A new Vox Populi Polling (R) survey finds David Perdue (R) with a nine-point lead over Michelle Nunn (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 49% to 40%, with 10% undecided.
The Most Frightening Congressional Candidate
David Wasserman: “As a House analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, I’ve personally interviewed over 300 congressional candidates over the course of seven years, both to get to know them and evaluate their chances of winning. I’ve been impressed by just as many Republicans as Democrats, and underwhelmed by equal numbers, too. Most are accustomed to tough questions.”
“But never have I met any candidate quite as frightening or fact-averse as Louisiana state Rep. Lenar Whitney, 55, who visited my office last Wednesday. It’s tough to decide which party’s worst nightmare she would be.”
Pentagon Will Investigate Plagiarism Charges
The Defense Department and the Department of the Army “will be reviewing the plagiarism allegations against Sen. John Walsh (D-MT), according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army War College, where Walsh allegedly used the work of other people in his 2007 thesis for a master’s degree,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The school said that because Walsh is a member of Congress and a former military serviceman, the Defense Department’s Office of the Inspector General has authority to review the investigation.”
A new Gravis Marketing poll finds Steve Daines (R) has increased his over Walsh from four points to seven points, 45% to 38%, since the plagiarism scandal began.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“In ’06 I put a lot of my own money into the race, some people took away that I was trying to buy the race. This time I’m really focused on showing I have a broad base of support. And also, quite frankly, I learned that if somebody writes you a ten dollar check they’re going to vote for you.”
— Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Pete Ricketts (R), quoted by Bloomberg.
Stephen Colbert’s Angry Echo Chamber
Stephen Colbert takes on the Sarah Palin Channel. Just brilliant.
Can More Campaign Money Reduce Polarization?
Ray LaRaja and Brian Schaffner: “In our forthcoming book, we show that campaign finance laws that empower parties do lead to less polarization. Party organizations do, in fact, behave differently than other partisan groups by mediating ideological sources of money and funneling it to moderate candidates. It may seem counterintuitive to fight polarization by empowering parties, but states with ‘party-centered’ campaign finance laws tend to be less polarized than states that constrain how the parties can support candidates.”
“We are not arguing that campaign finance laws are the underlying cause of polarization. But the rules often advantage the most ideological elements in each party coalition, who have an abiding interest in pushing for candidates who espouse their views of the world.”
Ezra Klein highlights a chart comes from the authors which shows “what most people intuitively know: the small minority of people who fund American politics are much, much more politically polarized than the vast majority of people who don’t contribute to campaigns.”
Democrats Cashing In on Impeachment Talk
“Republicans hoped that by filing a lawsuit against President Obama — a move that is expected to win House endorsement Wednesday — they would mobilize conservatives eager for a confrontation with the White House. But so far it appears to be rallying Democrats at least as much as Republicans,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Warning that the lawsuit is just the first step toward impeachment, Democrats have turned the GOP strategy into their own fundraising and motivational tool, flooding supporters with emails in recent weeks.”
Warren Backers Don’t Want Her to Run for President
David Freedlander notes that if Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) “does in fact reverse her repeated denials of interest and decides to run for president, she will have to do so virtually alone. That’s because almost to a person, her earliest and most devoted backers do not want her to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.”
Economy Rebounds Strongly
“The U.S. economy rebounded strongly this spring after a first-quarter contraction, eking out positive growth over the past six months and raising hopes for sustained growth in the second half of 2014,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Turning the Midterms Into a Base Election
First Read: “So both sides are playing this cynical game, turning the midterms into a base election that will be decided by who best motivates their base rather than by trying to fix the country’s problems. (Republicans: ‘This President is breaking the law!’ Democrats: ‘They want to impeach the president!’) And what’s particularly jarring is that this isn’t taking place on the campaign trail — but rather from their official capacities at the White House and on Capitol Hill. It’s beneath the White House, and it’s beneath the speaker. And each side can rationalize their actions all they want, but all its doing is reinforcing the decision by MILLIONS of Americans who have chosen not to participate in the political process this year that they made the right decision. The leaders in both parties aren’t taking their frustrations seriously. Instead, leaders in Washington are falling back on base turnout gimmicks.”
How Religion Determines Your Politics
Wonk Wire: Strong connection between religion and political identity
Rhode Island Democratic Chair Quits
Rhode Island Democratic party chairman David Caprio resigned Tuesday, saying he couldn’t “dedicate the the necessary time and energy” to help candidates in their campaigns, the Providence Journal reports.
His resignation came a day after reports that the state police are investigating a contract awarded to Caprio for beach concessions.
Rove Says Both Sides to Blame for Impeachment Talk
Karl Rove said President Obama “is playing with the American people by suggesting a constitutional crisis where none exists. Shame on him and shame on those people in the administration who participate with him,” Politico reports.
He added: “Shame on conservatives and Republicans who helped him along.”
Charlie Hurt: “All this talk of impeaching the president is the stupidest Republican political strategy so far this century.”
Paul Planning a Book for Next Year
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told the Louisville Courier Journal that he is working on a new book that will come out early next year — about the same time he will decide whether to run for president.
Said Paul while chuckling: “Just coincidence, probably just coincidence, yeah.”
Quote of the Day
“What happens is they’re like an Ebola virus that spreads. And if you can keep it contained with this bunch of people that really hate the government, OK, I respect their position. But when the virus spreads and they then have a bunch of people all nervous that if they vote the way they really think they should vote then bad things are going to happen, that messes up the process.”
— Former Rep. Steve LaTourette (R), quoted by the Wall Street Journal, on the conservative groups that demand ideological purity.
McDonnell Uses Broken Marriage Defense
Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen, “on trial for conspiring to use his office for personal enrichment, outlined an unexpected defense on Tuesday: Their marriage was so broken that they did not communicate enough to conspire about anything,” the New York Times reports.
“In opening arguments in the couple’s corruption trial in federal court here, their lawyers made clear that they planned to rely on the sordid details of their unhappy union as the basis of their legal defense.”
Richmond Times Dispatch: “Depending on whom you believe, Bob and Maureen McDonnell were either gift-grubbing and financially desperate enough to conspire to sell the governor’s office, or so dedicated to public service that the stresses of a gubernatorial term wrecked their marriage.”
Kasich Up By Double Digits in Ohio
A new Quinnipiac poll in Ohio finds Gov. John Kasich (R) leading challenger Ed FitzGerald (D) in the race for governor by double digits, 48% to 36%.
Said pollster Peter Brown: “The Democratic nominee still has a long way to go with little more than three months until Election Day. Almost two-thirds of registered voters don’t know enough about FitzGerald to have an opinion of him. That’s an awful lot of Ohioans who still have to be introduced to him. This survey was conducted during the period in which the Democrat had just begun his television advertising buy.”
Arkansas Senate Race Remains Close
A new Hendrix College poll in Arkansas finds Tom Cotton (R) leading Sen. Mark Pryor (D) in the U.S. Senate race by two points, 44% to 42%.
Meanwhile, Pryor released an internal poll that shows he has a six point lead, 45% to 39%.
