South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) “said she was physically abused as a girl by a child-care provider, offering a rare, personal disclosure that she said was meant to underscore the challenge any community faces in protecting its children,” the Columbia State reports.
Said Haley: “It doesn’t matter your background, it doesn’t matter your education, it doesn’t matter the wealth of your family. Every child is subject to child abuse.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in New Jersey finds Cory Booker (D) tops the magic 50% mark in both the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate and the general election.
In a Democratic primary, Booker has 52%, followed by Rep. Frank Pallone (D) at 10%, Rep. Rush Holt (D) at 8% and Sheila Oliver (D) at 3%.
In a possible general election matchup, Booker beats Steve Lonegan (R) 53% to 30%.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad’s (R) campaign committee announced it has hired four campaign staffers to strategize for his re-election in 2014, the Des Moines Register reports.
Said Branstad: “Over the coming weeks and months, you will hear from our campaign team as they begin voter contact, outreach and community recruitment in a way no other Republican in Iowa has done before.”
“The campaign committee said the staffers will begin work now even though the governor does not plan to announce his intentions until next year.”
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“As sweeping abortion regulations continued to speed toward passage in the Texas Legislature, thousands of people on both sides of the debate flooded the Capitol again Monday for competing rallies and for the second special session’s final public hearing on abortion-related legislation,” the Austin American Statesman reports.
“Long lines began forming hours before the 10 a.m. Senate committee hearing, with 475 people registering to speak — the equivalent of 16 hours of testimony at two minutes per speaker — with all due to be heard on Senate Bill 1, provided they remained late into the night.”
“As legal and public pressure mounts over the use of Executive Mansion resources by Virginia’s first family, Gov. Bob McDonnell late last week reimbursed the state for nearly $2,400 in food and household supplies used by his children,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) “voiced reservations about the abortion bill before the legislature – just days after his administration shuttered its second abortion clinic in a three-month period for safety reasons,” the Charlotte Observer reports.
McCrory “said the abortion question was far more complicated than partisans on either side have portrayed it, and that the bill that passed the Senate last week would require more study.”
The surprise decision by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) “to run for citywide office startled and galvanized the city’s political establishment, which worried aloud about handing the TV-savvy and self-financed candidate a new megaphone,” the New York Times reports.
“In candid conversations, some of the leaders expressed acute regret over their failure to swiftly undercut the mayoral campaign of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, another scandal-scarred candidate for citywide office, and said they would not make the same mistake twice.”
“Behind the scenes, they began to lay out a blueprint for undermining Mr. Spitzer’s bid for comptroller, the city’s third-highest elected office, and for propping up his lesser-known Democratic rival, Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president.”
“Increasingly frustrated by his dealings with President Hamid Karzai, President Obama is giving serious consideration to speeding up the withdrawal of United States forces from Afghanistan and to a ‘zero option’ that would leave no American troops there after next year,” the New York Times reports.
Pat Robertson said on The 700 Club that Christians shouldn’t use the “Like” button on Facebook for anything the Bible condemns, especially for pictures of same-sex couples.
Said Robertson: “What you’re saying is, ‘Yes, I like this kind of thing.’ You’ve got a couple of same-sex guys kissing. You ‘Like’ that. Well, that makes me want to throw up… To me, I would punch ‘Vomit,’ not ‘Like’… They don’t give you that option on Facebook.”
Donald Trump released the parody video he made but never aired at the Republican National Convention.
Washington Post: “Trump says it was killed by Mitt Romney aides for being ‘too controversial.’ Romney staffers say it was simply a scheduling issue related to the tropical storm that cut the convention short.”
The Week: “More than three years after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, the heated debate over whether the health-care reforms will do more harm than good is back in full swing.”
“The conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, bankrolled by the billionaire Koch brothers, is spending more than $1 million in an ad blitz aimed at undermining confidence in the law. In a new television spot that will first air in Ohio and Virginia before expanding to other states, the group suggests that ObamaCare will limit Americans’ health care choices while raising their insurance premiums.”
“The question with both Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer is, what have they been doing to earn this second chance?”
— New York mayoral candidate Christine Quinn (D), quoted by the New York Times.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) announced he would not run for re-election next year.
Stu Rothenberg says State Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) “becomes the clear favorite for the GOP nomination and for election as the Lone Star State’s next governor.”
Al Jazeera: “Osama bin Laden, the former al-Qaeda chief and once the world’s most wanted man, lived in Pakistan for nine years, staying in at least six different locations. While maintaining a very low profile, he evaded detection thanks to multiple failures of the Pakistani civil and military establishments, the Abbottabad Commission report shows.”
“Through the testimony of Bin Laden’s wives, the wife of one of his couriers, intelligence officials and various others who came in contact with the family and its support network, the commission was able to piece together an image of what life on the run was like for the Bin Ladens and their Pakistani guards.”
A new Harper Polling survey in Pennsylvania finds that just 24% of voters think Gov. Tom Corbett (R) has done enough to deserve re-election.
The family of the late senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) endorsed Rep. Frank Pallone (D) as his successor, picking Pallone over Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D), the Washington Post reports.
Roll Call: “With the strongest name identification, Booker has held wide leads so far in public polling on the race. Still, the family’s decision not to endorse him is hardly surprising. Booker’s announcement that he was exploring a Senate bid before Lautenberg had announced his re-election plans set off party drama in the Garden State.”
Alex Altman has a good look at how the Senate’s plan to militarize the border is now sparking a backlash.
“The number of agents stationed there has already quintupled over the past two decades, while spending on enforcement is 15 times higher than in 1986, the last time Congress overhauled U.S. immigration policy…While the push to double the number of border agents has done little to neutralize House Republicans’ objections, it has incensed some of the bill’s supporters on the left.”
A new Gallup study finds that television remains the leading source of news for most Americans
and that Fox News tops all
of its competitors.
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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