In a surprise announcement, the Arizona Daily Star reports Ron Barber (D), the long time district director for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), said he would run for office in Arizona’s newly-drawn 2nd congressional district later this year.
Barber is already running to complete his former boss’ term in the 8th congressional district special election to be held on June 12. He is a survivor of the January 8, 2011 shooting in Tucson which also injured Giffords.
An investigation into the integrity of state governments singles out the most corrupt states: Michigan, North Dakota, South Carolina, Maine, Virginia, Wyoming, South Dakota and the winner, Georgia,
Rick Santorum’s campaign offered ABC News “a sneak peek at their in-house delegate tally, which still shows the former Pennsylvania senator trailing Romney but in a much better position to catch him.”
Here’s how the Santorum campaign sees the standings in the race for delegates: Romney 435, Santorum 311, Gingrich 158, Paul 91
Here is the ABC News delegate estimate: Romney 521, Santorum 253, Gingrich 136, Paul 50
“Their delegate equation largely rests on two key assumptions: First, that Arizona and Florida will eventually allocate their delegates proportionally rather than using their current winner-take-all scheme. Second, that delegate tallies in Iowa, Missouri and Washington State should be estimated based upon the preliminary results of ongoing county and district conventions, not on the initial ‘beauty contest’ votes.”
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Coming soon: White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters to You by Simon Johnson and James Kwak.
Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio tells the Arizona Republic that a media conspiracy “bigger than Watergate” is purposefully downplaying his investigation of President Obama’s birth certificate.
Said Arpaio: “I’m not going to drop this. You don’t think I did a press conference and let it die? I’ll make a decision real quick where to send the evidence we have. There are not many options. You do know this is complex. Many conflicts of interest from the White house to the Attorney General. I can go on and on.”
Roll Call lists the top ten most vulnerable House members up for re-election this year — six Republicans and four Democrats.
“He’s not overwhelming, that’s the problem through the whole damn
primary. What’s the spark? What’s the thing that gets him off and
running? No one knows.”
— Former House GOP leader Bob Michel (R-IL), quoted by Politico, on Mitt Romney.
Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) memoir, An American Son, will now be published on June 19 instead of in October, as previously planned.
According to Politico, the goal is to beat a more critical biography, The Rise of Marco Rubio — currently scheduled to come out July 3 — by a few weeks.
“This is all about getting delegates. If the polls are right, we’ll pick up some delegates. That’s what it’s all about.”
— Mitt Romney, quoted by ABC News ahead of the Alabama and Mississippi primaries last week.
“I know a lot of people will talk about delegates and strategies and math and that’s all very interesting to the insiders. But I think the American people want to see someone who has the leadership, skill and experience to defeat the president, and a vision of conservatism that will get American back on track again.”
— Romney, in an interview yesterday on Fox News Sunday.
A new Global Strategies Group poll in Indiana finds Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) leads his GOP primary rival Richard Mourdock (R) by just six points, 45% to 39%.
In what First Read calls “another gut punch” for Mitt Romney, former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) told ABC News that he voted for Newt Gingrich last week in his state’s GOP primary.
Said Barbour: “I didn’t endorse anybody. I didn’t want to try to influence anybody’s vote, so beforehand I didn’t say who I voted for. But Newt and I have been friends a long, long time… Out of friendship, I voted for Newt.”
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. Supreme Court should throw out either the “individual mandate” in the federal health care law or the law in its entirety — signaling the depth of public disagreement with that controversial element of health care reform.
The Supreme Court opens hearings on the law’s constitutionality next week.
Meanwhile, BuzzFeed notes President Obama’s re-election campaign “has launched an all-out defense of his landmark, and unpopular, health care overhaul, a move that marks a realization: The issue can’t be avoided.”
“This is someone who doesn’t have a core. He’s been on both sides of almost every single issue in the past 10 years.”
— Rick Santorum, on CBS’s This Morning, about Mitt Romney.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Illinois finds Mitt Romney comfortably ahead of Rick Santorum in the GOP primary, 45% to 30%, followed by Newt Gingrich at 12% and Ron Paul at 10%.
A new American Research Group poll shows Romney leading with 44%, followed by Santorum at 30%, Gingrich at 13%, and Paul at 8%.
A new Fairleigh Dickinson University poll in New Jersey finds Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) ahead by double digits over Joe Kyrillos (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 43% to 33%.
Mitt Romney will win the Puerto Rico GOP primary, CNN projects.
Early results show it was a blowout. It looks like a possible strategic blunder for Rick Santorum for trying to compete there.
Just published: Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner.
New York Times: “This is certainly the most complete book we are likely to see about the F.B.I.’s intelligence-gathering operations, from Emma Goldman to Osama bin Laden… Illegal wiretaps and burglaries were the F.B.I.’s key weapons almost from the beginning. Time and again, going back to the 1930s, this or that court would rule such procedures illegal. Time and again, J. Edgar Hoover, the bureau’s director from 1924 until his death in 1972, simply ignored the law. A string of presidents, from Roosevelt to Richard M. Nixon, knew exactly what the bureau was doing and refused to stop it.”
“For the first time in a generation, Republicans are preparing for the possibility that their presidential nomination could be decided at their national convention rather than on the campaign trail, a prospect that would upend one of the rituals of modern politics,” the New York Times reports.
“The race remains Mitt Romney’s to lose, and if he continues to accumulate delegates at a steady clip… he can still amass the 1,144 necessary to secure the nomination before the last primary, in Utah on June 26. But as he struggles to win the hearts of conservative voters and hold off a challenge from Rick Santorum, party leaders, activists and the campaigns are for the first time taking seriously the possibility that neither he nor anyone else will get to that total.”
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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