read: “Your party was blamed by most Americans for shutting down the federal government for 16 days, causing economic damage to the country. The last two NBC/WSJ polls taken during and after the shutdown show the same party at all-time lows, and with the American public angrier at Washington than it has ever been. Given this environment, it’s a bit surprising that Senate Republicans decided to go down the filibuster path again on presidential nominees. But they did.”
Wonk Wire: Battle over nominees continues.
First Read: “Remember when Hillary Clinton said she was looking forward to some rest after her whirlwind travel as secretary of state? Well, that rest has certainly ended… just look at all the cities where Clinton has either delivered speeches or attended fundraisers in the past 10 days – Buffalo, NY, Washington DC area, Minneapolis, New York City, Chicago, Beverly Hills, CA, and Hamiliton, NY. And today, Clinton will speak in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women. Just askin’, but does any other potential 2016 candidate have a busier schedule than Clinton.”
Politico: “Team
Obamacare is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of essentially
frozen assets — yet another consequence of the failed launch of
healthcare.gov. There’s no point in an ad blitz directing people to sign
up on a website that doesn’t work. And while advocacy groups say they
had always planned to spend more money on the back end to boost
enrollment in lagging states at the end of this year and early next
year, they didn’t count on the opening month fizzle.”
A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds that 44% of Americans say they paid very close attention to the fight over the budget and the debt limit that led to a government shutdown. In contrast, just 22% say they’ve paid attention to the problems with the Obamacare website rollout.
The Fix: “So, while Republicans were dominating the headlines with their fight against Obamacare in the budget debate, the real-world problems with the law were going overlooked by the public for much of last month. In short, Republicans couldn’t get out of their own way.”
Charlie Cook: “President Obama’s allies are alternately wincing over,
or shaking their heads at, the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care
Act and its website, as well as disclosures that U.S. intelligence
agencies spied on some of our closest allies. Many of the president’s
supporters are probably wishing they could avoid watching news programs
altogether, hoping the damaging reports will just go away.”
“Doubts about competence inflict damage, particularly if they are followed by other incidents that reinforce those doubts and by a vigilant opposition party flagging these miscues, as Republicans can be counted on to do here. Doubts about competence eat at enthusiasm among your base and alienate the moderates and independents who are really the ones determining whether a president has strong job-approval ratings (and note that high ratings translate into clout on Capitol Hill and, to a certain extent, around the world).”
“I’m minded to do it.”
— Hillary Clinton, quoted by the New York Post, at a private reception on whether she will run for president in 2016.
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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