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Symbolic solution in search of an actual problem
Support of 9 Southern Republicans for Respect for Marriage Act shows why Supreme Court isn’t about to ban same-sex marriage ♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor…
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West Virginia stubborn, or playing hard to get
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin pisses off his party yet again … to what end? ♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor Also in this report: Atlanta DA…
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2 Mississippi Republican U.S. House members forced into runoffs after weak primary showings
Michael Guest narrowly trails challenger in 3rd District; Steven Palazzo clears just 32% in 4th District ♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor JACKSON, Mississippi (CFP) –…
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Mississippi Republican U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo facing Tuesday primary fight amid ethics investigation
6 opponents hitting “No-Show Palazzo” over inattention to district, ethics problems ♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor GULFPORT (CFP) — Mississippi U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo —…
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Primary Wrap: Kemp, Raffensperger survive Trump’s ire; Brooks makes Alabama U.S. Senate runoff
Texas Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar survives challenge from the left; George P. Bush gets blown out by Attorney General Ken Paxton ♦By Rich Shumate,…
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U.S. House’s last pro-life Democrat, Texas’s Henry Cuellar, fighting to keep seat in Tuesday primary runoff
Challenger Jessica Cisneros wanted House Democratic leaders to rescind Cuellar endorsement; they refused ♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor LAREDO, Texas (CFP) — Amid the newly…
Obama’s approval anemic in Southern states with Senate contests
Gallup finds that in all five Southern states with competitive 2014 Senate races, Obama’s approval rating falls below 50 percent
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
WASHINGTON (CFP) — Incumbent Southern Senate Democrats fighting to stay in office in 2014 are facing a strong headwind — President Barack Obama’s weak approval ratings across the region.
President Barack Obama
In the four Southern states with competitive Senate races now held by Democrats — Louisiana, North Carolina, Arkansas and West Virginia — Obama’s approval rating falls below 50 percent — in some cases, well below, according to polling from the Gallup organization.
The worst news for Democrats comes in West Virginia, where just 25 percent of voters approval of Obama’s performance, and Arkansas, where the figure is a tad under 35 percent.
Voters in only one state — Wyoming — have a more negative view of Obama than West Virginians, where Republican U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito is hoping to capture a Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democratic U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller.
In Arkansas, Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Pryor is facing a stiff challenge from GOP U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton.
The news for Democrats is somewhat better in Louisiana, where Obama’s approval is at 40 percent, and North Carolina, where it is at 43 percent. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senators Mary Landrieu and Kay Hagan are seeking re-election in those states.
Meanwhile, in Kentucky, where Democrats have high hopes of knocking off Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Obama’s approval rating is a weak 35 percent.
Over in Virginia, where Republicans think they have an outside chance of defeating Democratic U.S. Senator John Warner, Obama’s approval stands at about 46 percent, about what it is nationwide.
In none of the 14 Southern states is Obama’s approval rating above 50 percent. He performs best in Florida, at just under 47 percent, and Virginia — the only two Southern states that Obama carried in both 2008 and 2012.
Gallup’s results are based on more than 178,000 daily tracking interviews conducted nationwide in ut 2013. Each state’s sample had a minimum of 500 respondents; Gallup interviewed at least 1,000 residents in 40 states.
Ed Gillespie’s main GOP rival drops out of Virginia U.S. Senate race
Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Warner is endorsed by his Republican predecessor, John Warner
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com
RICHMOND (CFP) — High-powered Republican political operative Ed Gillespie is one step closer to his party’s U.S. Senate nomination in Virginia after one of his two GOP rivals dropped out of the race.
U.S. Senator Mark Warner
Meanwhile, the Democratic incumbent , U.S. Senator Mark Warner, got a high-profile Republican endorsement from a one-time political rival, former U.S. Senator John Warner.
John Warner said Mark Warner (no relation) “crosses the aisle and makes things work,”
“We come from the old school,” John Warner said in a statement. “The Senate works best when there’s collaborative effort between the two parties.”
Mark Warner unsuccessfully challenged John Warner for his Senate seat in 1996 and replaced him when he retired in 2008.
Over on the Republican side, just two weeks after Gillespie’s entry into the race, Howie Lind, a former military officer from McClean, called it quits, saying his fundraising had dried up.
