Martin Walsh and John Connolly “emerged Tuesday atop a crowded field vying to become Boston’s next mayor, propelled by well-funded campaigns that outmuscled and outorganized the competition,” the Boston Globe reports.
Byrne and Young Advance in Alabama
Bradley Byrne (R) and Dean Young (R) advanced to a Republican runoff in Alabama’s 1st congressional district, the Birmingham News reports.
According to complete but unofficial results, Byrne captured nearly 35% of the vote in the six-county district and Young was second with 23% of the vote. Out of the seven other Republican contenders, Chad Fincher was third with about 16% of the vote.
Poll Shows Disapproval of Threat of Government Shutdown
A new New York Times/CBS News poll finds 8 in 10 Americans find it unacceptable for either President Obama or members of Congress to threaten to shut down the government during budget negotiations in order to achieve their goals. Fewer than 1 in 5 think the stalemate between President Obama and the Republicans in Congress is acceptable.
A new Global Strategy Group (D) poll finds 35% would blame Republicans in Congress for a shutdown, 29% would blame President Obama and another 12% would blame congressional Democrats — a total of 41% blaming either Obama or his Democratic allies in Congress.
Huge Majority Say Country on Wrong Track
A new Bloomberg poll finds that just 25% of Americans say the U.S. is on the right track — the lowest mark since September 2011, a month after S&P downgraded U.S. government debt. Sixty-eight percent say the country is headed down the wrong track.
Cruz Continues Night Long Attack on Obamacare
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), “who took to the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon and declared he would speak ‘until I cannot stand’ was still standing more than 14 hours later as he pressed ahead with his impassioned and often lonely verbal assault on President Obama’s health care law,” the New York Times reports.
“It is a fight he will almost certainly lose later on Wednesday when both Republicans and Democrats are expected to vote overwhelmingly to move ahead so the Senate can begin considering a bill, approved by the House last week, that would fund most of the government but not the Affordable Care Act.”
Washington Post: “Speaking with little assistance from his Republican colleagues, Cruz assured that debate on the spending measure will stretch well into the weekend. With Senate passage all but certain on a bill that will include funding for the health-care law, Cruz’s strategy will give House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and his colleagues only a few hours to respond with a different version of the legislation.”
Christie Running Away in Re-Election Race
A new Quinnipiac poll in New Jersey finds Barbara Buono (D) trailing Gov. Chris Christie badly and making no progress in recent weeks.
Christie leads by a whopping 64% to 30%.
Said pollster Maurice Carroll: “Even a third of Democrats prefer Christie. And, although the Buono campaign and Buono’s political background are big on women’s issues, even women favor Christie. So do men. There’s not even a very big gender gap.”
Why a Government Shutdown is Unlikely
Philip Klein: “The nation now has more than two and a half years of experience with divided government during the Obama presidency. And each time there has been a major crisis, it’s followed a familiar pattern. The sides are far apart. It looks like the crisis may hit. Then, at the last minute, there’s some sort of deal that’s able to pass the Senate that Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is able to get through the House of Representatives with a lot of help from Democrats.”
Jonathan Cohn: “The conflict over financing government operations–and, weeks from now, raising the debt ceiling–is all about Boehner and his lieutenants waiting until the last possible minute, so that he can extract the biggest concessions from Democrats while telling the conservative base he did the best he could. One way or another, the two sides will come together before the government runs out of money and before it taps out its borrowing authority.”
Wonk Wire: Republican pols fight back on possible shutdown
Bono Mocks Bill Clinton
Bono did a remarkably good impersonation of Bill Clinton today at the Clinton Global Initiative.
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“First of all, we know it ain’t because of his blackness, so I say stop
trying to relate. Be a leader. Be fucking presidential.”
— Samuel L. Jackson, in a Playboy interview, when asked what he things of President Obama dropping his gs off the end of words to sound like a regular person.
Indiana Voters Split on Same Sex Marriage Ban
A new Bellwether Research poll in Indiana finds 48% of voters opposed to the amendment to the state constitution which would ban same sex marriage while 45% support it.
Coakley Way Ahead in Massachusetts
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Massachusetts finds Martha Coakley (D) with big leads in both the primary and general election for governor.
Coakley’s announcement has pretty much evaporated support for all the candidates who were already in the race. She leads with 57%, followed by Steve Grossman at 10% and Don Berwick at 6%.
Coakley also starts out with a double digit lead over Charlie Baker (R), 51% to 38%.
Schmidt Says He Helped Turn GOP Into a ‘Freak Show’
Former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt said that he has a “deep regret” for helping to create a “freak show” wing of the Republican party, Politico reports.
Said Schmidt: “For the last couple of years, we’ve had this wing of the party running roughshod over the rest of the party. Tossing out terms like RINO saying we’re going to purge, you know, the moderates out of the party. We’ve lost five U.S. Senate seats over the last two election cycles. And fundamentally we need Republicans, whether they’re running for president, whether they’re in the leadership of the Congress, to stand up against a lot of this asininity.”
Lawmakers Took $1.7 Million in Free Trips in August
Political Moneyline: “As Congressional inaction brings the government closer to a shutdown, new gift reports show members of Congress were adept at taking advantage of last month’s summer recess and receiving almost $1.7 million in free trips during the month of August.”
Staffer Left Loaded Gun in State Capitol Restroom
A Missouri House staffer allegedly left a loaded gun in a public restroom in the state Capitol last week, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
“According to a Capitol Police incident report, a Kahr CM9 9mm pistol – later claimed by House Speaker Tim Jones’ (R) legislative assistant Dave Evans – was found on top of the toilet paper dispenser in a men’s restroom in the Capitol basement Friday. The incident report states that the gun ‘was fully loaded with one round in the chamber and six rounds in the magazine.'”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“We’re not nearly as political as everyone thinks we are. We don’t sit
around all the time talking about this. We swim in the late afternoon
every day. And if either one of us even mentions a political topic we
will stop the other one and just talk about the weather or whatever.”
— Bill Clinton, in an interview on PBS, about life with Hillary Clinton.
Warning Sign for Democrats in Midterm Elections
Charlie Cook:
“Something that might be of concern to Democrats, however, is that in
this year’s data, independents are tilting Republican by 18 points, 43
percent to 25 percent. This is even more than the 14-point edge that the
GOP had in the 2010 polling (40 percent to 26 percent) and dramatically
different from the 1-point Democratic edge in 2012 (35 percent to 34
percent). While independents tend to vote in smaller numbers than they
do in presidential years, so do some of the strongest Democratic groups,
namely minorities, youths, and, in particular, young women. These are
the voters who made a huge difference for the Democrats in the 2008 and
2012 elections. This turnout disparity between midterm and presidential
years spells trouble for Democrats. They overcame that obstacle in 2006
by running strongly among those independents who had turned on President
Bush over the war in Iraq, among other things. The forces at work are
considerably different this time around.”
The GOP Money Primary Kicks Off
McKay Coppins: “Several of the GOP’s top potential presidential candidates gathered in the home of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson Monday night for a fundraiser that doubled as an early audition in front of the party’s elite money crowd.”
“The fundraiser for the Republican National Committee — co-hosted by Chairman Reince Preibus and Johnson — was headlined by a who’s who of 2016 speculation, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Rep. Paul Ryan, Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder.”
Interesting side note: Rand Paul was the last to leave.
Capito Holds Large Lead in West Virginia
A new Public Policy Polling survey in West Virginia finds Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R) leading Natalie Tennant (D) by 14 points in the race for U.S. Senate, 50% to 36%.
