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Early Returns on Colorado, Connecticut and Georgia Primary Races

Evans Liberal Politics
August 11, 2010

 

Early Returns on Colorado, Connecticut and Georgia Primary Races

 

Evans Liberal Politics, August 11, 2010, compiled by and commentary by Paul Evans.

Let’s Start with the Most Watched Races in Colorado


Colorado was of special interest as Democrats have shown steady gains there in 2004 and 2006 and even more so in the Presidential election year of 2008, when Obama took 53 percent of the vote there.

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On the Republican side for US Senate, AP Reports (on MSNBC, Buck wins Colorado GOP Senate nomination) that the Tea Party Candidate, “Ken Buck has defeated former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton to clinch Colorado’s Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.” The losing candidate Norton had been endorsed by Washington elite such as Senator John McCain, giving a feel that on the Republican side at least, there is a considerable anti-establishment feeling at work here.

For the Democrats, Obama was able to win the race for appointee Michael Bennet. According to AP on The Raw Story, Bennet was getting about 54 percent of the vote. See Obama-Backed Senator Prevails in Colorado Race, N.Y. Times, August 10, 2010, by Kirk Johnson. The close loser was Bill Clinton backed Andrew Romanoff. Bennet had never been elected to any office before but had the full backing of the President and most of the Democratic establishment, showing that Obama still may have coattails.

Upset in Connecticut Governors’ Race


See Lamont Loses Connecticut Primary for Governor, The New York Times, August 10, 2010.

In an upset, Dannel P. Malloy, a former mayor of Stamford, Connecticut’s fourth-largest city, won the Democratic nomination for governor on Tuesday, defeating Ned Lamont, a multimillionaire businessman who tried unsuccessfully to oust Senator Joseph I. Lieberman four years ago.

His victory sets up a contest with Thomas C. Foley, a prominent Republican fund-raiser and former ambassador under President George W. Bush.

Republicans have held the governor’s office in Connecticut (a state where most voters are registered Democrats – PE) since 1991.

In another closely watched race in Connecticut, Linda E. McMahon, the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, won the race to be the Republican nominee for the United States Senate seat that Christopher J. Dodd, a Democrat, has held for nearly three decades.

Ms. McMahon will face Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s popular five-term attorney general, in a general election that could help swing the balance of political power in the Senate.

Also See CT Republicans pick former wrestling exec to run for Senate, AP on The Raw Story, August 10, 2010, by Associated Press:

In Connecticut, Linda McMahon easily won the Republican Senate primary to join the slate of outsider-candidates who will carry the GOP banner this fall.

McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, will face Democratic attorney General Richard Blumenthal in the fall.

On a four-state primary night, former Rep. Nathan Deal led ex-Secretary of State Karen Handel narrowly in late returns in a Republican gubernatorial runoff in Georgia. The two vied for the right to take on former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes.

And in Minnesota, conservative State Rep. Tom Emmer easily won the Republican nomination for governor. Four Democrats sought the opposing spot on the ballot.

Comment by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: It looks like anti-establishment sentiment may be running higher among Republicans than with Democrats. Alternatively, it may be that either a.) the Tea Party propoganda among Republicans is at work there or b.) among Democrats, Obama still does hold some magic, judging by the Bennet victory in Colorado. Now the attention will shift to GOTV (get out the vote) efforts by both parties. This fall’s elections look like they will be very interesting indeed. We know that Republicans will do much better than in 2008, what Democrats hope to avoid at all costs is losing the majority in the House of Representatives. There has been a reported “enthusiasm gap” in which Republican voters describe themselves as more likely to vote than do likely Democratic voters. Obama is now entering the picture in his “campaign mode” and that may well have a good deal to do with the eventual outcome.

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Posted on August 10, 2010 by , 43 comments

Pentagon Plans Steps to Reduce Budget and Jobs

Evans Liberal Politics
August 10, 2010

 

Pentagon Plans Steps to Reduce Budget and Jobs

 

Pentagon Plans Steps to Reduce Budget and Jobs, © The New York Times, August 9, 2010, by Thom Shanker, excerpt quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday that he would close a military command, restrict the use of outside contractors and reduce the number of generals and admirals across the armed forces as part of a broad effort to rein in Pentagon spending.

