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In his day, Lehman Brothers Chief Executive Richard S. Fuld used his big paychecks to spread campaign money among Democrats and a few Republicans. Lately, he received a little bit back, thanks to Senate banking committee chairman Christopher Dodd and Hillary Clinton.
Henry Waxman, the Beverly Hills Democrat, summoned Fuld to Capitol Hill on Monday and grilled him about his pay, noting that Fuld appeared to have received $480 million this decade.
“Is this fair?” Waxman said, as The Times' Jim Puzzanghera reported.
Fuld said he probably received "a little bit less than $250 million -- still a large number, though."
Fuld got rid of some of that money in the form of....
Read more Lehman Brothers boss spread money around Capitol Hill and got some back »
In the world of political fund-raising, there are certain stand-bys that, at least in the view of some, can be counted on to bring in a few bucks.
They don't have to be fair. Nor do they have to be accurate. That's not the point. The goal is to raise money. Orrin Hatch sent out one letter that sought to hit several such themes, all of them aimed at convincing men over the age of 50 to give to Senate Republicans, not Hatch who was re-elected in 2006.
“You'd think it was the 1970s all over again,” the letter opens.
The Utah Republican took a whack at Barack Obama for being like Jimmy Carter, then raised the specter of Iran “saber rattling against the West.” And then Hatch let lose with what he hopes would be the coup de grace: “Hanoi Jane.”
That of course is the epithet that conservatives pinned on actress Jane Fonda back when she led protests against the Vietnam war and visited Hanoi to denounce U.S. policy and be photographed sitting in an anti-aircraft battery.
“Hanoi Jane Fonda is stumping for liberal Senate candidates,” Hatch declared in a fund-raising letter “That’s right … Jane Fonda and all of her far-left Hollywood liberal friends are expected to raise $1 million for Democrat Senate candidates.”
Hatch invokes "Hollywood liberals" three more times in the pitch.
California has never been particularly friendly turf for Hatch. Campaign finance reports show he has received $2,000 from California since the start of 2007.
In his 2006 campaign, Hatch raised $272,000 in California, 5 percent of the $4.8 million he raised.
“I don’t speak for Jane any more but this is just typical, stupid, lame, pathetic right wing ranting,” said Stephen Rivers, the Santa Monica consultant who used to represent Fonda. He added that "attacks on Jane are and always have been based on a false premise: that she is an unpopular public figure, when all of the measures over the years … demonstrate otherwise.”
Hatch's missive isn't particularly accurate. Fonda, who could not be reached, hasn’t lived in California in well more than a decade. She lives in Atlanta. Nor is she much involved in politics these days.
Federal Election Commission records show she has given a grand total of $4,850 to federal candidates since January 2007, including $2,300 to Obama, $2,300 to Hillary Clinton, and $250 to John Lewis, the Atlanta Democrat.
For years, her big cause has been combating teen pregnancy. She is founder and chair of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. But, of course, that doesn’t play so well in Republican fundraising pitches.
Rebecca Fisher, spokeswoman for the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, would not say how much the letter raised. But Republican senators have raised $67.7 million to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's $103 million.
--Dan Morain
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Photo credit: Ron Batzdorf / Universal
The opening sketch on last night's "Saturday Night Live," a 4:42 minute mocking of Republican presidential candidate John McCain's advertising and alleged technical ineptness, actually came from a suggestion by Al Franken.
Franken is an alum of the show, a maxed out financial contributor along with his wife Frances to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and currently the Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate seat from Minnesota.
Franken has been so relentlessly attacked for some past profane comedic performances and writings in his previous career that he felt obliged to explain and attempt to distance himself from them in a speech to his party's state convention back in June.
But now he's back. According to an article on Politico.com late last night, the idea for the mocking McCain sketch (see video below by clicking on the Read more line) occurred to Franken early last week while taping his own political campaign ads.
He described it in a phone call with longtime....
Read more SNL got McCain mocking points from Democratic candidate Al Franken »
The "Saturday Night Live" guy will now take on incumbent Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, the former mayor of St. Paul, where the GOP's national convention was just held.
With less than half the votes counted, Al Franken was leading his primary primary competition, Patricia Lord Farris, a member of a longtime Minnesota Democratic family, 68% to 28%, in a seven-person field.
Coleman easily defeated his token challenger, some guy living in Italy.
Dean Barkley of the Independence Party will make it a three-man affair in an important competition that will help determine the makeup of the next Senate under a new president. This year the Republicans are defending about twice as many seats as the Democrats.
In other primary news, according to the Associated Press, notorious former Washington Mayor Marion Berry easily won the Democratic primary in that heavily Democratic city for a second four-year term on the City Council.
In their Senate battle, Franken will seek to portray Coleman as a Washington insider, and Coleman will argue he has the experience to better serve Minnesota.
For a three-minute sampling of Franken's standard stump speech, which seems somewhat longer, see the video below. For a six-minute video of Coleman's speech at the Republican National Convention, which seems only twice as long as Franken's, scroll down even farther.
-- Andrew Malcolm .
The federal takeover of mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae may stabilize the economy and help the housing industry.
But some politicians could take a hit too, most particularly Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
Individuals who list their employers as one of the two entities, plus political action committees formed by the government-sponsored firms that own or guarantee half the nation's mortgages, have donated $4.3 million to federal elected officials and their various campaign committees since 2005.
The money has gone to both Republicans and Democrats.
