“When it comes to political fundraising, Congress doesn’t travel very far; 76 percent of all political fundraisers in D.C. take place within three city blocks of the U.S. Capitol, a new study by the Sunlight Foundation shows. Additionally, these fundraisers are concentrated in and around congressional working hours and on days when the House and Senate are in session (more to come on this trend tomorrow).”
Democrats Have a Chance in West Virginia
Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “West Virginia and national Democrats finally have a candidate in the Mountain State’s open Senate race: Secretary of State Natalie Tennant (D) will reportedly enter the contest Tuesday morning. Her entry, which has been rumored for months, gives Democrats a credible opponent for Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R, WV-2), the likely Republican nominee. We are changing the rating in this race from Likely Republican to LEANS REPUBLICAN. With a successful statewide elected official now running, Democrats have kept the race on the competitive board, but it would still be a significant surprise if Republicans fumbled away one of their best pickup opportunities in the country.”
Republicans Concede They’re Losing in Virginia
“Republicans can’t believe this is happening: Democrat Terry McAuliffe — whose controversial business dealings and past life as a party moneyman make him a walking negative ad — has taken command of the Virginia governor’s race,” Politico reports.
“More than a dozen interviews last week with longtime Republican insiders around the Commonwealth yielded near-unanimous consensus that their candidate, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, lost significant ground over the summer and would lose if the election were held today.”
Said one prominent GOP official: “It’s going to be a bath.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I cannot remember a time when one faction of one party promises economic chaos when it doesn’t get everything it wants.”
— President Obama, quoted by NBC News, on threats by some Republicans to force a government shutdown over Obamacare.
The Reselling of the President
Out tomorrow: The Message: The Reselling of President Obama by Richard Wolffe.
The Fix: “While President Obama and his top aides were pretty adept at containing leaks from their 2012 campaign, some of the details have begun to emerge now that political reporters are publishing books about the election.”
On Wonk Wire
Obama Loses Sway with Congressional Democrats
Mark Murray: “One of President Barack Obama’s more under-reported achievements has been his ability to corral Democratic votes in Congress…. That is until now.”
“Twice in the past two weeks, congressional Democrats have broken with Obama on key issues — the first time this has happened during Obama’s four-plus years in the White House.”
Gates Will Write About ‘Political Wars’
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has a book coming out in January “and it may discomfort some members of Congress, as well as former colleagues from the Obama and Bush administrations,” USA Today reports.
In addition to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gates says he plans to write about “my political war with Congress each day I was in office,” and what he calls “the dramatic contrast between my public respect, bipartisanship and calm,and my private frustration, disgust and anger.”
Tennant Will Run for U.S. Senate in West Virginia
West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant (D) is expected to announce her
candidacy Tuesday for the Democratic nomination to become West
Virginia’s next U.S. Senator, the Charleston Daily Mail reports.
“Long rumored to have interest in running,
Tennant began calling Democrats across the state Friday to let them know
her plans, said an unnamed Democrat.”
McConnell’s Tough Choices
Louisville Courier-Journal:
“As Congress faces a potential meltdown over the budget and spending,
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is staring at tough political
choices. Should the Kentucky Republican get involved in trying to cut
another budget deal and open himself to charges from the right that he
is giving in to President Barack Obama? Or should he let others
negotiate and be subjected to criticism that he gets nothing done?”
Vander Platts Mulls U.S. Senate Bid
Bob Vander Plaats (R), a key socially conservative power broker in Iowa’s presidential caucuses, will consider a U.S. Senate run next month, BuzzFeed reports.
Said a spokesman: “He would consider looking at it in the middle of October, and decide by the end of the year.”
Fiscal Showdown Looms
Wonk Wire has a timeline for the coming fights over the budget and debt ceiling.
A Republican leadership aide tells National Journal:
“I’m very confident in my belief that a shutdown will not happen. I’m
not going to rule out the chance that it ever does. But the leadership
team and overwhelming number of our members do not want to shut down the
government.”
Cuomo Will Seek End to New York City Primary
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will hold an event with Bill de Blasio (D) and Bill Thompson (D) later this morning “to help bring an end to the Democratic mayoral primary,” Capital New York reports.
“For Cuomo, who avoided public appearances in the city during the primary, it’s a bold entry that forestalls a potentially divisive run-off process, and projects his status as the central figure in the state’s Democratic politics.”
Politicker reports Thompson will drop out of the race today.
No Clear Leader in Boston Mayoral Race
With just over a week until election day, a new Boston Globe poll finds Boston voters “remain flummoxed by the crowded mayoral race.”
John Connolly holds “a slight edge in a field so tightly bunched and volatile that as many as nine candidates have a plausible shot at the final.”
Media Turns on Obama
Politico: “In recent months, and especially since the start of the Syria mess, Obama has been enduring some of the toughest and most widespread press criticism of his four-and-a-half years as president. It isn’t just coming from the usual suspects on the right. Increasingly, the skepticism is coming from the center and even from the left — from White House reporters, progressive editorial boards, foreign policy experts and MSNBC hosts.”
How Summers Got Rolled by Senate Democrats
Larry Summers’ withdrawal as a candidate for Federal Reserve chairman “came after an unprecedented campaign to stop a Fed nominee even before he was announced, spearheaded by Democratic senators who took on a president of their own party,” Bloomberg reports.
Peter Beinart: “Still not convinced that the Democratic Party’s becoming more anti-Wall Street?”
Quote of the Day
“It’s almost as though it was the end of traditional power. I’ve been here for 20 years, and I’ve never seen so much of a repudiation of the conventional sources of power in the legislative or executive branch. It portends for a much more chaotic fall.”
— Rep. James Moran (D-VA), quoted by the Washington Post, on the rank-and-file resistance to both President Obama and Speaker John Boehner on Capitol Hill.
Obamacare Opponents Divided Over What to Do
With health insurance exchanges set to open on October 1, a new USA Today/Pew Research survey finds that 53% of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s health care law while 42% approve.
Key findings: “The 53% of the public who disapprove of the law are divided over what they would like elected officials who oppose the law to do now that the law has begun to take effect. About half of disapprovers (27% of the public overall) say these lawmakers ‘should do what they can to make the law work as well as possible,’ but nearly as many (23% of the public) say these officials ‘should do what they can to make the law fail.'”
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has the reason why: “Overall, nearly 70% of poll respondents said they didn’t understand the health-care overhaul passed by Democrats in March 2010 or only understood a part of it.”
