Pelosi-Obama Cold Front Moving Into California

On Friday, one of the Democratic Party’s most generous supporters may view up close what “climate change” looks like. That's when President Obama and Nancy Pelosi will be among those gathered at his home near San Francisco in support of House Democrats.

By anyone’s definition, putting Obama and Pelosi together under one roof to sing House Democrats’ praises a week after a messy intraparty rift over trade policy should be interesting.

Tom Steyer, a billionaire former hedge fund founder whose passion is combating climate change, is scheduled along with wife Kat Taylor to host a top-dollar fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at their home, where the president and the minority leader have replenished Democratic coffers many times before. 

But on Tuesday, it was unclear whether the president and the liberal congresswoman from San Francisco were on speaking terms. 

Scrambling to rescue his administration’s Asia-focused trade agenda, which Pelosi’s opposition helped torpedo on June 12, Obama spoke by phone several times with House Speaker John Boehner on Monday, but by Tuesday he had not touched base with Pelosi, according to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.  

“President Obama and Leader Pelosi have demonstrated that they have a strong enough personal and professional relationship to withstand a difference even on an important issue like this,” Earnest said.

Pelosi, in an interview with CNBC Tuesday, declined to describe her conversation with Obama before the climactic House votes tangled the trade trajectory. She spoke like a San Francisco congresswoman more than as a House Democratic leader when she said she wanted to “slow down” fast-track legislation that would have granted U.S. negotiators leverage to get a massive trans-Pacific trade pact completed. 

“What you saw on the floor on Friday was an expression of concern of the American people. We are representatives. That is our title, and that is our job description. These are our constituents,” she told CNBC’s John Harwood.

“I'll take you with me to my district, we'll go to church, we'll go to a parade, any place, the dry cleaners. And you will be very surprised at how everyday people who are not connected to any organized organizations, who come up and say, ‘Don't vote for that.’”

Via: Real Clear Politics

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Democrats Count on Good News Out of Illinois Primaries

One week after a disappointing loss in the closely watched Florida special election, national Democrats expect brighter news from the top race to watch in Tuesday’s primaries in Illinois, where the party hopes to cut into Republicans’ House majority.

In one of Democrats’ top targeted districts in the country, Ann Callis is likely to prevail in the 13th District Democratic primary. That would set up a competitive race against freshman Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., in a swing district that stretches across the state.

Davis’ primary challenge from a former Miss America has received far more national press. But it’s Callis, a former Madison County judge and top recruit of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who has had the bumpier ride to the nomination — and Republicans believe she will emerge weakened for the general.

Illinois is the second state to host primaries for the 2014 midterms. But among the various federal races on Tuesday, including the GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin, the 13th features nomination fights with the greatest impact on the general elections in November.

The DCCC plucked Callis for the race early on and recently named her to its Red to Blue program, which identifies the party’s strongest candidates in the cycle’s most competitive races. The party is banking on Callis to give Davis a run for his money in a district that President Barack Obama and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney each received 49 percent of the vote in 2012. After a 1-point win by Davis last cycle, the seat is again hosting one of the marquee House contests.

First, though, Callis faces physics professor George Gollin on Tuesday. While Republican and Democratic operatives alike predict Callis will earn the Democratic nod, some say the primary did her no favors in a race that was always going to be an uphill climb in November.

Gollin forced Callis to spend significant resources for the primary, including $96,000 on TV, according to a source tracking media buys. Callis has raised more than $800,000 so far and had $449,000 in cash on hand with less than two weeks to go in the primary.

Callis was actually outspent on the airwaves by Gollin, who dropped $122,000 on district-wide TV advertising, according to the same source. Gollin has also notably received endorsements from a handful of newspapers in the district, plus the Chicago Tribune, which all hit Callis for a lack of depth or candor regarding where she stands on the issues.

Should Callis win Tuesday, Republicans are almost certain to use those non-endorsements against her as the cycle progresses.

Via: Roll Call

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Confirmed: 23 of The 26 Most Vulnerable House Democrats Voted For Upton Bill…

Vulnerable Dems revolt on ObamaCare vote

Nearly every one of the Democrats' most vulnerable incumbents split with their party on Friday and voted for a Republican measure to allow Americans to keep their insurance plans under ObamaCare.

All but three of the 26 members of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Frontline Program — the designation for their most endangered incumbents — voted for the bill.

