Larry Sabato has revised his 2016 presidential race rankings.
The GOP top tier includes Sen. Rand Paul, Gov. Chris Christie and Gov. Scott Walker.
“We continue to like Walker’s combination of Blue state electoral success
and conservative bona fides, but let’s face it: We have little idea how
he would handle the crucible of a national campaign. That is just
unknowable at this point.”
The Democratic top tier has just Hillary Clinton.
National Journal: “Despite telling reporters that she raised $1 million in the fourth quarter of 2013, Liz Cheney’s Wyoming Senate campaign actually pulled in far less than that total and spent more than she raised during that time. The daughter of former President Dick Cheney dropped out of the race just days after the end of the fundraising period.”
“Cheney raised just under $720,000 in the fourth quarter of 2013, but her campaign spent more than $900,000, FEC reports show. That profilgate spending was more than any other non-incumbent Senate candidate spent in the fourth quarter, and it explains why she ended the quarter with $183,000 less in the bank that she began it.”
National Journal: “House Democrats delivered another huge online fundraising haul in 2013, underscoring the gap between Democratic and Republican digital efforts as the GOP tries to make up ground in the technology of politics.”
Reuters: “According to interviews with a dozen strategists
from both parties, Democrats appear set to maintain their technological
edge, potentially boosting their prospects in the 2014 midterm elections
just as other factors – such as President Obama’s sliding popularity –
are likely to favor Republicans.”
For more on this, see our conversation with Obama digital strategist Teddy Goff.
You're reading the free version of Political Wire
Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.
“A convicted Ponzi schemer’s court claims that Charlie Crist engaged in a contributions-for-favors ‘quid pro quo’ has come at a damaging time for the former governor who wants his old job back,” the Miami Herald reports.
“Crist’s campaign and defenders vociferously denied Scott Rothstein’s testimony Wednesday and Thursday as the desperate act of a fraudster seeking to shave time off a 50-year prison sentence for the $1.4 billion Ponzi scheme he masterminded. But Rothstein’s veracity aside, the political damage is tolling on Crist, who’s also in the midst of a national book tour.”
Legal analyst and writer Jeffrey Toobin joins us on the Political Wire podcast for a great discussion about the legal and political problems faced by Gov. Chris Christie.
Listen here:
Subscribe via iTunes or RSS to get episodes automatically downloaded.
Special thanks to Shari’s Berries for sponsoring this episode. Click here for special deals on the perfect Valentine’s Day gift.
President Obama’s pick as ambassador to Argentina admitted during a Senate hearing that he’d never been to the country, the Washington Examiner reports.
Said Mament: “I haven’t had the opportunity yet to be there. I’ve traveled pretty extensively around the world, but I haven’t yet had chance to visit Argentina.”
Mamet bundled $500,000 for the president’s re-election bid.
With the Senate seriously at risk, and the Koch Brothers spending prodigiously, shouldn’t Dem funders be focused on ’14 and not ’16 races?
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) February 6, 2014
“If I blindfolded someone and took them at 2 o’clock in the morning into the airport in Hong Kong and said ‘where do you think you are?’ They would say, ‘this must be America. This is a modern airport.’ If I took them blindfolded and took them to LaGuardia airport in New York, he would like ‘I must be in some third world country.’ I’m not joking.”
— Vice President Joe Biden, quoted by CNN.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) “is under review by the Ethics Committee stemming from her victory in an internal party leadership race to become chairman of the House Republican conference,” The Hill reports.
Former spokesman Todd Winer “made a complaint to the OCE after leaving her office early last year… In his complaint, the sources say, he alleges that the now-fourth-ranking Republican in the House misused funds during her battle with Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) for the leadership post following the 2012 elections.”
Vice President Joe Biden told CNN he can’t think of a good reason why he shouldn’t run for president.
Said Biden: “There may be reasons I don’t run, but there’s no obvious reason for me why I think I should not run.”
Biden said his decision would be determined by whether he is “the best qualified person.”
