A new InsiderAdvantage/Fox5/Morris News survey in Georgia finds Jack Kingston (R) leading David Perdue (R) in next week’s GOP Senate runoff, 46% to 41%.
Said pollster Matt Towery: “This survey indicates that Kingston has managed to retake momentum in the race with under a week to go.”
“As other Republicans travel the country laying the groundwork for 2016 presidential campaigns, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is raising private-equity funds for oil and gas ventures,” Bloomberg reports.
“Bush, whose family made much of its fortune in Texas oil, has teamed with former… bankers to create an investment firm based in Coral Gables, Florida… Britton Hill was set up in May 2013 but Bush’s role as chairman and part owner wasn’t publicly available information until last month when the firm registered as an exempt adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.”
Rep. Vance McAllister’s (R-LA) “re-election campaign has refunded contributions from the former staffer he was caught kissing on a leaked surveillance tape and the woman’s husband,” the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
“His latest campaign filing with the Federal Election Commission shows two refunds of $2,600 each to Melissa Peacock, the former staffer. Also refunded were two $2,600 contributions from Heath Peacock, the woman’s husband.”
The BBC caught scam call center workers on hidden cameras as they laughed at the people they were tricking.
The BBC caught scam call center workers on hidden cameras as they laughed at the people they were tricking. One worker bragged about making $250k from victims. The disturbing truth? Scammers don’t pick phone numbers at random. They buy your data from brokers.
Once your data is out there, it’s not just calls. It’s phishing, impersonation, and identity theft. That’s why I recommend Incogni: They delete your info from the web, monitor and follow up automatically, and continue to erase data as new risks appear. Try Incogni here and get 55% off your subscription with code POLITICALWIRE.
Note to readers: I use Incogni myself and highly recommend it.
The Fix: “Two years ago, Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown — and their various and sundry allies and enemies — combined to spend $82 million in the Massachusetts Senate race, making it the most expensive Senate race ever. Now, that eye-popping record is in serious jeopardy thanks to the massive cash coming in for this November’s race between Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell and Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.”
Said former McConnell chief of staff Billy Piper: “I think there is absolutely a chance that the Kentucky race ends up costing more than $100 million.”
Some great clicks over at Wonk Wire:
Former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) said that he used a poor choice of words in 2012 when he suggested “legitimate rape” rarely causes pregnancy, but stood by his argument, the Washington Post reports.
Said Akin: “Legitimate rape is a law enforcement term. And it’s abbreviation for legitimate case of rape. If I had been choosing my words better, I should have said legitimate case of rape. And I have acknowledged that it is a poor choice of words.”
Joe Klein’s observation that political courage is dead rings true in so many ways. But it’s not entirely accurate.
One example that came to my attention this week was from New Rochelle, NY Mayor Noam Bramson who wrote about a controversy that erupted over a proposed group home in in his community.
I urge you to read his essay and share it widely.
The Upshot has an excellent table showing how the various forecasts differ.
Kyle Kondik: “If Republicans are to win the Senate, they probably are going to have to do something they haven’t done since 1980: beat more than two Democratic Senate incumbents in November.”
“In that Reagan Revolution election — one of the best for the Republican Party in its entire history — the GOP flipped 12 seats held by a Democratic incumbent who sought another term… Incredibly, in the 16 Senate elections since then, the Republicans have flipped only 12 Democratic Senate seats where the incumbent was running again: It’s taken them three decades worth of elections to match the achievement of that single 1980 effort.”
Joe Klein: “I saw the real thing for the first time on the night of April 4, 1968, when riots broke out across the country after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Sen. Robert Kennedy decided to go into the heart of the Indianapolis ghetto-he was running for President at the time-and talk to the people. His aides and the local police pleaded with him not to do it. He was putting his life in danger, but he believed he had a responsibility to show up. He spoke for only five minutes, without a text… and he calmed the crowd by quoting Aeschylus about the experience of excruciating pain that leads to deeper wisdom. Indianapolis was one of the few major cities that remained quiet that night.”
“Nowadays politicians are swaddled by their media consultants, who determine whether it is ‘safe’ to be ‘courageous.’ But acts of courage don’t come with a money-back guarantee. They are courageous because they’re potentially dangerous or, more likely, embarrassing. Courage’s reward comes subtly, in the form of trust as the public learns that a politician is willing to take risks to tell the truth. Obama is currently wandering about the country, trying to meet average people, but the choreography is more stringent than the Bolshoi’s. He said he didn’t want to go to the border because it would only be a ‘photo op’ … on the same day his office published a photo of the President and Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper shooting pool. Who choreographed that?”
Coming next week: Clinton, Inc. by Daniel Halper.
Washington Post: “It’s the third book by or about the Clintons this summer. Welcome to the next two years.”
“As New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) heads to Iowa Thursday, prompting another round of talk about his presidential ambitions, he faces a 2016 obstacle maybe as daunting as the ‘Bridge-gate’ scandal rocking his administration: A sizable number of Republican voters there dislike him.”
“A third of Republicans in Iowa (33 percent) and New Hampshire (31 percent) view the GOP governor negatively, according to new NBC News/Marist polls of those two states.”
Lawyers for Chris McDaniel (R) say they expect to file a challenge of McDaniel’s June 24 GOP runoff loss to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) within the next 10 days, the Jackson Clarion Ledger reports.
“Attorney Mitch Tyner said that despite ‘roadblocks’ to access of voting records that have required lawsuits against county circuit clerks, the campaign has uncovered widespread illegal voting. He said it’s already enough to support a legal challenge of the Republican runoff, but the campaign is still gathering evidence and will not yet provide specifics.”
The Wall Street Journal reports the Republican National Committee has recruited 16,630 leaders precinct leaders and dispatched 304 staffers in the field to try to mobilize 10 million “low propensity Republican voters” in November.
In addition, the Republican Governors Association “says it’s ready to spend $100 million in the last 100 days of the campaign.”
Republicans have also set a goal “to get super majorities in a majority of legislative chambers across the country.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in Colorado finds Cory Gardner (R) edging ahead of Sen. Mark Udall (D) by two points, 44% to 42%.
Said pollster Tim Malloy: “This race shifts back and forth a point or two and remains too close to call. There’s a whole lot at stake as Udall runs neck and neck with Cory Gardner, the GOP challenger, in a marquee race that could tip the balance of the Senate.”
Roll Call has a good summary of second quarter fundraising reports. It’s especially interesting to see the “self-funding” column.
“The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into the loss of Internal Revenue Service emails that could shed light on the agency’s treatment of conservative groups,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Despite a Marist Poll yesterday showing Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) in a very tight re-election race, a new Denno Research poll finds the governor with a solid lead over challenger Mark Schauer (D), 43% to 35%.
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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