Political Wire

White House Hints at Veto of Keystone XL Legislation

November 13, 2014 at 10:20 am EST By Taegan Goddard 60 Comments

The White House has begun hinting that President Obama would veto legislation that mandates approval of the Keystone XL oil-sands pipeline, National Journal reports.

“While a Keystone bill may not be able to clear the lame-duck Senate, the legislation will very likely have more than the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster when Republicans take over the chamber next year. But it’s unclear whether the new Senate could muster the 67 votes necessary to override a presidential veto.”

Wonk Wire: Using Keystone XL to save Mary Landrieu

Republicans Bury Landrieu in Runoff

November 13, 2014 at 9:18 am EST By Taegan Goddard 67 Comments

Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) re-election race “is truly running out of air: She’s responsible for a mere 4 percent of all TV spots in the week-old Louisiana runoff. Republican challenger Bill Cassidy and his friends paid for 96 percent of the spots that have run so far,” Bloomberg reports.

One Democrat tells TPM: “She just can’t win. It’s just not mathematically possible. The way you win statewide in Louisiana is you get 95 percent of the black vote, a good African-American turnout, and 30 to 33 percent of the white vote. And she’s at 20! … Where does she gain? If you put her at 23 percent now, how does she gain 10 points with white voters in a month?”

Landrieu Faces Runoff Alone

November 7, 2014 at 10:02 am EST By Taegan Goddard 21 Comments

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) “is on a solo mission to retain her Senate seat,” Politico reports.

“Democrats are scrapping a multimillion dollar ad buy, liberal groups aren’t jumping in to help her campaign and national political staffers haven’t moved down en masse to help get out the vote.”

“Her early strategy is to blunt Republican attempts to nationalize the race, as they did when the balance of power was up for grabs in the Senate, into a local campaign.”