But Obama is the recipient of the largest individual money, at $111,849, according to federal campaign finance reports compiled by Times researcher Maloy Moore.
One reason Obama has raised the most from the entities is that he has out-raised all other candidates, $390 million so far and counting.
The mortgage money has not influenced Obama's stands, Ben Labolt, a campaign aide asserted.
The candidate has “consistently supported stepped-up regulation for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure that instead of....
Read more Barack Obama largest recipient of political funds from mortgage giants Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae »
Texas oil and gas billionaire T. Boone Pickens broke post-partisan bread with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama in Reno on Sunday as part of his personal quest to save America’s energy future.
We don't know if both men walked to the meeting.
Not that the 80-year-old Pickens doesn’t have some ideas, as he has been telling the country in his nonpartisan commercials airing on national television for weeks now and during his recent appearances on cable shows.
A few days ago he also met on energy with the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, John McCain of Arizona,
But long before Pickens went post-partisan, he was, well, partisan to put it politely, Republican partisan to put it bluntly.
Way, way back -- gee, it seems like fully four months ago -- on April 22, 2008, Pickens gave $15,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee that helps elect GOP congress members but didn't do a very good job in 2006.
Back even farther than that -- 24 hours earlier, to be precise -- Pickens gave $14,250 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, according to The Times' Dan Morain and the records of the Federal Election Commission.
And then there was the $28,500 Pickens gave to the Republican National Committee. But that was a long, long time ago -- Oct. 15, 2007, in the days when Sen. Hillary Clinton's staff was still planting questions in her forum audiences and the New York Giants hadn't almost lost then miraculously won the Super Bowl against the New England Losers.
Pickens' wife, Madeleine Pickens, who keeps a house in....
Read more Obama meets Pickens on energy, not his Swift Boat financing »
Barack Obama raised $51 million in July, pushing the total he has raised since his presidential quest began to more than $390 million.
His take dipped slightly from the $52 million he raised in June. But he nearly matched the roughly $53 million raised by John McCain and the Republican National Committee combined in July.
Obama's $390 million in contributions (it's actually about $400 million when miscellaneous increases are counted) is significantly more than the nominees raised four years back. President Bush had raised $240 million at this point four years ago, and Sen. John Kerry had received $210 million in donations.
With the $27 million he raised in July, McCain's total now hovers at about $153 million.
Obama is spending heavily on television ads in battleground states and on the the high-priced Olympics. As a result, the Democrat's cash in the bank slipped to $65.8 million at the end of July, from $71.6 million at the end of June.
Obama expects to out-raise McCain in part by seeking more money from his army of now 2 million donors. McCain has 600,000 donors, his campaign says.
McCain, by contrast, is taking an $84-million grant of federal tax money to run his fall campaign. He also can use about $19 million in RNC money. Additionally, the RNC and various state parties can spend unlimited sums in independent campaigns on the nominee's behalf.
Despite Obama's record fundraising pace, McCain is not with his resources, thanks to the Republican National Committee itself. In addition to the $27 million McCain raised in July, the RNC raised $26 million.
McCain and the GOP had slightly more in the bank at the end of July than Obama and the DNC and its various committees, $96 million to $94.3 million.
Then there are the parties ...
Read more Obama's money machine runs rich; so do House and Senate Democrats »
A new women’s organization is setting out to get Chris Matthews fired from his job at MSNBC, calling his treatment of women on his show sexist.
The nonpartisan group, called The New Agenda, held its first meeting this week in New York and  established as one of its goals the sacking of the host of "Hardball with Chris Matthews."
Matthews’ contract is up for renewal next year. His plans are unclear, but in his home state of Pennsylvania, some Democrats have pushed for him to abandon TV and run for the Senate in 2010 against the Republican incumbent Arlen Specter. (A recent Quinnipiac poll found that to be a potentially competitive matchup, with Specter leading Matthews 41% to 36%.)
The 30-some women who attended New Agenda's inaugural meeting included representatives of other women’s groups from around the country, along with supporters of Hillary Clinton’s defunct presidential campaign, according to one of the founders.
“The goal of the group is when his contract comes up for negotiation is to have it not be renewed," said Amy Siskind of Westchester, N.Y., a New Agenda founder and a Clinton supporter. “The kind of language he uses and the kind of behavior he exhibits in the public domain toward women objectifies them and leads to bad things for our society and to domestic violence."
MSNBC spokeswoman Alana Russo said today that Matthews was out sick and unavailable for comment.
Clinton loyalists were displeased with Matthews’ coverage of the Democratic primary race and what they see as a long-established pattern of demeaning behavior toward women.
For instance, in 2007 Matthews was talking on the air with Erin Burnett, a CNBC business news anchor, when he asked her to lean into the camera. "Come in closer. Really close," he told a flustered Burnett. He then laughed and said, "Just kidding, you look great.... You’re a knockout."
In January, Matthews apologized on the air for a comment he made about Clinton’s political achievements. He had said she owed her Senate seat and presidential bid to the fact that her husband had "messed around," a reference to the sex scandal that led to President Bill Clinton's impeachment.
Siskind would not reveal what tactics the group would use to get Matthews off the air. She likened the organization to the Navy Seals, saying their methods would be "covert."
Describing MSNBC as "the boys of sexism" cable network, she also suggested Matthews may not be the group's sole target.
New Agenda's other goals will include helping women politicians who might one day compete for president, Siskind added.
