A new Quinnipiac poll in New Jersey finds 95% of voters think Gov. Chris Christie (R) did an “excellent” or “good” job responding to Hurricane Sandy.
Christie now holds a sky high 72% to 21% approval rating.
Meanwhile, a new Rutgers-Eagleton poll shows 59
percent support Christie’s re-election for Christie while 32% oppose him.
In a possible match up, Christie leads Cory Booker (D) by 19 points,, 53% to 34%.
“It would be wrong for me to leave now.”
— New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by the AP, announcing his plans to run for re-election.
Private talks between President Obama and top congressional leaders in search of a deal to avoid the year-end “fiscal cliff” are accelerating, the Washington Post reports.
Obama telephoned House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) over the weekend, “in a sign that high-level negotiations are advancing with only weeks to go before an automatic series of spending cuts and tax hikes starts to hit nearly every American.”
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports Obama “is ramping up the White House’s postelection effort to generate public support for his preferred package of tax increases and spending cuts.”
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U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice will be on Capitol Hill the next two days to meet privately with select senators, including Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), regarding the attacks in Benghazi last September, sources tell NBC News.
Rice requested a meeting with McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH). These are significant because McCain, Graham and Ayotte are prominent GOP national-security voices and have been among Rice’s harshest critics for her handling of the situation in Benghazi.
Illinois Gov.Pat Quinn (D) ordered a special primary election for February 26 for voters in the state’s 2nd Congressional District to begin the process to replace former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D), the Chicago Tribune reports.
The special general election is set for March 19, but could be changed to April 9 if Quinn can convince the legislature to allow the date to be the same as the already scheduled municipal elections.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) filed the necessary paperwork to officially launch his 2013 re-election campaign, the Newark Star Ledger reports.
Said adviser Michael DuHaime: “He’s made his decision and wanted to make sure as soon as he did he
would to let people know. He’s instructed us to get the
ball rolling on re-election.”
Friends of former Georgia secretary of state Karen Handel (R) tell the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she’s mulling a 2014 Republican primary challenge to Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA).
Former Florida Republican party officials tell the Palm Beach Post that a new election law that “contributed to long voter lines and caused some to abandon voting altogether was intentionally designed by Florida GOP staff and consultants to inhibit Democratic voters.”
“Republican leaders said in proposing the law that it was meant to
save money and fight voter fraud. But a former GOP chairman and former
Gov. Charlie Crist, both of whom have been ousted from the party, now
say that fraud concerns were advanced only as subterfuge for the law’s
main purpose: GOP victory.”
The Economist: “By any standard other than the absurdly high one he has set himself,
though, Mr Norquist continues to dominate Washington’s tax debate.
Almost all revenue-raising proposals hinge on eliminating deductions,
rather than raising marginal rates. If Mr Obama does succeed in raising
the income-tax rate for the richest, it will have taken him two
elections and all manner of fiscal face-offs and crises to get his
way–and success is still far from assured. Even scrapping an
economically nonsensical subsidy for ethanol, it seems, is still a
highly controversial move. Grover is not over yet.”
BuzzFeed: Four reasons not to count Grover Norquist out.
Though Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R) announced plans to run for his seat, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) would not comment on whether he even intended to run for re-election, the Washington Post reports.
Said Rockefeller: “Everyone I talk to in West Virginia is tired of the non-stop campaigning… Politics can wait.”
First Read: “To us, this may be an indication that incumbent Sen. Jay Rockefeller
(D), 75, probably won’t seek re-election. And retirements could be a big
story for Democrats in 2014, with potential retirees in Rockefeller,
Tom Harkin (IA), Dick Durbin (IL), Max Baucus (MT), Tim Johnson (SD),
and Carl Levin (MI).”
In a stunning move that could leave Toronto without a mayor, a judge has found Rob Ford flouted conflict-of-interest rules and declared the office of Toronto’s mayor “vacant,” the Globe and Mail reports.
The judge suspended Ford’s removal from office for 14 days because the decision will “necessitate administrative changes.”
Ford said he would appeal the ruling arguing his ouster was orchestrated by “a left-wing cabal.”
David Corn says the idea that President Obama “caved in” on the Bush tax cuts in 2010 is a myth.
“Obama didn’t wave the white flag in 2010. He turned a face-off over the Bush tax cuts into an opportunity to enact a second stimulus that he otherwise could not get past Senate Republicans. His failure at that time was not that he mustered insufficient mettle; he failed to convey to the world that he had ju-jitsued the GOPers.”
“Republican insiders in Nevada are so frustrated with the state party and GOP infighting that serious discussion is under way about creating a separate nonprofit entity to collect big-money donations to help GOP candidates, in effect permanently going around the Nevada Republican Party and its endless drama,” the Las Vegas Review Journal reports.
“Mike Slanker, a political adviser to Heller and Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, is said to be at the center of discussions… Sandoval, who has announced he’s running for re-election in 2014, already has a separate New Nevada PAC, which raised nearly $890,000 during the 2012 election cycle, mostly from gaming, mining and other business interests.”
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The Christian Science Monitor reports former Rep. Jesse Jackson’s (D-IL) wife, Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson, and his brother, John Jackson, are both mulling special election bids for the seat he stepped away from last week.
The Washington Post reports former Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-IL), who lost to Jackson in the March Democratic primary, has already announced her bid for the seat.
Hendrick Hertzberg: “For one party to win a majority of House seats with a minority of votes is a relatively rare occurrence. It has now happened five times in the past hundred years. In 1914 and 1942, the Democrats were the beneficiaries. In 1952, 1996, and this year, it was the Republicans’ turn to get lucky, and their luck is likely to hold for many election cycles to come. Gerrymandering routinely gets blamed for such mismatches, but that’s only part of the story. Far more important than redistricting is just plain districting: because so many Democrats are city folk, large numbers of Democratic votes pile up redundantly in overwhelmingly one-sided districts. Even having district lines drawn by neutral commissions instead of by self-serving politicians wouldn’t do much to alter this built-in structural bias.”
“I’m not obligated on the pledge. I made Tennesseans aware, I was just elected, the only thing I’m honoring is the oath I take when I serve, when I’m sworn in this January.”
— Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), quoted by the Washington Post, becoming the latest GOP lawmaker to buck the anti-tax pledge.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appeared to soften his critique of potential Hillary Clinton successor Susan Rice telling Fox News, “I’d give everyone the benefit of explaining their position and the actions that they took. I’d be glad to have the opportunity to discuss these issues with her.”
First Read: “Of course, this doesn’t mean that any Rice hearing would be less contentious or that Benghazi wouldn’t be an issue. But it does seem — for now at least — that Benghazi might not be fatal for Rice, if Obama nominates her. The White House is going to get a Benghazi proxy fight at some point in the Senate, perhaps it’s during the Rice confirmation, or perhaps during the confirmation of a new CIA director, or maybe it’s all unavoidable giving the president the leeway to go with Rice without fear of creating a NEW political problem for himself on the Hill.”
And this: “By the way, the State job is down to Rice and John Kerry; there really isn’t a third contender being vetted, we’ve learned. And look for an announcement about State to happen in the next week or so.”
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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