“The financial resources to continue this campaign for a statewide office are not available since Ed Gillespie has joined the race,” Lind said in a statement. “Statewide campaigns are very expensive, and financial backing corresponds directly to political strength and the ability to win on election day.”
Lind, who entered the Senate race last June, had raised more than $300,000 — a respectable amount for someone who has never held political office but just a fraction of the more than $7 million that Mark Warner has raised.
With Lind out of the race, Gillespie’s only GOP opponent is Shak Hill, a former military officer from Centreville, who, like Lind, is running as an outsider and seeking Tea Party support.
Virginia Senate hopeful Ed Gillespie
Though he, too, has never held elected office, Gillespie, 52, is a consummate Washington insider. He was a communications strategist for President George W. Bush’s winning campaign in 2000 and went on to serve as head of the Republican National Committee and a White House counselor.
In April 2012, after Mitt Romney was finally able to claim the Republican presidential nomination, he signed on as a senior adviser to the Romney campaign.
Gillespie also has a long association with Karl Rove, the Bush political consigliere who has frequently drawn the ire of the party’s Tea Party wing. He held Rove create Crossroads GPS, the super-PAC that has backed establishment candidates facing Tea Party insurgencies.
Gillespie’s entry into the Senate race sets up a class establishment-versus-Tea Party struggle within Republican ranks in the Old Dominion.
Unlike in most states, Republicans in Virginia select their nominees with a party convention, rather than a primary. That could level the playing field for an outsider candidate who can develop a strong cadre of supporters to turn out at the convention, which will be held in June in Roanoke.
Both The Rothenberg Political Report and Cook Political Report classify Warner’s seat as safely in Democratic hands. Obama carried Virginia twice, and Democrats swept all three of the state’s top offices in the 2013 elections for the first time since 1969,
Mitch McConnell’s GOP challenger picks up another conservative endorsement
FreedomWorks, a conservative activist group with Tea Party ties, comes out for Matt Bevin
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (CFP) — The conservative jihad against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky continues, with the group FreedomWorks endorsing McConnell’s Republican primary challenger, Matt Bevin.
Kentucky Senate challenger Matt Bevin
“Matt Bevin is a great upgrade for Kentuckians who are serious about transparency, fiscal responsibility and accountability in government,” said Matt Kibbe, the president of the FreedomWorks, in a January 22 statement.
McConnell’s campaign dismissed the endorsement, accusing FreedomWorks of changing its focus “from conservative reform to conservative cannibalism.”
FreedomWorks, which bills itself as a champion of smaller government and lower taxes, has a history of backing anti-establishment candidates in GOP primaries, including U.S. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida.
The group is backing Bevin even though the its own scorecard of Senate votes this year gives McConnell a rating of 73 out of 100.
In 2010, the group endorsed Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s successful challenge to Senate veteran Richard Lugar. Despite Indiana’s Republican tilt, Mourdock went on to lose in November after he said that if a woman gets pregnant during a rape, the pregnancy is “God’s plan.”
Republican leaders, including former Bush political consigliere Karl Rove, have been critical of FreedomWorks and two other prominent groups, the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Club for Growth, for backing weak contenders in Republican primaries, in the process helping Democrats keep control of the Senate.
The Senate Conservatives Fund has poured nearly $1 million into Bevin’s campaign, counting both direct contributions and independent expenditures made on his behalf. The Club for Growth has not yet entered the Kentucky race.
Bevin, 47, of Louisville is a former investment adviser who now runs his family’s bell manufacturing company in New Hampshire. This is his first run for political office.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
McConnell, 71, has been in the Senate since 1985. He was elected GOP leader in 2007 and would become majority leader if he wins re-election and Republicans pick up the six seats they need to take control.
McConnell has a substantial financial advantage over Bevin, outraising him by a 10-to-1 margin.
Whoever wins the Republican primary will face Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, who is the only Democrat in race.
McConnell is the Democrats’ top Senate target in 2014 and likely the only chance they have to pick up a seat anywhere in the South.
Oklahoma Senate race takes shape, as U.S. Rep. James Lankford gets in
Lankford, a Baptist pastor and rising star in the GOP leadership, is already drawing flack from conservative activists
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
OKLAHOMA CITY (CFP) — Oklahoma Republican U.S. Rep. James Lankford is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Tom Coburn, getting into a race that’s shaping up as a battle between the GOP establishment and its Tea Party wing.
