Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY) announced that he is resigning from his seat immediately, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.
In December, Davis had announced that he would not be seeking re-election but said today a “family health issue has developed that will demand significantly more of my time to assist. As a result, I cannot continue to effectively fulfill my obligations to both my office and my family. Family must and will come first.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told the Huffington Post that a Bain Capital investor told him that Mitt Romney didn’t pay any taxes for at least a decade.
The person also told Reid that Romney’s wealth was significantly more than the $250 million estimated.
“Tellingly, neither Reid nor his office would reveal who the investor was, making it impossible to verify if the accusation is true. And as his quote makes clear, he’s uncertain if the information is accurate… But there is limited political downside to the type of open speculation that Reid is making, so long as Romney refuses to budge on the issue of his tax returns. Increasingly, other Democrats are growing more assertive in their goading.”
Mitt Romney’s campaign “is quietly laying the groundwork for a high-profile blitz of several key battleground states in the run-up to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, and Republicans briefed on the plans say it has all the trappings of a vice presidential rollout tour,” CNN reports.
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The Denver Post reports that Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) and his wife, Helen Thorpe, announced they are separating after 10 years of marriage, but plan to remain a family that spends a “great deal of time together.”
From a statement: “Both the Governor and Ms. Thorpe want the public to know that neither has had an affair, that they did seek extended counseling, and that this decision is unrelated to the difficult events Colorado has faced this summer.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Connecticut finds Linda McMahon (R) crushing former Rep. Chris Shays (R) in the GOP Senate primary by a stunning 48 points, 68% to 20%.
The Democratic contest is closer but Rep. Chris Murphy (D) is still a clear favorite there, leading Susan Bysiewicz (D) by 17 points at 49% to 32%.
Lowell Turpin “suspected his live-in girlfriend of planning an affair, and when he saw a picture of a man he didn’t recognize on her Facebook page, it set him off,” the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports.
He “jerked her laptop computer from her grasp, smashed the machine into a wall, and then hit her in the face with his fist.”
The man on the computer screen: Mitt Romney.
“They took out all that brain matter yet I still didn’t become a
Democrat.”
— Congressional candidate Dan Halloran (R), quoted by the Politicker, describing his surgery earlier this year to remove a brain tumor.
Mitt Romney, under fire for suggesting that culture explains the economic disparities between Israelis and Palestinians, blamed the media for mischaracterizing his remarks and insisted that he hadn’t actually criticized Palestinian culture.
But Greg Sargent points out that in his 2010 book, No Apology, Romney made “almost precisely the same point about Israelis and Palestinians, even using the same language: ‘culture makes all the difference.'”
John Enright (R), a candidate for Pinal County supervisor candidate, “has withdrawn from the race in the wake of voter-fraud allegations involving a former companion who, records show, has continued to vote by absentee ballot in the five years since her death,” the Arizona Republic reports.
The woman, Sheila Nassar — whom Enright described as his “life companion” — lived with Enright at the time of her death.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Florida finds President Obama edging Mitt Romney in the key battleground state among likely voters, 48% to 47%.
However, Romney would gain an edge if he picked Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as his running mate.
“Regardless of who Romney picks it looks like Florida is once again a sheer toss up, and there’s not much reason to think that will change between now and November.”
Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) has a catchy new radio ad in her challenge to Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) criticizing him for voting twice — once in the House and again in the Senate — to privatize Medicare.
Businessweek has a slide show.
Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY) blasted the Republican Party in an interview with the Syracuse Post-Standard, saying his party is “too willing to accommodate its most extreme members.”
Said Hanna: “I have to say that I’m frustrated by how much we — I mean the Republican Party — are willing to give deferential treatment to our extremes in this moment in history.”
He added: “We render ourselves incapable of governing when all we do is take severe sides… If all people do is go down there and join a team, and the team is invested in winning and you have something that looks very similar to the shirts and the skins, there’s not a lot of value there.”
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) tells Yahoo News that he’s not interested in running for president someday.
Said Villaraigosa: “The answer is no… The job I’ve said to people I would like is I would like to be governor of the state of California.”
David Brooks: “President Obama’s proposals are small and medium-size retreads, while
Mitt Romney has run the closest thing to a policy-free race as any
candidate in my lifetime. Republicans spend their days fleshing out
proposals, which Romney decides not to champion.”
A new We Ask America poll in Wisconsin finds Eric Hovde (R) deadlocked with Tommy Thompson (R) at 23% each for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination, followed by Mark Neumann at 17% and Jeff Fitzgerald (R) at 12%.
The primary is on August 14.
“And I realize that there will be some in the Fourth Estate, or whichever estate, who are far more interested in finding something to write about that is unrelated to the economy, to geopolitics, to the threat of war, to the reality of conflict in Afghanistan today, to a nuclearization of Iran. They’ll instead try and find anything else to divert from the fact that these last four years have been tough years for our country.”
— Mitt Romney, quoted by National Journal, addressing the gaffes made on his overseas trip.
Reports that the Democratic party will support gay marriage in its party platform are in keeping with a big shift in public opinion over the last four years. A new Pew Research survey finds support for gay marriage among Democrats has jumped to 65% today, more than double the percentage that is opposed (29%).
In 2008, only 50% of Democrats favored allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, while 42% were opposed.
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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