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Mr. Gates did not place a dollar figure on the total savings from the cutbacks, some of which are likely to be challenged by members of Congress intent on retaining jobs in their states and districts. But they appear to be Mr. Gates’s most concrete proposals to cut current spending as he tries to fend off calls from many Democrats for even deeper budget reductions, and they reflect his strategy of first trying to squeeze money out of the vast Pentagon bureaucracy.

While large headquarters have been combined and realigned over the years, Pentagon officials could not recall a time when a major command was shut down and vanished off the books, even though some jobs will probably be added elsewhere to carry on essential parts of the mission.

The White House, which is under intense political pressure to address the rapid increase in the national debt, quickly stepped in to back Mr. Gates, saying his plan would free money that could be better spent on war fighting.

“The funds saved will help us sustain the current force structure and make needed investments in modernization in a fiscally responsible way,” President Obama said in a statement.

The potential savings Mr. Gates outlined are likely to be relatively modest in the context of a total Pentagon budget, including war fighting costs, projected to top $700 billion next year. The most significant step — in symbol and in substance — was his plan to close the military’s Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va.

The command includes about 2,800 military and civilian positions supported by 3,000 contractors at an annual cost of $240 million. Its responsibilities, which include managing the allocation of global forces and running programs to press the armed services to work together on the battlefield, will be reassigned, mostly to personnel working under the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.

Mr. Gates also called for a 10 percent annual reduction in spending on contractors who provide support services to the military, including money for intelligence-related contracts, and he placed a freeze on the number of workers in the office of the secretary of defense, other Pentagon supervisory agencies and the headquarters of the military’s combat commands. ….

Read the full article, here.

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Posted on August 9, 2010 by , 16 comments

Close Senate Primary Races to Test Depth of Voter Discontent

Evans Liberal Politics
August 8, 2010

 

Close Senate Primary Races
to Test Depth of Voter Discontent

 

Close Senate Races to Test Depth of Voter Discontent, © The New York Times, August 8, 2010, by Carl Hulse, excerpt quoted verbatim:

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. – Two Senate primaries that were supposed to be tranquil affairs have turned into roaring Rocky Mountain shoot-outs that could provide the best test yet of how deeply anti-establishment, anti-Washington sentiment is running this year.

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With the fierce duels to be settled Tuesday, independent analysts and party operatives say the contests between Republicans Ken Buck and Jane Norton and Democrats Michael Bennet and Andrew Romanoff are close, making it uncertain which two contenders will be left standing to compete in November for a seat that appears up for grabs.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Mr. Bennet, appointed to a fill a Senate vacancy last year, and former Lt. Gov. Norton were blessed early on by the party hierarchy. They were to breeze to their respective nominations by virtue of the fundraising help and stature the White House could provide Mr. Bennet, 45, and the standing and credibility lent to Ms. Norton, 55, by the imprimatur of leading Republicans and the Chamber of Commerce.

But Mr. Romanoff, a 43-year-old former state House speaker, and Mr. Buck, a 51-year-old veteran prosecutor, could not be dissuaded from challenging the favored choices. Now they find themselves with a chance to win.

Should they triumph, it would represent a stinging repudiation of the Obama administration, which has put serious presidential muscle behind Mr. Bennet, as well as the Washington Republicans who coalesced around Ms. Norton.

“It would be a huge slam in both cases on the respective establishments,” said Floyd Ciruli, a veteran independent pollster based in Denver.

Policy differences in the races are subtle. Both Mr. Buck and Ms. Norton promise to cut federal spending, repeal the new health care law and get tough on immigration; Mr. Bennet and Mr. Romanoff pledge to help create jobs, aid struggling families and push alternative energy sources. Given the common policy themes, the insurgent-versus-establishment narrative has loomed large.

Mr. Buck has built his campaign around the notion that he is the outsider, playing that card to the hilt as he traveled the state to meet with Tea Party activists and like-minded groups while castigating Congressional Republicans as well as Democrats for the nation’s economic straits.

