Wonk Wire: Democrats are just as divided as Republicans in the “culture wars”
Democrats Develop Rift with Jewish Voters
“Many U.S. Jewish leaders are unnerved both by the new Iran nuclear agreement and the public falling out between President Barack Obama and his Israeli counterpart, developments that are creating a rift in the durable alliance between Jews and the Democratic Party in the run-up to the 2016 elections,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Worried that Iran might still develop a nuclear weapon despite the accord announced Thursday, the Jewish leaders say they feel torn between an Obama administration that has pressed hard for a deal and an Israeli government that has repeatedly warned that Iran is a grave threat to the Jewish state and can’t be trusted to abandon its nuclear ambitions.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I think there’ll be a lot of Democrats there paying good money to see me get beaten up.”
— Mitt Romney, quoted by MSNBC, on his charity boxing match against former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield.
Three Takeaways on the DNC’s Autopsy Report
First Read: “One, the chief shortcoming the DNC highlighted was message… Two, this nine-page ‘preliminary’ report pales in comparison to the big report the RNC did after its losses in 2012. And three, the DNC omitted what is perhaps the organization’s biggest shortcoming in the Obama Era: Obama’s OFA (in many ways) has become a separate party organization that has diverted resources and attention away from the DNC. That’s a real problem as the party moves away from the Obama years. “
Democrats Have Ignored Down-Ballot Races
“In the Obama era, the Democratic Party successfully has won the White House but all too often has ignored down-ballot races that determine control of Congress and state legislatures, according to a preliminary report by a Democratic National Committee task force charged with rebooting the party following the disastrous 2014 election,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“At the same time, the party has failed to focus on core values that voters can relate to, instead putting forth a list of disjointed policy recommendations.”
Why Democrats Lost in 2014
A new DNC report concludes the Democratic Party lacks a “single narrative” and must tighten its pitch to voters in order to compete in future elections, The Hill reports.
Currently, the party is “loosely understood as a long list of policy statements and not with a common set of core values.”
Wasserman Schultz Offered to Switch Position for Donor
DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s office “offered to change her position on medical marijuana if a major Florida donor recanted his withering criticism of her,” according to emails obtained by Politico.
“The proposal to Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan was straightforward: retract critical statements he made to a reporter in return for Wasserman Schultz publicly backing his cannabis initiative that she had trashed just months earlier. Morgan declined the offer with a sharp email reply sent to a go-between, who described the congresswoman as being in a ‘tizzy.'”
Democrats Become the Party of ‘No’
New York Times: “Now that they control both houses of Congress, Republicans are beginning to learn the limits of their newfound power. For the third day in a row, Senate Republicans called a vote on a bill to keep the Department of Homeland Security funded. And for the third time, it failed to clear a Democratic filibuster.”
“The problems were old and new: political divisions within the party, difficulties over managing the expectations of conservative lawmakers, and the simple arithmetic of getting to the filibuster-proof threshold of 60 votes when there are only 54 Republican senators. The tactics that had served them well when they were in the minority were now being effectively exploited against them.”
The Most Democratic and Republican States
Gallup: “Massachusetts and Maryland rank as the most Democratic states, and Wyoming and Utah are the most Republican, based on the political party identification and leanings of their state residents in 2014. The Democratic advantage in Massachusetts and Maryland exceeds 20 percentage points, while Utah and Wyoming show Republican advantages of more than 30 points.”
No Majority in Sight for House Democrats
Morning Line: “It’s easy for Democrats to paper over some of their midterm electoral issues, given that they control the White House, they feel they have a presidential demographic and electoral advantage, and that Hillary Clinton leads in the 2016 polls. But unless the party can figure out how to appeal to voters in right-leaning districts, drawn in many cases by Republicans, they are going to be out of power in the House until at least 2022, after the next round of redistricting. And there’s no indication they will be able to control the maps after next Census, given that Republicans expanded their majority of governors in 2014 to 31, and they now fully control 30 state legislatures. Democrats fully control just 11, while eight chambers are split.”
Ohio Democrats Think Convention Dates Favor Columbus
Democrats announced that their 2016 convention will be the week of July 25, one week after Republicans have their convention in Cleveland, scheduled for July 18-21, the Columbus Dispatch reports.