U.S. Rep. James Lankford
Lankford, 45, a Baptist pastor who was first elected to represent the state’s 5th District — based in and around Oklahoma City — in 2010, says he feels “a clear calling” to seek higher office.
“The Senate is currently the most contentious body in our government,” Lankford said in a YouTube video announcing his Senate bid. “I want to continue to bring Oklahoma common sense and solutions to a place that needs both.”
In just his second term in Congress, Lankford was elected as chair of the House Republican Policy Committee, the fifth highest position in the House leadership. He also has a coveted seat on the influential House Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee.
However, that insider resume is already drawing fire from Senate Conservatives Fund, an activist group that has angered Senate GOP leaders by backing Tea Party insurgents trying to topple incumbents.
“We have reviewed his record, and it’s clear that conservatives cannot count on him to fight for their principles,” said Matt Hoskins, the group’s executive director, in a statement.
The group is critical of Lankford for his support of the recent bi-partisan budget deal, designed to avoid a government shutdown, as well as his votes to increase the federal debt limit. He’s also being criticized for a comment he made last summer that he “wouldn’t prohibit forever” illegal immigrants working their way to legal status.
The SCF is pushing instead for first-term U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine of Tulsa to run for Coburn’s seat. Bridenstine, a Tea Party favorite, made headlines last year after he voted against the re-election of Republican House Speaker John Boehner.
Bridenstine has said he is considering the race but has not announced a decision.
Two other Republicans mentioned as possible candidates for Coburn’s seat, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt and U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, have said they will not run.
Coburn, 65, who is battling prostate cancer, announced January 17 that he would leave office at the end of the year, triggering a special election for the remaining two years of his term.
View Lankford’s announcement statement:
U.S. Senator David Vitter running for Louisiana governor
Vitter says the governorship will be his last political job “period”
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
NEW ORLEANS (CFP) — Trying to swap the swamps of Washington for the bayous of Baton Rouge, Republican U.S. Senator David Vitter will seek the governorship of his home state of Louisiana in 2015.
U.S. Senator David Vitter
“I can have a bigger impact in addressing the unique challenges and opportunities we face in Louisiana, helping us truly reach our full potential,” Vitter said in YouTube video announcing his candidacy posted January 21.
Vitter, 52, who served five years in the U.S. House before being elected senator in 2004, also said the governorship “will be my last political job, elected or appointed, period.”
Because Louisiana holds its state elections in off years and his Senate term doesn’t end until 2016, Vitter can pursue the governorship in 2015 without giving up his seat. And if he is elected governor, he will be in the unique position of being able to appoint a successor for the rest of his Senate term.
He will face at least one fellow Republican in the governor’s race, Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne, 59, who issued a statement saying Vitter’s entry was “expected.”
“It is my hope that the governor’s race will offer Louisianians the opportunity to compare and contrast the records of all the candidates, as well as the merits of their ideas to keep our state growing,” Dardenne said.
In Louisiana, Vitter, Dardenne and all other candidates from any party run together in a single primary, with the top two vote getters vying in a runoff if no one gets a majority.
One Democrat has also announced, State Rep. John Bel Edwards, 47, from Roseland. There has also been speculation that another prominent and popular Democrat, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu might make the governor’s race if he wins re-election in February.
Landrieu is the brother of Vitter’s seatmate in the Senate, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, who is up for re-election in 2014.
One question in the 2015 governor’s race will be whether any of Vitter’s opponents dredge up a prostitution scandal that ensnared the senator in 2007.
After Vitter’s number turned up in a published list of phone records of a Washington madam, Debora Jeane Palfrey, he admitted to what he termed “serious sin,” although he did not directly admit to patronizing prostitutes. Vitter, a Roman Catholic, said he had been forgiven by God and his family.
In 2010, his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, attempted to make the prostitution scandal an issue, even airing TV ads about the allegations. But in the end, Vitter buried Melancon, capturing 57 percent of the vote.
A poll taken in November by Southern Media and Opinion research put Vitter’s approval rating in Louisiana at 58 percent, compared to 46 percent for Senator Landrieu and just 38 percent for President Obama.
Vitter’s approval rating was 42 percent among Democrats and 84 percent among Republicans.
Watch the video of Vitter’s announcement:
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