-- Peter Nicholas
Photo: NBC News
With Mark Warner expected to reignite his political career with an easy election to the Senate this November in much-watched Virginia, he already was viewed as a prime presidential contender at some future date.
 His selection as keynote speaker for the upcoming Democratic National Convention will only intensify such chatter. At Politico.com, for instance, Mike Allen rates him a "rising star" in the party with "a post-partisan message that's similar to" Barack Obama's.
Warner's Senate campaign, not surprisingly, was quick to tout what an e-mail it sent out today termed "an amazing opportunity." The missive also advised that Warner planned to keep a diary of his convention experience, "providing e-mail updates of his activities before and after the big night -- media interviews, visits with the Virginia delegates, and back-stage moments at the big event -- you name it."
The campaign urges folks to subscribe to "ensure you won't miss a beat."
And, of course, Warner hasn't missed a beat in building a database of current -- and future -- contributors.
In winning Virginia's governorship in 2001 as a moderate who focused on appealing to rural voters, Warner laid the groundwork for the Democratic resurgence that has put the state's 13 electoral votes firmly in play in this year's presidential contest. Limited to one four-year term, he left office in 2005 hugely popular and seemingly intent on launching a White House bid. But in the fall of 2006, he pulled the plug on that prospect, saying the timing wasn't right for his family.
Warner decided to run for the Senate after Republican John Warner (no relation) announced that he would retire after 30 years in office. Running against Mark Warner is Jim Gilmore, another former Virginia governor who some may vaguely remember as an ever-so-brief participant last year in the GOP presidential race.
Gilmore's White House quest never had a prayer. Based on polling, fundraising and the Democratic trend in Virginia, his chances of derailing Warner seem little better.
-- Don Frederick
Photo: Associated Press
Al Franken is trying to turn his former fame as a comedian into the gain of one U.S. Senate seat for Democrats by upsetting incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in Minnesota.
But he probably didn't intend his town hall meeting on veterans issues yesterday to turn into the joke.
Only one person attended.
Ouch!
Well, every vote counts. So Franken sat down in Brigitte's Cafe in St. Cloud with the lone voter interested in veterans issues, the theme Franken's staff had established for that public appearance.
Franken spent an hour listening to the woes of Navy veteran Josh John, trying to navigate the medical system for former military members.
Franken also promised to improve veterans benefits, criticized his Republican opponent and the Democratic Congress for inaction and said he hoped to serve on the same veterans committee as the late Sen. Paul Wellstone.
Then, Franken headed off for the county fair, where there was likely to be a slightly larger crowd.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Associated Press
The nation’s most exclusive club didn’t get its reputation for nothing.
Ted Stevens, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell and the 97 other U.S. senators count on the rest of us to use computers to file income tax returns. But senators themselves haven’t entered the computer age, at least not when it comes to the basic sunshine requirement that they identify their donors.
Campaign finance disclosure advocates are drawing attention to the issue, urging voters tell senators to pass S. 223.
As we wrote more than a year ago, senators are Luddites when it comes to using newfangled computers for public disclosure. They direct their aides to deliver campaign finance reports -- the documents can run thousands of pages -- by hand or snail mail to the Senate, which in turn delivers them to the Federal Election Commission.
The Federal Election Commission spends millions annually on couriers, an old-fashioned copy machine, and key-punchers who type names of donors into computers so that senators’ reports can be displayed on the Internet.
The process can take months.
As happens in each election, donors giving to senators in the closing weeks of the 2008 campaign won’t become public in any meaningful way until long after votes are counted.
For years, senators have bottled up efforts to force themselves to place their reports on the Net. It's an anachronism, particularly given candidates for the presidency, the House and most state offices file their reports online.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein vowed to press the issue last year when she took over the Senate Rules Committee. Forty-five senators have endorsed the idea.
John McCain long has backed online disclosure, said Stephen Weissman of the Campaign Finance Institute, a nonpartisan group that pushes the issue. Barack Obama also endorses it, though he came rather late to the issue, said Weissman.
More than a year later, however, online disclosure is not a reality.
Weissman spreads the blame: Republican leader McConnell and Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign, who have balked at the concept. Reid shares responsibility for failing to push the measure to a vote, Weissman said -- an idea that Reid spokesman Jim Manley disputes.
Manley points the finger at Reid's Republican counterpart from Nevada, saying Ensign "repeatedly has blocked Sen. Feinstein's effort to bring this bill to the floor." No word yet from Ensign.
-- Dan Morain
Photo: Associated Press Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Pollsters and pundits alike have waited in vain this political season for "bounces" in the presidential race -- a swell of support for Mike Huckabee after he won the Iowa caucuses, a billowing of backing for Hillary Clinton after her upset victory in the New Hampshire primary, a surge for Barack Obama at any number of points.
Implosion, however, apparently remains a phenomenon, as in Alaska's closely watched Senate race. Not surprisingly, a new poll finds that Ted Stevens' indictment last week on federal charges related to a corruption probe has taken an immediate toll on the Republican's reelection prospects.
In a masterful bit of timing, Alaskan pollster Ivan Moore had checked the status of Stevens' reelection bid in mid-July, before before the charges were filed. Already singed by scandals that have roiled the GOP in his home state, Stevens trailed his Democratic challenger, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, but not by much. The numbers then were Begich 51%, Stevens 43% (the survey's error margin was plus or minus 4.4 percentage points).
In Washington, where Stevens has served in the Senate for almost 40 years, few were prepared to bet against him.