He notes that Ms. Norton has been endorsed by most sitting Republican senators, got fundraising help from the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is the sister-in-law of a top Republican consultant in Washington, and was encouraged to join the race by Senator John McCain of Arizona, who appeared with Ms. Norton during the weekend.

Mr. Buck, in contrast, has been endorsed by Senator Jim DeMint, the South Carolina conservative who has split with party leaders on backing challengers this year. But unlike other fire-breathing conservatives who have defeated Republicans embraced by party heavyweights in Kentucky, Nevada and Utah, Mr. Buck is no newcomer to politics.

Born in New York and educated at Princeton, he served as then Representative Dick Cheney’s lawyer during the Iran-Contra hearings and worked three years for the Justice Department. He served 14 years in Colorado’s U.S. attorney’s office before being elected district attorney of Weld County, north of Denver, in 2004.

“I am not saying I don’t have a lot of connections,” Mr. Buck said in an interview in his Denver campaign office. “I am saying I am not the candidate of Washington, D.C.”

His extensive government resume is not lost on Ms. Norton, who scoffs at her opponent’s efforts to claim the outsider mantle and points out that he is married to a former co-chair of the state party.

“It is a clever thing to brand yourself as,” Ms. Norton said during an appearance at a picnic for Arapahoe County Republicans in this up-scale conservative bastion outside Denver. “But he has been a government lawyer for how many years? I am the only native-born Coloradan, the only one in this race on both the Republican and Democratic side who isn’t an Ivy League attorney.” ….

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Posted on August 8, 2010 by , 2 comments

Senate Vote Clears Way for $26 Billion in Aid to States

Evans Liberal Politics
August 4, 2010


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Senate Vote Clears Way
for $26 Billion in Aid to States

Senate Vote Clears Way for $26 Billion in Aid to States, © The New York Times, August 4, 2010, by David M. Herszenhorn, excerpt quoted verbatim:

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WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday cleared the way for a $26 billion package of aid to states and school districts, and the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said she would summon members from their summer recess to grant final approval to the bill.

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The measure had been hung up by partisan wrangling between Democrats, who said it was necessary to avert layoffs of teachers and cutbacks in services by strapped states, and Republicans, who objected to another round of government spending and characterized it as a political payoff to unions.

The procedural vote in the Senate was 61 to 38, with the Maine Republicans, Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, joining Democrats in support of ending debate. The Senate is set for a final vote on Thursday before adjourning for its recess.

The vote quickly prompted calls for the House, which adjourned last Friday, to return to Washington. And in a Twitter message on Wednesday afternoon, Ms. Pelosi said lawmakers would reconvene next week to approve the bill and send it to President Obama.

The legislation would provide $10 billion to retain teachers who might otherwise lose jobs to cutbacks, and an additional $16 billion to help states struggling to close budget deficits.

While the move will interrupt summer campaigning, the vote will give Democrats a concrete accomplishment that they can trumpet at a time when unemployment remains high. Republicans, in turn, immediately criticized the bill as catering to teachers’ unions and another example of irresponsible spending by Democrats.

Mr. Obama praised the Senate’s action, saying it would save teacher jobs and ensure “cash-strapped states can get the relief they need.”

“We had a choice,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff. “Either teachers could be in the classroom or they could be on the unemployment lines.”

The House had approved money to save teacher jobs as part of an emergency war spending bill. But the Senate rejected it.

Some senators complained that the House bill had cut some of Mr. Obama’s signature education initiatives, including about $500 million from the competitive grant program called Race to the Top.

The cost of the Senate bill is fully paid with other spending cuts and a provision to close a tax loophole.

House Republicans criticized the Senate measure.

“Democrats would be better off listening to their constituents, who are asking, ‘Where are the jobs?’ rather than returning to Washington, D.C., to vote for more tax hikes and special-interest bailouts,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader.

Many governors have been clamoring for help for their states.

The $16.1 billion in aid to states would increase the federal contribution toward Medicaid costs, allowing states to shift money elsewhere. ….

Read the full article, here.

See Daily Kos
While You Pie-Fight, Pelosi Calls Back House, Daily Kos, August 4, 2010, by Maimonides, excerpt quoted verbatim:

It’s official. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi broke the news on Twitter this afternoon, announcing officially what’s been rumored for hours: The House will return from recess briefly next week to pass state aid legislation.