They joined 16 other Democrats in supporting the measure, which passed the House 261-157. Four Republicans voted against it.

The bill had already picked up four Democratic sponsors: Reps. John Barrow (D-Ga.), Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.), Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). All four are top Republican targets in 2014.

Other vulnerable Democrats voting in favor of the bill include Reps. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.), Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah).

The defections reflect the political realities facing Democrats as the botched rollout of the healthcare law has caused widespread public backlash against the law and the party. Democrats have seen the polling advantage they gained following the government shutdown erased in the wake of issues with the law.

President Obama offered his own administrative fix for the dropped plans on Thursday but failed to fully quiet critics who say his solution doesn't go far enough. The president's solution would allow insurance companies to keep offering current plans until after the midterm elections.

Still, House Democrats had expected the defections on the Upton bill to be far higher.

Vulnerable Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.), John Tierney (D-Mass.) and Lois Capps (D-Calif.) all voted against the bill.

Republicans are already out hitting them for their votes. The National Republican Congressional Committee issued releases targeting Kirkpatrick and Tierney. One charges Kirkpatrick "broke her promise," a reference to Obama's erroneous pledge that Americans who like their coverage can keep it.

Via: Weasel Zippers

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House Democrats Pull Pages From the Rahm Playbook

Democrats have taken a few pages from Rahm Emanuel’s playbook in hopes of boosting their difficult quest to win the House majority in 2014.

The Chicago mayor served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006, when his party beat long odds to win the majority for the first time in more than a decade. This cycle, Democrats face a similarly tough challenge: picking up seats in 17 districts on a map drawn to give the GOP an advantage.

To accomplish this, DCCC ChairmanSteve Israel has sought to emulate his former mentor with relentless recruitment, an incessant focus on messaging and Emanuel’s aggressive style — minus a few four-letter expletives.

The two Democrats have a lot in common. Former aides note their shared religion, gregarious public personas, all-in approach to wooing candidates and their soundbite-driven quests to drive messaging.

Israel served as one of Emanuel’s recruitment lieutenants in 2006, along with Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who ran the DCCC in 2008 and 2010. Israel and Emanuel met recently in Chicago and speak regularly by phone, the New York Democrat confirmed in a Tuesday interview with CQ Roll Call.

Via: Roll Call

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DCCC Chief: Syria Not Big Issue in 2014 Elections

The House Democratic campaign chief told reporters Tuesday that while Capitol Hill is consumed with debate on Syria, the issue will not affect the 2014 midterms.

“2014 is not going to be a referendum on Syria,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. Instead, he added, the 2014 midterms will be about “solutions,” helping the middle class, extremism and partisanship.

Israel declined to detail the Syria issue in his role as DCCC chairman, reiterating the committee does not endorse policy positions. Instead, he argued that many House Republicans who oppose authorization for intervention in Syria would support the same policy if Mitt Romney were president and proposed it instead of President Barack Obama.

“The level of hypocrisy is what amazes me,” he said.

Israel stated that his personal position — not that of the DCCC — is generally supportive of military intervention, but he is hopeful about reports that the Russian government proposed taking control of Syria’s chemical weapons.

“Now we have to see if that path is credible,” he said.

As for his own incumbents, he stressed that his vulnerable House Democrats must be “communicating” with their constituents on Syria. Israel added that Democrats should not be taking into consideration whether their vote “helps or hurts the president.”

Via: Roll Call

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DEMS OFFER FREE 'I HEART OBAMACARE' STICKERS

Democrats seem to be making peace with the probable "train wreck" of ObamaCare's implementation. The DCCC, which assists Democrats running for the House, is offering free "I 'Heart' ObamaCare bumper stickers. The organization even took to twitter to advertise and promote its efforts. 

The DCCC has over 112,000 followers. Just 31 retweeted the message. This could be an ominous sign for Democrats. In a recent poll, just 36% of Americans believed the law would help the middle-class. 

Even a perfect implementation of a law as complex as ObamaCare would spark some level of confusion, misunderstanding, and pain. Unfortunately, the implementation of ObamaCare is very far from being perfect. Already, Obama has delayed two important components of the law, the most significant being the delay of the employer mandate. 

The employer mandate delay will drive even more people into the federal and state health insurance exchanges, which are scheduled to open on October 1. Because of coverage mandates in the law, premiums for individuals will be higher than those currently offered.

