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A new WBUR poll in Massachusetts finds Martha Coakley (D) has the early advantage in the governor’s race and leads Charlie Baker (R) by double-digits, 39% to 29%.
Said pollster Steve Koczela: “She is doing very well among, particularly, women over the age of 50. They really are responding to what she has to say and have a very positive view of her so far.”
However, Baker “leads among women — and leads overall — in head-to-head matchups with four other Democrats vying for the governor’s chair.”
“Prosecutors laid out a startling corruption case against former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, but the government faces a high bar in proving that the couple committed a crime,” the Washington Post reports.
“To make its case, the government must show beyond a reasonable doubt that McDonnell (with wife Maureen as co-conspirator) struck a corrupt bargain with a Richmond businessman who lavished the McDonnell family with $165,000 in cash and gifts. They must deliver evidence that the former governor agreed to provide his official help to Star Scientific chief executive Jonnie R. Williams in exchange for his largesse.”
Rock star Ted Nugent told Guns.com that President Obama is a “subhuman mongrel” and should be arrested and put in jail.
Said Nugent: “I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame, enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America.”
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Illinois congressional candidate Susanne Atanus (R) told the Chicago Daily Herald that she “believes God controls the weather and has put tornadoes and diseases such as autism and dementia on earth as punishment for gay rights and legalized abortions.”
Said Atanus: “I am a conservative Republican and I believe in God first. God is angry. We are provoking him with abortions and same-sex marriage and civil unions. Same-sex activity is going to increase AIDS. If it’s in our military it will weaken our military. We need to respect God.”
Daily Beast: “The Tea Party Texas congressman challenging incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn in March’s primary is the new invisible man of American politics. The Texas congressman hasn’t shown up on Capitol Hill for a vote since January 9. Instead, he has made only sporadic public appearances, surfacing once in North Dallas on January 14 and then a few days later in Cairo. In between, Stockman missed key votes in Washington, including the omnibus budget. His spokeman, Donny Ferguson, has not responded to inquiries on the Congressman’s whereabouts.”
A new Rutgers-Eagleton Poll in New Jersey finds Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) favorability rating is now at 46%, down 22 points from a survey taken just before his landslide re-election victory last year.
Said pollster David Redlawsk: “Other polls taken immediately after the bridge scandal broke showed relatively small effects. But with another week of revelations, damage appears to have been done. The good will the governor built up among Democrats with his handling of the Sandy aftermath is gone, at least for now.”
“The GOP has made opposition to Obamacare a central pillar of its 2014 campaign strategy. And even though the health care law has begun to turn around, that may not be such a bad idea given lingering public skepticism over the law,” The Week reports.
“However, there is one crucial piece of Obamacare that may well become a big winner for Democrats by the end of the year: The dramatic expansion of Medicaid. Unlike the overall law, the expansion of Medicaid is actually quite popular with voters of all political stripes.”
Greg Sargent notes how red state Democrats are handling the law: “They are not embracing Obamcare. But they oppose repeal, and they are standing behind the general goal of expanding coverage to those who can’t afford it.”
“A law designed to prevent conflicts of interest and shed light on lawmakers who negotiate for post-Capitol Hill work while still in office has failed, worn thin by a series of administrative rulings and narrow interpretations,” National Journal reports.
“The result is that lawmakers themselves now determine when a potential conflict exists and when disclosures should be released publicly. Moreover, because the law has yielded almost none of the public information it was designed to provide, it remains largely unknown whom lawmakers negotiate with–and whether their official duties present any conflicts with those employers.”
First Read says federal prosecutors might have a tough case to prove when it comes to the indictment of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R).
“It’s all clearly unethical, but being unethical is not a crime — it’s proving the quid pro quo. And McDonnell’s statement yesterday gives a hint as to his defense that he never thought he was doing anything in return for the gifts. Jonnie Williams has immunity, which is why there are SO MANY details in this indictment. But judging by what McDonnell’s lawyers are saying off camera, don’t expect some plea deal right away. This could very well end up in court.”
