Wonk Wire highlights how Larry Summers has kept his options open for one last stint in public service while earnings millions in a series of part time jobs.
The First $100 Million Senate Race?
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) reelection bid may be the first Senate contest to crest the $100 million mark, the Washington Post reports.
“Races in recent years have come close to breaching the $100 million mark. The Massachusetts Senate race between Scott Brown (R) and Elizabeth Warren (D) carried an $82 million price tag, making it the most expensive contest in Senate history. (The massive spending in that race is all the more remarkable when you consider that neither Brown nor Warren had significant personal money to spend on it.) For more than a decade before the Massachusetts race, the 2000 New York Senate fight between Hillary Clinton (D) and Rick Lazio (R)held the record for spending at $70 million.”
Inhofe Has Been Laying Groundwork for Months
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) announced this week that he would run for re-election in 2014, but Political Moneyline notes “plans had already been underway for months. From April through June his committee spent a quarter of a million dollars gearing up his image and the campaign.”
Politico Killed the Post?
Ross Douthat says Politico did in the Washington Post and forced its sale to Jeff Bezo last week.
“I say this as someone who doesn’t particularly like the Politico style or the role it plays in our gilded capital, and who misses The Post as it was when I arrived in Washington. But nostalgia is for columnists, not publishers: Politico has claimed a big part of the audience that The Post needed in order to thrive in the world the Internet has made.”
Booker Took Annual Payouts from Law Firm
Cory Booker pocketed “confidential” annual payouts from his former law firm while serving as Newark mayor, the New York Post reports.
“Booker, the front-runner in New Jersey’s Senate race, received five checks from the Trenk DiPasquale law firm from 2007 until 2011. During that time, the firm raked in more than $2 million in fees from local agencies over which Booker has influence.”
Explained Booker: “This was a settlement buyout for my interest in the firm. I had an equity stake, and we had a negotiated settlement.”
Trump Would Spend ‘Whatever It Takes’ to Run for President
Donald Trump told Jon Karl of ABC News that he’d spend whatever money necessary if and when he decided to run for president in 2016.
KARL: If you were to run for president, how much would you be willing to spend?
TRUMP: If I made a decision, I’d spend a lot.
KARL: A modern presidential campaign would be half a billion dollars.
TRUMP: It could.
KARL: That much?
TRUMP: If I did it, I would spend whatever it took.
Immigration Reform Creates Odd Political Alliances
Los Angeles Times: “An unprecedented collection of political bedfellows has coalesced this year on the reform side of the immigration debate: liberal Latino organizations and Republican operatives, the Chamber of Commerce and labor unions, faith groups and high-tech companies. And… some left-leaning groups are financing Republican pro-immigration groups.”
“The result is a flood of money for advertising, lobbying and field organizing aimed at convincing Republicans in Congress to create a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people in the country illegally, authorize more temporary work visas and increase security on the border with Mexico.”
Spitzer Has Spent $3.7 Million Already
Eliot Spitzer, who’s self-funding his campaign for New York City comptroller, has put in $3.7 million of his own money since declaring his candidacy for comptroller on July 7, the New York Post reports.
“What’s more, the former love gov spent $2.6 million on the race for comptroller in the last month alone — more than 10 times that of his rival Scott Stringer, new campaign finance records show.”
Trump Makes Political Trip to Iowa
Donald Trump made his first-ever political visit to Iowa, speaking to conservative Christians, stoking speculation about his political plans and labeling the United States a “laughingstock” during an interview with NBC News.
He warned that Republicans will have a “really tough” time in the 2016 presidential race if Hillary Clinton runs. He said the Senate’s immigration bill “could be a death wish” for the Republican Party but insisted the GOP has to do “the right thing.” And he bragged about buying the old Post Office building in Washington: “You have the White House, you have Congress and I’m building right in the middle!”
King Insists He’s Serious About Possibly Running
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) told The Hill he’s “dead serious about exploring a bid for the White House, even as GOP strategists and consultants offer steep and potentially insurmountable odds for the New York Republican.”
Said King: “This is not a game I’m playing, I’m serious.”
The Cash Committee
The New York Times looks at the lucky House freshmen who have a seat on the powerful Financial Services Committee, “a place, critics say, where there are big incentives for freshmen to do special favors for the industry.”
“Political action committees — set up by lobbying firms, unions, corporations and other groups trying to push their agenda in Congress — have donated more money to Financial Services Committee members in the first six months of this year than to members of any other committee. The $9.4 million total is nearly $2 million more than the total for the Armed Services Committee, the only House panel with more members.”
“With so many lawmakers clamoring to be on the Financial Services Committee, it has grown to 61 members from 44 since 1980, forcing the installation of four tiered rows of seats in the Rayburn House Office Building — with the first row of lawmakers on the floor, just in front of the tables used for witnesses.”
LePage Jokes About Blowing Up Newspapers
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) “made his dislike of the Portland Press Herald abundantly clear while sitting in a fighter jet simulator: He said from the cockpit that he would like to blow up the newspaper’s building,” the Portland Press Herald reports.
When asked what wanted to do in the flight simulator, he replied: “I want to find the Portland Press Herald building and blow it up.”
He later added the Bangor Daily News to his list of targets, which has video of the remarks.
Fox May Produce Hillary Clinton Mini-series
“The script for the proposed mini-series on the life of the possible presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton hasn’t even been written but we may already have a plot twist,” the New York Times reports.
“While NBC has come under heavy fire, especially from Republican critics, for agreeing to broadcast the series, the project may wind up being produced by another company: Fox Television Studios, the sister company of the conservative favorite, Fox News.”
Santorum Says He’ll be Better Prepared in 2016
Rick Santorum told the Des Moines Register that if he runs again for president, he will have a more robust organization in Iowa than his famously shoestring operation in 2012.
Said Santorum: “Obviously, we’re going to be in a little better shape, we’re organized already just from having campaigned in a lot of states. Folks are anxious to help us. Just that alone puts us light years ahead of where we were.”
He added: “It just amazed me how many people I know.”
Political Moneyline notes Santorum “still has $552,895 in debts outstanding. Although he has spent the last three days in Iowa, his 2013 fundraising has been almost non-existent. His $138,396 in receipts in the first six months have been mostly from renting his donor lists out to others.”
More Americans Renouncing Citizenship
Wonk Wire: Number of taxpayers who renounced U.S. citizenship hits record high.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I’ve watched here as any member of the house or senate that sets foot on Iowa soil… it starts a rumor that they’re running for president. And I’ve been coming back here to Iowa over and over again, and I can’t start a rumor. So I’m going to South Carolina and see what happens.”
— Rep. Steve King (R-IA), quoted by National Review, saying he “hasn’t ruled anything in or out” with regards to a 2016 presidential bid.
Filner Ends Treatment a Week Early
San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s chief of staff confirmed to 10News that the mayor began his therapy a week early and has already completed the program. He was scheduled to finish on August 19.
“Filner has been accused of unwanted advances by 14 women, including two
city employees and military veterans who were speaking at an event for
females raped while in the armed forces. Some of the women said he tried
to kiss and grope them.”
Detroit Misplaces $1 Million Check
Detroit News: “In late February, cash-strapped Detroit received a $1 million check from the local school system that wasn’t deposited. The routine payment wound up in a city hall desk drawer, where it was found a month later.”