Those premiums could skyrocket if young and healthy people decide against purchasing the expensive insurance. The fine for failing to buy insurance is just $92 in the first year. 

The DCCC deserves some points for accepting their fate on the law. I don't expect a lot of Democrat candidates to scoop up their bumper stickers, however. 

Via: Breitbart

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House Democrats Declare The Tea Party Has Been Defeated…

MADISON, Wis.—The tea party, at least its widespread influence on Republican congressional candidates, "is over," declared the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party group charged with electing Democrats to the House.

"House Republican incumbents—and their candidates—are running as far away from the Tea Party as they can," a pre-election DCCC memo provided to Yahoo News reads. "Regardless of whether [Republicans] win or lose, the Tea Party of 2010 is over. They've been forced on defense in the message fight all cycle long, and now those who win will have done so by giving up on the Tea Party."

The memo argues that Republican lawmakers who arose from the tea party are now promoting bipartisanship and willingness to compromise in their re-election bids instead of embracing the hard-line messages that propelled their campaigns two years ago.

It is possible, of course, that this Democratic declaration is premature. Tea party-backed candidates dominated Republican primary contests across the country in 2012, launching what could be a new class of future Republican leaders. In Texas, Ted Cruz defeated the establishment candidate backed by Gov. Rick Perry, and in Indiana, Richard Mourdock forced longtime Republican Sen. Richard Lugar into early retirement. Looking to 2013, tea party groups who are begrudgingly backing Mitt Romney have vowed to press him, should he become president, toward conservative positions.

The tea party, a grass-roots network of conservative activists, drove many Republican House and Senate candidates to victory in the midterm elections two years ago, but its influence seems to be overshadowed in 2012 by the presidential election. Still, the infrastructure that was built since the movement launched in 2009 has been used to promote Republican congressional candidates and serve as a backup ground game for Romney's presidential campaign.

Regardless of the health of the tea party's influence this election cycle, Republicans are widely expected to retain control of the House.

Via: Yahoo

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Dems Try A New Tactic To Raise Campaign Cash: Shame…

Democrats today trotted out a new tactic for raising campaign cash: shame.

The email arrived this afternoon from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, with the subject, "Your support record," and the sender, "Democratic Headquarters." It aimed point out to supporters that they hadn't given campaign cash.

Take the one I received, for instance:

"We’re reviewing our Democratic supporter records in advance of tomorrow’s Federal Election Commission (FEC) deadline," read the email. "Your record is copied and pasted below:

Supporter record: 11919797
Name: Daniel Halper
2012 Online Support: Pending
Suggested support: $3.00

"Pending" apparently means that I have not given a dime. But that they are relying (and counting) on my support.

Then, the email shifts back to an old tactic: desperation.

"If you’re planning to contribute to our campaign to win a Democratic House for President Obama, it’s critical that you make your donation in the next 24 hours. Tomorrow is the last major FEC reporting deadline of the 2012 general election. We’re relying on your support: 80% of our contributions are $35 or less," read the email. 

Read the whole thing here:

Via: Weekly Standard

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Obama cuts Medicare more than Romney would

To borrow a phrase from President Reagan, there they go again.

As soon as Mitt Romney announced Congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate the Democrats again started with their debunked and discredited MediScare campaign. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called Ryan “the architect of the Republican plan to kill Medicare” in a fundraising message sent by DCCC Executive Director Robby Mook. A false charge that the left-leaning Politifact called the 2011 “lie of the year.”

As pointed out by The Washington Examiner’s Joel Gehrke, Politifact rebuked Democrats for engaging in such scare tactics:

“A complicated and wonky subject with life-or-death consequences, health care is fertile ground for falsehoods,” the fact checker said. “The Democratic attack about ‘ending Medicare’ was a pervasive line in 2011 that preyed on seniors’ worries about whether they could afford health care.”

The Democrats didn’t stop there. Obama spokesman Jim Messina said Ryan’s plan “would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors.” That is no more true than the DCCC’s MediScare claim. As explained by Avik Roy, the Wyden-Ryan plan would only apply to Americans younger than 55 years of age, and gives those younger individuals the option of remaining in the traditional Medicare program, or choosing a comparable private-sector insurance plan.

Via: RedState

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