Speaker John Boehner “would sorely like to help engineer an overhaul of immigration policy to bolster his legacy, help his party politically and address a difficult social and economic problem. He just cannot seem to persuade other Republicans, who see the immigration debate as a major threat to their drive to win the Senate and increase their House majority in November,” the New York Times reports.
“The tension between Mr. Boehner’s desire to forge ahead on immigration and a Republican sense that staying focused on the new health care law is the path to victory in the midterm elections contributed to the speaker’s sharp retreat on Thursday from his new push for an immigration consensus.”
The Week: The GOP finds a familiar scapegoat.
With Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) confirmed as the next ambassador to China, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is beginning to talk about his plans for his new gavel, Roll Call reports.
“The Finance Committee has no shortage of work ahead, including the annual ritual of addressing lapsed tax code provisions that are usually bundled into what’s known as ‘tax extenders’ legislation, as well as trying to find a solution to the recurring problem of reduced payments to providers who treat Medicare payments.”
The New York Times looks at the blogging life of the man at the center of the Bridgegate scandal.
“As Wally Edge, political blogger, David Wildstein was so anonymous that when he sold his company, the buyer did not know his real name… His sources — including the United States attorney at the time, Chris Christie — plied him with tips and poured out their souls in emails and instant message conversations at all hours, knowing little more about him than an email address: politicsnj@aol.com.”
“He loved stories about politicians caught in a lie, and nursed grudges with sources who had lied to him. And he had a rule: do not attack political operatives for doing stupid things, because they do what they do for their bosses, the politicians.”
The Washington Post reviews HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes.
“The scene takes place not long after Clinton’s devastating loss in the 2008 presidential primaries to Barack Obama. In a quiet office in her shuttered campaign headquarters in Arlington, a pair of Clinton loyalists are finishing a detailed Excel spreadsheet listing names and behavioral specifics of friends and betrayers. The gradations of loyalty and disloyalty are ranked at one point on a scale of one to seven, one being assigned to lawmakers who stuck with Hillary through thick and thin, seven going to those showing unforgivable treachery — often Democratic members of Congress who were expected to endorse her but broke for Obama; or, worse, allies for whom the Clintons had raised money or done other favors — like writing letters to get their kids into some fancy school — only to be jilted in the rush to the junior senator from Illinois.”
A must-read book.
Nick Gillespie: “As political momentum in Washington, D.C. swings toward tackling immigration reform, the Republican Party once again is ready to squander a mighty electoral advantage heading into the 2014 midterms. The general failure of President Obama’s economic agenda, health-care reform, civil liberties record, and foreign policy is an electoral gift. Yet with a Senate majority in plain sight, the GOP faithful is crying that ‘Amnesty=Suicide’ and Republican leaders are calling for massively invasive new rules that will only increase the size, scope, and spending of the federal government.”
“And this is the party of small government? No wonder the country is so screwed.”
A new Herald-Leader/WKYT Bluegrass Poll in Kentucky finds Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) holds a slim 4-point advantage over Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 46% to 42%.
McConnell’s approval rating is an abysmal 32% to 60%.
In the GOP primary, McConnell leads businessman Matt Bevin (R) 55% to 29%.
Matt Bai: “Let’s be clear about this much: no matter what the soothsayers on cable TV tell you, Hillary Clinton is no more likely to clear the Democratic field and avoid a primary in 2016 than Dennis Rodman is to become her secretary of state. Walter Mondale couldn’t pull that off in 1984, and Al Gore couldn’t do it in 2000, and the conditions for Washington-anointed frontrunners have only gotten exponentially harder since then.”
“Somewhere out there is a guy you’ve barely heard of – name of O’Malley or Schweitzer or Hickenlooper – whose idea of fun is spending every night of the month on a different couch in Iowa. At this point in 2002, remember, most people thought Howard Dean was a brand of sausage.”
“The good news for Clinton is that if she decides to run (and I’m inclined to believe she hasn’t yet), she’ll start out with a huge national fundraising apparatus and the loyalty of party regulars. The bad news, of course, is that this is exactly the kind of thing that makes her vulnerable to another grassroots rebellion. In modern presidential politics, every day is Bastille Day.”
A great tip from Brad Phillips for politicians and their staffs.
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.