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April 19, 2010
A new Quinnipiac poll in Florida shows Bill McCollum (R) just edging Alex Sink (D) in the race for governor, 40% to 36%.
McCollum holds a 38% to 18% favorability rating, with 41% who don't know enough about him to form an opinion. Sink gets a 22% to 15% favorability rating, with 61% who don't know enough about her to form an opinion.
Said pollster Peter Brown: "Ms. Sink's low voter recognition is a double-edged sword: She has an opportunity to introduce herself to a majority of the electorate, while McCollum has the chance to define her in an unflattering way. The next governor is the one who is most successful in selling his or her version."
Some great detail in the
Orlando Sentinel on the stunning rise and fall of Florida Republican party chief Jim Greer:
At an out-of-state RNC meeting, "an aide kept walking in and handing notes to Greer." When a concerned committeewoman asked what was happening back in Florida, she discovered the notes were blank. Greer simply wanted them delivered to make himself look important.
"Do they not know that the Yankees have got the atomic bomb now?"
-- Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes (D), quoted by the
Athens Banner-Herald, on Georgia Republicans threatening to secede from the United States.
Massachusetts Republicans "gave an overwhelming endorsement" to Charlie Baker (R) for governor at their state convention over the weekend, giving him "a massive margin that forces GOP rival Christy Mihos out of the race and frees him from what could have been a bitterly divisive primary battle," the
Boston Globe reports.
Baker won 89% of the delegate votes, while Mihos got just 11%, falling well short of the 15% threshold needed to qualify for the September primary ballot.
Check out the great new job listings over at
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A special offer for this week only: If you're looking to hire someone, get 20% off a new 30 day job listing by simply entering the discount code "congress."
April 18, 2010
The latest
YouGov poll in Britain shows the Liberal Democrats surging and now leading among likely voters in next month's election with 33% of the vote, followed by the Conservatives at 32% and Labour at 25%.
It is the first time that the party has ever been ahead in a poll during a general election.
A new
ICM poll puts the Conservatives ahead at 34%, Labour at 29% and the Liberal Democrats at 27%. However, the poll is still bad news for the Conservatives "because, assuming a uniform national
swing, Labour would remain the largest party in a hung parliament."
The Independent: "For the time being at least we are in uncharted waters. Never before have the polls put all three parties so close to each other during the course of an election
campaign."
A new
Pew Research survey shows that just 22% of Americans say they can trust the federal government "almost always or most of the time" and 65% say they have an unfavorable view of Congress. Both measures are among the lowest ever found by Pew.
In addition, the proportion saying they are "angry" with the federal government has doubled over the last decade, increasing from 10% to 21%.
An
interactive chart plots
trust in government and other data back to 1958.
Key finding: The political implications of this environment overwhelmingly favors Republicans. In fact, among those highly dissatisfied with government, independents say they prefer the Republican candidates in their districts by an overwhelming 66% to 13% margin.
Ben Smith flags this great observation from Peter Elkind's new book,
Rough Justice, about Eliot Spitzer.
"Spitzer is evidence of how modern times have compressed the natural rhythm of everything -- even scandal. He leapt on to the national sage overnight -- and vanished in a moment. In the period it has taken me to write this book, he has performed what passes for him as penance, and has already begun a comeback."
"Now that I'm fighting against this administration, then I'm a partisan. But I'm a fighter and that's what I am... I prefer 'great American' myself."
-- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in an interview on
Fox News Sunday, on whether he has been more of a "maverick" or a "partisan" lately.
While acknowledging a likely Republican takeover of the House this fall, Democratic strategist
Ed Kilgore suggests the Republicans have a serious "2012 Problem."
Wrote Kilgore: "Republicans, like or not, are probably stuck with the presidential field they now have. And it's not a pretty sight."
"So let Republicans enjoy their 2010 comeback. It was all but foreordained by the last two cycles, and by the very demographics that threaten the GOP in the long run. Allow them to celebrate their 'fresh faces'; they'll have a lot of fine options for the vice-presidential nomination in 2012. But their 2012 prospects will go straight downhill starting on Nov. 3, 2010. That's when Republicans will have to start to deal with the consequences of their recent bout of self-indulgent destructiveness, when they'll begin choosing someone to take on Barack Obama not in press conferences or talking points or Tea Party protests, but in a presidential election."
"We had two recent tea party demonstrations in Washington, one a week before the health care vote - drew about 1,000 people. The tax day rally, by the organizers own estimate was 1,500 people. If I organized a rally for stronger laws to protect puppies, I would get 100,000 people to Washington. So, I think the media has blown the tea party themselves out of proportion."
-- Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), in an interview on Meet the Press.
April 17, 2010
In an interview on
MSNBC, Fred Malek, a close adviser to Sarah Palin, said he doesn't think the former Alaska governor is setting herself up to run for president in 2012.
Said Malek: "I don't think she's doing the things that a Presidential candidate would do. I think she's doing the things that someone who really wants to forge a media career, very successfully, would do, and she's doing it very successfully. ...there is no [political] organization as I can see, but she's carved out a different career for herself at this point."
Jerry Brown (D) challenged his potential GOP rivals for governor "to an unprecedented bipartisan debate before the state's June primary, giving a resounding response to criticism that he has been slow to enter the political fight," the
AP reports.
Steve Poizner (R) was quick to accept, saying he was "willing to debate anywhere, anytime."
Meg Whitman's campaign issued a statement saying it was "open to considering the proposal."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) tells
Newsweek there's no chance he'll run for President in 2012.
Newsweek: Everybody wants to know about your plans for 2012. Are you considering running and would you consider it?
Perry: No and no.
Newsweek: You are not considering running for president. You will not run for president.
Perry:That's correct.
Newsweek: Under any circumstances?
Perry: That's correct.
Newsweek: Vice president? Would you be willing to consider that?
Perry: No. I don't care about going to Washington, D.C.
The audio of the entire interview will be posted by the
Texas Tribune on Monday morning.
April 16, 2010
"I think this country is on the edge of a rebellion."
-- Newt Gingrich, quoted by
NBC News, speaking to the National Lawyer's Association.
Gingrich later clarified the comment saying, "When I said a rebellion, I meant a political rebellion -- exactly what Jefferson called for."
The day after Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) "announced he was resigning his office amid a sexual harassment scandal, the congressman wrote a $40,000 check to his chief of staff," the
Washington Post reports.
Massa described the payment to Joe Racalto as a "campaign management fee."
However, numerous staffers in the congressman's office "said they were not aware that Racalto was doing work in 2009 and early 2010 toward Massa's reelection."
Update:
Politico reports that Racalto's attorney says that her client had
filed a sexual harassment claim against Massa.
In a move certain to increase
speculation about his national ambitions, former New York Gov. George Pataki (R) is headed to Iowa next week, the
Des Moines Register reports.
Pataki will be launching his new political organization, Revere America, which is "dedicated to advancing common sense public policies rooted in
freedom and free markets."
The first book on the health care reform battle is coming soon from the staff of the
Washington Post:
Landmark: The Inside Story of America's New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All.
Mississippi Haley Barbour (R) is considering "the prospect of a 2012 White House bid, and convened a private meeting last Thursday with a group of some of his oldest and closest advisers, some of whom flew in from the East Coast to Jackson,"
Politico reports. "The gathering stretched for six hours, during which time the topic of a presidential run was discussed."
"One adviser familiar with the state capital sit-down said that Barbour concluded that he did not need to make a decision now and that the group should meet again after this fall's election."
For those who don't want to wait that long for Barbour's decision, you might want to start watching his
weight.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) once again did not deny he's mulling an independent U.S. Senate bid, the
Miami Herald reports.
In fact, he admitted for the first time he'll consider it.
Said Crist: "I'm not thinking about that today. We'll look at that later on."
"They are not gangsters. They were elected. They are not doing anything they were not elected to do."
-- Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by the
New York Times, scolding Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) for calling the Obama administration and Democratic Congress as "the gangster government."
The latest
Public Policy Polling survey shows Republicans leading Democrats in the generic congressional ballot, 47% to 42%.
Key finding: "92% of Republicans are committed to supporting their party this fall while just 86% of Democrats are. For all the unhappiness many GOP voters may express with their party they are still pretty universally planning to vote for it this fall."
Last year at this time, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) was positioning himself for a possible 2012 presidential run with wife Jenny as a key adviser.
Now,
The State reports his now ex-wife "has confirmed she's dating a Georgia businessman whose coastal vacation home is a few doors down from hers."
A new
DailyKos/Research 2000 poll in Hawaii's first congressional district shows a very tight special election race with Charles Djou (R) at 32%, Ed Case (D) at 29% and Colleen Hanabusa (D) at 28%.
Allee Bautsch, the chief fundraiser for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) was violently assaulted last Friday night, along with her boyfriend.
Initial reports on the incident were unclear, but
Yahoo! News has learned "that the attacks appear to have been politically motivated, and that Bautsch has been hospitalized for days to treat her injuries."
Update: The
New Orleans Times-Picayune has a copy of the police report which gives no indication of political motivations.
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