South Carolina State Sen. Lee Bright (R) is expected to announce his primary challenge to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) next week, the Columbia State reports.
“The primary race against Graham is becoming increasingly crowded with self-proclaimed conservatives seeking to unseat the moderate Republican who has brokered several deals across party lines, including a controversial immigration reform bill.”
Maine state Senate candidate Eric Brakey (R) told the Bangor Daily News that he’s proud of a video clip that includes footage of him dancing in a Brazilian Speedo. The video was done as part of a national ad campaign.
Said Brakey: “That’s my background, and I’m still doing a lot of acting. I’m an actor, and when I was working professionally in New York City this was a real fun, wonderful opportunity doing a commercial for a national brand.”
Of the 12 women who have now made sexual harassment allegations against San Diego Mayor Bob Filner (D), eight are female veterans and most were victims of sexual assault while they were in the military, CNN reports.
The women say Filner “used his significant power and credentials to access military sexual assault survivors, who they say are less likely to complain.”
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Former CIA Director Michael Hayden speculated that “hackers and transparency groups were likely to respond with cyber-terror attacks if the United States government apprehends whistleblower Edward Snowden,” the Guardian reports.
Said Hayden: “If and when our government grabs Edward Snowden, and brings him back here to the United States for trial, what does this group do?”
He said the “nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twentysomethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex in five or six years” may “want to come after the US government, but frankly, you know, the dot-mil stuff is about the hardest target in the United States. So if they can’t create great harm to dot-mil, who are they going after? Who for them are the World Trade Centers? The World Trade Centers, as they were for al-Qaida.”
“The 2016 presidential contest is more than two years away, and Hillary Rodham Clinton has not decided whether she will be a part of it. But the race to define her potential candidacy is well underway — and far outside her control,” the Washington Post reports.
“Already, independent super PACs have sprouted to boost or bludgeon the former secretary of state, and a television miniseries and documentary are in the works — projects one person close to Clinton called ill-conceived.”
“Clinton is trying to hover above the partisan fray for as long as possible, but some of her allies appear to be placing her back in it. Emily’s List, a group that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, is staging a town hall meeting Friday in Iowa to start making the case for putting a woman in the White House.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “waves off talk of a 2016 presidential run, even as his team has already started debating an issue lurking just beyond his November reelection: So-called ‘pay-to-play’ rules that bar federal candidates from accepting campaign contributions from investment firms that do business in their states,” Politico reports.
“It’s something any sitting governor who wants to run for president has to consider, but an especially acute problem for one across the river from New York City’s financial markets — and who’d be expected to lean on Wall Street types to help finance his campaign.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in New Jersey finds Cory Booker (D) with a “seemingly unbeatable lead” in next week’s Democratic Senate primary, with 54% of likely Democratic primary voters, followed by Rep. Frank Pallone (D) at 17%, Rep. Rush Holt (D) at 15% and Sheila Oliver (D) at 5%.
In a general election matchup, Booker tops Steve Lonegan (R), 54% to 29%, among registered voters.
Said pollster Maurice Carroll: “Unless the sky falls, Newark Mayor Cory Booker can start looking for a Washington apartment.”
“What we feared would happen, is happening… The administration has made things worse, not better. It is enough to make some people simply throw in the towel.”
— Mitt Romney, quoted by WMUR, at a New Hampshire fundraiser.
Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) told the Monroe News-Star that he won’t run for re-election next year.
“Alexander, who hadn’t yet drawn serious opposition for 2014, said he’s grown weary of brutal party politics in Washington and fundraising.”
He’s added to the casualty list.
Rep. Steve King (R-IA), “whose hard line immigration rhetoric has angered some of his fellow Republicans and delighted Democrats eager to keep Hispanic voters in their fold, is quietly planning meetings with political activists in the early presidential primary state of South Carolina,” CNN reports.
“If King is curious about seeking the Republican nomination in 2016, as his visit to South Carolina suggests, he would certainly face difficult odds… King, though, would have a national platform to discuss his policy ideas and might appeal to elements of the Republican base that remain firmly opposed to the immigration reform bill — ‘amnesty,’ in his words — that recently passed the Senate.”
Harry Enten looks at the primary challenges to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and points out that all incumbent senators who were defeated or close to being defeated in primaries in the past 20 years “were not very close to the base of their party Senate caucuses.”
“All Republicans were in the first quartile for conservatism among Republican senators, while all Democrats were among the first quartile for ‘liberalness’ among Democratic senators. That is, about 75% of their caucus was less moderate than they were… So, you can say that there was a real ideological hole for potential primary opponents to run through. No such gaps exist for McConnell and Graham. McConnell was in the 47th percentile for conservatism among Republicans in the 112th Congress. Graham was in the 55th percentile for conservatism among the Republican caucus. In other words, both of them have been right in the middle of their caucuses.”
“What are you going to do about it, grandpa?”
— Anthony Weiner, quoted by the New York Post, to a 69-year-old man who objected to Weiner touching him at an AARP mayoral forum.
Sydney Leathers, Anthony Weiner’s sexting partner, offers her secrets.
“Bottom line: Don’t ever let the politician know how pathetic you think they really are.”
New York City comptroller candidate and former madam Kristin Davis has been arrested for allegedly selling hundreds of prescription pills, NBC News York reports.
Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson (D) said told cn/2 that he won’t run for governor in 2015 because he wants to pour his efforts into improving Kentucky schools and preparing the next generation for jobs.
Said Abramson: “The next chapter in my life, I want to focus on just the issue of education.”
He did not say specifically how he planned to do that once he leaves the lieutenant governor’s office in December 2015.
Magglio Ordonez, a six-time Major League Baseball All-Star who earned $133 million with the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers, will run for mayor of a Venezuelan oil town on the socialist party ticket of the late President Hugo Chavez, Businessweek reports.
With his announced purchase of the Washington Post yesterday, many are trying to better understand the politics of Jeff Bezos.
Political Moneyline looks at his campaign contributions.
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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— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
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— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
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