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August 05, 2010
A new
CNN/Opinion Research poll finds 11% of Americans saying President Obama was definitely not born in the United States and another 16% saying the president was probably not born in the country.
Influential GOP officials called on the RNC to open "an investigation into the leaking of internal documents and sensitive information to the media -- a major source of distraction for the party in this critical election year,"
CNN reports.
"In one of their first orders of business at the opening of the RNC's Summer Meeting taking place here in Kansas City, Republican state party chairs approved a resolution urging the RNC executive committee to launch an investigation into the leaks."
The House of Representatives be "will be called back into session next week to take up a $26 billion bill designed in part to help avoid teacher layoffs,"
CNN reports.
Said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "As millions of children prepare to go back to school -- many in just a few days -- the House will act quickly to approve this legislation once the Senate votes. I am calling members of the House back to Washington at the beginning of the week to pass this bill and send it to President Obama without further delay."
The House began its summer break last week and was not expected to return until mid-September.
A new
Quinnipiac poll in Connecticut finds Ned Lamont (D) leading Dan Malloy (D) for the Democratic nomination for governor, 45% to 40%.
In the Republican race, Tom Foley (R) leads Lt. Gov. Mike Fedele (R), 41% to 26%.
The primary is next week.
August 04, 2010
C-SPAN has confirmed that at least 61 Senators intend to vote for
cloture, moving forward the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Of these, only Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) says he then intends to oppose Ms. Kagan in the final confirmation vote, which only requires 50 Senators to approve the nomination.
Governing takes a very useful look at the balance of power in state legislative races.
A federal judge decided today "that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry, striking down Proposition 8, the voter approved ballot measure that banned same-sex unions," the
Los Angeles Times reports.
Judge Vaughn Walker said Proposition 8, "passed by voters in November 2008, violated the federal constitutional rights of gays and lesbians to marry the partners of their choice."
The ruling is expected to be appealed ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if gays have a constitutional right to marry in America.
"Where the hell do they get these names?"
-- Katie Couric, caught in
leaked footage from August 2008 as she rehearses a story on Sarah Palin, referencing the names of Palin's children.
A
McLaughlin & Associates (R) poll in Florida claims the U.S. Senate race is a dead heat.
Gov. Charlie Crist (I) leads Marco Rubio (R), 38% to 36%, with Rep. Kendrick Meek (D) at 16% if he is the Democratic challenger.
With Jeff Greene (D) as the Democratic candidate, Crist and Rubio both get 37% of the vote, and Greene is at 16%.
Tom Jensen: "The big 2006 Democratic win was about voters abandoning the GOP. If Republicans have a big win in 2010 it's mostly going to be about Democrats staying home. And it's important to keep that in mind when considering the implications of the 2010 results for 2012- Barack Obama might be alright in 2012 even if his party gets pummeled this year if he get those folks back out to vote when it's him on the ballot."
"The reason Democrats won even though the electorate disproportionately
consisted of Bush voters was that 15% of those Bush voters cast their
ballots for a Democrat, a pretty large amount of crossover. There aren't nearly that many Obama voters leaning toward the Republicans this year."
"If I can't take five years out to serve my country as President, then everything I've been singing about, like equal rights, doesn't mean anything."
-- Wyclef Jean, confirming to
Time magazine that he would run for President of Haiti.
Sarah Palin uses her Facebook page as her preferred place to make statements and political endorsements, so
Slate had a computer program monitor the page over 12 days and found that roughly 10 percent of the comments on her postings were later deleted.
"It should not surprise you that the comments to posts she makes on her
page are screened. For any high-profile politician, online comments are
like town hall forums: Both appear to be spontaneous but are actually
highly choreographed."
However, the deletions "amount to a real-time look at how much effort and care Palin puts into protecting her public image. It's not just the number of posts that are screened out that gives some indication of how seriously Palin's team is monitoring things."
Bristol Palin told
People magazine that she has called off her engagement to Levi Johnston after learning he was in a music video that mocked the Palin family.
