Asked whether the Republican Party has any chance of retaking the U.S. Senate if he doesn’t win his re-election bid in Kentucky, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told National Review: “No.”
Perry Forms a Federal PAC
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), “who’s weighing a White House bid in 2016, has formed a federal political action committee to aid fellow Republican candidates in the Nov. 4 elections,” Bloomberg reports.
RickPAC was created with the “goal of helping elect Republicans to office who share the governor’s philosophy of low taxes, limited government, border security, and job creation.”
Polarization Isn’t Just Happening in Washington
First Read: “There was a time when the states and governors were the ones working across the aisle, getting things done. But state capitals have become more nationalized and polarized, so now the LAST bastion of bipartisan work is taking place in cities and counties. The states should no longer be viewed unilaterally as the “better than Washington” ideal. Basically, many state capitals have become ‘Washington-ized.'”
Another Obamacare Myth
Wonk Wire: Obamacare premiums won’t skyrocket as many predicted
Top 10 Most Vulnerable Senators
Roll Call: “Three months before Election Day, it’s clear some senators may not return to Congress after the midterms — and that’s mostly good news for Republicans.”
Top 10 Most Vulnerable House Members
Roll Call: “Two House members have already lost their re-election in primaries this cycle — and it’s unlikely they will be the last with ruined plans to return to Congress.”
Primaries in Kansas, Michigan and Washington Today
There are more tea party vs. establishment primaries tonight.
Politico notes that if Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) win today, “this will be the first cycle since 2008 in which no incumbent senator loses in a primary.”
Harry Enten says Alexander and Roberts “are heavy favorites to win their primaries this week against conservative challengers, but the data from past primary challenges suggest that Alexander has a higher chance of being upset.”
Roll Call has 6 things to watch as results come in.
Lawmaker Approval Hits New Low
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds the number of Americans who approve of their representative in Congress is at an all-time low.
Key findings: 51% said that they disapprove of the way their member of Congress is “handling his or her job” while 41% approve of how their member handles his or her work. It’s the first time in 25 years that the number of Americans who disapprove of their own Congress member has risen over 50 percent.
Quote of the Day
“She is such a dominant frontrunner. I think most people will decide to stand down.”
— David Plouffe, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, on Hillary Clinton’s presidential chances.
Democrats Seize on Social Issues
New York Times: “They aim to match President Obama’s feat in 2012, when the incumbent used topics such as same-sex marriage and contraception as weapons to offset his vulnerability on the economy. That they would even try while facing the older, whiter, more conservative midterm electorate shows how thoroughly the politics of social issues have turned upside down.”
“The tumultuous social changes that began in the 1960s supplied decades of political ammunition for Republicans. Beginning with Richard M. Nixon, they rallied Americans disturbed by noisy protests over civil rights, the sexual revolution and the Vietnam War.”
Forecasting Obama’s Final Two Years
“With the prospect of a Republican takeover of the Senate looming, the White House is quietly mulling potential silver linings of such a dynamic during President Obama’s final two years in office,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“While it’s hard to find anyone in the administration who sees any upside for Mr. Obama if the GOP controls both chambers of Congress-certainly no one is making a public case-one optimistic view of a GOP-controlled Congress is that maybe Mr. Obama would finally be able to cut some deals.”
“The idea is that after November, Republicans will be less inclined to block Mr. Obama because they’ll be looking toward the presidency in 2016 and will want to round out the GOP record to include some planks that have broader national appeal; at the same time, Mr. Obama could have more space to make deals because Democratic leaders won’t be reining him in with their own congressional politics.”
McDonnell Loses Either Way
“There is a prominent flaw in the legal strategy of Bob McDonnell: Even if the disgraced former Virginia governor wins in court, he loses,” Dana Millbank observes.
“In December, during McDonnell’s final days in office, prosecutors offered him a deal that would have let his wife off the hook and would have required him to plead guilty only to a single charge unrelated to his official duties. But McDonnell chose to go to court… Had he taken the deal, McDonnell would have looked like a sleazy pol. Now, he looks like a sleazy pol and a cad. Even if the former GOP governor beats the 13 counts, the trial is showing him to be not just greedy but also ungallant, allowing his wife and children to suffer to minimize his own shame.”
GOP Lawmaker Says Migrant Children May Carry Ebola
Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) suggested “that immigrant children from Central America could be carrying the ebola virus that has killed some 800 people this year in West Africa,” the Northwest Indiana Times reports.
Referencing a conversation he had with Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN), a heart surgeon, Rokita said: “He said, look, we need to know just from a public-health standpoint,
with ebola circulating and everything else — no, that’s my addition to
it, not necessarily his — but he said we need to know the condition of
these kids.”
McDaniel Files Formal Challenge to Runoff Result
Chris McDaniel (R) has formally challenged his defeat in a runoff by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) in Mississippi, the Jackson Clarion Ledger reports.
“McDaniel will have to prove there were enough illegally cast votes to change the outcome or that the election was so sloppily handled its result is in doubt.”
McDaniel claims 3,500 of illegal crossover voting by Democrats, 9,500 “irregular votes” and 2,275 “improperly cast” votes. Certified results show Cochran won by 7,667 votes, or 51 percent.
Rick Hasen: “But the reason I expect McDaniel will likely lose is that he is not asking for a new election. Instead, he is asking for a remedy of having him declared the winner.”
Rand Paul, Then and Now
“I think they’re an important ally, but I also think that their per capita income is greater than probably three-fourths of the rest of the world. Should we be giving free money or welfare to a wealthy nation? I don’t think so.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), in an interview with ABC News in 2011, on aid to Israel.
“I haven’t really proposed that in the past. We’ve never had a legislative proposal to do that. You can mistake my position, but then I’ll answer the question. That has not been a position–a legislative position–we have introduced to phase out or get rid of Israel’s aid.”
— Paul, quoted by Yahoo News today.
GOP Lawmaker Sends Bible to All Colleagues
Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS) recently sent a copy of the Holy Bible to every member of Congress “to help guide you in your decision-making,” according to a letter obtained by TPM.
How Bad Was Richard Nixon?
Top Line: “On the 40th anniversary of his resignation, a new documentary takes a fresh look at the Nixon tapes to make the case that the already vilified 37th president was not as bad as you may think… He was worse.”
GOP Lawmaker Says Democrats Waging War on Whites
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) “doesn’t think that the hardline stance Republicans have taken on immigration could hurt the party’s standing with Hispanic voters. Instead, he thinks Democrats are hurting their prospects with white voters,” the Huffington Post reports.
Said Brooks: “This is a part of the war on whites that’s being launched by the Democratic Party. And the way in which they’re launching this war is by claiming that whites hate everybody else. It’s part of the strategy that Barack Obama implemented in 2008, continued in 2012, where he divides us all on race, on sex, greed, envy, class warfare, all those kinds of things.”
