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Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) has a new talk-to-camera ad that apologizes for the prostitution scandal that killed his political career and suggests his record makes him the ideal candidate for New York City Comptroller.
Said Spitzer: “Look, I failed. Big time.”
“The young conservative known to Republican colleagues as the most reliable ‘no’ vote in Congress is trying to build his political brand–and collect the campaign cash that comes with it,” National Journal reports.
“Maybe it’s for a Senate run. (Justin Amash still won’t say.) But what’s certain is that the Michigan Republican wants to be seen as the go-to libertarian in the House–a position he’s been trying to fill since Ron Paul left Congress.”
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) tells George Skleton he understands why he doesn’t have a good relationship with Gov. Jerry Brown (D): “I get it.”
Referring the the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2010, he says: “I stayed in that race a little longer than he expected or wanted. So I’m not naive.”
But he wants a truce: “I’m ready to take the call and be supportive, whatever he needs. I really do want to rekindle a relationship, but it’s his prerogative.”
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“You know Ted, you have been gifted above any man that I know and God has destined you for greatness”
— Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) father, in an interview with David Brody, recounting advice he gave to his son.
Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli (R) was the topic of a hilarious discussion on The View today.
The aide to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) with a pro-Confederate past has resigned from the senator’s office, USA Today reports.
Said new media director Jack Hunter: “I’ve long been a conservative, and years go, a much more politically incorrect (and campy) one. But there’s a significant difference between being politically incorrect and racist. I’ve also become far more libertarian over the years, a philosophy that encourages a more tolerant world view, through the lens of which I know look back on some of my older comments with embarrassment.”
Paul told an audience in Louisville that Hunter had become a “distraction,” the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.
The Whitehorse City Council put out a compelling ad to get you to watch meetings on cable access television.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns “is finding it hard to keep its membership up, thanks to dozens of resignations and lost elections over the last few months,” BuzzFeed reports.
“Worse for Bloomberg, who has become one of the faces of the gun control movement: the people replacing his lost comrades aren’t particularly eager to sign up with the organization, a rare group battling in the trenches against the well-organized and deep-pocketed National Rifle Association. Some appear not quite to have signed on for that level of political heat.”
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds an overwhelming racial gap divides public attitudes on the Trayvon Martin case and the fairness of the criminal justice system.
By a vast 86% to 9%, African-Americans disapprove of the verdict acquitting George Zimmerman of criminal charges in Martin’s death, while whites approve by 51% to 31%. Blacks, by 81% to 13%, favor federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman; whites are opposed, 59% to 27%.
A new Pew Research poll finds roughly as many satisfied with the verdict in the case as dissatisfied, 39% to 42%, with 19% offering no opinion.
Hartford Courant: “She insists she isn’t running for anything, but Linda McMahon is once again taking her money, clout and star power onto the campaign trail. The Republican from Greenwich who poured $100 million into a pair of unsuccessful runs for U.S. Senate has said repeatedly that her days as a candidate are over.”
“Yet nine months after losing the 2012 Senate race to Democrat Chris Murphy despite an omnipresent television and direct mail marketing blitz, McMahon has quietly begun her third act in politics: as a key benefactor to the state Republican party, and a trusted adviser to its chairman, Jerry Labriola Jr.”
A new USA TODAY/Bipartisan Policy Center poll
“finds that Americans by more than 2-1 say the best way to make positive
changes in society is through volunteer organizations and charities,
not by being active in government. Those younger than 30 are
particularly put off by politics. They are significantly less likely
than their parents to say participating in politics is an important
value in their lives.”
The White House released an amazing photo of President Obama and his family inside former South African President Nelson Mandela’s prison cell during his trip to South Africa last month.
Meanwhile, the BBC reports the 95-year old Mandela is showing “sustained improvement” in his health after fighting a lung infection in the hospital.
Kentucky businessman Matt Bevin (R) is likely to announce this week that he’ll challenge Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in a GOP primary, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.
The Daily Caller reports Bevin “has hinted at a possible run for months.”
The Week: Can McConnell survive a Tea Party challenge?
Speaker John Boehner insisted to CBS News that he had no position on immigration reform: “It’s not about me. It’s not about what I want. What I’ve committed to, when I became speaker was to a more open and fair process. And as difficult as this issue is, me taking a hard position for or against some of these issues will make it harder for us to get a bill… If I come out and say I’m for this and I’m for that, all I’m doing is making my job harder.”
First Read: “It’s striking that the man who’s second in line to the presidency — House Speaker John Boehner — said
yesterday that he won’t take a personal position on immigration, especially over whether there should be a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants… These are Boehner’s most explicit comments yet that he sees his job not to shape his GOP caucus but rather let his GOP caucus shape him. It’s a stunning admission from the man who, like it or not, is the current leader of the Republican Party.”
Steve Kornacki: “If the polls are right and Chris Christie wins a lopsided reelection victory this fall, it will put the New Jersey governor in position to seek the presidency in 2016… What’s not getting much attention is the flip-side: the severe consequences that winning a second term as governor could have for Christie’s ability to raise money for a national campaign – and the possibility that he might be compelled to resign his office during his second term if he’s going to seek the White House.”
“This is the result of two federal rules, one from the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board dating back nearly two decades and the other from the SEC in 2011, that drastically curb the ability of employees of Wall Street firms to donate to governors seeking federal office and of the uniquely broad appointment powers that come with the New Jersey governorship. Put together, they have the potential to prevent Christie from raising millions of dollars from a cash-rich sector – the financial services industry – that has been particularly enthusiastic about him.”
David Hawkings notes that in the past four years the median years of service in the U.S. Senate “has plummeted from 11 to six, because so many newcomers have replaced Senate icons.”
In the House, 46% of House members have completed fewer than three terms, “a generally accepted benchmark for being labeled a ‘junior member.'”
National Journal: “Once the province of actual and aspiring congressional leaders, who used them to dish out money to win friends and forge alliances, leadership PACs are now commonplace all the way to the back benches of Capitol Hill. It’s symptomatic of the constant money chase that consumes so much of modern lawmakers’ time and energy.”
“Of the new senators elected last November, only one, Maine’s Angus King, doesn’t have one yet. Overall, 94 of the 100 current senators have created such PACs… Roughly two-thirds of House members have them, as well.”
The Senate’s agreement “to approve President Obama’s nominees and avoid the ‘nuclear option‘ will expire later this week after senators are expected to vote in two new members to the National Labor Relations Board. That’s the last part of the deal that expedited seven of Obama’s picks, with the president agreeing to choose two NLRB nominees to satisfy Republicans,” Politico reports.
“But there’s already a queue forming of new Obama nominees, and Republicans aren’t about to lay down and let this group go through.”
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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