Neel Kashkari (R), who led the bank bailout during the Bush administration, announced his bid to unseat California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), the Sacramento Bee reports.
“His platform could appeal to many moderate Republicans, but Kashkari’s ability to raise sufficient money to broadcast it statewide is uncertain. Not only is Brown collecting millions of dollars from labor unions and other liberal allies, but his relatively moderate fiscal and environmental polices have endeared him to business interests on which GOP candidates could once rely. With the third-term governor heavily favored to win re-election, potential donors – many of them with business before the state – may not risk upsetting Brown by giving to any Republican in the race.”
“A little bit, yeah.”
— Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, quoted by CBC, admitting to drinking alcohol after a video appeared showing him at a restaurant swearing, mumbling and speaking in Jamaican patois.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Florida shows a tight gubernatorial race between Charlie Crist (D) and Gov. Rick Scott (R), 43% to 41%.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) blasted the Obama administration’s Syria policy saying it could pose a terrorist threat to the United States, Roll Call reports.
Said McCain: “If you don’t care about Syria, my dear listeners, if you don’t care about Syria, it’s becoming a regional conflict. It’s spread to Lebanon. It’s spread to Turkey. It’s spread to Jordan. It is spreading throughout the region, and sooner or later it will affect the United States of America if you allow a place to become a base for al-Qaeda.”
He added: “I have never seen anything like this in my life. I thought Jimmy Carter was bad, but he pales in comparison to this president in my view.”
“John Podesta’s fingerprints are all over the White House agenda just three weeks into his tenure,” The Hill reports.
“The White House has focused on income inequality and executive action since President Obama’s new adviser came on at the beginning of the year — demonstrating a singlemindedness often missing during a rocky 2013.”
“Both issues were championed by Podesta as effective ways to score victories over congressional Republicans and motivate the Democratic base ahead of the midterm elections, where the Democratic majority in the Senate is in peril.”
Meanwhile, Politico notes the White House “is trying to dial down the partisan rhetoric on immigration — and it’s asking its allies to do the same.”
If you haven’t had the chance to read the formal indictment of former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen, the Washington Post highlights six of the most interesting details.
Byron York: “News reports give readers the basic outline of the prosecution, but one has to read the indictment itself — it’s just 43 pages — to grasp the full extent of the McDonnells’ alleged corruption.”
The Week: “But while garden-variety graft and wire fraud are bad enough in public officials, scheming to use state employees as guinea pigs for an untested, tobacco-derived dietary supplement is another thing entirely.”
Kentucky state Rep. Joe Fischer (R) “has amended a bill expanding domestic violence protections for dating couples to include language limiting abortions,” WFPL reports.
Said Fischer: “The most brutal form of domestic violence is the violence against unborn children. And, this particular bill would prohibit abortions after the fetus feels pain, which is 20 weeks and older.”
A new Gallup poll finds 65% of Americans are dissatisfied with the nation’s system of government and how well it works, the highest percentage in Gallup’s trend since 2001.
The State of the Union address “is about more than just the speech,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“For a sitting president, it’s essentially a fresh start. And, more than any time in his presidency, Mr. Obama needs one of those. The year 2013 was a mostly empty year, with little to no movement on the White House’s legislative agenda (The president has rushed in recent weeks to make good on promises from last year’s State of the Union address). The year was capped by a botched rollout of Mr. Obama’s signature health care law, a self-inflicted wound that handed Republicans a political cudgel. And he’s got just three years left.”
“In that sense, the White House hopes the speech, which will draw the largest audience Mr. Obama is likely to command all year, will reboot what has been a lethargic and relatively unproductive start to a second term. How Mr. Obama’s aides lay the groundwork for his policy announcements, and the White House’s subsequent follow-through, are critical.”
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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