Bloomberg looks at how Democrats have quietly started pouring cash into secretary of state races in swing states — all to get ready for 2016.
“Democrats want to control the position that oversees election law in states like Ohio, Colorado and New Mexico — battlegrounds that have all considered forms of voter ID bills or other restrictive measures. They want to boost voter turnout and build their list for 2016.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) “has spent a record 14 years in office vanquishing nearly all who dared confront him: political rivals, moms against mandatory vaccines for sixth graders, a coyote in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the AP reports.
“But with eight months left on the job and a decision to make about the 2016 presidential race, the long-serving governor known for his Texas swagger is now the focus of a grand jury investigation that could cause more difficulty than any adversary has.”
“I’m not running for president. You can ask it lots of different ways.”
— Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), quoted by the Boston Herald.
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The Washington Post reports on the ratings meltdown of “Meet the Press” and host David Gregory which “has sounded alarm bells inside NBC News.”
“Last year, the network undertook an unusual assessment of the 43-year-old journalist, commissioning a psychological consultant to interview his friends and even his wife. The idea, according to a network spokeswoman, Meghan Pianta, was ‘to get perspective and insight from people who know him best.’ But the research project struck some at NBC as odd, given that Gregory has been employed there for nearly 20 years.”
“It’s impossible to exorcise the memories of 2012. But Rick Perry is going all out to present a new and improved version of himself — the swaggering big-state governor of old, with a dash of seasoned wise man thrown in,” Politico reports.
“His carefully choreographed, so far gaffe-free reintroduction has two overriding goals: First, to remind voters of the Rick Perry who is the longest-serving governor in Lone Star State history, a political juggernaut who won 10 straight elections before stumbling in the national spotlight. And second, to get voters to forget, or at least not dwell on, his disastrous 2012 presidential bid.”
“Republicans want to enable and empower you. We want to be the iPhone party.”
— Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), quoted by CNN.
“A small group of top Washington Republicans is teaming up to launch a new polling firm, Vox Populi Polling, that will churn out volumes of survey data ahead of the 2014 midterm elections,” Politico reports.
“The firm plans to produce both public and private polling, tracking high-priority 2014 races and issue debates. It will employ a combination of automated polling and live-caller methodology to reach cell phone users, according to strategists involved in the effort.”
One of the partners: Mary Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“The GOP is making a bold play for a U.S. Senate seat in reliably Democratic Oregon, where a Republican hasn’t been elected to a statewide office in more than a decade,” the AP reports.
“Republicans back in Washington think they’ve found the right candidate in Monica Wehby, a children’s brain surgeon who’s raised more than $1 million and put her early opposition to President Barack Obama’s health care law at the center of her campaign. The race is shaping up to be a strong test of the GOP strategy of relentlessly using the health law against Democrats in hopes of regaining control of the Senate.”
Jeff Greenfied: “Even in this Age of Permanent Gas-baggery, when the signal-to-noise ratio is approaching the win-loss ratio of the 1962 Mets, the mindlessness of the Baby Clinton conversation has made CNN’s search for the Malaysian airplane look like a model of thoughtful analysis. I would cheerfully give a significant three-figure sum to any talking head who, when asked to opine on the earthshaking consequences of Chelsea’s pregnancy, would channel John McEnroe: ‘You cannot be serious!'”
The Week: Meet the Clinton baby truthers
Jeb Bush “left public office seven years ago with a net worth of $1.3 million and an unapologetic determination to expand his wealth, telling friends that his finances had suffered during his time in government,” the New York Times reports.
“But his efforts to capitalize on his résumé and reputation have thrust him into situations that may prove challenging to explain should he mount a Republican campaign for the White House. Records and interviews show, for example, that Mr. Bush participated in the fevered, last-ditch efforts to prop up Lehman Brothers, a Wall Street bank weighed down by toxic mortgage-backed securities. As a paid adviser to the company in the summer of 2008, he met with Carlos Slim Helú, a Mexican billionaire, as Lehman sought to persuade Mr. Slim to make a sizable investment in the firm, emails show.”
Robert Shrum: “The GOP may have to return to the Bush leagues.”
“And let’s face it, Obama, whether deservedly or not, does have a — I’ll say it crudely — but a manhood problem in the Middle East. Is he tough enough to stand up to somebody like Assad or somebody like Putin? I think a lot of the rap is unfair, but certainly in the Middle East there is an assumption that he’s not tough enough.”
— David Brooks, in an interview on Meet the Press.
Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg “sought his advice on when she should retire, although he declined to weigh in on the matter publicly,” the Huffington Post reports.
Said Stevens: “I’d say she doesn’t need my advice, she really doesn’t. She did ask my advice.”
The Week: “Reducing gun violence and curbing global warming are high priorities for most Democrats. So theoretically, they should be thrilled about plans by like-minded billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer to pour money into this year’s midterm elections.”
“But there’s a huge catch: The uber-rich pair could help Democrats lose the Senate and do worse than expected in the House.”
“Perhaps you should revolt.”
— Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, quoted by the Knoxville News Sentinel, to a law school student who questioned the constitutionality of the federal income tax.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) said that he believes the uninsured rate in his state has increased since implementation of Obamacare, the Huffington Post reports.
Said Huelskamp: “It’s hard to get accurate numbers on anything. But the numbers we see today is that — as I understand them — we believe there are more people uninsured today in Kansas than there were before the president’s health care plan went into effect. And I thought the goal was to bring more people into insurance.”
The famous Clinton White House document known as the “conspiracy commerce memo” has finally surfaced in a batch of documents released by the Clinton library, Politico reports.
“The memo, which details how right-wing conspiracy theories made their way into the mainstream press, was written in 1995 and first acknowledged by the White House in 1997. The idea of a ‘conspiracy’ was also famously referred to by Hillary Clinton in 1998, when she cited a ‘vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he ran for president.'”
“I wish we had an alternative. You know what’s unfortunate? It’s for the next six months, we’re going to go into an election knowing that we’re not going to do anything to address health care because we’ve gone so far for the last three years saying ‘no,’ that we don’t have an alternative to say ‘yes’ to. And I think that the American public, when they go to vote, they’re going to look at credibility before they look at substance.”
— Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL), quoted by Think Progress, on Republicans running against Obamacare in the midterm elections.
A new Rasmussen poll in Kansas shows Sen. Pat Roberts (R) solidly ahead of potential challenger Kathleen Sebelius (D) in a U.S. Senate match up, 54% to 37%.
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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