But pollster Moore went back into the field for two days following the indictment and found Begich expanding his 8-point advantage to 21 points. In the new survey, 56% backed him, while Stevens' support drooped to 35% (the error margin for this poll was plus or minus 4.8 points).
Stevens, who has proclaimed his innocence and asked for a trial that wraps up before the general election, remained far ahead of several heretofore little-known foes in his party's primary, set for Aug. 26.
His numbers did slip in the primary matchup, but no doubt many of Alaska's rank-and-file Republicans will be loath to turn away who has been the party's most dominant figure for years. If he does clear the primary hurdle, his political fate seemingly will be riding on whether an expedited trial occurs -- and whether he is then acquitted (a guilty verdict presumably would sink him at the polls in November).
Moore's mid-July poll reported voter leanings in the presidential race in Alaska -- one of several traditionally GOP states Obama has targeted in his advertising campaign. John McCain led, but barely, 47% to 44%.
Commentary on the new poll on the Senate race at RealClearPolitics.com noted that as Democrat Begich becomes the favorite, "an emerging question then becomes whether Alaska voters are willing to vote for the Democrat atop the ticket. With Obama trailing by just three points, well within the margin of error, his investment in the state looks more prescient at the moment."
-- Don Frederick
Our LATimes.com colleague Johanna Neuman, who's chronicling the dwindling days of the Bush administration over on the booming Countdown to Crawford blog, was listening in today on a Democratic conference call of congressional leaders.
You won't be surprised to learn they were bashing President Bush about the economy and jobs. At one point House majority leader Steny Hoyer referred to his Democratic House colleag ue Rahm Emanuel as "Sen. Emanuel, I mean, Congressman Emanuel."
Hmmm.
Illinois, of course, already has two Democratic senators not named Emanuel. But one of them is Barack Obama. If he's successful in his White House bid Nov. 4, Illinois' Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich will be naming an interim senator. The Ticket is prepared to bet one million online electrons the interim senator will be a Democrat.
As is tradition in the Illinois -- that is to say, Chicago -- Democratic machine, several worthies are already lining up.
Emanuel is something of a rising star, having been a key component in engineering the Democrats' takeover of the House in 2006, though presently denying interest in the Senate, which is a real good idea with his House reelection bid coming in three months.
Previously, Emanuel was finance chairman for Bill Clinton's campaign and before that, way back in the 1980s, he was cadging free lunches from Chicago political reporters in exchange for gossip and info on the colorful characters and the drones in rumpled suits populating the Windy City's Democratic monolithic machine.
Our blogging buddy Mark Silva over at the Swamp notes in a recent item that the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who is Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., has generously offered his services as a senator if invited. "I wouldn't say no if asked," says the 43-year-old House member. But he's still the junior Jackson. That appointment would keep at least one African American in the Senate.
There are several other possible candidates, however, and Mark has the full list and background here.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: U.S. House of Representatives
Evidently, some Wal-Mart employees didn’t get the word about the McCain-TBA ticket.
They’re still giving their cash to Democrats, even though, as the Wall Street Journal disclosed, the retailing behemoth from Bentonville, Ark., is trying to persuade its store managers and department supervisors to vote Republican.
The low-price leader has waged running battles with unions, and fears that a Democratic administration and Congress could impose laws opening the way for the greeters, clerks and others at the global empire Sam Walton built to organize unions. Of course, official Wal-Mart spokespeople deny any such push.
But a cursory review of donations at the Federal Election Commission shows that Wal-Mart and its employees show a significant amount going to Democratic candidates and political action committees.
Donors identifying their employer as Wal-Mart gave $33,877 to Democratic candidates -- including $7,337 to Barack Obama. They gave $55,761 to Republicans, including $7,250 to John McCain.
The company clearly is playing both sides, unlike in the past. Data compiled by Congressional Quarterly show that Wal-Mart’s political action committee gave 52% of its money, or $460,500, to Republicans and 48%, or $425,200, to Democrats in 2007-2008 election cycle.
A decade ago, more than 90% of its money went to Republicans.
Prominent recipients include some mentioned as Obama’s potential running mates: Sen. Claire McCaskill, Sen. Evan Bayh, and, of course, former Wal-Mart board member Hillary Clinton.
California’s Democratic congressional caucus also collects Wal-Mart bucks: Henry Waxman, Xavier Becerra, Laura Richardon, Loretta Sanchez, Ellen Tauscher, Zoe Lofgren, Mike Thompson and Dennis Cardoza.
-- Dan Morain
Led by the ever-feisty Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New Yorker who heads the committee devoted to electing more and more Democrats to the Senate, party chieftains had been insisting that Alaska -- normally a solid Republican state -- was a prime pickup possibility for them this year.
That obviously became the case today, with the federal indictment on corruption charges of the venerable Ted Stevens, the Republican who first assumed his Senate seat by appointment in December, 1968 and quickly became politically invincible. See news video below.
Not to make too fine a point of it, but this whole investigation actually resulted from a Times investigative story by Chuck Neubauer and Richard Cooper back in 2003.
Stevens' standing has suffered over the last couple of years, however, as he became ensnared in an ongoing and exhaustive federal probe of wrongdoing by a raft of Alaskan politicians (detailed in this overview by the Anchorage Daily News).
Nationally, he also was targeted for criticism from government watchdog groups and others for his advocacy of federal funding for what was known as the "bridge to nowhere" -- a proposed project in his home state that, as CNN noted, emerged as a "symbol of federal pork-barrel spending."