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Posted on August 4, 2010 by , 2 comments

Battle Looms in Washington Over Expiring Bush Tax Cuts

Evans Liberal Politics
July 25, 2010

 

Battle Looms in Washington Over
Expiring Bush Tax Cuts

 

Battle Looms in Washington Over Expiring Bush Tax Cuts, © The New York Times, July 24, 2010, by David M. Herszenhorn, excerpt quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON — An epic fight is brewing over what Congress and President Obama should do about the expiring Bush tax cuts, with such substantial economic and political consequences that it could shape the fall elections and fiscal policy for years to come.

Democratic leaders, including Mr. Obama, say they are intent on letting the tax cuts for the wealthy expire as scheduled at the end of this year. But they have pledged to continue the lower tax rates for individuals earning less than $200,000 and families earning less than $250,000 — what Democrats call the middle class.

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Most Republicans want to extend the tax cuts for everyone, and some Democrats agree, saying it would be unwise to raise taxes on anyone while the economy remains weak. If no action is taken, taxes on income, dividends, capital gains and estates would all rise.

The issue has generated little public attention this year as Congress grappled with health care, financial regulation, energy, a Supreme Court nomination and other divisive topics. But it will move to the top of the agenda when lawmakers return to Washington in September from their summer recess, just as the midterm campaign gets under way in earnest. In recent days, intense discussions have begun at the Capitol.

Beyond the implications for family checkbooks, the tax fight will serve as a proxy for the bigger political clashes of the year, including the size of government and the best way of handling the tepid economic recovery.

“It has enormous ramifications for the fall and clearly will be one of the dominant issues,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. “This is code for the role of the federal government, the debate over the size of government and the priorities of the nation.”

At a closed-door meeting of the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, participants said Democrats were clearly divided while Republicans wanted assurances that any bill would be developed openly, allowing them to propose amendments. In a sign of how combustible the issue could be, Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat and the committee’s chairman, has so far refused to make that commitment.

Both parties are still charting strategy, but some lawmakers, Congressional aides and administration officials said Democrats must try to pass a bill before the election and not wait for a lame-duck session. “You can’t play chicken with this much of the tax system,” said a senior Republican Senate aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of even the timing of the debate.

If no tax legislation is passed, all the major tax reductions passed under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 will expire, with rates reverting overnight on Dec. 31. The top marginal income tax rate, for example, would go back to 39.6 percent from 35 percent now, with corresponding increases in rates for lower income brackets.

Given the partisan gridlock of recent months, there is a chance that the battle could go down to the last minute, or even — in the face of a stalemate — that the tax cuts could be allowed to expire completely, a development that Republicans are already heralding ominously as the largest tax increase in history and that lawmakers in both parties say could be the worst outcome.

From both political and policy perspectives, the tax issue is dizzyingly complex, and even some of Washington’s most grizzled legislative operatives say they cannot predict the outcome.

Some liberals want Mr. Obama to keep his promise to raise taxes on the rich, and the White House’s budget forecasts rely heavily on rolling the top income tax rates back to their pre-2001 levels. Some fiscal hawks warn that extending the tax cuts would add more than $2 trillion to the federal budget deficits at a time when the national debt is becoming an economic concern and a political issue. Political economists are fiercely divided.

So are Democrats. In recent days, fiscal conservatives like Senators Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Evan Bayh of Indiana expressed support for extending the tax cuts at all income levels, at least temporarily.

Senior administration officials said there was no interest in such a plan at the White House, which intends to have Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner lead an effort to make the case that continuing tax breaks for the rich will not help lift the economy, but eliminating them will help reduce the deficit. ….

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Posted on July 25, 2010 by , 3 comments

Extension of Benefits for the Jobless Clears Senate Hurdle

Evans Liberal Politics
July 20, 2010

 

Extension of Benefits for the Jobless Clears Senate Hurdle

 

Extension of Benefits for the Jobless Clears Senate Hurdle, © The New York Times, July 20, 2010, by Carl Hulse, excerpt quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON — The Senate broke a stalemate on Tuesday over extending unemployment benefits for Americans who have been out of work for six months or more, voting to override Republican objections that the bill’s costs would add to the federal deficit.