Ohio Democrats “believe the date is a good sign of the city’s chances to land the convention. One of the reasons is that planning for and providing security for both the DNC and RNC will be much easier and much less expensive, given that the cities are less than three hours apart by car.”
Democrats Stole the GOP Honeymoon
First Read: “Strikingly, however, Congress and Republicans haven’t seen their numbers go up. Just 16% approve of Congress’ job (unchanged since December), and only 23% approve of the job congressional Republicans are doing. Maybe more significantly, only 35% believe divided government — with Democrats controlling the White House and Republicans in charge of both chambers of Congress — works well for the country. That’s a reverse from previous NBC/WSJ polls (in 1996, 1997 and 1999), which found majorities in praise of divided government.”
“And then there are the parties’ fav/unfav numbers. The public gives the GOP a 25%-46% rating, down from 30%-45% a month ago. By comparison, Democrats are at 35%-38%, when they were at 37%-39% in December. Bottom line: You can hardly tell from our NBC/WSJ poll that the Republican Party was the big winner from the midterm elections just two months ago. Somehow, Obama and the Democrats stole the Republicans’ post-election honeymoon. Or the Republicans somehow lost it.”
The Path Back to Senate Control for Democrats
“Democrats are looking to reclaim their Senate majority in two years, but after losing nine Senate seats in 2014, their path back to that majority won’t be easy,” National Journal reports.
“Democrats will be benefiting from a favorable landscape, with Republicans defending 24 seats (many of them in blue territory) while Democrats will be defending only 10. To leverage that advantage into control of the Senate, however, Democrats need to net at least four seats (five, if Republicans win the presidency). That requires sweeping out blue-state freshman Republicans in states such as Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin while also defeating a couple of brand-name senators, such as Rob Portman or Marco Rubio, in perennial swing states.”
Revenge of the Democratic Techies?
“The technologists who built the Democratic Party’s data-driven approach to campaigning are saddened by the results of the 2014 midterms, a political drubbing that not even even the sharpest get-out-the-vote operation could prevent,” CNN reports.
“But they are taking heart in a durable truth: Even as Republicans made impressive strides in digital and data-driven campaigning in 2014, Democrats retain a culture of innovation and an army of campaign geeks that far outpaces their GOP foes.”
“Republicans have gloated about their advancements in campaign science since being infamously outclassed by President Barack Obama’s voter turnout operation in 2012. After a much better year in 2014, they point with pride to new data programs that allowed GOP campaigns to better identify and persuade voters. But even the GOP’s top digital strategists continue look with envy at the technological ecosystem that Democrats and their allies have constructed over the course of a decade.”
Democrats Unveil New Fundraising Committee
“Democrats wasted no time in opening their new gift from Congress. The year-end federal budget bill included a way for the political parties to raise huge new sums for their conventions, and the Democratic National Committee has already set up a fundraising vehicle to do just that, a Federal Election Commission filing shows,” Bloomberg reports.
“The DNC’s convention committee went live last week.”
Your Republican Uncle
The Democratic National Committee has launched a new website featuring tips for talking with your Republican uncle over the holidays.
Democratic Allegiance Hits New Low
“The number of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats has dropped to a record low in nearly 34 years of ABC News/Washington Post polls, marking the party’s challenges after its poor showing in the 2014 midterm elections. The Republican Party, by contrast, has gained sharply in popularity, if not allegiance.”
“Just 26% of Americans now identify themselves as Democrats, down from 32% six weeks ago to the fewest since ABC/Post polling began in 1981.”
Democratic Divide Mirrors GOP Split
“In the six weeks since their repudiation in the midterms, Democrats have seen the opening of fissures within their once-disciplined ranks, marking the start of an internal struggle between now and the 2016 election over the ideological identity and tactical direction of the party,” the Washington Post reports.
“The tension — shown in high relief during the messy final days of the congressional session — is in some ways a mirror image of the stresses within the Republican Party, which has been divided between its tea party and establishment factions in recent years. In the case of both parties, the argument pits the more populist, purist elements of the base against the more pragmatic center.”
Greg Sargent: How divided are the Democrats?
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