If the 84-year-old Stevens persists in trying to hold onto his political career, his immediate challenge will be winning the GOP Senate primary on Aug. 26 -- a contest that in the past has been a mere formality for him.
Now, he'll be fighting the gale winds of an extensive Department of Justice probe that concluded, as the Associated Press reports, that during the last several years, he illegally concealed “his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value from a private corporation.”
The Associated Press story said the items included home improvements to his vacation home in Alaska, "including a new first floor, garage, wraparound deck, plumbing, electrical wiring." Our colleagues over at the Swamp have their own take here.
In short, the type of perks and privileges that won't sit well with the average voter.
Whoever triumphs in next month's primary will face -- for Alaska -- an unusually strong Democratic challenger, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.
The last Democrat to represent Alaska in the Senate (from either party, the state's total number of senators since it joined the union in 1959 is only six), was the fellow who in this campaign cycle tried unsuccessfully to roil the Democratic presidential primary -- Mike Gravel.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Getty Images
Here's how Republican Idaho is:
In 1992, Bill Clinton came within 1 percentage point of finishing third there in the general election behind President George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot.
So it was surprising to many during this past primary season when Sen. Barack Obama invested an unusual amount of time for a Democrat in the scenic potato state.
Now, an even bigger surprise: According to a new political button just unveiled, Obama is running on the same political ticket as Republican Sen. Larry Craig, who had that embarrassing to-do last summer in the men's room of the Minneapolis Airport.
No, really!
As you can see from the photo, Obama and Craig are shown shoulder-to-shoulder on the button, which has become an instant classic collector's item.
It is, of course, a mistake. A hilarious one. After announcing his retirement and then unannouncing it to finish his six-year term, Craig is not running for anything this fall.
Instead, Lt. Gov. Jim Risch is representing the GOP in the U.S. Senate race against Democrat Larry LaRocco, whose photo was supposed to be on the button next to Obama. Risch and LaRocco are longtime Idaho political foes, having faced each other twice for state Senate and lieutenant governor, with Risch winning both times.
The button company, Tigereye Design out of Ohio, simply picked the wrong Idaho Larry from the photo file. After selling a few buttons to some sharp-eyed collectors, the incorrect button sale was halted.
-- Andrew Malcolm
If John McCain and his loyalists were hoping for something to brighten their day amid the blizzard of coverage of Barack Obama's foreign tour, they've gotten it with new poll results from four key states -- Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The survey by the Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, conducted between July 14 and Tuesday, contains especially good news for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in Colorado and Minnesota.
In Colorado, the one state among the four that President Bush carried in 2004, the poll showed McCain ahead by 2 percentage points. That lead is within the poll's margin of error, but it represents a positive trend for the Arizona senator; in a Quinnipiac survey a month ago, Obama led in the state by 5 percentage points.
The poll found McCain making even greater strides in Minnesota, host of the convention where McCain will formally become his party's nominee in early September. Obama's advantage over McCain there now is negligible -- 2 percentage points -- compared with a 17-point lead the same survey gave the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in June.
Here are the new results: Colorado (nine electoral votes): McCain 46%, Obama 44% (in June, Obama 49%, McCain 44%).
Michigan (17 electoral votes): Obama 46%, McCain 42% (in June, Obama 48%, McCain 42%).
Minnesota (10 electoral votes): Obama 46%, McCain 44% (in June, Obama 54%, McCain 37%).
Wisconsin (10 electoral votes): Obama, 50%, McCain 39% (in June, Obama 52%, McCain 39%).
The Quinnipiac release on its poll notes that McCain "has picked up support in almost every group in every state, especially among independent voters and men voters."
Summarizing the change over the last month, Peter Brown, the poll's assistant director, says that Obama's "post-primary bubble hasn't burst, but it is leaking a bit."
Brown's comment contrasts starkly with his summary ...
Read more John McCain picks up steam in Colorado and Minnesota »
It might seem like a good idea to be connected with the "Boss" when you're campaigning in New Jersey to keep your U.S. Senate seat.
But when Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) scrapped plans this week to raise funds by selling tickets for a Bruce Springsteen concert to campaign donors, his Republican opponent may have scored more points with fans of the rock legend.
"Lautenberg has apparently been BLINDED BY THE LIGHT and canceled his fundraiser," GOP rival Dick Zimmer said today in a statement peppered with titles of Springsteen favorites. "His fat-cat contributors will have to be DANCING IN THE DARK with SAD EYES as they recall the GLORY DAYS of free tickets and backroom deals. As for me ... NO SURRENDER.”
The Lautenberg campaign had requested 40 VIP tickets from the sports authority that runs Giants' Stadium for a Springsteen concert July 27. Campaign officials planned to resell the tickets, which were bought for $107 each, for $1,500 each.
But The Record of Hackensack, N.J., reported Sunday that sports authority officials became concerned that the fundraising plan might be viewed as an inappropriate back-door campaign subsidy. The result: Lautenberg did an "E Street Shuffle," and dropped the idea.
-- Noam Levey
Sometimes a website name is just a website name.
Maybe the move by a company that's worked closely with the former first lady is just what it seems: yet another step by Hillary Rodham Clinton to prepare for another run for the Senate from New York in four years. Or another run for the White House. We won't know, of course, for some time.