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On a vote of 60 to 40, the Democratic-led Senate agreed to cut off debate on the $34 billion plan to distribute added unemployment compensation through November for those who have exhausted their standard 26 weeks of aid.

The 60 yes votes were the minimum required to overcome the threat of a filibuster and advance the bill to a final vote, expected later on Tuesday, when it is all but certain to pass. Two Republicans, Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, joined 56 Democrats and two independents in voting for the legislation; 39 Republicans and one Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, opposed it.

An estimated 2 million Americans have seen their benefits run out over the past two months while the legislation has been stalled in the partisan impasse.

“Finally, finally, finally,” said Senator Barbara Milkuski, Democrat of Maryland. She called the unemployment insurance program a social compact with American workers that means, “when you hit a speed bump and have to be laid off through no fault of your own, there will be a safety net so that you do not fall.”

Republicans said they backed the idea of extending benefits, but were determined to prevent the costs from being piled onto the mounting deficit.

“We believe the federal debt has grown to an alarming level, where it is threatening the future of our children and grandchildren,” said Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate.

After the Senate completes its final vote on the measure, the House must still act on it, a vote that is expected to come on Wednesday. President Obama would then quickly sign the bill into law at the White House, freeing the aid.

The Senate action came just minutes after Carte Goodwin was sworn in as the new Democratic senator from West Virginia, replacing the late Robert C. Byrd. While the seat was vacant, Democrats lacked the votes to overcome the Republican filibuster.

At age 36, Mr. Goodwin, a former legal adviser to Governor Joe Manchin III, becomes the youngest member of the Senate, replacing the eldest.

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Posted on July 20, 2010 by , 5 comments

Obama Reacts Cautiously to Hopeful BP Test Results

Evans Liberal Politics
July 16, 2010

 

Obama Reacts Cautiously to Hopeful BP Test Results

 

For Now, the Cap is Holding

 

Obama Reacts Cautiously to Hopeful BP Test Results, © The New York Times, July 16, 2010, by Campbell Robertson and Henry Fountain:

NEW ORLEANS — BP said on Friday the early test results on its recently capped undersea well were heartening and there were no signs of fresh oil leaks, as the stricken well in the Gulf of Mexico held tight overnight and into the morning.

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Kent Wells, a senior vice president at BP, told reporters on a conference call that the pressure inside the well had built up steadily, as engineers had hoped it would, and that engineers would continue to perform different analyses and scour video feeds from cameras to look for any underground leaks.

In Washington, President Obama hailed the development but cautioned against concluding that the corner had been turned, noting that it was still possible for there to be complications that “could be even more catastrophic” than the original leak.

Appearing in the Rose Garden before taking off for a long weekend in Maine, Mr. Obama said he and the government were staying on top of the problem and that all decisions would be based on science, “not based on PR, not based on politics.” The final solution, he noted, will be the relief wells expected to be complete next month, and then after that attention still needs to be paid to the cleanup and compensation.

“The new cap is good news,” he said. “Either we will be able to use it to stop the flow or we will be able to use it to capture almost all the oil until the relief well is done.” But he added: “It’s important that we don’t get ahead of ourselves here. One of the problems with having the camera down there is that when the oil stops gushing, everybody feels like we’re done, and we’re not.”

Mr. Obama said he planned to go back down to the region in the next several weeks and stressed again that “BP is going to be paying for the damage that it’s caused.”

Mr. Wells said that BP would take steps to resume the drilling of a relief well, which officials hope will provide a permanent solution to plugging the runaway well, which has belched millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico since a fatal explosion and fire sank a drilling rig in April.

The oil stopped flowing from the well around 2:25 p.m. Thursday when the last of several valves was closed on a cap that the company installed at the top of the well last week, Mr. Wells said. Earlier in the week, Mr. Wells said that the longer the test continued, the better, because it would indicate that the pressure inside the well was holding and that the well bore was intact. On Friday morning, the live video feeds from nearly a mile undersea showed no burbling geyser of oil and gas — only cloudy blue waters and white specks floating across the screen.

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Posted on July 16, 2010 by , 4 comments
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