A new MassINC poll in Massachusetts finds former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) leads a generic Democrat in a general election
match-up for U.S. Senate, 44% to 36%.
However, when matched up against Rep. Ed Markey (D)
specifically, Brown leads 53% to 31%.
The poll was
conducted prior to news about Rep. Stephen Lynch’s (D) potential entrance into
the race, and does not include a head to head match-up between Brown and
Lynch.
Virginia state Sen. Ralph Smith (R) told the Roanoke Times he opposed efforts to change the way Virginia allocates electoral votes, calling it “a bad idea.”
“Smith sits on the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee, which will hear the bill next week. Without Smith’s support, it’s unlikely the bill could get to the Senate floor. The Privileges and Elections Committee has eight Republicans and seven Democrats.”
The Cloakroom: GOP effort to rig the electoral vote loses momentum.
Juts published: Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political Cartoons by Fiona Deans Halloran.
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Harry Enten: “Want to know how people feel about President Obama’s gun control plan? Simply ask whether they approve or disapprove of how the president and his administration are doing their job. When you attach Obama’s name by calling it “Barack Obama’s proposals”, the Post discovered that 53% of Americans favor the proposals – nearly identical to Obama’s approval rating of 55% in a separate Post poll last week. Gallup found the same, with 53% in favor of Obama’s gun control plan, compared to his monthly approval rating of 52%.”
“Drill down to specific demographics and the link between approval of the gun plan and approval of Obama’s administration becomes even clearer… Among the 24 subgroups tested [by the Post], the correlation between a subgroup’s opinion towards [the administration] and Obama’s gun plan is 0.98 – nearly perfect.”
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) will run in the special U.S. Senate election to fill the expected vacancy if Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) is confirmed next week to be Secretary of State, the Boston Globe reports.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) has already announced his own bid.
First Read: “If Kerry steps down from his Senate seat on Tuesday, the primary to replace him would have to take place between Sunday, May 12 and Monday, May 27. And the general would be between Sunday, June 23 and Monday, July 8. State law requires the general to take place 145 to 160 days after a vacancy is created. The primary is required to occur six weeks before that.”
The Las Vegas Journal-Review has a must-read interview with Nevada Assemblyman Steven Brooks (D), who was jailed last weekend for threatening to kill the state House speaker.
“The disjointed, 35-minute interview took place in a sparsely furnished North Las Vegas apartment. Present were Brooks, his attorney, Mitchell Posin, and a man who only identified himself as Darren and said he is Brooks’ driver. Brooks was shirtless much of the time, walking with a heavy limp and showing a reporter myriad swollen spots on his face, neck and torso that he and Posin attributed to mistreatment before and after his arrest.”
Coming next week: The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change by Al Gore.
Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford (R) doesn’t agree with Republican efforts around the country to change the way electoral votes are allocated, the Miami Herald reports.
Said Weatherford: “To me, that’s like saying in a football game, ‘We should have only three quarters, because we were winning after three quarters and the beat us in the fourth. I don’t think we need to change the rules of the game, I think we need to get better.”
President Obama is bringing his campaign pollster, David Simas, into White House, BuzzFeed reports, “part of a broader migration of political staff into government as he gears up to sell his second term agenda to the American people.”
“The move comes amid a White House reshuffle where a host of aides who have worked in the administration for years have decided to leave and others have moved up.”
Other moves: “Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough will be announced Friday as the new White House Chief of Staff to replace Jack Lew, who Obama nominated to be the next Treasury Secretary. Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer is being promoted to replace departing Senior Adviser David Plouffe. His deputy, Jennifer Palmieri, will be the new Communications Director. Rob Nabors, Obama’s Director of Legislative Affairs, will become Deputy White House Chief of Staff for Policy — a position to expand his influence on domestic policy.”
“We’ve got to stop being the stupid party. It’s time for a new
Republican Party that talks like adults. We had a number of
Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre
comments. I’m here to say we’ve had enough of that.”
— Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), quoted by the Washington Post.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) “will announce this morning that he’s dropping plans to run for a third term in 2014, a decision certain to set off an avalanche of Republican candidates who will seek to replace him,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
“At least two GOP House members from Georgia, Paul Broun of Athens and
Tom Price of Roswell, have been contemplating primary challenges to
Chambliss, who has been criticized for participating in a bipartisan
effort to broker a deal to address a $16 trillion federal deficit.”
The eyeglasses worn by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in recent days appear to be for treating double-vision, the New York Daily News reports.
“As she testified about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, the secretary of state appeared to have tiny vertical lines etched onto the left lens of her new brown specs… Experts told the Daily News that Clinton likely has a Fresnel prism placed on her glasses. The adhesive panel is used to treat double vision.”
A Clinton spokesman confirmed to Daily Intelligencer that Clinton will “be wearing these glasses instead of her contacts for a period of time because of lingering issues stemming from her concussion.”
Former RNC Chairman Haley Barbour (R) said that “stupid” and “offensive” comments made by one candidate can have a negative affect on others in the same political party, Politico reports.
Said Barbour: “The comments they made were stupid comments, offensive comments and in today’s world when a candidate in one state says something, the negative effect of that can spill over to other candidates.”
Former Mitt Romney strategist Stuart Stevens sent a letter to the Washington Post asking them to reconsider a “Four-Pinocchio” ruling for Romney’s ad on Chrysler and China, after Chrysler announced that it would begin building Jeep models in China.
Write Stevens: “I would hope that you would take another look at this and stress test it for accuracy away from the heat of a campaign. I’ve been doing campaigns and writing about campaigns for some time and I believe that the ad and Romney’s statement were completely accurate, unusually so by any standards.”
The verdict: “We reaffirm our earlier ruling of Four Pinocchios.”
“Romney is becoming more of an admired figure and no one gets any
applause for punching him. However, there is no Romney faction or Romney wing of the GOP
that is keeping the flame alive. No one tailors their policies because
it was what Romney supported in the 2012 campaign.”
— GOP strategist Ed Rogers, quoted by the Washington Post.
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D) will spend the weekend in prison as a penalty for 14 parole violations, the Detroit Free Press reports.
President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will sit down for a joint interview to air on 60 Minutes this weekend.
Politico: “This is not only the first joint interview for Obama and Clinton, but it is also the first sit-down television interview that Obama has given with anyone other than first lady Michelle Obama.”
Charlie Cook: “Liberals enthused by President Obama’s soaring inauguration rhetoric and conservatives fearful of an impending socialist takeover should all take a deep breath. Much of what liberals passionately want and conservatives deeply fear is unlikely to ever make it to a vote on the House or Senate floors.”
“For the past two decades, one of the least understood but most important unwritten job requirements for congressional leaders has been to protect their members from difficult and potentially politically costly votes, either in committee or on the floor. Some of the most pressing policy issues of the day are never voted on or are so diluted that one would be hard-pressed to use voting records to nail down how any member feels about anything of real consequence.”
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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