But that comes with the news, as reported in The Ticket early the other morning, that Clinton has urgently requested her 2008 general election supporters to approve transfer of their unusable donations for this year's presidential race over to her 2012 Senate campaign.
(And then, potentially, into a new presidential campaign fund, as she did with $10 million of her surplus 2006 Senate campaign funds).
If this year's donors don't approve that transfer soon, Clinton must return the '08 money by Aug. 28.
The respected blogger Marc Ambinder of TheAtlantic.com is reporting tonight that a company associated with Clinton's top advance team leaders, the Markham Group, purchased that domain name on June 8.
June 8th? Why does that ring a bell? Why, that's the very next day after her "I-give-up-and-heartily-support Obama" speech where her family was dressed for a funeral.
Clinton sources told Ambinder the New York senator was committed to helping elect Obama on Nov. 4, but she wanted to keep her options open for later. Imagine that in a seasoned politician.
Come 2012 Clinton would have to choose which race she'd enter. Two years ago in her first Senate reelection bid, her main website was HillaryClinton.com, which she still has. Plus HillPac.com for her political action committee and another one for her '08 campaign debt donations.
So why would she need another website with 2012 in it, unless.... Her disappointed presidential campaign supporters may take heart. But will they still help elect another Democrat this November? Or sit it out and let '12 fall to her?
We are just six weeks out from Clinton's '08 surrender to Barack Obama. And, surely, everyone knows exactly what that means: only 223 weeks left until the 2012 election.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: AP
You don't have to be a history buff -- although it probably would help -- to get a charge out of the photos our brother blogger L arry Harnisch has assembled over on The Daily Mirror.
They're from The Times' coverage 70 years ago today of the visit to Los Angeles of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Note the president's own rail car, Railroad One, the 1930s equivalent of Air Force One.
The crowd members in their straw hats. The president driving past Broadway and 7th. Protesters demanding the end to an embargo on trade with Spain.
And the president waving his hat -- wait a minute, a president wearing a hat? -- as he prepared to deliver a speech from the back of his Baltimore & Ohio train.
There, standing forlornly next to him is L.A. Mayor Frank Shaw, who was supposed to introduce FDR. But the president ignored him and just started the speech without introduction, according to The Times account the next day.
That's something The Ticket would have definitely blogged about back then, had there been such a thing as an Internet, a blog and ourself.
Worth a look over here.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: The Los Angeles Times
Just six weeks after reluctantly surrendering to Barack Obama in the brutal 2008 Democratic primary race, Sen. Hillary Clinton has begun raising money for what she says is her 2012 New York Senate reelection campaign.
Clinton still faces about $20 million in debts from her unsuccessful presidential effort this year. As part of a so-called "unity drive," Obama has appealed to his supporters in recent weeks to give to Clinton to cover the costs that she incurred while raking him over the coals in a bare-knuckled bid to return to the White House. Some Obama backers have balked.
Clinton has also asked her donors to contribute to the massive general election fundraising effort of Obama, who changed his mind and has rejected federal funding. Some Clinton backers have balked.
Now, the New York Observer is reporting early this morning that the former first lady has sent out a special message to supporters who donated up to $2,300 to her anticipated 2008 general election campaign. Since there won't be one, she must return that money to the donors by Aug. 28, unless she gets their permission not to.
Her new appeal includes a photocopy of a handwritten note from Clinton that says: "Dear friend, your commitment has meant so much to me over the course of my presidential campaign. You were there for me when I needed you the most and I'll never forget it. I hope you'll help me continue to fight for the issues and causes we believe in by filling out the enclosed form in support of Friends of Hillary."
The form, once signed, allows Clinton staff to transfer the money from the 2008 general election fund into the 2012 senate reelection treasury, where it can earn four years' of interest. The report comes from Jason Horowitz of the Observer's Politiker blog.
If successful, this early fundraising, while unusual, can have the effect of scaring off any serious Republican challengers in New York. And help keep Clinton supporters in her camp and full of hope after the close call this primary season.
And, if memory serves, when Clinton had about $10 million left over from her successful 2006 Senate reelection campaign, she shifted those funds as starter cash over to her nascent presidential effort last year.
Hmmm. Not that any ambitious politician would think this far ahead. But if Obama was to, say, lose a close election in November to Clinton's close friend, John McCain, the new president would be 72 on Inauguration Day next Jan. 20.
That would make him really pretty old for anything other than maybe perhaps one term, which would leave things wide open in 2012 for, say, a former Arkansas first lady who happens to be only 60 right now. And might have an ample senate campaign fund suitable for transferring into a presidential fund.
But that's absolutely ridiculous to think about now. As is, of course, having three major Democratic fundraising campaigns underway at the same time.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Associated Press
Well, you can stop holding your breath.
Former pro wrestler and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse 'Come Over Here and Say That' Ventura has decided not to run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Norm 'I Used to Be Mayor, You Know' Coleman and now desired by Democrat Al 'Big Fat Comedian With a Work Comp Payment Problem' Franken.
Unless he changes his mind before the filing deadline of 5 p.m. Tuesday.
That woulda been a wonderful "Smackdown 08." Picture the televised debates, Jesse ranting and pointing his finger at the camera after smashing a chair over the moderator's head. Franken trying to be funny again. And Norm, the former St. Paul mayor, consulting his notes on fiscal numbers.
Jesse was made for the media. Huge guy. Deep voice. Outrageous opinions. Sounds good. Who would you want with on your side in a bar fight, even if he started it?
