A sequel is in the works to the bestseller about Hillary Clinton’s years at the State Department, The Hill reports.
“Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen are writing a new book that will look at what is probably Clinton’s last chance at the presidency… The sequel will take readers “inside the inner-most circles of ‘Hillaryland’ as the clock ticks toward 2016.”
“A lot of stars seem to be aligning for Republicans in this year’s midterm elections, and here’s a crucial one that hasn’t gotten sufficient attention: Party leaders have used quiet diplomacy to reduce the chances the GOP’s tea-party wing will crown primary candidates who can be easily portrayed as odd or extremist,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“This is no small thing in the pursuit of this year’s grand prize, which is winning control of the Senate.”
The Week: Will the GOP sideline social conservatives too?
“An Italian court ruled that former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi must visit a center for the elderly at least once a week as he serves a one-year sentence for tax fraud doing community service,” Reuters reports.
“It was not immediately clear from the court ruling if Berlusconi would be able to campaign for his Forza Italia party ahead of European Parliament elections next month.”
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Chelsea Clinton told Fast Company that she might run for public office one day.
Said Clinton: “I live in a city and a state and a country where I support my elected representatives. If at some point that weren’t the case, and I didn’t support my mayor or my city councilwoman or my congresswoman or either of my senators — and I’m lucky to live in a state where I have lots of women representing me, you know — maybe then I’d have to ask and answer the question for myself, and come to a different answer.”
David Hawkings: “The Supreme Court has made pretty clear that putting your money where your mouth is deserves broad protection as a form of free political speech. The justices are about to consider whether outright lying in a campaign deserves a similar First Amendment shield.”
“The court’s recent decisions easing the flow of generous campaign contributions already shifted the electoral landscape. If the court finds that even the most patently outrageous statements about candidates may not be barred by law, those two decisions combined could expand the rhetorical battlefield of the midterm elections and raise the attack ad volume as never before.”
Wonk Wire: New CBO report shows Obamacare will cost $100 billion less than expected while insuring more people.
Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst (R) has cited her National Guard duty to rebuff criticism for missing more than half of the votes in the Iowa Senate this year.
But a review by The Gazette shows that few — 10%, or 12 of the 117 missed votes — came on days when she was on active duty.
In the wake a new investigation, a longtime commissioner at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey resigned, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Anthony Sartor submitted his resignation just days after a new investigation into activity at the Port Authority by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, including the agency’s work rebuilding the World Trade Center, came to light. Sartor is a New Jersey appointee who has long chaired the agency’s subcommittee on World Trade Center redevelopment.”
Anna Greenberg, recently named Democratic Pollster of the Year by the American Association of Political Consultants, joins us on the Political Wire podcast for a look at three key voting groups — unmarried women, young voters, and minorities — who will decide the 2014 midterm elections.
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Jonathan Chait: “It may seem implausible that Republicans would simply refuse to allow Obama to appoint any justice to such a vacancy. That is only because things that haven’t happened before are hard to imagine. But such a confrontation is not only a logical outcome but the most logical outcome. Voting to flip the Supreme Court would be, if not a political death warrant for a Republican Senator, then certainly taking one’s political life into one’s own hands. Politicians do not like political death warrants — certainly not for the benefit of the opposing party’s agenda.”
“The modern pattern in American politics is that tactics that are legally available, but never used for reasons of custom, eventually become used. The modern pattern is also that the Republican Party, which is the most ideologically cohesive and disciplined party, leads the way.”
“Amid raucous debate, Nevada Republican Party conventioneers on Saturday stripped opposition to gay marriage and abortion from the party platform and endorsed Gov. Brian Sandoval for governor in the June 10 primary despite misgivings by conservatives, his criticism of the process and his absence from the meeting,” the Las Vegas Review Journal reports.
“Republicans who sat on the platform committee said they decided not to deal with social issues this year because the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts have weighed in and it doesn’t make sense for the party of ‘personal freedom’ to have the government or the political party get involved in people’s personal lives.”
“Scott’s happiest days as a young man were in New Hampshire… So it’s going to be great to have a senator that was born virtually in the state of New Hampshire. Jean Shaheen, by the way, was born in Missouri!”
— Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu (R), quoted by Yahoo News, at a rally kicking off Scott Brown’s Senate candidacy.
Wisconsin Republicans voted in favor of a proposal that says the state party “supports legislation that upholds Wisconsin’s right, under extreme circumstances, to secede,” the Milwaukee Journal Constitution reports.
A version of the so-called “state sovereignty” resolution was first approved last month by one of the state GOP’s eight regional caucuses as an assertion of the state’s 10th Amendment rights. The measure also calls for ending all mandates that go “beyond the scope of the constitutionally delegated powers of the federal government.”
The matter will go for final approval to the delegates attending the state Republican Party’s convention next month.
A new Anzalone Lizst Grove Research (D) poll in Arkansas finds Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) leads Rep. Tom Cotton (R) in the U.S. Senate race among likely voters, 48% to 45%, with 7% of the electorate undecided.
More evidence Pryor is ahead: The AP reports that Cotton called for a series of five debates with Pryor.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has retained a high-profile defense lawyer to represent him in a criminal investigation into whether he illegally withheld money from the Travis County district attorney’s office, the Austin American-Statesman reports.
“The hiring of David L. Botsford is the latest signal that the inquiry into Perry’s conduct might be gaining momentum after a seven-month investigation. Perry, whose term will end in January, is not seeking re-election.”
Reid Wilson: “Of the $2.6 million spent on TV in Arkansas so far, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) has accounted for 7% of the total ads. Rep. Tom Cotton (R) has accounted for just 5%. The remaining 88% comes from outside groups.”
Three former New Jersey Ethics Commission officials, “breaking four years of silence, are accusing the governor’s office of unprecedented interference with an agency set up to be free of political influence,” the Newark Star Ledger reports.
“Christie, they say, pushed the agency commissioners to replace the executive director — at a time when she was investigating a member of his own staff — thus crossing a line no other governor had before.”
“Not all” Republicans are racist, said Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) over the weekend, but “to a significant extent, the Republican base has elements that are animated by racism, and that’s unfortunate,” the Huffington Post reports.
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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