A new Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press poll in New Jersey finds 52% believe that the newly released internal probe into Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) administration and the Bridgegate scandal was merely intended to “to help Chris Christie’s reputation.”
Just 30% believe it was a “fair and unbiased investigation.”
Some great clicks over at Wonk Wire:
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant (R) said that he looks forward to signing the state’s bill banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, the Christian Post reports.
“The bill does not include exceptions to rape or incest, as some lawmakers had proposed, but it does include exceptions if the mother’s health is in danger or if the fetus has severe physical abnormalities.”
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Washington Post: “The White House bubble can be among the most choreographed of places — where even spontaneous ‘off the record’ stops by the president…are planned in advance. But it is in times of crisis where the limits of the White House’s enormous presidential entourage are laid raw, at the mercy of breaking news somewhere else in the country — or the world — as I first saw up-close nearly two years ago when Obama canceled campaign events in Florida to react to a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.”
John Cassidy: “Give John Roberts his due: he’s a deft politician. Faced with calls from the right to upend the Affordable Care Act, a decision that would have caused a great uproar, the Chief Justice came up with an obscure argument about taxation that few people had hitherto considered, in support of a five-to-four ruling that President Obama’s health-care reform, or most of it, was constitutional. That was almost two years ago. Having avoided bringing the Supreme Court into disrepute during an election year, Roberts evidently feels confident enough to continue the Court’s assault on the campaign-finance laws, which is fast emerging as the signature contribution of his tenure.”
Rick Hasen: “Chief Justice Roberts continually shows a desire to downplay the significance of his rulings, and ostensible political naiveté is now part of the path to get there. As much as I disagree with Justice Thomas’s opinions in both the Voting Rights Act and campaign finance cases, I respect the fact that he tells it like it is and pulls no punches. Not a hint of ‘faux judicial restraint.'”
Washington Post: “It’s the political equivalent of shaking hands at the end of the big game. But the concession call may be falling out of vogue more and more. Just ask D.C. Councilmember Muriel Bowser, who just won the Democratic nomination for mayor.”
“Briefing reporters Wednesday, Bowser said she still had not spoken with Mayor Vincent C. Gray, whom she defeated in Tuesday’s primary. It’s not the first time a runner-up has declined to make the congratulatory call to the winning candidate that has long been customary. You don’t have to reach back far into history to find at least a pair of other high-profile candidates who refused to pick up the phone.”
First Read notes the winners of the Supreme Court decision abolishing aggregate campaign finance limits are the wealthy and political parties but the biggest winners “are the political consultants and the entire industry of American politics.”
“The loser from yesterday’s decision, however, is the individual campaign. With the power of Super PACs (thanks Citizens United) and now the increased bank accounts of the parties (thanks McCutcheon), individual campaigns are going to have less power than they’ve had in a long, long time. An individual campaign has so little control now over its own message and the issues it wants to focus on; it’s all going to be dictated more and more by the outside groups and the billionaires.”
First Read: “Given the current Supreme Court, the remedies are very limited on how to put limits on political money if money equals speech. So it’s either a constitutional amendment (good luck with that) or more aggressive laws on disclosure (which could at least create a NASCAR-ization to politics where everyone’s ‘sponsor’ is there for all to see). What’s stunning is how little interest there is in Congress to even promote the idea of more disclosure.”
“But bottom line: This system of financing campaigns has now consolidated power in the hands of a few, which neither party should be celebrating. Does any candidate who runs for office want to have a wealthy person dictating the terms of the debate for them by simply using the power of their purse?”
A new NPR poll find the Affordable Care Act is supported by 47% while opposed by 51%.
Meanwhile, President Obama’s approval rate is at 46%
Michelle Nunn (D) is on air with her first television commercial in the Georgia U.S. Senate race, the Atlanta Constitution reports.
“Nunn is the likely Democratic nominee, but the ad does not mention her party, instead promoting her centrist, problem-solver image with a photo of her with George H.W. Bush, the founder of the Points of Light Foundation. Nunn declares that she’s running for Senate because she’s ‘optimistic about Georgia’s future.'”
The Week: Can Georgia turn blue?
A new Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania finds Tom Wolf (D) continuing to lead Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D) in the Democratic race for governor, 33% to 7%, with a whopping 46% still undecided and 10% for other candidates.
A new SurveyUSA poll in North Carolina finds Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) trailing all five possible Republicans she might face in her re-election race this year.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told radio host Hugh Hewitt that if he runs for President in 2016, he will not seek re-election as a senator at the same time.
Said Rubio: “I’ll either have to run for re-election or not run for anything or run for another office.”
“The U.S. government masterminded the creation of a ‘Cuban Twitter’ – a communications network designed to undermine the communist government in Cuba, built with secret shell companies and financed through foreign banks,” the Associated Press reports.
“The project, which lasted more than two years and drew tens of thousands of subscribers, sought to evade Cuba’s stranglehold on the Internet with a primitive social media platform. First, the network would build a Cuban audience, mostly young people; then, the plan was to push them toward dissent.”
Jimmy Fallon got “video footage” of Russian President Vladimir Putin making a phone call to Sarah Palin to talk about her 2008 prediction that he would invade Ukraine.
Associated Press: “What could be controversial about the city of Toronto congratulating Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes?”
“Ask Rob Ford. The Toronto mayor on Wednesday cast the sole “no” vote on a City Council motion to offer the athletes kudos. Minutes earlier, he also was the only council member to vote against a proposal to name a Toronto street after the late Nelson Mandela.”
“Ford asked for a re-vote on both motions a half-hour later but was denied.”
Jeffrey Birnbaum “gets credit for writing the book about the 1986 tax reform act. Now, it seems, the co-author of the inside-the-Beltway classic, Showdown at Gucci Gulch, is getting some credit for helping to derail tax reform,” the Washington Post reports.
“Birnbaum’s book – which he wrote with Alan Murray – chronicles the unlikely triumph of a handful of Washington officials over the well-heeled lobbyists who lingered in the hallways, trying to get what their clients wanted, during the Reagan-era debate over tax reform. These days, it’s Birnbaum who’s got clients to represent – and he’s using what he learned back then to help them get what they want in any rewrite of the tax code – and block what they don’t like.”
First Read: “On its surface, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision striking down aggregate campaign-finance limits appears like a winner for the Republican Party… But here’s an important reminder about all of that money: It doesn’t always buy you victory.”
“As it turned in 2012, President Barack Obama and Democrats won in that election cycle, because what might matter more than overall money is parity — spending is neutralized when one party doesn’t hold a unilateral advantage. And then there’s how the political parties adapt to these campaign-finance changes.”
“Which all hits at this campaign-finance truth: A short-term money advantage doesn’t last forever.”
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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