So, naturally the big guy chose to end the speculation that he started himself a week or so ago by going on the staid traditional forum of "Larry King Live" to make his non-announcement because that show didn't have any missing blonde high school cheerleaders to interview the parents of tonight.
Jeese's speaking fees must be fading for him to gin up this 10-day publicity dust devil.
Jesse said he was sick and tired of both parties. All they do is spend other people's money, he said. He also said he might not even vote, there's so little difference between them. He said they denounce each other and then make backroom buddy-buddy deals with each other, just like pro wrestling. And he's angry about it.
Larry could have gotten a lot of other angry people to go on and say that. What about Ron 'The Revolution Is Coming' Paul? Or Bob 'The Body' Barr?
And in a move that could have created Minnesota residency problems if he'd run, Jesse let slip that he's moved southwest and now lives at least half the year in Mexico. Which is understandable given Minnesota's surfing conditions and the summertime bug supply in the Land of 10,000,000 Lakes or however many they claim up there.
Come to think of it, the Lakers did the same thing.
--Andrew Malcolm
When the cast of "The Predator" gathered in the jungles of Mexico to make the sci-fi/action/horror flick during the spring of 1986, someone must have been offering a correspondence course in civics during down time.
So far, two of the film's actors have gone on to win governorships -- leading man Arnold Schwarzenegger, in California, and supporting performer Jesse Ventura, in Minnesota.
This year, two could by running for the U.S. Senate.
One is Ventura, who has been suggesting he may try to resurrect his political career by offering himself as an alternative in a race that already features Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken (himself an entertainment-industry refugee).
The other is Sonny Landham (who, though lesser known than Ventura, shared with him a doomed fate in "The Predator").
In Kentucky, Landham recently announced that he would start collecting petition signatures to qualify as the Libertarian Party candidate against Republican Mitch McConnell (the reigning Senate minority  leader).
Landham, who also appeared in "48 Hours" (starring Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte), should qualify for the ballot. His chances of actually winning, of course, are about as good as were his prospects when he went up against that cinematic alien more than 20 years ago.
Still, at least one political observer in Kentucky believes Landham could have an impact on McConnell's reelection bid, as you can read about here (and also learn more about the actor's colorful past).
-- Don Frederick
Photo credits: 20th Century Fox (movie poster); Associated Press (Landham)
As long as the folks at the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute were in the field gauging voter opinion on the presidential race in four key swing states, they also conducted surveys on closely watched Senate contests in two of those locales.
The results in the White House battle, released late last week, were pretty positive for presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama and attracted wide attention. The less-noticed findings for the Senate matchups in Minnesota and Colorado painted a mixed picture for Obama's party.
In Minnesota, one-term Republican incumbent Norm Coleman led onetime "Saturday Night Live" cast member and writer Al Franken by 10 percentage points, 51% to 41%.
Franken ended up winning the state's Democratic Senate nomination more easily than expected, but during the spring he took flak over back corporate taxes he owed in 17 states and a raunchy article he wrote for Playboy magazine several years ago (when comedy still was his prime occupation).
The new poll found that Franken has not consolidated the Democratic vote in Minnesota as well as Coleman has his GOP base. But the former funnyman's big problem is with independents -- he trailed Coleman among this bloc by 20 percentage points.
Democratic hopes of adding to their slender Senate majority look better in Colorado, according to the Quinnipiac survey.
There, in a fight for an open seat currently held by a Republican who did not seek reelection, Democratic Rep. Mark Udall led his Republican foe, Bob Schaffer, by 10 points, 48% to 38%.
Schaffer famously stumbled out of the gate when, in his first television ad, an image he referred to as Pike's Peak in Colorado actually was Mt. McKinley in Alaska.
-- Don Frederick
Federal prosecutors planning their case against Illinois political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko intended to invoke the name of his onetime associate, Sen. Barack Obama, often during the recently concluded two-month prosecution in Chicago.
Rezko was convicte d on federal corruption charges.
The onetime political mentor and fundraiser for Obama, especially in the early days of his Illinois political career, arranged for a series of so-called straw political contributions to Obama, money from Rezko channeled through other people's names. Obama has since donated an equal sum to charities.
According to published reports in the Chicago Sun-Times, recently unsealed documents show prosecutors intended to call several witnesses who would tie Rezko to Obama. The federal judge ruled that they could.
"Witnesses will testify that Rezko was a long-standing supporter and fund-raiser of Barack Obama," one prosecutor wrote in their planning notes. But for unexplained reasons, they ended up not calling those witnesses.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press
Funny how things go around and come around.
In his initial run for the U.S. Senate in 2004, this fellow Barack Obama, who we seem to be hearing a lot about these days, was on e of the very first beneficiaries of the so-called millionaire’s amendment that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Thursday.
Obama’s main Democratic primary foe that year was Blair Hull, a wealthy investor who poured $28 million of his own money into the campaign.
But under that same national campaign finance law, Hull’s immense personal spending on himself released Obama from the $2,100 per donor cap then in effect.
And it allowed him to raise his own campaign money in increments up to $12,000 per donor.
That national campaign finance law was co-written by another now familiar name, John McCain, the senator from Arizona.
Now, McCain is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who will face Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, on Nov. 4 to become president of these United States. Talk about unintended consequences.
Some analysts believe that Obama might well have lost that crucial first step onto the national political stage without the financial boost he received from McCain's law allowing him to gather....
