A new Monmouth University Poll in New Jersey finds Gov. Chris Christie’s job rating at another all-time low, 27% to 63%.
The poll also found that twice as many New Jerseyans say that the state is currently worse off (41%) because of Christie’s time as governor than say it is better off (21%).
Tennessee state Rep. Andy Holt (R) is urging Tennesseans to ignore traffic camera tickets and emphasizing his point by burning a citation in a video that has received more than 325,000 Facebook views, the Knoxville News reports.
Said Holt: “What do you do if you get one? Throw it in the trash. Personally, I prefer to burn mine.”
While discussing a bill that would raise the minimum age of exotic dancers from 18 to 21, Louisiana Rep. Kenny Havard (R) briefly proposed an amendment to cap dancers at 28 years old and 160 pounds, the Huffington Post reports.
Not all of Havard’s statehouse colleagues were amused. Rep. Julie Stokes (R) said she had “never been more repulsed to be part of the House of Representatives.”
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New York Times: “The chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court has been hit with ethics charges for defying federal courts on same-sex marriage, and could be removed from his seat. The governor, caught on tape engaging in salacious banter, apparently with his powerful chief adviser, is facing criminal investigations and calls for impeachment.”
“That the governor’s racy calls became public at all is because of what may be the most significant and sweeping crisis of the lot: the impending trial of the Alabama House speaker, Michael G. Hubbard, described by friends and foes as the most powerful man in state politics.”
A new CNN/ORC poll shows that 57% of Americans disapprove of “bathroom bills” that require transgender people to use restrooms that correspond with their birth gender, while 38% approve.
“Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore already lost his job once. Now he’s at risk of losing it again,” the Washington Post reports.
“A state commission on Friday suspended Moore from the bench, alleging that the top-ranking state judicial official disregarded “clear law” this year when he instructed state judges to ignore the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling last summer that established nationwide same-sex marriage rights.”
A new RABA Research poll in North Carolina finds that 50% of North Carolina voters disapprove of the new law requiring that transgender people use the public bathrooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate, while 35% approved and 16% weren’t sure.
Ken Cuccinelli (R) said “that he will not run again for governor, scrambling the contest and opening the door for a far-right conservative to vie for the Republican nomination in 2017,” the Washington Post reports.
A new Rutgers-Eagleton Poll in New Jersey finds just 26% of voters have a favorable opinion of Gov. Chris Christie (R), while 64% are unfavorable towards him.
Nate Cohn: “There was considerable fretting — or satisfaction — over Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s decision Friday to re-enfranchise 200,000 ex-felons in Virginia.”
“The state will be one of the central battlegrounds this November, and it’s widely believed that ex-felons will vote heavily for Democrats… But the electoral effect of felon re-enfranchisement is likely to be modest. The best-case scenario for Democrats might be that they improve their popular vote margin by a half-point. That’s a big deal, but only in a close election.”
“The reason is deceptively straightforward. Ex-felons are less likely to vote than nonfelons, even when ex-felons are eligible to vote.”
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) will sign a resolution declaring pornography a “public health crisis” at the Utah state capitol today, USA Today reports.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) “vetoed a bill seeking to make Tennessee the first state to designate the Bible as its official book,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Haslam, who considered entering a seminary before deciding to join the family truck-stop business after college, said in his veto message that the bill “trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text.”
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) once “ordered a state helicopter to fly his wallet to him at the beach, after he accidentally left it behind in the wake of an argument with his then-wife,” according to Yellowhammer.
“If true, the allegations call into question Gov. Bentley’s assertion that he did not misuse state resources during his affair with his then-senior advisor Rebekah Mason.”
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) “issued an executive order that changes two provisions in the controversial LGBT-protections law, and reaffirms private sector and local government rights to enact their own non-discrimination policies,” the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
“The law has led to substantial opposition from major companies, and hundreds of quantifiable lost jobs.”
However, the “most controversial part of the new law, requiring people use bathrooms of their sex at birth and not their gender identity, remains intact.”
Washington Post: “If this saga has gone terribly for McCrory, it’s been great for Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, who is trying to unseat McCrory.”
Harold Meyerson: “If it wasn’t obvious before, it’s become hi-definition clear in the past few weeks that the culture wars, long a powerful wedge that Republicans wielded against the Democrats, have now become a dagger that cleaves GOP ranks down the middle.”
“In one GOP-controlled state after another, legislatures have enacted measures that enabled businesses to discriminate against same-sex marriage partners or against gays and lesbians generally, only to face ferocious opposition from that pillar of Republican rectitude, American business. In many cases, opposition is so fierce it has led a number of Republican governors to veto the measures.”
Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) political action committee released an attack ad against a woman who verbally lashed out at him at a Starbucks earlier this week.
New York Times: “One woman invited Gov. Mike Pence (R) to her gynecologist appointment. Another provided an update on her cramps. Another tweeted that she had just changed her tampon.”
“The social media missives directed to Indiana’s governor this week have been frequent, pointed and unyielding in their descriptions of female physiology. They are part of an unusual campaign on Facebook and Twitter to express outrage at a law that Mr. Pence, a Republican, signed last month that created several new restrictions on abortions.”
Washington Post: “Battles erupting across the country over gay rights and other social issues have put Republican candidates in a pinch, deepening fissures between the business interests and social conservatives whose support they depend on and forcing them to go on the defensive nationally amid changing cultural winds.”
“In the past month, three states have passed laws intended to protect rights of those who oppose same-sex marriage and half a dozen have enacted new abortion restrictions. And in Tennessee this week, the legislature passed a law making the Bible the official state book.”
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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