Said Palin: "The final straw was him flying to Hollywood for what he told me was to
see some hunting show but come to find out it was that music video
mocking my family. He's just obsessed with the limelight and I got played."
Sarah Palin -- who has feuded publicly with Johnston since ending her vice presidential bid -- referenced Ronald Reagan's national security strategy in a statement about her daughter: "I wish for Bristol to be able to move forward in life with her same forgiving, gracious, optimistic spirit, but from henceforth she'll know to trust but verify."
A new Quinnipiac poll in Connecticut finds Linda McMahon (R) has pulled to within 10 points of Richard Blumenthal (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 50% to 40%. McMahon has picked up 7 points in less than three weeks.
Said pollster Doug Schwartz: "The McMahon-Blumenthal Senate race in Connecticut could be a real smackdown, as the Republican has the money and momentum, cutting into Blumenthal's lead month to month."
In the Republican primary, McMahon holds a 17 point lead among likely voters over Rob Simmons, 47% to 30%.
Hansen Clarke (D) staged a stunning upset victory last night over seven-term Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI), the
Detroit Free Press reports.
Kilpatrick is the fourth House incumbent to be ousted in a primary this year. She was no doubt hurt because of the scandals surrounding her son -- former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is in jail on a probation violation on state felonies and is awaiting trial on federal charges of tax evasion and mail and tax fraud.
Rep. Roy Blunt (R) and Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D) cruised to easy Senate primary victories in Missouri, contests that were mere formalities on the road to a November showdown between the state's two modern political dynasties,
CQ Politics reports.
Rep. Jerry Moran (R-KS) narrowly defeated Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) in the Kansas GOP U.S. Senate primary, making the seven-term lawmaker the heavy favorite to become the state's next senator, the
Wichita Eagle reports.
Rick Synder (R) -- "whose 'tough nerd' campaign drew interest across the political spectrum" -- won the the five-way Republican primary for governor in Michigan, the
Detroit Free Press reports.
He will face Virg Bernero (D), who handily won the Democratic primary.
Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) will no longer be attending the RNC summer meeting in Kansas City,
CNN reports.
A Coleman spokeswoman did not cite a reason for the change in plans. His decision to stay away from the meeting could be a sign that Coleman is trying to tamp down chatter about a possible challenge to chairman Michael Steele, after his
early jockeying irked some RNC members.
August 03, 2010
A new
Rasmussen survey in Colorado finds what a recent
Denver Post poll did: Tom Tancredo's third party bid for governor is essentially giving the race to Democrats.
John Hickenlooper (D) leads with 43%, followed by Scott McInnis (R) at 25% and Tancredo at 24%.
With Dan Maes (R) as the GOP nominee, Hickenlooper has 42%, followed by Maes at 27% and Tancredo at 24%.
A new
Reuters/Ipsos poll in Nevada finds Sen. Harry Reid (D) holds a narrow edge among likely voters in his re-election bid against Sharron Angle (R), 48% to 44%.
Among registered voters, Reid holds a commanding 52% to 36% lead.
A new
Reuters/Ipsos poll in Nevada shows Brian Sandoval (R) with a big lead over Rory Reid (D) for governor, 50% to 39%.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele is trying to set up meetings with foreign ambassadors to the United States, according to an email obtained by
Politico - "an effort that has puzzled diplomats as well as fellow Republicans."
"The staffs of high-level American political figures typically go directly to an embassy's political officer officer to set up meetings with an ambassador. Steele's outreach to foreign representatives heading into the final stretch of the mid-term election cycle is exasperating senior Republicans, already fed up with the controversial chairman's knack for bad publicity."
A new
Public Policy Polling survey in Washington finds Sen. Patty Murray (D) holds a narrow lead over likely challenger Dino Rossi (R), 49% to 46%.
Jerry Brown (D) is continuing his low-budget campaign for California governor, spending just $633,205 this year, the
Fresno Bee reports. He had about $23.2 million in cash on hand.
Meanwhile, rival Meg Whitman (R) is expected to near or surpass a record-shattering $110 million in spending in her latest filing, including $91 million of her own money.
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