Read more Sen. Obama might be just Obama without law written by Sen. McCain »
Back in January Lou Dobbs, the pudgy, grumpy CNN personality who's really totally against people entering America illegally, in case you hadn't heard, was not running for president as an independent.
We know that because he had no comment when the rumors started to spread, including on a website by his fans. And anyway, the anti-immigrant thing didn't work too well for Tom Tancredo.
Now it seems Big Lou is not running for governor of New Jersey yet.
Business Week has an article that raises the possibility of a gubernatorial bid (we love that word, 'gubernatorial'). And Lou's office has dutifully said, "No comment." Which prompts the question, "Never?"
And then when Lou or his secretary says something like, "You can never say never," we're off to the rumor races. It's part of the fun of writing about politics. If they say, "Never," you've got them forever. If they don't, you're free to speculate endlessly, which is often what they really want anyway.
The 62-year-old Dobbs lives on a 300-acre Sussex County farm in rural northwestern New Jersey; yes, there are still some of those places in the Garden State. The Sopranos have to have somewhere to dump the whacked.
Jon Corzine, the gazillionaire who bought the governor's office with his lavish spending in the last election, plus he also got the most votes, says he intends to run again. So that's good news for billboard companies, and New York and Pennsylvania TV stations that broadcast ads into New Jersey.
But remember, Corzine is the elected Democrat who doesn't wear a seatbelt at 91 mph on the way to an important meeting with Don Imus. So you don't really know how long Corzine might last.
But because Lou isn't saying anything, lots of other people are offering suggestions that he register as a Republican -- he sort of sounds like one. And get out there and talk to voters. A novel idea for even a non-candidate. But so far, nothing.
The next office Lou will have no comment about running for but never say never is likely senator from New Jersey. Like most states, New Jersey has two of them, a senior senator and a junior one. That's because usually one of them is under indictment or about to be. So they always need a spare.
Not running for office is great publicity for Dobbs' CNN show. Who knows, when you tune in for the afternoon rant, you might be watching a future president/governor/senator right before your very eyes.
Neil Cavuto over at Fox should also not run for some office. We've been meaning to get a "No comment" and "never say never" from him. Make a real competition out of this thing.
In fact, here at The Ticket we've seriously considered issuing a "No comment" to unreported reports that we might run for office. Jack up our business because, you know, you can never say never.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo Credit: Associated Press
Read more Lou Dobbs seems to be not running for everything yet »
On this, the first anniversary of our Top of the Ticket blog, we are reminded of the mercurial, unpredictable nature of U.S. politics -- part of what makes what we do so fascinating.
Our goal -- one of us on the East Coast and the other on the far more important or at least less humid West Coast -- was to write about Campaign '08 virtually around the clock.
Our second-ever posting, 12 months ago today, previewed an upcoming L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll; later in the day, we detailed the results of the nationwide survey. The findings were in line with other polls of the time.
In the Republican presidential race, which then seemed the most likely to last deep into the primary season, Rudy Giuliani was perched in first place. His lead wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough that he appeared certain to remain a major contender.
His liberal record on social issues loomed as an obvious liability within his party, but his tough-on-terrorism message was attracting substantial support from moderates and GOP-leaning independents.
His major headache among rivals last June was an as-yet-undeclared candidate who was riding a wave as the great conservative hope -- Fred Thompson. He ran a strong second in the poll.
Lagging far behind were John McCain and Mitt Romney, each barely with double-digit support. In our preview posting, we were especially scornful of McCain, noting sarcastically (and foolishly, as it turned out) that in the poll, he found himself "in heated competition with the 'Don't Know' category."
Meriting no mention from us was Mike Huckabee, one of several back-of-the-pack candidates barely earning any support across the country.
The Democratic race, at that point, seemed so much more cut-and-dried.
Hillary Clinton was the clear front-runner; Barack Obama was just as clearly ...
Read more Top of the Ticket, the start of Year Two »
At the end of a long presidential primary season when so much attention was focused on one particular female pioneer, it's rather impressive to run down a list of other advances by women in public life in recent years, a surprising number of them promoted there by the current president.
In another decade of firsts for women, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York -- the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from New York, and the first and only former first lady elected to public office -- has had her share of groundbreaking achievements.
She was the fir st woman to win a major party's presidential primary election this year, in New Hampshire.
Now, should Barack Obama select her as a running mate, she will not be the first female candidate for vice president of a major party. Democrat Geraldine Ferraro had that honor, with Walter Mondale in 1984 -- and more recently, she had some comments about the state of play in the 2008 presidential contest that stirred some controversy.
There's a long list of political firsts for women in the history of a nation that once denied women the right to vote -- going back to Elizabeth Cady Stanton's failed bid for the House in 1866. With the denial of rights, and ultimately the winning of rights, came many firsts.
They're collected at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. We've highlighted the center's 2000-2008 list here:
2001: Condoleezza Rice became the first woman to hold the post of national security advisor (formally known as assistant to the president for national security affairs) when she was appointed by President George W. Bush.
2001: Elaine Chao became the first Asian American woman to serve in the Cabinet when she was appointed secretary of Labor by President Bush.
2001: Gale Norton became the first woman to serve as secretary of the Interior, appointed by President Bush. Norton was the first woman elected as Colorado's attorney general and served in that position for two terms.
2001: Ann Veneman was appointed by President Bush to be the first female secretary of Agriculture. She had previously been the first woman to serve as secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
2001: Christine Tod | |
